English club Strakonice 14. 5. 2008 (with subtitles!)

May 14
English club
Strakonice

Leah:
Every Wednesday we have English club here in my apartment and it’s super. We want to keep in contact with students from camp and we want to not only maintain these relationships but also show them more and more who Jesus is.

communication game ☺

Martin:
I hope to see more young Christians here who serve God. I would like to see us get together in small groups and see all generations together; to have church services here…. that we would be like a big family. Lately, I've been thankful that people are finally beginning to understand what I’ve been experiencing. I’m glad that we could step into the situation here and start to change and create things.

Jozef:
I come to English club so that I can keep up these relationships with students from English camp, or from our Pisek youth group. They’re all a part of our Strakonice youth group, which meets formally, informally—mostly informally. But, there’s life here, where Christians and non-Christians live together and influence each other.

Alca:
Recently I sense a need for us to focus on caring for the students individually. It happens in some ways, but kind of randomly and not systematically. For example, there are many students that I’m not able to say have any kind of quality care, and I would love to see that change and for us to focus on that.

What’s happening in Strakonice
Find it on our church website
www.elimpisek.cz

Sjezd mladeze/National Youth Conf/May 8-11

Lucka R. introducing Kaakushe's testimony--she did great, even in front of 1000+ peers.


Our Elim youth group section--several students made significant steps that weekend.

Sjezd ROCKED. The Lord did a ton of beautiful things at this conference, and in thanks I'll name a few:

*Students confessed and repented of sin. One thing that I've been feeling lately is this desire for public repentance--strange maybe, but true. During the last night we all got a candle to light and paper to write our sins on, and silently walked up a to where there was a cross and a fire. The long line of little lights snaking up the hill to "Gethsemane" filled me with joy that many--if not all--were experiencing freedom in areas of their lives.

*Godly young men. From Tomas and his band leading worship and prayer to Freddy and David and their so right on morning devotionals, I got to see young men really step up in leadership and godly influence--YAAAAAAY!!!!!!! It's so encouraging to know them over the long haul--it gives me hope for our sometimes crazy boys :)

*Discipleship in action. Kaakushe (above) is taking care of a wild bunch of younger girls. David and Tomas are speaking into the lives of the boys in our group. Many more examples exist of spiritual parenthood, too. Keep on, my brothers and sisters!

Thank the Lord that he's so in control, and that his kingdom is coming in the Czech Republic.

JV Spring Conference 2008: Fit for Battle

April 30-May 4

Trevor and Tyler leading worship. Ray Prichard, author and former pastor, spoke on asymetrical warfare and our enemy, and warfare in the last days. Dave also spoke on map reading and commander's intent. Thank God for timely, practical teaching.


Josiah Venture 2nd culture missionaries (ie, non-native), spouses and guests. It's so encouraging to be around those who are older and wiser and have weathered life's storms with faith and grace, and I loved spending time with my sistahs from anothah mistahs.


Christian Youth Theatre (CYT) came and put on a production of Godspell with the missionary kids, which they performed the last morning...their talent amazed us all.


No, Eowyn wasn't mentioned at the conference, but she was on my mind. If you know me at all, you know that I love LOTR a lot. A lot. So whenever spiritual warfare is discussed, I always flash to that scene when Eowyn stabs the nazgul guy in his invisible face--you go girl. But, as we talked about at this conference, real life spiritual battle is a lot less romantic and a lot more serious. Our enemy doesn't fight fair. He's sneaky and covers himself with the seemingly innocuous. There are a hundred little battles we fight, whether we realize it or not, and our daily, normal obedience can make a huge difference. This conference inspired me to be a woman of deeper love and strength, and, like our girl Eowyn, to have the sword of the Spirit ready.

English Camp Trainings: Bohemia & Moravia

April 18-19/19-20

This year's theme song motions, Bohemia training. The song is "Friend Like That" by Hawk Nelson. These trainings are for the Czech youth groups we do English camp with, for them to get excited about camp, to learn/be reminded of why we do this in the first place, and to get some tools for camp and follow up.


Kaakushe by Nate (as are all these pics, except for the first, but I don't know who took that one). At Bohemia training, it was super encouraging to see students who became Christians in the past year or two on the English camp ministry teams.


Games at Moravia training--there were a lot of new groups at that training.


Brad and Jitka, teaching about pride and humility with this year's theme in the background, "Being Human."

Why Europe Rocks: Reason #32

European Ingenuity

Do you know what you're looking at? Genius, my friend, genius. Mr. Divis and son installed this clothes drying rack shortly after I moved in (& after I already bought the standard kind) and I still marvel at how handy it is. You unhook the string and the bar comes down for you to hang your wet clothes on, and then you hoist the bar so high up that no one even notices your drying unmentionables, so high up that even a vigorous shower can't touch 'em. Smart! I love Europe for ever!