The unseen impact of everyday kindnesses

I often drive with Google Maps on in my car. Even when I'm commuting, I'll usually have it on the screen. One of the reasons is that it has live-traffic information that can be helpful - especially if there are roadworks, traffic, or police doing a speed check.

And within the app, I can easily press the "Report" button if I notice an obstacle other people might want to be aware of and thus avoid - debris on the road, a broken-down car, yet another roadworks project.

One afternoon I reported an accident so other drivers could be aware, and continued my drive home. It was a couple of hours later I got a new notification, saying I'd helped 910 other drivers because of my report. I'd forgotten I'd tapped those buttons hours earlier! But somehow they'd helped almost a thousand cars behind me on the road.

This got me thinking about how our simple actions can ripple out into the world, to people we may never meet or know. And we may never know how far the ripple goes or what it results in. We won't get a phone notification with the stats. But that shouldn't discourage us from being kind to those we interact with, seeking to make their day brighter or easier.

And so I'm reminded to ask the cashier how their day is doing, and waiting to hear the reply. To smile at the people I pass on my walks. To ask the next question in the conversation and remember the details that were shared with me so I can follow up later.

I am not always good at this. Especially when I'm tired or using my second language. But I want to remember that God sees the quiet choices to love my neighbour, and can be trusted with the outcome of my small acts of obedience.

So, notifications or not, may we choose small acts of kindness towards the people in front of us this week.

Raising Ebenezers

A couple of years ago I read through the Bible chronologically using The Bible Recap podcast. It was my second time using this plan and I find it so helpful to better grasp the timeline of the story. 

The fact that plan is chronological means you spend nine months of the year in the Old Testament. As I travel through the Old Testament, there are times I want to shake the Israelites ever so slightly. They just seem so forgetful. God miraculously rescues them from Egypt, and within pages they're wishing to go back to Egypt, sure that God has brought them out of slavery just to abandon them. 

Or, later, we have the downward spiral of the book of Judges where "everyone did what was right in their own eyes". There are bright spots along the way, but the people quickly forget the good fruit of obedience when the good judges die. There are also the repeating cycles of idolatry and unfaithfulness before returning to the Lord. 

Reading the stories of these people, I can get so very frustrated by their forgetfulness. How quickly they lose sight of all that God has done for them and all that he has promised to bring to completion. 

As I journey through Scripture I enjoy tracking the ways God helps his people remember and rehearse his faithfulness to them. God ordains a weekly sabbath, reminding his people that they can trust in his provision for them in all things. There are yearly feasts and fasts and an entire year of jubilee every fifty years. 

In 1 Samuel 7, God helps the Israelites defeat their enemies, the Philistines. And after the battle "Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”" (1 Samuel 7:12). And Ebenezer means "stone of help".

This story was included in the beautiful hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Robert Robertson in the lines,

"Here I raise my Ebenezer,

Hither by Thy help I've come"

I wonder what it was like for the Israelites who saw that stone in their everyday lives, on good days and hard days. I wonder how much it prompted them to remember how God had acted on their behalf after they had turned back to him.

And the truth is, I am not unlike the forgetful people we find in Scripture. I can quickly lose sight of the abundant provision I receive from God, day after day, year after year. Or quickly forget the answers to prayer I've graciously received, which can cause me to question if God will really do what he has promised this next time. 

And so I want to use this little corner of the internet to raise my Ebenezers, stones to mark the moments of God's faithful provision along the way. I hope this encourages you to also notice and mark his faithfulness towards you on the path he is leading you along.  

Reintroductions

Two years ago, the day after I returned from home assignment and being gone for two months, there was a knock at my flat door. My downstairs neighbour brought me a Tupperware of potato salad his wife had made to welcome me home again.

Czech potato salad is a very good thing! And it was so sweet to be welcomed back in this way. It is entirely possible that I simply popped the lid open and dug in with a fork to enjoy it in all its creamy goodness.

And that's what I'm thinking about as I reintroduce myself to this little space. I have missed it here!

It's funny to look at the last few posts. And it's weird to think about all that the last four years have held -

Years of a pandemic that when I last posted felt like it had been going on forever, and yet we were barely just beginning. The rules became looser, and tightened so strictly that I moved in with friends here and we all ended up getting COVID together.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I spent a year reading, researching, and writing my dissertation on the importance of self-care for single, second-culture missionary leaders. I got to graduate with distinction in my Master's Degree in late 2021.

It feels like the pandemic ended on February 24th 2022, the day I awoke to the news that Russia had began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and texts to say our dear teammates were on their way. Thus began months of hosting teammates as they co-ordinated buses of refugees out of and buses of aid into Ukraine from my little town four hours from the Ukraine border.

In 2022, I got a new role and became the leader of the team I've served on since I moved to Czech. I still get to lead the summer ministry team too. And it's been a learning and growing season as I continue to try to steward well the gifts and calling God has entrusted to me, while hopefully helping others to flourish in their own callings.

2023 held an operation that was the start of a long process to heal a twenty-four-year-old injury and the resulting trauma. So many, many appointments and four-hour trains to and from Prague where my operation happened.

And those are just the bigger things, the larger landmarks of these last few years. There have also been so many dear people, and so many laughs. Many mountains have been climbed, literally and metaphorically. I've read many, many books - for recreation and for learning. I've hosted lots of dinners and gathered around countless tables.

I'm now firmly in my mid-thirties and am probably starting to have a face that shows that. There have been prayers miraculously answered, and some in ways other than what I've wanted or that I'm still repeating. There have been hard-won lessons learnt, and questions with which I continue to wrestle.

I've written prayer update emails, and posts on social media, but I've missed this longer form and writing out my thoughts for this little space. So I'm returning. And I wish I could welcome us all back with potato salad. But, for now, I'll just leave these words and say thank you for stopping by. It's good to welcome you back.

On finding new paths

I am a creature of habit. Which is a little funny when you consider how much I (normally) travel and am out of environments which can sustain my little habits. I have the same smoothie every morning for breakfast. I like to sit on my balcony and read. And, for my first six and three-quarter years of living here, I had a favourite walk in my town.

I'd walk down to the river, and then through the park that runs alongside the river until I got to the "pink bridge". At that point I'd cross over the river, and turn right to walk a loop through the woods on the Polish side of the river.

That route is my favourite. I can't even tell you how many times I've walked it or ran it. I love the peace of finding a little bit of countryside in the middle of my town. 

And then lockdown happened and my favourite route became off-limits. Because maybe you noticed above, or you already knew, but my favourite route includes crossing an international border. This wonderful little town I call home straddles the border, with the river being the border. 

So, while many people didn't notice the international borders closing much in their daily life, I had some pretty big reminders. Normally the only way to know if you've crossed the border is to pay attention - there's never any border guards or barrier of any kind. And yet overnight this was the scene:

Medical tents on the Polish side.

My beloved "pink bridge", totally cordoned and fenced off, with "no entry" tape.

The Czech police guarding the border.

More tents and structures, as we settled in for the long haul.

And, I'm not going to lie, in those early days of lockdown I was a little cranky at the loss of my favourite walking path. Especially as I needed the space and fresh air to process and decompress even more.

So I went on a hunt and explored some other options and I found a new route. It's a little longer but I head in the opposite direction now, pass my church, and walk along a wooded path by a lake, slowly looping back home. 

It's a beautiful route, and I have loved running along it and walking and praying my way around it these past few months. In the midst of all the crazy and the many losses of this pandemic, it was sweet to find this new path and some other new rhythms and habits that really brought life and joy to this harder season.

Last week the border opened again and so I can go back to my normal route. More and more, life is opening up here and in many countries.

But as we re-enter the world post-lockdown, I am finding it helpful to first reflect on what it is I want to return to, and what new paths and habits I've found during this lockdown have been really fruitful and I want to continue to walk in and practice. 

Have you enjoyed any new paths, activities or routines during this season? 

Seven years on the mission field

This week marks seven years since I stepped off a one-way flight to the Czech Republic. Like so many things in life, it feels both like forever and a blink.

I remember when I'd been here only a couple of years and we had a guest in town from the UK. They shared that research with missionaries has suggested that it takes seven years for second-culture missionaries to be and to feel fully effective in their new contexts. 

When I heard that I felt both reassured and overwhelmed. Reassured because those first couple of years are always hard, as you learn language and culture, along with a new role. But I definitely felt overwhelmed, as I wondered if I'd make it to year three, nevermind year seven.

And, yet, here it is: seven years into this wild, cross-cultural ministry and life.

On my seven-year anniversary I was doing some reading for my upcoming thesis and I came across this sentence:

“[A pastor] discovered that God's plan had as much to do with who he was becoming as it did about what he was accomplishing” (from the book Resilient Ministry)

These words echo words that were spoken to me by Paul Bowman at my commissioning service before I left Northern Ireland that "The most important thing you can do for your students is to love Jesus more."

It's all so true and if I've learnt anything in the last seven years it's that I can buckle down and grit my teeth and get things done, but if it's not flowing out of a deep, abiding relationship with Christ, it's all futile.

And it's all his fruit anyway - we abide in the vine and he produces his fruit in us and through us. We may water or plant, but it's God that gives the growth. He is so faithful and able to do what he has promised. We also see it in the ministry of Jesus, who calls his disciples first to himself and then out in mission. 

I'm so grateful that that is how our God is with us - inviting us first into relationship with him, and then out, with him, into his great, wide mission in the world. 

I am so grateful for his sustaining grace in my life in how he has called me to himself and into his mission. And I'm so grateful for the many people who also follow his call by partnering with this ministry prayerfully and financially.

Let's see what year eight holds! 

Where my words are (Part 2)

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I did not intend to leave this little space on the internet for two years but two years have indeed flown by.

And the above photo captures a lot of why I haven't had words, or time, for writing here. Since I last wrote a blog post I have submitted over 30,000 words across ten essays for the master's programme I'm pursuing. 

I first wrote 6,000 words interpreting and applying Ephesians 3:1-13, and 1,500 words on my own learning about how I read the Bible.

Next up was 6,000 words on what the gospel is and 1,500 words of reflection on my learning on the topic of evangelicalism.

My third class was not one week of teaching, but five Saturdays of classes on leadership. And I'd a few more essays for this class - three 1,500 word essays and one of 3,000 words about various aspects of leadership, and my leadership.

Finally, in February I submitted 6,000 words on how mission organisations should provide pastoral care for interns and 1,500 words reflecting on my own practice of pastoral care.

So, four classes taken. And four classes passed! What's next?

Well, in January I decided that after my February essays were submitted I'd take a break and start my thesis in September. I had no idea what the spring would hold, but even before the words "pandemic" and "lockdown" had been mentioned I knew I needed a bit of a break, and that summer is not a good time for me to be writing. 

Looking back, I am so very glad God led me to that decision! The last few months have been crazy and full enough, without also trying to work on my thesis in the midst of it all. 

I am starting to get excited for my thesis, which will be 16,000 words long. It has to be related to leadership, as that is what my master's will be in, and my leadership and pastoral care classes have provided a topic I want to spend a year working on. So, it looks like my topic will be something related to the role of self-care in helping single missionary leaders thrive in ministry long-term.

You can spot some of the books I hope to start diving into in the photo of my bookcase above, and I hope to share some of what I'm learning in this space.

I also have other ideas for things to write about and I'm excited to publish posts more regularly here!

What have you been up to in the last two years? 

Where my words are

This has been a quiet little space these past few months, hasn’t it? 

And it hasn’t been intentional. Every month I take time to think about and plan my goals, and for January, February, and March the goal has been to blog at least twice a month, if not weekly. 

And there have been things to blog about! Since the start of the year, and I last blogged, I have:

• been at a staff training conference with my organisation,
• had a visit from my sister, and other dear friends, 
• gone on holiday to Narnia (that may need more explanation)
• had a personal retreat
• had an executive team planning retreat and my S-Team planning retreat
• been on our international team women’s one night retreat
• gone on my church’s 20+ weekend retreat

These have all been incredibly good things, and each deserves it’s own blog post. But perhaps they also explain why it has been quiet here - it’s not due to the absence of things to write about, but perhaps due to their abundance. And once I get out of the habit it’s hard to feel like I can come back here without pressuring myself to catch up on all the other pieces.

One of the other factors in my quietness is that since I last blogged I also started what may turn out to be a masters degree in transformational leadership. I had my first teaching week in January, a module on biblical interpretation by Craig Blomberg. It was an incredible week, to get to learn from someone who knows and loves Scripture that much (if you search for his name on Amazon you may start to get a sense of the breadth of his knowledge).

But that also means that there is now another place for my words to go - right now, I’m mostly reading in preparation to write two essays due in July. One essay is 1500 words examining two factors that influence how I interpret Scripture. And then I’m writing 6000 words of interpretation and application of Ephesians 3:1-13 and stumbling across beautiful quotes such as this one:

"The building up of God’s kingdom, taking God’s light to darkness and standing fast, is organically connected to one’s status as a child of God. The missional aspect of salvation is not optional.” Cohick, in Ephesians

This masters simultaneously feels like it has the most perfect timing ever and the worst timing ever. I am so aware of all I need to learn and that I, God willing, have another forty plus years of serving the Lord ahead of me, whatever that may look like. This feels like an updraft helping me become more equipped for the good works God has prepared for me. But it has been challenging to learn how to effectively juggle this and my role.

So that explains where some of my words have been, are, and will be going. 

I love this little space and the people who frequent it. I’m thankful for the record of God’s faithfulness that it is. So I want to continue to faithfully record His faithfulness. I’m hoping to sit down and write for 15 minutes a week here, publishing what I get written in that time and hopefully catching this space up on what God has been doing. 

What I'm expecting in 2018

I have a confession to make: I rather enjoy watching cheesy movies. The answer to “favourite movie” will remain The Shawshank Redemption, and Wonder Woman and Dunkirk were both fantastic films this year. However, there’s just something comfortable and cozy about the predictability of Independence Day or White House Down and the triumph of good over evil. Or, if I’m feeling more in a chick-flick mood, the happy endings of Leap Year or Return to Me. 

I also really like reading crime books and being sucked into thrillers and wanting to know who did it, or how is this mess going to be resolved. And the confession that goes along with that is that I have definitely read plot synopses when I need to sleep at 1am but also need to know how it all ends. 

2018 begins in a couple of days and I’ve found myself looking at the year ahead through fingers covering my eyes because, in so many ways, I have no idea where this story is going to go and what plot twists lie ahead. I am excited to see what is going to happen, what God is going to do, but I also find myself being a little nervous. Some of that is the sense that January is going to be just a little bit crazy with the normal re-entry after home assignment, a new project that God has clearly led me to, and a training conference I’m attending. I like predictability and 2018 is already shaping up to be anything but. 

As I think back to the year that was, I cannot help but laugh at all that God did. Things that weren’t thoughts in my head 1st January 2017 became incredible realities during the year, God-given dreams that felt years away from fruition came to life. It wasn’t at all predictable, except that His faithfulness was awesome in the truest sense of that word, even in the bumps and the hard times.

So as I look at 2018 I know that I have no business predicting what the year is going to look like. As I dream and pray and think about my goals for the year ahead I’m asking God to give me His dreams and plans, because I know His plans are bigger than me simply surviving crazy months and being a little older and wiser twelve months from now. And I know that predictability holds no real comfort, that God has always been the deepest source of comfort.

Now, even as I feel a little nervous entering this year, it is with an almost giddiness. With an excitement and expectancy about what God is going to do. And here is what I’m expecting: I’m expecting Him to show up and be faithful. I’m expecting Him to be big and tender. I’m expecting Him to do the impossible and more than I could ever ask or imagine. I’m expecting to need to hear Him say “Fear not, I am with you” over and over. I’m expecting Him to show His strength in hard times. There’s a whole lot I cannot predict, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and I’m excited about what He has planned for 2018!

What are you expecting and anticipating as you look to this next year?  

The best decision I made in 2016

When I was in Israel last year I learnt a lot and even eighteen months later, I find myself thinking about that trip. I've lifted my orange Israel notebook off my bookshelf multiple times to refresh my memory of key points. And I continue to unpack and process some of the things I heard there as I seek to live differently because of what God showed me. 

But it was also in Israel that I made one of the best decisions of 2016. I'm not entirely sure what day it happened or where I was but it was in that country that I decided to join a gym when I returned to Czech. 

Now, there are many good reasons to join a gym. Working out a few times a week is a great thing for your body, the endorphins feel amazing, it helps your body deal with stress. I've had chronic back pain for over ten years now and working out regularly definitely helps me manage the pain and even reduce it. 

In my little hometown it's also a good idea to join a gym because the air gets so bad in winter with the low temperatures and pollution. A few times every winter a smog situation is declared and the young, elderly, and sick are advised to simply stay inside. There are times I'll walk from my car to my flat and my scarf will smell like I've become a smoker because of the pollution in the air. So it is actually not a good idea to exercise outside in the winter; I'm rather convinced it would negatively impact your health.

All the reasons so far are good motivation to join the gym. But none of them were my main reason. I wanted to join a gym to get to know more people in my community because it's easy to spend my days at the office and my weekends fill up with church and youth group. I wanted to get to know and build relationships with more non-Christians.

I picked the gym in town that's for women only and checked it out for the free week. I've been going ever since - over eighteen months. And while I'm sure there are gyms with better philosophy behind them I am so grateful for this place and the women there!

One of the things that attracted me to this gym is that you can pause your membership for a tiny fee. This works perfectly with my travel schedule and I'm still on my first twelve months of actual membership because of all the breaks when I head to other countries. And when I return after a week or a month I'm warmly welcomed and asked where I've been and what I've been up to.

Each October we have a group hike day, so I just attended my second one. It is such a fun day - we hike to the top of the mountain I can see from my living room window, and have some soup at the top, before hiking down for our main lunch at a restaurant at the bottom. Along the way women stop to pick berries or mushrooms, and we all wait for those who are a little behind as we labour up the hill.

And there are many conversations that happen along the way. This year it was wonderful to get to chat to women who I've seen multiple times but never had the chance to talk to. None of the women speak English, and they are abundantly patient with my Czech ability. We chat about the weather, our families, the gym, and all those wonderful things that make up our daily lives.

It's never long before someone asks "Wait, you're a Northern Irish girl who lives in Český Těšín? Why would you live here?" and I get to explain why I live here, what I do, and how much I love calling this little border town home. 

I'm so very thankful that God led me to this decision last year, and that I can now be part of this community. I'm praying for continued opportunities to build relationships with these women and that I'll be faithful in always being ready to give a reason for the hope that I have.

Fall Conference 2017: Transform

In the last week of September 380 youth leaders from over fifteen nations gathered in a little town in the Czech Republic for Fall Conference. The theme this year was Transform, learning to teach like Jesus. 

We believe that we have the greatest story ever told - so it's worth the work to learn how to teach it well, to teach it so that it truly transforms lives. And it should always start by transforming us as we learn and prepare. The truth is, at best we are the teaching assistants and it's every disciple maker's, every teacher's, role to step into the shadow of Jesus as He teaches.

One of the beautiful things about the conference was the fact we sang in all the languages represented there during the week. You can see three languages on the powerpoint screen above. I can sing in Czech, Slovak, and Polish but even the ones I couldn't sing in were beautiful, and a little foretaste of heaven where people from every tongue and nation will worship God. 

Another favourite thing about the conference was the teaching - from the main sessions each evening, to the three different tracks that everyone was placed in based on how they normally teach, to the workshops. I loved being in the workshop all about asking questions as a teaching method, taught by DU from Romania.

There is a team that works to plan conference throughout the year and their leadership, diligence and care was on display in so many of the details. I am so thankful that I got to sit under such excellent teaching for the week! And I am crazy thankful to serve in an organisation so passionate about equipping us well. 

And then there are the people who come to this conference! With 380 of us it's impossible to talk to everyone, but there are many beautiful conversations that happen over meals, or coffee, or late at night during the week. 

This photo shows three of my favourite people of the week - I got to meet these three ladies during four years of doing camps with Dejvice church in Prague. Now they are all loving Jesus and living for Him - as a student, a teacher, and a full time missionary. They radiate Him and it is the greatest privilege to know them, be friends, and get to spend time together! 

Once again, I left this place, this conference centre, this hill, changed - closer to Jesus and more equipped to serve Him. 

Fall Camp Meeting

On a Saturday in September thirty of my favourite people gathered and we're pictured above. These are the people who lead our camp ministry in each of their countries and it was such a joy to be together for a couple of days! 

As I was praying and thinking about this meeting over the summer I felt God gave me three words for our time together - celebration, collaboration, and clarity. So that's how we spent our time - celebrating all that God did through camps this summer, collaborating for the year ahead, and bringing some clarity to some areas. 

And there was much to celebrate - there is a lot of fruit that comes from our summer ministries, and some of that fruit is over five hundred young people who professed faith in Jesus! We went out for dinner together on Sunday night, after playing a game of ping pong assassin in the local shopping centre (we are youth ministry people, afterall!).

But when we weren't sneaking around a shopping centre, trying to successfully hit the person whose name we had on our ping pong, we were sitting around these tables. We spent a lot of time talking about the local churches we get to partner with as we do over one hundred and twenty camps - how can we best train them, and equip them to do camp well. We also talked about what worked last year and what we can do better next year, with camps and interns and short term teams. 

These are the people I work closest with and it was wonderful to spend a few blessed days together. I'm so grateful for this team and all that we were able to talk and dream about. I love that I get to serve alongside these people as we seek to partner with and equip local churches across central and eastern Europe to fulfil Christ's commission. 

It's exciting to think about the fruit that God will bring from the discussions and plans we started in this place!

Today and Tomorrow in Czech

Today and tomorrow people across Czech are voting for who will represent them in the lower house of the Czech parliament. This means today people are picking the two hundred people who will be in government for the next four years.

It's been interesting to see the advertisements, posters, and flyers, that have appeared everywhere - along roads and in my letterbox. The last time there were elections I didn't understand any of the words but now I understand more. Although I still have a lot to learn about the government here and the thirty-one parties that run in the elections, and the ten main parties.

We know that it is ultimately God who is sovereign over all - from the President and Prime Minister, to the people who serve in the government offices in my little border town (where the voting lists, above, are printed in both Czech and Polish). And I'm thankful to live in a country where people can choose who is in power, especially as that has not always been true here. 

Would you please join me in praying for these elections and their results? That God would powerfully use whoever ends up in power, not for their glory but for His? Czech normally scores higher in corruption scales compared with other European countries, so please pray that all those in government would be people of integrity who will serve the country well. 

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. " 1 Timothy 2 v 1-4

If you're interested the New York Times have an article about the Czech elections that you can read here.

An autumn day in Czech

It’s autumn here - the leaves are falling, “buy new winter tyres” is on my to-do list, and my desire to have heating is growing bigger than my lack of desire to learn how to use my new thermostat. This is my fifth autumn here and that feels strange because time seems to go by so quickly and so slowly at the same time. I’m currently also gearing up for my second home assignment, and being in Northern Ireland for November and December. 

On Thursday someone asked me where I call home - as I plan on heading back to NI am I saying I’m going home? The truth is that yes - Northern Ireland is where I grew up, and where my family live. I have twenty-four years of memories living there and, although my accent doesn’t always betray it, it’s home.

But the other truth is here is also home. I fly home whether I’m on an Easyjet flight heading east or west. Czech is home in both deeper and shallower ways than Northern Ireland is home. Northern Ireland is home because that’s where I was born and grew up. Northern Ireland has shaped me in deep ways, ways I can’t even communicate and sometimes don’t even know. Czech is home because I chose and choose to obey God and His deep and beautiful call on my life that has me here. Czech is my home not because I understand everything that happens but even though I decidedly don’t understand everything.

Yesterday I ran some errands around town. I bumped into someone from church. And the lady who works at the car insurance place greeted me when she saw me through the window. I was able to accomplish all my errands - and even some not on today’s list - all in a second language, and even solving problems met along the way.

I bought a beautiful bunch of flowers and I carried them home upside down. I didn’t even have to think about it - here flowers are carried by gripping the stem and carrying them upside down. I’d never done it that way before I moved here but now it makes sense.

None of this is remarkable or weird or scary any more. Sure, the post office still drives me a little crazy but that’s only because there is no observable, obvious, queuing system. But going to the post office no longer an errand that freaks me out or I need to psych myself up for. 

So, I’m excited for this month of soaking up autumn in Czech, at home with lots of my normal rhythms and routines. And I’m excited to head home at the end of the month to catch up with dear people and share the stories of what God is doing in this place. 

Camps happening this week - 28th August

These posts are happening each Monday this summer to invite you to pray with us for the camps happening this week! 

This week the camps that are happening are:

• one in Bulgaria

If you'd like to get a feel for our camps check out this video:

Josiah Venture - Camps Ministry from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

This summer we will have a total of one hundred and twenty two camps across our thirteen countries! We have one hundred and five interns serving with us for three months, and over one thousand people serving on short term teams. For each camp, we'll be partnering with a local church to put on an English, sports, European, or music camp. And young people from the town, city, or area will be invited to come along, to learn English or grow in their football skills, or perform in a rock-pop choir, and they'll hear the Gospel and be invited to respond. 

The theme for our camps this year is SEEN and we'll spend the week looking at how people are seen by Jesus. Each night we will look at a different encounter Jesus has with someone in the Bible and what that tells us about him, and about us. We're praying boldly that eight hundred and fifty young people will put their faith in Jesus this year. And we're praying that they, and the others at camp, will get plugged into the local church where they'll be discipled to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples. 

Please pray with us for the camps that are happening this week - 

• for the local church: that they will build relationships with young people from their community and share the Gospel, and that they'll be able to follow up with these students well
• for the interns and short term teams: that God will use them powerfully as they serve the local churches here, and that God would call some of them to this ministry full time!
• for students: that God would powerfully draw many to themselves, and that when they go home they would be excited about growing in Christ.

The craziest and sweetest gift in Bulgaria

Part of my role is supporting our newer countries as they begin to do camps, and this was the first short term team Bulgaria had had, even though they've been doing camps for years using interns and staff. So I wanted to go to Bulgaria and cheer them on as they did their first short term team training. 

It was quite a coincidence that their first team happened to be from Northern Ireland! I started to joke that the reason I was heading to Bulgaria was to translate between Northern Irish English and American English... which actually turned out to be part of my role there. It was so good for my soul to soak in and speak Northern Irish for a week - it definitely is its own little language and I forget how many words are unique to the little country I'm from. As I heard about the team beforehand I hadn't heard of the ministry they were coming with, and none of their names sounded familiar so I assumed I didn't know any of them.

Well, after a bit of a rush at the airport and safely making our bus to Velingrad I was sitting beside the team leader and we started to do that Northern Irish thing where you figure out all your mutual connections - especially as he lives five miles from where I'm from, and we are part of the same denomination. 

There were many little connections and mutual friends and then Ray said that he had spoken at a youth rally in my church when James was the pastor. James was the pastor from when I was around ten years old until I was twenty-two so it felt likely that I'd have heard of the event so I asked what the name of it was. He said it was called Star Wars. 

And there, on that little bus, on a little mountain road in Bulgaria, I told Ray that that was the event where I accepted Christ fourteen years ago. I had grown up in the church, and heard all the stories, but there was something about the combination of hearing testimonies of my school friends and a clear gospel presentation that made it all click that night. 

I didn't know the name of the speaker that night, but once we'd made the connection I realised why Ray had seemed familiar. It was so strange and so sweet to be sitting together all these years later telling the story of what God did then and just pieces of what he has done since. It felt like a little foreshadow of heaven, when I imagine we'll praise God by telling in full the stories that we only see glimpses of here on earth.

As I left Bulgaria later that week, and as camp season finishes up here for another year, I left so encouraged by this little interaction. The gospel has been powerfully proclaimed this summer, and many have responded in faith. My prayer is that we'll see these young people get plugged into local churches where they will grow in their faith and change their nations for Christ. 

And who knows what stories we'll be telling fourteen years from now?

How to pray for camps this week - 21st August

There is just one more camp for this summer! So you'll see that post appear next Monday. Thank you for faithfully praying your way through these last couple of months by following these posts.

Please continue to pray for the follow up as local churches continue to do all the work that comes after camp. Please pray that especially as school starts in just a couple of weeks that young people would continue to go to youth group, Bible studies, and church. We read in the Parable of the Sower about those who hear the word of God and receive it with joy but then without a root they fall away when testing comes. There are also those who respond to the gospel but are "choked by the cares, and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature." We see both these responses happen as "real life" begins again after summer, and school schedules are demanding, and peers and parents aren't sure about this new church thing.

Please join us in praying that those who responded in faith this summer would be like the seed that falls on good soil - they hear the word, hold fast to "in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience." May these nations be changed as young people mature in Christ and bear fruit that yields thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

Seeing Dunkirk in Český Těšín

I'm not sure if I've told you about the little cinema in my town, but it may be one of my favourite places here. You see, it's run by an older couple and has these old wooden chairs. I've been to showings that have had just two other people there before and I think the biggest audience I've ever been a part of there was around twenty, and there were at least ten of us as we went to see the new hero movie that had somehow been shown in Český Těšín before anywhere else.

And that is the strange dichotomy of this little cinema - sometimes they'll have the latest movies, although only for a day or two, and other times they'll show movies that came out twenty years ago. There's no arranged seating, which is unusual for Czech, and there's no concession stand either. So you should absolutely bring your own snacks and drinks to enjoy. And I love that I live just a couple of minutes' walk away, rather than needing to drive thirty minutes or so (in Czech or across to Poland) to see a movie.

But my favourite thing about the cinema is definitely the couple that run it. You see, you also get their opinion about your movie choice when you go. I went to see the children's movie Brave there with Kristin and her boys, and afterwards the man wanted to know if we'd understood any of the Czech movie (children's movies are often dubbed, whereas other movies usually have the English with Czech subtitles).

When I went to see Dunkirk I went alone, because I'm an introvert who was enjoying a quiet evening when a lot of people were out of town. And the lady wasn't sure this was a movie I should see on my own, warning me that "It's a war movie, you know? A big war movie." I reassured her that I knew that, and thirty seconds later, her husband asked me a similar question as he checked and perforated my ticket and collected the stub, even though I was less than three metres from where he saw me purchase it.

We chatted as he escorted me to the only screen, and he told me I wouldn't like this movie but that I could sit wherever I wanted - especially as I was the third member of the audience that evening. In our conversation my accent definitely came through and he asked where I was from - when I told him he exclaimed "Aha! Držím palce." That literally means, "I hold my thumbs" but more accurately translates as "I'll keep my fingers crossed" in English. After the movie was over, and the audience of five people filtered out, he wanted to know what I thought, and why I lived in this little border town. 

Dunkirk itself? It was incredible - how the story involves without much dialogue, but so much of the feeling is conveyed so beautifully by the music. I also really enjoyed some of the actors involved - especially Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Kenneth Branagh. But more than all of those elements it was incredible because of the story it told. When they couldn't get home, home came to rescue them. And in that good story we hear beautiful echoes of the greatest story ever told.