This is Brian writing. I wanted to take a moment (or a post) to tell you about my wonderful experience in Slovakia. Now, I can't hold a candle to my professional-blogging wife, but I'll give it a try.
I was in Slovakia Jul 28 - Aug 10 participating in an English camp the church in Nitra, Slovakia runs (Nitra is a sister city of Naperville, IL). This camp has been in existence since 1999 and was established as an outreach opportunity for the surrounding community. It is a family camp atmosphere where Slovaks come to learn and improve their English by immersing themselves in the language with native English speakers (aka Americans). The camp is run by the church in Nitra, so most importantly there are great opportunities to share the gospel and the love of Jesus with them.
I went with a team of four others from the States (including my dad, who has led the team of Americans since the camp's inception in '99). We had a short time to prepare for the trip (basically one month). We had to prepare six language/grammar lessons to teach, and review already-written conversation lessons (I thought to myself many times before the trip, "Wow, I'm teaching English?!!!").
We arrived in Slovakia on July 28 with the anticipated jet lag hitting us in the face. We visited the capital of Slovakia, which is Bratislava (for those of you who haven't Wikipedia'd Slovakia, it is part of the former Czechoslovakia - now the Czech Republic and Slovakia). We had a few days of getting accustomed to the European time zone before the camp began and stayed with the pastor of the church and his wife. The church is called the Cirkev Bratska church (translated "Church of the Bretheren" and is a non-denominational Bible-teaching church). Our first night we were greeted by a welcome dinner and met members of the church - what a fantastic group of people. Immediately I felt like we were family and it was truly a picture of the global nature of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-31).
We were able to be tourists on our second day and visit Vienna. What a beautiful city. The history and depth of what has transpired there is truly remarkable. After that, it was all about getting ready for the camp. We arrived at the camp on Saturday Aug 1. The camp is set in the hills, a very picturesque scene. Participants of the camp took an English test to determine what level they are. Each American team member had pre-determined what level we would teach. I had "level 1", the lowest English-speaking group, but I had a translator in my class (thank goodness!). Like I said, we had prepared six language/grammar lessons beforehand from books, but I quickly discovered that what I prepared using "Intermediate" books was over my students' heads, so I had to scrap most of my material and improvise using other material (they call that the 'art of teaching', right?).
We had language/grammar class after breakfast each day and a conversation class discussing spiritual matters and Biblical text afterwards. The best part about the camp (and the whole experience) was the people; the relationships. Everybody involved with the camp was so inviting and warm. It was great to be immersed in THEIR culture and especially to see how God was working in all aspects of this camp. The camp ran 1 week until Aug 8 and we went back to Nitra before heading home on Aug 10.
Clearly, the most difficult part about the whole experience was being away from Sarah and the kids. I missed them so much it ached. But, God was faithful in that and sustained me exactly when I needed it. It was truly an eye-opening, life-changing experience. God is so faithful and so true.
We also had many fun excursions during the camp. One was to the Low Tatras, a mountain range in Slovakia. We chairlifted halfway up and hiked the remainder up to 6,600 feet. About halfway down on our hike, we encountered this sight; a wall of rain, thunder and lightning (and hail) barreling down on us; we made it through alright, but it was admittedly scary; God truly protected us.
The setting of the camp
The American team
My conversation class
2 comments:
Brian, great post! Thanks for sharing! It sounds like you had a fantastic trip filled with new relationships and important conversations. Petro wants to come over and share his Peru pictures--maybe we should wait until you guys come back to Michigan so we can see yours the same night! We might be up until 2 am, but it'd be worth it :) Take Care- Jane
Brian, thanks for sharing about your trip. I'm so glad you were able to experience this with Dad. It will be a 'forever' memory for both of you. Mom
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