New Steps, New Challenges

This last month has been long, exhausting, and so full. Our team has been tired, overjoyed, frustrated, and excited. I have been stressed, satisfied, proud, scared, tired, challenged, and encouraged. 

I could not have asked for a better team for this summer. We have been blessed by each others’ strengths and weaknesses in countless ways and I am amazed at how God took the time to plan out every single relationship in our lives. He knew this team would come together WAY back before I existed and He knew how we would challenge and grow each other throughout this special summer. 

June was filled with a lot of traveling… (not to say that the traveling is only in June, because it is most certainly not just in June.) We managed to visit and take part in every Fusion that is currently functioning in Slovakia!  I got to show my team where I have been living and what life has been like here. At the end of the month our team headed to Banska Bystrica where our first camp was set to take place. While the team worked on different types of preparations for camp, I was working on something a little different…

This last month, I decided to extend my internship here in Slovakia as we saw there was an opportunity and a need for me to stay. So after a bit more paperwork and patience, I am now holding a visa that is valid until, and a plane ticket home, for the 1st of October! I am so excited to see what God will continue to do through the next 2 and a half months here in Slovakia! 

Not only that, but through talking with the Kompas staff here, we have decided to start thinking about returning as full time staff here with Josiah Venture. :) This is super exciting for me and I’m thankful that God has placed a direction and passion on my heart to be here and to be serving in these ministries year round. Please pray with me as I begin this process! 

Camp #1

Now a little recap of our first camp! We were at a camp in Banska Bystrica with mostly the BB leadership, however we also were joined by several students from Rača Fusion and Obišovce Fusion. This was a super cool experience to have 2 brand new Fusions join an already seasoned Fusion’s camp! I have to say that this was one of the best camps I have been too. The leadership team worked so well together, they were so supportive and prayerful, the American team were servants, and our interns did so well at bridging the gap between the American team and the students!  

Though my introvert side was starting to make my body ache with dread at the thought of camp starting, I knew as soon as the first program started that I was back in my element and this was exactly where God had intended me to be. It’s amazing that I myself can be so incredibly weak, yet He can make me so strong and able to do His work when I depend on Him!  This camp however was not easy. There were mainly emotional, physical and spiritual challenges… But we are all praising God for how faithful He was to see us through the whole of it. He revealed some big areas in my life that I need to grow, but He also encouraged me this week in knowing that He gives us the strength to do whatever it is that He calls us to do. 

A very unique thing about this camp was that almost all of our interns shared a testimony during the week of how God was at work in their lives in the past, in the present, and as they go forward into the future. 

A challenging part of this camp was the language barrier because many of the students at this camp were young and from smaller villages and their english was not so strong. This was hard for our other interns, but it was a great learning experience for me. I am AMAZED at how God was at work through me this week at camp! I had SO many conversations in Slovak with kids and I could’ve sworn that they were in English.. I can’t explain it. But God blessed me with a huge gift of communication this week, and not just communicating but communicating in a different language. How amazing is our God? I still can’t get over how cool that was for me… 

One of our interns, Austin, (who has also become like a little brother to me) had a terrifying moment where he encountered a bear in the woods.. It was an emotional point for him and for all of us to realize how fragile our lives are and how we need to continue to press on every day towards Christ’s kingdom. It was also great to realize how close God has brought our team in just a month and a half… We are so thankful that Austin is with us and that he’s still encouraging us, praying for us, and making us laugh every day. 

Our concert ended our week of camp and seriously, I was so proud of these kids (and also a bit sleep deprived) that I thought I was going to cry the second we finished. They worked so hard for this concert and had such great attitudes and hearts along the way! I’m honored to have been a part of these kids’ summers. I know that God was strong at work during this camp and that every kid heard something that moved them a bit closer to Christ during this week. I am and I will be praising God for this! I am in awe. 

And now we are moving forward… forward into a bit of chaos…or a lot of chaos. 

This second camp is beginning to look like a bit of a nightmare with details all over the place or just straight up missing. This camp has been my project for the last 3 months and OH BOY am I nervous for how this week will go… I have never done anything like creating and planning and executing a camp by myself before. It has been a HUGE learning experience and I am both excited and nervous to let you know how it goes afterwards! So! We are in Veszprem, Hungary right now and we have already had 2 full days of camp. Things are going well, but to be honest, I have never felt this much spiritual opposition before... every hour has a new challenge from the enemy. A new attempt for us to get angry at each other, to get weary, to get fearful and to just give up. BUT. We are all still here. And we are all still proclaiming Jesus' name and we will be until the end of this week! Until then, please please pray for our 5 students coming: Kamil, Victor, Pali, Mat’a, and Mat’o. And pray that the Spirit is with us and protecting us throughout this week and giving us peace in all the unknowns and the blind corners. 

There’s been so much that I can’t come remotely close to sharing everything with you, but know that you’re prayers are desired and appreciated here and that God is doing incredible things here everyday! In Slovakia, in the people of Slovakia, and in me.  I am so thankful for this role here that God has given me the gift of taking part in. 

Thank you all for your support and prayers! :)