NOTE: the following pictures are from BEFORE Czech went into lockdown this past week.
Connect Club met for one Friday before lockdown derailed our meetings again. Our rockstar leaders put together a skit for the girls to be a part of to showcase the Bethlehem Nativity. They even recorded it so I could watch the girls' reenactment of the story later! I called with the Connect Club after they had finished the skit and chatted with the girls while they were creating advent wreaths. I could see how much they loved being together again! Last year, the girls had each written a letter to themselves to be opened a year later. The leaders were able to get the letters from my desk and pass them out to the girls. Many of them said they couldn't remember all they had written and enjoyed reading all their wishes and thoughts for 2020, especially since this year turned out very different than how they had first thought. It warmed my heart to see the girls connecting with God all together again.
All dressed up for Bethlehem
Making advent wreaths and chatting about letters
While back in Minnesota, I have joined in with a couple of youth groups (high school and middle school), and I'm greatly enjoying being in a similar setting to my ministry in Czech and getting to know these groups of students. The group of 7th and 8th-grade girls have really captured my heart, and I get excited to spend a couple of hours with them each week discussing scripture and talking about life altogether. What really excites me about these girls is that they are the same age as my Connect Girls back in Czech, and these girls from Minnesota will have a chance in a couple of years to come to Letovice for a short-term mission trip. As I get to know these young ladies and further help my Connect Girls to grow into leaders, I wondered if God is working something bigger - if these girls from different countries will come together as youth leaders for ministry in a couple of years! It is exciting to think that the relationships I am developing with these young girls in both countries will somehow diverge in God's timing and perfect plan.
Christmas Silly Picture
While many of us are often tired with online video chat meetings and would now prefer to meet in person, I have greatly enjoyed the scheduled online meetings to be able to connect with my youth students regularly even while overseas. During the month of lockdown, one of the youth group Bible Studies decided to spend the lockdown inviting different married couples from the church community to their online chat to share about how God grew in their relationship together. I enjoyed joining in on their meetings and hearing from many couples who I have gotten to know over the years about how they met and how thye waited for God's timing in their relationship. In one of these meetings, we brainstormed different couples we would like to invite to share their stories, and the youth students suggested that we invite my parents! My parents graciously agreed and the students had so much fun taking turns translating and hearing a God-relationship story from a couple outside of their small church community. It was a great theme for these single high school and college age students, and I was so happy to share the experience also with my parents.
Video calling with the youth and my parents
We had moved clubs online for much of the lockdown and invited the kids to join us in online clubs where we played games and simply talked together. While not everyone wanted to come to online clubs, as much of the club atmosphere is the many students running between games of foosball and ping-pong while music echos through the room, a handful of club students regulalry attended our online club gatherings. I have been able to jump in and help lead since it's online, though one of the weeks I was leading, it was just me and one other student. It has never been this small for me before (even the student's twin sister was busy during the online club!), so I taught the student how to play Battleship! We had a great time together... even after I realized I had forgotten to add "CH" on my Battleship board since "CH" is considered it's own letter in the Czech alphabet. The student was successful in hiding her ship in a line I didn't have on my board!
Online Battleship
Due to the current situation, it is only expected that most of my days are safely spent at home (and at a tutoring experience a couple of days each week). Though, when a childhood best friend - who I hadn't seen in 2 years - was back in town for the holidays, we knew we would have to meet! We went on a long walk, on one of Minnesota's "warmer" January days, and journeyed around different trails in the little town until dusk. We loved talking about ministry, books, and catching up on life, and we both realized how needed and refreshing the time together was. It has definitley been tricky this season back to be so close to family and friends and not be able to meet in person as we've all been extra safe these days, so I was very happy for this one meeting in the outside Minnesota air with a dear friend.
