TRIP DATES:  July 22 - August 10

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18:
Pastor Mike Gaston writes:

The last six members of our stranded Czech team arrived home safe and sound on Wednesday evening, and were warmly welcomed by their friends and family. This brings to a close not only the Czech ministry, but the entire Grace to the Nations 2006 summer missions outreach. Thank you for praying our team members home, and for helping us to make an impact in 8 countries around the world. Grace to you!

MONDAY, AUGUST 8:
Pastor Mike Gaston writes:

The travel plans for our Czech teams were impacted by the ripple effect of the foiled terrorist plot last week.  The teams were due to fly through Heathrow airport on British Airways last Thursday, but the flight was cancelled just before take-off, and the teams were stuck in Prague.  After we were initially told that it could take up to three weeks to get everyone home, God worked powerfully to provide tickets for our 21 team members to travel individually and in small groups, with everyone scheduled to be home by Wednesday, less than a week later than planned.

10 team members arrived home safely this last weekend, though several had eventful trips that included cancelled flights and missed connections, with one actually spending a night in the terminal at Heathrow.  None are traveling today.  Five will travel on Tuesday, and the last six will leave Prague on Wednesday.  Please continue to pray for those who have yet to arrive home, and for their families as they await their return.  We will update this website every day until the teams are home.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4:

Shannon called saying:

The camp went very well, this is our last day of camp and there was great unity with the Bohumin youth and team.  Ten non-believers attended camp and developed good relationships with the team members. 

Please pray that we would have continued conversatios as we are in their homes in Bohumin for the next 3 days.  Pray that we would continue to build relationships with them.

Also pray for the health of our team.  We've had a few members not feeling well, nothing serious, just a bit under the weather and not feeling 100%.

Thanks for your prayers!

FRIDAY, JULY 28

Shannon writes:

This is our final day at training as we are leaving for the English Camp in just moments.  I'm not sure we'll have access to computers at the camp.

We've been blessed with safe travel all along the way and it was wonderful to have the extra day in Prague upon arrival.  It allowed us to get over jeg lag better and we were able to begin that day with worship, personal devlotion and prayer.  It was an uplifting way to spend that time - in fellowship as the Holy Spirit led. 

We just finished up three days of training with the Josiah Venture staff and feel filled up and ready to go.  God has been preparing our hearts individually and has created fast friendships between us and the intern team and the Bohumin youth group that we'll be working with at the camp.

We are leaving in moments for our trip to the camp site that will take us on a walk to a bus, three connecting train rides, another bus ride, finished with an hour and a half walk to the hotel.  Yet we're so thankful knowing that our counterpart, Czech team 1 is well into their 10 hour trip across the country which began before 5:00 am this morning.  We were blessed with extra sleep this morning followed by another solid time of worship and prayer.  Please pray with us for continued safe travel and that we'd be in the middle of where God is working as we follow the Holy Spirit's prompting to love and care for each other and the students we will meet in one more day!  May we be living examples of the love and grace God has shown each of us.  Everyone's outside - and I've gotta go!

THURSDAY, JULY 27:

Czech Team I writes:

Our teams have had a blessed time in the Czech. Since we have arrived at Malenovice for training camp, we have had opportunities to spend a lot of time in devotions, worship, fellowship, preparations for camp, and rest.

The Bohumin Czech 2 team has some praises to report. When we left the States there were only ten youth from the church signed up for camp and seven non-believers. The goal of Josiah Venture is to have more non-believers than believers attend camp, so that the discussion groups are open for the non-believers to state what they truly think.
Today we heard that there are now twelve non-believers. So, Bohumin team will have small English classes where they can really get to know each person at camp.

The Cheb Czech 1 team has about 45 campers planning on attending English camp. Last year there were about 15 Christians and 14 non-Christians, with very few boys. This year we will have 28 girls and 32 boys at camp (that includes our ministry team). This increase in students attending camp is largely due to the fact that the youth group has been more intentional about inviting their non-believing friends to camp. We would appreciate your prayers for evening discussion groups where we will be talking about what they think about the gospel. Also, our team is leaving at 4:45 am in order to travel eight hours by foot, bus, train, and maybe even tram with all of our luggage through the Czech countryside to our camp. The camp is a few hours north of Pardubice (northeast of Prague).

Thanks for your prayers. We are encouraged by them and know that the unity among our teams is a result of prayer.

God bless,

TUESDAY, JULY 25:

Becky writes: