Greg in Czech

Lukáš

It's been a week and a half since camp ended.  Most of the students I work with are off on family vacations or are at other camps.  It is quiet in the city where I live.  So much has happened.  I'm still thinking and reminiscing about it.  Many of you know about my struggle and heart break with Lukáš, how he ditched me so many times when trying to get him into Teen Challenge, or when he'd show up at my door step drunk or high.  At camp he trusted Christ.  He has never been loved the way he was loved there.  He's never experienced a community where he was completely accepted.  When we were saying goodbye at the train station to our American team from Friendship Church he started sobbing.  I've never seen him cry before.  He couldn't contain himself.  A few days after camp he told me he was going to Teen Challenge.  I'd heard that before, but this felt different.  Sure enough he showed up at my front door ready to go.  He told me he wanted one more cigarette before leaving. He would be back in 5 minutes.  My heart sank.  This is how he ditched me the last time.  We prayed.  5 minutes later my door bell rang.  Lukáš stood before me with a big grin and the lingering smell of cigarette smoke.  We promptly began our 2-hour drive.  When we arrived at Teen Challenge Lukáš began with an orientation meeting. 30 minutes later I had to leave.  Lukáš had a depressed look of shock on his face.  "So many rules, Greg!"  We talked about it and I was on my way.  Victory, so I thought.  Our whole youth group was praying for him.  That was Thursday.  Saturday I got a call from Teen Challenge.  It was Lukáš.  He told me that he couldn't make it 18 months without cigarettes (and a few other things I think) and was leaving for Tábor.  I'd see him sometime that day.  As my heart sank one more time I reminded him that it was Teen Challenge or nothing.  He couldn't stay with me.  He said he would figure it out.  I hung up and prayed.  About an hour later I got a text message from him.  He was in a town near Teen Challenge and had changed his mind.  After calling three friends for help and hearing "no" from each he finally realized that Teen Challenge was his only option.  He then called me and told me through tears of how he thought of me as a father and he was going to make it through all 18 months of the program.  Lukáš is a new boy.  He is a boy making steps to genuine manhood.  I saw him again on Tuesday.  He had a completely different demeanor.  He showed me verses in his Bible.  We talked about spiritual things that he brought up. He talked about making it through the program.  I'm not allowed to visit him at all for the first three months of the program, so I will need prayer as well.  Please keep praying for Lukáš.  This is only the beginning of another journey for him.

Glimpses of Something Bigger

I have been visiting a high school just south of Tábor for the past couple of years.  It's been my way of meeting students, getting exposed to Czech youth culture outside fo the church, and to encourage the youth group kids that attend that school.  It's been pretty uneventful over the past couple of years.  There have been a few students that I have really connected with and have been able to share Christ with.  But, no revivals have happened.  A few things have happened in the past month or so that show glimmers of something bigger...I hope.  I was sitting in the language department office one morning with a couple of the teachers when one of them asked me about my faith.  This teacher was Catholic and was frustrated with a situtation in her church and she wanted to ask me what I thought.  As we discussed the essentials of the Gospel another teacher was listening.  This teacher is not a believer, but was very interested in our conversation.  On another occasion I was having lunch with a different teacher when the topic of my faith in Christ came up.  As I patiently listened and answered her questions we were able to go through the whole Gospel.  These two teachers have also given me extraodinary permission to speak about spiritual things in class as well.  It's Easter season and so the topic in class has been on the differences between American and Czech Easter traditions.  Czech's have an Easter tradition of baking a lamb-shaped cake.  I've asked them if they know where this tradion comes from.  Most have no idea, just that it is fun and tastes good.  Occasionally one will say "Jesus is the lamb."  But they don't know why Christ is portrayed as a baby sheep.  With the teacher in the classroom I then go into explaining the Old Testament picture of a spotless lamb as payment for sin and that Christ died on the cross as the final fulfillment of that OT picture.  Yesterday the teacher asked me about important Easter symbols for Americans.  After a quick little blurb about the Easter bunny I explained the significance of the cross and the empty tomb.  My faith rests on these things.

Another encouraging thing is prayer.  Each Thursday after class I have started gathering with a few of the youth group kids in front of the school for prayer. We pray for courage to share Christ with our friends.  We pray for God's glory to be revealed in this school.  We pray for the teachers.  I've been able to encourage the kids with these stories.  God's movement begins with prayer.  I'm praying that He will show Himself powerfully to these young believers. 

English Camp Training

Each spring in Czech we put together a couple of training events for Czech youth groups on how to use English camp as a tool to reach teens in their communities.  It's a time to gather everyone together to talk about the big picture.  To have 10-15 youth groups together in one place gives the students a vision that this is not just one event, but part of a movement of God.  This is what God is doing all over the country.  We want them to be encouraged by being together and hearing stories of what Jesus is doing not just in their communities, but all over Czech.  We start Friday night by focusing on Christ and His word. His glory is the purpose and goal of all these camps.  The we spend Saturday teaching seminars on how to lead a small group discussion, how to invite your friends to camp, how to be a member of a team, camp songs and games, working with Americans, appologetics, all the different details of camp. 

I love the training times because it gives me a chance to reconnect with all the groups I've done camp with in the past.  It's a bit of reconnection overload.  I get glimpses of what God has been doing over the years in and through so many of the people I've met here.  Aleš is the leader of the youth group in the city of Poděbrady. He is one of a kind.  He works a normal job, has a family, and in his spare time he leads his youth group.  The connection that I've seen him nurture with his students is awesome.  He has quite literally loved these students into the kingdom. Ondra is a friend and coworker that many of you have met.  He led a seminar on how to take the friendships made at camp and make them last all year. 

The final picture here is of my youth group.  We haven't done camp for two years, so everything is new for us again.  It was so good to be able to watch them soak it all in and talk about the different seminars they went to.  This year I am focusing a lot more on leading them to pray for camp and for their friends.  I want them to beg Christ for the salvation of their friends. Pray for us as we seek to see God glorified in Tábor this summer.

Reconnecting

Every now and then God gives me reminders of what He is doing through me, glimpses of the fruit He is producing in my life.  These glimpses are precious especially during dry times of ministry.  He encourages me with the knowledge that He produces the fruit and if it is from Him it will last.  A couple of weeks ago a group of youth ministry students from the Moody Bible Institute (my alma mater) came through Czech to see what we in Josiah Venture are doing here.  One of those students was a former Jr. Higher of mine from when I was interning as a Jr. High pastor in MN.  I got to spend a few hours talking with Heather Ludzack while touring Prague with her class.  It was very evident from the way she talked that Christ is her life.  It was medicine to my soul to see a former student of mine still seeking Christ whole-heartedly.

Leading the trip was my former youth ministry professor Bob MacRae.  (Bob is the guy in the middle. The guy on the left is some hobo that wandered into the photo)  This is the guy that got me connected with Friendship Church (my home church in MN) and Josiah Venture here in Czech.  I am where I am today because God used this guy to point me in the right direction.  It was so good to talk with Bob about what God is doing and where He is leading.  It was also very cool to watch him do the same thing with his current students that he did for me.  Bob told me stories of what his team had been doing in the last couple weeks while touring Czech; stories of encouraging Czech youth groups, sharing Christ with university students, and other God-honoring things.  It was very cool to talk with a group of students who are in a similar spot I was in 13 years ago.  Pray that God would send more workers into the harvest field! (Matthew 9:37)

On the Road Again.

For the past 5 months I haven't been able to do any kind of sports because I reagrivated an old back injury last October.  This is the third time in my life when I have had to give up running for an extended period of time because of back troubles.  When I was 18 I herniated a disc and had to give it up for a year and a half.  When I was 21 I had to give it up for 6 months because I fractured a vertibrae while wrestling with my roommate.  Each time God has been so gracious to me and given me back the ability I love so much.   Running for me is freedom.  My body is just naturally built to run.  When I run I am doing what my body was made to do.  Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire) said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure."  Each time He has given this gift back to me I have become more and more grateful for it.  Each time I have had to give it up I have been reminded more and more that it is a gift and not my main purpose.  I want to "run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free." (Psalm 119:32)  I feel that freedom when I run.  But, even with all those runners' highs, nothing can compare with running in the path that Christ has set out for me.

So, this morning when I strapped on my running shoes for the first time since last October I did so in worship.  I was so thankful for the sweat that ran down my brow, for the wind in my... scalp, for the sun coming through the bare trees, and the lack of pain in my lower back.

God has taught me through running.  He has taught me perseverance, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize." He has taught me hope, "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever."  He has taught me discipline, "Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly... No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1st Corinthians 9:24-27)  But more than anything He has taught me to enjoy Him and what He has given me.  He has taught me to be thankful.

(These pictures are along my running route.)

Hunger for the Word

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD. But they shall not find it." Amos 8:11-12

This may seem like a strange text to start my post with it, but I thought of it when I was preparing to write this.  Last weekend our Tábor youth group got together for our 6th of what we call a "Biblický Dychánek" (roughly translated "Biblical breather" or "Biblical picnic").  We take a weekend and invite a teacher to come in and teach through a book of the Bible. This weekend our pastor taught through 1st Corinthians.  We talked about divisions in the church and denominations (Chapters 1-4), marriage and singleness (Chapter 7), spritual gifts and a woman's role in ministry (chapters 12-14).  What was most refreshing to me was that 15 high school students wanted this.  It wasn't just my idea.  There is a hunger for God's word in our youth group.  In the above passage, God is pronouncing judgment on the Israelites and part of that judgment is His silence.  They had been taking Him for granted and living in disobedience.  I am praying that it would be the opposite in our youth group, in our church, and someday in the whole city of Tábor.  Pray for this hunger to characterize our youth group and that God would speak through His word.  Pray that His word would feed our souls and make us more Christ-like.

Speaking of wanting people to hunger for God's word, I spent the day with a friend of mine from English club earlier this week.  It's spring break this week in Tábor, so students are either off on vacations with their families or hanging around town with lots of free time.  James wasn't leaving town so I invited him on a mini-road-trip with me.  We picked a couple of castles in the area and went on tour.  It's always fun for me to see Czechs as tourists in their own country.  After our fair share of 800-year-old fortresses on the hills of the Vltava river valley we sat down for a meal at Mekač (Czech slang for McDonalds).  We talked about the existence of God, what happens when we die, and other life stuff.  I want this kid to know Christ so bad.  He's been hanging out with our youth group for a couple of years.  Pray that Jesus opens his eye's to His reality and presence.  I want kids here to hunger for God's word.  Pray that they would find Christ, God's Word incarnate.

Here To Stay.

The voices of 1,700 men filled the auditorium with singing..."A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing..."  Tears came to my eyes as we worshiped. "Dost ask who that may be, Christ Jesus, it is He..."  I was with 1,700 pastors at the Desiring God conference in Minneapolis for a few days while back in the US.  Mike Keller, a pastor and friend from one of my supporting churches invited me to come with him.  In Czech it is hard to find that many believers in one place, let alone that many pastors.  To worship and learn from God's word together with so many people serving Christ was medicine to my soul. 

Indeed my whole time in the US was medicine to my soul.  I spent most of my time with Crossroads Church in Lakeville and Friendship Church in Prior Lake and Shakopee.  Walking through their doors, I felt like a hero returning from the battlefield.  Not that my head got puffed up, but it was so encouraging to spend time with godly friends who spoke words of encouragement, laughed with me, and challenged me.  I played board games with friends, told stories of God's power, and dreamed outloud of what He might do next.  I have good churches who love their missionaries well.  I am thankful.

I also spent a precious week of vacation with my family.  My brother Brian and his wife Jen have a new baby girl, so I needed to step up to the plate as Uncle Greg.  I changed a few poopy diapers, fed and burped her, and cooed her to sleep a time or two.  I think I did pretty well.  The coolest thing was standing up at church as one of her Godfathers promising to pray for her and show her Christ as she was baptised.

"Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also- The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still: His kingdom is forever."  As I sang these words at the pastors' conference God spoke to me.   For the past five years of struggling with living in another culture and learning an incredibly difficult language I have often fantisized about quitting and moving back to America.  I promised myself and God that I would stay at least five years.  I wanted that long to give the language and ministry my best effort.  On January 16th, 10 days before my 5-year anniversary, I preached my first sermon in the Czech language.  That was the language goal I was striving for.  I spent these past few weeks in America praying and journaling about my decision to stay in Czech or not.  I journaled everytime I heard something from God.  This summarizes what I think God gave me:

I am not called to success

I am called to obedience

Suffering is expected

God's glory is my reward

I don't know how long I will be here in Czech.  But I know beyond a shaddow of a doubt that for now God has called me to Czech.  There is joy in this journey.  I embrace all of the laughter and pain that comes from following God's call.

A Taste of Heaven

Every two years our denomination, Církev Bratrská (Church of the Brethren), holds a national youth conference.  There are typically over a thousand Christians that decend on an unsupecting town for a long weekend of worship, seminars, sports, and fellowship.  Youth groups are often only 10 to 20 kids and the only youth group in their city.  So, for a Czech Christian teenager who is used to being a minority, worshiping together with 1,000 other believers is pretty potent.  It's like a small taste of heaven.  These gatherings are special for me because so many of the youth groups I've worked with in the past are gathered in one place.  This weekend I counted 11 youth groups that I had either done camp with or spent significant time with over the past 12 years.  Bedřich was one of the first students I had any kind of significant impact on in this country.  He and I would meet regularly to study the book of Romans together when I was an intern here in Czech 11 years ago.  He taught on God's glory at one of the evening programs this weekend.  Marcel, who was a bouncy 18-year-old when I met him during my first couple of weeks in Czech was leading worship with his band.  He led with skill and humility, a precious combination.

 

By far the best part of the weekend was having no responsibility but to hang out with the students in my Tábor youth group.  The program was already prepared and everybody was staying in close proximity, so I just had to say, "let's go have a cup of coffee or tea".  I sat down with David and talked about where the youth group was going.  Lucka told me about how she and a couple other kids in the youth group came to Christ.  Danča and I talked about how I can help her lead her little village youth group.  It was just a good solid time to spend with my youth group.

Garden Treasures

It was a cold September morning.  Frost had formed overnight, so I got up early and went out into the garden to take some pictures. While hopping around photographing grapes, flowers, and other garden bounties I came across a huge bee frozen to a flower.  This was a treasure. I looked closely and could see the joints that its wings hung on.   Ice crystals clung to its little insect hairs.  Its mouth was burried in pollen seemingly frosen in mid-chew.  As the sun came up and began to shine on the bee-in-stasis I saw its leg begin to twitch.  The sun was bring this little beauty back to life. 

After getting the picture I wanted I headed back inside for breakfast.  I was staying in Bohumilice, a small village just outside Brno that I used to spend a lot of time in as a new missionary.  Jenda was my host for the weekend.  I first met him when he was a tall, skinny 15-year-old.  He's still tall and skinny (even more so than me). But, now he's a 20-year-old college student standing tall in Christ.  I had a couple of reasons to visit him.  First was because he had done an internship with JV this last summer and as the JV representative to his church I was reporting on his summer of service.  I sat down with the elders that weekend and told them how proud I was of Jenda for stepping out in faith.  We talked about next steps for Jenda as he begins to lead the youth group. In spite of some of the problems I've seen this church go through over the bast few years I was really encouraged by my time with the elders.  They expressed hope and care for the youth, a desire for the gospel to be proclaimed.

The other reason was just to spend some time with Jenda.  He was stepping into some big transitions this fall.  After finishing his summer internship Jenda began leading his youth group.  He also was starting University in Brno.  On top of these big changes his father had just passed away a couple weeks earlier.  That's a lot of weight for this young guy to carry.  Yet, he was not crushed.  I was encouraged as I watched him lead the saturday night youth program.  He was excited for the things that God was doing and His faith was resting firmly on Christ.  Monday morning on the way out of town I had the privilige of driving Jenda to Brno for his first day of University.  As I dropped him off I told Jenda that I was proud of him and was excited about what God was doing in His life.

These are just a few glimpses of the new life that the Son is bringing to Czech.

20 Years Ago...

Twenty years ago last spring I was sitting in church with my family.  As the service ended a rather attractive girl sitting in the pew in front of me turned around and invited me to play on the youth group softball team.  The league was starting soon and they needed one more player.  Now this girl was a junior and I was a mere sophomore.  So, naturally the idea of this older girl, who happened to be a knockout, "needing" me turned out to be an effective recruitment tool.  I joined the team and began to hang out with the youth group a lot that summer.  Later in August I went with our new youth pastor to the BWCA in northern Minnesota on a canoe trip.  On one of the last days Pastor Paul baptized each of us as a way of illustrating new life in Christ.  I had been thinking about spiritual things a lot that year.  Christ and His church were becoming more personal and real to me; not just things my parents made me do.  As Pastor Paul began lowering me down into the water I remember deciding that this is what I really wanted.  As I was raised back out of the water I remember choosing to follow Christ.  I wanted to live for Him rather than my own self.  That week in August 1990 marked a radical change in my life.  This depressed teenager suddenly had a reason to live.  Christ redeemed me.

This past August while back in the US for a month I took a week of vacation to spend time with my family.  After recovering from jet-lag I headed back into the BWCA with my brother Brian and cousin Jamie.  I hadn't paddled a canoe in the Boundary Waters in 13 years.  It was like drifting into my past.  The smell of the pine needle-covered forrest floor invigorated me.  The sound of loons singing as the sun went down soothed me.  The taste of fresh small mouth bass cooked over a fire warmed my soul.  Being back in the place where I first concretely chose to follow Christ reminded me of the preciousness of the new life He gave me.  In spite of the soreness that comes from soloing a canoe 15 miles across 3 lakes and 7 portages on the first day, I was refreshed.  Thank you Brian and Jamie for going back with me to one of my happy places.  I've posted pictures from the trip in an album in the right-hand column of this blog if you would like to see more.