back to life

it has been over two months since coming home and it has been a really hard transition for me to make. i never could have imagined how hard the change from czech culture to american culture could of been. i spent my entire summer immersed in a culture that is almost opposite to the one i was raised and live in. the change at the beginning of the summer into the czech culture was very subtle and honestly i never noticed a huge difference. i mean i realized the major apparent differences, one example is when you are out in public everyone is generally extremely quiet and composed. in america everyone talks loudly and is extremely exuberant in public. the change at the beginning of the summer was an appreciated change, but re-entering american culture drove me crazy. people are so loud in public and honestly i found myself wanting to disengage from people in public all together. when i was out with friends and they were all talking over each other i found myself wanting to leave my group because i felt embarrassed to be around a group that was being loud. this is not written to complain or to bring others down, but to attempt to process what i am going through to help myself work through the issues coming up in my life due to my mini-culture shock.

The Last Supper

Our team just ate our last meal together......It was a dinner mixed with heartfelt love, anguish, and excitement. We ate dinner on the roof of questionably the nicest restaurant in prague. We had a breathtaking view from our table of the Old Square, the Astrological Clock tower, and Prague Cathedral. We looked at each other as the sunset with eyes that showed happiness that we were together, anguish that we were soon to be separated by hundreds and thousands of miles, and excitement that we were all going to take our experiences to build ourselves and others up in Christ. It might have been the hardest dinner I have ever eaten, the food and company was incredible, but the stark reality that "real life" is just about to creep above the horizon.The last picture of our Intern team taken...

Debriefing is Such Sweet Sorrow!

Our awesome Intern team: Team Hotness!

So the past two days have been such an amazing time of learning and growing. We have had a couple scheduled times where we have met as a whole group to debrief and talk about our summers. It has been an awesome time to process thoughts and the good, bad, and ugly things of the summer. We have done a ton, and sometimes everything seems to be a blur of a memory, where everything is remembered and forgot at the same time. Nate, the leader of all Czech camps, has helped prepare us to integrate back into american culture and american life. I really don't think it will be too hard, but it is something that seems like I will appreciate knowing what he has to say later rather than sooner. After our meeting today our team got to explore prague together. It was nice because all of us have been to prague before and so we got to skip the normal "touristy" spots of the city! Although we still did stuff that was a little "touristy", paddle boats are not fun unless you jump from one to the other, FYI!

Yeah, there we are!

Dan and I getting ready to board the USS COX!

Leah commanding her vessel!

Off to Prague We Go!

So after a couple`of hours of traveling and lugging all of our things around for a while, we are safe and sound at the CzechInn a famous hostel in Prague. All the Interns ate together for the last time at a really modern restaurant inside of a hotel.........it was really interestingly decorated, but I don't have any pictures of it! Above: is a reflection of most of the interns, I am in the front left!
Below: is a picture of our table at the restaurant.

Free as a Bird

I am sure you are all waiting for the conclusion to the epic cliffhanger I left you at with my last post. Well our landlord Mr. Davish ended up being outside in the garden courtyard of the apartment building. I shouted down to him from a third story window in broken czech if he could come up and help me. Well he did, and he wouldn't stop laughing at me when he realized what was wrong, and after he opened the door.

So I guess what happened was there was two groups leaving at two different times, and each group thought I was with the other, and no one bothered to look down the hall into my room where my door was open to check if anyone was left. Anyways I made it out and down to the field where follow-up was taking place, just in time for the sports part to end........o my! All in all the follow-up night went pretty well, it was a good time to re-connect with the students and get them plugged into the local youth group and Church.

Locked Inside

So camp has ended and the true hard responsibilities of my team have ended. We can finally take a huge breath of relief now that the only real task ahead of us is to spend two more days with the students of strakonice and then head to prague for debriefing. Well I guess my team really feels like they can relax and have no more worries. Currently I am writing this entry from inside a locked apartment that I cannot get out of, I will tell you the series of events that led me to my prison. We got back from Church this morning and we got back to our apartment. We had about 1 hour until we needed to leave to start our follow-up program for camp, so I decided that I would read a book until we had to leave. I went into my room laid down on my bed and started reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, next thing I know I woke up to a silent apartment, I look at my watch and realize we should have left a half-hour before. I started calling for my teammates asking why we haven't left yet......no reply. 'That's okay' I think, 'maybe everyone is at the apartment across the hall'. Well they might be, but to my surprise the apartment door is locked, what is the big deal you might be thinking? Well the lock can only be locked/unlocked with a key. Each side has a keyhole and only a keyhole. So hear I am, I am not sure how I will get out, but I hope I will soon!

Strakonice Hike

The hike day for Strakonice camp was a little wet, it had just rain all night and the morning of, but thankfully it stopped in time for us to start it. Dominik, a local student from strakonice, planned and led the hike. It was an awesome experience for everyone! The hike round trip was 9 miles long. At the half-way point we ended up at the peak of a mountain where there was wild blueberry patches all around. We rested, took pictures, and ate blueberries for the better part of an hour before we headed down. Once again the hike is used as an avenue to bond with students so that we are able to invest in their lives in a deeper way, and I believe that this trip really conquered that goal!

Arrrrrrrrgh Strakonice Camp

The team from Christ Community Church came so well prepared..........to say the least! They had an entire afternoon planned that took the place of sports, and the theme was Pirate Day! They had games, activities, and a costume contest prepared! Below are some of the best outfits!



It was a really fun time to have fun with the students, and connect with them and show them the weird nuances of american's views of pirates.

Class of 09

My english class is an awesome group of students, from left to right: Me, zuzie, leni, martin, lenka, mark, and juraj! The really special thing about this group is that I knew all the students except one, prior to camp! It is really exciting for me to continue spending time with students and investing in past relationships! Mark was my co-teacher from CCC and Martin was my translator during the night teaching sessions and also a helpful resource during class. This has been a class where I was able to use 2 camps worth of training and experience to create the best learning environment for the students, and I hope they are getting as much out of class as I am!

The Final Countdown

So our last camp has started and honestly I don't really want it to start, because I know it will end way too soon! I am leading this camp and their are some extra responsibilities that I have to take upon myself like: teaching every night, leader meetings, making decisions that affect camp (leader voting), and organization of entire night program. I am so excited about this camp, I know many of the student very well, some of which I met when I camp with Moody Bible Institute in March of 2008! One other exciting thing about this camp is that there is an Ostrich farm directly next door. Now I am not sure if you have ever been closer than 5 feet to an Ostrich, but they are really scary as you can see from the picture below.

When is rains, it pours............

For once it isn't raining, but I guess it might as well be raining right now! Our american team is actually a team from Christ Community Church in Illinois, who was supposed to go to Brazil, but they could not get their Visa's approved; so they decided to come to the Czech Republic instead. We needed an american team for strakonice camp because the other group that was supposed to come dropped out. So the team from CCC decided to come, but their first flight was cancelled so they had to come a day later, and then they had to split up in france and get on two different flights to the czech, and then the bus to bring them to camp was cancelled (which never ever happens), and a couple czechs had to drive all day to pick them up. We knew that satan was attacking, but we stayed in constant prayer that God's hand would be in everything that happened/happens. The team got to camp, and after a few hours I taught them how to facilitate small group discussion, and really how to make their small group into a dialogue instead of a question and answer session. They are very tired, but we are praying that God will provide energy and strength for everyone!

Down Day

Camp and follow-up for ceske tesin is officially over and we have made the 8 hour journey back to strakonice back home safe. When we got to prague which is about 1 1/2 hours away from strakonice we met up with noah and haley ellenwood (students and Hannah's siblings), gina, and aubrey. They are going to be helping with strakonice english camp! We are so excited to have them and to see God use us together for His glory! We are going to use our one day of down time to get our things prepared to come home. After strakonice camp we will have two days in left in this town and then we will leave for prague and have a few days of intern debriefing and time just to relax! I am just packing up all my stuff that is strewn around my room and reading the Word to try and fill myself spiritually for our last camp! Here is to one last camp!

Ceske Tesin Follow-Up

Camp is now over and we are in ceske tesin for follow-up for camp. This is a time where we invite the camp to hang out with us at: Church in the morning, games in the afternoon, and food at night. This is just another opportunity to get to spend more time connecting with students and get them hooked up with their town's youth group and church. This means that hopefully when all the americans leave, that the czech's will be able to truly connect with their peers. Our afternoon activity was a miniature 'Amazing Race'. Because the town of Tesin is actually split down the middle by the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, one half of the town is called Ceske Tesin and the other half is called Polski Tesin. During the race instead of being a part of a team of students, I was able to be a checkpoint on the race with Hannah Ellenwood. She is a missionary kid and has lived in the Czech the majority of her life. Also during camp she co-taught my English class with me in the mornings and she also led a few of the disscusion groups at night (when I gave the talk). The picture is from the race, Hannah and I were spies! With all the fun stuff aside, we had many student come to church in the morning, most of which have never been to Church before, it was an awesome time to get students connected with the Church and youth group.

Lysa Hora

Our hike this week was to the famous mountain Lysa Hora, this name literally means "Bald Mountain. It has this name I found out after 2 hours of hiking because at the very top of the mountain it is barren from any vegetation or wildlife. At every camp there is a hike sometime during the week, the purpose of the hike is to give Christians the opportunity to talk with students and to hopefully break down some initial relational barriers so that the Holy Spirit may use us to speak truth into the lives of students and bring them closer to the Lord. As you can see from the picture, this is one of the highest mountains in the area and as you can see from the picture the view is utterly breathtaking.

New Challenges

It is mid week and this camp has proved much different from ceske budejvice camp. I knew that each town and camp would be different, but I wasn't exactly prepared for a difference as great as I am seeing now. During the night sessions before teaching we have music and it is like pulling teeth trying to get the majority of the guys to do motions. ceske budejovice camp was nothing like this, but I know that I shouldn't compare. Honestly there has been some awesome parts about this camp that really make up for some shortcomings in participation. Andrew an american team member put together a carnival night for the first night of camp, truly it was one of the best put together and organized "programs" that I have seen put together. For the carnival there was a ring toss, dart through, ball toss, and a few other games; there was even prizes for students after they played all the games. It was an awesome way for students to have fun and gave the americans plenty of opportunities to talk and break the ice with students! The picture is from my first night of teaching, Martin Kabat from my intern team is my translator. I am giving two talks this night, the first is about the fall of Satan and 1/3 of the angels, and the second is about God creating the earth.

Ceske Tesin Camp!

Ceske Tesin camp has come and it has been such a great experience so far! The picture above shows our extended intern team, the american team, and some of the czech team! I will list them from left to right starting with the top row: andrew, dan, ryan, aubrey, nik, martin, lisa, gina, terka, naomi, lydie, hannah, leah, eva, and tyrel. Our teams have really connected and it is looking like this camp will be a great follow up to ceske budejovice camp! Dan is leading this camp as an intern and we will be co-teaching every other night during the week. I am also really excited because in my room for the week is Viet, who is a student on the Czech team. I am really looking forward to investing in his life and getting to know him more. (I previously met him during our previous visit to ceske tesin.

Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Another Day!

Day 4- It has rained every day since we have gotten to camp (actually I believe that it probably has not rained only about 7 full days since we have been here, which is about 5 weeks). There is a creek that runs next to the camp, well usually it is a creek; but now it has transformed into a small river. In fact the water rose so much today that the water has covered over the bridge that crossed over the creek into the camp. This is a little frightening for myself and the Camp leader, seeing that although the bridge is very solid, there is the chance of it being destroyed. There is also the possibility of a student getting to close to the water and falling in, so unfortunately the camp facilitator has roped off the sports field next to the creek.

All this to say that, I had an awesome English Class today! We had the students (among other things) put together a news show for us (Kyle and Me) from the pages of American newspapers. It was very entertain for us and an awesome way for the students to practice their English and improv skills as they played off of each other. I have gotten to talk to a few students about how they feel about the Story of God, and I have gotten some interesting responses. One student in particular is really struggling with what they believe about God. The student is really broken inside on what to believe, I know that this is the Holy Spirit working in their life. Another on the other hand is certain that the Story of God is a good story, but it is not real for them. 

Pray For:

• American Team 
• Czech Team
• Intern Team
• Czech Students

Day 3 Revisited

Tonights discussion was amazing, we dealt with God's destruction of ma ad mercy upon Noah. This is a very tough topic which raises questions like, Did God create evil?, Is God Fair?, Does God make mistakes?, ect. We ended our discussion with a couple unanswered/unaddressed questions, but when discussion ended the students did not leave.We started talking about things like evolution, can God be proven, and why do I personally believe in God; I could give no other answer than my own testimony. I was real and transparent with my group, (Czech's are not normally open with anyone that they just met, much less an entire group of new friends) I let them into my life and past, into my past and m struggles. My testimony was well received and the students said that they really appreciated my openness and ability to put down my defenses to them. I hope that through seeing my real pains in my past that they can see the real God who can heal any pain imaginable, and have an unmistakable encounter with him.

Camp Day 3

It is the middle of the day on Monday July 6th. English class in the morning went very well today.  The students are very outgoing and have no problem talking or rebounding from making mistakes. They are all very excited to talk to native English speakers, so they are willing to put themsleves out there" more than usual for a group of Czechs. I am really excited about my group and the more I get to know them, the more excited I get to teach them. I think they find me funny, and I am able to do or say thinks that make the students laugh at me for the ske of making the group more comfortable with me and each other. I am teaching with Kyle on eof the leaders from the American team from Arizona. He has been so awesome to learn from, as we teach and lead discussion groups together. I have gotten a few opportunities to have one on one conversations with some students, this has lead to me being able to build some awesome relationships and build trust with a couple students. I have spent a significant amount of time praying for the "Story of God" talks, which take place at night. My prayers have been focused on, that the stories will be accepted and engaged by the students. Overall that their minds and hearts would be open and receptive to God's beautiful story of God's love and redemption of mankind. I am also trying to delve more deeply into the Czech culture and language so that I can better integrate with the students. Also when the students are teaching me some Czech phrases or words it gives them an opportunity to laugh at my terrible pronunciation of their language, which I believe just helps them get more comfortable with me.

Pray For:

• English Classes
• Story of God
• Betty, Edit, Honza, Magda, Misa, Peter, and Tomas (my English class)

Camp Beginnings

It is the end of the 2nd day of camp, and so far it has been really, really awesome. The students have been extremely open to the Story of God dialogue style groups that we have set up for teaching during the summer. In my discussion group after the lesson which was the creation story every student talked at least once, which was very encouraging. I think that because we are presenting the Bible in a story format that the students are finding it easier to engage it. The students that I am working with are coming up with awesome life and Biblical questions that I am not sure we ever could of addressed without the story and dialogue set-up. I talked with a few students that weren't really sure what they believed about God and there were a lot of different thoughts going on in their head, I trust that it is the Spirit working and I hope that through this week I am able to help them sort out their own ideas and opinions about God. Please pray for the students who don't know God and that the Holy Spirit wold draw the students to Himself.

Back From Camp

Our Team just completed our first English Camp which was with the church and youth group from Ceske Budejovice. During the week that I was at camp I was unable to access the internet, so I journaled during the week, so these next few posts will be rapid, but know that they are from different days during the week.

Team Awesome Assemble!!

As you may or may not know, our team has thus far in our trip consisted of myself, Leah, Dan, and Lisa. Over the past month our friendship has grown and our teamness(ess) has strengthened. Now we have a fifth member to our group, he is Czech and due to the fact that he was studying abroad in Scotland, he was not able to join us until now. Well......now.....after a month of the summer already being over, our team is finally complete with the addition of Martin! He passed all of his classes with flying colors and is ready to embark on a summer of adventure with our team. We are now currently headed cross country to Josiah Venture's headquarters in Malenovice, first to do some construction work on a future missionary retreat home. Second to start US Team Training on Tuesday for Ceske Budejovice English Camp that starts on Saturday July 4th! Yay Independence Day!! For those of you wondering what this training thing is all about, let me explain. The intern teams (I am a part of one) are basically a mediator and guide for and between the American Team and the Czech Team. The Czech Team is made up of Czech's from the local church, they put on the English Camps. Now the American Teams are American churches that have partnered with a Czech church to assist with camps. They come for 2 weeks during the summer, recieve training and then help teach English and run camp with the Czech Team. Our job as interns is to make sure that, that all goes smoothly, and to lead English teaching. So I hope that brought some clarity if you were still wondering what I was doing this summer.

Please Pray for:

• Ceske Budejovice English Camp
• Czech Team
• American Team
• Intern Team
• Especially Training of Americans
  

Under the Weather............or Water

Like I have said before, it hasn't stopped raining for almost an entire month! This mixed with our team's crazy schedule has led Lisa to be feeling a little sick and to have a small temperature. Along with that bad news the Czech Republic (which is landlocked by the way) is experiencing country wide flooding. Many towns are being taken over by usually small rivers that run through their town or village. With camps literally right around the corner this is a potentially dangerous enemy. It inhibits travel (especially public transportation which most student use here) and with the potential of flooding houses parents could pull their children from the camps due to money issues.

Please pray for:

• Flooding and rain to stop
• Safe travel for team and students
• Lisa's health

Still Raining in Pavlov

Yep so two and a half days into our stay in Pavlov and it has been raining and still is raining. Almost all of the village's roads are torn up due to sewer construction. It is raining the hardest it has since we got here and since the roads are torn up it has led to the biggest road mudslide I have ever seen. It can be noted that i hae never seen a mudslide before so it might no be as impressive at it might sound!
My team and I tried to wait out the storm, because we had to walk through town to get to a place for dinner. Unfortunately for our team the rain did not stop and it continued to rain harder and harder. Our team braved the weather suiting up in make-shift trash bag jackets! Needless to say we ended up at the restaurant soaking wet, but we had an awesome dinner none-the-less.

Lovin' Pavlov

Our team arrived in Pavlov Monday night to start our English Planning time. It was really nice to get away for a few days. Pavlov is the vineyard/wine capital of the Czech Republic, so there were acres and acres of gorgeous vineyards, in some directions as far as you could see. We had the chance to hike up to local castle ruins that overlook the village. The castle was built in the 13th century and was used as a house for a local Lord of the area. I am so blessed to be spending time in this beautiful country and getting lost in the history that is a part of every road and city.

It's Really Rainy

For the past month that I have been in the Czech, I haven't really felt like I have been here, I feel like I have been in England. It has rained the majority of the time we have been here, but according to every Czech we have met the good weather is coming soon! This picture is from after our team visited the castle in the town we are staying in, in Strakonice. On the way back it started raining, and it rained hard! We will be leaving for our "Team Vacation" soon which is actually our time to prepare english lessons to use at the English Camps this summer. We will be traveling to Southern Moravia to a village called Pavlov and will be staying there for three days.

hannah montana...........smannah montana

So as I left off last time, I told you I was going to tell some exciting news, well.....drumrole please!! I met a Czech super-star! Her name is Ewa Farna (pronounced ehva) and she is the Czech equivalent to Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) in the States. Our team was doing a school visit in ceske Tesin and we ended up in her class. I didn't realize until after we left her school who she was, which explains why the only picture I have with her, I am looking away and you can only see the top of her head behind the student in the front right of the picture. Anyways pretty cool memory, so she is on itunes and has a couple videos on Youtube if you want to check her out! A couple of songs I like are Ticho and La La Laj! So check her out and be proud that I taught English to a Czech superstar! Below is a poster of Ewa in a store window!

Somewhere (Strakonice) Over the Rainbow

This is was was awaiting us when we got back from out trip to Ceske Tesin! What an awesome way to be greeted by Strakonice. It was mostly rainy and a little depressing so it was a very nice change! The trip overall to Ceske Tesin was very, very fun! We were able to connect with the youth group there and made some very successful school visits. We spent two days going to 3 schools and teaching for a total of 6 class hours each day! Needless to say it was a very busy couple of days! I hope that we were able to make a good impression with the students and that a few of the students decided to come to camp! Also in my next post I will write about how I got to teach english to a Czech  superstar. Not really that important, but really funny and interesting for sure!

The Olomouc Rendezvous

While on the way to Ceske Tesin our team met up with Trevor and Cassie Long a missionary couple here in the Czech. Well, not for long, they will be heading back to the states this month. God has called them out of the Czech and into different avenues of ministry. We walked around downtown Olomouc and ate lunch in the first floor of the building that Mozart grew up in (see picture below)! 

Ceske Tesin: HO!

So my team and I are in Ceske Tesin this week visiting schools to recruit kids for English Camp this summer! We are also spending time with the local youth group kids to prepare therm for the summer, because most of them are going to be assisting with the English Camp in Ceske Tesin this summer. Today we went to two different schools and where present during 6 hours of classes. We had the opportunity to talk with over 325 youth! A few from my classrooms seemed interested in coming to English Camps. Tomorrow we are going to visit a couple different schools to have some conversation in English with the students and do some more recruiting. The house that we are staying at is awesome, it is the pastor of the church in Ceske Tesin's house. We are traveling back to Strakonice after our school visits to spend some time planning English lessons for this summer.

Prayers Requests Are:

• Safe travels for our team
• Good reception for schools tomorrow
• Planning for English Lessons/Camps
• Team Unity

love

nik

Mrs. Belohuba

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit an elderly woman who lives in the town of Strakonice. This is our team leader (Leah's) hometown, she met Mrs. Belohuba in line at the supermarket this past February. We met with her and had tea and cake at her (Mrs. B's) house. She told us stories of WWII and about her life growing up in communism in the Czech Republic. This was an amazing experience and provided valuable insight into the Czech's history in the past 100 years. Her husband died almost 2 years ago so she is always happy to have visitors. I am so excited to learn more about the Czech culture through its youth and through its elderly. I hope that I have more opportunities like this over the summer!

You have no idea

I just wanted to take a second to thanks all of my supporters right now! You cannot imagine how much your financial support and faithful support through prayer mean to me this summer. I have been in the Czech for 2 weeks and a day, already I have undergone trials and had a few different interesting experiences. I know that my summer has progressed well so far because of my support back home, and I really wanted you all to realized that, and praise the Lord for that fact! In short, thanks, please keep lifting my team and myself up to Christ!
This is a picture of me hitchhiking through Slovakia to get to the Czech Republic during the Amazing Race!

Strakonice

Our team finished meeting with the Ceske Budejovice (CB) team and we have traveled to our "home base" in Strakonice to spend a couple days getting prepared for the summer. Three teams are sharing the home base so it is a little crowded. We spent yesterday hanging out with nationals and then today all the guys from the three teams travelled to Tabor to spend two days with Greg Strock a missionary with Josaiah Venture. It has been great staying with Greg so far, and am excited for him to share his wisdom with the guys and me!

Cesky Budejovice

So my team and I have completed team training at Malenovice and I am now staying in Ceske Budejovice getting ready to prepare the church team here for the week of English Camp being held here. They are veterans to English Camps so they know the drill of them like the back of their hand, but we are trying a new teaching style this summer. The teaching style is called: "The Story of God". This form of teaching is more like a dialogue session rather than an actual teaching, which draws students into the stories of the Bible and help them feel like they are a part of putting together the stories read from the Bible. It is an unique teaching style which I am both nervous and excited to use. Tomorrow we are spending the day with the church team and I am leading a small devotional about servant hood, so if you can please pray that the Lord will speak through me and that the Holy Spirit is able to minister the hearts of the Christian Czech's I will be speaking to. It is almost midnight, but I will update asap tomorrow!

Prayer Requests:

• Holy Spirit to speak through me during my teaching time
• Lord to give me words that are understandable and heartfelt
• for renewed strength and rest for my team (we are TIRED!)
  

Training Almost Complete!

It has been a long few days and our training here at Malenovice has been awesome and exhausting at the same time. I am starting to prepare myself for this summer and while doing this for myself I would also like to get you all ready in how to pray for me right now! The summer from an overview will be school visits to sign kids up for camp, training U.S. highschool students who are coming to help with the camps, do the English Camp and then repeat.

This is how the summer will look so far:

June 5-27: we will be doing school and youth group visits to raise awareness of our English Camps in Ceske Budejovice, Ceske Tesin, and Strakonice!

June 30-July 3: 1st US Team training for Ceske Budejovice

July 4-11: Ceske Budejovice English Camp

July 14-17: 2nd US Team training

July 18-25: Ceske Tesin English Camp

July 28-31: 3rd US Team training

August 1-8: Strakonice English Camp


This is a very brief overview of my summer and I will continue to update on specific places and events we will be attending/leading/participating in.

Prayer Requests:

• for God to work in my heart and the heart of my team
• I am in control of all finances for my team, so for smart spending and planning!
• for us to be enthusiastic and real while "recruiting" students at public highschools
• for the light of the Lord to shine to students through my team

Thanks so much for your continued thoughts, support, prayers, and encouragement!
Excited to update you all very soon!

love

nik

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Unfortunately it has been a long, long time since my last post, but better late than never I suppose. So for those who might not know, I am in the Czech! Yay! It has been a long few days. It all started on May 26th, at 6:00 in the evening my plane departed to Denmark, Germany. I proceeded to fly to Vienna, Austria in the company of two of my teammates who I would be working with this summer. We arrived in Austria a couple hours later after around a total of 13 hours of traveling! We all had been up for over 24 hours already. This summer Josiah Venture is using 16 teams to serve eastern Europe, so after everyone arrived at the airport, we divided into our teams of 4-6 and started a 3 day journey to Malenovice, Czech via the Amazing Race. We had many tasks to fulfill over the next few days and we had the opportunity while doing those tasks to travel to Vienna-Austria, Budapest-Hungary, Bratislava-Slovakia (and a few other small towns), and finally Malenovice, Czech Republic. This "game" was really another name for extremely intensive team building activities. Our team had 70 Euros per person to use for the 3 days; which included travel and food expenses. It was an adventure that I will never forget and I would love to go into detail about later. Below is a picture of our team, which from left to right is:

Dan Reese, Lisa Potter, Nik Walborn (me), and Leah Cox (aka Full Time Missionary with JV)

We are all at Josiah Venture's hotel in Malenovice receiving a week of intensive training for the 3 months ahead. I and my team are super excited for what the summer will bring, if you could please pray for us our prayer requests are:

• God to work and speak to our hearts
• God to work in the heart's of Czech students we will be working with
• To plan our budget well for the summer
• For us (as a team) to continue to be encouraging to each other

Thanks, and be checking back soon for another update!

Support

I am putting together support letters now and should be sending them out in the next week. I hope that you have found this blog easily and that if you are visiting due to receiving one of my letter I hope that you have already started praying bout supporting me. I will put some information up about the Czech Republic soon, so that you may understand what the history of the country is and its current state.

Accepted

I am now officially going to the Czech Republic this summer of 2009! I was accepted by the board that reviews all of the applications for Josiah Venture. I am now beginning to seek out financial support for the summer, as it is listed below I will need to raise around $4500. I ask that you would pray for God to already start to work in peoples hearts to seek to be a part of what I will be doing this summer, God's movement in the Czech Republic, and all of the staff of Josiah Venture.