Sour Patch Kids and Ski slopes

It has been about one month since the summer has started. June is a crazy month for us. It starts with a race across Czech. The purpose of this is for the team to be built together through shared experience. We tried really hard to win the race…well until we missed our first train by a matter of seconds. After that we pretty much just relaxed through out the race. Until we found out that four of the five of us had crazy allergies which hit us half way through the race while we were sitting on a train.
After that we spend an intense week in training which is great. This year we had around 10 team and 3-4 countries represented. Training is such a sweet time that we get to connect with other missionaries and interns.
After training we go on a whirlwind tour of group visits. We have three weekends to visit three group and plan three weeks of camp. Not to mention building the team, planning lessons and other camp prep work which we do during the two weeks between visits.
Right now we are sitting at the first round of US team trainings camp start this Friday and there is a lot of work to do. From this point on life is like one giant series of cause and effect relationships.
The following are a just a snippet of the past weekend visits.
The first visit was in Pardubice. It is a city outside of Prague. Please pray for this group and for the chance for them to connect with new students. They are an older group that has done camps for a long time. Their struggle is remembering the heart of camp and God’s heart for the lost.
The second visit was at Bohumin. Bohumin was the first group that I interacted with in Czech 1.5 yrs ago during spring break. I’m so excited to be doing camp with them and renewing some older relationships. Pray that God moves mightily in this camp. It seems that he is doing a lot and a breaking point might come at camp. This is a great group.
The third visit was in Valašske Meziříčí. Yes that is a whole lot of Czechness.It is a hard name to say and when ever I see it my tongue cries. I love this group. They are restarting camps after taking the past 2 yrs off. Pray for the leadership that they would grow in confidence. Pray for students we have 9 campers signed up now, we want 25. Pray that we would get a lot of campers signed up from the city itself.

Czech...again

So I'm back in Czech. I love it here. As soon as I say the Prague and I felt the wheels of the plane touch down I felt something change. The large chunk of my heart that I had left here returned to me. A part of my soul came back to life. The piece of myself that I had been missing for a year was returned and I feel whole again.
This past year was a huge struggle for me.I had never waged such an intense battle for the desires of my heart before. I had never struggled with doubt like I had during the past school year but now...I remember what God had told me. All the questions I had about coming to Czech were wiped away.As I waited to get off the plane I thought to myself I have no reason to be in Czech. My whole story and involvement with this place and these people start with God. I have no reason to be here except for His call.I think that might be one of the coolest things ever.
One of my supervisors were talking about how everything for this summer seemed to fall apart except for us, the extended summer Interns. Its weird to think of myself as an answer to prayer but that is exactly what I am, or so I'm told.

the yoke

Lately I've been feeling like I'm carrying a burden that is more than I want to bear. It isn't that the yoke is to heavy or that it doesn't fit right...it is just that I'm unaccustomed to wearing it. My shoulders aren't used to the mantel that is placed on them. My muscles aren't familiar with the constant pressure that life seems to be putting on them. All of the things I'm struggling with are not knew for me but for some reason they are different now. It might be the reality that is quickly approaching that a missionary's life holds for me. I'll always be away from home, I'll always be missing from family. I'll always be a foreigner. I'll always be dependent on people for support.
I know that Jesus promised an easy yoke and that his burden is light but these days I question if there is any way that it could be lighter still as I wait for the time that I become accustomed to feel of his yoke.

Yes twice in one month

I know for those of you who keep track of this site that it is rather uncommon...ok, it has never happened before, i think, but I'm posting for a second time in one month. That being said lets get on with the good stuff.
Last week I was given the privilege of attending Josiah Venture's new missionary training. It was an incredible experience of meeting new faces of people that I hope to call co-worker with soon, hearing about what my life's calling has in store for me, and getting some wicked sweet advice. I forgot to mention but Dave Patty was there. Dave is the founder and president of Josiah Venture, a man who literally writes my text books, and some one that I greatly admire.That night ended with Dave, My roommate, a others and myself standing in a circle and talking about life. I was so blessed. On the way back to school I had time to talk with Krupa about mission's stuff and life in Czech. Krupa is a JV missionary who is a Moody for the year doing his Master's work. He has become a mentor to me over the past months. We got to talk about all those things that you never remember during question and answer times.
Last night I received some great news. I now have two churches that are behind me and supporting me. God is simple amazing. Unfortunately I can only do so much to get ready to leave right now because I'm still waiting on a lot(like all of it actually) of paper work from JV.
As for the rest of life it is going really good. God has given me a few surprises that have really caught me off guard but I'm enjoying it a lot. The semester is full of reading and a few papers and I can't believe that it is already February and next week is the start of Moody's Founder's week. Which is a week long Bible conference. it is fun but very draining as well.
Things to Pray for:
That I would get my info from JV so I can start aggressively raisng support
Pray fro God's provision during the upcoming months for school related items as well as support
Pray for Melissa my co-leader and our team of Americans and Czech(Which I have no info on)
Pray for the churches we will be working with and the one I'm at now.

Thank you all so much for reading this and being a part of my life.

oh my... time flies

Well hello to every one. After a long hiatus that I like to think of as a hibernation I'm back. Today is the beginning of the end. This marks the first day of my last semester in college. It crazy to think of all that will come to a fulfillment on May 17. Five years of college and a year spent trying to find my place in the world later I'll have my BA and I'll be off to spend the rest of my life acting like I know what it is that I'm doing. Almost a quarter of a lifetime's adventures come to a close and the second big stage of life begins.
The next great adventure that I get to go on is one that I'm unfamiliar with and forces me to revert back to a stage of almost total dependence on others. The Czech awaits, my adventure awaits. Am I ready? This is the big question I find myself struggling with lately. Are we ever ready for the things that await us around the next turn? Beginning a career, getting married, starting a family, the end of one thing and the beginning of another? I feel like that feeling of readiness will be something that continually evades me. I guess that that is the beauty of ministry. There are simply so many curve balls and "x-factors" that I don't ever feel ready but I work for this guy who isn't ever caught be surprises. Since I'm only a steward of my situation I can't go beyond his decisions. I find comfort in this. I don't call the shots, the burden of ultimate responsibility isn't hanging on my shoulders. there is beauty in that.

my second update

Hello every one.
I want to apologize first for what will probably be poor English. The longer I'm here the more I seem to lose.So much has happened since my last update. I spent for days or so in Austria. I was in a little Alpine village called Hallshtate. It sits by a large lake and is sorounded by Mountains and is home to 3,000 year old salt minds used by the Romans that are still active today. I also spent a week in a lovely little house right on a lake in a touristy town called Telch. Telch is in the Czech. The train trip to and from Austria was a nightmare. Both to and from our 9hr ride turned into 14 plus hours. We had our first week of camp, which was a blast. It was so cool to see God working. I met some great students and had some really neat conversations with them. I also give one of the nightly talks. Its about love and is based off of the women at the well. I also did some heavy recruiting with the American team that we worked with. We had a hike day where I talked to a kid about Moody for 3-4 hrs. It was nice having some crazy Americans and getting to go wild at camp. On the last night we were thanked by the Czech team and as I stood in front of our camp about to say one thing I loved about the camp. 69 peoplestarted cheering my name and going wild. It was so unbeliveable it almost brought me to tears. It was the biggest affirmatiopn I could have had.
As for me personaly I fell in love with a city called Tabor, this is the home of our first camp. As I ponder my possible future here that is diffinatly a place that is a possiblity. I'm experiance a lot of freedom through what God is showing me and I'm pretty sure he wants me here fulltime. The only care I have right is trying to figure out how to get here as soon as and as often as possible. I've talked to some people and I'm going to try to make it here over my winter break to do an mini-camp. One year ago I never would have thought that I would end up here in this situation.
I had a great birthday. I spent the day with my roommate Hawaii after we both braved the Czech train system by ourselves. I also recived some amazing news that one of the students I had in a discussion group during our March camp ended up giving his life to the lord this past week. It is so cool to see God move.
Please continue to pray for me and my team as we have two more camps to go.
Jerry

Well...

I'm in the Czech. It has been almost three weeks since I arrived here for the summer and already God has taught my so much about himself, cross cultural missions, and my future. The other day I had some awesome time with God. I had a lot of questions and things on my soul about my future and things like that. I sat on a park bench reading Psalm 119 and Peter's encounter with Christ on the beach. As I asked God for answers instead he asked me a simple question. He asked me if I loved him. The same charge that he gave to Peter on the beach. Did I love him enough to follow him no matter where it would lead me and what that would mean?
That has made all the difference. The answer to that questions was so freeing I can't describe it. He didn't give me details but like he so often does he gave me himself which is what I really needed.
Please be praying that I will continue to seek him. Also pray for me team's health and unity. We about 2 weeks before camps start so please pray that as we visit schools and prepare during this time we would be diligent and fruitful. Also pray for our time at camp that God would move. Thanks you so much for partnering along side me in this ministry.
I will try and post some pictures soon.
Chao for now