Twenty Percent!!! Gym Dates, Nerves, and Love

We are at 20% of our final goal! Wow. This is cool! 80% to go seems like a lot... But we have faith! Every little bit helps and we feel so honored to be a part of this!

Here's how we're doing aside from finances:

Health: Shena has a sore throat. Dave loves Mexican food. Otherwise we are doing awesome. We have a date at the gym tonight. It's actually pretty exciting.

Emotions (from Shena's perspective): I'm actually starting to feel nervous. This Friday we have a team meeting to learn how to teach ESL classes to the Czech people. I've seriously been dreaming about this class... I think I'm afraid because I "should" be well-equipped and have some expertise in this area. After all, I have been to Czech English camps twice before. I have a degree in English, plus a teaching certification, plus a year's experience teaching high school English... But I'm still nervous. What if I misspell something? What if I stutter? What if I totally fail the Czech nation and my team and my church and every donor that supported me?!?!?! Yeah... I have fears. AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Spiritual: We feel very enveloped in God's presence and His love right now. We really feel His blessings. We are trying to balance good stewardship of our time and resources with humble faith that He will provide for all our needs. We're not always the best students. But we do feel the love of our eternal Teacher.

Reason 5793 that we are excited to go to Czech:

We get to see the oldest stone bridge in Europe. It's called "Stone Bridge" or "Old Bridge" (hahaha) and is in Pisek, Czech Republic!

Experiencing Grace and Heat Waves!

Let me just say... that experiencing God's grace is a pretty cool thing. We received a couple donations yesterday in the mail... And I was blown away. One was an amount that I did not expect and the other was from a donor that I did not expect! I feel humbled and so grateful. Wow...

On another note... What in the world is with this sudden heat wave?! I'm wearing the thinnest of shirts and I'm still sweating... I hope it's not this hot in Czech! Or, I'm going to be severely tempted to teach my English class in the nearest swimming pool or stream...

 - Shena

OOPS! Update to Support Letters...

If you received a support letter then you probably noticed the line that said "Don't delay! We have a goal of raising half of our support by May 20th." The "Don't delay!" part is still true. But we actually have a little longer to raise half of our support. We need to have half of our support by June 10th and our total goal reached by July 22nd. And if you're on a tight budget we totally understand. But hey, even $5 helps! Just think... one skipped Starbucks drink could help make a difference in the life of someone halfway around the world! Crazy, huh?

Our First Team Meeting

Just got back from our first meeting... I am SO excited. Oh my goodness!!! I felt peace while I was there. Little things stuck out to me... Like the fact that the verse that our team leader opened with was from Romans 10 (the very same verse that we posted on our Why We're Going portion of this blog... the very same verse that Dave and I think is such a GREAT supporting verse for missions trips, but we rarely hear it used!)

I am thankful for the people that are going on this trip. We have some very experienced people (that have lived in the Czech Republic) and some people that have never been out of the country. We have several college students and several adults. And we have two adorable kids (children of our team leader, whose wife is also going on the trip). There are almost 2 dozen people total.


Please pray for...

• ...the planning of the trip... there are still passports to be gotten and flights to be confirmed. Plus, we have several sub-leadership roles on the trip that people have been asked to pray about and consider.
• ...team-building. Some of us know most and many of us know none. Pray for friendships to begin!
• ...the Czech people. Pray that their hearts would be softened and prepared to receive God's love.
• ...fundraising. Each team member needs to raise $2,050.

Thanks!!!