What day did you say it was?

I can not believe that June is almost over. I can not believe that Camps start in less than a week. I have have never been so confused about time or dates than I have when I’m here. HA…

We’ve been pretty busy, me and my team. By the way here is a picture of all of us since I just learned how to post pictures…

Austin, Me, Josh/Hawaii, Babu, Erica, and Vasek. They’re all super great and I’m enjoying my summer with them

A couple of weekends ago we went to Havlickuv Brod to hang out with there youth group. We went to a couple of school visits and saw a castle as well. It was pretty sweet. They will be our last camp which is August 1-8

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016688&id=1279110060&l=9452f3c619

(try the link above to view my pictures from our weekend in Havlickuv Brod)

The next weekend we went on a retreat with Sumperk youth group to a little cottage outside Sumperk. It was awesome to be able to spend time with the students in this sort of atmosphere. It got me super excited for camps and a lot of my discouragement about the month of June went away.

Playing “Pass the Piggies”

This past week we spent our time back at Malenovice with another team doing a work project. Josiah Venture is rebuilding a house for national missionaries to come and relax and vacation since time and money for them are short. It was fun to be able to get my hands dirty again. It brought back a lot of workin-at-camp memories. It was not so fun working in the cold and rain. On the way back we landed in some trouble with our train ride. Our normal 3 hour trainride back to Sumperk took 7 hours. This was due to some flooding from all the rain we’ve been getting. It was a pretty bad flood that happened, killing 8 people. We’re just so thankful that we made it back and our safe. Please pray for the families of the ones who died.

Babu and I moving wood…It was pretty dusty…everywhere. My lungs were not happy with me

On Friday we spent the day in Olomouc, a city about an hour away from Sumperk where I’m living. It was a nice day to just relax and shop. We even got to eat at McDonald’s which doesn’t sound like too much fun for you folks, but I was as giddy as a little kid. Not that I love McDonalds or anything, but it was a little taste of America.

Yesterday we went to a goodbye party for Cassie and Trevor Long. If you do not know them, they are missionaries here in Sumperk who have been here for five years with Josiah Venture. Cassie is the daughter of Gene and Cozy Peters and the sister of Whitney Peters for all you Hope Summiters. They are leaving Sumperk back to the states July 9th. I admire them so much. You automatically feel loved when you’re around them and you can just see how big their hearts are for God and for students. I could also see the love the students had for Cass and Trevor last night. It was a blessing to be apart of that.

Now we are just tieing some lose ends to our english lessons and packing our stuff to go back to Malenovice for the US team trainings and start english camps. I’m so excited. I’m excited that I’ve made it to this point. I’m excited to see God move. I’m excited to hang out with all the kids I’ve been meeting over the past month. I’m just excited.

Please continue praying for my team as we prepare. Please pray for the students who are coming and are still unsure of coming. Please pray for them question, to wonder, and to maybe even find truth.

Here is a list of the dates for camps and what the rest of my summer looks like, so you can pray specifically for the different camps. Thank you so much for praying and supporting me through all of this. It means so much to me! I love you guys!

June 30-July 3: US youth group training #1

July 4-11: Sumperk Volant English Camp

July 12-13: Rest

July 14-17: US youth group training #2

July 18-25: Vikyrovice English Camp

July 26-27: Rest

July 18-31: US youth group training #3

August 1-8: Havlickuv Brod English Camp

August 11-14: Intern Debrief in Prague

nifty pictures

I finally figured out how to post pictures. So here is just a sample of what my trip has been like so far:

Chris and Erica at the Frankfurt airport….We were tired

Chapel in Vienna, Austria

Part of the Amazing Race was to come to Prater Park in Vienna and find out all the different names to the rides

Budapest, Hungary

Bratislava, Slovakia

More of Bratislava

Malenovice, the hotel where our intern training was done

Fisherman on lake Krasne, where we did our first youth group visit

That is just a few, I’ll post more pictures now that I know how! Things are going well here, today I will be working on english lessons for camps. I have to make 6 lessons with at least four hours of things to do and learn per day. I’m pretty nervous about them and stressed by the planning. Please pray for God’s peace in my life!

where to begin?

Boy oh Boy…what a crazy couple of days it has been!

Intern training is done! It was an incredible week and a not so incredible week all in one. The beginning of the week was very hard for me. I had this immense feeling of fear upon me the first couple of days. I was afraid to talk to people, I was afraid of the summer, I was afraid to enjoy myself. I was just afraid. One of the afternoons we talked about spiritual warfare and it definately struck me. I was reminded that fear is not from God and that I was dealing with some pretty nasty stuff. So I prayed about and am doing much better now. I am still feel afraid sometimes but i know “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for YOU are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) Other than this, the rest of the week was great. Dave Patty, co-founder of Josiah Venture, spoke every night. He talked about repentence, faith, servanthood, vision, and the victory of Christ. All vital things that we need to know about for the summer. By the end of the week I felt nervous, but ready for the rest of the summer!

This past weekend we went to a village called Vikyrovice to hang out with the youth group there. We came to encourage the students to come to the english camps and invite their friends. It was a lot of fun. On Saturday they took us canoeing at this awesome lake called lake “krasny” (not sure on the spelling there) which means “beautiful” in Czech. We also played frisbee and Uno, and they even had a BBQ for us. I felt super blessed by the youth group and I can’t wait for english camp with them! On Sunday we went to the Vikyrovice church service and I got to witness 6 kids being baptized. It was so beautiful. Baptisims are one of my favorite things. I love being able to rejoice with the angels and with my new brothers and sisters in Chrsit. I also stayed at my first host home this weekend. It was awesome! They also blessed Erica and I. There was tons of food and love in that house; they made us feel like part of the family.

On Monday we went to our first school visit to tell them about english camps and invite them to come. In Czech, the students know what they want to do in highschool and then in college their schools are specialized in the fields they want to persue. A lot more pressure than in America, I’d say. This highschool we went to was predominately a girls school for socail work. I never knew talking to so many people would be so exhausting! It was a lot of fun though, and I hope many of the girls will come to camp!

Today we’re heading to Havlickuv Brod, which will be where our third camp will be, to hang out with their youth group and encourage them to come to camp. None of us have no idea what to expect since this is the first time doing a camp here. It will be fun either way, I’m sure.

I’m very tired these days. We’re running around every day and sleep is scarce. Please pray for energy for me and my team. Please also pray that Satan won’t have a part in our camps and in the students who come. Please also pray for the students who are unsure of coming or students who don’t want to come that God will soften their hearts and that they will sign up!
Hope all is well back in the states!
In Christ,
Dora

questions

Since nothing TOO exciting is happening at the moment besides training, I was thinking if you guys had any questions to ask them by emailing or facebooking me (if we are facebook friends of course. If we are not, then add me!) My email is dora.vonwald@gmail.com. Or you could just leave a comment on here and I’ll answer them!

Hope you have a great day!