Packed and Stacked and Ready to Roll!

So after nearly 6 months of planning, preparing and praying ... our team of adventurous servants have packed a mountain of duffel bags with teaching materials, sports equipment, treats, t-shirts, and everything else needed to help host an English/Activity/Adventure Camp in the country of Slovakia!

Our team consists of (l to r) ... Joyce Johnson, Jack Duerst, Peter Duerst, Amanda Chartrand, Steve Duerst, Dave Johnson and Terry Sullivan. Everyone except Jack will be traveling together. Jack will be joining us in about 10 days.

We'll be flying out of Minneapolis this afternoon (Wednesday) ... skip across the Atlantic Ocean tonight, and have breakfast in Amsterdam in the morning. From there we fly to Vienna, Austria tomorrow afternoon.

In Vienna we'll meet up with all of the other North American Teams who are coming to help with these camps all over Slovakia. The camps are hosted by our partner organization; Josiah Venture ... and specifically their Slovak division; TCKompas.

From Vienna we'll take a bus to Zilina, Slovakia where we'll gather for an exciting time of getting to know our co-workers and preparing to connect with the Slovak students who come to camp.

After spending a couple days in Zilina, we'll make our way to the camp where we'll greet the students with raucous and crazy excitement!

Our goal is to help build bridges into the students lives through teaching English, leading fun activities, teaching, coaching and playing "American" sports like baseball and football ... and all-in-all, having a blast!

Above all, we want to share the love of God with these students, most of whom have never had the opportunity to hear a clear explanation of how much God loves them and wants to have a relationship with them.

Recently, as I was thinking about this camp, I had a "small" inspiration ... I thought ... what if, what if, what if ... God would use the 6 of us to really impact the lives of the 60 or so students who come to camp. And what if, what if, what if ... those 60 would go back to their friends and family and really impact the lives of 10 people each ... As the Bible says, that would be "hundred-fold" fruit!

Would you please pray with us and for us to that end! ... That God, in His great grace and love, would use these 6 humble and pretty inept folks to bring 100s of people to Himself!

In addition, please pray that we travel safely, that no one gets sick, that our luggage all makes it to its destination on time and that we connect deeply with our new Slovak friends! Oh, and pray for our families, who also sacrifice that we can go and be a part of what God is doing in Slovakia!

Stay tuned to this blog for future updates! We appreciate comments and encouragements!