As lockdown eases and everything opens up more, our team is finding ourselves much busier! We are happy to be able to open some activities safely again and met as a team to discuss all we can do to move forward in this time. With the whole team together (even a new member of our team who will start officially after summer), we knew it would be great to take a team picture. After snapping the picture, the youth leader was showing it to us and one of his children said...
"It's perfect! Dad, can you send this picture to my preschool teacher?"
"Why should I send this picture to your teacher?"
"Remember Dad? We are supposed to send Teacher pictures of our family."
That pretty much sums up this team. We are a family. We work together; we help each other; we're there for each other; even the kids have figured it out. Our team is like a family.
View from my window after one very rainy day.
I joined a group of friends for an afternoon canoeing on the reservoir and watched sunset over the water. It was such a wonderful time together, and I am really grateful for these friends! A couple of them recently moved here and are creating a little community of young adult believers. I am looking forward to more adventures and time spent with this group.
Even with all the wet, rainy weather, there have been a few beautiful spring days for quick biking trips, walks to town for ice cream with the kids, and I found the perfect new place to read in my hammock. I think I looked at the view just as much as I looked at the pages of the book!
As the situation in Czech has been getting better, there is the possibility to meet safely in small groups. Our team decided it would be good to begin opening clubs, youth groups, and English classes if there was interest. I wrote to the parents to see if there was interest in English Classes, and many responded so fast and eager that by the following Monday we were already in class! The kids in the Beginner Class were so excited to be back, and we had picked up a couple more who had been at City Camp last year and wanted to continue with more English lessons. I know we all missed story time with our Gerald Elephant and Piggie books - even my translator said he missed translating the books for the kids the most of all. We have a large stuffed animal Gerald Elephant for our classroom, and when the kids saw Gerald, they instantly greeted him! As we sat for Circle Time, I told the students...
"I must tell you, I think Gerald is very happy to see you all. I was a little worried because after I came back from America, I couldn't find Gerald in the office."*Students gasp*"I finally found Gerald alone in one storage space."*Students appear worried*"But I couldn't find Gerald's glasses!" (Gerald wears pipe-cleaner glasses.)*All students have big, puppy-eyes and a couple whisper "poor Gerald..."*"I thought we would need to let Gerald borrow glasses from our translator to see you today, but I finally found his glasses, and he is much happier now that he can see you."*Students are relieved. One hugs Gerald tight and another whispers "I missed you too, Gerald"**Translator glances at me - his mask hiding his smile, but I can tell he also appreciated the innocent reactions of the students to the little drama... and he seemed happy he didn't have to share his glasses with a stuffed animal.*
Our first lesson with the Beginner Class was reviewing Emotions. The students enjoyed acting out the different emotions with sounds and body movements - since our faces were covered with masks, we needed to figure out new ways to express emotions! We have now began a theme about questions and already learned how to use "what" to ask about things and actions. The students are already looking forward to the next questions we will learn and practice.
One of my favorite parts of English Class is encouraging my translators. (I have been incredibly blessed with a couple great translators these past couple years.) And I love seeing them in return encourage the students. A student told me last week, "I saw [translator] at school today in the hall, and he said 'hi' to me. I said 'hi' back. It was really nice. I had a good day!" Another student told his mom (who later told me), "[Translator] translates everything Kendra says. EVERYTHING! Like even words I don't use much - if at all - in Czech, he can translate from English!" I hope that these kids are encouraged to continue practicing their English and will hopefully become translators for me in the future also!
Next-Step English Class students have grown so much! I am impressed how much their English has improved from the year of online school. (I think many of these older students spent much time watching TV shows in English during the year, which would have also helped!) Surprisingly, they were shy for the 15 minutes we were back in English Class. Many of these kids have been in my English Classes for years, so I was surprised by their shy demeanor, but all it took was one game and they were laughing and bubbly once again! I decided to focus on English words that the students would need to use in cases of emergency. I explained that there may be times they need to use their English in an emergency and it would be good to be familiar with the vocabulary. The past two weeks, we've created skits to practice our English vocabulary. Though, the second week, I put a spin on the skits and gave them also an emotion to express while acting in the emergency situation! Sometimes it was rather comical and the kids couldn't get enough of it! My group took the reins immediately and instructed me with what I was supposed to do for their skit. I was so proud of their leadership and the way they became more and more confident in their English. They continued to change roles to give each person a chance at all the characters. However, by the last skit, my team had replaced me with our class mascot - a big stuffed elephant, Gerald. Apparently they didn't want to stop changing the roles and decided I would speak for Gerald Elephant, though the large stuffed animal got my seat on the stage!
Opening clubs again these past weeks has filled my heart in so many ways. It is definitely different after being so long in lockdown, but in many ways it is still the same. Some of our club kids who hadn't been coming for a while (even before lockdown) have resurfaced as they are looking for more opportunities to connect with friends. I have loved seeing them again! There have also been multiple new faces coming through the doors as our skatepark kids encourage their friends to come and play a round a ping-pong or foosball. Even with the masks, I can see they are all happy to be welcomed at club. I'm still missing some of our regulars who had come often before our year-long lockdown, but I'm hoping with time, they will also begin coming back to hang out with us at club. In the meantime, there are always new kids to meet!
We were able to meet with the girls for Connect Club outside last week. We went to a park and sent the girls on a nature scavenger hunt with partners around the pond. They all really enjoyed the activity and being outside on one of the non-raining days last week was an added bonus (though it did start sprinkling just as we were packing up). As it was our first meeting back together, we talked about what we wanted to study for the few weeks before summer break at Connect Club. The girls agreed that they would like to learn more about the attributes of God and who God is to us. One of the girls said, "It is so hard to describe God. I don't even know where to begin!" The other leader and I looked at each other with the same expression on our faces - knowing that the first part of the comment from the girl was true for us as well, even as leaders - it IS hard to describe God - but maybe we can help with the second part, giving the girls a starting block. We are all looking forward to following lessons and all God will teach us through this theme!
On a nature scavenger hunt around the pond
Enjoying the time outside together
A couple weeks ago, the ninth graders had entrance exams to high school. Many of our ninth grade club students said it was very stressful because they hadn't been in school all year and the tests determine if they will be able to study at their school of choice in the program they would like. One of my ninth grade friends said there were over 200 students taking the exam to get into the program at the school, but the school will only accept 60 students! Ninth graders were studying non-stop. Students who hadn't paid much attention to schoolwork before were devoting weekends to exam practice. I was very proud of my club ninth graders and wanted to make sure they knew we believed in them, so I went the Saturday before their exams and passed out studying snacks for their final "cramming session." They were all very grateful and said they felt better about the exams after a little snack and encouragement. They received their results back last week and they ALL got into their schools of choice! And that friend who was worried if he'd make it into the 60 of 200 applicants... he had the fourth highest score in the class of 200!
While on a walk with a friend, we visited this nearby village called Amerika! It's actually a neighborhood of a village, so we couldn't find a sign anywhere that says it's Amerika, but I promise you, on the map, it says it is Amerika. Sometimes I wish America was really just over the hill and not across the ocean, but it reminds me how grateful I am for technology these days to connect with my family and friends back in the states!
