EAST BOHEMIA ENGLISH CAMP JULY 7-20, 2008

From July 7-20th we were in a forest lodge at an English Camp sponsored by five churches from as many small towns; Usti nad Orlici, Rychnov, Dobruska, Chocen and Kraliky. The staff consisted of three pastors with their wives and eight children; a teen from North Carolina and Ken and Linda as the native speakers. Nicol and Lad'a from Usti; Katka, serving the Chocen church; and Martin Vlasak, the youth pastor from Liberec completed the leadership team. We have known Nicol, Katka and Martin since their early teen years when they became believers and we have worked with all the pastors before, individually not as a group.

As the more experienced pastor at the Camp, Pastor Dan from Usti nad Orlici was the leader. He was unable to recruit an English speaking team and because of this, promotion for the camp was late in coming. In the end, there were only eleven students who participated in the Camp. The camp facility manager reduced the price for the camp, helping Pastor Daniel decide to go for it by faith. Because we are here to serve the pastors in this country, we went by faith also.

We spent three days in a leader's retreat planning the 10 day camp. Things were chaotic at first but we came up with plans for each day. We need to give a big applause and thank you to Martin and Katka for carrying the lion's share of the load for program execution. They are both experienced English Campers and full of energy; a much needed commodity for a camp with teenagers.

Each day the English lesson, acivities and evening program followed by small group discussions centered around a theme based on a movie genre, i.e. adventure, musical, romance. There was lots of fun but we also looked at some serious issues facing all teens, like drugs, smoking, relationships, fear and others.

In the ten days we were with the students, we were able to get to know them well and they us. Late in the week they came to us with their questons and problems and we were able to pray for them and counsel them. One student was delivered from nightly bad dreams. Another prayed to renounce her former occultish practices and her whole personality changed from dark and withdrawn to cheerful and friendly. Relationships were built and as the teens return to their hometowns they will know that the pastor and his family will be there for them. Although it was very challenging, it was also a very fullfilling and blessed time. Yes, God had victory in mind when we saw problems. We are glad we chose to walk by faith and not by sight. Anyone out there know of a team who would like to be part of an English Camp in the Czech Republic next summer?

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1. Pastor Dan and teen from NC.

2. Katka, Martin Vlasak, and Pastor Jirka.

3. Dan's two oldest daughters with Jirka & Jitka's two oldest children.

4. Jirka's wife, Jitka, with their baby.

5. Pastor Petr Appl singing Karaoke.

6. Petr's wife, Ladka, with their 3 children.

Ten students began English Camp, one more came a few days later.

MUSICALS DAY included a Karaoke contest where everyone sang including our beloved cook, Lad'a (below right).

ROMANCE DAY English class included 3 bachelors playing the Dating Game: Martin, the break dancer, Lukas, the soldier, and Jordan, the ultimate romantic. All students won a dream vacation and gave a verbal and pictoral report.

The morning after our return home Linda found a stowaway from English Camp loose in our bedroom. She caught it in a bowl and let it loose in the garden beneath our balcony.

END OF THE YEAR CELEBRATIONS FOR OUR EIGHT ENGLISH CONVERSATION CLASSES

During the school year Ken and Linda had eight different English conversation groups in four different towns. All of them were held at the request of the local pastor and were an outreach into the community with a mixture of believers and not-yet-believers. We talked about everyday life (from a Christiian and a non-Christian perspective), developed friendly relationships and showed that Christians were ordinary people; not weirdos. We really enjoyed all our classes. In the month of June we were sad to break for the summer but we ended each one with a celebration that included food and games. Pictures of these parties follow.

Unfortunately, we do not have photos of our Liberec group of older adults. We were too busy having fun to take photos. Although we had the weekly meeting in our home, we held the party at the F-Klub (the meeting room in the church office building - see Happy Thanksgiving Liberec Jan 2008 for pictures of F-Klub) It was a much bigger space so we could invite more people including friends of the ladies who were interested in joining us next year and some of the students' children who were present or past English students of ours, as well as some other members of the church family. People loved the American hamburgers and English speaking games. Everyone really had a good time and this group that were strangers at the beginning of the year now agreed to be informal friends (tykat) instead of a formal relationship (vykat). This was a great cultural breakthrough!!!!

We also hosted a weekly meeting in our home called "Congregation" which introduced Christian topics to those interested to know more. Different members cooked dinner each week so we got to know each one on a personal level and we also ate dinner with them. Then, as we cleaned up the kitchen, Martin Vlasek (Liberec youth group leader) took them into the living room and presented either a Christian topic or a guest speaker. Sorry, no pictures of this group either.

As an end of the year project for the Christian School in Liberec, Ken volunteered to roast a whole pig for Children's Day. He spent eight hours basting the pig and stoking the fire but the end product was well worth the effort.

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT

Some classes ended with ice cream sundaes like this one in Chrastava and in Turnov. All classes ended with food and games.

Celebrations in Turnov and Cvikov

In Liberec we celebrated with a lunch and a birthday cake for Hanka

In Chrastava we celebrated with a picnic and a lively game of Petangue on the court built by an MCYM team last summer. (see October 2007 post)

Ken roasts a whole pig for Kid's Day at Liberec Christian School

Painting a mural for an end-of-the-year program. Enjoying visiting while waiting for the pig.

A NEW CHURCH IS STARTED IN KRALIKY, Cz

Ken and Linda have worked in east Bohemia for many years. You may have seen Pastor Petr and Ladka Appl in the past as assistant pastors in Usti nad Orlici. Now they are pioneering a new church in the town of Kraliky forty minutes NE of Usti. We had the priviledge of doing an outreach in their town the weekend of April 18-20. Friday evening the community was invited to hear us speak about our native city and state, Seattle, Washington. The Czechs love to hear about other places and we saw many new faces at our presentation. Just before the meeting Ken discovered that the pictures he thought he had with him on our laptop were actually at home on our external hard drive. God was merciful and the new, modern community center that we were in had internet access. Because Ken knew the state and city well and had done this travelogue before, he knew what he wanted to show and talk about so only had to put the place-names in a search engine and the pictures magically appeared. Whew!!! Can you spell Snoqualmie, Puyallup or Palouse?

On Saturday we spent the day with the youth group and their friends. We had a great time playing English language games, making cupcakes and having a backyard BBQ; including roasted marshmallows and S'mores. In the fourth picture below, you can see Petr and Ladka talking with some of the girls. Ladka is holding their third child, Ester.

Kraliky, Cz wants to know about Seattle, WA

American Day for youth. Playing English Games

making cupcakes and a backyard BBQ