With Friends at Morning Seminar
On the Road to the Festival!
With the "triplets" in the back with matching hats ;)
The theme this year at UNITED was "Irreplaceable" and the speakers talked about how God has made us irreplaceable with a calling and purpose to share His love with the world. To go with the theme title, the logo was a picture of a collapsing Jenga tower - which I thought clearly represented the idea of being irreplaceable and how as the Church, we are each support each other and build off each other. I saw this theme so clearly through one friend who came to the festival. Throughout the days at UNITED, she would suddenly stop and talk to someone we met on the sidewalk for a couple minutes and then we would continue on our way. I found out that she was meeting people she knew from her university but did not know were Christians! As she met the people she knew from her classes, they chatted briefly and quickly agreed to go with each other to their Christian Youth Group on campus.
At a Concert
Even though the festival was only three days, I saw how God was working through the youth at the festival and launching revival in this country! One good friend joined us at the festival from Letovice, and during the festival I noticed this friend had bought some Christian merchandise. I asked him why he had purchased the items and he said, "I know this is true." I knew God had been working through the heart of this friend, and I know He is still revealing His love for him. Furthermore, on the last day, my friend had told me his favorite part of the whole festival was the morning devotion seminars and worship - the worship leader had given a heartfelt call for revival in the country and my friend was inspired.
Again, I realized how greatly God was working through this festival as one evening another friend and I were walking around the grounds of the festival as we discussed some spiritual topics. During our walk, I started becoming frustrated because there were youth kids from the city (not those connected with the festival) who purposely diverted their walk to ram into our shoulders and yell swear words in our faces. After these multiple encounters of rudeness, my friend looked at me and said, "God is waking up this city and the devil is trying everything he can to weaken us." I realized at that moment God had given my friend the ability to understand, and that if the devil was using these methods to discourage us, something BIG must be happening here! So instead, we prayed for the city and the people whose hearts were being opened to God's truth.
Time with Friends
While the seminars and concerts were greatly enjoyable, it was also a very hot weekend at the end of August, so we enjoyed daily trips to a nearby river. My friends napped at the river edge and suntanned, occasionally dipping their toes in the cool river. I, on the other hand, leapt across the river on the rocks and walked along the rocky river bottom catching minnows! Even on a weekend trip that is filled with young adults, I was reminded of why God has called me to work with kids.
Catching the Minnow
Stepping Stones in the River
Summertime at Elim Youth Clubs tends to bring in a smaller number of kids than we have durning the school year because many of the kids spend their holiday on family trips or at various camps; however, as the summer started coming to a close and the kids began thinking about starting school again, they also seemed to remember us and slowly our club times started filling with kids again.
Lots of Little Boys in Boskovice
When we play soccer with the youth club, everyone plays! Leaders, Half-leaders, girls, and boys - which always makes for a very exciting match.
I don't think summer would have been complete if we didn't take at least one bike trip with the youth club - so I am thrilled we were able to fit it in during the last week! We loaded up a few bikes of some of the kids from Letovice and drove to Boskovice where we met a group of kids from our club in Boskovice and then journeyed together to a new SingleTrack Biking Trail. When we got to the trail, the kids worked hard to bike to the top of the hill because they knew the ride down would be completely worth the trip! We went down a Blue Trail (easy level) twice with the little kids, and then a smaller group of us went down the Red Train (medium level) and the Black Trail (hard level). While riding down the different trails was exciting, I think the kids mostly enjoyed the Pump Track (a series of bumps and turns to ride your bike over). We definitely had a fun afternoon and all went home happy, and ready for a good rest!
Ready to Start the Bike Trip!
Watch a short video about the Bike Trip here! (See what the SingleTrack and the Pump Track are like!)
Even though there were only a few days left of summer vacation, it seems some of our youth club half-leaders are ready to be back in the classroom again! Our team of leaders and six half-leaders (14yrs-18yrs) grouped together as we attended a four hour Leadership Seminar. A friend of ours organized and led the workshop. He encouraged us to think about our goal as a leaders and to look for our own leadership qualities to see how we relate to each other as a team. I have seen how Elim Youth Club has been raising up these half-leaders as they are developing life skills of leadership that they will definitely use in the future; and by having the Leadership Seminar, many of them are beginning to understand their own leadership qualities as a young adult. I am excited to see where this will bring them and us as a team!
Leadership Workshop
The end of summer fills up with activities quickly, and I haven't spent a weekend at home the past three weekends! My sleeping bag is getting lots of use this time of year. However, I was "home" - that is in Letovice at the church last weekend (where I actually believe I spend more time than my actual living residence). My friends, who I had joined for an English Camp in the summer, planned to have an English Camp reunion at the Letovice Church. I enjoyed showing them around my home city and they even asked me to prepare a short message for the retreat. God placed it on my heart to talk about the Big Picture and how the little events in our life connect to form the purpose God has planned. After the talk, a friend told me he knew this message was for him because it is something God has been trying to teach him, but that he didn't understand completely until God used my words to explain it.
On a Trip to the Palace in Letovice
During the weekend, I was really excited when a couple of the students I had from the English Camp were able to come with their families! We spent lots of time together playing games - they especially loved playing Jenga, and soon began building towers with the blocks. Once they had used all the blocks and their tower was about a foot high off the ground, and went into the Nursery where I knew there was a tub of blocks and we began building higher towers. The kids said, "Kendra! Do you think you can make your tower taller than me?!" Challenge accepted.
Tower Building
With school right around the corner, Sunday School Class filled with kids anxious to see their friends again. We combined all the ages for a group of about 25 kids on Sunday and the teacher spoke about the parable of the Good Shepherd. The kids enjoyed making little sheep to remember the story, and I was excited to be helping again at the start of another year of Sunday School.
A Full Room
Sheep!
Silly Faces
School started this week for the kids, and all my English Classes will begin next week. We had registration for the kids class open for approximately 6 hours, and the class was already at max capacity with 17 students! I am looking forward to this next year with this group of kids and praying for great translators to be able to help me in the class. I will also be starting a Teen Class in Boskovice, and looking forward to continuing the Adult Class and Little Linguists/Mommy and Me English. With English Classes around the corner and more kids returning to club, my energy is full and ready to begin the school year!