Camp So Far!!!

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while but I've been at camp and haven't had a lot of free time to sit and write. So I've been at camp now for 4 days and taught 3 days of English classes. Classes have been going alright. It's been a little difficult because the group isn't very open and talkative so it makes it difficult when trying to have discussions. My first day of class I thought I did the worst job ever and I thought that my students didn't like me. But the last couple of days have been going better. They've been a little bit more open and talkative. Please be praying for me that I wouldn't find my value in whether or not the class likes me or likes the class but we constantly remember that I am God's and my identity in Him. Another thing you can be praying for is that the class will talk more during the evening sessions and interact with the Story of God more. We have a few dominant people that like to talk a lot so be praying that those who aren't talking will feel more comfortable speaking out what they are thinking. We have 3 more days of camp and I'm excited to see what happens. Thank you for all your prayers. I will post pictures of the castle I am staying in sometime in the near future.

All For Jesus!!!

The life I live is not my own;

It was bought with a price.

That price was the precious blood

of my Savior - Jesus Christ.

For Him and Him only do I live.

He is the Giver of life

and

He is the Sustainer of life.

All to Jesus I surrender;

All to Him I freely give.

My life is Yours, Lord;

I give it all away to You.

Lead me

and I will follow.

Guide me

and I will trust Your path.

My will and my desires are Yours.

Take my life and let it be

Consecrated Lord to Thee.

Everything I have is Yours

I hold nothing back.

My life is in Your hands.

Who We Are

I've been working on this list for quite a while, and is complete to the best of my ability. If you find anything that is missing feel free to leave in a comment and I will add it to the list. As you can see there are two lists, the first list deals with who we were before we meet Christ. The second list shows who we are now and some of what we have since becoming followers of Christ. I hope this is an encouragement to all of you as you read through and are reminded of who you are in Christ.

Who we were:

~Dead in our trespasses and sins – Ephesians 2:1, 4

~Followers of the course of this world – Ephesians 2:2

~Follower of the prince of the power of the air – Ephesians 2:2

~Sons of disobedience – Ephesians 2:2

~Lived in the passions of our flesh – Ephesians 2:3

~Carried out the desires of the flesh and the mind – Ephesians 2:3

~By nature children of wrath – Ephesians 2:3

~Gentiles in the flesh – Ephesians 2:11

~Separated from Christ – Ephesians 2:12

~Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel – Ephesians 2:12

~Strangers to the covenants of promise – Ephesians 2:12

~No hope – Ephesians 2:12

~Without God in the world – Ephesians 2:12

~Far off – Ephesians 2:13

~Darkened in our understanding – Ephesians 4:18

~Alienated from the life of God – Ephesians 4:18

~Callous – Ephesians 4:19

~Given up to sensuality – Ephesians 4:19

~Greedy to practice every kind of impurity – Ephesians 4:19

~Darkness – Ephesians 5:8

~Weak – Romans 5:6

~Ungodly – Romans 5:6

~Sinners – Romans 5:8

~Enemies – Romans 5:10

Who we are/What we have:

~Blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places – Ephesians 1:3

~Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world – Ephesians 1:4

~Holy and blameless before Him – Ephesians 1:4

~Predestined for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will – Ephesians 1:5

~Blessed in the Beloved – Ephesians 1:6

~Redeemed through His blood – Ephesians 1:7

~Forgiven of our trespasses – Ephesians 1:7

~Lavished with the riches of His grace – Ephesians 1:7-8

~Obtained an inheritance – Ephesians 1:11

~Predestined – Ephesians 1:11

~Praise of His glory – Ephesians 1:12

~Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it – Ephesians 1:13-14

~Raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus – Ephesians 2:6

~His workmanship – Ephesians 2:10

~Brought near by the blood of Christ – Ephesians 2:13

~No longer strangers and aliens – Ephesians 2:19

~Fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God – Ephesians 2:19

~Being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit – Ephesians 2:22

~Fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel – Ephesians 3:6

~To put off our old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires – Ephesians 4:22

~To be renewed in the spirit of our minds – Ephesians 4:23

~To put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness – Ephesians 4:24

~Imitators of God – Ephesians 5:1

~Beloved children – Ephesians 5:1

~Light in the Lord – Ephesians 5:8

~Justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus – Romans 3:24

~Justified by faith – Romans 5:1, 9; Galatians 2:16

~Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ – Romans 5:1

~Obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand – Romans 5:2

~Saved by Him from the wrath of God – Romans 5:9

~Reconciled to God by the death of His Son – Romans 5:10

~Dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus – Romans 6:11

~Eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord – Romans 6:23

~Not condemned – Romans 8:1

~Set free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death – Romans 8:2

~Sons of God – Romans 8:14; Galatians 3:26

~Received the Spirit of adoption as sons – Romans 8:15

~Children of God – Romans 8:16

~Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ – Romans 8:17

~Never separated from the love of Christ – Romans 8:38-39

~Sanctified – I Corinthians 1:2

~New Creation – 2 Corinthians 5:17

~The ministry of reconciliation – 2 Corinthians 5:18

~Ambassadors for Christ – 2 Corinthians 5:20

~Alive in Christ – Colossians 2:13

Bowling Alley

We had a little team building activity after church today. It was a good time. :) Later this evening we are off to meet up with students, our main objective right now. Next week we will head off to Lesovac, a town in Southern Serbia to meet and train with the Church team there for a week. I'm not sure what type of internet access I will have there, but as always I will endeavor to keep you updated.

Self Control

Over the past few weeks that I've been here I have learned a very important life skill. I will have to hone this skill if and when I come over to be a full time missionary in a foreign country. This life skill is the fruit of the spirit know as self control. The self control I am refering to deals with the area of food. Slovenes make the most delicious and tantalizing food I have ever experienced and they make a lot of it. So I need to learn how to eat to the point of satisfaction and no further. This is going to present a huge challenge for me considering I really enjoy eating food and trying new things. But I will ultimately need to learn how to curb my appetite and only eat to the point of contentment so I don't gain 200 pounds while I am over here.

Pictures

Ross Looking "Gobbledegook" in the dictionary....its there



The view of Novi Sad from the Fortress on the other side of the Danube



Our road


Nina, a girl from last years' camp who invited Kevin and I over for a DELICIOUS lunch



The team on our day off hanging out on the beach of the Danube!



A new friend Johanna. I have really enjoyed hanging out with her!

\

Me and N. Irish Teammate Andy being Twins in our Camp Shirts

Writing English Lessons and Avoiding the Heat

Wow it is hot here! Around 90 degrees by 11 am by my measurements. Today we made "mexican rice and beans." we didn't have black beans so we used kidney beans, we didn't have taco seasoning so we used fresh garlic and paprika. It was really delicious!

Now we are beating the heat by staying in during the hot part of the day to write our English Lessons. It is going well. I have prepped 4 lessons for Intermediate and 4 for Lower Intermediate. The brain-storming we did at training was a great help.

Just to give you an idea of the types of things we are teaching, here are my "themes" for each day.

Day 1: Identity: Who are you?
Day 2: Nature: The World Around
Day 3: Relationships: An Ever Popular topic...
Day 4: Superheroes: Who are your heroes?
Alternate Day 4:Food Day

Some of my favorite activities include crossword puzzles, discussions and art projects, such as design your own superhero and describe them to the class. My favorite activity is the the cooking show that we'll be making on food day.

There is a method to all these fun and games. With each day of class the students will become more comfortable speaking English. They will become more comfortable talking about themselves, their relationships and their opinions. They will bond together with their classmates. This is our goal: To offer quality English lessons and a classroom environment that promotes relationships.

Well, I'd better get back to it. I will endeavor to add pictures tomorrow. :)

Mary

Kamnik

Today in Kamnik went really good. We had a lot of students come up to us and ask us about camps. Some of the team went into different classrooms and promoted the camps. We even had a few students there who had gone to camp during previous summers. Please continue to pray that we will have 20 students sign up and go to the camp.

Our sweet set-up.

We had the students spray paint a letter to get a free T-Shirt. We had them spell out the English Camp website. www.englishcamp.si

This student gave us the hardest time when we first showed up on Tuesday. He told us he was the mafia. By the second day, he was completely friendly and hanging out with us. God works in amazing ways.

The Power of God

The team standing on a castle wall in Kamnik

Yesterday and today, we were promoting English Camps in the city of Kamnik which was quite a different experience than the promotions we did up in Radovljica and Maribor last week. In Kamnik, we were denied permission to go into the classrooms and promote the camps. Yesterday was a pretty mediocore day when it came to getting students interested in going to camp. We basically spent our time hanging out in front of the school talking to students as they came out on their breaks between classes. After we were done we just felt like our time was a complete waste. We had a few good conversations here and there but overall we didn't feel very effective in our outreach to the students.

Today when we went back we started out feeling really low and not all there considering how our first day went. God totally had a plan up His sleeve and reminded us that it is not in our power but in His alone that we accomplish our goals. We parked our car across the street from the school and hung up the camp promo banner across the side of the car facing the school. Then, we laid a blanket down in front of the car and put out at least a hundred T-Shirts from the previous English Camps. Now the thing to remember that in Slovenia nothing is free. There is always a catch. So when a group of Americans are offering free T-Shirts they were automatically pretty skeptical about the whole idea. But God works in amazing ways. It took the students a little bit to warm up to the idea but once a few of the students came over and started talking to us more showed up. Then one a teacher came out and started talking to us and was wondering why we weren't in the classes promoting the camps. We told her we were told by the school psychologist that we couldn't promote in the classes. Then she said, "Well I will see what I can do." Next thing we know one of the students of her class is running towards us telling us we have five minutes in the class to promote camp. God is so great and opens doors we think they are closed. We were able to speak in two classes today. We gave away all the T-Shirts we brought and still people wanted one. Plus we were able to make a lot of good connections with students, teachers and parents in Kamnik. Our hope for tomorrow is that God will continue to open up the doors for us to make connections with students.

Please be praying for us as we are promoting this camp. This is a brand new camp; the very first year we have ever done one for the city of Kamnik. We currently only have one student officially signed up and two possible students signed up. We are praying for 20 students to go to camp. With God all things are possible. Also be praying for the city of Kamnik, it is a very spiritually dark city. Pray for a revival and that the true light would burst forth and destroy the darkness that is so rampant in the city.

Me standing in front of a very short door. I think a bunch of short people might live her.

Kamnik from the top of a castle

The team eating Cepavi after our second day in Kamnik. The food was so amazing.

Major Props to all my teacher friends out there.

I never knew writing a lesson plan could be so hard. Especially when you are writing a lesson plan for a 3-HOUR English class to students whose second language is English. I have written about one and half so far and need to write a total of five. If any of you have any great activity ideas I can use please let me know about them. It would be greatly appreciated. The whole idea of the English class is to help them with the their speaking. In the normal classroom setting, the students are drilled with grammar, spelling, and the different rules, but rarely have a chance to speak it which is crucial to the learning process. So if any of you know of any great interactive activities please send them my way.

Rain!!!

So I failed to mention that in the two weeks that I have been in Eastern Europe I think a total of 5 days it hasn't been raining. I was really hoping it would be warmer considering I only brougt a thin windbreaker type jacket with me. If I would have paid attention to my boy scout training I would have come prepared for all types of weather but unfortunately I didn't and now I have to suffer the consequences of lack of preparation. Currently, we are having our third lightning storm in the past five days. So I am praying the weather clears up soon. If not I am going to be constantly soaked this summer.

A week in Slovenija

So I've been in Slovenia one day short of a week already. Oh how the time flies when you are having fun. Not a whole lot has been happening so far just a lot of little things here and there. I just wanted to update you guys really quick on what has been happening on my side of the world up to this point.

As I let you guys know in my last post, we arrived in Slovenia last Thursday June 4 at about 11:30pm my time. Here is a picture of the team of interns I will be serving with this summer. Top row left to right consists of David Bordner (our fearless leader), Tim, and Chris. The bottom row from left to right contains Kaylee (who is married to Tim), Me, Sarah, Mateja (who is Slovene), and Rachel.

On Friday, we hung out with the junior highers at McDonald's which was a great time. Then we went to the mall and played find the American with the high school students. Basically we hid in different stores around the mall and the students were given clues and had to find us and ask us questions. Afterwards, a group of us went over to David's apartment and hung out and played mafia.

On Saturday, we went over to Josh and Kristy Patty's new home and helped them get it ready for them to move in. There is a lot of work to be done to get it ready and it was truly a blessing to be able to help them get it ready. They are trying to get it done so they can move in on June 19 so Hondo and Trish, who are new missionaries with Josiah Venture, can move into their old house. So you can be praying for them that they will be able to get the work on their house done by June 19 or close to that date.

On Sunday, we went to church which was great. Even though I didn't understand what was going on or what was being said, it was amazing to hear people of a different culture praising our Heavenly Father. After church, we went with a group of about 7 Slovene youth to a pizzeria and had they most amazing pizza. I had a pizza called Treviso which was definitely the best pizza I have ever eaten. This picture doesn't do it justice.

On Monday, our fearless leader arrived back from his weekend in the states. He went home to attend his grandmother's funeral service. We all went out and watched Angels and Demons; which was not what I was expecting. The movie was good some of the acting was kind of cheesy and a little unrealistic, but overall a pretty decent movie.

On Tuesday, we attended a Bible study lead by Mateja about 5 Slovene students were there. Which was actually a fairly good number considering they have finals all this week. After the Bible study, we went over to a park and hung out with the students and some of tried an amazing burger. Now this is not your typical American burger. This burger you wouldn't be able to find in any restaurant in the USA. If it was found in America, the restaurant would be immediately closed down. The reason is that the burger was made with horse meat. That is correct. I ate a horse burger and it was delicious.

Today, we went up to the small town of Radovljica to help Sebastian (a Josiah Venture) help promote English Camp in the local schools. We will be heading back up there tomorrow and help him out again. After we got done promoting camps Sebastian look us to the beautiful Lake Bled. The water is an incredible clear aqua blue color and extremely gorgeous. God is truly an amazing Creator. How some can say this happened by chance completely baffles me. Here are some pictures of the lake so you can get a glimpse of its beauty.

Well that's basically what I've been up to for the past week. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Here are a few quick prayer requests. Please be praying for us as we promote the English Camps at the various cities/towns in Slovenia that we will be clear and that a lot of students will be exciting about camp and want to come. Second, camp is about two weeks away. Please be praying for us as we prepare our English lessons for camp that we will be able to get them done and that they will be clear. Third, please be praying for the hearts of the students who will be attending the various camps that they will be open to the Holy Spirit's tug on their heart. Thank you once again for all your prayers.

Novi Sad Tour and Concert in Hungary

Here are some pictures from our last few days:

Ross, Andy and I (We are still waiting for Kevin to come)



Me in My room (I still haven't unpacked :):




Michael W Smith/Starfield concert in Budapest: It was so powerful to see around 6,000 Eastern European believers gathered to worship! It was also wonderful to hear them sing in their own languages. We drove up with church members and leaders from this area, it was an encouragement to all of us.

Training at Malenovice:

Ema from Croatia and I really re-connected at training, I had a lot of wonderful conversations with her!!



Mateja from Slovenia and I also had many good conversations about life, ministry and relationships, it was so encouraging to talk with her



Several interns and I, including Jess going to Poland, Ema living in Croatia, Mateja who lives in Slovenia, Rachel going to Slo, and I




Tim and I being silly:



We had a lot of rich teaching during our week of training. I promised in my e mail update that I would elaborate some on what we learned. Here are a few highlights:

Dave Patty, the president of JV spoke in the evenings. All of the topics were powerful reminders, but here are a few that really hit home with me:

Vision: Seeing like Jesus: John 4:6-42
1. Jesus saw open doors
-The open door of requests: You can always ask questions like, "Can I help you?", "Can I sit here?", "Can I tell you my story?"
2. Jesus saw unseen needs:
-Each person has personal, and spiritual needs, if we take time to discover them, we can point them to the one who can meet those needs perfectly.
3. Jesus saw the Good News:
-Our message is a message of hope that each person needs and desires.
4. Jesus saw a ready harvest:
-Will we walk and act in faith, trusting that the harvest is there?

Jesus' most frequent rebuke was that his disciples had little faith:

Faith: Mark 6: 31-52
1. Give God what faith you have and ask him to mulitply it
2. Faith is Obedient to God's call
3. Faith perseveres. If God sends you into a storm, keep rowing. God is interested in far more than solving our problems, he is building us.
4. Faith is like a muscle, it only strengthens with exercise.

Pictures as Promised...

Me after hiking a huge hill to get our next clue, the skyscape behind me is Budapest:



An Escalator in the Metro:



The Bat Passing Game:

In Serbia!

I made it to Serbia! I left from CZ about Thirty hours ago! Here is part of the story:

We changed trains 3 times between Cesky Tesin and Budapest with all nine pieces of luggage. We had small delays here and there and by the time we arrived in Budapest, where we would catch a train to Serbia, our train was 68 minutes late, so we missed the connecting train by an hour! The next train did not leave for 12 hours! So... we needed to get a hotel. Before we got to the hotel, we found that we were locked in the train station, locked IN! So we drug our bags to each of the three exits just in case before returning to the first one which a woman tried to unlock for us. Finally it was decided that we would be leaving via a few staircases, not so good news but we would leave at last! The hotel was across the street and soon we were sleeping YAY! Today we slept in til 9:30 then had breakfast at the hotel before taking the train to Serbia. I am now in Bachka Topola at a Calvary Chapel church where I will be spending three days.

I am feeling the pressure of not knowing any Serbian at all! I haven't learned the Cyrillic Alphabet yet so it is difficult to differentiate sounds yet,thus making it hard to repeat names. Most of the people I am staying with in the church in Bachka Topola speak English well. It is a stretch to be away from Steve and Tanja and also alone still, since my teammates won't arrive until Sunday. I am really desiring some normalcy, but I know that being flexible now will prepare me for camps.

Please pray for language learning, that I would trust God with the details of the next few weeks and for a good team building time when Ross and Andy arrive from Ireland.

Praise God that Steve and Tanja were able to meet four students on the train and invite them to camp. :) I feel totally comfortable with Steve and Tanja. The Serbs I have met are very sweet and welcoming. One girl even kissed me on the cheek as she left saying in Serbian "See, she is my new friend." :)

I will post soon about our training in Czech. It was such a rich experience.

sLOVEnija

I just wanted to give you guys a quick shout out that we officially arrived in Slovenia.

I am here!

Sorry I haven't updated this yet.  I did arrive safely and am currently in the Czech going through training.  On Thursday, I will leave with my fellow interns to Slovenia. 

We arrived in Vienna, Austria on Wednesday May 27 and from there went on an Amazing Race.  The race was just like the TV show and we competed with the intern teams going to the various Eastern European countries.  We visited a total of four countries in 3 days and our last stop was Malenovice, Czech.  We went to Vienna, Austria, Bratislava, Slovakia, Budapest, Hungry, and Malenovice, Czech.  The three days were gruelling and exhausting but overall a great experience.  It was a great way for us to get to know each other and how we deal with high stress situations.  If you want to know more details of the different challenges we had to perform let me know and I will fill you in on the details.

So far training is going to great.  I am still really nervous about teaching English becuase I have a huge fear of getting in front of people.  So you can be praying for me this summer that I will rely on God to calm my nervous and get across what He wants me to teach the students.  I am really excited about the evening programs.  We are going to be teaching the redemption story starting with God creating the world and ending with Jesus coming to the world to save us and being the perfect sacrifice.  It is going to be a great time of discussion truly unpacking the stories of redemption.

More to come as the summer unfolds.  Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Amazing Race

Well, I've made it. As the fifty or so summer interns got off of the plane we loaded up our checked baggage and were sent on an Amazing Race. This Amazing race

beats jet lag...because you don't have time to stop and be tired.
gets you acquainted with E. Europe...we interacted with many many people as we asked for directions
and most importantly, brought each member of each team to the end of themselves. In this place we were able to learn a lot about our weaknesses and potential places of conflict on our teams as well as bond. It was quite the experience!! I really could never explain it all, but here are a few highlights:

*We traveled around, found clues, and visited in four different countries over the three days. We had clues to find and tasks to accomplish in Vienna, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary and in the Eastern side of Czech.
*We got to see, at least as we were racing by, many beautiful sites. I forget how beautiful and old the architecture is in Europe.
*We got to bond and interact with many other teams as we helped them along during the race or bonded over difficult challenges. (It took our team two hours of walking to find four pictures on one clue!!)
*It was so cool that Johnny and Brooke Stevens, and many helpers, planned this race just for us.

Some of the tasks we had to do included:

*Drinking a VERY Spicy pepper soup at a Gypsy restaurant. *Scanning an amusement park for the locations of a whole page of pictures taken there *Asking for directions from many strangers and learning to navigate the transportation system of many foreign cities. *Running through a maze (a real garden maze of green hedges) at the Austrian Palace *Getting a group of strangers to drink cups of a soft drink until it was gone (some French tourists helped us out). *Balancing a bat on your palm and passing it to your team members until you made it around an entire circle (See Pictures)

Pictures to come...