As we have discovered in the last several years, missionaries in the Czech Republic have crafted a creative strategy to help local churches reach young people through an evangelistic English Camp.  Our Czech team will be providing a camp experience for believing and unbelieving Czech teenagers, with the team members serving as conversation partners.  This team this year will provide sole leadership for the English Camp, rather than having leaders from the mission or summer interns assisting them. 

Josiah Venture (the mission with whom we partner) focuses on relationships and relational evangelism.

TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2007

Becky writes:

Allison, Meghan and I left Cheb Monday night to meet up with the Bohumin team and hand off the community luggage. 

Tuesday morning the 13 other team members made their way to Prague with the Cheb youth group accompanying them.  Wednesday will be a debrief day and then on Thursday it is home to California to report to loved ones all of the amazing things the Lord has done these past couple of weeks.   

Thanks for your prayers as we reflect on what God has taught us and for safe travel.

THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2007

Becky writes:

Hi, Prayer partners,  

The gospel was presented tonight.  Right now I am in the room where we are talking to those who wanted to stay back and ask more questions.  God is very present, and about half of the camp is here in this room.  Conversations are still going on.  I cannot wait to hear all of the praise reports, as our team is dispersed throughout the room, talking to those they are closer to.  I was talking with a group of six girls, and Lenka accepted Christ tonight.  Praise God for His saving grace.  Lenka is from a believing family.  Her parents and older brother are Christians.  Vasek also accepted Christ at his first English camp.  Maybe that tradition will hold for their younger sister, too.  Landen had a long talk with Lukas, who I asked for prayer in the last update. 

I had a chance to talk with Krystina, a girl from my English camp.  She is thinking about things.  She heard the gospel three years ago from one of her friends, but has not thought about it again until this week.  She is searching for truth and had a lot of questions.  

I went to the hospital tonight to try to see if last week's knee injury required surgery or not.  The doctor tried to straighten it, had a couple of x-rays taken, gave me a brace to immobilize the knee for ten days and said to see how it feels then.  He said I twisted some ligaments, and if it still hurts in ten days, go back to the doctor to see if they are torn.   

Thanks for your continued prayers for the whole team.  

Love in Christ,

THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2007

Becky writes:

Thank you for your continued prayers.  Tonight at 7:15 (10:15 am California time), Brad will be sharing the gospel with the whole camp.  There are 60 Czechs here at camp, with about 40 of them being non-believers.  After the gospel message, we will have some discussion group time.  So far this week, discussion group time has gone fairly well and good relationships have been built, but nothing very deep has been shared. 

There have been many, many praises throughout the week.  Some exciting ones are seeing Kaja, who was a staunch atheist last year at camp, step into ministry.  He became a Christian about six months ago.  This summer he is a translator in the English class, and a discussion group leader at night.  This position has both streched and encouraged his faith, and in the process, has encouraged our team's faith.  God is so good to bring about a changed heart and life.  Also, yesterday, Lukas, a young man who has been to several camps with the youth group came to the early morning praise and worship time.  He said that it was his first time praying out loud.  Please continue to pray for Lukas, as the Holy Spirit has been softening his heart over the past two months.  He has been attending church regularly lately (he is from a non-Christian family), and says he believes there is a God, but does not want to give up some of his worldly lifestyles that he has grown accustomed to.

Thanks for praying for those who have had sore throats and allergies.  Those four or so with the sore throat/cold have been progressing.  Those with allergies are finding which places in the hotel they are less allergic to. 

Please continue to pray for the healing of my knee.  There are lots of uneven surfaces here in the cobblestone and stair-filled country that tend to set my knee off-kilter.

Thanks for joining in prayer for the gospel presentation today and the advancing of His kindgom.

To God be the glory,

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2007

Becky and Katie write:

Everything has been going great here so far in Czech.  Despite a couple of airplane delays, we arrived at Malenovice safe and sound. . .and only two bags of luggage lost!.  Our time in Malenovice was both refreshing and inspiring.  We were able to get physical rest and spiritual nourishment from some of the amazing people that work with Josiah Venture.  We also got to hear from the president/founder of Josiah Venture, Dave Patty, again about how this incredible ministry came about.  It was inspring to hear how God's hand has been in this ministry from the beginning. 

After seven hours of travel, we arrived in Krkonose, the sight of our English Camp and also the highest mountain in Czech on the central northern border of the country.  It is absolutely beautiful here.  Our Grace group and the Cheb youth group arrived on Friday, and the other students come today.  Our prayer is that our groups would be knit together in love so that can love the rest of the students coming to camp today.    It has been a blessing to see male leaders rising up.  Viktor, an eighteen-year-old Czech student is heading up the camp, with the help of Honza, Martin, and Zuzka.  It has been so special to see how he has grown so much into a man of solid faith and respected leader, along with the other guys.  And we are excited to see that students who have only come to follow-up in the past have come to English Camp this year.

The team is excited and doing well, but we are praying that some sicknesses and allergies would be healed soon.  We are waiting with excitement and anticipation to see what God will do in and through us this week. 

Thank you for your prayers!

THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2007

Becky writes:

Hi,  

     Please pray for the team as we travel and head to the Krokonose National Forest for camp tomorrow.  We will be meeting up with the Czech youth group and preparing for all of their non-Christian friends to come on Saturday.  

Thanks for praying,

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2007

Becky writes:

Training is going well.  I am a lot less stressed now that my portion of teaching in the training is over.  The session was a lot of fun and everyone was into the games.  My co-presenter Katcha took care of the Czech side of things, and I was very thankful that she was there because I could not have done her part. 

     Right after dinner tonight, we were doing a freeze-tag type of icebreaker, and I was the first casualty of the camp.  Adam and I collided while on cobblestone.  The end result... my left knee popped out of socket to the left about three inches, and then I felt it pop back in.  So, a little bit of the cold pack, ibuprofen and elevation to keep the swelling and pain down.  Thanks Bobbie for packing the red first aid bag.  I appreciate it. 

     Good news as far as Abby and Kimie's bag.  They both came in today.  

     Thanks for your continued prayers.

TUESDAY, JULY 10, 2007

Becky writes:

      It was a pretty smooth flight from LAX to London.  We had a little longer layover as there were light showers in London, but larger thundershowers at the destination.  We landed right before midnight, got to the hotel around 1 am.  We left this morning at 8:30.  

      It is 5pm Tuesday Czech time.  We traveled by bus and arrived a couple of hours at Malenovice, Josiah Venture's training facility.  Everyone unpacked their bags (except for Abby and Kimie who have their carry-on, but are waiting for their checked bag to be flown here today to Malenovice - their bags were left in London last night).  The team had some good conversation and fun on the bus ride today.  The weather is very cool compared to the past six years - 70 degrees and light rain.  I'm thankful for that on travel days, as there is usually not airconditioning on transportation in the Czech and we had to carry all the bags up hills and several blocks around town.  

      All's well.  It was good to see the four youth group leaders today (Honza, Zuzka, Viktor, Martin). We will be here until Friday, then we head to Ped pod Snezkou - the north (very slight east) of the country for camp.   

Love in Christ,

MONDAY, JULY 9, 2007

Becky reports:

Czech Republic Cheb team has arrived safe and sound in Prague, Czech Republic.  They are tired after their long trip and are heading to the hotel to get some sleep.

Two of their bags did not arrive, but the airline is supposed to deliver them to their training site.

Pray as they have about a  five hour train ride to the training center.