Home

I can not believe it has been almost 4 weeks since I have been home. I hit the ground running when I got home. I started back at my old job, Sunshine, and have been working almost full time. I have spent the days catching up with people, meeting with different pastors, and trying to get my life together. Whatever that even means.

A good chunk of my time at home has been pursuing what the Lord put on my heart when I was back in Czech. I don't think I have shared that with you yet. When in Czech I felt called home to minister and disciple the youth of American.Especially the girls and to build them up and send them out. I would love one day to be working in or start a girls ministry. Yet, God has been so good to provide many opportunities for me to grow and get experience in this area. I have taken on the challenge of discipling a group of High School Senior girls.  I am also in the process of transferring to Liberty University on-line to finish my BA in Interdisciplinary studies where I will get a chance to study more of the Bible and take a few classes on religion. I am so excited about these things.

This last Saturday (9/8/12) I had the chance to help run a girls conference at my home church, Grace Baptist Church. We called up some girls from Hume Lake, Megan Fate Marshman & Rachel Closs, to speak to our girls. Little did I know that I was gonna need this conference A LOT! I was remnided that I need to live to Jesus. It was a good kick in the butt.

Since I have been home I have not stopped. I have been planning life and crossing things off the list. I had to ask myself " Jackie, what are you living for?" my honest answer was "Girls ministry, and getting my life together." Jesus had taken 2nd place in my life right behind ministry itself. I broke down. My heart was so broken over the fact that Jesus had taken the back seat for the last few weeks.
Now, living to do ministry isn't bad. But when it comes before Jesus , when anything comes before Jesus, we need to stop and re-evaluate and re-prioritize.

So, that is where I am at. Taking time to stop, re-prioritize and put Jesus back in the number 1 spot in my life. I love Jesus with my whole heart. I don't want him to be anything but 1st place in my life. Now that I am home I will continue to process what I learned in Czech and hopefully live out those lessons in front of those around me. Untill next time!

Cau!

Usti Nad Labem

With our last camp behind us and sitting here on our last day of Intern Training I staring into the face of the end. I could sit here and write for forever. So much happened this summer. Good, bad, easy, hard, everything. So this is what I am going to say.

We finished our last camp. It was amazing. It was with Usti nad Labem. This was the camp I was waiting for all summer long. It was great. We had an amazing Czech team and an  amazing American team. We hit deep conversations with my English class the first night. The students wanted to know how to come to know Jesus, what a relationship looked like, how I came to know Jesus, and so on. It was incredible. Every night we went over the time limit and every night it got deeper and deeper. I was blown away about what God was doing at that camp. We did our Labyrinth night and two students camp into a relationship with Christ and it was incredible to see! Many other students wanted a relationship so bad but there were things holding them back. So as you read this be praying for them that they surrender to the Spirit. I had great connections with the leadership team from both teams. I am excited to see how God grew the relationship between the Czech and the American. So hopefully they will work together again next year. It will be cool to see how God will use them again next year.

We spent a few days in Prague with the rest of the Czech interns and had a great time of debrief. It was what my heart needed to get prepared to go back home. Now I'm sitting here in my dad's living room back in California. I want you all to know that I could not praise God enough for the support you all gave me. I could NOT have done this with out you guys. I'll send a few most post about my transition back home and pictures. But for now, I'm gonna enjoy being home!

ValMez

What a week! I am sitting at my last training reflecting on our 2nd term camp. I can;t believe how fast 2nd term went and I can not believe our last camp is starting me in the face and that in 15 short days I will be on a plane back to the States.


This camp was probably the hardest yet. I was pushed out of my comfort zone in every way possible. I taught a beginners class at this camp and that was the max of my responsibility. I usually had no idea what my class was saying during discussion or during class because they most spoke in Czech. We had a translator to help the student communicate with me and my helper Dean. But, what I am realizing more and more now is that God can do this without me. I know it sounds like a DUH statement but it is so easy for the mind set of " He can't do this without me" to set in. He doesn't need me to do this but he has chosen me. He is using me. Most of this camp I sat back and watched God work.


One night in our evening discussions I gave my story about the latest in my family life in three sentences. After that the students all started opening up and going deeper and sharing stories about their home lives. It even opened a chance for us to share about God with one of the girls. I cried after this night. I had no control no power of how that story was gonna effect the students. But God knew and he used it. Incredible. Who knew that 3 small sentences could be used so powerfully. God is just blowing me away.


Also this week we had a team from New York come and serve with us. I fell in love with these students. They were High School and College aged students who had never done this trip before. It was up to us interns to help guide them through the process. The way these New Yorkers were teachable and handled every challenge with grace blew my mind. Two  of the New Yorkers, Kyle and Michelle, had never taught before and were handed class of intermediate English speakers. They so gracefully stepped up to the plate and did an amazing job teaching a class together. My helper Dean was incredible the way he help lead discussion groups. One day I handed the lesson to teach and he did it well. It was cool to watch God group these New Yorkers and these students over the week. The JV story and purpose is being lived out and it so cool to see how God is using English Camps to changes the lives of nationals, American, and Interns. There is no place I would rather be right now then right here!

As we head into our next camp I have a few prayer request.


1) Strength as we are all tired both physically, mentally, relationally
2) We all stay fully engaged here and not check out because the end is near.
3) That God does big work in the lives of the students this week!


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Jackie

Nove Mesto & Hejince

Well, we have one camp behind us and another staring us in the face. There were a lot of hard things about this camp for me personally and for us as a team. We had three roles at this camp
1) The Americans
2) The Interns
3) Training the Czechs how to run a camp

So, it was really taxing. But, I really learned a lot. God is teaching me to lead well. I was the teacher in my English class. I had two of my fellow interns in my class with me. So I was leading them through some things they had never done before. I could really see God stretching me in my role as a leader. I had 3 students in my class who weren't believers. Two of which never had heard of Jesus before. So I had the privilege of teaching them and doing evening discussion with them every night. You could see the Spirit working in these students hearts every night. If the whole point of this one camp was to get one student thinking about Jesus then I count it as a succes.

We have to be sensitive to the culture here. They think about things for a long time. More often then not if a student is going to make a decision for Christ they usually make after camp. Even more often then that it is after their 3rd ,4th ,5th ,or even 6th camp. So we were seed planters and this camp and every camp we will be at. Now it is time to let those seeds be watered and grow.

God is doing great things in the Nove Město & Hejnice youth group. I'm excited and blessed that I got to be a part of their very first camp, a part of their youths history, and a part of their churches history.

Please be praying as we head to our second camp for strength, energy, and in all we do that we do it with God Honoring Excellence.

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Jackie

Today is the day!

Welp, it is finally here. The day I have been waiting for, the day the Lord has been preparing my for for a whole year. The FIRST DAY OF ENGLISH CAMP! It is currently 12:30pm here in Czech Republic and campers will arrive in 3.5hrs. WE are busy setting up English boards, practicing music and camp dance, and finishing envelopes for the students.

I just come to you all asking you to stop and say a quick prayer for our first camp. Pray that big things happen this week. Pray for safety as we play games. Pray for rest. Pray for productive classes. Pray for softened hearts. Pray for clear words from God when we are speaking on his behalf. I'll let you all know how it goes when camp is over! Until tell,

Jackie

The Man I love The Most

This blog post is a little different from the rest of mine. This is about the man who has raised me and loved me my whole life. My dad!

It's obvious where we get our good looks from!

Today is his birthday. If you don't know my dad well then your missing out because he is pretty awesome.  He is hard working, loves others, has a heart of a servant, love this God with all his heart. He is great chef... no joke! He can pretty much fix anything the goes wrong with my car. He has a heck of a lot of patience to put with me and my shenanigans. He is a sports fanatic... GO DODGERS! He is about one of the goofiest guys over 50 I know....sorry for spilling your age dad =) He is my dad! I can't be anymore blessed!

Without a doubt this has been a huge year of growth in his life. Those of you who know my family and what this last year has held for us you know it hasn't been easy for any of us. I have never seen anyone handle life's challenges with such grace, humility, a heart of a learner, and so much faith and trust in the Lord like my dad has. I couldn't be happier to have a dad like him. He has been such an amazing example of a Godly man to me and my siblings. I think being out here on the field the thing I might miss the most is being able to daily talk to my about how our day was, what God is teaching us, or even just sitting down and watching TV with him. I love him so much.  There is so much I could say about my dad but my little insignificant words just can't do it justice. So, I'll leave it at this:

I love you dad! If I am luck to find someone half as amazing as you then I'm set. I'm sorry I can't be there to spend your birthday with you! Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!!

Love,

Your Little Girl

A day in the garden

I am sitting here on a bus at 8 o’clock in the morning head back to Ust nad Labem couldn’t be more excited because I really miss this city that we have made our home for the back 4 weeks.

We spent the last few days in between two towns Strakonice and Pisek. We were serving with a JV missionary Leah Cox who has been here for the past 12 years. She has just a fun loving spirit and such a servant’s heart. We did some manual labor, which was good for a change because I was getting kind of antsy sitting around the house working on the computer. Not to down play that fact that the work I was doing was good and much need but the change of pace was nice. We helped a family work on their garden.. Let me tell you, a Czech garden is nothing compared to an American garden.  Us Americans can learn a few things from these Czechs. =) They are huge and beautiful. Full of trees and flowers and LOT OF WEEDS! So we pulled weeds, mowed grass and picked cherries out of the trees and ate cherries out the tree. It was great. WE did the same thing the next day but at a nursing home. I took the time to spend the day with Jesus gardening. Letting him know that I am having trouble feeling his presence and seeing him. This time was much needed. I have been having a hard time connecting up with Him just because of my person lack of discipline. That’s really what it comes down to. 

So, we finishes off the day had dinner and I went back to the church we were sleeping at and decided to commandeer the front lobby and spend time Skyping with my dear friend back home and once again with the Lord. God could not have blessed those that time anymore. I was encouraged and loved on by my dear friend. For those of you who have been on the mission field can understand starting off and really missing your community at first. Then my time spent with the Lord was just amazing! I haven’t felt this connect and filled up with him in awhile. I read two verse that just stood out to me.

Psalms 18:33 and Proverbs 18: 24

I’m reading a book that another friend of my encouraged me to read. It is called Hinds Feet in High Places. She read it when she was backpacking through Europe almost 4 years ago and told me that I changed her life and encouraged me to read it. Well this verse explains so clearly the premise of the book.

“ He made me feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.” Psalms 18:33

I was once again encouraged and reminded that this life is a process. It won’t happen over night. But God is slowly changing me from this girl who is much afraid of almost everything and making into this girl who loves without fear and lives without fear.

As I was talking to my friend we were just talking about some of our doubts and our fears. Talking about how she is moving to DC before I get back and that we haven’t seen each other since she left for Jamaica back in April. Talked about how precious our friendship is and we love how God has grown us together as deep deep friend who didn’t even know each other before our missions trip to Czech last year. We cried together, even thought we always try to end our conversation before the crying, and laughed, and reminisced and dreamed together on the phone. I don’t know f you have ever had a friend like this but they are few and far between. I cherish this friendship deeply.  I went to deep thing about our conversation and woke up thinking about it. I reach over for my bible this morning and read this verse.

“ A man of many companions may come to ruins, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18: 24

I smiled and Ashley came straight to my mind and I thanked God for the friendship I have with her. I thanked him for using her in my life to refine me.Even far from home and in the midst of what feels like a dry season God instantly reminds me, after sometime in a garden, of how he is caring for me and who he is.