Photo Friday - 17th July

It's been really fun to see all the creative ways people are using the camp theme/design/graphics this year - including as nail art!

A dear friend from my organisation visited on Sunday night and stayed so there was plenty of late night talking and catching up with her. 

The weather has been so hot here this week! So there have been lots of walks and runs.

My routine is to run down to and over the "pink bridge" and then over into Poland, spend some time on the swings and then run home. 

And I'm still exploring new trails near where I live. I love that I live in the centre of town but close to places like this.

Another sunny day meant drying clothes on my friends' line!

The town hall on another evening walk. 

Photo Friday - 10th July

Another Saturday morning at the farmers' market in Poland.

Hanging out by a pool with friends on a very hot Sunday afternoon.

Loved getting to catch up with Petra and Erin on Monday! It was a fun way to spend the national holiday.

My shelf in the office.

I found a spider late late one night so this is what happened to it.

And I wasn't able to sleep with just a jar on it so there was a bucket too. Don't worry, I released it the next day. 

Friday nights spent around a fire, roasting sausages and catching up with friends, as the Hughes (a missionary family who lived here for years) were back visiting.

Wednesdays at 9.30

For months now this has been an event in my phone's calendar every Wednesday at 9.30pm. And my youth group has had a prayer meeting every Wednesday night for months, and we were all encouraged to put this reminder in our phones so even if we're not at the prayer meeting we can remember to pray for camp.

And so each Wednesday my phone chimes and I remember to pray. To pray for the leaders of these camps, the local churches as they prepare, the short term teams coming over, the missionaries and interns involved. And, most of all, to pray for the students who will hear about Christ at these camps, many for the first time hearing that there is a relational God who loves them and who died so they can know Him.

Would you join us in praying for camps? This year we have around 113 camps happening across twelve countries where thousands of young people will be challenged to respond to the Gospel. We're praying that many come to know Christ as their Saviour and that as they are discipled they become disciples who make disciples.

Hungary!

Each summer I travel a lot to visit various camps and this summer's first big trip was to Hungary last week! I travelled down on Wednesday and back again on Friday so it was a short trip but it was a joy to be able to go there, see our team rock during their first week-long camp in Hungary, and see students hearing about God!

One of the things I most enjoyed seeing at this camp was that every morning students spent fifteen minutes reading the Bible passage that would be spoken on that night. They then spent fifteen minutes talking with a partner about one thing they thought was interesting and one question they had. Then in the evening programme students again had their Bibles open and were being shown how to look for answers and how to read it.

There was just something so beautiful about watching non-believing young people really engaging with the Word of God. And we know the Word of God is powerful and does not return void, so please be praying for the church who were involved in this camp, that they would follow up well with students who were there! 

Some photos of my time in Hungary:

Liz teaching about who Christ is, and how everything is loss compared with knowing Him.

One tall game of Jenga!

The Hungarian language, ladies and gentlemen, and your guess is as good as mine!

Camp was at the Calvary Chapel college in Hungary, which includes this beautiful building.

Preparing for a game that night.

Rob and Liz (the two sitting down) are the country leaders for Hungary and here Rob and their son Caleb are describing what is in the box to Liz and Liz has to decide if they're telling the truth or not. With some crazy things in the boxes it was hard to know if it was true or not!

Rob teaching on the second night I was there.

The building from the front.

Yellow watermelon! It tastes the exact same as regular watermelon but is yellow.

Hungarian roads = overtaking horse and carts! Between a lot of road works and crazy traffic on little roads and problems getting the stickers necessary to drive on Slovak and Hungarian roads it was a long, seven hour, drive down (I was expecting something more like five!).

Thankfully my drive back was shorter! These were my travel companions, as well as Narnia on audiobook! Driving home always seems less stressful because the roads are becoming more familiar, and I didn't have to make stops to buy the car stickers. 

Photo Friday - 3rd July

One of the things I've been working on recently is trialling a e-learning platform we're hoping to use a lot! Four of us were recorded teaching on various topics relating to the internship and we're hoping that we learn how to use this tool well to help train and support our interns, short term teams and many others! 

Now that the weather is nice I'm loving going on walks most days in my town.

Kelly is a missionary in Poland and because they needed to grab more badges we got to hang out as we travelled to the office to pick them up! It was so fun and I am so thankful for the time we got to spend together. 

Tuesday marked two years of living in this country! And I celebrated, in part, by going to visit a Edge Sport and Fusion camp in Poland. 

What you will encounter as you travel in Hungary: many horse drawn carts! 

Playing a game as part of the evening programme in Hungary. 

It was an absolute joy to spend a couple of days here in Hungary, visiting their first official week long camp! 

Two!

Today included a walk around my little town with ice cream (and there may have also been cake for breakfast) because TWO years ago today I stepped off a one-way flight in Prague. 

It has been a great day - I spent some of it in Poland visiting a camp there, and this evening I celebrated with the Yormans and good dessert. They bought me things I said "needed to live here more than two years" - a Lego Minion (because I frequently say I need Minions) and a cat food dish (because I'd love to get a pet here - not necessarily a cat though). 

And it's been an incredible two years! It has been both harder than I could have imagined and infinitely better. Learning language and cultures, serving in my international role and in local ministry. 

God's faithfulness, grace and goodness has been so very evident at every stage. I am awe of what He is doing in these nations and it is a joy to partner with Him here. It's been beautiful to see His sovereignty and how He weaves all things together.

I'm excited to continue to celebrate anniversaries here, God willing, in the years to come! 

Our European Interns

A few weeks ago at Intern Training I stood in a room with these people and I remember feeling like I was about to cry, with deep deep joy. 

This summer we have 110 summer interns serving with us for three months or longer in our countries across central and eastern Europe. And thirty of those interns are European! You can see a most of them in the photo above. There are two from the United Kingdom and the rest are from "Josiah Venture countries". And this is double the number of European interns compared to last year!

A lot of our European interns will serve in their own countries, some in their own cities. But we also have some going to different European countries - the two guys from Scotland and Northern Ireland are serving in Estonia and Czech respectively, we have a Czech serving in Estonia, two Czechs are serving in Ukraine and a Czech serving internationally as part of our creative communications team! 

As we gathered in that room to discuss the particular joys and challenges they will face as they serve in Europe this summer I couldn't help but get so excited. Partly because these are people I've known about for months as I've read their applications and helped with various details regarding their internship.

But the main reason for my excitement? These people are so much of the reason why I'm here, and why Josiah Venture is here.

Many of these incredible people came to Christ through Josiah Venture camps and ministries. There are faces in the photo above I've known for over five years because they were part of Dejvice English Camp (the Czech church my home church in Saintfield partnered with for years). 

And not only have these people come to Christ but they are being discipled and are passionate about reaching their friends, cities, nations and continent with the Good News.

So I can't help but be excited when I see these people and what God is doing in these nations. And I'm excited about what He's going to do in and through these people not just this summer but also in the years and decades to come!