This is the first year that our friend Rachael (who Casey, as the JV International Camps director at the time, originally hired to be his awesome sauce second in command) lead the whole camps team in the JV Amazing Race and Intern Training as the new JV International Camps director! Although I was not able to experience the race or large chunks of the Intern Training, I have heard many a good thing and what I experienced was brilliant!
The Interns landed in Vienna, Austria and raced in Bratislava, Slovakia. Two super beautiful cities. Since we will be in the States this summer, we do not have a JV Edge International intern team and, therefore, did not have a team running the race. This was good news for people on intern teams that knew what they could have been up against (our Edge boys got 1st place last year). I hear that teams said things like, “Casey does not have a team racing? Oh good. Now our team has a chance at winning.” And, much to their happy, happy joy, Casey was a helper at the most physically challenging task. Well, it was most fortunate for those that were not super strong swimmers. On the second day of the race, Casey had to swim from the shore to the small boat and back about 20 times with people. Word!
Our kids even got to get in on the action a little. One of the tasks was to take a bag of broken-up Lego pieces, a picture of what the final product was supposed to look like, put on a pair of oven mitts, and build. Below are a few of the masterpieces that our kids came up with pre-race…
Below are a few pictures of the racers. Each year the JV summer camps have a different theme and design. This year’s theme is “Reign Forever”. It’s so pretty!
I feel like the Intern Training gets better every year and whatever I experience always makes me so thankful that the Lord has put the right people in the right spots of leadership to lead these young Josiahs to lead other Josiahs this summer.
Casey and Rachael were the main DJs for the training but there were many others from the JV family coming from various countries that lead workshops. Some of the things taught were being culturally sensitive, understanding the 5 challenges of Christ (the steps from a not-yet-believer to obeying the great commission), how to interact inter-culturally, conflict resolution within each intern team, laying our sins fully at Christ’s feet, porn (kick its butt and get accountability, don’t just “struggle” with it), and many others. I really think that Intern training would be the best training for any Christian anywhere.
We were blessed to be able to attend a portion of Intern Training as a family and (sorry for the major blurry picture) Caleb even got to get up on stage and share a joke with everyone (on stage with Casey and Rachael).
I came back for a visit during a weekday when the kids were back in school and I shared on anxiety (above) to all the lady interns. The coolest part was that I asked for prayer from a few people about my anxiety about getting up in front of people to talk about anxiety (go figure) and God took the anxiety away. I was and still am not concerned at all whether my talk was good or not because I wrote it all out, practiced it, prayed over it, others prayed over it, and the rest is God’s deal. It is not about me. That felt and feels so good!
This summer, we will have camps running in Romania, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Czech (Czech Republic), Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Serbia, Hungary, and Croatia.
Please pray for these teams this summer. Our interns are nationals (from central or eastern Europe), Americans, Brits, and Canadians. Not only are they learning to relate to the culture they are serving, in some cases, they are learning to relate to the culture of their own team that they are serving with!
of course there was a load of candy for sale.
Beni (green t-shirt) choosing from all of the options.
There was a man on stage stressed as a surf dancing around and leading children to a line dance to a surf song in the Czech language to the tune of the Barbie World song. I cannot make this stuff up…all the littles were into it!
It was a lot of fun for Beni and of his besties from our neighborhood that we brought along. Fun times!
This trip was super exciting because it was the JV Edge Floorball 2018 tournament in Ukraine. There were approximately 500 players and many teams (as you can imagine). Casey got to be a part of the pre-game devotional and prayer for the coaches/leaders and was able to see how the teams were interacting and supporting each other. The energy was big and it was so astounding to see all of these teams that are doing devotionals weekly at their practices, have all heard the gospel, and are growing. 
It was a very long day (early morning until 11pm-ish) so a movie break was totally necessary.
Jess just moved on the field with JV and makes a mean cucumber sandwich!
So lovely!
To be honest, the wedding was fun but the best part was these lovely Czechs, Americans, and one N. Irish (our resident British representative)….and the excellent food. I love me some English tea!
