English Camp-Day 6

Here are a few more pictures!  Enjoy!

Jesus

It has been an amazing several days of English Camp.  We have been continuing to build strong relationships with our non-believing friends through English classes, sports and games, afternoon activities, and discussion groups.  It's also been great to process the Story of God with the students.  We have talked about creation, Adam and Eve, separation, flood, promise, exchange, deliverance, Kings, and Prophets.  And all of it points to one place:  Jesus.

Tonight we begin to reveal how God delivers his ultimate promise through Jesus.  We will be discussing the birth and life of Jesus.  Tomorrow night we will talk about his death, resurrection, and kingdom.  We are praying that the students would see and understand clearly that Jesus is the ultimate answer to all of their questions, and the ultimate fulfillment in the Story of God.

Ben took this picture yesterday on our hike in the Jeseniky Mountains.  It is one of many old crosses that I have seen while hiking in various places in the Czech, which is almost an entirely atheistic country. Our prayer is for a revival to break out in the youth of the Czech Republic that would lead the country back to an understanding of the significance of the cross.  Please pray that students from this camp would be captured by the grace of God and that their lives would be transformed by the gospel.

Everyone here is doing great.  We really only have two days of camp left!  Thanks so much for your prayers and support!  We appreciate them so much!

More Pictures

Here are a few pictures of our students preparing for English Camp and their interaction with students when they arrived.  Enjoy!

English Camp

It's officially day two of English Camp!  The students arrived yesterday at about 3:00pm, and we had a great first night of discussion and relationship building with our friends.  There is such a sweet spirit at camp already, and that is a clear result of the Lord working through our previous trips.  We are already building strong relationships with the new students, and deep conversations are already taking place!  Our New Hope Church team had a meeting about an hour ago, and our English teachers were excited that their groups were already sharing major parts of their lives with the group.  One of the students was sharing in his discussion group last night about how his parents' divorce had hurt him, and we are excited to continue to share the healing that is found in Jesus with him and other students.

Thank you so much for your prayers.  Please continue to pray for strong and lasting friendships to form between our team and our non-believing friends.  Please pray also that strong and lasting friendships would form between our non-believing friends and the Czech youth group here in Sumperk.  They will be following up with these students when we leave, so it is even more important that they have strong relationships established with these students.  Pray also concerning spiritual warfare.  As I mentioned earlier, we are observing a very real openness and an overall sweet spirit here at camp, and it's important to pray for spiritual protection from the enemy.  Thank you so much for your prayers!  I'll post more pictures today and try to keep you updated as much as possible.

Because of Him,

Jeremy

Story of God

Our theme at English Camp this year is Stories.  The purpose behind this theme is for students to see that everyone has a story, but ultimately we are all part of a much bigger story--the story of God.  At the end of the week, we will be asking students to think about where they fit into this story.  

The Story of God will be divided into 12 scenes, which we will cover over the next seven days.  Here are the stories we will be covering each day so that you know more specifically how to pray for us as we discuss these important stories with our friends.

Day 1:

Today!  We'll be giving the overall introduction.

Day 2:

Scene 1 - Beginnings (Genesis 1)

Scene 2 - First Humans (Genesis 2)

Day 3:

Scene 3 - Separation (Genesis 3)

Scene 4 - Flood (Genesis 6-9)

Day 4:

Scene 5 - Promise (Genesis 12-21)

Scene 6 - Exchange (Genesis 22)

Day 5:

Scene 7 - Deliverance (Genesis 37-50, Exodus)

Scene 8 - Kings and Prophets

Day 6:

Scene 9 - The Birth of Jesus

Scene 10 - The Life of Jesus

Day 7:

Scene 11 - The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

Scene 12 - The Church

There are so many reasons that I am really excited about the theme this year.  First, the way the gospel is being presented will be very effective in the postmodern mindset of the emerging generation (especially here in Czech).  Second, this approach will give the students a much larger picture of why Jesus came and died for us and why we absolutely need to trust in him.  Their questions will build on each other, and a sense of anticipation will build throughout the week.  I also love how our story ends with the church, and how God desires to use them as a part of his kingdom here on earth.  Finally, I love the questions that we're asking them at the end of the week:

Do you have a desire to join in this amazing story?

...to live life in the ways of God, to accept Jesus as your sacrifice?

...to be blessed and be a blessing to others?

God is offering you the best and only possible way to really live.

Will you choose his ways or your own?

Please pray for the students as they hear these stories.  Pray that anticipation will build in the hearts of students all week.  Pray that they would see and understand clearly at the end of the week that Jesus is the ultimate answer to their questions.  Pray for our teachers and discussion leaders.  We have the unique challenge of discussing only what is in our story and stories we have already told.  This means that we will not be jumping ahead, and sometimes that can be difficult--especially when you know that this story points directly at Jesus!  We want the students to discover this for themselves throughout the week in these stories, and we're excited to see what happens when they do.

The students will be arriving in about five hours!  Thanks so much for your prayers and support!

Blessings,

Jeremy

Pictures - Enjoy!

Here are some pictures!  Enjoy!

The Action Packer Has Arrived!

Hey Everyone,

We've arrived in Puste Zibridovice for English Camp and it's been a great day of team building with the youth group here in the Czech Republic.  God is building strong relationships between our youth groups and I think we will be a solid team working together.  Thank you for your prayers.  

Remember how I told you that about 34 non-believers were signed up for camp?  Well, in the last couple of weeks, we've added 14 more, bringing our total up to 48 non-believing high school Czech students.  We have great relationships already established with most of them, and we also have the chance to build close relationships with a few more new students.  Praise God!  He is clearly at work through English Camp and we are excited to share the Gospel with our friends.  

Adding to the praise, when we heard that 48 students were coming, it became even more important to locate the action packer, which held most of our English Camp supplies.  Someone from the airport dropped it off yesterday, and that is certainly a huge praise.  We are thankful to God for His provision.

The students arrive tomorrow at 3:00pm.  We will spend all morning getting ready for their arrival, and then walk down the hill to meet them.  We are all very excited.  Please pray that God would be working in the lives of these students right now.  Please pray that if there are any students who are afraid to come tomorrow that God would replace their fear with excitement and an open heart to the gospel.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

Because of Him,

Jeremy

A Phone Call...

Hey everyone! Liza here again. I just got a phone call from Pastor Jeremy who was calling on Skype. The team is safe and doing well at training. The one problem is that the internet went down at the training center and they don't know if they'll be able to get it back up and running while they are there.  But no worries, they are doing well!  

HUGE PRAYER REQUEST:

One of the Action Packers we sent with has not yet arrived and they aren't quite sure where it is. Wouldn't typically be a problem except that it has ALL of the English Camp supplies in it! The team is in good spirits about it, and they're brainstorming other ideas for their lessons, but please pray for that bin to arrive!  We'll keep you posted!  The supplies aren't needed until SUNDAY, so hopefully they arrive soon!

Thanks for your prayers and support for the team. They all send their love and greetings!