Host City Visits...

Over the past 3 weeks my team and I have traveled to 3 different cities in Slovakia to help their teams prepare for camp and to promote camps in the high schools. I have completely loved this time, because ultimately building relationships is what I am passionate about. So, it has been a joy to get to know these different youth groups and to encourage them during this process of getting ready for Kecy Camps.

The first city we went to was Roznava, which is a city closer to the eastern side of Slovakia. The team here was so amazing, and I have truly never felt more welcome, both in Slovakia or in the States. During our time there, the camp leader and his family took us to see a palace that had the most beautiful grounds I've ever seen. Here is a pic of Robby (my co-leader) with Rudo (the camp leader) and his 2 year old, Ema:



Next we were in Bratislava, my home city. It was so great to be home after being gone for close to 3 weeks, and I was excited for the interns to get to know the people in my life here. We didn't do as many high school visits as we did in Roznava, so most of our time was spent just hanging out with the team and other youth that went to camp last summer.

Leila, Sarah, and I with Barca and Marica:



Our final visit was in Levice, and we had such a great time with this team. But dang, they worked us to the core! We taught a total of about 15 to 20 full English classes in the high schools (which is how we promote camp), went on an 8 hour hike Saturday, and then on Sunday we attended the church's family day which was filled with sports. We were exhausted by the end of this visit! But we also left with a huge love for this team, and a ton of excitement to do camp with them.

These are some girls we met in the high schools who came to hang out with us one afternoon:



The peak of our hike:



A 13th century chapel we stopped at along our hike:



One funny thing about our intern team is that all three of these cities are in very different parts of Slovakia. So, we've spent A LOT of time on trains, so we've actually already looped the country twice... and we haven't even started camps yet! SO, tomorrow we actually leave to start our first term of camp with Roznava, and therefore begin our next loop. Woot woot! Thank goodness Slovakia is so beautiful!

Intern Training

Intern training is always one of my favorite times during the year. It's so fun to be around all of my friends from the other JV countries, along with all of these college students from the States who are eager to serve in Eastern Europe. This year was great as always, and especially intense for me. The Lord really spoke to me through friends and spiritual teaching, and it was clear that He was pursuing me to really face head on some issues in my own life.

One other amazing thing from intern training was a new game that Sarah and I made up. Well, I don't know if you can really call it a game, but you can call it fun! (insert cheesy laughter) All you have to do is try to do your best cheerleading jump. Awesome! And this fab game did not just stay between Sarah and myself, oh no, it spread amongst the whole training...

Sarah showing us how it's done:



Brittney shocking us with her skills:



Chris casually dominated all of us:



Jay continued to prove to me that I had no ups at all:



Us getting one last jump in before parting ways for the summer:



And we couldn't resist a pyramid:

Amazing Race

So as you know I was a little anxious about the race this year, but it ended up being a bunch of fun. My interns were just as chill as I was about it, so we ended up taking it easy... and by taking it easy, I mean that we even took 4 hours to just sightsee in Prague. Yeah... we were that group. Later on in the race we met up with another Slovakia team and a Czech team, and with our powers combined we became TEAM CZECHOSLOVAKIA!!!! Here are some pics from the race:

Here are me and my interns, Leila and Sarah, enjoying Prague:



Here Team Czechoslovakia is trekking through some random Czech city to yet another train... I'm hiding behind the guy in obscenely short shorts.



The race this year centered around taking millions of trains to random destinations. Well, clearly not million... but a lot. On this train there were no open seats, so we had to sit in the aisle. Literally.

A busy June....

Ok, so a lot has happened over the past month, so I'm going to try to fill you in as quickly as possible with (hopefully) a visual feast for the eyes! Here we go... (And this pic is just a taste of what's to come... get excited!)