Mosquitos and Horseflies

Mosquitos and Horseflies were numerous at Rožňava camp, but it did not dull the mood of camp. As many of you know Rožňava was the town that I worked most in last year. I have a real close bond with this team and this camp. The camp we just finished was probably the best camp that I have been to. I have never seen God moving as much as he did in camp this year. The whole camp was almost the difference between black and white from last year. The Slovak team did such a great job serving and connecting with the students. The students came to camp this year with a total different perspective than they did last year. Last year many of them were atheists and did not want to talk about God. This year everyone of them was interested in talking about God. We had at least 6 come to Christ and many others say they were about 90% of the way to believing, they just needed to think more about it. I built some relationships with four boys: Marek, Miso, Martin, and Laco. (This picture is of me and these guys at a dance retro party night at camp, I will put up a better picture later). These guys were so neat! They always wanted to talk about something deep. I absolutely loved this! As many of you know I love having deep conversations about God. For example, one of the boys came to me and asked me, "you know in the Bible it says the man is the boss of the woman what does that mean?" It was such a great opportunity to share about the Biblical Family and marriage. He really loved this conversation and eventually got the other three guys into the conversation. After camp I went out with them and the youth leader Rudo (my good friend). As we talked they said they would be interested in meeting more often and talking about God and the things they were learning in the Bible. I am not sure exactly where they are in their relationship with Christ. They all claim that they are believers. Please keep these guys and this team in your prayers! Also please be in prayer for our last camp in Levice (the other town I was working in last year). Thank you everyone! God Bless!

Bratislava Camp

Well I just finished my first camp for the summer in Bratislava (The capitol of Slovakia). It was a very interesting camp. It was really tough at first because I had a lot of organizing to do. Both the American and Slovak teams seemed rather disorganized at first, but after a while and some prompting things that needed to be done were being done. The camp turned into a really neat camp. By the end of the camp there was a lot of openness among the leaders and students, something I have never seen in a camp here in Slovakia before. Groups grew close and students began to think seriously about God. I want to talk about two boys specifically. One of the boys is named Jan. He and I had a some really good conversations during camp, I found out that his dad had Parkinson's desease just like my Father. Unfortunately his father died and it had really affected his life. He was having trouble trusting God. We began to talk through this and I tried to encourage him. I was thinking about which Slovak leader to connect him to for further Discipling. As I was thinking of this he wrote to me and told me that he was really looking forward to learning to trust God in is life more and was going to meet with one of the leaders Kubo (who I admire a lot). This was such a blessing. The second story I would like to write about is about a guy named Jay. He is a young Slovak guy who was brought to camp by one of the Josiah venture staff who has been discipling him. Throughout the week we had conversations about what God thought of us, seeing that we are not perfect, how can we serve him if we are not like Paul or the other disciples. After talking about this he decided that he wanted to really work at leading and loving others. He began talking to one of the students who came from the same background of Catholicism and he had. By the end of the week the boy Martin was asking all sorts of questions and Jay had the opportunity to lead him to Christ. This was so great to see. To see how God was faithful in bringing the lost to Him and to showing a young man that he is important to God and can make a difference without being a "Paul". There were a couple of other guys that I saw really come to understand the idea of discipling through this camp and it really excited me! I also learned a lot at this camp. God really reveled a lot to me about how I lead and what my future looks like, in what ways and how he wants me to grow as a leader. I am excited to learn more about this through the next Camp. Please be praying for the next camp that God will protect it. That he will open the hearts of the 33 students coming and that he will Guide the American and Slovak Teams! Thanks Everyone!