A World of Many Hats and Not Enough Shoes

English Camp ended around 11am on Saturday and at that point the Cramer 5 began our own little 2 day adventure alone.  We were planning to drive to Salzburg, Austria then Munich, Germany.  Within moments of getting into the car, leaving camp and driving along the beautiful countryside roads, I was completely and totally and utterly... r e l a x e d. 

Once again / ask my husband, that is always an amazing feat, but incredibly true.  Even Josh driving the windy, hilly, Bohemian countryside, I was completely r e l a x e d.  English Camp is TONS of non-stop fun that I can't wait to do again, but I think everyone would agree it is nice... that first moment of silence after camp is over, similar only to the *sigh* right before you fall asleep at night after an amazing day.  Being in the car, our three kids happy in their car seats, Josh driving wonderfully, a picture perfect day, no agenda, nothing to do but sit... *sigh* 

I was so r e l a x e d we drove right through a border crossing and didn't realize until 30 miles later that we had crossed a border.  After a quick search on the internet, we learned that it didn't matter anymore since Czech is in the EU and thanks to Schengen border rules.  (Phew!)  I was so r e l a x e d I thought we were in an entirely different country than we were.

Our first big, planned stop we programmed into TomTom Europe was specifically for our kids...

Yeppers, for their first meal after camp we let them eat at McDonald's!  Our kids were super champs with the camp food so we happily let them have this as their reward!  (I don't think we've eaten at McDonald's in over 4 years, whenever it was we saw Super Size Me.)  I did have a bite of Zeke's Big-n-Tasty, and I must say, it tasted like a real hamburger.  We heard this was because Europe has different standards on the quality of food in fast food joints, but whatever the case, it was surprisingly decent.  From a McDonald's?  Who knew!  Except for the fact that they only took cash, it was definitely a meal and surroundings that the kids recognized from "home" and really enjoyed!

Josh and I didn't have our celebratory meal at McDonald's, instead The Wirtshaus Beirgarten was where we ate our lunch.  We had our stomachs set on eating some delicious local food and me drinking local wine and beer.  Since we were unsure if other European countries had the same drinking rules that Czech has and since I wasn't authorized to drive our rental car, I got to do all the drinking, :)!  

(The city was absolutely covered in cyclists of all shapes and sizes and kinds, from the 65 year old decked out in gear from head to toe to the hippy-esque carrying their home on their bike.  Everyone parked their bikes, unlocked, around the city, and right in front of this beer garden.)

Maybe it was because we are novice foodies, maybe it was because we were hungry, maybe because of camp mystery meat, maybe because of the restaurant itself, whatever the case... With each bite we took of our food, we sighed the most happiest sigh, we yummed the happiest yums, we marveled how everything tasted so, so good it literally melted in our mouths.

I about cried when I ate this salad, I was SO happy to eat a salad.  If you know me at all you know how much I love, love, love eating salads, and OH how I loved this salad.  The dressing was different but delicious!  The veggies were normal veggies but they were veggies(!) and they were green, red and orange!  SO colorful!  OH, how I had missed color!

We knew we were in a city named Passau and this was their local brew.  It was delicious!  It's interesting how in the states the local brews are more common to be hit or miss.  As we would find in our travels around Europe, the local brews were always amazing.  Once I had this beer I started to question exactly what country we were actually in... I thought we were in Austria, isn't that south of Czech?  But maybe we were in Germany.

Once back in the car, I looked up on TomTom where exactly we were and it turned out we were NOT in Austria as I had been thinking (since the border crossing!) but we were actually in Germany.  Doh!  Obviously before leaving I hadn't looked at the map close enough to see the little jut in part of Germany.  In my defense, TomTom Europe did NOT have dark/obvious border lines on their maps.  They are this light gray, lighter than the below Google map.  Just saying!  (Oh, and if I could put this photo in quotes to prove my point, I would, :)!  But see, see how I could have been confused?)

When I realized we had been in Germany the whole time, I was SO happy!  See, the short little jaunt we did make into Germany, where I thought it was Austria, I was very bummed.  I have always had these very picturesque visions of Austrian villages.  Every little village we had driven through thus far was not like that at all, there was tons of advertising on buildings, lots of modern buildings, very industrialized.  Once I figured out that what I thought was Austria was Germany, I was tickled pink!  I had not missed seeing the cute little Austrian villages, we just hadn't gotten to them yet, hooray!

I mean, it is a camp that talks about Jesus.

The Thursday night's Evening Program was about Jesus.  After the program, we were dismissed into our Discussion Groups and from there we were dismissed into a "Labyrinth."  The Labyrinth* was a simple and beautiful candlelit walk around the camp that had 6 or 7 stations set up with messages to read and an action to take or reflection to make. 

My job during the Labyrinth was to dismiss the Discussion Groups to the first station.  Needless to say, I didn't get to participate in the actual stations.  To be honest, even though I had multiple staff describe the stations to me at different points, I was so concerned and in prayer for the students, my memory of all the stations & details is fuzzy.  I know I am missing 2 or 3 stations in there. Gack!  (Also, since it was at night, I have no pictures to record how amazing it looked with all the candles everywhere.  I mean, I tried but my old camera couldn't hack it.)

The Labyrinth was set up so the students had a quiet place to reflect on the things they have heard while at camp.  From a station to think about those close to you, to creating with clay sculptures, to a letter to yourself... the station I heard the most comments about was the one where (I think) you dipped your hands into water then sand and then someone else would wash off your hands.  A lot of students said that was a very meaningful lesson for them.  The final station was a large cross on the grass made out of unlit tea lights.  The written message said something to the effect of, if you have chosen to take the step and trust Jesus then to light a candle as a symbol of that commitment.

Most of the students enjoyed the Labyrinth, though honestly there was a very small group of students who didn't (and admittedly, they had been grumpy about everything throughout the week, so it was no surprise).  But I do know of several students who lit candles at the end, who previously did not have faith in Jesus.  I am very thankful for Leah & the JV/KAM Team being there to follow up those students!

In the end, Josh's class had one guy accept Jesus at camp and a girl make a commitment to reading the Bible.  As I said, in my class we had amazing discussions throughout the week.  We talked about topics like, "Why did King David's first son with Bathsheba have to die?" or "What will happen if my brother who has cancer and does not accept Jesus, dies?"  Every question was very genuine and from the heart, and some of the students were thinking about for the very first time.  I am thankful that ultimately it is between them and God but I trust that everything they heard and saw at camp will be for good, and I am continuing to pray for them.  "So as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts against Him.'" 

If you have a moment, please continue to pray for all of the JV English Camp students.  They are all amazing kids and I pray it was not by chance they all made the time and financial sacrifice to come to English Camp.  In the Czech Republic there can be a city of 100,000 people and literally only 1 small chuch, literally.  English Camp is often the first time some students hear about Jesus.  The Czech Republic is also one of the most atheistic countries in the world and some of the kids have come to camp for years, enjoy the camp, but want nothing to do with God.  Pray this would be the year their hearts are softened and they take a step of faith.  Pray for God to continue to raise up leaders among them, especially for the men.  Please pray for the follow up that Leah and the JV/KAM team will be doing, this summer and the new school year.   

The awesome/exciting thing is, God IS on the move!

(*I know there are varying levels/seriousness/goofiness/rituals of Labyrinths.  At camp, the Labyrinth concept itself was a tool not a belief structure.  Don't read too much into it, :)!)

If I could find a way, I would LOVE to send a letter to everyone who prayerfully and financially supports my sister Leah in Czech.  Because WOW, having seen it first hand, it is amazing to know how much my life has been multiplied simply by supporting hers!

Dear Ministry Support Team of Leah,

Ahoj!  For those who don't know me, I'm Dana, one of Leah's 2 younger sisters.  My husband Josh and our three kids just had the trip of a lifetime!  We were able to go and visit Leah in the Czech Republic and participate in the Strakonice English Camp.  Let me tell you, it was fabulous!

Like you, as a family we have supported Leah both prayerfully and financially in Czech since her beginning there, 10 years ago.  You all have met Leah so you know how great she is, her love, her enthusiasm, her youthfullness, her drive, her giving, her creativity, her compassion, her empathy, everything, she is a beautiful woman inside and out.  Supporting her in Czech doing high school ministry has always been the perfect fit for her. 

Like you, over the years we've read all her stories about Czech through her emails and blogs.  She has written about the good times and the bad without hesitation and from her stories we/you could tell she was having a huge impact with those in her sphere of influence.

But having just been there, watching her live it out in person, all I can say is WOW!  It was as amazing as I thought it would be PLUS so much more!  Y/our prayers and financial support are truly being used to their fullest, nothing has been wasted or in vain, her stories are spot on, her impact has been and is eternal, and YOU have definitely multiplied your life through hers!

And yes, she is more amazing in person than in print!  Yes, her youthful look DOES make her fit right in with high school kids.  Yes, her energy DOES help her keep moving when playing sports and dancing.  Yes, she DOES an amazing job teaching English and translating Czech.  Yes, her apartment is not her own and it is constantly open and available, whether she is there or not, to be used by clubs, studies, dinners, parties, etc, it is a safe place for so many young people.  Yes, she is serving the Lord in a place that is need of many more men and women just like her!

But it is more than that... We got to meet two Engligh teachers from the local schools and they are so supportive of Leah's work in the schools.  We met an older woman Leah visits at the nursing home and her young daughter happened to be there too, and you could see the appreciation in their eyes for Leah's love of them.  Then, one young guy at camp genuinely talked to me about how Leah is a main spiritual leader for them in that area of the country and how she gives so much wisdom to him and the others.  He was so grateful that he personally had Leah there in Czech to give him that spiritual wisdom.  And over and over young teenage girls were telling me how special Leah is in her love and support of them as young Christian women and encouraging them onto be leaders of other women.  Young lives are truly being changed for good!

My main point, is THANK YOU!  Thank you for all your love, prayers, notes of encouragement, packages, but especially your financial support of Leah in the Czech Republic.  She would not be able to have this amazing impact for Christ without all of you!

Love,
Dana

(And to those who read my blog here, in case you are interested, there is still a great need for more laborers like Leah in Czech & other Eastern European countries.  If you'd like more info on supporting nationals through Josiah Venture, the 2x3 Campaign can help you do that and much more, :)!) 

(Maybe this also means we can go on trips to visit all the other missionaries we support so I can write the same type of letters about them!!!  Hooray!!)

Each year English Camp has a new theme song and dance with gestures.  They teach the dance the first Saturday night at camp and then they do the song once or twice a night for the rest of the week. 

Here's the theme song and dance for Redeem 2010, Never Going Back to OK by The Afters:

As promised, notice around 1:50 you can Zeke busting a move with his air guitar solo, :)!

On the last night during the 7pm Evening Program, they planned to have a number of people get up and share parts of their testimony with the entire English Camp.  At 3pm Leah asked me if I could share part of my testimony with the camp.  Leave it to my sister to make me face one of my biggest fears.

Over 6 years ago I was invited to speak at a woman's conference in Ames.  A few days before that I changed entirely what I was going to share and didn't take the time to have my husband reread through my outline.  Needless to say, moments after sharing at the conference an older woman approached me and let me know I screwed up with what I said BIG TIME.   She was right but to say I felt miserable would be an understatement, I was crushed so deep inside I couldn't see an end.  After that, I swore I'd never speak in public again.

Earlier this year though, I had a heart to heart with my sister Leah on Skype and she called me to the carpet.  Not only did she say everything Josh had been telling me the last 6 years, say I couldn't swear such a thing, but she went one step further and said I had to try and speak in public again, actually she told me I had to speak in public again.  (She even hinted to finding a way for me to speak at English Camp, and I said kindly, "No.")  But a few months ago, by random chance Rachel asked me to share for a couple minutes at a small women's time, in front of about 10 women.  With lots of prayer, Josh's prodding & editing, knowing it was a small/safe environment, I did it.  It was very, very short, I read exactly what I wrote on my sheet and I did it.  While most would have seen it as no big deal, it was a huge step for me.

But now, here it was, 3pm on Friday afternoon, and my sister was taking the opportunity of a hole to fill and asking me to speak in public, in front of a large audience.  With a LOAD of encouragement from Josh, I wrote a short part of my testimony, read it word for word off my sheet, and Eva translated wonderfully.

It really helps that I am forever/eternally grateful for the fact that I have a testimony to share!  I am happy when I can share it with others.  I am also very thankful for the amazing encouragement I got from Josh and Leah in order to even speak in front of English Camp.  While I'm not running to speak in any sort of public setting again, I feel like in these two instances helped me to approach speaking with a prayer-filled, God-centered confidence, as well as a plan of attack on how to do it.

With how much time, effort, heart, prayer, soul, and tears went into me preparing a simple testimony, just think how long it'd take me to give a State of the Union address! HA!

Boy, did our kids have a blast at English Camp!

Outside of our three, there was one of the Czech Team, Alca's, sweet little baby boy at camp and one family from the Cherry Hills Church.  The Hartman family are planning to move to the Czech Republic next year and be on full time staff with JV.  Their kids were 8, 6, 5, & 2, the oldest a girl with three younger brothers (Caden just turned 7 last week and Hannah will be or is 9 soon!).  Our kids and their kids hit it off really well, like they had been friends for life!

The kids all loved the camp setting!  They loved our room, the main lodge, the games, the students, everything!  They also immediately found a home in the creek that ran along two sides of the camp.  During Free Time the kids walked in the creek the several hundred feet from the man made dam (which was also the designated smoker's corner) at the southeast side of the camp to the natural dam at the northwest side, back and forth, back and forth.  Closer to the natural dam there was a deeper pool and trees.  The kids would slide down while holding onto a tree and splash into the deeper water.  It was cold water but they absolutely loved every minute of it.  We finally had to limit the time all the kids played in the water because even though they had swimsuits they were jumping in constantly and we were running out of dry/clean clothes for the kids! AH! :)!

And in case you were wondering, little kids plus high schoolers can and did mix really well at English Camp in Czech, too!

During English Class in the morning two Czech high schoolers would watch the littiler kids, which would always include Miriam, Asher & Hayes and sometimes include Max and Caden.  It was always goofy but they all had a great time!  One day Miriam and Asher came running through the main lodge shouting over and over, "Cookies!  Cookies!" as a high schooler ran after them giggling.  After 5 minutes they came back running the other way shouting, "Cookies!  Cookies!" with cookies in hand and the high schooler still running giggling after them.  Whatever the goofiness, this time was a great way for the littlest kids to spend time with Czechs and for the Czechs to spend some one on one time with the cuties.

During the Sports Time the older little kids would join in with the teams, like Hannah and Zeke and their Sports Team, the Cougars!  Zeke was always right in there participating during Sports Time and it was great for him!  Max would sometimes join in and on Water Day he especially had a great time!  During the Evening Program our three would join the song and dance portion before going to bed.  At first the three were apprehensive about dancing with all the students but after they saw Aunt Leah, singing and dancing like a crazy woman on a chair at the front of the room, they got over their shyness.  Again, I have a video coming of this, one has Zeke running up front doing an amazing air guitar solo, it's great!

The Czech high school kids were great sports throughout the entire week with these 8 cuties!  They welcomed the kids into their games (except Viking Football, only Zeke was allowed in that one), pushed little baby Martin in his stroller, and played the Freezer Dart Game, even when the little kids were going a overboard playing the game.

Freezer Dart is this game where you say someone's name and when they look you in the eye you put your hand to your mouth and pretend to blow a freeze dart at them.  They then have to freeze until someone comes up to them and pulls the "dart" out of their neck.  However, while the person is frozen you can do something to them, tie their shoes together, put their hands in strange positions, etc.  In the above photo Majda froze Max and then proceeded to pick him up while he was frozen.

Even though our kids did make mistakes at camp and were often times being "kids," I easily had over two dozen students come up to me and comment on how well behaved our kids were, or how they obeyed their parents, how they weren't wild, or how they were so loved and loved us.  I can only imagine it was because our kids weren't like this little boy I saw from a German Language Camp nearby walking down the curb with his penis out of his shorts, peeing on the curb as he walked, while a little boy and girl walked on either side of him giggling.  Yeah, at least my kids didn't come up with that idea. HA! :)!

Overall, our family of 5 was greatly blessed during our time at English Camp!  It truly united us together as a family in a fresh and new way!  It was amazing to have our kids at camp laboring with us in this type of non-stop setting, but also encouraging to have them enjoy camp as much as we did.  The boys really understood why we (and JV) were there (Praise God! What an answered prayer!) and they prayed for the students, who were now their friends, every night.  It is awesome too that one of their favorite high school friends accepted Jesus at camp!  Whoo hoo!

In a heartbeat, I think we would all love to go back as a family and participate in another English Camp!  I would not hesitate about bringing our three with us either!  (Though I still contend at my age "I" need a week or two to recover before going to the next camp.)  :)!

Leah had told us before we left for Czech that Strakonice had "the best camp food" of all the Czech English Camps, that we'd be eating ostrich eggs instead of chicken eggs, and that dumplings would be flowing.  Normally, Josh would have said, "I'll be the judge of that," but we took her at her word that the food we were eating was good, typical Czech food. 

While the soup, potatoes, dumplings and kraut we had were good & typical, the chicken and roasts were good & typical, there was this one type of "meat" that seemed strange from the start.  Not that were were upset or complaining, in all honesty we found the whole thing very funny and entertaining!  :)!

They were using what we loving called Mystery Meat in a majority of the dishes.  Leah was unsure what it was actually called but we guessed it was bologna-esque "meat," though it sometimes had bones and sections of fat in it.  She also thought/confirmed that the meat was very untypical for this camp.

Mystery meat in our first dinner at camp.  The "gravy" is actually called UHO in Czech, which translates to Universal Brown Sauce.  They served the UHO in a variety of forms, some light, some dark, but no two the same.

Mystery meat with a Chinese-esque sauce, pasta noodles, and white cheese.

Mystery meat thinly sliced for breakfast sandwiches.

Mystery meat hidden inside a pepper.

Mystery meat ground up with pasta.  This meal was the breaking point for me, it was very hard to swallow.

While we were incredibly thankful for the hard work the cafeteria ladies put into making these meals, by the end of the week I would find myself consciously trying to not think about the meat I was eating and just eat it.  Again, we didn't complain outloud there, we were able to manage, take smaller portions, ask for only dumplings, or go hungry.

It helped that breakfast was the best meal of the day, with a really delicious bread, cereal & yogurt, and sometimes meat & cheese.  Sometimes the meat was the mystery meat, but other times it was a really good ham with a nice smoked cheese.  (Though once they incorporated the mystery meat into a paste like butter and served it for breakfast.)  Nicely too, for a treat, one of the camp kids would take his motorcycle into town and bring back dozens of donuts to sell during breakfast.  (Our kids LOVED this guy!)  The camp did serve hot dogs for breakfast, though, that I thought were good...

And once the camp served these delicious donuts for dinner, the boys were seriously bummed they only got 3 of these.  (Though, truth be told in the middle of the night Miriam threw up these donuts all over herself, her bed and the room.  Not fun.)

As Leah foretold us, we were served an ostrich egg casserole.  It had tomatoes on top, fish on the bottom, & creamy mashed potatoes on the side.  Everyone liked this meal and it was actually Max's favorite meal, and that is saying something!

A farm, literally 30 feet right outside the camp's backdoor, supplied the ostrich eggs.  It was so close that one of the camp rules was you couldn't touch the ostriches or go inside their pen.  The flimsy fence was the only thing that protected you from the ostriches.  The students at camp loved to get a rise out of the birds and I think Josh may even have a video of their attack stance, I'll look, ;)!

While the food wasn't necessarily spectacular, it was food, and we were very grateful for it!  (Even though both Josh and I thought we lost an easy 5 lbs while at camp.)  Our three kids ate it, especially Zeke who generally went back for seconds (he would even figure out Czech sayings so he could get just what he wanted from the cafeteria ladies).  But as you could guess, it was Max who was quoted as saying, "When can we eat good food again?" 

Yes, very fitting coming from Max.  :)!