Thursday, November 26, 2009
Three Months
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
On The Other Side Of The Ocean
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Wrapping up my time in Czech
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Beginning Of The End
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
For the Love of Camps...
Friday, July 3, 2009
July Has Begun!
Czech Paradise
Brad, Lucie, Chris, Sarah and I spent five days as a team exploring Cesky Raj (ches-kee-rye) which translated means Czech Paradise. There were lots of really cool rock formations in the forest and caves and view points. It was a really fun time of bonding and feeling adventurous. I had a bad cough most the time but I still really enjoyed myself. It felt kinda like if Arches National Park were to meet the north west. With this towering rocks and deep forests.
And Now It's July...
July equals camps. Our team is being joined this first camp by six Americans from Ottawa, IL, two girls Bri and Amy from World Harvest Missions and an old intern Breanne from Colorado and the youth group from Hradec Kralove to start our first camp. This camp is at the campsite my first camp I ever did here in Czech so its really cool to be back here.We are going to spend this evening setting up the meeting room and preparing our teaching boards then the students will all come tomorrow The 4th Of July! And we will end the evening with fireworks. I will be teaching beginning level English again and will also being doing camp motions for the songs with Breanne. After camp we will go back to Hradec to do follow up and then we will go back to Malenovice for the second American team training session. I will write more then with stories from camp. Hope you guys have an amazing 4th of July and that you take time to think about freedom and where your freedom comes from. May you find it in Christ.
Joining The Adventure:
*Pray for the students that are coming to camp, that they will see the love of God in and through us.
*Pray for team unity between our different teams represented this week.
*Pray for english class, that we will tach useful and helpful English lessons.
*Pray for our evening talks about The Story Of God.
*Pray for my lungs to be healed. I was diagnosed with bronchitis but I am taking antibiotics and am getting better slowly but surely.
*Pray for rest, for our teams.
*Praise God that He has brought us all here together for this time and that He knows the hearts of the students that will be here and has brought us all together in His wisdom.
*Praise God for my team. I love them more and more every day.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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.
Monday, June 1, 2009
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.
Friday, May 22, 2009
This Moment In Time
Monday, May 11, 2009
The art of leaving and the power of love
Its now less than two weeks til I depart from Portland. So the time crunch is on, trying to pack/clean and at the same time see all my friends "one last time" before the summer. There has been some talk of a "going away party" but I'm not sure yet. It seems a bit silly to me right now to have a going away party when I'll only be gone for three months. Its a fine art I think because you're "saying good-bye" but at the same time its only three months. So its more I suppose a "see you in a few month" and to me it doesn't feel the same. Maybe its that I've moved so much, or that I've had so many "going away parties" only to return several months later but this time around, I'm just trying to do this leaving for the summer thing a bit more quietly. Yesterday I had my last Sunday at Evergreen til fall. It was cool to be able to share with them what I'll be doing this summer and then they all gathered around and placed their hands on me and prayed for me, sending me off with their blessing. I am really looking forward to returning to Evergreen when I return to Portland. I really do love this city. It seems there is always more to discover, more to experience and I love that. So Portland and Evergreen, I'll see you soon. Today I went to lunch with my roommates. I will miss these two ladies. But they will have fun full summers as well and I will catch up with them when I return.