NaMax in Cesky Tesin

when: September 12-18

where: all over the town of Cesky Tesin

what: a big evangelistic festival with lectures in local schools, afternoon activites, sports and games, evening tearoom tents in three different parts of the city, concerts, workshops, community service projects, open air evangelism, breakdancing, skits, juggling, motorcyles, lectures/discussions open for the public, etc...

Fabulous Karen from Adventure Church came for 2 weeks and served tirelessly at NaMax! She and I and teammate Mark (and also Daniel) did English presentations in Jr. High and High school classes during the week. We were in 6 schools and talked to about 15 English classes about "typical life in America." We also invited the students to the other NaMax activities, and it was so cool to be able to spend more time with these students at the tearooms, workshops and concerts.

why: to share the gospel in ways that make sense to the youth, to create safe places for the local young people to have fun, to serve the town, to help believers share the gospel with their peers and to provide an enviornment for them to use their gifts and serve, to inspire the local churches in their own evangelistic efforts...also, to break down sterotypes about Christians, bring different denominations together, and add momentum to what God's doing in youth all over Czech!

In spite of rain and cold, a lot of students came to NaMax...about 450 believers from our area and the whole country were involved in serving at NaMax. And the youth of Cesky Tesin came out of the woodwork to have good clean fun and many heard and experienced the truth that Jesus Christ sets us free.

one of the classes we did our english presentation in...the director of the school (in orange, in the front) was very enthusiastic about our visit 

zaneta, anetka and zuzka getting things ready to serve tea and cakes...there were 3 of these big old tents set up around the town, and they offered free tea and food. this tent was in the middle of an apartment complex, and it was beautiful to see so many kids (and parents!) enjoy games and time together.

me, anicka and karen in the tearoom tent 

the inside of the tearoom tent 

karen entertaining the masses outside of the tearoom tent 

cuties from the class of 9th graders we visited 

the duck duck goose girls and i 

friday-sunday, christian youth from all over the country and from many different denominations came to cesky tesin to serve by cleaning parks, painting guardrails, leading workshops, and befriending unbelieving students 

in spite of the rain and the cold, the saturday afternoon workshops were a hit: kids could choose from graffiti art, beatboxing, hip hop dance (oh yeah Breanne, you know I was there!), crazy hair, candle making, temp tattoos, etc... 

the local kids got a chance to show their break dancing skills 

the street ball tournament on the main square pulled in all kinds of boys 

the silesian girls' youth hostel hit a record high of having ten foxes sleeping there 

You May Kiss the Bride

One very cool thing I got to do this summer was fly back home and be in Jen's wedding...even though the whole visit was about 4 days, it was soooo gooood to be able to be a part of her and Bob's celebration, and to see some dear friends.

sherry, amy l, super jen, me & joey 

Party on, Wayne

One of the fun things about fall here is getting to reconnect with youth groups and camp kids at English camp reunion parties. The Letovice group's party had a mafia theme (which maybe seems kinda odd, but the youth group leader Sam gave the coolest talk about being a gangster and forgiveness), the Ceske Budejovice group had an all morning scavenger hunt, and at the Cesky Tesin party Amy gave a great talk about sin (so powerful, in fact, one guy said he'd become a believer if he wasn't one already). The beauty of these parties is to reconnect with students, remind them of the things they heard at camp, and also invite them to youth group stuff.

Party time, excellent!*

*okay, Dane, how's that for "you know you're old when"?!?

we love jennish! 

camp and youth group girls looking like they just got back from the speak easy 

the letovice mafia at the altar 

playing "clumps" at the ceske budejovice reunion party with (clockwise) VOJTA, daria, klara, nate and honza