Day 4

So maybe it is not the best idea to wait so long to update the blog. But it gets very busy the last few days of camp.

Friday was day four of camp. It rained. It rained hard. It rained hard and long. It even hailed. It was a tough day for sports! Never fear, entertain with Veggie Tails! In English, of course. After all, it is English Camp.

The highlights for Friday centered around Kaitlyn and Chad and their conversations with a couple of children from the camp. Kaitlyn and Chad have been very vocal about their faith and witnessing to the kids. They have spent time praying for and with a lot of the children. Friday, they prayed with a group of boys and girls and at least one accepted Christ. Daniel is actually a boy from Chicago and was in Stola for a month visiting his relatives. And yes, attending English Camp? He was in Jessica and Hannah's class. And quite a handful to start the week. But as the week progressed, he became more and more involved. Jamie taught him how to hit a softball. Daniel was told that no boy from Chicago should be in Europe and no be able to hit a ball. The batting lesson really seemed to change his attitude. From then on he was very open and receptive to many things. Even the Gospel. Pray for Daniel and his new faith. Hopefully we can stay in touch with him after he returns to the US.

Shawn

Day 3

How could you possibly complain about waking up to God's perfect creation, even if there is the threat of rain?  Sorry Chris, rain plays havoc on sports during English camps.

The third day of camp brought some exciting news.  Kaithlyn and Chad (Eade) have used their class and free time to really challenge their kids for God.  They were able to pray with a few boys who have a testimony of salvation and see those boys make a commitment to furthering their relationship with God.  They have been praying for two sisters from the Gypsy community.  These girls were in camp a few years ago, but for varying circumstances, they were unable to attend last year.  This year they said they could not afford to come.  Gayle agreed to pay their way to camp and they have been a blessing since.  God is working in their lives.  Kaitlyn prayed with a young boy who has now accepted Christ as savior.  I will let her give you the details.  God is granting us the privilege of seeing His work accomplished.

Thursday evening we went to our favorite Slovak restaurant.  Utopia pizza in Poprad.  It is a long way to go for good pizza, but there are many that will tell you it is worth it.  I am among them.

I met an English chap, Lester Peters, last year at the Baptist Church in Poprad.  Lester felt God calling him to serve somewhere other than England.  He manages a website for churches in the UK, which allows his work to be very mobile.  He felt God asking him to move to Poprad not really knowing how God was going to use him.  He bought a flat about a year ago and is earnestly learning the language awaiting God's plan.  I am not sure if he found it with us, but he has been a tremendous blessing at camp this week.  We shall see what else is in store for him in the future.

Thank you for your continued prayers.  We can see God's work around us every day.

Shawn

Day 2

We woke on Wednesday to beautiful sunshine on the mountains.  It was a perfect day.  The second day of camp is always a little easier than the the first.  We were able to work out some of the difficulties and confusion of the first day and really begin to enjoy the children.  All reports are that the individual class times went very well.  The only complaint is there is not enough time to accomplish all that is planned.  That is a good problem.

Softball is still a big "hit" with the kids during the sports time.  We are working on the farm system for the church team.  We have a few that are almost ready for their "call-up" to the big leagues.

As I may have mentioned, this is the tenth anniversary of the camp.  While technically the eleventh camp, it is the tenth year.  So maybe it is the ten year anniversary.  If car companies can celebrate 25th anniversary's for two years, we can have a tenth on the eleventh!  We have used the anniversary as part of our theme this year and I have built Bible lessons from scriptures that have the number ten.  As mentioned, Don Eade used his ten finger method to teach the ten commandments.  On day two of camp, I told the children about the ten plagues of Egypt.  What kid doesn't want to hear about frogs in peoples' beds.  COOL!  In the passages in Exodus, I see Pharaoh acting very much like we do.  He was holding onto the people: we hold onto certain sins (or other things).  He refused to let the people go to God: we refuse to give sin up so we can be close to God.  God used trials to convince Pharaoh to let them go: God uses trials to mold and shape us in our walk.  How many plagues must we face?  And then, when we think we have released that sin in our lives, will we pursue it again?

On a lighter note, I did get to play futbol with some kids from the inner city.  I had two personal goals in mind (pardon the pun).  1. Survive with out injuring myself. 2. Survive without injuring my pride. (After all, I was playing for all America!)  Two early to tell about either, but I had a great time.  And best of all, it was more opportunity to build on relationships.  My main focus was to spend time with Marek, the director of the DEPO.  That was great, but I also spent time playing with Lubomir Pal, the pastor of the Baptist church in Poprad.  He is as a good a soccer player as Chris is at softball.  It was a great time of fellowship.  Hopeful God can use it to build the relationships.

Thanks again for the prayers.  I am encouraging the others to post.  There are some great stories and I do not want to steal their thunder.  Just know for now, God is really working.

Shawn

Camp - Day 1

Actually, I am not going to start with Day - 1 of camp.  I need to back-up to Monday, just for a minute.

The team was praying for a way to spend the day on Monday, since school was still in session and we could not start camp until Tuesday afternoon.  We requested to visit one of the public schools, with really no agenda in mind.  We were invited to a primary school in the small village of Vishny Hagy.  The village is about 3 miles from Stola, closer to the mountains.  The school has about 40 students from first to fourth grade.  Erin Gorman was the star of the show.  She prepared a small speech, part in English and part in Slovak.  We had a small skit and answered questions.  We were very well received.  Praise God again that He can use what we thought was a set-back to gain another opportunity to build on His work.

After we spent some time at the Castle Spis (h), I took a group of teens to the DEPO in Poprad.  We had a great time of fellowship with some of the kids from prior camps and the kids from "the projects" of Poprad.  Marek Songa is the director of the DEPO ministry.  He spent some time walking me around the neighborhood and invited me to play European Football on Wednesday afternoon with some of the kids from the DEPO.  Of course I can never turn down an opportunity to play anything.  I'll let you know if I survive!

Today was the first day camp.  The first day is never without challenges, but all went very well.  Don Eade and his son Chad taught the children a great way to memorize the ten commandments.  It is a demonstration he did for our church when he was there last.  There will be a quiz when we return.  We were able to dodge the rain for sports in the afternoon.  Baseball has a lot of rules.  And it is really hard to teach them all when you have such a huge language barrier.  A big thank you to Kate Kacova for translating, playing catcher and batting instructor.

More to come.....

Shawn

Sunday in Stola

We arrived Saturday around 3:30. Ester, of course had a light snack ready for us. Then after unpacking we were invited to dinner at the Pavlikova home. This is the family of the three young ladies that will be travelling back with us. The hospitality of the Slovak people is overwhelming. I think we are all up a few pounds after only a few days.

I was really missing Walt Seligman as I dragged a group to Tesco last night. Walt loves Tesco and is usually happy to do the driving.

Alyssa, Chad and Kaitlyn found the bon fire up at the village community center and met with some former campers that aren't able to make it this year do to finances. They had a good time with them at the bon fire and came home trying to figure out if there was a way to get these children into camp.

Church this morning was in the local Stola church. Chad Eade translated for us and did a great job. I shared briefly from Acts 2 and we sang 2 songs; Mighty to Save and Worship the King. Jana's father, Jan, delivered the message from John 8:1-11, reminding us that before we judge one another that none of us are worthy of throwing the first stone, only Christ. There was an update and a lot of prayer for the camp this week.

Ian is explaining to Michael what "offsides" is in futball - they are playing Erin in a backyard game. They were winning 5-1 before I went down and played goal keeper for her. Not sure that I helped too much. As you can imagine Michael and Ian are having a great time together. Erin spent a few hours with Don Eade yesterday and is close to mastering the Slovak language, well at least closer than the rest of us.

The teens were up playing cards last night and are anxious to get out with the other teens in the village and to the Depot later in the week.

Camp doesn't start until Tuesday afternoon so we might have a chance to visit one of the local schools tomorrow. That would be a great experience!

Kathy and the girls had relatives from Eastern Slovakia vist us for lunch today. They took a day and found them two years ago, so it is nice that they can touch base again.
Keep us in your prayers - that we can keep up the energy and be prepared for camp physically, mentally and especially spiritually.

Weather update: Lots of clouds around the mountains. Huge storm last night with a lot of rain. Like us in Virginia it has been a very wet spring. It is pleasantly warm though and looks like it should be a good week with some storms here and there.

Appreciate any comments or questions that you have.

Jamie

It's All Good

Thank you for your prayers for our travel.  Linda, the boys and I arrived safely Thursday afternoon and were met at the airport by Don Eade.  We spent a wonderful afternoon with the Eade's and tried to recover from 30+ hours without sleep.  Don and I met the Gormans and the Ebenhoehs in Vienna today.  Everyone is safe, but very tired.  Pray the travel recovery is quick and we will all be ready for camp.

The Sumralls are spending the night with Eades.  Don arranged for the Gormans to stay in a house were the owners are on holiday.  Kathy and the girls are staying with a family from the church in Bernolakova.  They were so welcoming.  They are in great care.  Though, I think fellowship will be short.  I think bedtime us going to early tonight for everyone.

Don and I did a little shopping for the group at the local "Costco", called METRO.  It is members only bulk/wholesale store very much like Costco.  Its always helpful to have someone to translate.  We picked out the items we needed and went to check-out.  The cashier informed us that we were $2 short of a free gift and insisted that Don get something else.  She failed to explain what we were going to receive as the gift.  So, Don proceeded to grab two more Euro of toilet paper and we proceeded to finish checking-out.  She told us to show our receipt at the door and collect our case of beer.  We passed.  Beginnings!  You learn something new everyday.

Saturday we will make the rest of our trip.  We are leaving around 10:00 to make the 41/2 hour ride to Stola.  We are really excited to finally get to the village.

We'll keep you posted.

Time to go!

WOW...I cannot believe it is the eve before we leave again for Stola, Slovakia. It seems, at times, it was just last week we were returning from last year's trip. I think we are mostly ready to go. All the preparations for classes and assignments are complete...I think. How close to done are we Jamie? I personally will not pack until Wednesday. I know, last minute. But I cannot handle sitting around waiting for the bus to leave for the airport. I will drive everyone crazy.

Just to recap again. The Sumrall family leaves Wednesday, June 24. The Gormans and Ebenhoehs leave on Thursday, June 25. Since we used mileage points to buy so many of the tickets, we could not all fly together. Believe me, Michael and Ian are none to happy about not flying together. Its OK with United Airlines though!

We will meet Don and Cherry Eade on Thursday when we land and they will host us for the night. We pick up the rest of the team Friday and will spend the day with the Eade's and some members of their church in Bernolakova, Slovakia. Don and Cherry along with their son Chad will join us in Stola for camp. We are looking forward to a great week with them.

Saturday we will travel to Stola and meet with the Slovak team and get settled into our quarters for the week. Sunday we will be at church in Poprad and then have our first organizational meeting. Kathy's family from southern Slovakia will come to Poprad to spend some time with Kathy and the girls. What a really neat experience that will be for all of us.

English Camp in Stola will start Tuesday, June 30. Typically, we have camp Monday through Friday. This year, Slovak public schools will not end until June 29. Just a small problem. We are hoping to spend that day, Monday, in school with some of the campers from last year. One challenge seems to open another door of opportunity. Monday evening the church in Poprad is planning a cook-out for us. We are excited about spending time with the Body of Christ. The rest of the week will be typically camp for us! Classes in the mornings. Sports in the afternoons. Adult English in Stola in the evenings and a couple of trips to the DEPO as well. It will be very busy. We are looking forward to what the Lord will do this week.

We will keep you posted on the happenings. Feel free to comment on the posts. Especially keep us posted on softball!

Blessings to all. Thank you again for your support. My God be honored and glorified through ti all.