heads up on follow up

The boys tearing down after our Strak camp after party. Any kind of camp is great--it gathers people, encourages, motivates and often helps reveal a new vision for the following school year. Once classes start again, though, the CZ youth group team has to be wise about planning activities and energetic and loving enough to pursue individuals. Year long follow up is one of my fave things eva--I think about it constantly and am always trying to get better at it...please join with us in praying for the seeds from camps to keep germinating and the fruit to ripen!


Kuba and I during Alpha showing how Christ took on our sin and gave us His righteousness. In Strakonice, our follow up activities are Alpha for youth courses, sports afternoons, Bible reading and the faithfully random party/hang out/etc. When the school year starts, Strak will again host Monday English Clubs and VIP parties and most def small groups for the ladies AND the gents. In Pisek, English Club will be Wednesdays, smallish groups will be for sure, as well as basketball and soccer teams. And there are also parties happening at varius venues: mr's haus, Verca's garden, Iva and the girls' place.

Crossover 2010 Aug 2-5

"The Denver Nuggets." I am not an athlete. In spite of that, I ended up being a part of one of our church's basketball camps with the help of Crossover Int'l. My role, uh, yeah, role was to be a link between the boys and Pisek English club. I was assigned to the youngest boys team and had a blast. :)


Ondra talking, me translating. The boys practiced and did drills all morning, and from 1-2pm had "Bible hour" which consisted of games, songs, testimonies, a devo and small groups.


Guys leading their partners in English through the court for points. The last day of Crossover there was an optional basketball English club--the guys were great and we added lots of important vocab that day: "trash talking" "layup*" "rebound*" and the ever popular Southern slang "finna" (thanks Rod and Andre!). **both of which I now know in Czech!--dvoutak and odskok...maybe...


Vojta and Kuba were at Pisek English camp and Crossover--please pray that they and others like them find a true home in God's family!

Pisek English Camp :) July 17-24

On the hike with Marushka, one of my all time favorite people (even though she ruthlessly corrects my Czech :)


Cutie petuties Marketa, Dominka, Kamila, Julka. :*


Ivca's clasmate Bara came to camp for the first time and loved it--she's been hanging out with us ever since. Oh yeah, and Reid was there too :) As was the supercool team from Christ Community coming at us outta Elgin-ish IL! Bah BOOM!


Last day of camp--there was a lot of love up in that place!


The Sunday after camp we all headed to our church Elim. Dominika's holding our little Martin after the service was over and people were changing the sanctuary back into a basketball court.


Later that night we went to various restaurants to hang out and, mmm, eat. And take incriminating pictures. Here Zahry, Simon and Petr are looking tres intelligente at the Chinese fast food place. Love you Pisek!

VIP weekend: secret identity/skrytá identita

When: April 23-24, 4pm-4pm
Where: the Koebels' in Milonovice
Who: all the Strakonice holky PLUS Amy and Hayley from CT!
Whuh: It stinks when someone disses your ensemble, or when you find yourself in the midst of crappy gossip (either on the giving or receiving end), or when everyone around you is always better than you...who doesn't want to rise above all that, to be happy about who you are and to stop competing with others? Discover the VIP within!

what has been up

Girl par-tay, girl par-tay...Kaakushe, Zuzka and Gabi modeling and making potato pancakes. They were super good, especially with stinky-butt cheese and sauerkraut. At camp this year we got to know some super cool people and are thankful to be friends.


Our JV Czech team (Kam) team building before JV fall conference officially began. [Author's note, I spelled "officially" 5 times before I got it rite. Write. Right.]


The Kam team in all it's beauty. At JV fall conference this year there were about 150 of us from 9 countries, and I would guess the median age to be about 22. What a joy to see so many national young leaders soaking up great teaching, encouraging and inspiring each other, and playing Estonian kiss tennis (yep, not a typo).


Right after Fall Conference, we from South Bohemia drove right to our English Camp Revival weekend and had a blast doing skits, singing [ha! Today really is typo day, I wrote "sinning"--and I just spelled "typpo"--ahahaha!] dancing, playing games...and we had great discussions. The Lord is soooo faithful to continue what he's begun in young people's lives! Above: Martketa, Paja, Verca and Karolina.


Pavel and Kaakushe as Mach and Sebestova. I wish I could explain it... :)

the month in review: june

Holy cats.
So, the summer interns arrived on May 27th and life hasn't been the same since. The first thing we did was our JV version of the Amazing Race:


In Budapest acting out Batman. We also ate nasty super spicy pumpkin soup, balanced bats in front of a cathedral, interacted with carnies in Vienna. Highlight: hitchhiking in Slovakia.


The team! Nik, Dan, Lisa and me. Martin at this point is still finishing up school in Scotland. Highlights so far: sharing our testimonies, our 2 Corinthians study and our little vacation in Pavlov.

After a pretty intense week of intern training, my team and I hit the streets of Ceske Budejovice, Strakonice and Cesky Tesin doing:


School visits! Inviting students to camps and teaching conversational English in area high schools. Highlight: meeting Ewa Farna at the Polish HS in Tesin. As one boy told us "She's the Czech Hannah Montana." Or Avril Lavigne. Czech her out here


Manual labor! I love it! Here Eva joined us in Cesky Tesin and helped clean the youth leader's new apartment. Highlight: feeling good :).


Hanging out with students and youth groups! Here we are playing the monster game in Strakonice...


...and in Ceske Budejovice playing Jitka's foot game. Highlights: Carcassone with Dominik and the gang tonight, Nik falling into a ditch, meeting a girl who draws amazing anime, The Average concert at the Rokac...it's been so rich


Another fun thing we do is getting to know the people we'll be serving with at camps. Here, we're with Bonnie and Jon's team and part of the Strak team at the Strakonice castle after church last Sunday. Highlight: Kaakushe acting out Harry Potter and me thinking it's Star Wars. Generation gap?

Next week camps begin! This June has flown by, but it feels like eons since we picked up all the interns at the airport. I'm so thankful that we are on the same team and have gotten to live a lot of life together these past weeks. Today we washed windows at our church and hung out with some of the Strakonice gang. Tomorrow we'll go to church, take the train across the country for our work project. Tuesday begins US camp team training for our first camp, Ceske Budejovice, which starts on Saturday. Bring on July!

Eva Eve: Pisek Girls’ Weekend, April 24-25

We ate, we talked, we threaded beads, we danced around a firepit--pretty much your typical weekend de la femme.


But what was so special about this weekend was that the age range was toddler to grandma; finally generations got to mix it up, hear each others' stories and encourage each other. Sweet times!

Dance Camp! Dec 25-29

HSMIII! Yep, at this camp we worked on a dance that David (left) choreographed based on the song "A Night to Remember." In the evenings, elders from our church (who also all happened to be dads of our students) came and talked about leading double lives, dealing with temptation, following Christ selflessly...it was amazing how each night hit us right where we live. I'm praying for lasting fruit from things realized and decisions made.


Kaakushe, Hanicka and Danka being cute. In addition to dancing, we filmed Czech Butcher IV, which is a Dance Camp tradition to make a cheesy horror film parody where everybody dies. Hanicka and Danka's scene, playing up their blondeness, was so funny--these crazy girls added a lot to the camp.


Kaakushe, Naomi, Terka and I. I got to know some of the Pisek kids (like Terka) a lot better that camp, and I'm so glad...their depth and humor made hauling myself from northeastern Czech to a southwestern village the day after Christmas totally worth it.

US Czech Invasion! Week 2: Chicago/land

Iowa was about making new friends, but Chicago was about reuniting. The infamous Kevin Clark (on the right) joined the boys at Bonnie's house for a few days. Kevin makes everything better!


With the Moody gang at Starbucks. Even though we haven't seen them since early spring, everyone picked right back where they left off.


Jakub with his entourage at the Czech Thanksgiving party Christ Community Church hosted. CCC and my church Elim have a deep and long relationship that made being in the Elgin area meaningful. We received a lot of love from them!


With James and the Blanchard gang in the city. We miss you guys! If I could steal you back from the Ukraine I would (sorry Ben and Kristy...kinda).


JV's Vision Night in Chicago was big and beautiful, and I was blessed that AmyL, Super Jen and Bob, Aunt Sandy and birthday girl Laurie all came. I love you guys!

US Czech Invasion! Week 1: Iowa

Wednesday at Davenport North HS. The girls' dreams came true in the cafeteria :)


Girls Only! Dana, Miriam, me, Lenka, Eva, Zuzka chillin after Dana threw all of us a faboo sushi party in Iowa City.


Eva and Karen by the Mississippi. Our host families were probably what meant the most to us. Karen and her roommates Kelly and Vanessa gave up their bedrooms and slept in the basement so that we could have comfort and privacy.


With Christiana and Lucka. Christiana and her boys housed our boys and she and Lucka hit it off right away at the party Community Christian Fellowship hosted for us. Thank you Christiana and thank you Karl and Patty and the gang at CCF!


Leni and Eva in the mighty Mississip. Now they all know--Iowa rocks.

my churchie

10/12: Everyone chillin right before things got started at our first Sunday Strakonice Elim service. Jozef had a short devotional and Alca led worship.


During the break between worship and teaching. Martin taught about church as a family and our little group definitely felt like one. We'll meet like this once a month.


Our church, Elim Pisek. I became an official member on the 5th. :)


Kuba Jarda during his baptism service last Sunday in Pisek with our pastor Martin.


Tomas and Jura praying for Lukas during his baptism three weeks ago.

Goodnight moon, goodbye team

Evicka hosted a garden party to say goodbye to Ben and Josh before they left. We were well loved by the Strakonice (and Pisek!) gang.


Ben and Josh go back to Amerika, Ben to school and Josh to adventure. These guys lived Christ boldly this summer and we're all going to miss them.


The most beautiful girls on the...square. On the Old Town square. Most of these summer interns flew home yesterday, but some did not, including my own Aubree (2nd from the right, purple dress) and also the amazing Bonnie (5th from the right, green paisley). These young women will be living with me and serving youth groups in the S. Bohemian region until December.