Something is stirring in the Czech Republic
This past week I traveled to the Czech Republic to team teach several seminars on youth ministry with my good friend Ashley Denton. The seminars went well, but more importantly, I believe that I had an opportunity to be a part of what is the beginning of a movement in Czech Republic, and potentially Central and Eastern Europe
It all started with a single conversation outside a small town called Ostrava. A little less than a year ago my friend Ashley visited a ministry called Josiah Venture, and taught at their internship program. During a conversation with their teaching director, Ashley mentioned that they should try starting an outdoor adventure ministry. It seemed to fit what they wanted to accomplish and what might resonate with the people in that area. That conversation turned into a small group of youth leaders making the 24 hour drive to Romania to be a part of a backpacking trip with Wilderness Ministry Institute (WMI) the following August.
After that trip, a team was born. In this team there was a vision to unite all the youth workers in Czech Republic to use the outdoors and adventure to reach more young people. A weekend was set to bring everyone together and share a common vision of how this might work. Not knowing how much interest there would be, a cottage was rented, holding a maximum of 45 people. As the weekend approached the spots were filling until there was no more room left. There was such an interest that people were being turned away.
This is where I come in. Ashley and I were asked to come and help lead this weekend. We had the opportunity to share the power of the outdoors and adventure in youth ministry with 45 eager listeners who seemed to soak up everything that we said. We left that weekend with a sense that something is happening in that country. Youth workers from all different types of organizations came and seemed to unite for the sake of reaching more kids through adventure and outdoors.
I spoke with several of the folks that attended the weekend to try and get a feel for what they were thinking. More often than not I heard comments like “People here won’t go to church but they will go outside. They love to hike and ski”. In fact the average Czech person spends around 7% of their annual budget on outdoor gear. If that is not a good testament of people loving the outdoors I’m not sure what is. Several people also said that they knew youth workers in neighboring countries that would love this, too. The next obsictale we began to pray about was getting the gear it would take to start this program up.
Finally on our return trip home we had a 24 hour layover in London where we had the opportunity to spend some time with a like minded friend working at a Torch Bearers camp in Sweden. To our amazement he had a surplus of backpacking gear and happily said that he would send it our friends in Czech to help them get started. It only took 24 hours for that prayer to be answered!
I’m not sure exactly what the Lord is up to yet but we are excited to see where this goes and our hope is to help and encourage these different ministries in Czech to succeed and reach more kids.
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