Hello from Nectiny Zamek, the “castle” or chateau where our outreach English camp is underway. I wanted to give you a quick update to let you know our team(s) arrived in CZ and our ministry is in progress, so that hopefully your would be praying for us.
Teams from COHBC in Spokane (8 people), Cornerstone Church in Orange County, California (9 adults and 1 baby), Hope in Christ Church in the Detroit, Michigan area (2 young men), Darby, England (2 men) and the Philippines (1 man) had all arrived here by Thursday of last week. It was a super busy time for the Smiths and Dennys as they greeted each of the newcomers, hosting most of the groups for a meal at the Smiths’ (soon-to-be Dennys’) home. On Saturday morning we all gathered at the building where the Bible Church of Kladno meets to load trailers and cars for the drive to Nectiny. A number of people, some from the church and some from English classes, provided transportation for the 23 people on our combined team.
For Ken and I especially, and for the Kinchers as well, the trip to Nectiny proved to be quite an adventure. You might describe it as a highjacking, but it really was a planned opportunity to host us. English students Milan Rys and Vacek (don’t know his last name), two older men who have attended the evening English course for many years, were our chauffeurs and our hosts—and in Vacek’s car our adventure began enroute to camp. The two cars were the first to arrive and the first to learn that the camp was not prepared for campers to arrive. A previous group had been late in departing Nectiny, so the facility was still being cleaned. They estimated that we had to wait 2 hours to check in. Another person in our car had a T-Mobile cell phone (the only one that had coverage) and we were able to get ahold of the Smiths, who had missed the turn to Nectiny and ended up in Plsen, with the Dennys following behind them. Vacek and Milan assured us that it would be a challenging trip for them to get from Plsen to Nectiny (many hairpin turns, they told us) so their arrival would take awhile and they were taking us to a pub in the village of Nectiny. There they treated each of us to big platters of palacinka (crepe-like pancakes smothered in chocolate, strawberry and pineapple and whipped cream)! I think the palacinka idea was agreed upon when the two men saw Roland’s twinkly-eyed smile at their description of this menu item.
Saturday afternoon was frantically busy, catching up with lost time, registering campers and evaluating their English skills for class placement, a task owned by the Spokane team. We had a brief opening session, then broke into classes for a brief time. Saturday night was our first evening program, and by 9:30 PM all the campers had finally arrived. I’m told it is a full camp, with 105 here (inc luding the teams). The atmosphere is warm and friendly, with many repeat campers and quite a number of families.
The first day or two of camp are a bit hectic as adjustments are made to English classes and everyone gets accustomed to the full sc hedule of activities, but as of Monday the classes are settling in and going very well, people are finding the pace they want to maintain, and team-camper friendships are developing nicely. The “working together” aspect of our team relationships seems to be fairly fluid at this point. Ken is teaching with Kevin and I have visited their class a couple of times—their level 9 class (10 is the top level) is filled with “quiet” talkers who are getting along well together.
The all-important evening program consists of light-hearted songs, a game, a life story (Kevin tonight), a message of challenge (Eugene from Cornerstone tonight, talking about the faith of presuppositions and the challenges science-evolutionary theory pose to unbelief in God). Instead of discussion groups, tonight they are showing the film The Privileged Planet (with Czech subtitles).
I must share how much we are appreciating the leadership of Kevin Kimball. He is very capable, gracious, thoughtful, hard working, and fun. He worked very hard to prepare an excellent culture talk on Marine Corps OCS and his life story. I look forward to the message he is preparing for the evening program.
Please be praying for gospel opportunities in Ken’s and Kevin’s class as well as in Carianne’s and Chris’ level 2 class, the Kinchers’ level 7 class and the children’s ministry which Emily is doing with a Cornerstone team member. I am helping with babies—haven’t spent much time with Chloe Denny yet, but I’ve been able to help with Robert Jhung (1) and the twin daughters (13 months) of a family here at camp. When they are sleeping I help with Ken’s English class. I have opportunities to talk with some of the moms when I help with babies—your prayers are appreciated, especially for Vera Knezu, a young mom who is in Marcus and Amie’s class and her friend Alena, the mother of the twin girls.
It has been very special being here at camp with three granddaughters. Getting them to sleep enough in the midst of this frenetic schedule is challenging. They alternate between being hyper-excited and too tired to cope—this morning it was the latter, so Amie put all three girls down for a nap shortly after breakfast! Sophie (almost 3) is learning to call me “Babicka” and has only made the mistake of calling me “Baba” once. Lydia is quite good at calling me “Babicka” now, but she also calls me “Nana” and Grandma.”
We eat lunch in shifts—Ken and I are in the 1st shift and the Dennys are in the 2nd. Yesterday Ken and I were eating lunch and we noticed Lydia follow a Czech family into the lunchroom. She observed what they did—getting silverware, then going to the window to get a plate of food. When Marcus and Amie and her sisters arrived about five minutes later, she was sitting at a table with the Czech family (who didn’t speak English well) eating her lunch. Pretty flexible behavior for a 4-1/2 year old!
Please be in prayer for the Smith family in their final week here. This has to be an emotional time for them, and Peter and Sonya have lots of loose ends to tie up. Please be in prayer for the Denny family as the baton passes to Marcus. I think they are genuinely enjoying this time, but there is a heavy weight falling upon their shoulders. Pray that they will build strong relational ties with those from the church who are here at camp and that the Lord will go before them in their new role.
Thanks so much for standing with us.
Becky for the COHBC Czech Team