Schemes and Dreams

It's Tuesday evening and we're winding up our time at the Ellenwood's in Czech Republic. Our time here has been great, and we certainly have lots to think about. Our efforts for the last 2 days and for the next 24 hours will be spent dreaming and scheming for "next steps" for teams to come to Central Europe and help with a number of potential service projects in partnership with Josiah Venture.

Yesterday (Monday), Mark and I went with Mel across the boarder to Poland to visit a camp which Josiah Ventures recently purchased. The camp was previously owned by 50 different coal mine companies, and had been left for sometime with a very "short-term" owner's attitude.

Since being purchased by Josiah Venture - Poland, the camp has been redesigned to be attractive to students of a twenty-first century generation. A Polish construction company has been hired to do phase 1, and they've started some initial renovation. A number of American teams came last summer to help on demolition and site work.

Hearing and feeling the vision and passion of the leadership of Josiah Venture as to how strategic this camp is and how it will be used to touch the lives of Polish young people was incredibly inspiring and we're hoping to someday be able to help by sending groups there to serve. It may be a ways off, but this project certainly has plenty to do for a while!! And even though the camp facility will be "under construction," they will begin to use the camp as soon as this coming summer. Please pray with us for this project called H2O (like the water).

Today, Mark and I had the great privilege of taking the short bus and going "back to school" with Amy Ellenwood.

Amy teaches a class of "seniors" who are preparing for their "maturita" ... or graduation test. They do things a little different in Europe, as the students need to pass a final oral test on at least 4 different subjects.

This is a tough test and the kids begin studying now for the test in May! Our time with the kids was to help them in their English pronunciation. It was really fun as they asked us questions to determine what our jobs were, what our wives did, what our favorite cars were. I think that our time with them was profitable, as well as being an influence for the sake of the kingdom!

Tomorrow we are going on to Presov, Slovakia. We thought we were going to take the train, but its worked out that we can ride with one of the Josiah Venture workers who is going to Presov by car, so we'll ride with him! While in Presov, we will connect with Pastor Daniel Jurco, who is a friend of mine (Dave's) from when we lived in Czech. Daniel has asked me to "bring a word" to his church tomorrow evening, so pray that I can be inspiring and relevant to this congregation in Eastern Slovakia.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog next, but, as far as schedule goes, we'll be in Hermanovce, Slovakia on Thursday, and Thursday night, then on to Budapest by train early Friday morning to meet the team coming from Wisconsin! So, we very much appreciate your prayers, and your encouragement. We'll update as soon as we can!