Amazing Race 2017!

Each year our summer internship kicks off with a three day Amazing Race, based on the TV show by the same name. Teams are put in teams, generally the teams they'll be serving in all summer, and are given clues that take them all over the place to complete challenges. The race is a lot of work to organise (there are people who work on it all year, alongside other responsibilities) and run but it is so rewarding. 

And it's rewarding because it accomplishes what we need and want it to - we bring together people who are usually total strangers and we need them to bond and come together as teams really quickly. The Amazing Race gives them the opportunity to do that as they create shared memories and learn how to celebrate each others' strengths and protect weaknesses. People learn how to push themselves and each other - through hard tasks, and conflict. And they learn to celebrate one another as they conquer tasks.

We debrief the Amazing Race at Intern Training, after it's all finished and people have showered and slept. Teams get to talk through what they learnt about themselves and each other and what they want to be true of their summers in light of that. The Amazing Race is just the start of a summer spent serving local churches throughout central and eastern Europe, so it's wonderful to see teams loving one another well and bonded because of the race.

This year we had one hundred and five interns running, plus staff who led a lot of the teams. You can see all the photos below of most of the tasks to get a sense of the race - we landed and finished in Prague, with a little day trip on the second day.

The teams reading their first clue - it told them to go to a statue of a famous reformer, Jan Hus!

Pretty much that entire line is our interns (one per team) queuing to get transport tickets.

The statue they were looking for - on Old Town Square.

The task here was a scavenger hunt - teams were given a lot of photos of details on buildings which they had to find, plus some tasks to complete and record.

The next clue told them to go to the statue of the dead horse - easier said than done (I struggled to find it even thought I knew where it was) and there they had to memorise a bible verse in Czech and find a stranger to translate it for them.

At the next spot they had to locate the bible verse that had just been translated for them - "I have come that they may have life and life to the full". Some teams knew it right away, and others had to search a little.

One of the tasks during the scavenger hunt was to find someone to tell you one of three Czech fairytales. The last task of the night was to reenact the fairytale you were told, as a musical with costumes. It was pretty funny! And sadly some strangers hadn't given enough information for teams to tell the full story, so they had to find another person to give them more details.

It was a beautiful spot to watch a lot of teams perform musicals!

The next morning teams had to recite the JV core values, with each core value earning them one puzzle piece to a photo not unlike the one below. Teams had to figure out where the castle, Karlštejn, was and head there. On the train teams were given a mini devotion and an outline for praying for one another.

It was quite the hike to the castle! But absolutely beautiful.

After a task at the castle (to find our "Wally/Waldo" in the village - yes, we had a helper dressed up in a red and white striped shirt) teams entered the forest where most of the rest of the tasks for the day were. The theme for the day was that they were in the resistance during the Second World War - a secondary aim of the Race was to expose teams to some religious, cultural and historical elements of Czech, as that would help them understand central and eastern Europe more.

First they had to create some team war paint and then one member had to run along a path with two paintball-gun-wielding helpers standing guard to retrieve a clue. For every hit they received, teams had to wait five minutes before continuing.

After hiking through more of the forest teams had to construct a tent, although only one of team members could see and talk. The rest were blindfolded and were obeying the speaker's instructions. An excellent task in learning communication! 

After more hiking through the forest there was a physical challenge as teams had to carry a teammate around a big circular area, one time for the number of teammates they had.

A sudoku held the clue for the village they were heading for.

A beautiful location to do a sudoku in!

And a beautiful walk to the village (as you can see - I walked/ran the entire route the interns did that day - I think I did more than 22,000 steps! And I had the benefit that I knew where I was going, and could speak Czech to ask for help if I needed to.)

From the village interns caught a bus to Prague where there was just one more station - and the most dreaded of them all. Teams got to spin the wheel of doom and that revealed what delight they had to eat. 

Team Bulgaria enjoying their choice.. with some bags in case they threw up.

On the last day teams had a lot of challenges around Prague Castle - here they are memorising facts about a different JV missionary from each of our thirteen countries. Later they would have to match missionaries to their country and say one fact per person.

Teams also had to paint a communist poster that focused on teamwork. Also that day they had to complete a physical challenge involving a lot of squats, burpees and pushups, and creating a team pyramid. Teams also had another time of prayer overlooking the city.

On the last day I was mostly sitting at the finish line at the top of Wenceslas Square. Teams arrived at the bottom and had to carry an egg on a spoon to me at the top and that was them finished! The winners were the International Edge Sports team - they won each day (which has never happened before) and are the first all guy team to win! It was a lot of fun to watch them tackle each challenge with determination before running to the next one!

Second place went to the Czech Edge Sports team! Another team that ran a lot!

And third place was Czech BenBarr. 

It was so fun to celebrate each team as they crossed the finish line! Then I just had the small task of co-ordinating getting over one hundred and fifty people on the correct train, when the platform wasn't even called ten minutes before the departure time. 

Thankfully we made it! The conductor was lovely, and thought the sight of one hundred and fifty very tired people getting on a train was hilarious. It was good to get everyone on the train and begin our four hour journey to Ostrava, and then our conference centre at Malenovice to shower and sleep (and we definitely needed both of those things - you could smell us on the train!) before Intern Training began the next day.

Camps happening this week - 10th July

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:

• four in Latvia
• one in Ukraine
• six in Poland
• one in Slovakia
• one in Hungary 
• one in Slovenia
• one in Romania
• one in Croatia
• two 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.

Ten years!

Ten years ago today I stepped off an airplane and onto Czech soil for the first time. I was eighteen years old, had recently finished my A-levels and was hopefully heading to Cardiff University in September to study psychology.

I had no idea what I was doing.

Or letting myself in for.

I remember the epically long journey from Prague to Malenovice, and staying in a hotel further up from the conference centre because it was full with the number of teams serving that week. I remember snippets of short term team training, mostly how God revealed Himself to me.

I remember our wonderful team from NI and England, and meeting the team we were serving alongside from Washington – Jarrod would be my helper for the week, and Katcha, his wife, would be our translator. I remember the evening videos from the London Underground. I remember the camp dance and the repeating "I can't hear you" chorus.

I remember my class. Pavel who took smoke breaks from class, possibly more than he was in them. Tereza, Eva, and Miša who were all so patient with my poor pronunciation of all things Czech, including some of their names. I also got to share a room with Tereza during the camp.

 

I remember the forty-degree weather on the day we hiked and getting so very lost on the way home. Then there was all the incredible and new food – blueberry dumplings and marlenka stand out as favourites from the very beginning, and while I still don't like sparkling water I have learnt to love Kofola.

I remember the staying up all night of the last night of camp, writing notes for the postboxes on our room doors, and going outside with our duvets wrapped around us, watching the huge thunderstorm roll in across the valley.

But more than all of those things I remember the crazy faithfulness of God and all the ways He showed Himself that week. Ten years later and I still have friendships that started at that camp. One of the people who came to Christ that year is now leading that same camp this summer. I was able to have dinner with Jarrod, Katcha and their family when I was in Prague for my Czech intensive in February. And those new and foreign places now feel like home – I spend around four weeks a year staying at Malenovice for various conferences, and my office is in the town where we welcomed students off the train.

Eternity is different because of what God did in that week at Malenovice. And I think it is so crazy kind of God that He invites us in to His work. He is the author of salvation and the harvest is His but He invites us in - to plant, and to water. He gives the growth - and graciously allows us to see glimpses of it!

If you'd asked me in August 2008 about my trip to Czech I'm not sure what I would have said - I would have talked about what I saw God do in this new-to-me country, and, maybe how I saw Him bigger during those two weeks. But I think I would have been non-committal about returning the following year, and if you'd told me that ten years later I would be celebrating four years of calling here home I'd have thought you were nuts. But here we are. All because of His grace.

Ten years on, and this summer we're doing one hundred and twenty-two camps across thirteen countries in central and eastern Europe. Czech remains one of the most atheistic countries in the world, but there is an incredible openness to the gospel now. Ten years ago we worked our way up to sharing about Jesus but now we can boldly dive into who Jesus is from the beginning and invite students to share who they think He is and what He means for their lives.

Ten years on, and I cannot do anything but sit in awe of God - of all that He has done, of how He has shown Himself to be so much bigger, of how He is changing lives and nations, and that He invites us into this joyful work.

Camps happening this week - 3rd July

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:

• four in Estonia
• three in Ukraine
• fourteen in Czech
• five in Slovakia
• one in Serbia 
• one in Bulgaria

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.

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

Josiah Venture - Camps Ministry from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

Camps happening this week!

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

This summer we will have 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.

This week the camps that are happening are:

• one in Latvia
• five in Poland
• one in Hungary
• four in Slovenia
• one in Croatia 

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

Josiah Venture - Camps Ministry from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

Camps happening this week!

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

This summer we will have 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.

This week the camps that are happening are:

• one in Serbia
• 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.

Women's Retreat

In March I spent a few days in a beautiful little town in Austria with these women - the Josiah Venture second culture women! There were fifty-six of us gathered for our retreat, that happens like this once every three years.

You might be wondering what a second culture woman is? We all serve in a culture outside our home culture (or some of the women who do live in their home culture are married to Americans). There were quite a few nations represented and it was a joy to spend those four days together!

There are a lot of losses in this missionary, cross-cultural life that are absolutely worth it - we are by grace compelled to live our lives in the nations God has called us to, and He and his Gospel are so worth it. But it also means that there are pieces of my life that don't make sense except to those who find themselves in similar places.

And there is so much beauty and depth in these friendships, even though we don't get to see each other very often, because of the loudness with which we can declare "ME TOO" when we talk about the things that we're rejoicing in, finding hard, choosing faith for, and laughing about. And I'm increasingly convinced that a sense of humour is just simply necessary for this cross-cultural life.

I'm so thankful to belong to an organisation, to a family, that believes so strongly in caring for its missionaries well. And this includes this once-every-three years international women's retreat (the other two years we have other retreats specific to our country or marriage retreat or Israel for the singles last year).

And what did we do for those four days? Apart from linger over meals, rest, and nap? Well, the theme of our retreat was prayer. And we didn't really have teaching on prayer - we simply prayed!

This year Josiah Venture has an online prayer room and we found ourselves praying through that hour three times during our time together. And then we prayed in various ways and in various groups.

There was time of confession and time of praying boldly for one another. There was a lot of space for adoration - and we were beautifully led in worship during our time by someone who flew in from the States to serve us in this way. There was time to celebrate and rejoice in what God has done (and we even had balloons!). And we of course had time to individually sit before God and hear from Him.

I am so grateful for this time and retreat - it was a really refreshing time and I returned home from that beautiful place so encouraged and emboldened for this crazy, good life God has called me to.