Miltary Youth Service Project 2008
As you may recall, last year's Military Youth Service Project was in Slovakia with over 1000 attendees. The number of people had grown so large that this year the Service was divided into four distinct sites: Poland, Slovakia, Eastern Czech Republic and our region of Northern Czech; in the nearby town of Turnov.
180 American teens and staff and over thirty Czech interpreters/ advisors innundated Turnov and made quite a splash. Organized by our friend Petr Boudny, the Moravian Church pastor; we worked in several locations: a nursing school, a trade school, two elementary schools (grades 1-9), a Kindergarten and at the church's property to provide improvements for their growing Teen Club and their Mothers with Young Children's club.
We sent teams into more than 50 English classes in five schools and held afternoon clubs for kids and teens in two of them. We also participated in sports competitions. This all required choreographic organization to cover all the requests made by school staf and complete the building projects too. We built a beach volleyball court in the backyard of a dormitory, an outdoor classroom for an elementary school, refurbished outdoor equipment for the Trade School which included painting a 12 foot high fence, cleaned up the yards of a kindergarten and an elderly widow, and made interior and exterior improvements to the church's property that included a swing/slide play area. All in five days!
These were ambitious projects to be sure. At the beginning of the week the lead contractors, site leaders and the relational ministry staff were sweating bullets, wondering how they would be able to accomplish all the tasks set before them. But if God opened the doors, we were going to follow Him in faith. All projects were successfully completed by the end of the week!!!!
Two weeks before the project began, we had had snow storms, so we had issued an emergency prayer request for good weather and prayer covering for this project. The first work day (Monday), it poured down rain. The teams worked diligently in spite of getting wet, cold and MUDDY! Towards the end of the long day, one leader prayed for the rain to stop. Within 5 minutes the rain turned to snow. She laughed and said, "Well, God, I guess I have to be more specific in my prayers.
It seemed like a test of our will to work, which we passed with flying colors. It did not go unnoticed. Later we heard that someone asked, "Who are these people working in this kind of weather? Are they a prison gang being forced to work?" They were astonished to hear, "No, these are American teens on spring holiday who paid their own way to come here to do this work for free." Later in the week the mayor attended one of our evening meetings and commended the students for working so hard even in the foulest of weather. A newspaper article appeared also commending the teens for their superb work ethic. Beginning Tuesday, it never rained again and we even had some sunny periods including Friday, Celebration Day.
What a celebration day that was!!!! Nothing like it in Turnov before. The whole street in front of the church was closed and filled with entertainment for children of all ages, includig a giant slide called the Titanic and games run by the our teens. There were bubbles, balloons and prizes galore. It is estimated that 1000 people enjoyed the festivities between 11am and 2pm.
And just so you know that it wasn't all fun and games, at the final evening meeting for the Americans, 60 people publicly declared that they wanted to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
Now we call that a SUCCESSFUL Service Project!
180 American teens and staff and over thirty Czech interpreters/ advisors innundated Turnov and made quite a splash. Organized by our friend Petr Boudny, the Moravian Church pastor; we worked in several locations: a nursing school, a trade school, two elementary schools (grades 1-9), a Kindergarten and at the church's property to provide improvements for their growing Teen Club and their Mothers with Young Children's club.
We sent teams into more than 50 English classes in five schools and held afternoon clubs for kids and teens in two of them. We also participated in sports competitions. This all required choreographic organization to cover all the requests made by school staf and complete the building projects too. We built a beach volleyball court in the backyard of a dormitory, an outdoor classroom for an elementary school, refurbished outdoor equipment for the Trade School which included painting a 12 foot high fence, cleaned up the yards of a kindergarten and an elderly widow, and made interior and exterior improvements to the church's property that included a swing/slide play area. All in five days!
These were ambitious projects to be sure. At the beginning of the week the lead contractors, site leaders and the relational ministry staff were sweating bullets, wondering how they would be able to accomplish all the tasks set before them. But if God opened the doors, we were going to follow Him in faith. All projects were successfully completed by the end of the week!!!!
Two weeks before the project began, we had had snow storms, so we had issued an emergency prayer request for good weather and prayer covering for this project. The first work day (Monday), it poured down rain. The teams worked diligently in spite of getting wet, cold and MUDDY! Towards the end of the long day, one leader prayed for the rain to stop. Within 5 minutes the rain turned to snow. She laughed and said, "Well, God, I guess I have to be more specific in my prayers.
It seemed like a test of our will to work, which we passed with flying colors. It did not go unnoticed. Later we heard that someone asked, "Who are these people working in this kind of weather? Are they a prison gang being forced to work?" They were astonished to hear, "No, these are American teens on spring holiday who paid their own way to come here to do this work for free." Later in the week the mayor attended one of our evening meetings and commended the students for working so hard even in the foulest of weather. A newspaper article appeared also commending the teens for their superb work ethic. Beginning Tuesday, it never rained again and we even had some sunny periods including Friday, Celebration Day.
What a celebration day that was!!!! Nothing like it in Turnov before. The whole street in front of the church was closed and filled with entertainment for children of all ages, includig a giant slide called the Titanic and games run by the our teens. There were bubbles, balloons and prizes galore. It is estimated that 1000 people enjoyed the festivities between 11am and 2pm.
And just so you know that it wasn't all fun and games, at the final evening meeting for the Americans, 60 people publicly declared that they wanted to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
Now we call that a SUCCESSFUL Service Project!
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