And (of course) Pictures!!

Martha and Michaela in Malenovice on our last day of training...

Hanging out in between sessions....

Some of our students in a training session with Martin, one of the Sumperk leaders.

Hanging out with Vasek and Martin in between sessions...

Is that a young D.L. Moody? No, it's Nate Hughes, the English Camp Director for Josiah Venture here in the Czech Republic. We love Nate. And his beard.

Beautiful view at Malenovice...

More pictures to come!

Sorry, we are having some technical difficulties, but we will keep trying to add more pictures and write. Thanks for your prayers!

Collision

Good morning (afternoon here) and greetings from the New Hope Church Czech Team. It's great to finally be a training as we make final preparations for the coming week at English Camp. We love Josiah Venture and the excellent job they do in training our students to step into the lives of Czech students for the purpose of building relationships and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can't wait for camp!

Each year at English Camp we teach a series of messages that are a part of a larger theme. Our theme this year is Collision. Our desire for students at camp is to collide with the person of Jesus Christ. We want them to come face to face with him. We want them to honestly wrestle with who he is and what he has done and ultimately come to put their trust in his completed work.

Please pray for us each night as we share with students and discuss these messages with them. In order to help give you more specifics of what to pray for, here is the run down of each night as we lead up to gospel night on Thursday:

Day One (Saturday): Jesus is different than you think.

On the first night we will be introducing our week with the students and showing them the "collision" between Christ and the Christianity that they have come to know. These students are all coming to camp with presuppositions about Christianity which are based on European Christian history (the Spanish Inquisition, the crusades, corruption in the history of the church in Europe when both Hitler and Stalin were in power in the Czech, etc.). Our goal on the first night is to ask them to see that the teachings of Jesus Christ, the gospel, might actually be much different than what they have come to believe about Christianity. We are asking them on this first night to leave their presuppositions at the door (as much as possible) and hear from the teachings of Jesus.

Day Two (Sunday): Jesus and the adulterous woman.

Our goal on the second night is to show the collision that happens between Jesus, an adulterous woman, and the religious leaders who are trying to use this situation to bring charges against Jesus (John 8:1-11). The goal of the night is for the students to hear that everyone is in need of the grace of God. We want the students to hear that God is perfect and holy, and that we are obviously not. This means that in order for any forgiveness or reconciliation to happen, all of us must receive grace.

Day Three (Monday): Jesus and Zacchaeus.

Even in the midst of our sinfulness and God's holiness, Luke 19 shows us that Jesus is still calling us to himself. Our expectation is too often that if Jesus really knows who I am and what I have done, he must not really love me. But Jesus again collides with our expectations and shows us that even in the midst of our broken pasts, he loves us and calls us to himself because of his grace.

Day Four (Tuesday): Jesus and the rich young ruler

Many of the students coming to English camp think that being good is good enough. We want to show them the collision between our lives when we have anything else as our lord and savior and our lives when Jesus is our Lord and Savior. We want to show them the rich young ruler in Mark 10 and how Jesus calls him away from the money that he is serving for something entirely different. We want the students to take a look at their own lives and examine what things that they have placed as their ultimate good or primary passion. We will ask them to imagine a life that puts its highest hope in Jesus instead of other things.

Day Five (Wednesday): Jesus and Pilate

The reality is that it is difficult to make Jesus your greatest hope in life. For students in Czech it is especially difficult. Many times their families and friends will ridicule and ostracize them when they have come to Christ. The Czech Republic is considered by many to be the most atheistic country in the world. This is an extremely difficult environment for students who desire to place their trust in Christ. We want them to see their need to believe in Jesus even in the midst of hostile circumstances.

Day Six (Thursday--Gospel Night): Jesus and the convicts on the cross

On night six we will be talking mainly about the death and resurrection of Jesus and the new life that he offers us through his completed work on the cross. We want them to see the collision between who they are now and who God is calling them to be in Christ Jesus. We will be doing a prayer walk on this night with the students and at the end of the walk they will have the opportunity to talk with us about Christ. Please pray on this night that students would respond to the gospel.

Day Seven (Friday): Jesus and Peter

On the last night we want the students to see that they can follow Jesus and become a part of his kingdom. This will be another opportunity and challenge for students to respond to the gospel and an encouragement for any who received Christ the night before. Please continue to pray.

Thank you so much for all of your support and encouragement! We are so thankful for all of you!

Blessings,

Jeremy

We are here :)

After 24 hours of travel including 3 planes, 8 moving-walk ways and a 5 hour bus ride..We are here :)

All of our flights were uneventful and we were able to take a bus again this year which saved us a long and hot train ride. It is Tuesday night and we are all ready for a good nights sleep. We will start our morning off bright and early with a training session and have time later in the day to relax. Thanks for your prayers! We will post more later.

Off to Prague

Hi Families! It's Monday morning and we'll be leaving for Prague in just a few short hours for a debrief with all teams from Josiah Venture tonight and then a day in the city tomorrow and flights on Wednesday. Our trip is quickly coming to an end...

I promised pictures, however, our internet is not fast enough to handle the uploads - we'll try and keep you posted again but it all depends on the internet in Prague.

Thanks again for all your support and prayer!
Liza

Sumperk Here We Come!

Hey everyone! We're all alive and well here in Sumperk. It's Saturday afternoon and we're safely back in Sumperk after being at camp for the past week. The rest of our week went really well and our students all had a very hard time saying goodbye to their new friends. Thursday night was our Gospel message night which included a labyrinth of stations where they were able to reflect on their lives, forgiveness, sins, etc. and concluded with a hand washing station and a chance for them to speak with someone if they had any questions. Praise God, we had 2 students pray to receive Christ for the first time that night as well was 1 re-dedication and TONS of questions, students needing prayer, committing to read the Bible and see what it's all about, etc. God is so good! Many conversations happened after and students are definitely thinking about all they heard this week through Pastor Jeremy's teaching and our discussion groups each night.

We are now back in Sumperk doing home-stays so we're all spread out around the town. Everyone is doing great! We're all healthy and I don't think anyone is homesick yet :) This afternoon we have some down time and then will take a tour of Sumperk tonight. Tomorrow consists of Church in the morning and a BBQ in the evening and all students from the camp are invited to join us. This follow up time is HUGE in getting students from camp connected to Volant (the youth ministry). Monday morning we head back to Prague for a debrief with Josiah Venture, Tuesday we get to do some site-seeing in Prague and then fly home early Wednesday morning.

Continue to pray for the students at camp as they jump back into life at home. Our prayer is that they will continue to think about what they learned and how/if they want to apply that to their lives. Pray also for Volant and their outreach in the coming weeks.

Off to tour Sumperk! We'll post more pictures later today for you all!

Liza for the team

English Camp: Day 4

As you probably guessed, there is a problem with the Internet here at English Camp, but thanks to the resourcefulness of Radek, the youth pastor in Sumperk, we are able to connect now through a phone. We are thankful for the opportunity to reestablish contact with you all! The connection through the phone is too slow for adding pictures, but we'll try and share our pictures whenever the wi-fi is fixed.

We are excited about what God is doing here at English Camp! He is working in and through our relationships to bring out discussion about his plan of redemption. The students are responsive and in some cases excited to learn more regarding what the Bible says about God. During our discussion group last night, while the group was talking about the story of Judah and how God is in control and uses acts of evil for his own good purpose, one of the students that I expected to disagree with the story leaned forward, slowly nodded, and said, “Yes…I think this idea is very important.” He communicated that he had never thought through this before. We are so excited to see how God continues to use these stories of redemption as we lead up to Gospel night on Thursday. Everyone on the team is doing a great job! I am so thankful for each one of them!

Tomorrow we will take our hike with the students during the day. This is always a great opportunity for continued spiritual conversations and building relationships. Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Because of Him,

Jeremy

Our theme this year at English Camp is Redeem. Our goal is talk intentionally with students concerning God’s plan of redemption for the world through Jesus Christ alone. Jesus wants to take what has been corrupted because of sin and bring restoration. The reality is that when we made the choice to put ourselves in the place of God and serve and worship things rather than Him, he did not leave us to our own destruction. He came to rescue us. This is the message behind Redeem.

We will be communicating this through five stories throughout Scripture.

Day 1 (Saturday) – Redeem

We will be introducing our theme. Our goal is to build trust with the students and give them a picture of where we will be heading throughout the week. Our discussion groups will be meeting just to get to know one another.

Day 2 (Sunday) – Unlikely Hero: Rahab

Our first story from Scripture is the story of Rahab. Our desire is for students to understand that nobody is too “bad” to be redeemed. Many of the students attending camp will have things from their past that they are ashamed of and as a result have a difficult time believing that God could possibly love them. We want them to see from this story that Rahab—the prostitute, the woman that no one really loved, who had lived a life completely against what God wanted—was loved and protected by God. Rahab’s story is certainly one of redemption as ultimately she is used to bring the Messiah into the world.

Day 3 (Monday) – Family Reunion: Judah

Our second story will be focusing on redemption in the life of Judah. Our goal is to establish the importance of forgiveness in the process of redemption. Judah’s story is also one of redemption. His brother forgives him and family relationships are redeemed. The nation of Israel is also redeemed from starvation during a terrible famine. And not only that, but as the biblical story continues, we see that God also used Judah to bring Jesus into the world.

Day 4 (Tuesday) – Persistent Pursuit: Ruth

We see from our third story that redemption must be actively pursued. We want students to understand that Ruth’s persistence in pursuing Boaz results in redemption. We also want the students to see that Boaz chooses to redeem her because of his grace and love. As the theme continues to develop, we also want the students to see that God uses Ruth is also included in the line of Christ.

Day 5 (Wednesday) – Second Chances: David

Through David what we find is that it’s never too late to be redeemed. There’s no question that David’s sin is very serious, and yet God brings redemption to the point that Scripture actually refers to him as a “man after God’s own heart.” God chose to use him in the family line of Christ. Even though David had committed adultery and murder, we still read in Scripture that Jesus is referred to as “the Son of David,” and this is how David is remembered. This redemption is only possible because of the sheer grace of God.

Day 6 (Thursday) – Redeemer: Jesus (GOSPEL NIGHT!!)

We all have a story. It starts with a beginning and it ends with death. It is filled with characters—some Good, some bad. We make choices in our life and we go through various ups and downs. We look for redemption in many different areas – our education, career, athletics, or looks. None of these bring satisfaction or ultimate redemption. God offers us the real thing. A hero enters into our story—Jesus—and we are faced with how to respond to him. Will we let him rescue us, or will we continue to rely on ourselves or our own means which only brings more brokenness? Jesus’ rescue leads to a redeemed life! If we don’t let Jesus redeem us then our life continues in its brokenness and death. On Thursday night we will be presenting the gospel to students. Please pray that students will put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Day 7 (Friday) – World Redeemed

What we find at the end of the Bible is God’s promise to restore and redeem the earth! Scripture tells us that the earth will be redeemed and without pain, suffering, or broken relationships. This is the hope of the Christian faith! For those who have placed their faith in Jesus, they will actually get to experience the perfect world that we had in the beginning when God first created us. This is a real defeat for evil and suffering!

Thanks so much for partnering with us in prayer as we communicate God’s plan of redemption this week! We appreciate your prayers so much and believe that God is going to move in huge ways!

Because of Him,

Jeremy