Nate Hampton In Ostrava: The LORD Working Through Relationships and Opportunities

The Upcoming Week And A Look Back

As the people of the Northeastern part of the United States prepare for a March Blizzard, we in Ostrava come into a week where we will begin to see rising temperatures, which might suggest that Spring is actually on the way. Many people in Ostrava this week are getting back into their regular schedules as they return from vacations or just a week off from school, because Ostrava schools were closed last week for their Spring Break. This also effects me, because I will also return to my regularly scheduled weekly activities of school visits, English conversations and youth group activities. Last week many of those things were canceled and during the tail end of the week I was able to get a bit of rest, which was nice. Although schools were closed in Ostrava last week that didn't mean that I didn't speak with any students.

Last Monday I was invited to come to Bílovec and speak at Táňa's school. I spoke in five different lessons that day including Táňa's class about all different kinds of topics. After the lessons I was invited to enjoy lunch with the Trojáčkovi family, Táňa's family, and we spent the afternoon talking together. The following day, I spent the afternoon speaking with students from my mom's classes at Twin Valley Middle School about the differences between American culture and Czech culture. At the end of the summer, Eliška and I visited her classes and spoke with a different group of students so my Skype call last week was a chance for her second half of the year students to learn something about the Czech Republic. Because of a mix up, Kuba came for the Teen English Conversation even though it was canceled for the week and so I invited him to join me in my Skype call with two of my mom's classes. It was really cool to see how God was able to work that out, so that Kuba could speak with students only a couple of years younger than him from the United States and the American students could get a young Czech teenager's perspective of school and life in the Czech Republic.

The rest of the week I was able to get a bit of rest while continuing to work on my Czech language skills and meet with a few of the youth. On Wednesday I was able to meet with Klára and discuss with her what it might look like for her to visit Elverson this summer, as Eliška did last summer. I was also able to spend some time with Julian as he was home alone last week as the rest of his family was on vacation. It was great to catch up with Julian as I haven't really had much a chance to talk with him over the last year or so. We enjoyed getting some KFC together and checking out an Avengers exhibition at one of the local malls.

Julian sitting on Thor's throne

School Visits Bearing Fruit

Over the last few weeks I have been able to see the LORD working through some of the relationships and opportunities that I have here to further His kingdom in the Czech Republic. Several months ago, I invited a girl from one of the local schools that I visit to join us for some youth group activities. She is a neighbor of Jarda, one of the women of the church, and two years ago this girl attended several of my English lessons for teenagers. Now, I visit with her class about once a month. When I first invited her, she seemed interested, but was unable to make some of the activities, but two weeks ago I received a message from her that she would be joining us for one of our regular meetings. Nikol or Nikča as she prefers to be called, came and seemed to really enjoy herself. She got to meet some of the teens from the group and listen to my lesson. She hung out for a while after the meeting, playing a few games of Dutch Blitz and watching the sideshow from last year's English Camp. At the end she said that she really enjoyed it and that she would be back. I was really happy to hear that.

Guys versus girls (Nikča is the second person from the right)

The guys strategizing

Toilet paper soccer

Michal laughing after "blowing" his chance

Petr scoring a goal

Another way that I have recently seen the LORD working is with English Camp this summer. Over the last few weeks, I have been getting questions from some of the teachers that I work with about coming to the English Camp this summer with their families. A little more than a week ago, we began advertising the English Camp so I was finally able to give these teachers some more information about the camp and direct them to the website so that they could sign up. I'm quite hopeful that more teachers and students from these schools will be drawn to the camp and sign up to join us.

Some Other Youth Activities

Several weeks ago, the youth group met at Křesťanské sbory. For some reason, most of the KS teens weren't there, but it was still an enjoyable evening with Robert leading the discussion. It has been a nice balance between Robert and I. He often leads discussions while I usually do more of a lecture so the teens get a little different experience from week to week.

Matouš and Táňa during one of our games

Robert's son Miky

Kuba battling for victory

Kuba and Miky mid-battle

Kuba acting goofy

Robert getting a laugh

Several weeks ago we also had our third Progressive Dinner here in the Czech Republic. It was the first time that people from the other youth group took part in the evening. Although many of them didn't join us that evening those who did enjoyed another great evening. This year we had more participation from the church body than we have had in previous years with seven different homes being opened to the youth and several more offering. Here are a few pictures from the evening once we returned to church for dessert and dancing.