English Camp and a USA Furlough

While visiting some friends on one of my last few days in Czech, my friend explained to her daughter that "Kendra is going far away for a while, but we will still call her."  Her daughter, one of my Little Linguist students, proceeded to pass me one of her Walkie-Talkies so that we could keep in touch while I am away!  

More about all that later, but first, some stories from English Camp.

Due to the spread of coronavirus and the limited travel between countries, it was no surprise that many youth groups who had done English Camps in the past years were looking for alternatives to their summer outreach programs.  One youth group, however, decided they were going to keep their classic English Camp, but instead of bringing their American teachers over from America, they went on a search to find any available Americans living in Czech.  I knew one of the youth pastors from the youth group through a connection with my colleague, and I was invited to join in camp as an English lecturer.  I arrived halfway through the camp week because they had an English teacher who was able to come until Wednesday morning, and quite honestly, I need a couple days to rest at home after two full weeks of City Camp.  (See previous blogpost for more about City Camp.)

While many people would be completely out of their comfort zone in a new place, with a youth group and students they have never met before, and coming in halfway to an already close-knit group, I was in my ideal scenario.  I love jumping right into new camp groups and quickly making friends is a gift I know God has given me.  The first "event" I was tossed into was a free-time discussion group.  I decided to sit and simply listen in, though when a question regarding how God can judge all sinners equally arose, I knew the Holy Spirit was prompting me to talk.  Around the discussion table were multiple mugs as the students were drinking tea.  I gathered all the mugs in a line in front and said, "People see sin like this - some mugs have more tea than others - some sins are worse than others."  Standing up above the mugs and looking down, I said, "God sees sin like this - all the mugs have tea - all people are sinful."  I took a cup that a student had drunk all the tea from and said, "This one doesn't have any tea left, so this person must be a good person." I handed it to a person sitting next to me knowing it wasn't her mug and asked, "It's empty, so will you drink from it?"  The girl immediately shook her head and said "definitely not."  I replied, "That's how God views us.  We might be good people, but until we are cleaned by asking God to forgive us and believing in Jesus, God still sees us as unclean."  

While all camps are a little different, I was immediately impressed with how this youth group organized their students.  At the start of the day, the students we organized by English level for English Classes; after lunch, the students signed up for activities they wanted to take part in and were organized by their preferences; for afternoon and evening games, the students were randomly placed into teams for the week to win team points; lastly, the evening discussion groups were organized by ages, so students from the same classes at school were placed together to have discussions catered to their age.  I was placed onto teams and into a discussion group and English Class (of course, that I was teaching) within the first hour I had arrived.  It was a great way to connect with many of the students.  We had an evening team night game called "Crossing the Iron Curtain".  As a huge fan of history, I caught on that we had walked into a trap, though I had caught on too late.  We later learned that there were no "winners" of the night game, that the trap was taken directly from historical references and the character I was role-playing was a real person who was trapped in crossing the border.  The next day, we had a map-following race through the forest with members of our team, and I felt like a child again running through the forest, leaping over rocks, and finding the hidden stations.

This picture started as just me and and one friend I had met at camp, but as others saw us taking a picture, they all wanted to jump in, and we had a camp picture instead!

As camp was coming to a close, I started asking the students, "What was your favorite part of English Camp?"  I quickly learned the response to this question was simply "everything!"  So I refined my question asking, "I know all of camp was amazing, but what was the 'cherry on top' - the moment you will remember?"  One of the responses from a new friend touched me the most.  I know this friend isn't a believer, though she was very open to asking questions and learning about what we believe as Christians.  She said, "There was one moment while we were singing, and I suddenly felt something really beautiful.  I don't know how to describe it, but it was peaceful, and I felt it deep within me."  I smiled knowing that by "singing" she meant the worship songs we sing at camp and what she felt could have only been the Spirit moving through the hearts of the students at camp.

As you may have guessed from the little story at the top of this post, I am currently back in the USA.  There is an agreement between Czech Republic and America that every five years an American citizen must return for 6months.  Though there are ways to extend this, the offices are delayed in providing extensions due to limited office hours because of COVID.  Even though it is only my fourth year full-time in Czech, the youth pastor and I determined that this time is best for me to complete the required furlough as we are expecting next spring and summer to run full force.  Everything happened at once, and while it was chaotic to gather all the information, buy tickets, and pack, I had God's peace throughout the entire process and know i will be back as soon as possible.  Please continue to pray that all the details will align as I am still waiting on some last approval of the paperwork regarding the furlough requirement.

During the last week, I spent lots of time meeting with friends and doing final activities that I knew I would miss back in the states.  I went on a bike-ride with church, met the Connect Girls for ice-cream, met other friends in the city, had a final foosball competition with a couple of the greatest foosball players at club, and met with friends for morning coffee.  

Foosball was official with medals and rules - even if it was essentially just three of us! 

Meeting up with friends during the last week.

Loved the last time I had with the kids.

Since I will be gone for while, I had many amazing friends step up to help make sure all was figured out and covered - including who would lead Connect while I am gone, brainstorming new half-leaders who can help at club, a friend to take care of my pet bunny, a friend to take care of my plants, friends to watch over my home, and little packing helpers to help me pack my suitcase.  I was so pleased to have many people helping me, and to have so many understanding parents and translators give encouragement knowing English Classes will be delayed for a time.  I am so excited to share all the wonderful stories with friends in person stateside when I get the chance.

For the last full night I was in Czech (as the night after was technically a half-night due to travel), the youth group surprised me with a final mini-camping trip at our classic Vikings Camp location.  It was so much fun to jump in the swimming hole, play games, talk around the campfire, and sleep under the stars one last night with the youth.  They definitely went above and beyond to make sure we had a great last time together. 

With the youth group

Campfire fun

While traveling in itself is already stressful, throwing in the new COVID procedures and an unexpected night layover in an airport I wasn't supposed to fly to made this traveling experience one I will remember.  But after all the chaos, traveling through the city to a hotel that didn't have a room, the restless night in an airport chair, unintended fasting, and switching airlines for the last leg of the journey, I finally made it back to my stateside home.  My consolation for following flights is that it likely can't get much worse than that - and crazy airport stories are always funny when we look back on all that happened. 

Delta was my "rescuing flight" - getting me out of the airport chaos and back home!  I was the "back of the plane"...