Summer Schedule

One of my intern team members created a schedule for the summer. Here it is.

Amazing Race (May 27^th-May 29^th)

All of the summer interns from the other Czech teams and some from other countries around Eastern Europe arrive in Prague on May 27^th and for the first two or three days together we do something called the “Amazing Race”. If you’ve ever seen the show on TV, it’s kinda like that! It’s intense and crazy, but lots of fun.

Intern Training (May 30^th-June 4^th)

At the end of the “Amazing Race” we’ll end up at Josiah Venture’s amazing hotel Malenovice where we’ll have our week long intern training together with the other teams. This is usually a pretty awesome week where we’ll get to know each other better, get informed about ministry in Czech, and hear JV’s president Dave Patty speak every night

Living

Usually the first few weeks of the summer are more for preparation and relationship building for the rest of the summer. During this time we’ll be visiting different Czech churches/youth groups in order to establish relationships with them before camp, pray for the camp together, and get focused on the needs/goals of the camp.

The city we’ll be living in this summer is called Sumperk. I think it’s around 30,000 people, and it’s in the northeast part of Czech, about a 3 hour train ride from Prague. We’ll be working a lot with JV missionaries Trevor and Cassie Long who have been living in Sumperk for 4 years. Part of our intern team will be living in their upstairs apartment, and the others will be staying a few blocks away in a nice hostel for the times we are in Sumperk.

Camps

We will be doing three English camps during the summer. At each camp we will be working with both a youth group from a Czech church and an American youth group that will be coming just for a few weeks to help with one camp. Before each camp we will most likely also be going to the trainings for the American youth groups at Hotel Malenovice for a few days. Camps each last for one week, and then the couple days after camp include follow up activites (such as bbq’s, swimming, parties, games, etc.) back in the main city we’ll be working with.

At camp, each of you will teach an English class which also doubles as a discussion group at night.

Czech Youth Groups

The first Czech youth group we’ll be working with is from a church called Vysoke Myto Baptist that is maybe an hour (that’s just a guess) away from Sumperk. I think this might be their first camp.

The second Czech youth group we’ll be working with is from the village of Vikyrovice which is just next door to Sumperk. We did a camp with them last summer, and they’re a really fun group! Tomas is their youth leader and they have around 10 or 15 people in their youth group.

The third and last youth group we’ll be working with is from the Baptist church in Sumperk. This youth group is great as well! They’ve been doing English camps for a while and their group has a lot of new believers. We’ll be spending a few days with them on a retreat at the beginning of the summer at a little cottage close to Sumperk.

Most of the people from the youth groups we’ll be working with are high school aged, but there are some college aged students as well.

US teams

The first U.S. team we’ll be doing a camp with is from Eastmont Church in Bend, OR. I don’t really know anything about them at this point…

The US youth group for our second camp is from Grace Pres. Church in Peoria, IL. They’re actually a college group and did this week of camp with us last year.

Our last US youth group is from New Hope Church in Minnesota. They’re a group of high school students, and maybe a few new college students coming back again this year.

Debrief

The summer ends in Prague with the other Czech teams for debriefing. We’ll process our summer together, and also just hang out and enjoy Prague.

Camp Pictures

Here is my intern team from last year with our team leaders, missonaries Trevor and Cassie Long.

This is everyone who was at the first camp. The New Hope Church's youth group from the twin cities area helped us with this camp.

Here, my class and I were participating in a pirate teasure hunt. It was awesome.
In this pictures, the guys and me pose for a picture. The guy in the blue shirt, Lucas, didn't accept Christ that week, but he did show great interest in learning more. He also has been attending some of the youth group sponsered events. Lucas and I have been keeping in touch, and even played some games on the internet together along with another memeber from my class, Stepan (the one to the far right). I think important seeds were planted that week, and I can't wait to see what will happen this up coming summer.
My class poses for a silly picture at one of the follow events after camp was over.

In this picture, a bunch of Czech and American friends were waiting for the train after a hike that we took on one of the days of camp. We decided it would be excellent to take a picture where we were jumping.

This is everyone who came to our second Camp. A youth group from a church in Peoria Illnois helped us with this camp. They were awesome.

English Camps

In our first camp alone we had more kids accept Christ than in all of the camps the year before.

A typical day of camp began with morning prayer and devotions with all the Christians involved with the camp. After devotions was English class time. The kids were split up according to their mastery of the English Language. I worked with students who had an intermediate to advanced level of the English language. I could speak with them in English and translation was rarely required. English class lasted for three hours and then it was time for lunch. After lunch, there is some free time and then some planned recreation. Next comes dinner. After dinner was Crazy Game Time. We played a variety of fun and crazy games. After that we sang some songs and dance. This is followed by the evening speaker. The evening speaker talked about a deeper life issue form a Christian perspective, including a story about Jesus. Once the speaker was finished we break back up into our class groups and discuss what the speaker talked about. We started off very slow with basic questions that will test their comprehension and build relational trust before we move to deeper and more personal questions. As the week comes to a close, the students were presented with an opportunity to accept Christ into their lives. Back to the schedule, discussion time was followed by a fun activity or game.
To summarize the camp experience, it is a lot of fun, relationship building, learning English, and most importantly discovering who Jesus Christ is and why that is important.