Today is our last day at soccer camp. We have a great leadership team consisting of 9 Czechs and 7 Americans. Eight guys from our leadership team have integrated into the camp as players with the Czechs. This has been a great way for them to develop relationships.

We have an interesting group of campers/players at camp this week. The majority of them are from Tomas Nevrela's (below) soccer team that he coaches 9 months out of the year. Some are very open and interested in getting to know us and others are more distant. Each day, we see the Czechs becoming more and more open to our American team.

Daniel (pictured above) from our Czech leadership group asked if he could share his testimony today. He is the Captain of the team and has recently recommitted his life to Christ. He is Pastor Martin's nephew. He has been a Christian his entire life, but went through a period of about 6 years where he lived a sinful life and was far from God.

He did an outstanding job of sharing his testimony. Think of the courage it took for him to do this with his teammates who are not Christians and some who are hostile toward hearing the Gospel. I wonder how many American Christian teens would have the courage to do such a thing.

Ondra, and elder of Elim church, (pictured above), followed Dan's testimony with a Gospel presentation. He used a tool from Josiah Venture. It is a black rubber bracelet with 4 symbols on it and scripture verses for each symbol. The symbols are a heart representing God's love, an X representing our sin, a + representing Christ's sacrifice on the cross and an ?. He ended by inviting the soccer campers to ask anyone from the leadership team about our relationship with God. He also invited them to church on Sunday and let them choose an American who's story (testimony) they would like to hear at church on Sunday. The Czechs unanimously selected Sean Typher so Sean will share his testimony at church on Sunday!!!

Sean (above) has an amazing testimony and I am so excited they chose him to share his story. I believe this is the sovereign hand of God. Please pray for Sean as he shares on Sunday. Church is at 9:30 am which is 1:30 am your time so you may want to pray before you go to bed or if you feel so inclined, you can set your alarm to wake up and pray.

We cannot thank you enough for your support and prayers. We are tired and some of the team have been fighting a head cold, but God is sustaining us. It is through His power and not our own, so thanking for standing in the gap for us.

Blessings,
Power of One Soccer Team

Camp is over! :(

So the basketball camp is finally over and it was great!! Several great testimonies were shared and an excellent gospel presentation by pastor Martin. Thank you for your prayers for the most important day of camp!

The soccer team arrived Friday to Pisek so we got to spend the day with them, tour a castle, see Pisek, and prayer walk around Pisek.

The Basketball team left today(Saturday morning) for Prague and will be leaving early Sunday and traveling all day! So pray for their safety and that they will have a smooth journey home.

The Soccer team however is just starting their trip! WE will be participating in a four day soccer camp with thirty or so Czech teens. We are super excited for this camp and all that God has in store for us!

Camp is finished! :(((

Camp may be finished, but the Lord's work in the Czech republic is not. We had a fantastic last day! Like always the campers were well behaved and the improvement from Monday to today was night and day. These kids became great basketball players this week, but not only did they learn basketball fundamentals they learned a lot about Christianity and heard many stories about how God has worked in our lives as Christians.
Today one of our partner Czech helpers, Martin Dudi, told the most encouraging and wonderful story. We were dancing and clapping around the gym to the song, Yes Lord; Martin said he looked up at the balcony overlooking the gym and said it was as if "God were looking down on one big family."
This was very encouraging and a great story to hear after a LONG week! It was an amazing week and we thank you for all your prayers and support for this trip!!
Tomorrow afternoon we reunite with our soccer team and are going to tour a castle and clean the church as an act of servant hood and thanks for allowing us to stay here and their extreme hospitality and generosity!
Pray for safety on the drive down from Prague for the soccer team and driving to and from the castle.
Also pray that the message the kids heard at camp this week are ringing in their ears and that they are mulling them over!

2nd and 3rd days went just swell!

Days two and three went extremely well! Today (day 3) we were really encouraged to see some incredible improvements in the kids skill level! We have really focused on defense and rebounding technique and the campers have stepped up to the challenge and excelled! The Czech and American teens have really been bonding well and are having a great time together! Many f the Czech teens we work with are sleeping in one of the empty classrooms in the church with so so we are with them 24/7 building those relationships all day and night. It has really been excellent! This evening we are going to dinner with all the leaders and Czech teens and it is going to be a great time!

Tomorrow is the last day of cam and the sharing of the gospel!!!!! We desperately need prayers that the hearts of the Czech children and Czech Teen helpers will open and listening to the message! We pray that Pastor Martin Bele will not speak his words, but the words of the Lord and that they will be heard by all and taken to heart! Also pray for strength for the leaders as sleep is short and the energy level at camp needs to be high!

Again thank you for your prayers and support! The trip is going amazing and a great success! Praise the Lord!!

THE CZECH REPUBLIC FINALLY

Sorry for such a delay in posting! WE have been VERY busy the past few days! The flights all went very well! We had all of twenty minutes to get off our plane from Atlanta to Amsterdam, get through customs, to our gate, checked in, and on our plane to Prague, AND WE DID IT!! It was just little stressful, but we got a great running workout in! (we are always looking at the bright side) 

Reuniting with our Czech friends on Saturday and Sunday. Friends we hadn't seen in a year met us, and the friendships picked up right where we left them! Late nights and early mornings with the Czech teens are the best and make the trip 10x better! 

Today was the first day of camp and it went fantastic! The kids were great, the drills went smoothly, we had two excellent testimonies from Christian and Dave and a wonderful story from the one and only Jim Temby at the teaching time.The day was great!

Prayer Requests

• Prayer for open hearts for the kids and Czech teens
• Safety for the players throughout the day
• Language barrier problems
• Courage and clarity for Micah and Greg as they share their testimonies tomorrow!

The 1st Prayer Requests!!

A few prayer requests for our two teams!

1. For unity of the heart, soul, and mind of our team.
2. Spiritual protection for our team!
3. For Christ to prepare the way by opening the hearts and minds of both the kids and the teens who will be staffing it, that they will truly hear the gospel message.
4. Safe travel to Prague, then to Pisek.
5. Also for a great camp, that everything will run smoothly, that the teaching times will be effective, and that there will be good spiritual conversations between the American and Czech teens!!!