Slovakia baseball

The first home run of the camp!  

Last day of camp tomorrow!

Sorry that we haven't had time to update the blog.  We have been crazy busy!  We would like to put some pics and video up tomorrow when we arrive in Budapest.  Please pray for tomorrow's program.  We are performing a skit in front of the kids, having a testimony shared, and the gospel presented.  The skit is sooo good!  Check out the inspiration for it on youtube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSwCOs-uXzU

Pretty intense skit we will be doing, right?  I get to play Jesus and am very excited about it.  We have changed some of it up, to make it more appropriate for our age group, i.e. - no suicide stuff, but I'm excited to see how God uses it.  Can't wait to be home with my family once again.  Just 2 more days  :)

Day 13 - Second Week of Camp

Chris and her class :) 

Day 10 + 11

Unfortunately, both my camera and Chris' are out of commission.  My camera is acting weird, and won't turn on, and Chris' ran out of battery.  :(  So, we are relying on other members of our team and translators to get more pics and video.  Sunday was pretty uneventful.  We went to church again, and then later that evening, we took our host families out to dinner.

Today it was sunny (and a little hot). Thanks for your continued prayers during this week of camp. Only 3 days left to go!

Day 8 + 9 - Sightseeing in Slovakia

On Friday, we left to do some sightseeing.  We saw two castles, one that has been restored and kept up, the other in ruins.  They were both pretty cool.  I liked seeing the torture tools!  I should bring some back to use on my middle school students next year  ;-)  Just kidding!  After viewing the 2 castles, we stopped and saw a Catholic church.  Then, we stayed in a retreat center up in the mountains.  It is used by IN Network for Bible camps, and it was very nice.  Chris and I stayed up playing cribbage with Pavel (our leader) and some other members of the team.  The next day, we went to the Tatra Mountains.  We took a ski lift to the top and then we hiked down.  I got to stand on an old ski jump, the ones used by skiers competing in the Olympic games.  Pretty awesome!  There were some gorgeous views that the camera did not do justice.  It was a nice time to unwind and fellowship with the members of our team.  

The Catholic Church - very beautiful

Josh thinks he could have taken this guy!

Cool castles

Chris from a window view of the castle.

The retreat center we stayed at.

Chris terrified in the ski lift..... she's afraid of heights

Josh at the top of the ski lift.  Quite the view!

The bottom of the ski jump.  Those guys are brave!

The view from the ski jump.

Chris at the top of the mountain.

Day 7 - 4th Day of Camp

Praise God for a SUNNY day!!!

Lunchtime!

3 of Chris' students

After lunch on Thursday, we took a break to get Zmrzlina (ice cream). Below are a few pictures of Chris' class enjoying their treat.

Day 6 - 3rd day of camp

*Chris Speaking* Today was the 3rd Day of Camp. I'm loving it! We played a lot of games during class. Competition definitely inspires the kids to participate! For art, we did two projects: Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" and a sketch of our feet. 


Josh's day was a little harder... it started raining. All the outside activities had to be moved inside to the gym. We are praying for a sunny day tomorrow. 

Indoor Games with Josh 

Getting our feet traced for our "Fantastic Feet" Sketch 

Morning English Camp - Creation Day 2 Craft 

Day 5 videos

Worship in Cinobana- Josef is a cool singer

Morning worship- Life is Good, Eternal Life is Better

Morning games - Balloon relay races

Day 5 - Our visit to the gypsy church: Cinobana

The 2nd day of camp went really well.  In baseball, we separated into our 2 teams, Yankees and Dodgers.  We started working on drills and had our first scrimmage.  The Dodgers dominated on this day.  After camp, we went to the gypsy church in a town called Cinobana.  We sang worship in their language and Harvey, our team leader lead the sermon.  We had a great time of fellowship with the members of their church.  It's awesome to worship and fellowship with believers in another country.  We all share the same love of Christ.  After the service was over, we went out to dinner for pizza and some traditional Slovak food.

Josef and Katka, who lead the worship at the gypsy church in Cinobana. 

Part of the Slovakia missions crew!  

 Gypsy children hanging out and having fun.  

A street in Cinobana

A stork that lives near the gypsy church.  Bringing food to its kiddos

Josh eating the traditional Slovak dish: halushky

Dessert!  Pizza style

Day 4 - First day of camp

*Chris speaking* This morning we woke up to SUNNY skies. Praise the Lord! :) Camp started at 9am. We have about 100 students in attendance and 30 translators. During the morning, Josh teaches the Baseball Clinic and I teach English to a small class of 9 year-olds. My three translators are wonderful and love helping out. We had a good morning talking about "home" and "family." The students were pretty quiet until we started playing games. 

In the afternoons, Josh continues with Baseball, while I teach art. It was a great first day and we are excited for the rest of camp. Thanks for all your prayers! 

Chris and her translators: Kiki, Vikki, and Claudia

The shoe hunt game- morning activities

Chris and her class

3 of Chris' art students

The first home run of the camp!  Kind of....

Random baseball video

Peter says hello, i think?

Day 3

On Sunday, we went to church.  It was a long service, 3 hours in fact, but really awesome.  We witnessed 8 baptisms, one baby dedication, worship songs from the home church and gypsy church, and communion.  Three local churches gathered for this event.  The baptisms were very cool, because each individual got up and shared their personal testimony and why they wanted to be baptized.

worship time, Slovak style!

This young man is a member of the gypsy church, and had an incredible testimony.

the baby dedication

Today, we had a meeting discussing the camp schedule and team responsibilities.  We were introduced to our translators.  Chris gets 3, because she needs a lot of help.  :)  Chris' translators are: Viki, Claudia, and Kiki.  My translators are Tom, Lubo, Lucy, and of course, my main man, Peter.  Please pray that as we build relationships with them, we are able to have opportunities to share our faith.  Tomorrow we get to go to the local church and witness a baptism.  Camp starts in 2 days and we can't wait!

Day 2 - Meetings and Setting up our Classrooms

They have mocha frappes (iced mocha) in Slovakia! 

Coffee time! Check out the pretty flower in Chris' drink

The one on the left is the Lutheran church, and the cross on the right is the Catholic church.  Rumor has it that the Lutherans put a rooster on their steeple to remind the Catholics that Peter (of whom the Catholics revere) denied Christ three times and then a rooster crowed. 

Chris' translators decorated her chalkboard for the first day.

Miss Diekman's classroom

Saturday lunch at the 3Pe Center

One choice was pizza with ham and corn.  That's one you don't get in the States!

                                              The 3P Center, where all our meetings are held

                       

                                                 the van that picked us up from the airport