week 20-23

Hey y’all!
Yeah another 3 week update!!
If youre not keen on reading the updates, Daniel Generation/CampFest Pics are up at Flickr

Week 20 Daniel Generation
This was a fun time. The 150 volunteers who make CampFest happen come a week early to get trained and build tents and generally get in the CampFest mood. Over the course of the week we built about 7 tents (when I say we I mean they built and I took pictures of them working!:))

The week started with a 3-day mini-retreat, with previews of the CampFest speakers and themes, and some great worship and bonding activities. The last night of the program marian gave a very powerful call based on Ezekiel 37 where The valley of dry bones become an army. Marian challenged us to lay aside whatever was keeping us as dry bones and allow God to turn us into His army. Each volunteer was prayed for individually by the YFC Staff and given an dogtag with the scripture verse on it.

Oh and on Tuesday, I spent the day in the office re-editing, you guessed it, the CampFest video!!! When we previewed it on the big screen it turned out that some fonts that show up fine on a computer didn’t project very well.


Week 21 – CampFest and the Aftermath
CampFest Rocked!! There were at least 4,000 people there from babies in strollers to middle aged folks. There were 3 stages, and programs for the kids too. Lots of Jumping and dancing and praising. Oh, and most important, God showed up. Over 500 people made first time decisions that we know about!!!

The main tent where I spent most of my time was called the “Hangar.” During the day, I was helping with the IMAG (puttting video onto the big screens). My crowning acheivement was directing the cameras for one show totally in Slovak. (“Horrible make them cry at how I butcher their language” Slovak to be sure, but I was proud of me) I also got to run a camera and push lots of buttons :). Another during the day job was shooting video for the 2006 promo video that we will start editing sometime in September. In the evenings (night/early morning) I was one of 3 official photographers in the Hangar. I took over 2500 pictures and had a blast with that.

I got to know a lot of people I work with better and my Slovak improved, and I did not need a single Benadryl the entire time I was there!!! God is Faithful, and He answers prayer.

Paly Summed it up best, “I was stressed and exhausted and worn out, but God was there and I didn’t want it to stop.” I agree.

After we got back from CF, we finished out the week at the office getting things sorted out and preparing for the 2 weeks off.

Week 22 – In which I do NOTHING!!
After 12 days of people 24 hours a day, (the only time you were ever alone at CF was in the WC and even then, someone was knocking o the door) having the week off was a super blessing. I slept in, read some, accomplished some stuff that I had put off till after CF and generally indulged my introverted side. It was beautiful.
The humor spotlight of the week shines on Thursday evening when I met some friends for a movie only to get into the theater and realize it was in Arabic! With Czech Subtitles!! I understood very little, but still enjoyed the time out.

Week 23 - The Preview
This week, I am going to travel to Zilina and Bratislava with Rado and Roman. Some visiting YFC folks in those cities, and sightseeing and getting out of Presov. Even the super-introverts can only spen so much time in seclusion without going crazy!

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING

Please pray for:
~Safe travel
~Slovak Learning
~Just praise Jesus for His faithfulness and blessings with me.

Please let me know how I can pray for you. I don’t want to turn into a vessel that only takes in and doesn’t pour out on others.

odds and ends

ok, the DG pictures reeeallly are uploading this time I love technology *hint of sarcasm*

also this afternoon, i'm gonna write the update e-mail....since i leave tomorrow for a week :) (sorry sorry sorry it is taking soooo long to get out)

AND if you prayed for my Kristen, thank you. HERE is a link to her Summerserve Blog entry with pictures video links and general wonderfullness.

Have i mentioned that i love this girl? no really, partly 'cause she did the same thing i'm doing (missionary with YFC for a year) and she did it 7 months ahead of me. i get to read her blog archives and remind myself that I am not going crazy. (keep your commments to yourself! :)) and i get to look and say, oh it got better around her 5 month mark, i will not be crazy forever! (again with the keeping your comments to yourself!)

hugs

More Pictures!

Daniel Generation pics are uploading as i type. these are pics of the volunteers time before cammpfest. Some of us were there an entire week before CampFest to set up tents and for training. there were also some powerful times of prayer and worship and a preview of the speakers.
i took over 800 pictures of that week and it was really hard to narrow it down to under 100. I hope you enjoy :)

*edit* paaaaaiiiinnnnfuuuulllllyyyy sssslllloooooooowwwwwwww

look!!! prettttyyy!!!

vacation people, cut me some slack :)
if it makes you feel better i'l translate the title: POZRI!! KRASNE!!!!
what do you think of my new layout?
i made the top bar myself
and canablaized someone elses layout.
also, it is 530 am
my sleep schedule has shifted a few hours.
somehow i'm back on PA time....oops

Updated

mom and abi called me at 1 in the morning (i was still up) to tell me to update this thing. updated.
i have not died, i have not accomplished everyhting on my list. pictrues are coming to flickr shortly. You can go to www.CampFest.sk and click on campfest and photos to see some pictrues if you simply can't wait.
now if you'll excuse me, i love you, i'm going to bed.

yeah yeah yeah

i know. i know. i'll get back in the communication loop soon. maybe tomorrow :)
(mom, i promise i'm not dead! please let me know when you'll be home so i can call)

but today i wanted to share this thought.

I believe that God thinks that "Great is Thy Faithfulness" sounds just as lovely sung through tears and a broken heart, as a reminder to yourself, as it does sung in celebration in Hughes Auditorium full of Vessels.

His faithfulness is just as great in Waco...
as it is in Northern Ireland...
as it is in Slovakia...
as it is in Mars...
as it is in Nashville...
as it is in Ohio...
as it is in Wilmore, Kentucky...
as it is wherever you follow Him.

CAMPFEST!!!!!

home from CampFest.
Not dead
sooo much to tell.
sooo mmuch sleep to catch up on

so i'll jsut tell you the highlights:
I took over 2500 pictures, and added a card reader and bigger CF card to my wish list.
I saw my videos on the big screen in the main tent.
aroind 4 or 5 thousand people were there.
Paly Summed it up well, "I was stressed and tired, but I saw miracles and I didnt want it to end."
NO ALLERGIES!!!! this is huge thank you for praying.
I realized that Presov is "home" now
I came home to packages with Peanut Butter and JellyBellies and Lots of Love.
i'll upload pictures (not all 2500) and update more in the next days.

right quick

We do have spotty SLOOOOOOWWWWWWWW internet here. I wanted to send out a quick note.

Your prayers are working. There is no rain, no major technical problems, I am being social, my Slovak is improving and I have not needed to take a single Benydryl since I’ve been here. God reminded me tonight though that all this is not enough. I could kick myself. I realized tonight that I was so focused on all that could go wrong that I forgot why we do this. I want to ask you not to stop praying, but to broaden your prayers. God reminded me tonight that clear skies and flawless performances are just a means to the end, not the end in themselves. We do CampFest to glorify God, so that people will be drawn to Him. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the all the hows and forget the Why.

I am having lots of fun with Slovak. Today the duck did all sorts of things. It read a menu and jumped and fell in a hole and hurt it’s back. I have a lot of nice people around all day who answer my questions and it’s really good. Tomorrow the Snails will do things like always be late remember something and who knows what else. I have this bizarre desire to learn. I’m embracing it while it lasts!

Please Pray:
For all the things you have been.
That lives will be transformed through CampFest (how did I forget THAT!)

week 19 and a short CampFest countdown!

Does 19 feel like a very high number to anyone else? that's almost 20!! (way to state the obvious Stas!)
Some days it feels like I’ve been here forever and then I think I’m 1/3 of the way through my year and there’s so much I thought I’d have done by now. Then I look back over my past e-mails and realize that I’ve done a ton of things I never imagined that I would!

Not a lot of impressive things have happened this past week though. Everything is gearing up toward CampFest.

Friday a few girls and I cleaned the big projection screens for Campfest and on Friday evening I went to Kosice to help Will O’Connell celebrate his 6th birthday. We went swimming, had McDonalds (Praise Jesus for McDonalds) and went back to their flat for presents and cake! I spent the night in Kosice and Just hung out some with them on Saturday.

Sunday I woke up generally not feeling well and decided to spend the morning in bed. The thought of trying to decipher a translated sermon was just too much I felt better in the afternoon, watched a sermon on my computer and did some knitting and tidying up.

Monday at work I helped with some small detail work. One theme of CampFest is raising an army of young people from seemingly dry bones. (Ezekiel 37), so everyone at CampFest is getting a dog tag with a praying stick figure. We have 3,000 of these tags and they all needed strung onto cord.

Tuesday, I continued the dog tag threading. In the evening I bought an 80L knapsack to pack in for CampFest, my large wheelie suitcase that I could fit into with room to spare, was just not the practical solution!

Today we put the last video stuff together and packed boxes.

The next 12 days I will be out of communication

Tomorrow (Thursday) we leave from Presov.

The 4-6th (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) there will be a 3 day event called “Daniel Generation.” This is for the volunteers who will work during CampFest. The idea is that they will be prepared to serve and enjoy themselves a bit before working through CampFest.

The 7-9th (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) will be full days of setting up tents and stands and all the other things that can only be done on site.

CampFest kicks off with the evening program on the 10th(Thursday) and then all craziness breaks loose through 2:00AM Sunday the 13th.

Then tearing down on Sunday and Monday morning and hopefully (unless the plan changes, which is likely) we will be back late Monday evening the 14th.

My responsibilities at CampFest include cutting live video for the big screens in the mornings and photographing the evening programs. Oh, and whatever else they ask me to do :)

2 weeks ago I updated on how to pray for CampFest and now I want to tell you how you can pray for me at CampFest.

An easy way to remember my requests is to pray that I will be able to follow “the rules” (these are from playing youth soccer with my dad and they have translated to my life):

1, Do your best.

Please pray for my Health. In addition to my known allergies to the location of CampFest I have been coming down with a cough/cold. Running around like crazy and spending 12 days sleeping on the floor when it will be around 50 degrees at night might not be the best things to do about that. The schedule at CampFest will translate to long days, short nights, and screwy sleep schedules. (I like sleep.) AND, there will be very little “introvert time.”, which is how I run. Satan will try to use all these things to mess with my health and attitude and stop me from doing the best job that I can.

2, Respect your teammates.

Roman told me today that by the end everyone will be “cheeky monkeys.” I have no clue what that expression means exactly, but I think it translates to “pray for interpersonal relationships on the MPK team!” We have an intense, close-quartered 12 days ahead and everyone's’ already been working like crazy the past weeks. You can help by praying against attitudes and tempers being brought into the mix!

3, Have fun.

As for the fun thing. CampFest will be dirty, and crowded, and lets face it, I am not an outdoorsy camping sort of girl. But there will be lots of opportunities if I just take hold of them. Maybe you remember the “things that smell good” from the Prague excursion, there will be a booth selling those!! (I’m taking guesses on how much “things that smell good” weight I will put on:)) There will also be great music, ,interesting people, and we have a stunning view of the Tatras mountains to the North. I enjoy cutting video and taking pictures. I just have to not lose perspective, chill out, and go with the flow.

Your prayers will be greatly appreciated on these matters as well as all the other CampFest things you have already been praying for! (i.e. safety, weather, technical stuff, Holy Spirit’s moving)
(If you’re interested, www.campfest.sk is the website and is available in English)
(I like parenthesis)

You rock my world, and your prayers will help CampFest Rock the youth of Slovakia!!
:)Stasi!!



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