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.