While the beginning of the summer is spent jumping from one camp to the next, the end of summer is much more relaxed as we all enjoy a breath of fresh air before the fall activities begin. Youth clubs are significantly smaller in number since many kids are enjoying their last couple weeks of holiday at summer cabins or grandma's house. Still, we have fun with the few kids who do come and definitely take the time to build relationships with the handful of students. The lull in attendance gives us the opportunity to enjoy the rest and also build ideas and anticipation for the start of the school year with kick-off activities right around the corner.
Letovice Club (Tuesday, Aug. 8): While eight guys played soccer on the field, we played on the sidelines, cheered the teams, and played some one-on-one games on the second court. When the sun started peering through the clouds, she stole my sunglasses, so I took her baseball cap... and we chuckled as we realized we have very different head sizes!
Boskovice Club (Wednesday, Aug. 9): An organization called Word of Life joined us for club with their leaders and a couple students as we played many Minute To Win It games with the kids. We learned some fun new activities and also made some new friends.
Letovice Club (Thursday, Aug. 10): In a small group, we can still accomplish many things - a 300 piece puzzle, multiple rounds of Jenga, Pass the Pigs, and other table games, as well as make bouncy balls from a kit and chase after them in the large room!
Boskovice Club (Wednesday, Aug. 16): We are all learning lots of different board and card games as the club room is unusually quiet with six kids. Now, if we could only get these kids to finish the game instead of losing interest and switching games halfway through!
Boskovice Club (Wednesday, Aug. 16): Organized pillow fights - the goal is to try to knock your opponent off their balancing stand; however, some of the kids seemed to laugh so much that they knocked themselves off balance!
Summer also lends the perfect opportunity to join friends for coffee and pastries on the square as we catch up, laugh, and encourage each other.
Additionally, summer barbecues are full of fun conversations and good company... and of course, wonderful food! The night included nodding along with the adult conversation, chatting with the teenagers, holding hands and wandering through the garden with the little girls, playing with the toddlers, and rocking a friend's newborn to sleep - it was clearly a fun evening with friends of all ages. Possibly my favorite moment of the night was when one of the little girls told the other one about learning the song "Baby Shark" in my LetFest class this summer (which I have taught every year for the past 6 years of teaching Kid's Class). The other girl, who was in my class the year before exclaimed "I know that one too!" As they started singing and dancing, the older sister on the other side of the table began laughing as she had been in my class 6 years ago and also remembers the lively, silly song! I suppose the song has become legendary in LetFest Kid's Class.
Over the weekend, I was invited to join a group of young adults on their annual summer youth retreat. I am usually up for any chance to meet new people and experience a new part of Czechia that I have not visited before, so I was looking forward to this weekend getaway with the group. We spent some time getting to know each other, playing card games, grilling sausages over the fire and attempting to make S'mores with Czech ingredients (FYI: they have strawberry flavored marshmallows and don't make graham crackers here, so we used some other kind of cracker, but the European chocolate certainly beat Hershey's!) We also enjoyed small group discussions about a couple Bible passages and dug deeper into the meaning of the scripture as we applied it to our own lives. We read the scripture at least three times before actually beginning the discussion, and God always seemed to show me more about the beauty of the passage with each time I read the printed words.
During our one full day on the weekend retreat, we took a nearly 10 mile hike through the forests and countryside. Halfway through, we came to a lookout tower and got to experience the wonderful views of this part of Czechia! Seeing the little villages pop up amidst the rolling Czech hills and the church steeples peak about the treetops never gets old. The past couple of weeks have shown me the beauty of taking moments to enjoy he simplicity of "everyday life." Simply Relax.
