We celebrated his birthday early since it fell on a day that was during our trip and didn’t want to miss it.
My last day at home with the kids was frazzling for me. I felt overwhelmed in all the last minute details of making sure my parents would have everything that the kids would need, we still needed to pack, and somehow in the craziness of it all I wanted to enjoy and savor every last moment that I had with them. “What if something would happen to us or them?” Our kids sensed it too and were more emotional and needy than ‘normal’. Change is hard. It’s hard to let go of the little ones you love so dearly and trust that in all things Jesus is still good, perfect and worthy of worship. Both of us were quite eager and excited to begin this 4 week adventure of just the two of us and there is peace knowing it’s okay to take that step of faith into the unknown because every detail is known by our Father. There is rest in that. So, here we were: we said our goodbyes, walked away from our precious little ones and embraced what lay before us.
Most of our Team at the Denver Airport, 8pm
I’m always impressed by those who can sleep on the plane, but 8 hours later we landed in London, and 3 hours after that we flew 2 1/2 hours to Prague landing at about 7:30pm.
We were warmly greeted by the Czech training team who blessed us weary travelers with sandwiches, water and an apple, then driven roughly 45 minutes away to a quiet location, where we would receive training for the next 3 days. These 3 days were much needed for not only adjusting to the new time change, but Josiah Venture gave us a condensed thorough understanding of the history, culture, and what to expect working with Czech youth so that we would be effective and not offensive.
Along with our American team of 8, there were also other teams from Chicago, New York, Alaska and Florida – and each would join other English Camps scattered along the Czech countryside. We are very thankful for all their hard work.
Both Dan and I connected very well with a number of our new Czech friends. Hearing not only the sound of their language (which is really really cool!) but more importantly their hearts and stories, we found ourselves drawn to them and it confirmed to us that this is where God is placing us. Whether or not we felt ready for the beginning of the journey, this long-anticipated trip that we had so prayerfully prepared was here and now it was up to Him to guide our paths wherever and however He wanted to in this adventure.