Friday 30 May 2014

Photo Friday 30th May



It was Caleb's birthday party!


Paul Bowman was in Wisla, Poland for a conference so I drove the thirty minutes so we could grab some coffee. 




On Monday night I had Kristy, a missionary in Ukraine, and her two children, and Yulia from Ukraine staying with me. Czech was the rest stop for many on their way to the Amazing Race.


Our leaders' meeting the night before the Amazing Race. Brooke was the person who organised the race this year and she did an amazing job!


Lake Bled is so beautiful!


So is Ljubljana! 


Interns reflecting on and praying for their summer at the top of a hill on the last day of the Amazing Race. 

Monday 26 May 2014

The Amazing Race!

Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving home to head south to Slovenia for the start of the Amazing Race! The Amazing Race is an American reality TV show where teams compete challenges all over the world for prizes. We have taken the idea and use it as a three-day team building exercise for our interns as they arrive to serve for the summer.

So on Wednesday morning we'll have around ninety interns descending on Lake Bled in Slovenia where they'll meet the rest of their team and start the race! There will be nineteen teams in total!

The JV missionaries helping at or running the race, along with any European interns, are travelling to Slovenia tomorrow for a pre-race meeting. Then on Wednesday morning I'll be getting up super early along with two others to travel to Munich airport to meet all the international arrivals!

We'll arrive back at Malenovice, our training centre in the Czech Republic, on Friday evening to start Intern Training on Saturday morning.

This is my third Amazing Race - in my first I was a participant as we raced through Krakow in 2012, last year I was a helper in Ukraine, and this year I'm a helper and holder of details in Slovenia.

Please pray for us for these three days! Pray that everyone (by car or plane) will arrive safely, pray for continued safety across the three days (I think I'll have around 24 hours of driving across the four days but I'll also have help for some of it!), and pray that teams would get to know each other well. This experience is great for getting to know your team and bonding well so they can serve effectively all summer.

Friday 23 May 2014

Photo Friday - 23rd May



The family who lived in this flat before me loved stickers and these ones were the only ones I hadn't removed yet - because I knew it would start a long process! But, in this busy season, I decided I'd had enough of them and ripped them off the wall.


Which, of course, led to lots of holes in the walls... I'm not quite finished yet - although the walls no longer have holes now and they're a darker shade of blue. Hopefully this weekend I'll get it all finished and will take a pic.


I did a lot of baking this week - banana muffins for ladies' Bible study (these were the leftovers)


In direct contrast to last week - this week was really hot! Like, high 20s and low 30s for a few days in a row.


A new missionary has joined our international team. Daniel will be doing video projects for us. We had a bbq by a local lake to welcome him.


Thursday was Caleb's birthday! I baked monster cupcakes and we celebrated him turning 7!


On Friday night a lot of the local churches and museums in town (and across Czech) were open so you could explore. It was really interesting to go into museums, and up a tower that overlooks the town, but my favourite place was the Jesus Church on the Polish side of town. 

I wrote about it a little here but basically it's called one of the most significant protestant churches in Poland and was one of the few that was allowed to be built centuries ago - so they built it big! An incredible movement of God started in this place - one that not only launched an incredible missions movement but also influenced John Wesley... and through Wesley many, many more.

I'm praying that God would again bring revival to this land. 

Friday 16 May 2014

Photo Friday - 16th May



Youth group was spent around a bonfire. 


A Sunday project - creating a screen out of an IKEA clothing rack and some fabric.


How I work some days - this day involved talk prep and was fuelled by mini eggs!


This week it rained for four days straight... and I was getting texts from Saintfield people declaring how sunny it was there! 


Ponaszymu is a local dialect spoken around here and is a mix of Czech, Polish, German and Slovak (if I remember correctly). It's funny to see something about it in print because it's often just a spoken dialect.


Summer here is beautiful!


And walks in the woods are amazing. 

Friday 9 May 2014

Photo Friday - 9th May



This year Josiah Venture is marking it's 20th anniversary. And we did that on the Saturday evening of Spring Conference with fireworks! Fireworks in fog... but fireworks!


Our Spring Conference family photo - Spring Conference is for those who are serving with Josiah Venture in a culture they were not born in. It is a joy to serve alongside these people, and it was a joy to be at my first Spring Conference.


After conference I headed to Prague for a couple of days of holiday/vacation with some of the ladies serving in Slovenia and Czech. It was so much fun. Here we are with some other friends having burgers.


I loved spending time with these ladies - it was so restful and perfect timing before the craziness of summer!


Summer is blooming and it is beautiful. These are between my flat and where I park.


Celebrating Casey's birthday with all the Yorman family! It had been a while since I'd made cheesecake.


Dark chocolate digestives and hobnobs in Czech! Hooray! Way more expensive than the UK but still fun to see.

Friday 2 May 2014

Photo Friday - 2nd May


The wonderful Anezka and Marek got married in Prague. It was a beautiful day spent with beautiful people. Here are all the Northern Irish at the wedding.




I loved getting to spend time throughout Saturday and Sunday with all these people - it was fun to just be able to hop on a train to see them in Prague!



And this is what I left Prague with! It is fun to have a Northern Irish stash of food in my flat.




Now that summer is closer my town square is holding more and more events.


Mel, the vice president of Josiah Venture, welcoming our first night of JV Spring Conference. The theme was Relentless, focusing on God's grace. 


Ben and Kristy shared about life in Ukraine. 



We had time with our camp team pre-summer. It was great to connect with them. These are the people who are running camps in their respective countries! There are a lot more that just aren't in the picture.