Keeping Perspective

Top to Bottom: 1)School visit in Havlickuv Brod. 2)Dizmas show. 3)Girls and Boys in Havlickuv Brod (Sarah, Dora, Erica me...Chris, Vasek, Austin, Robert and Ondra). 4)Castle near Havlickuv Brod (this photo and the one before were taken by Hawaii who is co-leading the other team we're joining.) 5)Honza from Havlickcuv's band playing at a small community festival outside the city. 6)Chris, Brad and Lucie with the athletica soccer team in Vsetin.

City Visits

We have visited two of the three cities we are going to be doing camps with. Last weekend Sarah Chris and I joined another intern team in Havlickuv Brod. They will be our last camp and that week Brad and Lucie will be doing a sports camp with junior high students from their city. Then we will go with this other team and meet up with Brad and Lucie in Prague. But that's getting a bit ahead of schedule. We had a lot of fun in Havlickuv Brod, the youth leaders Honza and Ondra took us to a castle in a village near by which was really cool, we went bowling and saw Honza's band perform among other things! The weekend before our team went to Prague to meet the youth group that we'll be doing a camp with. While in Prague we saw a Dizmas concert. The show was in this club that is right next to the Charles Bridge. It was unreal to be back in Prague. There have been a lot of changes the past five years. Obviously some things have not changed, will never change...the Charles Bridge, the castle, old town square. The concert was really fun and the next day we met with the guys in the band and spent time with some students. While at the concert I randomly saw some friends from Lovocice which is the town Graeme, my leader in 2003 lived . So that was really fun. We will do our third city visit this weekend. Going to Hradec Kralove. I'm excited to go to Hradec. In 2003 our team often visited this city between camps because it was near where our camp was.

Learning to live with others

Tho there have been many amazing moments here the past couple weeks have been a lot harder than I had expected. I tried to go into this summer with zero expectations but I think that's honestly impossible. Especially when you dream about something for so long. So there have been a couple days the past couple weeks where I've broken down a bit. Back in Portland I got really used to my life being based on my time, my agenda. Sure, there was work at Starbucks, and church every Sunday but apart from that my time was basically spent however I wanted to spend it. So to live a life where there is a fairly set schedule and where other's needs need to be thought of too has been more challenging than I remember. But thankfully I've been put on an amazing team. Brad, Lucie, Sarah and Chris have been so patient and loving and have been really supportive of me as I process through these things. And I know that they and a few friends I've shared these thoughts with have been praying for me and I'm seeing God answer those prayers. Today was so good. We had a day to rest in whatever way we needed to. Last time we had a day of rest I spent most the day by myself just needing to recharge. Yes, I suppose I'm an extrovert but I really need time alone so that I can rest and be ready for time with people again. But today, I went swimming with Lucie and then later this evening Sarah and I went to the square to get some ice cream and we ended up seeing Chris with the couple he is currently staying with in a restaurant and so we joined them. God has met me right where I'm at. He's met me in my desire to not be so selfish, He's met me in the middle of reality looking different than my dreams, He's met me in the middle of missing Pavel, in the middle of wanting to see my friends from the past but being called to live in the present and to accomplish the things set before me and its amazing. Chris really encouraged me on the train the other day. He said that I don't need to worry about what I will do with my life. I only need to seek God and what He is doing with my life and I will be fine. Simple but true. And right now, God has me in Czech. He has brought me back to this country. He has put me on the amazing team. In His faithfulness and His timing He has led us all here this summer to love each other and the students and youth group kids we meet.

Choices

Along the same lines of learning to live with others, in a close community, I'm learning we are constantly asked to make choices. We must choose each day, sometimes moment by moment to be thankful or to complain, to choose life (which is found in God and His design and plan for our lives) or death (which is found when we choose to focus only on ourselves). There have been a few moments this summer, a couple days perhaps where I've chosen to complain instead of choosing to be thankful...where I've chosen me over God. But today, today I chose to be thankful, to choose life! And today was amazing.

How to Join The Adventure:

1)Pray for our visit to Hradec this weekend. Pray many student will be encouraged to come to camp. Pray for the Prague and Havlickuv Brod camps as well. Pray that many students from those two cities will come to camp as well.

2)Pray for our team's health. Chris has had a cold for the past few weeks (ever since the amazing race) and is just now starting to feel a bit better. However Brad, Lucie, Sarah and I all have a cough now. Pray also for our friends on the Slovakia team cuz they too have colds.

3)Pray that I keep choosing to be thankful, to keep choosing life.

4)Praise God for this team He has put me on!

5)Praise God for the ways He is at work here in the Czech and with my friends and family back home.

The Summer Begins

Pics are top to bottom: cathedral in Bratislava, our team (Sarah, Brad, Lucie, me, Chris) on top of a hill in Budapest, lion in Budapest, ferris wheel in amusement park in Vienna) and my friends in Ft. Wayne (top: Brian and Cari Foss, bottom Gabe Foss, me, Amy and Ani Foss)

A Reunion 

I spent a few days in Fort Wayne, Indiana before embarking on my summer in Czech. This trip was really fun. It was such a blessing to see my old teammates and I was so excited cuz I was able to be at church when Tony who had been on my team in 2003 got sent out from his church to go be a senior pastor at another church in Ft. Wayne. 

The Amazing Race

So a few weeks before we departed we all received an email from Sarah Bertrand the summer intern coordinator telling us we'd be participating in an amazing race so to "pack light". We all (everyone who is serving with Josiah Venture in all the different countries) landed in Vienna on May 27th. Then as soon as everyone arrived we set off. Our first clue was given to us in "Old German" and we had to find somebody to decode it for us. This sent us to a large garden and palace. From there we were sent to the main city square area and had to run all around getting different clues and taking pictures of different things to get the next clue. The final destination in Vienna was a giant amusement park. There we were handed two sheets of pictures taken from different rides in the park. We had to find the bits of picture and then write down the name of the ride. This took forever. After we finally finished at the amusement park our last clue of the night was to find a train to Bratislava, Slovakia. So we board the train and arrive back in 3rd/4th place (we got there the same time as another team). We sign in for the time we want to leave and sign in for the 3rd time slot (5:10am). The first clue we received for the morning sends us to Budapest. We again were given clue after clue to lead us to all different parts of Budapest. We hiked up some huge hills and climbed many stairs and saw a hand that had been persevered for hundreds of years. This second day ended as soon as we accomplished the task of balancing a baseball bat and passing it between members of our team. After many many attempts we complete this task and are free to either spend more time in Budapest or return to Bratislava where our hostel was. We decided to head back to Bratislava and met up with a team that will be serving in Slovakia while at the train station. So our two teams joined up and went to dinner at Slovak Pub in Bratislava. The third day sent us around Bratislava's town square and a cathedral there and then we were to board the train to Malenovice, Czech Republic for our week of training.

Intern Training

So now we are in the middle of training. We will be here til the weekend. I can't get this giant smile off my face. After five years God decided that this summer was the summer to lead me back here to Czech and I am so thankful and so blessed to be here. We are being taught by some amazing guys and learning so many things from God's word and about God's story. It has been so amazing to see my old friends, my Josiah Venture Family and to make so many new friends as well. This truly is a dream come true and I am so thankful I waiting on God's timing and His provision.

Joining The Adventure:

Praise God for leading me here in His time

Pray for our team to bond more and more, to love each other deeply with the love of Christ. 

Pray for the youth groups we will be working with this summer, specifically Prague, to be bold in inviting their friends to camp.