My Refuge & Strength

Day 11 (Thursday)

I cannot explain how excited I am. I cannot explain how incredible I feel right now. I cannot explain how complete everything is. I cannot explain how absolutely amazing God is. But I guess I’ll try.

This morning during devotionals, Hanza, a Czech believer led us through Romans 12, one of my favorite passages in the Bible. I’m pretty positive that that’s one of the reasons why today was so amazing: just being reminded of how our lives are living sacrifices for the glory of God. That’s why we’re on this earth, and that’s why I’m here in the Czech Republic.

Then after breakfast, God decided to throw all of us for a bit of a loop. Kristina, my art buddy, was playing around with a bunch of other people, just having fun, when she went to do this ballet jump and landed wrong, completely snapping a bone (or two, I’m not sure) in her foot. Now, Kristina was the reason that about half of the camp was there. She invited so many people & she’s just one of those girls that is friends with everyone. So, everyone was a little shaken by that.

The equivalent of our class: Lucas, Marek, and Daniela are performing a romance skit.

Especially my class. Bob, Richard, Iva, & Martina were all gone. Bob had to leave for a funeral, Richard & Iva took Kristina to the hospital, and Martina is Kristina’s sister, so she went to the hospital too. So, with three students total, Jon and I taught them all the awkward relationship words they would ever need to know, like PDA, DTR, it’s not you, it’s me, etcetera, etcetera. Then, Jon had to leave to prepare for a talk, so for an hour & a half, I lead the class completely on my own. And I think I did pretty well, if I do say so myself! I had them create ridiculous stories, act them out, and describe their dream boyfriend/girlfriend. Of course it was awkward, but it was a wonderful kind of awkward.

Then after lunch, the campers were invited to a little seminar type of thing where the boys and the girls were separated and each talked about relationship stuff. That also was a wonderful kind of awkward, trying to explain why I believe it’s important to stay a virgin whether or not you believe in the Bible, and then having that translated. Oh boy, that was fun. & I think it went pretty well, because it went all the way up to sports time.

The kickball Alli & I didn’t play. Looks fun though!

However, Alli wasn’t feeling well enough to play sports (because she was sick too!), so she asked me if I would hang out with her, & I’m so glad I did! We were able to talk about our favorite music and pray about things that needed prayer & hang out. Then, in the middle of some conversation, Martina walked up the stairs! I was so stoked that she was able to come back, & it was a total answer to prayer. But it was apparent that she was still pretty worried about her sister, so Alli & I asked her if she’d like to pray about it, & we did & it was fantastic.

During evening program, the gospel message was presented, & then we had the students go through the labyrinth. I was manning the clay & letter station, & it was so cool to see everyone’s creations and how much time they spent writing their letters. Most of them seemed to be really into it, which is a miracle in and of itself. A lot of these students had never even thought about God before this week, and here they are, really beginning to open up.

Hanging out after the Labyrinth with some tea & cookies! Bob likes to eat.

An hour or so later, everyone got back together in the dining room for what they call a chiaovna. It’s probably not spelled like that, but it’s pronounced kind of like that: ch-eye-ohv-nah. It means teahouse in Czech, so some other staff members set up stations for people to get together, drink tea, eat some goodies, & talk. No one really wanted to discuss what they went through during the labyrinth, which I think is understandable, especially for Czechs. From what I’ve noticed, they seem to want to really process things before they say anything. They’re very good at thinking before speaking.

The next part’s kind of personal, so for privacy’s sake, I’ll change the person’s name. One girl, Jana really wanted to talk to Jon afterwards. She came into camp as a believer, but the relationship itself didn’t have a lot of growth. So they go to talk, while Alli & are freaking out – we’re so excited. & for “some reason” I asked Alli if she wanted to go and pray for them. Normally, that thought would never cross my mind, but it was the only thing I could think of doing right then. So the two of us went up to the prayer room & just prayed back and forth, like we were both just having a conversation with Jesus – the three of us.

What felt like an hour later, Jana & Jon still weren’t done talking! It wasn’t until about 2 in the morning that I finally saw her walking to her room. The reason I was still up, was because I had so much journaling to do & was trying to catch up. So when I saw her I said to her, “Hey! How was your talk with Jon?”

“Fun.”

Okay. Fun. I didn’t really know how to respond to that. So she was just about to go into her room, when she stopped and looked back at me. “Hey Sarah? Can I ask you a question?”

“YES!” A little overeager, I’m sure.

All of a sudden, we started talking about crazy intense spiritual things like the meaning of life, Christians dating people who aren’t Christians, where to find joy in life, etc. & the words just seemed to flow out of my mouth. I knew what to say, I knew what stories to tell, I knew when to shut up & listen, & I knew when to offer a hug. It was AMAZING! No amount of boldfaced, underlined, italicized, &capitalized letters can express this feeling. Just to be used by God, in one of the most simplistic ways is the greatest. Like I said at the beginning, I cannot explain how excited, incredible, and complete I feel right now. But yeah, that’s my attempt.

Most blessed/best day ever.