top of the world .. well 5256 ft.

Its been almost a year since I last posted, rather embarrassing but I think its a new chance to keep up with this blog. For those who don't know this past year was my third trip to the Czech republic. God moved in awesome ways in our team and also in the lives of the students in the Letovice youth group. For me personally this was the hardest year to leave, because I was very unsure about next year and whether I will return or not. During camp and follow up I gave everything i had, and then some. To be most effective for Christ I had to deny my own wants to serve those of the team. I'm looking forward to this year but I'm praying that I will have the same passion. Its would be easy to let my pride get the best of me and not offer my best in this trip.

Looking back..English camp last year was an amazing example of how powerfully God is using the youth group in Letovice. As I think of the two camps before I say how the sheer numbers had grown greatly from around 65 at the my first camp to just over 100 in this camp. Along with the numbers it was amazing to see the passion that the members of the youth group had for

reaching their friends so that they can come to repentance in Jesus. The first thing I noticed last year and the most vivid memory was the view from our camp at Portášky, it made it easy to meet with God with the undeniable creation mentioned in Romans 1. Along with the view we had from camp we ventured to the top of the highest point the Czech Republic, Snezka, which is on the Poland border. I had never experienced a peak quite like this where there were such a dynamic view of the Czech hills and large faces of rock. The hiking was much more challenging which i enjoyed and spending time with some awesome guys who were much better conditioned than me. One guy I was able to have a two hour conversation with whom it was very difficult to have a conversation with the first couple nights of camp!
Camp it self was a blast, there is so much energy in the youth group which made every game and every activity a blast. Whether it was out in the field playing Frisbee or relaxing picking blueberries (which I grew a fiery passion for) there was never a dull moment. The spirit of God was moving powerfully through the camp, all week spiritual questions about God and who Jesus was were being asked some nights there were two or three discussions going on during discussion groups. The last night Jesus' death and resurrection were a few of student accepting Christ. For some it was coming to the knowledge of the existence of God. During those conversations I was challenged as well with some questions about Jesus that I didn't know, and at the same time God was able to work through my incompleteness. Camp came to a close and we traveled back to Letovice where we got to Join their church for Sunday worship and other activities. We were able to tell them some about the camp and anso encourage them with with stories of how God moved. We also traveled to some nearbye caves and also to Prague with the students who could come along. The last evening we watched a movie and spent our last moments with some of the students. For all it was an emotional time to firm some friendships as they would exchange e-mails and ICQ addresses.

Thank you so much for your prays that Jesus would call them out of the darkness and into his light.

Training in the fog

the past 3 days have been training at malenovice on the mountianside by the city of fredlont. We have been on a tight schedule for training but having some free time to relax and think about what we are about to do. today we had a panel that talked about czech culture and some history. I learned about what happened militarely to the land. there was the munich pact which ment that France and Germany basically gave Czechloslovakia to Germany (if im understanding correctly). Remembering back to last year when we visited poland and went to the city of Krakov on our way to Auschwitz and one thing that i thuaght if was how warstruck Krakov was. How for ever 30 new buidings there was one that you ould tell was really and didnt get bombed. it was really powerful, and along with that there was the clock tower in the center square that looked like it was rebuilt using old bricks and new bricks together. I thaught that was a cool sybole of moving on. Now i thaught about both situations, Krakov was bombed and in result of that had physical wreckage everywhere but Czech with cites like Prague were a different story. Prague seems virtually untouched but the wrechage wasnt in building it was broken spirits and national pride because they were given away. Then at the same time the nation would be so different today and english camps might now exist. but this history lesson really got to me.

Sometimes i feel so unworthy to spread the gospel with the weght of sin. Carying the most precious cargo has so much weight behind it with it and i feel like such a broken vessle. But the amazing thing is that God uses this broken vessle to carry the preches cargo because it makes it that much greater in seeing that the vessle is not going on its own power.It makes me fearful of God as well, beause although he is going to be with me i need to be careful becasue of the perception of other. God is good and i cant wait to see him use this vessle.

it is very late and we are traveling to camp tomorrow, so pray for safety and that camp goes well. its very close to the highest point in czech called and sounds like shlowska or something. Team unity is really starting to tke form, i like our dynamics to this group and im excited to see God work through people iv never seen. This is when we will get tested as a team, so please pray that we can stay unified.

thank you so much for your pratyer support, we all apreciate it!

29 hours away

we are at the cusp! its all coming together. the past few weeks have been good. getting everything ready for english class(which will be great!) and everything els that goes with leaving the country for a while.
Every year it has seemed to be getting bigger, my first year the camp total was around 55 and lat year it was 70 some and this year its at 100! God has really been working through the letovice church in a powerful way. pray that they keep on growing!
So all of monday and tuesday basically we are going to be traveling, making 8 or so transit exchanges. I know my travel team will make it because we stick together :)

This year im going to be taking on a different roll with the team. things will be different being a leader. I want to be more prayerful through the trip than i have in the past, along with taking time to listen. i want so badly to grow deeper in my love for him thought the trip. a verse that has been hitting me deeply laity has been romans 15:13 "May the God of hope give you joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may be filled with hope by the power of the holy spirit."

your prayers are so important :) please keep praying, as it gets closer and closer the draw to break down will get stronger and stronger.

honor Christ with your thinking :)

man i have been getting kicked in the pants this summer, in a waaaay good way though.

iv been learning some thick stuff laitly about faith in God and his omnipresence.
the last few weeks at Cn'C have been thick but amazing growing experiences. two weeks ago we talked about the all know God. Its crazy how we try and justify things in our mind even though we know the truth. with him as an all knowing being and what he thinks about what im thinking. haha i like the concept of thinking about what im thinking about. there are so many things that i do so unconsciously and dont weigh out the impact it has on me. The bible says to be in a constant state of prayer but the cool thing is that not being in a constant state of prayer is being ignorant that God is there. even if we choose to deny or not even think about God he is always thinking and know about us. Thomas used the analogy of a mtn dew can and that represented us. God was over us and we were filled up with the holy spirit because we were with God. But when Adam and Eve made the shift to selfishmness they put themselfs ablove God and put out the fact that he was supreme and started living for themselfs. Thomas then filled it back up with a two liter representing us accepting christ and the spirit being with us. it made me think of the table that bark gold would do with the circle and the chair in it. God is ether in or out of the bubble and he is eather in the chari of off the chair. (who are you living for) A big point of the mntn dew part is that the can cant do anything by itself. it needs to rely on being filled to do anything. same with us. God is always there but its weather we choose to be filled by him we will never fulfill our true purpose.

honor Christ with your thinking :)

Tonight we had our senior concert for piano and we had one senior pianist. She was so amazing, i was not feeling too well but through my grainy head ache i could hear he amazing melodies. it was broken up into four parts, first was 3 song by Bach, then 3 songs by Beethoven and the last two parts a various composers.
Besides the fact that she was playing these ridicules hard pieces, she was able to do the every part accept the Bach part from memory. No sheet music or anything.
In the program she gave the glory to God and talked about how she has been sick and almost had to quit but God allowed her to continue.

She brought down the house.

FINALLY!

i will share more about my situation later but iv been working the last two hours on finally getting this thing back up and running.
it was very difficult because of i cant access my home e-mail from school.

yes im back.. after almost a year :D