What an exciting week!
(there are SO many camp stories That I would love to share but these are just a few that stand out to me this morning)
As a team, we were praying for 40 campers, at this camp we ended up with 13. The exciting thing about the amount of students is that it was EXACTLY the amount needed. We could have looked at this in confusion, why would God not bring an overload of students? There are SO many of us Americans that can pour into the youth here? But He had greater plans for this camp and the individuals!!! We were blessed with students that already knew and have a relationship with the Lord to those who do not believe BUT are willing to listen to our beliefs, take part in prayer, listen to the Bible readings and the list goes on. We were able to really establish close relationships with the students and create a comfortable environment that allowed them to dig deeper in their curiosity.
My prayer for these students- Dear God
Please provide mentors for these students, godly role models to have in their lives. I cannot even imagine God how hard it would be to grow in my faith if I did not have a community to help guide me in your direction. Lord, some are seeking you and you have revealed yourself to them, for that I thank you. God, for those who have not searched for you yet or not found you, please give them strength to keep looking. Please use me and the other interns to shed your love guid them with your word. You are a God of love, a God of protection, God of forgiveness, and grace(!!!!) thank you for your endless beauty and for allowing us to seek YOU!!!! amen:)
Another area that was exciting to witness is the ministry within the camp. We had an AMAZING worship band that was filled with talent!! Students were able to express their feelings through songs. There was one specific student that created a song crying out to the Lord wanting to Know Him, love Him, hear Him, feel Him... it was such a beautiful picture of someone truly desiring the Lord!!!
The last encounter that really sticks out was my friendship with my roommate. I was blessed to room with a girl that has been to camp the previous year, that walks into a room and lights it up with her smile, is full of joy and excitement. From the second we met we knew we were going to be great friends. Throughout the week we were able to pray together, speak about God working in our lives, and have our own little Bible study. This is pretty ironic but if you've read previous blogs you would have seen that a weakness I was overcoming was praying aloud with others. Well, haha I am SO thankful for God working on me in this area before camp. By praying with her each night and with a couple other campers, I was asked to make a prayer group for them so that we could stay connected and that they could hear my prayers, they went on about how much it means to them, how they love it ect.. When they were saying this, I could not hold back my laughter, its the little things like this that put me in GREAT AWE of our God. He was able to convict me in my weakness, help me work through it and then allowed me to see what beauty can come out of it...
To end this, my roommate also said "Last year when I came I saw God working in others, this year I see Him working within me." Our love, grace, joy can go a long way, just because someone does not believe yet.. does not mean they wont!!! I think the greatest reminder this week was that God has a plan for each individual. It will not be on our time or even that persons timing. God knows all, sees all and it will be on His great time!!
Thank you to all of you that have sent me encouraging emails, and for those of you who are praying for our team and students!!!
Blessings:)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Week before our first camp!!
We have been back in Croatia for almost an entire week and WOW, it has been great!!!
One area I wanted to grow in this summer was praying aloud. Growing up I never experienced praying aloud with others. It was something done with just me and the Lord. Over the past year and a half I have had instances where I was feeling critiqued by others in what I say during my prayers, how I pray ect... It has led me to feel very insecure opening up for others to hear what I want to say and how I speak to the Lord. BUT this past week God reminded me that it is an insecurity satan is putting in my head to keep me from singing out loud my love for the Lord!!!! And that it is a barrier that I can get rid of!!! When I realized it was as easy as me telling satan he has no power over me because I am one with Christ, I have felt this great weight off my shoulders and havent allowed it to hold me back!!! I am thankful to say it was as easy as me telling myself if this is a barrier between me and God than I get to do something to take it down and draw me closer to Him...
Another area brought to my attention is that God comes first, church comes second and family comes third! I LOVE my family so much and want to be with them ALL the time. Coming out here while knowing I was going to miss my sister and sister in laws pregnancy was the HARDEST decision I have had to make BUT it showed me how hard it can be to be obedient but what beauty can come from it!!
The last thing that has become evident this week was that I want and need to remind myself who I am serving and why I am serving. Being here in such a BEAUTIFUL place and having so much fun, it's easy to just get lost in the every day motions but I was reminded how God CHOSE me, LOVES me and I want to not only glorify Him each and everyday but build His Kingdom!
Prayer requests:
We are asking for 40 students at each camp (3 camps)
That the Stevo and SArah's church becomes more involved with the English camps
For unity between our intern team and when the American teams come that we are all unified
Thank you again for reading and taking part in this mission by praying for us!!!!
One area I wanted to grow in this summer was praying aloud. Growing up I never experienced praying aloud with others. It was something done with just me and the Lord. Over the past year and a half I have had instances where I was feeling critiqued by others in what I say during my prayers, how I pray ect... It has led me to feel very insecure opening up for others to hear what I want to say and how I speak to the Lord. BUT this past week God reminded me that it is an insecurity satan is putting in my head to keep me from singing out loud my love for the Lord!!!! And that it is a barrier that I can get rid of!!! When I realized it was as easy as me telling satan he has no power over me because I am one with Christ, I have felt this great weight off my shoulders and havent allowed it to hold me back!!! I am thankful to say it was as easy as me telling myself if this is a barrier between me and God than I get to do something to take it down and draw me closer to Him...
Another area brought to my attention is that God comes first, church comes second and family comes third! I LOVE my family so much and want to be with them ALL the time. Coming out here while knowing I was going to miss my sister and sister in laws pregnancy was the HARDEST decision I have had to make BUT it showed me how hard it can be to be obedient but what beauty can come from it!!
The last thing that has become evident this week was that I want and need to remind myself who I am serving and why I am serving. Being here in such a BEAUTIFUL place and having so much fun, it's easy to just get lost in the every day motions but I was reminded how God CHOSE me, LOVES me and I want to not only glorify Him each and everyday but build His Kingdom!
Prayer requests:
We are asking for 40 students at each camp (3 camps)
That the Stevo and SArah's church becomes more involved with the English camps
For unity between our intern team and when the American teams come that we are all unified
Thank you again for reading and taking part in this mission by praying for us!!!!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Back from Training!
WoW, what an interesting last week! Started off AMAZING, became a bit challenging but ended with great knowledge..
Last Tuesday we left Croatia for the Amazing race and training in Czech. We had to start driving at 12 that night and did not arrive till 12 that next day. Needless to say, we were all VERY exhausted. We had to meet up with the other intern teams in the Prague airport for our race rules and departure. By 345 we were on our way!
When we were given our first clue we headed to the bus and made our way into the busy town. After finishing our first challenge (finding a specific shoe store) we were given our next clue to head into Pragues town square. This is where my team went into full gear! The challenge was to be given a picture of a structure somewhere within a mile radius, find the structure and answer a question form a JV staff. If we got the question wrong we had to go back to the starting point. If answered correctly, we were given a puzzle piece. When we answered all 8 and collected all 8 pieces we were able to move onto our next challenge. As we ran ALL around the square, what we did not notice was that we were the ONLY ones running. When we headed to our next challenge we took over first place. By 730 that evening we ended up in the best hostel that I have ever been in and took our first place price (breakfast in the morning).
By the way, at the beginning we were given so much money and with that money we could use it for food and travel, if we ran out before we crossed the finish line... then it looks like we would be hitch-hiking a long way:)
As the next morning came we were feeling great; fully rested, had a great breakfast and leaving 15 minutes before the next group! We told ourselves its a great day for a morning run and we were OFF!!!! This day consisted of a LOT of running, eating brains and intestines (not joking.. actual brain and intestines.. someone actually had a tooth in theirs..ahhh). We spent time in a cemetery, bus stations, running back and forth on the charelston bridge, one of our teammates even had to get a nose piercing. There was a legend in Prague that if you and your lover put a lock at this certain place and throw the key in the river that your love would last forever, well over time there became an OVERLOAD of locks, like hundreds of locks on this little gate. Our challenge was to be given a key and to find which lock goes to that key. When we got the lock we ran to the train station (5pm)where we met another JV staff and collect our prize (a yummie dinner)! After dinner we were told that we had to wait for the other teams to arrive and then we would all be taking a 12 o'clock train.
next thing you know we are on a 5 hour trip to the Poland where we had our next day adventures. When we got off the train we were ALL equaled out. However, team Croatia was prepared:) after the second challenge that morning we were back in the lead! We had teams on our back the entire last day so there was a lot more stress which just made us run harder. Our last challenge was to paint and hammer in posts (when finished would create a sheep pen). We finished about 3 posts before any other group and had to book it to the cars. An hour later we were crossing the finish line!!!!!!!!!
Later on that night we were told that we ended up running 11 miles the first day and who knows about the second or third.. WOW we were tired!!!!!
It was so exciting to see our team work together! The entire time we were encouraging each other, in prayer, full or energy.. I truly can explain how close to perfection it was!
After the race we went to the JV camp, it was the most beautiful location in Czech. This was a very challenging week. I had a very strange feeling while I was there. I was feeling insecure, very introverted, quiet... I could not explain why I was feeling this until the last night we went through Ephesians ch. 6 on spiritual warfare. I realized thats EXACTLY what was going on with me. The next morning I had emails from 3 of the greatest friends filled with encouraging, loving words!!!! I was able to reflect the entire drive back to Croatia and I kid you not, while in the drive..poof.. I felt this great weight lifted off of me. Through prayer and reflection I realized how much spiritual warfare goes on in Europe. It is scary to think how easy it is for us to be mislead by lies and insecurities. But I pray that it makes me that much more dependent on the Lord.
Last Tuesday we left Croatia for the Amazing race and training in Czech. We had to start driving at 12 that night and did not arrive till 12 that next day. Needless to say, we were all VERY exhausted. We had to meet up with the other intern teams in the Prague airport for our race rules and departure. By 345 we were on our way!
When we were given our first clue we headed to the bus and made our way into the busy town. After finishing our first challenge (finding a specific shoe store) we were given our next clue to head into Pragues town square. This is where my team went into full gear! The challenge was to be given a picture of a structure somewhere within a mile radius, find the structure and answer a question form a JV staff. If we got the question wrong we had to go back to the starting point. If answered correctly, we were given a puzzle piece. When we answered all 8 and collected all 8 pieces we were able to move onto our next challenge. As we ran ALL around the square, what we did not notice was that we were the ONLY ones running. When we headed to our next challenge we took over first place. By 730 that evening we ended up in the best hostel that I have ever been in and took our first place price (breakfast in the morning).
By the way, at the beginning we were given so much money and with that money we could use it for food and travel, if we ran out before we crossed the finish line... then it looks like we would be hitch-hiking a long way:)
As the next morning came we were feeling great; fully rested, had a great breakfast and leaving 15 minutes before the next group! We told ourselves its a great day for a morning run and we were OFF!!!! This day consisted of a LOT of running, eating brains and intestines (not joking.. actual brain and intestines.. someone actually had a tooth in theirs..ahhh). We spent time in a cemetery, bus stations, running back and forth on the charelston bridge, one of our teammates even had to get a nose piercing. There was a legend in Prague that if you and your lover put a lock at this certain place and throw the key in the river that your love would last forever, well over time there became an OVERLOAD of locks, like hundreds of locks on this little gate. Our challenge was to be given a key and to find which lock goes to that key. When we got the lock we ran to the train station (5pm)where we met another JV staff and collect our prize (a yummie dinner)! After dinner we were told that we had to wait for the other teams to arrive and then we would all be taking a 12 o'clock train.
next thing you know we are on a 5 hour trip to the Poland where we had our next day adventures. When we got off the train we were ALL equaled out. However, team Croatia was prepared:) after the second challenge that morning we were back in the lead! We had teams on our back the entire last day so there was a lot more stress which just made us run harder. Our last challenge was to paint and hammer in posts (when finished would create a sheep pen). We finished about 3 posts before any other group and had to book it to the cars. An hour later we were crossing the finish line!!!!!!!!!
Later on that night we were told that we ended up running 11 miles the first day and who knows about the second or third.. WOW we were tired!!!!!
It was so exciting to see our team work together! The entire time we were encouraging each other, in prayer, full or energy.. I truly can explain how close to perfection it was!
After the race we went to the JV camp, it was the most beautiful location in Czech. This was a very challenging week. I had a very strange feeling while I was there. I was feeling insecure, very introverted, quiet... I could not explain why I was feeling this until the last night we went through Ephesians ch. 6 on spiritual warfare. I realized thats EXACTLY what was going on with me. The next morning I had emails from 3 of the greatest friends filled with encouraging, loving words!!!! I was able to reflect the entire drive back to Croatia and I kid you not, while in the drive..poof.. I felt this great weight lifted off of me. Through prayer and reflection I realized how much spiritual warfare goes on in Europe. It is scary to think how easy it is for us to be mislead by lies and insecurities. But I pray that it makes me that much more dependent on the Lord.
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