Auschwitz

Today we went to Krakow Poland and also had the opportunity to go visit Auschwitz (the Nazi concentration camp). This was a very interesting experience. Like many people I know about the holocaust and what happened, but I have never seen it like this. As I went through the tour and walked on the ground and in the barracks of people who were tortured and died for no reason, I am reminded of the depravity of men. We can so often think of events like this and say, the people that could do something like this must be so evil. I am reminded of the words of Moses in Genesis 6:5, "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." I am reminded of the fact that we are all evil all the time. This led me to the thought of Christ and his sacrifice! It is so amazing that though we are a evil group as humans, a group that can cause such atrocities as the Holocaust, that God could still forgive us through Christ. To think that this Grace is so complete that it could even cover a Nazi, who repented and confessed Christ as Lord! Praise be to our God that He is so merciful and gracious to us, a broken and evil people!

Last Host City Visit

The last Host City visit is now over and we are beginning to prepare for camps. The city we visited was Levice. This was the one of the cities that I did camp in last year and also spent time in the fall discipling some of the guy leaders in the group. I am really excited to work again with this group and see how they have grown over the last couple of months! We spent a lot of time going into classes in the local schools to tell about camp and to promote. We also went to their KECY club. For those of you who do not know these clubs are done by the group throughout the year to connect students from camp with the youth group and the church. They usually consist of games, music, and a talk. It is similar to a youth group, but has a slant towards non-believers. During this group we were able to share about ourselves and have the opportunity to share about God with some students. We had one special thing happen while we were at the club. The local tv station decided to do a news piece on the KECY club. Afterwards they interviewed us and we had the opportunity to share about why we were there and about Christ on television!!! This was really amazing and great promotion for the camp and the church! Please continue to pray for my team and myself as we prepare for camp! That we will have energy and strength from God. Also pray for the Slovak and American teams involved! Thank you all!

Second Host City Visit (Back in Rožňava!)

Well I just finished my second Host City Visit to one of the cities that I worked in last year, Rožňava. It was really exciting to be back and to see all the students and team members that I was working with last year. I went with one other guy named Seth. He is an intern here this summer and will be an intern into the fall like I was last year. During this visit we went into the schools to promote camp to the students. This was a real neat experience for me. There were a lot more students interested this year in camp than last year, which was a real blessing! We also spent a lot of time with the team encouraging them and helping them prepare for camp in July. I am really excited about doing camp again with this team. While I was there I had the opportunity to spend some time every evening with my good friend Rudo the leader of the group. He is having a really hard time right now. For a little background on Slovakia, most youth leaders here do it in their free time. Many have full time jobs and families along with leading the youth group. Rudo is one of these youth leaders. The place where he works is making a lot of changes and because he is a manager he is having to work a whole lot more. This is creating a lot of pressure. As I finish writing I would like to ask you if you would be willing to pray for Rudo, that God will give him supernatural strength and that the things going on in his work would be resolved. Thank you for your prayers!

The Flood

Hey I thought I would update you all and tell you that The Flood at Ed's house that I wrote about before has gone down and they only had some damage to their basement. Things are much better now! Thanks for your prayers!

First Host City Visit

My team and I just finished our first Host City visit. The Host City visit is where we go and meet the team we will be working with and get to know them. We also go to schools to promote camps to the students. We were in Bratislava the capital city of Slovakia. This was a very interesting visit for me and different than the ones I have done before. The students and schools there are not as interested in doing English camps. I think that we still had a good number of students that will be interested in coming to camp. The team there was fun to work with and get to know. In all it was a great visit and I am sure God is moving a lot in that group. After this, on the way to our rest city I was driving with three other Americans and one Slovak. We had been driving about one hour when the Car started to act up. The car ended up staling and would not start up. Thanks to God we finally stopped right in front of a repair place! The Slovak girl Baka and I went in, to talk to the repair guy. He came out and ran some tests on the car. It seems the piece that allows gas into the engine from the gas tank had broken. We spent the next hour trying to get it to an Opel dealership and move all of the luggage we had in the car to the next train station. It was quite an ordeal for a group of tired college students who were headed to rest, but I was quite proud of all of them and their attitudes! Please continue to pray for the team and for our attitudes to remain positive!

Urgent prayer

I know I just wrote but I have two prayer requests for our team. Seth one of the interns got really sick and threw up a number of times last night. I would like to ask if you would pray for his health and the health of the whole team! Also I would like to ask you to pray for my co-leader Ed, who is a missionary here with his wife and 5 children. Last night while he was with us on the opposite side of Slovakia from his family, we had a horrible rain storm. The Dam near their town broke and his family had to evacuate because their house is flooding. Please pray that this problem can be resolved and repaired and that Satan will not use it to hinder our ministry this summer. Also pray for Ed's wife Wendi as she is dealing with this and with their five children. Thank You!

Training Week

Well training week has ended and we are finally in Slovakia and ready to begin the ministry. We will leave tomorrow morning to the first cities that we are working in. The training was really encouraging. It was a great opportunity to meet with interns going to the other countries that Josiah Venture is in. There were so many new interns this year. It was fun for me to get to know them and find out what made them want to come for the summer. I am excited about the summer and about our team, I think it will be a great Summer and that God is really going to use us in some mighty ways! Please continue to pray for my team. If you would like to pray for specific names these are the names of the group: Stano, Barika, Holly, Baka, Seth, Kari, Cory, Mike, Ed, and myself. Thank you everyone! I will keep posting!