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SLOVAKIA HERE WE COME Dear Friends and family, We would like to share with you some of the adventures we will be involved in this summer. As some of you may know our family is planning a trip to Slovakia. My mother’s family, the Budaj side of the family, has been organizing a family reunion. There will be many family members attending from this family tracing as far back as my great great grandfather. Part of this celebration would be in honor of his 150th birthday. This trip would take place from June 30th to July 17th 2009. We will be leaving for Slovakia from the airport in Seattle, Washington however because we are attending a Tolo (Maria’s family) Family reunion just previously to this second big trip.
Both of our families have expressed to us how important it is that we make these trips. Firstly because there have been some important deaths in each of our lives, and secondly because there are many family members that our children have not yet met. For example, my parents in Slovakia have never met Mariana or Nikolas, and haven’t seen Susanna or Jonah since they were toddlers. Likewise many of Maria’s siblings have not met our children and neither have many of our other family members.
We would so appreciate if you would consider helping us. As you can imagine a trip this grand costs a lot of money. We are scraping together as much of our savings and projected income, and some of my family members are also making a considerable contribution but we still need help. We are trying to keep the cost as low as possible in every aspect. We will be driving our van to the Washington family reunion and camping during our short stay there. Then Maria’s father will drive our van back to Minnesota for us. Our flight tickets have been booked for us through a friend of ours who was able to get us a low cost “missionary” rate. Even at this lower rate however the cost for a family of six is so much. Another great concern for us is the loss of income during this trip as I don’t have enough vacation time left from work to cover the entire time that we will be away. Any help is appreciated. We are also asking for your prayers for the trip preparation, especially in getting all of our passports ready (first one’s for three of the kids!) and so that we get everything done and ready in time. Our preliminary budget for the trip so far is as follows:Flight tickets to Slovakia for a family of six $5150Other travel and estimated personal expenses $1000 Loss of income from absence from work $1000 As you can see this is a meager budget for such a big trip. We are getting the tickets to Slovakia through our friend Ted Groat and he has found some very good deals (especially since the summer season is peak season!!) but we have to purchase them by June 5th. There is transportation available to us while in Slovakia at very little cost. Also if anyone knows of someone willing to take care of our dog for us, please contact us. We would be glad to communicate with any of you about this trip and to answer any questions you may have so please do call us. My cell phone number is (651) 775-6011 and Maria can be reached at (651) 387-5948. Or you can also email us at rasmar@comcast.net . If anyone would like to see how our family is doing in general I keep an updated website of our family’s life at www.familypetric.com . This trip is mostly family related but of course we are always looking for where God is opening up doors in which way we can serve Him. It is also a hope of ours that we may remain close to our friends and family in Slovakia and spread the light of the Gospel both in word and in action, and through the witness of our family who loves Him. In advance we want to thank you for your support and prayers. May God bless you abundantly. Yours in Christ,Rasty, Maria, Susanna, Jonah, Mariana and Nikolas Petric
click here for printable version of the letter
You can view more info on the trip and updates on our trip blog at www.petricslovakia.blogspot.com |