My awesome English class : )

Kuba, Myself, Tara (American helper!), Alena, Verca, Zuzca, Lenka, Eva, and Ivo (my translator)

I love them and miss them!

As I write this I’m sitting at Malenovice drinking a Raspberry Fanta, looking at the mountains, and enjoying the sun. Thought you’d like to know that

Sorry for the scarce blog posts. I don’t have much internet or time these days. Thanks for hanging in there!

OUR FIRST CAMP IS ALREADY DONE?!?!?! I can’t believe it… The title of this blog is a song by a band called the Decemberists and I couldn’t agree more and it couldn’t fit any better with this month.

US team training #1 was really fun! We were back at Malenovice and it was just a nice time to relax before camp started. The US youth group that came to help us was from New Hope Church in New Hope, Minnesota. It was sooo fun having them there! Not only because they’re from Minnesota, but because the group that came were so AMAZING! They were helpful, hilarious, kind, caring, and just made the week 10x better. I’m so blessed to have met them and I can’t wait to see them when I get back to MN!

some intern ladies watching some soccer

Our first camp went really well. It was with the Sumperk youth group, called “Volant”. It was really fun because our team knew so many people since our homebase is in Sumperk and we’ve invested a lot of time with Volant. There were about 5o students in attendence at camp, around 84 people total! It started on the 4th of July. Since Czech, obviously, doesn’t celebrate the 4th, we missed out on it as well. It was weird not to celebrate it and sad as well because the 4th is one of my favorite holidays. It was a really bad “homesickness” day for me. I knew, however, that it was a small sacrifice knowing the work I was doing for His kingdom.

Babu and Hawaii sharing the Story of God

Doing come camp songs, before the night program.

Part way through the week, the whole camp went on a hike. An 8 mile hike. Wowzap! It was really fun. I however, Miss Graceful, pulled a muscle in my leg so it made the rest of the hike somewhat miserable. It was definately a test of faith, this hike. HA.. But here is a picture of our view, and you can see why it was SO worth it.

The Story of God stuff went OK. It was good in that the stories planted seeds and questions in the students heads and hearts. It  was also good because it opened for good discussion. Students were talking and answering questions about stories they just heard and they seemed to understand. It was frustrating, for me, because even though they heard the stories, about how God provides, and is faithful, and loving…they still thought it was just a story. Ugh..it just broke my heart. I felt really discouraged and almost hopeless about the whole situation. It’s really hard to minister here. Because of communism, people here are pessemistic and skeptical about new ideas/new things. Parents are closed minded and so are their children. One of the students mother’s even called them during the week and asked if the camp was “too religious”.

It’s really just sad to see people with absolutely no hope.

As someone trying to minister in Czech, I have to remember it’s not about the number of students who come to Christ. It’s not about how many people were affected by the talks. It’s just not about numbers. It’s about planting those seeds, loving the students, and showing them how much Jesus cares about them. It’s about making them feel like they matter, letting them know they have a purpose in life and that God has a plan, a AWESOME AND WONDERFUL plan for their lives.

Well now that I’m done crying…Ufda..

We’re at training #2 now. It has been really encouraging to hear stories from other interns and other camps about the success of their time and how they’ve seen God move.  I just have to remember that God is bigger than this program, than our strategies, than myself. God is still powerful even if we mess up. He will continue moving even if this program doesn’t work. God is faithful. We’ve already won! Now we’re just preparing for our next camp which is with Vikryovice. I’m still hopeful and excited to see the ways God will continue to move through the camps and through me. I’m very thankful God has allowed me to be here and that he chose me to come and minister in Czech this summer.

Prayer Requests:

Energy. As we’re heading into camp #2 sleep is getting scarce and energy levels are getting lower and lower.
The students from the Sumperk E-Camp. Pray for continued work in their hearts even after camp is over. Pray for the Czech team that they can continue to minister to the students after, us Americans leave.
The students who will attend the Vikryovice camp. Pray that God will prepare their hearts. That he would also prepare the hearts of The US team that will be working with us. The Czech team/youth group of Vikryvice. And my intern team.
For Babu. Babu has been sick for, seriously, about a year. She has some sort of virus (or bugs in her blood as she calls them) that makes her lungs hurt for the majority of the time and cause her to cough. Her immune system is weak and she gets ill a lot. Pray for strength for her and that her body can overcome this illness!

I also have a small, but semi-large request to ask of you.
Babu and Vasek still have a large amount of their support that needs to be raised. It’s a huge burden on their hearts right now. I just ask for prayer that they can get their support raised. I also ask that if God leads you, that you can help support Babu and Vasek. Anything will help.

Vasek’s account # is: 1017922 and Babu’s account # is: 1017923

Thank you guys for praying, for loving, for supporting. You guys are awesome and I’m so blessed!

with love love and more love,
Doraaaaa

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

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!

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

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!

I am in EUROPE! Let me tell you: 8 hr plane rides are NO FUN. Sitting in airports = NO FUN (when you’re tired….if you’re not then airports are fun!) When we arrived in Vienna we started our “Amazing Race”. It was super hard and stressful, but we got to go to many different places which I listed in the title. We were only allowed so much money which we spent on buses, trams, and metros, that we didn’t have much for food. There was one point in the race when we had to find a place called “Fisherman’s Point” in Budapest. We got directions from a lady in the grocery store and we ended up going back and forth over a bridge about 5 times. It was really draining emotionally and physically (I have blisters to prove it!), but it was fun to hang out with my team.  I have tons of pictures that I have to upload yet. I am not sitting in the hotel where we’ll do our training. It’s called Malenovice and It’s beautiful here. It’s in the mountains in the Czech Republic. It’s very relaxing after having to run around for three days. We’ve been learning a lot already and EATING a lot which I do not hate after being malnourished for a couple of days. We’ve started our English teaching training and our discussion group training today. Our discussion groups will be in a “stories” format. We’ll be sharing the story of God and letting the gospel and the holy spirit reach out to the teens as well as the relationships we form with them. I’m getting pretty nervous about teaching. Please pray for the teens that will be coming to the camps and please pray for me and my team that we can learn and grow this week in preparations for our English camps.

I already miss the United States, but know that God has me here for a purpose.

Na shledanou! (Goodbye!)

Dora

Well today is the day! I can hardly believe it. I’m driving to the cities right now ( well my parents are driving…). From the cities I’ll fly to Chicago, then to Frankfurt, Germany, then Vienna, Austria where we’ll do a team bonding “Amazing Race”. I’m getting really excited and am just so excited to see what God has in store. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me and my team! I’m so blessed! Please continue praying for safe travels and energy: I’m already tired!

In Christ, Dora

If you can see the picture, this is from me last night. Most of my life is in that backpack!

Oh my goodness! Time is flying! I have a little over two weeks to go till my departure date. I’m getting really excited! Praise the Lord, I was able to raise all my funds!! $4200 in two months! I’m in still awe of how powerful and good God is. Thank you all so much for donating towards my trip and for all of your prayers. Please continue to keep me and my teammates in your prayers, that God will prepare our hearts for the summer as well as all the teens we meet! Thank you again so much! I’m so blessed with great friends!

Ahoj!
(hello/goodbye)
Dora

This is where  I will be updating you on my trip to Czech. I really can’t wait! Only a little over a month to go! Thank you all so much for your support, it really means the world to me. I also only need about $500 more dollars, which is amazing

God is GOOD!
Dora