Teaching lifts and basketball at camp in Poland

Yesterday, for the afternoon sports workshops, Casey taught lifting to part of the Edge group. Adel (all black clothes) and Logan (blue t-shirt) helped him lead this workshop.

The other part of the group played basketball lead by Chris and Nick. Below Chris (black shirt) and Nick (grey shirt).

Caleb at A 10-day Awana camp

Kid paradise! These are pics from our one visiting day 5 days into camp. We are so proud of our Caleb!Caleb was in a tent all on his own and loving it!Fresh water (above)The water-heating system at camp linked to the hose that went along the branch (below) to where the shower was. I assure you that my son had not sampled this luxury in the first five days of his time there. I fully intend to bring him home and insert him into the shower on the day camp is over.Caleb was on the green team that he helped name “Green warriors” (4 teams total) and showed me all of the chore charts and grading charts on how clean their tents were each day. The green team was responsible for collecting wood (dřevo) on the day we visited and Caleb had scored close to perfect on keeping his tent clean.The raised kitchen (below)Caleb, the flagbearer for his teamTreasure chest for the pirate themeThe boys “bathroom” complete with shooting range. See the targets on the rocks? Yes, my boys used it.The sauna (above). Just like a 4 star hotel, really. Lukaš took our boys out for a spin.

We cannot wait to see Caleb when he gets back tomorrow!

The Edge Sports/Fusion camp in Poland

I had the pleasure of visiting the camp that Casey and our intern team are currently serving at in Poland (the camp is being held 1/2 an hour from where we live in Czech) for the last 2 days with Beni  while Caleb is away at a 10 day Awana camp.

In the mornings, Casey and the interns are conducting soccer workshops and in the afternoons, they are organizing other sporty activities. Since our guys are coming along to assist the Polish team that has already organized the camp and is doing all of the teaching, their main job is to teach/play sports, get to know the campers, and seek opportunities to share Christian truths to compliment what is being taught in the evening talks.

Yesterday, Casey did a cross-fit-like beginner course for the campers and most of them thought that it was the hardest thing in the universe (ok, maybe they did work hard on the soccer field all morning, but still…).

 

Beni was sporting in a different way (plaid shorts and buzz cut)…

Today, I had the pleasure of watching and photographing their many volleyball games. By end of the day, Casey said that they played around 7 hours of sports. What?

It is so fun to watch sporty people sport around. They get to get bloody wounds and sweat and I get to be like, “let me take a pictured of that.”

The Türi Football Team’s Afterparty

After we left the church in Märjamaa, we headed to Türi and found the football pitch where we were to meet the Türi team. The pitch was smaller, shaded (thank goodness), and was an indoor-ish outdoor field. It worked but made it hard for the penalty kick competition because, although the goal was small, the kids were also standing really close to Casey when they kicked.

The game…

The penalty kicks…

The party was held in the yard of a family that attends the Türi church. Another group came to join ours as well. They were from a JV English camp that was run in connection with the same church.

Fun for the littles…My kids pretty much played with legos inside, jumped on the trampoline, and eventually made friends with some of the other church kids running around.Wrestling, eating meat and playing netless badminton seemed to be the things to do at the party.This is our friend Mike (above) who came from the JV U.S. office to help the JV Estonian team this summer. He is modeling the padded goalie pants that Casey bought as soon as he found out that everyone wanted to do penalty kicks against him at the afterparties. Adel was the medic on our team and she saw her fair share of blood at camp. I think that a large portion of her week was dedicated to Casey’s numerous wounds. Casey’s knees and legs were bloody and he had bruises all around his middle from diving for balls at the tournament earlier that week without said pants. Padded pants…money well spent. Mike actually was only wearing the pants because the mosquitos were eating his legs alive so he needed some armor :).Please join us in praying for the footballers that came to camp to draw closer to Christ, the regulars that were not able to join us, and for these guys to get more connected to the Christian community in the Türi church.

 

The Estonian Football Camp Afterparty with the Märjamaa, Estonia team

The day that our Estonian Football (soccer) camp ended, we moved our lodgings from the classroom floor to a bed and breakfast in Tallinn and we got the afternoon off. We were D-U-N, done and went to bed early.

The next day was our big day for camp afterparties. Since our camp was a combination camp of 2 different football teams, we had 2 different after parties in the towns where the teams normally practice. Both afterparties consisted of a football game, everyone getting a chance to do penalty kicks against Casey (he killed it as a goalie at the tournament during camp week so everyone wanted to get another try), and a gathering with the footballers and the church members from the church the team is linked to.

The first was in Märjamaa. We arrived at the football pitch early so our team had a bit of fun in the playground next to the field. It was a gymnast’s paradise. Good thing our interns are all about gymnastics and death-defying feats (not pictured here…the death-defying part).

When everyone arrived, the football began (present were kids from camp and members that normally attend practices and games in Märjamaa, but were not able to go to camp).

Then the penalty kick competition…

Like father, like sons…

The church…

 

A few years ago at a Christian conference that Indrek (our Estonian friend that organized and led our football camp) and his wife Regina were attending, they were asked to start helping a church in Märjamaa that was struggling to survive. That was this church. They meet in an apartment in a  residential apartment building in Märjamaa and have a total of 3 members attending on Sundays. Because of the football club supported by this church and coached by Indrek, on Saturdays, they have a weekly attendance of 30 young people. Praise God!

These three church members, with the help of some others, made open-faced sandwiches, cakes and brought some other snacks to welcome us and the footballers from camp. When it was time to leave, one of the church members used the few English words that she knew, “God bless you! I love you!” and hugged each of us individually. What great words to learn in a foreign tongue!

Please join us in praying for the Märjamaa church, the footballers that came to camp, and the regulars that were not able to got to camp to get plugged into and grow in this very small church community.

From Latvia to Estonia and back again

While in Estonia, I had the pleasure to talk with my friend and fellow JV missionary Elīza Kobin. She is married to Vahur (JV Estonia’s country leader). She is brave. She is not Estonian. She is Latvian. 

Not only is she adjusting to a new cross-cultural marriage, learning Estonian (a language that is not even remotely similar to Latvian), learning new cultural norms and how to live in Estonia, and helping on the JV Estonian team…she has also organized a team of Estonian youth to go with her to Latvia to run a JV Latvia evangelistic camp this summer. What a way to cast vision to the youth and encourage young hearts to serve the Lord in her Estonian church!

Most of our camps have teams that come and help run things from the States, Canada, or the U.K. We are, however, super overjoyed when people from one JV country serve in another country as missionaries. Many of the European churches that JV works with are either super new, or old and need a call to reach outside of their church walls.

Although I have not spoken to Elīza now for over a week, I am sure she and her team have much work to do in preparation. She and her team’s trip will be July 20-31st. 

Please pray for safe travels, that all of the funds would come in to pay for all of their expenses (for nationals, support raising is super challenging), that all the details would come into place at the right time, and that God would prepare the hearts of the Latvian youth that will be hearing the gospel for the first…fifth…seventh time!

I feel so honored to work beside such faithful and brave people like Elīza and so many others.

Elīza is in the front and behind her is her team. Photo credit: Märt Saar.

A day extra? Yes, let’s just go to Helsinki, Finland.

After arriving in Estonia with our team in the early afternoon last Thursday, we were told that our next time to need to be anywhere for our Estonian camp training was Friday night. So…with 4 people on our team that wanted to spend their own money on a 2 hour ferry ride to Finland, why not? So, we packed up some yummy lunches and went on a day adventure.

As soon as we arrived, Adel, Chris, Logan, and Nick Went off to explore while we just slowly enjoyed our surroundings. 

This was a wonderful day for our family because, for us, there was nothing that we were dying to see. We just wanted calm and happy kids (and selves) and that’s what we got!

Seaside farmer’s market, practically right off the boat.Best berries ever! We bought blueberries and raspberries. Soooo good. Beni got the greatest joy out of feeding the mushy/questionable berries at the bottom of our stash to some more-than-willing seagulls.We bought a “Gentle Leader” dog collar for Haley a few weeks ago. Helsinki was our trial run of more than a half hour walk. Game changer! Miss pull, pull, pull on the lead was super well behaved and our hands did not ache at the end of the day. Thank you Ruthanne for the suggestion!

My sensory boy. Whenever there is a desireably textured surface, off go the shoes! Sand is the favorite.Time to jump and get some wiggles out.Best tea ever! Casey and the boys got  white tea with cherry. I got green tea with passion fruit. They would not sell me a box of tea. Sad face.Super cute used book store. We even found a Richard Scarry book in Finnish and a pop-up Disney’s Haunted House book in English. We bought the English one.Casey’s candy shop in the form of bikes…The boys happily did some light reading while waiting for Dad. Thank you used book store!

Thanks Helsinki. That was a wonderful and refreshing day for our family. Adel and the interns had a great time exploring as well.