Clue#1 Kaliba Hill in Slovakia.
We found a train station to Brastrava in Slovakia, thanks to a tip from a woman behind from the front counter of our hostel who had the internet. After 2 hours on the train, we arrived in a new country, with a new map in our hands, and a new attitude. The clue led us up a mountain, about 3 miles from the station. We had new boldness, and now adjusting to the new culture, as a team, we found it more comfortable to ask for locals. We soon discovered that the younger they are, the more likely they will speak English! Also, if they have a new phone, the better chance they are to give us decent directions. Just our luck, we found a man with an English shirt and an Iphone. Jackpot! We found the hill so quickly it brought us up to 6th place! The Hill was a bobsled course that led about 500m down the hill; it was very steep and intense to climb back up. The task was to name JV's 5 core values, for every one we get wrong, a person had to go down the hill and climb back up. We failed 2 times, but it was awesome to see Sean step up and dominate that hill! The guy can run!
Clue#2 UFO skyline
We were getting so good at navigating through the trams and city. Completely night and day from the previous time. We were asking the right people, and were beginning to understand the system and worked together in navigating. I would make decisions, and Heidi would double check and wasn't afraid to tell me I was wrong. Several times, it saved us hours of digression. We arrived at the skyline to find our task was another test on our knowledge of JV. Our team was at such a disadvantage because we were all new to this internship. I felt handicapped, but we pressed on. We had to place 60 pictures of missionaries that JV supported to their correct countries on a map that had no country names on it. For every picture we got wrong it was a 2 min penalty. Some teams stuck there for 2 whole hours!! We got 38 wrong, but as we were getting our penalties, a rule change was in order and we only got penalized for half of the pictures! Had Sean not been so good with geography, we would've been in big trouble. I was truly impressed with him, especially since I had really no contribution in this challenge. This was really encouraging. After our penalty, the next clue could only be found on the top of the skyline with binoculars. When we reached the top, it began to rain cold, thick drops of rain. 20 minutes had passed, and no one was able to locate the next clue. One by one, teams went up ...looked over...and with mischievous smiles, ran down to their teams to proceed. We decided to team up with another team and together we found a JV REDEEMED logo on a boulder about 400m from the skyline!
Clue#3 Mall Challenge
Our next challenge involved finding JV staff in this 4 story mall in the city and doing mini tasks. Literally, in a matter of 30 minutes, we found all 5 JV Staffs and completed their tasks. We arrived at a time all 5 of them had circled on the 1st floor. Teams had been there for over an hour and a half searching. After ridiculous tasks that involved buying a McDonalds cheeseburger and getting a national to eat it, carrying each other up a flight of stairs, and dressing up as the 4 seasons in a clothes store, we made it out so fast we were bumped up to the top 4. This was amazing especially when there teams that left ahead and hour to half an hour to an hour earlier than us. And trains only go every hour so when a train is missed, it adds huge gaps in between teams.
Clue#4 Dinner in the 2nd Largest city in the Czech
We found out from information that Brno was the next stop. With only an address we got on a train just 2 minutes before it left and found ourselves with 3 teams heading to the finish line for the day. We only had an address to go from, so I began surveying the train, while the teams sat in their booths. Car after car, no one knew the address. Before I was about to give up, I really wanted to contribute to my team, and so I went up to one last car, and there I found a very nice business man. We began talking, and it turned out that he was turkish, but living in the US and in the Czech for business. In fact, his hotel was right in the street where the address was! The gentleman was so nice. He was calling his friends to get locations, hotels, googling. In the end he actually bought us taxis to the restaurant. The moment the train halted, and teams ran out asking for directions and exchanging euros to crowns, we hopped into a taxi and in a matter of minutes scurried across Brno to a small restaurant. Our task was to eat a traditional Czech dish- Cow stomach stew! Thankfully, my childhood in Vietnamese cuisine helped me in this task and after helping my teammates eat their tripe, we finished in 2nd place, only 15 minutes behind 1st place! We were so amazed! Consider that the 1st place team was on a train an hour ahead of us, and from last place we rocketed to the front!
Sleep that night was sweet. God answered prayers of encouragement and unity. There was a strong sense of accomplishment and even the spirit of competition that made that day truly amazing. Not that 2nd place was the ultimate goal, but that I felt I had given to my team, and that God allowed me to put myself out there and to come back with something. There was a sense of redemption, in closing that day with celebration, when we began the previous day with me struggling...darn that tomato. Sadly, that cow-stomach stew was our first meal since I arrived, aside from crackers and chips. My legs will be as strong as an ox by the summer's end. God is good.
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