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Friendship youth; Fully Relying On God

As a Director of the Zone at Friendship Church in Shakopee I had the pleasure of getting to partner with awesome leaders to host 80+ 5th and 6th graders in having a blast and teaching them to 'Fully Rely On God.' Each day presented different activities and teach challengers but there were main threads that went through every day. below is a picture of one of those: Bible memory time. The key verse for the week was Hebrews 7:25 and tied perfect into the Superhero theme. Zoners learned that Jesus is the greatest superhero of all time, because "He is able to save everyone..." 

My main man Jackson cranking out verses and earning candy along with points for the team! Team Spiderman for the Win!

Marcus and I sporting the St. Paul Saints on the second day of FROG camp!

Paneramic shot of team spiderman in all their glory! this is what you get when you tell 5th and 6th graders to make a crazy face!

Deathball was not the best idea but really challenged some students and was a great competition between teams.

Andrew, Trung, Afton and Noah about to take off on a ride at Nickelodeon Universe on the last day.

A selfi-Pani with most including most of those who attended FROG camp after cleaning up the church, all ready to ship out to Nick U! Everyone is wearing their shirts they designed as one of the activities with their team, thus the creativity! 

All these images were only a taste of all the great fun that FROG camp had in 2014. The week was full of crazy times in teams and growing in the knowledge of Jesus. This week some students got to see and experience first hand what it looks like to be fully reliant on God and what he has for them. 

FROG camp 2014 was unforgettable! 

One Week Not Forgotten

What a fantastic week of English Camp! Thank you so much for your prayers for me and my team. God did some great things and won over many hearts. Building relationships, teaching english, doing many camp games and getting serious and talking about Jesus. 

Students arrived saturday and we got to meet our new english classes, mine was the beginner class and very unique. Most of my students had never been to english camp before so had a fun time making each other laugh.

Sunday we had our first day of camp. The subject of the evening program was Peter for the entire week and how we each can relate with him in the bible. We all have been in the place of the betrayer and the betrayed. The subject of the first evening discussion was based on Peter being called by Jesus to come and follow him. 

Tuesday was my birthday and we went for a hike as you will see photos below. 

The photo .gif below is Ashley(cali. top), me, Sabrina (cali.), Sarah (Intern Leader) and Kaelighe (Intern) this bunch was so encouraging and friendship as we worked together teaching english and challenging students together. 

 Below is a game that went on through the entire week- we played a game where if you made eye contact with someone and shot a fake blow dart they were shot dead on the spot. So here lies Jan and Simon after being shot. search instagram and twitter for #dartdeath and #touchmyneck and in this game the only way to revive someone was to touch their neck. Your only two modes of defense were to cover your neck just not make eye contact with anyone. But this really worked in helping me learn the names of the students.

 On wednesday we had hike day. I got to hike with a few different groups where conversations ranged from naming every NHL hockey team and ever NFL team to serious ecclesiological (study of the church) discussions regarding denomination and unity of the body. Hike day was beautiful too as you can see, we hiked through the forest and most of it was by a river. I am so thankful that I got to spend my birthday hiking here in Czech.

 The czech landscape is beautiful, the region we were in was very hilly as most of Czech. This photo is taken as we stopped to rest, i found some blueberries at my feet after taking this photo and was killed with a blowdart moments before.

 This is my friend dan and here is my Czech smile. Dan was my room mate and we had some great discussions. He was an encouragement and an example of kindness for me.

This is not my english class but this is what once looks like. Plus a cute little Czech boy that had free reign in all the classes as he saw fit. That kid was boss. 

 Below are some of the americans and Svatia- second from the left. She was my translator and a longtime friend where we have had the most random interactions. Neither of us know how we first were connected together because she was in Ireland and i was in Krakow Poland, but it happened. This week God showed me many things through her but foremost true friendship. To be a friend is to know and be know. Not only a fantastic translator and discussion leader but a disciple maker and a continual encouragement in the gospel going forward. she is legit.


Now we are in follow up and you can follow up to day on instigram @neilej or on twitter @neilioo with what is happening.
Pray that students will connect to the church and find community there unlike nywhere else they have seen. I pray that it will not be seen as a place of judgement but a place of forgivness and love.

E Plurbus Unum

Trip info: for those wondering I will be returning to the states August 9th and I am currently I the Czech. The status of the tri is pre-English camp the rest of our youth group will arrive tomorrow morning. Then in the afternoon all of the camp will arrive ad we will have testing and our first evening program. The camp will run from Saturday night onto Saturday morning and we return with the students to Trebic for follow up.

This photo above is a photo of our training center called Brajlov. This is where i met with the team for the first time and got to meet some of the people i am working under for Engish camp. This training was much like other years where we would meet on the second story meeting room and talk about Czech culture, relationships, Czech history, English classes and spend time praying with our teams and bonding with some from other teams. 

The forehead at the bottom of the picture is our intern team leader (whome i am joining with) named Sarah, you will see more pictures of her later i am sure.   

 This is the view out the window of the training room where there is this fine river with rushing waters. The building used to be a mill a hundred years ago but has been transformed into a hotel and restaurant. This morning we just left this place, but for the time we were there it was a fantastic setting to reflect on what God is about to do and a good place to relax.
Below is a picture of some members of out team- the three on the left actually just joined in the last week after just doing a camp with a town called Eb and were able to stay because our trip was short staffed and short on Americans. Ashley, Sabrina, and Richie are rockstars from California and we have already had a few chances to jell together.

 On the left is a picture of the youth leader in Trebic Lukas who has been an awesome manager of our team and putting the english camp together. He is a great guy with a fantastic attitude and loves serving Jesus.

This last picture is a building that is adjacent to the hotel and has not been maintained but has a pretty cool rustic look to it.


Looking forward- we made it to camp today and started preparing thing for camp. There is much to do tomorrow as the rest of the Czech team will come and we will get to worship and pray with them before all of camp arrives in the afternoon. Pray for unity between the churches as well as rest for all the americans- especially those from california because they are doing back to back english camps. Also pray for the interns as this is their third and final english camp of the summer, that we will serve Jesus together.

Different flavor of Czech

After much planning, prayer and preparations I am finally going back to the Czech Republic again for English camps. Around February when Friendship Church started preparing their teams the dates came in direct conflict with responsibilities I had as the zone director but God made a way through it. I got connected to the English camp coordinator of Josiah Venture and he expressed such a great need they has for the time period I was able to come.
This year is going to look different I know, not traveling with a team and going to mostly unknown territory the mission will be the same but this next two and a half weeks will be stretching. I get the chance to join a team of seasoned interns from JV who have done two English camps so far this summer and go to the town of Třebíč for English camp.
Thus far there have been a handful of hiccups I'm the travel but nothing too drastic. God is good and 
He has made a way. 
There will be many more updates for oppritunities to partner in prayer and petitioning God that he will 
Be made know in the Czech Republic. 

By the grace of God alone.