Sunday, July 21, 2013

jacque's blog...open doors? wait...closed doors. no...open doors!

 

Hi Everyone! This is Kati's sister Jacque writing to you this evening. Jak se mate? (I'm just kidding...Kati is the one that speaks Czech, not me!) 

This morning we enjoyed a wonderful worship service with the congregation here in Policka, and then enjoyed a delicious lunch with some of the Czech volunteers. Then we had the afternoon scheduled to prepare for the week of camp, and WOW...what. an. afternoon! Remember how our camp's theme this year is about openness? Open eyes, open hearts, open hands, and tomorrow's day theme is open doors. Well, all of the American and Czech volunteers had a big lesson in how to keep ourselves open when we discovered that the school doors were, in fact, CLOSED!!
 
It was quite a task to prepare for lessons about open doors when all the doors we can find are closed. And of course, at first, we all were a little bit freaked out about what to do next. Will we even get into the school? Will we all be late to our planned dinners with generous host families? what if we don't even get into the school tomorrow morning for the first day of camp?!?! Then I saw one of the czech volunteers open his hands and offer to carry a heavy bag of supplies for someone who had been holding it during the long wait for the key to the doors. Then another volunteer opened his ears and realized that all the updates about the door "situation" had been discussed in Czech so none of the Americans had any idea what was going on, and he translated for us - explaining that we would just have to wait a "little" bit longer. Then more volunteers opened their hearts and offered to come over to help set up the classrooms after the doors were miraculously OPEN!

It was remarkable to watch the work of many hands and hearts complete all the tasks we believed would take us all day long in just a few short hours at the end of the day! I am sure the lord was moving through us all today - opening our eyes, our ears, our hands, our hearts, and...eventually...our doors.

It was a great reminder to keep ourselves open throughout this week as we meet with new friends and familiar friends, young friends and old friends, american friends and czech friends.


Well, I'm off to get some jet lagged sleep for now, because bright and early tomorrow morning we will be welcoming the kids into the church for the first day of English camp. We are so excited to share with them in the energy and love and joy and (hopefully!) open doors!!


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