Summer Rockets

I don't know how I will feel on the day where rockets will fill the morning sky, signaling the end of a splendid summer. I am excited to return to the familiar and assimilate again to the routines of what life presumably looks like for the year, but at the same time I am anxious that what I will find is that the familiar isn't so familiar. The taste of what I once knew will have changed because I am no who I once was.

I am less than a week away from the end of this adventure, and the start of a new one. One I hope will prove that what I experienced this summer was real and genuine. I am less than a week away from saying goodbye to a world and people I have come to fall in love with. I believe my love for it all has something to do with how I have been shaped by it.

I will be saying bye to a group of inspiring young people who I believe love God in a way I have not known before until this summer. I will be saying bye to mentors who have spoken truth and lived it out before me in ways I never thought possible in such a short amount of time. I will be saying bye to a group of a hundred young Czechs I might never see how the seeds, which have been planted, will grow.

The rockets will fly and some might never return. But I will never forget.

...Three months ago...

It was sublime to have one last grand meal together..THANKS KIM!

Final Camp: Sublime

How do I even begin to blog about this week?

All I can really do is thank everyone for their prayers. Our bodies were finally crumbling to the strain of the summer. Sickness spread. But in spite of it all, amazing things happened at this past camp.

LOVE was experienced. It was truly a gift to serve along side my home church and watch them give themselves away to students. Again, how do I begin to tell the story of this week? I can't. Not in this way. It is almost impossible to do it in a way that justify the glorious power of God and His sovereignty through it all.

I can tell you of one particular story about one of the students. He was in my English class. His belief in a God was evident from day one. He did not speak much English, but every time he spoke, it was so profound. It was clear that a spiritual foundation had been laid that was so pure and strong that our culture in America has so long forsaken. When I asked him what he thought about the idea of God using evil situations for good, he replied, "I think we all have to to experience crisis in our life to truly understand that redemption is real.".....WHAT!? Are you kidding me? And you don't know Jesus?! Later that week, he asked about suffering in world. With another Czech believer, the three of us went into a room and began dialoguing about why would God allow suffering. We got to share with him who Jesus was, and how whatever the answer for such a question was, it cannot be that God doesn't care. In fact we find the answer of human value at the cross and the victory over suffering in resurrection. It was a beautiful time. In the end he said something I will never forget. He said, "I love the atmosphere here. It is so different from the one at home. All my friends live for nothing, but here, you all are so clear...." Praise God. This week, He gave his life to Christ.

That was one of 3 stories of saved lives and one of many stories of souls taking huge leaps towards truth.

Home is coming up soon. In just a week, this adventure will come to a close, and a new one will begin...

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

1. students who gave their lives to the Lord. Pray for strength as they experience opposition and comfort in the Spirit and other believers

2. Students who are so close to embracing the Gospel

3. Students who opposed the Gospel this week

4. NCC team and Czech Church team as they follow up with the students. Many students find a home with the local church

5. DEBRIEF TIME. A good time of processing this summer and taking kingdom values home and leaving all the junk...

Round three...race to the finish line...

It's a beautiful thing when God brings home to you. The two worlds I have been submerged in are finally coming together. We are now on our third camp. 35 Czech students...19 unbelievers... One last hurrah!

Pray for:

Unity. We are one team, one body. Czechs, Americans, Interns coming together. "they will know You by our Love."

Kacka. One of the Czech Leaders just found out she has cancer. The Lord continues to bless her with strength to still participate at camp.

The 19 students who do not have a relationship with Christ and the other 16 believers who have the chance to be renewed in the Spirit.

More stories to come! GOD BLESS!

Round three camp!

Thought I would share with you the new look...

zoomba- Orlova

Theories on "trash to treasure"...English Class Orlova

Orlova

I can't believe its been 2 months... Time is just dripping from my hands and fingers, and feel like I have hardly had a taste.

This camp has been an amazing experience. It is far different from anything the team and I had seen or expected. We had a total of 13 Czechs and 13 Americans. The first few days was spent indoors, trying to escape from the rain. This really brought everyone close together as the hours were spent playing card games and talking. It seemed like everyone was a mile away from each other when they all first walked in. Nobody knew each other, there wasn't a youth group connection, the American team was novice to the whole experience...but by the end we saw the mile disappear. I saw students who said that they were atheists singing at the top of their lungs at the end of camp, "I am somebody because God loves me." I heard students from the beginning of discussion groups asking "why do I need forgiveness? I haven't done anything. I am too young to experience any pain in my life" to finally at the end of camp saying, "I just can't get over how much junk I have in life..."

No one made a commitment to follow Jesus, but when a girl in one of our groups came up and asked, "Can I have a Bible? I really want to figure this out," that was more real and authentic than any worship conference or evangelistic camp I had ever been to. I saw the thirst for truth. For me, it was just enlightening to live in community with the lost, to feel their pain, to love unconditionally, and to see them as our Creator sees the world.

As believers, we were struck with notes from students that said things like, "why are you different"....or "we have never been loved like this before"....Praise God that He was made known by our love for one another. There was sadness in our goodbyes, but I wonder if this is what the Apostle Paul felt, moving from town to town, after falling in love with it, seeing growth, but knowing there was more to do.

I'm so in love right now. With the country. With the people. With those I am serving beside. With what God is doing in this place. I don't want it to end.

Tomas became a believer last week. It was so eye opening to see the Holy Spirit work in him, calling him to share his story and tell the gospel, immediately. He was an absolute gift.

PAUSE 7.15.10

Rest is kind of this beautiful/ugly thing for me. I see the need for it. Without it, I'm like a dull knife cutting myself away. But it's so easy to get lost in the apathy and lose all momentum. Today was the first real day of rest as I was able to spend some really quality time with the Lord and process all that has taken place.

It is a sad place to realize this summer is coming to an end. It's selfish, but I really do not look forward to the day I walk away from this family, walk away from the work, walk away from the chaos I fell in love with.

I love the ministry philosophy: Venturing out to raise up young Josiah's... Remember, young Josiah seeking the God of His father, David at age 16. He then began a revival- Sharing the word of God, re-establishing the temple, removing false teachings and idols in all the land. Imagine. What if we were to seek after young Josiahs in our midst. This idea of youth ministry is so inspiring. Seeking the youth of a nation and watching God take a young national, and raise him up to begin revivals in his home town. I am so privileged to be part of this work...

The next camp begins in a few days and after that, I will join up with Northwest Community Church for the final camp of the summer. And then....back to school...back to job...back to "9 hours ago". Some update on this upcoming camp. So we are now finally at 13 students who will be going. None of them are believers. There are a total of 13 Americans. As you know two girls that were coming with in a life-threatening bus accident. They are recovering, but the reality of life and death are fresh in their minds. Amazingly, the girls friends have communicated that they still want to go to English camp. When Kim and Dan visited some of them in the hospitals. Their friends communicated to them that they don't know why, but they feel they are suppose to go to camp. God is working in our midst. We just recruited two more Czechs from the previous camp who will come to Orlova Camp. One of them, is Tomas, who just became a believer a week ago! He volunteered to share is testimony! It's incredible that the Spirit is already so active in him that he has chosen to already share the gospel with people he has never met!

The team has undergone some other obstacles. Jeanette is facing some issues with the foreign police. She has been out of the country for enough time to require a visa. It has been a stressful situation, but she has had a great attitude. There are some chances that she might leave early, but we are praying.

Tonight, 230 people will go out into the heart of the Czech Republic and speak with their tongues and their lives of Jesus Christ.

Pray for the camps.

Pray against the enemy

Pray for salvation

PAUSE

Something we made at camp for Katka...

Havirov- Never Going back to Ok

A few Vids from this Week!!!

Karaoke Night....

First Camp = Epic

I'm in a hotel in Orlova...with the sound of Czech techno music bumping through the walls. You think I would be down there flashing my moves down at that wedding down stairs...but actually, I'm anchored on my bed, overwhelmed with tiredness, joy, and awe.

My whole body is sore... I maybe had a chance to shower three times this week... and I have never felt more alive.

The camp started with a few bumpy roads. What am I saying, it started terribly. About 12 kids arrived on time, while the other 25 were on a train that got derailed. There was some accident, and thankfully no one was injured, but now the majority of our students were stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours. They didn't arrive at until 9:00 that evening, after being shuttled in by the three available cars. All of activities, plans were changed. The talks shifted, English classes changed, but attitudes were great. There were a lot other things going on within the church community and internal conflicts that also were a rough start for camp. Dan and Kim just had so much on their plate. I was so impressed by how Daniel just took care of things, really difficult things with students, team issues, and logistics especially when things didn't go according to plan. One of the leaders of the Czech team was dealing with some pretty intense health concerns, and we really felt the attack of the enemy that day. But it was so amazing to see the progression of each day.

We had a few troublesome students. There were these boys that made you wonder, why were they here? They broke tons of things at this camp- windows, swing sets, chairs. They would be extremely distracting during the night talks. They would not participate in the dances, and they would not talk to anyone else at the camp. But as each day went on, you saw a little progression. We saw this bond grow in all the students that made that last day of departure feel like a funeral. Love did come down that week.

So what are some of the stories? I will share about one story I had the privilege of just being a part of. His name is Tomas and I'm super jealous of his six pack. Tomas is very athletic and one of the nicest people you will ever meet. He is sincere. The guy wants to learn English so bad. He tries so hard that it actually is really funny. We met about a month before camp, and immediately I knew he had a good heart. We got roomed together, and every night we would talk about life, relationships and God. Tomas had heard about God three months ago. He had this old Bible with him, so every night, me, him, and another guy, Ondra, would read our favorite passages and share them in English and Czech. Throughout the week, our bond grew and grew. One night we stayed up until 2am just talking and eating junk food, and I was telling them about my love-horror stories. Then, the night of the Gospel was came. It was a hard night with many distractions. During the presentation of the gospel, this 13 year old boy laid back and farted so loud, that I almost bursted out laughing (I was telling myself, don't laugh, don't laugh..be an example). DURING THE GOSPEL PRESENTATION! Daniel told the story of Jesus and the woman at the well and invited the students to pray if they want to give their lives to Jesus. Then the students proceeded to go through this labyrinth. It was just a series of stations that students would go through to help them reflect on their lives and the allow them to process the gospel at their own pace. THere were stations where you wrote letters to yourself, think about those you love, a hand washing station, a place where if you want to confess your sins, you wrote it on a rock and threw it into the woods, and then a place where they read Scripture and could make a commitment. Tomas went through this, and afterwards went upstairs to where some leaders would pray or talk to anyone who needed it. I didn't see people go through the labyrinth because I was maintaining the atmosphere of the night with music. But I saw Tomas come into the room, and he was smiling this big goofy smile. I asked him that night, how his day was and he said to me, "Tonight, I feel like I was reborn." I found out that Tomas gave his life to Christ that night. It was so awesome. The guy wasn't regurgitating some Christianese or something he read. That was the only way he could describe it. He felt like he was being born again. Praise God!

There were 4 other kids who recommitted their lives that night, and more took some step towards God. These troublesome guys I mentioned encountered God as well. One of them, whom we had been praying for all week, came to Daniel and told him he wanted to change, and they prayed together. He and the other boys sat down that night and he told them how as he was reading the passages from Romans and decided that He wanted to trust God, he felt this chill and for the first time, he felt God and began to cry.

It's weird. The reality of not knowing fully what all went down this week. Maybe there were dozens more who gave their lives. Maybe some took some steps and will find Him later on in life. I just hang on to this thing we call FAITH and like now, I am left in awe.

Please pray for:

1) Round two of camp begins in a few days! Training will consist of over 230 American Teams and Czech Teams!!!!! Pray for strength, rest, the SPIRIT!

2) Students returning from camp. Followups go well and strong connections continue with the Czech believers. And those who gave their lives grow and grow.

Tomas is on the left, next to Ondra