Ahoj!
We are on our third day of teaching. Hopefully I (Michael) can be detailed enough to make this interesting.
So for a quick, AWESOME update, I talked to my friend Libor on Sunday. He came up to me and said that he would like to make an important decision that night, and he would be honored if I was there to pray for him. So to say I was pretty excited is the understatement of the century. So after the day was over and we finished our evening program, Brian and I spoke with Libor, and he finally discussed with us his decision to believe in God. A couple of weeks ago at another English camp, one of the English teachers gave Libor some ideas to mull over, and the next week he decided to finally believe in God (we have said that he believes, just that he's been denying it for some reason). So Libor began to believe, but wanted us to be there when he made the decision to follow Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. It was such an honor to be there, to listen to his story and to pray with him! I was also honored to be part of those first few steps he has taken for repentance of his sins and following Jesus as a new creation! So for those of you who have been praying for Libor or have been "working on him" in the last few camps, I'm glad to say that he has finally taken a step of faith in accepting Jesus Christ as God! Thanks for your prayers!
On Monday we had our team devotional, then breakfast, then split off everyone into our official teaching groups. Asa and Kevin's group (the advanced group) had a grand old time playing with blocks (they had to assemble structures in pairs, each back-to-back, one explaining to the other how to build the structure). Mandee worked one-on-one with Štĕpánka, while her partner, Mitch, helped with the rest of the Beginners. Kayla and Lizi learned that the lower intermediates spoke more English than they let on, so that was quite a surprise for them. The upper intermediates have quite an outspoken group, SQUIRREL!.....especially two students who are very vocal during the Bible lessons. If you remember to pray for us, please pray for myself and Chris, as we have a very intelligent student who is not a believer but knows A LOT about the Bible. Very factual, but has no idea of the central idea of the Bible. So pray that we (and our translator Jirka) will have the answers to his, and other students', questions, but that we show it in love. He was not in class today during the Bible lesson, so pray that God opens his heart to His love and truth.
Our Bible lessons are integrating themes about family relationships we are reading in Genesis. The first two days have been instigating interesting conversations as we have been going through the history of the Bible and the creation of man and woman. Today we talked about parents showing favoritism towards their children, and read the example of Jacob, Joseph, and Joseph's brothers. Pray that these Bible lessons continue some great conversations and that they can help open hearts of the unbeliving campers.
For the evening program last night the camp watched "The Ultimate Gift." According to the team who watched it, it was an amazing SQUIRREL!......movie with a great story and a great theme. Mandee highly reccomends it.
Today, Tuesday: WE FINALLY HAD MEAT AND SLICED CHEESE WITH OUR BREAKFAST! We haven't had that since Prague! This is amazing since we only had bread and butter the first two breakfasts. Then after breakfast, off to classes! Then lunch, where we ate Lentil Soup, which Chris enjoyed the most, and the chicken with pasta and liver chunks. Delish! Afterwards Brian and I talked to Karel, the church's pastor, about the future of ABC's partnership with this particular church, especially with next year's English camp(s). Didn't make any committments, but it was good to get some ideas going that we could share with ABC once we return. Then Lizi, Kayla and I went exploring to search for the guys to try to go on a hike. But that venture failed, and only Lizi and I went on a 20 minute power hike. Then had a discussion that was a follow up on the parental favoritism topic we had today, then had dinner and a great evening program where Brian and Jill shared with the other campers about marriage.
Some great converstations are arising, whether between non-believers and believers, Americans and Czechs, and among our own team members. Pray for these conversations to lead to Christ, and perhaps for some decisions to be made. Pray for the team's energy and health (especially digestive health!)
Asa has a persistent headache, so pray that he is well by tomorrow to do the teaching and other stuff that is important. Also for his family, as Gail's mom passed away Thursday. He's been going through a lot on this trip, wishing he was home with his family. But he's still excited to be here, and he's comforted that his grandma had a nice, long life and is celebrating in the fact that she's with Jesus now.
Kayla's tooth is bothering her. She was supposed to get the tooth pulled before we left, but that fell through and it has been bugging her since we got here. She finally got a full night's sleep last night.
Lizi has been having trouble sleeping, but has been doing better.
Chris, Mandee and I have been having some stomach trouble. Yeah, pray for that.
Kevin is awesome.
We are planning on performing the "Everything Skit" on Thursday night. Please pray that hearts will be opened and that they will get a clear message of what we're trying to portray. God has worked in many hearts this week, so I believe some miracles are in store in the relatively near future.
Thinking and praying for you, ABC. We know the loss that you have experienced with John Miller and Bob Clark's passing. We pray the peace of God will be with you all during this time. We will share in your sorrows (and celebration of their lives) when we return.
Reporting live from the Czech Republic,
Michael and Mandee for the team.
Quote of the week:
Kevin, as we are driving with the crazy psycho bus driver, trying to distract us from our near-death experience: "I like this sandwich. This is a good sandwich."
Mandee, after watching the amazing astronomical clock in Prague: "That's it? I scheduled to be here...for this?!"
Kachna, the duck - "Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack....BOOM!"
