czech chat

[Click here to provide a $50 or $100 scholarship for one of our summer campers.]

This summer Team Olomouc is stepping out boldly and putting on two summer camps for Czech teens, the focus of which will be to learn and practice English and to be exposed to Christian themes and values in a fun and engaging setting: camp!!!

The first camp will take place at a village about an hour away from Olomouc named Jindrichov na Morave, and it will be designed primarily for older teens, namely those in high school. It’s theme will be “Speaking a New Language,” a two-fold title that addresses the fact that, first, students will be speaking a language not native to them, and, second, that they will learn how the the power of words can be harnessed and redirected to communicate radically different things than we are used to, like patience, kindness, mercy, and so on.

The second camp will be a Day Camp that takes place in various places in Olomouc, like a ropes course, a movie theater, a paintball center, and even a nearby lake. This camp will target slightly younger teens - middle school and early high school, and its theme is “Be Free,” a title that celebrates the many freedoms that come from being human, as well as those that come from being a Christian.

Both camps will include times of English study in small groups, short Christian programs and discussion groups to talk about the given theme for each day, and TONS of activities, games, sports, and fun to enhance English skills, demonstrate Christian love, and above all, develop a sense of community where previously there wasn’t. Both camps will be a week long, and for both, groups of American college students will come over and help us lead, teach at, and chaperone the almost one hundred Czech students we expect to be at these camps.

We have tried to offer these camps at a very low cost so that we can attract as many students as possible (roughly $125 for the Away Camp and $75 for the Day Camp), but because many students have other monetary obligations during the summer it is not always easy for them to pull together the funds for such great opportunities for English practice as these. To that end, then, to students applying to the Away Camp we are offering the chance to earn scholarships and defray their camp expenses. Students are already applying and submitting their scholarship applications, and we would love to be able to offer as many scholarships as we can so that these students can come without anything preventing them.

Team Olomouc, then, would like to present you with the opportunity to help these Czech students come to our camps (some students are eligible to come to both). For a one-time donation of $50 or $100 you can ensure that these students have that little bit of extra funding to attend camp and share in the great plans we have for them. This very well may be the first time that these students encounter real, authentic, lived Christianity in people near their age, and with as many challenging, sinful, and heartbreaking situations that we have found in the lives of the teens we have met, we want to provide them every chance to come and participate in a way of life that can give them back the love, acceptance, and purpose they are longing for. So please consider what you can do to help these teens with their camp fees and ensure the success of our summer camps. We thank you very much for your support of our efforts here in the Czech Republic and the Christian movement we are working diligently to create!

To give just click here, scroll to the bottom of the page and follow the simple instructions for donating via PayPal.

Dear Friends and Family,

It is a blessing for us to send our greetings again and this time from our home in Olomouc! Sarah and I are so very thankful that God has taken great care of us throughout our time away from here, and we feel a deep sense of gratitude toward Him and all of you.

First, we thank our Father for His amazing wisdom in all things, His wonderful power in all matters and His rich mercy in our lives! We hold to Him dearly in times of struggle and in times of joy. He has been very gracious to us!

Second, we wish to thank our families. We so very much appreciate their love and help, especially during the past several months. Thank you for helping us with everything- from having us in your homes, to feeding us, to comforting us, to helping us cope with many difficult burdens, and to letting us return to our lives here in Olomouc. We love you!

Third, we wish to thank our friends and brothers and sisters in Christ whom we visited while back in the United States. We took great pleasure in seeing you again, in sharing handshakes, hugs and stories, and in your warm hospitality. You are so very kind!

Fourth, we wish to thank our teammates here in Olomouc for their assistance in taking care of our matters here, for their great patience while we were focused on other matters and for their warm welcome upon our return.

And finally, we wish to thank each and every one of you for your tremendous outpouring of love, for your patience and support in allowing us to return to the U.S. for further health care, and for your perseverance in prayer on our behalf. Thank you all!

May God continue to bless you!

Joshua and Sarah Beall

I have decided that I’m really appreciative of our language school schedule this semester. Last year we had Wednesdays off - a nice hump-day break to pare down the long week of class, but this semester we have Mondays off. I didn’t think I wuld take to this too highly at first, but as busy as our weekends have been lately I have come to wholeheartedly embrace the three-day weekend, despite the weighty chunk of classes it leaves in between. All that to say, it’s good to have today off from school since we were in Prague all weekend and could use some down time to recover.

Our dear friends in Prague, MatuÅ¡ and Melissa Dedina are about a month away from the birth of their new daughter, Katerina, and the girls here in Olomouc decided to throw Melissa the American-style baby shower that Czech culture hasn’t yet adopted (go figure). So when class ended on Friday we soon thereafter boarded a train to Prague to hook up with the Dedinas and another young married couple that are moving back to Prague in the Spring, TomaÅ¡ and Martina Mach. So on Saturday, while the girls were having pillow fights and painting nails (or whatever really goes on at a baby shower), almost every male in the Prague congregation converged at the church for a raucous afternoon of ping-pong, wrestling, and other degenerative activities that follow when competitive and fun-loving guys coop themselves up for hours away from supervision:) But each respective gender had a blast that afternoon, and we reconvened that evening for a much-anticipated dinner of Thai food to warm our bellies before stepping back into the cold, fall night and heading back to our respective accomodations.

On Sunday morning we made our way to the Prague worship service, where MatuÅ¡ had organized the theme (and furniture) around an extended period of table fellowship, during which we gorged ourselves on healthy portions of pancakes, eggs, bacon, bread, and fruit. When we had finished eating, we broke bread and shared grape juice together in a much more intimate setting for communion than most churches can allow, and then we sang and sang until our throats ran dry. It was a truly memorable exploration of what church can be (and perhaps was, eons ago), for when you occupy a table with your brothers and sisters, rubbing elbows and looking at them eye to eye, all else tends to melt away in the rising spirit of community and love. The atmosphere of worry, selfishness, and self-preccupation thins away, leaving you in the rich space of divine presence, where all that matters anymore is care for one’s neighbor and the sorting out of internal prerogatives in the face of something that moves beyond a couple dozen people sharing breakfast, as much as the meaning of communion moves beyond mere bread and wine and treads that ephemeral territory of the sacred/profane interface.

So after such a stimulating weekend I am glad for a day off to recover. As one who used to dread Mondays, maybe they’re beginning to make a comeback after all…

Graham

Our mission team here in Olomouc, CZ, has just finished our first semester of Czech language school! It’s been a good semester, blessed with four wonderful teachers.

Yes, school is out for the summer, but it will by no means be a break. We’ll be keeping ourselves busy with individual language study and with conversation practice with some of our new Czech friends and with each other as well. The summer will also include visits from almost all of our parents, plus a few friends, RFC campaigners from Wroclaw, Poland, and Harding campaigners from Prague, Czech Republic. It will be great to show off our beautiful city and share our passion for this place and these people.

When not showing Olomouc off, we hope to learn more about this place ourselves—about possible opportunities for service and outreach—and to continue to build relationships with people in our neighborhoods—our landlords, our neighbors, servers at local restaurants, fellow members of the fitness gym, cashiers at the grocery store, etc.

Please be in prayer about our work here, praying that many people will be blessed by our presence and by God’s presence in us and that many people will come to know Christ and gather into a vibrant community of faith that will be a bright and lasting light to this city and country. Na shledanou!

Today, Honza from the church in Brno came to town for a visit. We had a good day of fellowship — touring Olomouc, sharing lunch, playing cards, and praying. We’ve just uploaded some pictures from today, from language school, and from the brief winter wonderland we experienced a couple of weeks ago. Take a look.