Nate Hampton In Ostrava: Preparing To Celebrate Summer

School Year Coming To An End

All across the country, Czech schools are closing for the summer. Exams have been taken, the grades are in and people are ready for summer vacation. Before school ended however I got the opportunity to once again visit a local school and meet with a class that I met a month or two ago. They had been asking if I could come and join them again and my schedule worked out so that I could visit. I really didn't have an agenda with them so they were able to just get to know me a little better by asking me questions. I was impressed by one of the questions that I was asked when they wanted me to comment on some of the recently publicized altercations between African Americans and police in the United States. Although I didn't have nearly enough time to give a full answer to the question we got the chance to talk a little bit about the complexities of race in the United States. I also got the opportunity to invite them to the English Camp this summer so maybe we will see a few of them at the end of July.

In regard to the youth group over the last few weeks we have had a smaller turnout. Although the official end of the school year for most people is tomorrow there have been a few teens from the group that have already left for some vacation time with their families. Although the group has been small over the last two weeks we have been enjoying our time together and I have been speaking about some of the characteristics of God. We have spoken about His holiness, faithfulness, and infinite nature. Pray that as we have our last few weeks of youth group for the year that God would allow for good questions and good discussion within the group and that the teens would be that much more excited for the coming English Camp. Pray also that over the next few weeks I will have some opportunities to catch up with some of the teens that I haven't seen much of this year now that the school year is done. This coming Friday we will have a big celebration at youth group to celebrate the end of the school year. This is a great opportunity for people to invite their friends to the group. Pray that all the things that need to fall into play would fall into place and that people would invite their friends to come and that it might help spark some more interest in the group from new people in the coming year.

Church Barbecue

Now that the summer is upon us the church schedule is a little bit different and one of the things that the Elders here decided to try was their first church barbecue. I have always enjoyed barbecuing so when I heard that they were going to do this I offered my help. I didn't know this, but this is something that is pretty rare here. It's not like it is growing up in Pennsylvania where you barbecue around once a week in the summer. So with trout, chicken, steak and vegetables on the grill the church enjoyed an evening of good food and fellowship with one another. I wouldn't be surprised to see them do it again. Check out some of the pictures from yesterday.