Thursday, 21 June 2012

Visits and Rests

I've now been in the Czech Republic four full weeks!  It feels like I've always been here...  it feels like I always will be here!

So what all has been happening since I last updated you all?

Well, Thursday 7th - Monday 11th we were in Hradec Kralove, the youth group we'll do our first English Camp with.  We visited several schools on the Friday and Monday, advertising English Camp.  We had youth group on Friday night (followed by watching the Czech-Russia game), hiked on Saturday, and had church, a planning meeting, sports and games on Sunday.

It was great to be able to go into Czech schools and talk with students.  It was also wonderful to meet and get to know the youth group and English Camp team we'll be working with.

We then had a few rest/home days in Podebrady before heading to Havlickuv Brod on Friday 15th, coming back on Sunday 17th.  Again, it was great to spend time with the youth group and get to know them. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend with a picnic and sports on the Saturday (and the Czech-Poland game!) and church and spending time together on the Sunday.

And we're now back in Podebrady.  Podebrady is our home base for the summer.  We're staying in some guest rooms in the church building (the pastor and family live at the other end of the hallway).  We've been using this time to rest, go through our summer Bible study and do English Camp prep (English lessons mainly, plus talk prep for Josh).

This weekend we'll be spending time with Podebrady youth group, who we'll be with for our second English Camp. After that we'll be heading probably to Prague for a team day followed by a few days of a service project, helping some missionaries with a project they're working on.

In two weeks we'll be at our first term training!  In three weeks we'll be in the middle of our first English Camp.. and in four weeks the Irish team will be here and it will be the second term of training!  Time is flying by.

In the midst of all of this I am in awe of what I get to do.  It is incredible to be able to get glimpses of how God is working throughout this country through local churches.  He is at work in youth groups who are so excited to share about God's grace and salvation with their peers.  He is at work drawing people to Himself.  Even as I sit here writing this I can't believe the privilege I have to be witnessing these things, and I know I see but a little of what is really going on.

God is good, all the time.

Monday, 4 June 2012

Intern Training




I am currently at Malenovice, a hotel JV owns and uses throughout the year for training, conferences etc.  It is a place that holds a dear place in my heart – I’ve attended trainings here in 2007-2010 and in 2007 our English camp was here too.  So I am sleeping in a room that I once shared with Jayne.  And I sit in certain areas remembering conversations I have had in those seats.  And as I type this blog post I can hear the rain I’ve recently just escaped from pour down outside as well as the occasional roll of thunder echoing around the valley, accompanied by a flash of lightning and I am reminded of past storms I’ve experienced here.

It’s been great just to be here and to part of this community of believers who will be serving God all around central and eastern Europe this summer.  One of the things I love about JV and have grown to love even more is their care for the people who are serving and the fellowship we can share.  It’s great to worship together.  And to hear the JV story from Dave Patty again, a story of God’s grace and power.

We’ve also looked at personalities and spiritual gifts and how we can serve those with different personalities on our team.  For those of you how know the categories we use it’ll not be much of a surprise for you to learn I’m a beaver (the organised, detail, factual animal).  Although I’m also a little golden retriever too – in some ways more so than my golden retriever co-leader. 

Dave Patty took the intern leaders on a quick run through off the Bible study we’ll be using with our teams this summer.  I’m excited about how God is going to use it to reveal Himself to us.  It’s a resource that looks at Jesus and His ministry for the model and methodology of how we should do mission. 

We’ve also been receiving some fantastic teaching on God and the Holy Spirit.  Something God has been reminding me a lot of recently is how my identity is completely in Him, not what I do – but I serve and live out of my identity in Him. 

We’ll be here until Wednesday and we’ll soon be heading into our first visit of a church and a school.  I am so excited about how God is going to continue to reveal Himself to us not only in the days of intern training ahead, but throughout the rest of the summer.

The Amazing Race


This blog post is coming to you from Malenovice.  Which means team HawaIreland all safely arrived at Malenovice!

On Wednesday morning we travelled to Krakow where we met our interns.  Thankfully the American interns made their flights ok and arrived safely!  After a few hours waiting for other interns to arrive we set off on the Amazing Race!  It was three days of clues to new places where new challenges awaited us!

The Amazing Race really served the purpose of bonding our team together and because Josh and I aren’t allowed to lead during it we got to see the personalities of our team.  We spent some time and debriefed the race with Rob and Audrey and it was great to think through the encouragements, frustrations, things we loved, things we didn’t love and where we saw God in the race.

I’m really excited to be serving with our team this summer, and I’m excited about what God will do in and through us.

You can see some of the things we did in this video – thankfully I don’t really make an appearance but you’ll get the idea of some of the tasks.


Some of the activities we did was:
-       travel to the Polish aviation museum where we decoded our next clue
-       find three JV staff in a (huge) shopping centre to get a modelling tip from each and then model on a catwalk with very random clothes (obeying the three tips)
-       match three Chopin pieces to their sheet music… when you have ten pieces of sheet music.  That combined with the five-minute pause penalty any time you got it wrong meant we were there for an hour!
-       Play human bingo in a town square
-       Make a to-scale model of the solar system using fruit bought earlier…
-       Thursday started with transferring M&Ms from one bowl to another using a straw
-       Memorise a speech the Pope made and recite it with each team member saying a word in turn
-       Have a stranger read us a Polish fairy story book
-       Counting different objects in fifty-two city crests
-       Had one person describe how some lego was put together and we had to copy it
-       Create a puppet show of the Polish fairy story that had been read to us earlier… (we rocked this one!)
-       Matching the names to the pictures of JV missionaries
-       Walking to H20, a JV training centre
-       Eating blood sausage and sauerkraut
-       Canoeing to different bouys
-       Interesting takes on shotput and relay races
-       Diving for a euro coin
-       Getting back to the nearest town (this was our downfall – we’d been fourth up to this point but many other teams hitchhiked or bused or taxied their way to the border – we walked for 45 minutes and caught a bus!)
-       Learn and perform a Polish folk dance
-       Do a word search of the five JV core values

I’m sure there’s some I’ve forgotten but you get the idea…  We also spent some time at the Oscar Schlinder museum which was really humbling.


Tuesday, 29 May 2012

The First Week

The view from Malenovice


So, I've been in Czech a week now!  It's been a really great week.  On Friday and Saturday the co-leaders and the Hughes and Chestnuts headed up to the Malenovice cabins where we had a bit of a retreat.  It was great to worship together, pray for one another and run through some leadership stuff together.

On Sunday we were at the local church in Cesky Tesin.  The service was in three languages (Czech, Polish and a local dialect that's a mixture of the two) and it was all translated into English for us!  During the service the English camp team was invited up and interviewed.  They then asked the co-leaders to come to the front and they prayed for us.  It was beautiful to be prayed for and supported by this church.  The sermon was on going with God and trusting in Him rather than on what we can see, which was an amazing message.

After an amazing lunch on Sunday I think everyone had a nap time. In the evening we went to the house of a missionary family to eat and spend some time with them.

On Monday we were back at Malenovice for the KAM "Big Meeting".  Again, it was wonderfully translated by someone for us.  We were each given a notebook to record the miracles of God, because we should "expect nothing less than miracles this summer".  During the day, and eating with staff, it was great to see KAM's care and support for their missionaries and us.

Monday night was a very early night and getting ten hour's sleep was pretty wonderful.  Today has been pretty lazy - a leisurely breakfast, hanging out at a coffee shop all afternoon, going into Poland to get dinner (and the largest pizzas I've ever seen) and praying for one another.

Tomorrow will be an early start as we'll get up at 6am to head into Poland, back to Krakow to meet our interns.  And we'll start the Amazing Race!  It ends on Friday and is filled with crazy challenges through who-knows-how-many countries and hopefully by the end of it team HawaIreland (my team's name - a combination of Josh's Hawaii and my Ireland) will be a team and we'll see how each other copes with challenges, knowledge that will come in useful as the summer continues!

This week has been really great.  It's been good to get to know the other co-leaders.  And it's been really refreshing to have this time to rest and read.  It is also pretty much the last alone time before the summer ends so I've been trying to enjoy it.  And I feel really refreshed.  I also feel so cared for and supported by the other co-leaders, JV and KAM and all you guys back home/around the world.

I'm excited to jump into this summer.  I'm excited about what miracles God has in store.  He is a good God, with good plans and they are more than we could ask or imagine.

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Hello from Czech!

So I safely arrived in Czech yesterday, via Krakow airport.  The travel all went smoothly and it's been great to start getting to know the other leaders.  This morning we did some work on our plans and budget for the summer and tomorrow and Saturday we'll be doing a leaders' retreat at the Malenovice cabins.

Even though I'm sitting writing this in the Rob and Audrey's apartment I still can't quite believe I'm here..  but I'm sure it'll all sink in very soon!


The gang outside Krakow airport!  Some intern leaders and JV/KAM staff.


Dinner at the Chestnuts.  


A current picture of me: Brooklyn (Rob & Audrey's dog) is pretty much the cutest dog (in Czech, in case my dog is reading!).

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

T minus six hours

I am sitting here the night before I leave Northern Ireland for the summer.  Or, rather, six hours before I leave Northern Ireland for the summer!  In the morning my parents and I will be heading down to Dublin and from there I'll fly to Krakow, Poland.

I'll be spending the next three months mostly in the Czech Republic.  I'll be co-leading an intern team with one of Josiah Venture's full time missionaries, Josh.  In a week's time we'll be joined by our team, two Americans, Nolan and Bethany, and Jitka, who is Czech.  When they get here there will be a few days of crazy team building adventures (otherwise known as the Amazing Race) and then training for the summer in which we'll be visiting churches and schools and leading three English Camps!

There are so many details I could write about, so many things I'm excited for this summer.  But one of the last things I will be doing tonight is finishing writing my thank you letters.  When I applied and was accepted to do this internship I was fully expecting to at least pay for some of it myself.  But as I sit here I am fully funded, even a little more than fully funded!

Had I paid for some of it myself I feel like I'd be sitting here thinking that this summer is something I could do in my own strength.  Instead, I am so in awe of how God has provided so abundantly for me, more than I need.  It is my hope and prayer that as I head into the next three months I would be so aware of His provision in all things and that I would rely on Him in all things, instead of trying to do things in my own strength.

And in recognising how abundantly God has provided for me I know I need to say a massive thank you to the amazing community of people who are sending me to the Czech Republic this summer.  To those who donated money, bought puddings, wrote notes of encouragement or have committed to pray for me.. I cannot say a big enough thank you.  I could not go this summer if you did not send.  Thank you for holding the ropes.

I am so excited about what God is going to do this summer, and I look forward to sharing some of those stories with you here.

Saturday, 5 May 2012

Hello!

Thank you so much for coming to check out my little corner of the internet.  In not very long at all I'll be leaving Northern Ireland to go to the Czech Republic for three months where I'll be serving with Josiah Venture.  I am so excited about what God is going to do and I hope to share some of those stories here.