English (Sports) Camp 2010: REDEEM [Maják Vsetín]

This is a video from the english/sports camp I did with Mayak. A guy in the youth group made this video. Just a little picture to see who I have been working with and what a camp looks like.

Leaving Czech

I left Czech yesterday. I have all sorts of things to update on in the last week and a half so I will do that soon. I am now in Zagreb.

Quick update

Time is running down very quickly. We are leaving this afternoon for a cottage with the youth group this weekend. I am very excited about it. There will be around 20 kids and 4 leaders. The theme of the weekend translated basically is a "life journey." So we will talk a lot about life and what matters. We will return on Sunday around lunch and then I will go to church that night at 5 for the last time in Czech so kind of sad and then head to Melenovice on Monday till Friday for a conference. I am really excited for that as well but its sad only having two more nights in Vsetin. Just a quick update but you can be praying for this weekend and that the students will examine their lives and think about what they are living for.

Our God is Greater - Chris Tomlin

This is a sweet song I really have enjoyed and wanted to share. Hope you enjoy it.

This is the front door to my basement apartment. 

I thought it might be interesting to see where I have been staying the last few months. This is a house on top of a big hill in a town called Jesenka which is just outside of the town where I am serving at. I have a bike that I right every where so it takes like 10 minutes to get to church and then 30 minutes to get home. This house is owned by a Czech that lives in Canada so he is only here two times throughout the year. I live in the basement apartment with another Czech named Danecek. 

Vsetin Camp with Mountain View and Network

This is a video Cyrus ( pastor at Mountain View in Fort Collins) made for their trip over here that I did with them. Its a video of two different camps so about half the pictures are from mine but gives an idea of what was happening.

Things to be praying for...

So my time in Czech is ending quickly. I leave 3 weeks from tomorrow, September 25th. 3 weeks does not seem long at all and the last week I am planning on going to a Josiah Ventures conference from the 20th to the 24th. Its a conference for all Josiah Venture missionaries. I am not with Josiah Ventures but was invited to attend. Josiah Venture is in I believe 11 other countries. I think it would be a great learning experience and to be able to meet missionaries from different countries. So with that being said. I really only have 2 weeks left in Vsetín.

You can be praying for:

- on the 11th I was invited to go to a town called Český Těšín (I did my first camp with them) to talk at their camp reunion party. I was told their will be many unbelievers there and probably around 60 students. I was asked to talk for 20 minutes on the topic of "redeem." I am not sure what I will talk about yet so if you will pray for wisdom on what to share and that God will move me aside so that it can be used in these kids lives.

- September 17-19 the Mayak youth group is going on a trip to a cottage for the weekend. They actually moved it from Oct to Sept just so I could go. I was asked to share my testimony there so you can be praying for the kids that will come. There will be many non believers so that they will be open to the gospel.

- Time management for me. I have a lot of free time in the mornings, so that I will use it wisely, even if its just personal study.

- Most of all be praying for the salvation of the youth. The youth group and soccer club are growing in numbers with many unbelievers which is great but they need Jesus.

Went climbing with a couple guys last week. Was a lot of fun. It was only like a 30 minute bike ride from Vsetin.

Cottage

A guy from Vsetin and I went to this cottage a week and a half ago. 6 guys from the youth group came up with us for dinner but didn't stay the night. It was a 45 minute bike ride from the town. Its crazy to think this cottage is over 200 years old. Basically as old as our country. The next morning, Honza and I went and picked mushrooms in the woods. Mushroom picking is very big in Czech so it was a good Czech experience. After picking them we went back into town and cook them up for lunch.

Drilling

This is after drilling holes in a cement wall. You could see the dust in the air still.

What am I doing?

So I have been in Vsetin for two weeks now with no camps or structure so here is what I have been doing. I found that usually my day starts between 12 and 3 and then I usually get home around 9 to 11 depending on the days. So with that being said, I would like to have my mornings busier. They have gotten busier as the weeks have gone on but when I don't have anything going on I use it as a time for self study. I am readying a few different books and have really enjoyed that. I even started studying the language which is very difficult. Its said to be the fifth hardest language (not sure how they figure that out).I have been trying to have lunch with different people and Czech leaders so if I do not have lunch plans I will usually bike into town around 3 and then go to a park where a bunch of kids hangout and play soccer with them and handout fliers for our soccer league. Most days I will do this with another guy from the soccer club with the church or sometimes just go by myself. Then on Monday and Wednesday I have atletico (soccer club). From 4 to 5 its younger kids and 5 to 6:30 are the older kids. On Sundays, I go to church in the morning and then have soccer at 6. On Tuesdays, I started practicing with the city soccer team which has been a blast. They are really good. It is an 18 and older. The coach has played over 200 professional games so he knows the game real well. On Thursdays I play soccer with anyone that wants to show up starting at six. Then on Fridays we have youth group. We usually have been playing softball but this last Friday because of the weather we watched the Incredibles, in Czech which is a good way to practice czech. Then afterwards I gave a short talk on Joshua 1:1-9. I have been helping some families with some projects in their homes. I helped one guy build shelves in his office at his apartment. The walls in homes here are cement so I drilled 60 some holes in the cement wall. Another project was tearing down a ceiling in someones house. The house was 200 years old. It was such a messy job. We had to knock out the cement, then two layers of wood. It was tough and really dusty but was kind of fun.

Break dancing in Vienna

One of the coolest things were these break dancers. They were amazing.

Post Camp

So I finished my last camp I would do about 2 weeks ago. After the camp, I was pretty worn out. I took the Chicago team back to Praha on Friday August 6th. I just needed to make sure they got to there hotel ok and then do some tourist stuff the next day and then they left that Sunday. I had only been in Praha 24 hours before this trip so thankfully it is a very easy town to get around. I was responsible for 9 others. I was able to stay at a seminar on the edge of Praha for free which nice but it took about an hour to get into the city and an hour and a half to get to the Chicago teams hotel. It was suck a blessing to stay at this seminary. The guy I was staying with was there the first night but left for a camp the rest of the week. He left me keys to his apartment as well as an American missionary family that was living in the dorms as well but was gone for the summer. It was great. I was able to stay there all week. There was one other Czech guy there and then for a couple nights, Matt was there with me (the American I had been living with). I was able to do some touristy stuff. Did a lot of walking around, trying food, etc. But on that Wednesday I didn't leave the house till dinner. It was amazing. Was able to get caught up a bit on my blog, do some reading, watch a movie which I had done in a long time, and upload pictures onto my computer.

The highlight of my week was going to a Sparta Praha vs Banik Ostrava soccer game. Sparta is one of the best teams in Czech. These two teams are probably the biggest rivals in all of Czech with the craziest fans. A few of the Czechs I invited said they would be scared to go and told me to make sure I don't wear the wrong colors or sit in the wrong section. So just me and Matt went to the game. When we arrived there, the Banik fans were being escorted into the stadium with cops in full gear, helmets and all, surrounding them. Both teams fans were yelling there chants as they were walking down the street. I have never seen so much security at a game. In side the stadium, each team had there more crazy fans that were fenced into a section. They didn't stop cheering the entire game. It was an awesome experience but I never felt endanger.

Then on Thursday I took a train to Břeclav in Czech were I met 5 people from my first camp and one of there friends. We then took a train to Vienna. That day we just walked around Vienna and then that night went to an amusement park. That night, we stayed at a hostel and then the next day we did some shopping and then we left around 4:30 to go back to Czech so it was a short trip. I arrived back in Vsetín around 11:00 that night. I had stuff with me for a week so I had my backpacking backpack and then had to walk home. Its like a 45 minute walk all up hill. It wasn't to bad but it was very eerie. All the street lights were not on and it was a foggy night. One thing I have learned while here is to get around with out a car. Everyone bikes or walks everywhere. I have had a car for some of my time here but its cheaper and sometimes easier to just bike or walk. That's my short vacation. I could say a lot more but it was awesome and restful to get away for a little while. I will update soon on what I have been doing the last week and what the rest of my stay will look like.

čau

First European soccer match

Camp #3

I finished my last camp last friday. It was a city camp in Vsetin. This means that instead of going to a hotel like the last three, we stayed at the town where most of them live. It was with one of the other local churches in the area. There were 8 Americans that came from Christ Community in Chicago. 3 of them were around my age and the other 5 were around 50 to 60. Most of the older guys have all done some sort of coaching in there years and love God so they were able to bring their coaching experience and there life experience to there different sports. The camp was a volleyball, basketball and soccer camp. I coached soccer with two guys named Quinn and Bob. They are both close to my age. Neither of them have played soccer since they were young so when I found that out I was a little worried. After we had our first practice and saw there willingness to serve and do what ever I needed and how I saw them interacting with the kids, I new it was going to be great. They were great, they would play when we needed an extra player, shag balls, keep time for scrimmages, or whatever else that needed to be done.

The structure of this camp looked like this:

7:30 - Bring breakfast to Americans at there hotel and do a devotional

9:00 - Meet at the Youth room for the church for a morning program

9:30- Sports

12:30 - Lunch

3:00 - Sports

6:30 - Dinner

7:30 - Night program

9:30 - Go home or go into town and hangout with campers.

Since it was a city camp, everything was far apart so we would have to walk 30 minutes, give or take, to anywhere we needed to go. Doing city camps are a new idea but I think can be a very effective outreach, especially with some changes. The opened up the camp to anyone in the town between the ages of 15 and 21. Nothing was required so kids would show up for sports and then not the programs, or show up for the program and not the sports. I had an average of around 15 kids at each practice. I never knew who would be there so that made it difficult to plan drills at times but everything worked out great. Coaching is a stretch for me just since I haven't done it much, but I have really enjoyed it. The weather was great for most of the week which was a blessing considering almost everything was done outside. It was to have people that I have been playing soccer with on Sunday's but don't know very coming to the practices. The highlight for me was having kids from the camp before coming to the sports and the programs. Especially two kids i have been reaching out to and really have a heart for who are atheists. They came to soccer everyday and most nights to the program where the gospel was shared. Also at every practice, either, Bob, Quinn, Jirka, or I would share part of our testimony to them. So they were able to hear life lessons and about God at every practice. It was another good week. Totally different than the other camps but not in a bad way.

Camp #2 cont.

I wanted writing about my second camp. We had around 40 students and then 20 leaders. In the sports that I was doing in the morning we had around 13 students and then I think 6 leaders. We did 3 days of softball, 2 days of soccer and 1 day of American football. I wish you could have seen them playing football. They didn't understand it at all. After explaining the game, we went to play flag football and on the first play, one of the Americans threw the ball to one of the Czech's, he caught the ball and then immediately threw it up field. They didn't get it. We had 2 days of football planned but they hated it so we played softball instead. My highlight of the week were our discussion groups after the talk each night. I had 5 students from the sports group in my discussion group. They were all boys who were the older bunch. I started leading the discussion group the 2nd night. I had an interpreter that was great. The first few nights, it was very difficult to get them to participate at all. Finally one night, I just decided to share my testimony(life story) and then left it up to just let them ask me questions for a while. They started opening up a bit and asking me questions about my life, soccer, girls, etc. I think it was really good for them to see how open I was. It was like it helped them trust me more. The next night they were a lot more open. I think this was day 4. I found out 3 out of the 5 kids in my group didn't believe in the Bible. One of them said he didn't believe in the Bible or God but after hearing the stories that week he was starting to wonder if there really is a God. This is the same night i told them I'd be staying for the next two months. They were so excited. I found out 4 of the 5 live right next to me. The night was the high for me. I really felt like I knew why God had me hear. I was building great relationships with these kids who live by me, look up to me, trusts me and wants to hang out. It was amazing to see how at the beginning of the week,they didn't want to participate in anything till the end they were having a blast and participating.

After the camp, we had a follow up were the other Americans would stay with the students in there homes and we had things planned to everyday. One day we played air soft and cooked hot dogs and smores over a fire. Another day played volleyball, softball and then grilled hamburgers. Another day we had a program at the Castle in Vsetin were everyone and there parents were invited to come. The gospel was shared, there was a slideshow of pictures from the week and then did songs that we did during the week. The songs were a huge part of the week. Every morning and night we would do the camp song. The camp song was "Never going back to ok" by the afters. If you are curious about the song you can click on the this link. We had hand motions to do with the songs that everyone would get into. Also we would do songs like "Pharaoh Pharaoh" and some other classics that we would do hand motions with.

City Camp in Vsetin - Prayer

Just finished our first day of my third camp. Each camp has been so different. This camp is a camp in town so I'll be staying at my house in Vsetin. Soccer, volleyball, and basketball will be taught at this camp. There is a team from Christ Community Church in Chicago that will be helping with camp. I'm doing the soccer with two others from Chicago who haven't played much soccer but after seeing there servant's hearts, love for Christ, and how they interact with the students they will be great. Things to be praying for:

- I'm coaching around 5 hours of practice a day for the next 5 days and I'm pretty nervous about filling all that time so wisdom on drills

- Energy, I'm tired from all the camps and I'm sure the rest of the team is from traveling

- Student's aren't required to go to different events so pray that they will come to programs we are putting on in the morning as well as at night where the gospel will be shared.

- Pray for the relationships that will be built this week and how to follow up with them]

I have no idea how many people actually read this but if you need clarification on anything or want to know more about what is happening in Czech feel free to email me at mharty@frii.com . So much is happening its hard to recap it all and i'm sure i'm leaving pieces out. I appreciate your prayers and support.

Camp # 2

Wow, there is so much to say. Its been a little bit since my last update and its because so much has happened I don't know where to start. So to start, we started training at Malenovice on Wednesday the 14th. The training was with Josiah Ventures. There were around 220 Americans at training that were being sent out the next week to do camps, which was a record for them. There were so many people. Training is pretty good. it was all prep for camp, taught us camp songs, about the Czech culture and history, what discusion groups should look like, but the best part for me was connection with my team. I met up with the Crossway Chapel team which was a mixture of Crossway Chapel Willmington, Mountain View, The Crossing, a girl from California, and me from Windsor. On my team we had Eddie (Wilmington), Crystal (Wilmington), R-Bo (Mountain View), Jesse (Mountain View), Krista (Mountain View), and Laura (the Crossing). It was really interesting to see the dinamics of the team. I had met R-Bo before but didn't really know him and had never met any of the others and it was the same for the rest of the team, even with the two from Wilmington. Friday, we went to camp at Ostravice, which was the same place I did the first camp. There we met up with the Czech team that consisted of I think 8 Czech's and Brad who is from the US but has been in Czech for around 5 years now. He works for Josiah Ventures but is the youth leader at the church Mayak (lighthouse) which is who the camp was with. Then there were two more Americans from Wisconsin that met up with us to help teach English. We had a group of leaders from all over. It was amazing to see how we all connected and were able to work together. I'll talk a little more about this later.

So a little about this camp. This camp was with the Church Mayak in Vsetin who I have and will be serving with for the next few months. It was an English and Sports Camp. There were around 40 kids from the age 13 to 17. The structure of the camp looked something like this:

7:30 Devotional - for leaders but students could come if they wanted

8:15 Breakfast

9:15 Morning program

9:30 Went to either our sports or english class

12:30 Lunch

1:00 Quiet time

2:00 free time

3:30 afternoon games

6:00 dinner

7:00 Night program

8:30 discussion groups

9:15(30) night games

11:00 lights out

to be cont...

Prayer Requests

So a lot has happened in the last few weeks. I will right and update on that soon but wanted to just post some prayer requests. We just finished a camp today that went great. I have so much to say so I need some time to right about it but follow up starts tomorrow. We probably had around 25 non-Christians at camp. You can be praying for those students. Everyone of them heard the gospel so pray that they keep thinking about it, come to the events this week for follow up and to continue withe the youth group, for the sports camp starting on Friday, and for safe travel for a team of Americans coming from Chicago on Wednesday. Also, I build some great relationships this last week, so wisdom on how to grow those relationships. Most aren't believers but we get along and have a common interest of soccer.

Camp with Cesky Tesin

We finished our first camp on Saturday. The camp was with a youth group in Cesky Tesion, which is on Polands boarder. The camp was a sports camp that had airsoft, volleyball, softball, and soccer. Going into the week, I new I would be the head coach for soccer but had no idea what the level of play would be like. The structure of the camp was just like the English camps ran by Josiah Ventures. The Schedule looked something like:

7:45 devo

8:15 Breakfast

9:15 Inspiration Videos

9:30 Divided into our sports groups

12:30 Lunch

3:00 Afternoon activity

6:00 Dinner

7:00 Night program- starts with games and skits, then a night talk on the topic Redeem

8:30 or 9:00 Divid into discussion groups which were with our sports Then when we were done had free time till we went to bed which were as late as 2 or 3 in the morning sometimes playing cards, other games or just talking.

We arrived Friday July 2nd at a hotel in Ostravice, around an hour from where i'm staying in Vsetin. The hotel was run down and you could tell it was built in the communist era. When walking inside the hotel, you could smell a must. All the other leaders (some adults and some youth in the youth group) arrived shortly after us. We set up for the week. On Saturday I saw the field I would be coaching on and was surprised how bad of shape it was in. Hadn't been played on years, and was mowed for the first time in probably years as well. The youth came that afternoon. They settled in, we had dinner and then had free time for the night. A bunch of us played soccer that night. I was shocked by how good they were at soccer. I began to get nervous about the week. I had prepared more beginner stuff and I had no idea what I could offer them. Needless to say, I still had a blast playing with them. Sunday everything really started. Had my first practice and it went great. Once I had the first one done, I felt pretty confident about what I was doing. We had two practices. Shared my testimony at one and did a devotional at the other. I had a great interpreter in my group that loves God and was able to get to know him pretty well as the week went on. That first day one of the guys in softball broke his ankle. He ended up having to have surgery on it the next day. After having an injury on the first day, you start to wonder what will happen next. Honestly, the first few days were really hard for me. There was just me and one other American so I really struggled at the beginning of the week. Couldn't hardly communicate with anyone and I missed my first 4th of July. But by the end of the week, I could still joke around and have a blast with someone when you hardly even speak the same language.

The rest of the week went great. Played a lot of fun games and the talks went great at night. On Wednesday (night 4), I gave the talk that night on David and Bathsheba. It was a very intersting topic that was assigned to me but I greatly enjoyed it. The story is about second chances and how someone after God's own heart sinned but was redeemed. I started out the night talking about when I hit a train a couple years back. I should have died that day but God had more of a plan for my life. I had a second chance on how I would choose to live. That's just a brief overview of it, I could go on and on. I have so much more to say about the camp but little time. One student professed Christ and hopefully a few seeds in others. I could go on and on about the camp. It has gotten me so excited for the next one.

I arrived for training yesterday morning at another town and met up with Mountain View Community Church and 230 other American's for training. Its been crazy but a blast. Met some sweet people. Its crazy how you can meet someone halfway across the world that knows people that you know. Its really such a small world. We leave tomorrow for camp. Need to go but here's a quick update.

Camp 1

I'm leaving for my first sports camp today in Cesky Tesin. The camp has 4 sports, airsoft, fotbal (soccer:) ), softball, and volleyball. The students split into there sports in the mornings and then are all together in the afternoons. I'm in charge of the soccer part everyday which will be fun but challenging because there aren't many students and there will be beginners as well as intermediate players.

Some ways you could pray for the next week would be:

- more kids sign up

- I'm giving a talk on David and Bathsheba so wisdom on how to portray that

- that I'll personally be able to connect with at least one of the students

- patients with the language barrier. Its been harder than I thought with the language and its hard to connect.

The beginning

So I left for my trip Sunday June 27th at 8:07 pm. Everything went great. My parents and my brother took me to the airport around 5, checked my bag and then had coffee for around an hour. Saying good bye to them was when it finally hit me that I was really leaving. 4 months is not that along when you think about it but i felt all sorts of emotions going through security. I felt sad saying bye to my family, a little scared, but then excited. Everything went smoothly. Dave Foltz's met me at the gate. We were able to talk for a while, then he prayed with me and then sent me on the plane. He was such a blessing through all this. Helped so much with getting me here. I flew through the night and arrived in London around noon there time. Went through customs fine, got my bag and then it was time for the real challenge. I took my too bags, bought a bus ticket from the Heathrow airport to the Stansted airport around 2 hours away. I arrived at the airport to find it way to expensive to buy a ticket for the 5:30 flight to Bratislava, Slovakia so i bought one for 6:30 the next morning. I had around 14 hours to kill. So i started walking, which was tiring with my heavy bags. I couldn't figure out how to use the phone to call a Czech number for quite sometime so I couldn't get a hold of Jirka to let him know when to pick me up. While I was at the airport, i met an older man who was from the Netherlands but was living in Australia so we went to a restaurant and watched the Brazil vs Chile game. After the game we departed ways and I went and found a spot in the airport to sleep. The whole airport was tile floors so I found an open spot and went to bed. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much. The ground was hard and the whole time I kept waking up thinking someone was going to take my bag. I finally got up early in the morning and made it to my flight with plenty of time to kill. When arriving in Bratislava, Jirka was there waiting. We went to his car and started the 2 hour drive to Vsetin. We stopped at a sweet castle on our way and at his parents house on the Czech boarder. His parents couldn't speak a word of english but were very hospitable. By the time i finally went to bed that night it was around midnight and i was so beat. Slept great that night. Started camp planning the next day and then played basketball with a bunch of locals that night. It was a blast, couldn't communicate with them at all, which was frustrating, but had a good time. We were able to invite them to come to one of our camps. There are a bunch of planning that is still needing to be done for the camps so that will keep us pretty busy. I leave tomorrow to go to another town to do a camp for a week. At that camp, I will be leading the soccer sessions which is around 3 hours a day, a talk on David and Bathsheba, as well as my testimony. I have a lot of prep to do before we leave tomorrow but so much more to say. Its been a blast so far but a way different culture.

čau