My Favorite Cousin...(just kidding Emily!)

Okay, so I don't pick favorites...but I do have a couple cousins who I'm really close with. One is my cousin Emilly (no, she's not the one in the picture) and she just met up with me last week to go swing dancing (and I regret that I forgot my camera). The other is my cousin Brian, who I don't get to see nearly as often. But thankfully...I'm able to spend some time with him now.

Next Saturday, my good friend Jason and his wonderful fiance Diana are getting married. So, my parents and I headed down to Florida for their wedding. And conveniently, a lot of my relatives live in Florida. We arrived in Jacksonville yesterday and are headed to Orlando, then to Tampa, then back to Jacksonville again. No matter how much driving we have to do, it's still great to see everyone again...and I can't complain about the weather, either!

My "Sister's" Wedding

For those of you who don't know, I have more than just two sisters. Okay, I have two real ones, but I also have two more adopted sisters. (Both of them lived with us for a number of years...at different times.)

On February 24th, my "sister" Carolyn was married. It was a small and beautiful ceremony. They were married in a mansion in Lake Geneva. One thing that I thought was neat was that Carolyn prayed it would snow on that day...and God gave her a snow storm! You have to just appreciate his sense of humor...and sometimes you have to be careful what you pray for. ;-)

Luncheon

Hey you guys. I just wanted to let you know that my church is having a luncheon for me tomorrow. It's at noon at First Baptist Church of Geneva (west campus), if you can make it. If not, could you be praying for me? I want to share what God's doing in the Czech Republic and get people excited to pray for us. Please pray that that's what happens...but more importantly, pray that God will be glorified throughout.

Watch EXIT 316 online!

Hey you guys. I just added a link that I thought I'd point out to you guys. Believe it or not, you can watch EXIT 316 online! If you just click on the link, you can watch full episodes online...every one of them. You might not understand them, but you can at least get a feel for what they look like. (And compared to everything else that's on Czech television...the quality's exceptional.) Let me know what you think! http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/vysilani/10109769637-exit-316-jina-dimenze/24566.html

Another EXIT Report

There are about 300 small groups using the Exit material as an evangelistic tool. Recently we received an e-mail from a 17 year old guy who is gathering students in his dorm to watch the show and discuss it. One week he had 75 there – and only two or three of them are believers. Pray for strength and courage for these young people.

Dinner with the Kaspars

This last week, I was able to hang out with my friend Brad when he was here in the states. He’s another missionary in Czech who has become a great friend of mine, and it was fun to hang out with him and get to know his family, too.

Reverse Culture Shock

When you move to another country, there are certain things you expect to happen. You expect things to NOT be "normal" anymore. You expect everything to be different...and you do what you can to adjust to those differences. But when you come back to the country you're from, you expect everything to be "normal" again. But you soon find that the things that were once "normal"...well...aren't.

When I first moved to Czech, my mentor gave me some advice on learning the language. She told me, “Never tune the language out. Even if you don’t understand keep listening, don’t tune it out.” I didn’t realize how much I did that, until I got back to the states.

I went to the store with my friend when I first got to the states. She and I were walking and talking, and I finally had to stop her for a second and tell her that I didn’t hear a word she had just said. I got so used to not tuning things out, that I couldn’t tune anyone in the store out. Not to mention the fact that over there, whenever I hear English, I automatically assume people are talking to me. So when I was at the store, I heard every word of every conversation around me, just not the conversation I was having. I was on auditory overload. I heard everything, but couldn’t understand anything. While I’m in the states, I have to re-train myself to tune out background noise so I can understand what’s going on around me.

I never understood that living in the states could seem so different to me. I’m just figuring out what it’s like to live in the states again.

Exit 316 update-Dave Patty

The weekly T.V. show produced by the KAM team for Czech Television just finished its first season with a final episode that aired right after Christmas and was focused on the Meaning of Life. These first 17 episodes have been viewed by between 120,000 and 170,000 people a week, and are generating lots of discussion and response. As near as we can tell, close to 300 evangelistic small groups are meeting around the shows, and these groups are touching close to 3000 people a week. Just about every week we hear of someone coming to Christ through this show!

Czech Television has asked us to continue on until the end of the school year, which means another 26 episodes between now and the end of June. Pray for the production team which is now working double time to create these additional episodes, and for the turbo team who is working to connect even more small groups into the evangelistic campaign. This is an unprecedented opportunity, but is also very spiritually demanding.

One of the things that has surprised us is the overwhelmingly positive response we have received from the churches. All together, 18 denominations are using the show as part of their evangelistic strategy! The week before Christmas, KAM received an award from the Ecumenical council of Churches for Exit 316. This group of representatives from all of the denominations in the Czech Republic named Exit 316 as the ecumenical event of the year. Praise God for these open doors!

Pray also for the Kompas team in Slovakia as they work on plans to broadcast Exit 316 next fall. Because of the similarity in language, the show can be used there in Slovakia with only minor modifications.

Yes, yes, the rumors are true.

If you heard the rumors going around about me being back in the states...you heard correctly. I arrived just before Thanksgiving and was able to head down to Tennessee soon after arriving to celebrate with the family. It was so great to be able to see everyone again, to be able to meet my new little nephew, and see my adorable niece again.

I'm back in the states for a little while raising support for the next two years. I'm hoping to meet with as many people as possible, so if I know you, please contact me so we can get together.

Hope to see you soon!

Hayden Layne

I'd like to introduce you guys to my new nephew, Hayden Layne Steele. He was born on October 25th, (just missing his aunt's 25th birthday.) He was 6lbs. 6oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.

And here's a picture of his big sister, Sierra Rain.

I can't wait to meet this little guy!

Vienna Vacation

I recently decided that I was long overdue for a vacation, so my friend Jami and I decided to stop talking about going on a vacation, and just go. So we did.

Last Friday we hopped on a train and went to Vienna. We had a great time, and packed in more in a few days than I could have ever imagined. We even hit Starbucks a couple times!

I'm incredibly thankful for a great vacation, and an amazing friendship.

Exit Responses and Statistics

1. Another Dimension - total viewers: 101,600
2. Love - total viewers: 125, 200
3. Friendship - total viewers: 111, 500

What this doesn't include is those who are viewing it on the website of Czech Television. Several thousand people are going on to watch it there as well. http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/vysilani/10109769637-exit-316-jina-dimenze/24566.htm

“Exit 316 is generating an unusual level of response”.
-Memo from the press secretary at Czech Television to the Executive Director in Prague.

“It's just great what the Exit does! It just gives me so many opportunities to talk to my schoolmates about God! When one of my schoolmates saw my Bible, so he read it for a while and then asked me if I could get him one! Some other guys read the Bible, too and even one who wears a Satan symbol. I've never had so many opportunities to talk about God at school!”
-Honza Vosalik-High School student, Pisek

“This show is addressing issues that all young people face – I’m going to use it for discussion in my social studies class every week.”
-Non-believing mom who is a teacher in a public school. Her daughter, Petra, gave a testimony in the first episode of Exit.

“I’ve been trying to get small groups going in our youth group for two years. Now Exit starts and all of the sudden we have three groups meeting every week!”
-Youth group leader in Tabor.

“I just received news that Exit is in 2nd place for the most watched show on the internet this week (the week it aired), and in 3rd place for the most watched show on the internet for the entire year!! They say that 75,000 viewed the premiere on TV last Wednesday, and 500 – 1000 people a day are watching it on the internet.”
-Lubos Hlavsa, director and film editor for Exit 316.

Vienna

In September, I had the opportunity to go on a Mission Trip to Vienna with my church. And I mean, my church in the states. First Baptist was going on a Mission Trip to Vienna, Austria, and they welcomed me to join them for part of their trip. I was able to take a train down there and it only took me five hours to get all the way there.

The most exciting thing for me was being able to get to know the team. Sometimes I forget how many quality people there really are in this world, until I come across people like this. I'm so thankful to have been able to get to know each person from the team.

We also had many opportunities to work with refugees. We helped with a clothing drive at The Oasis, brought meals to refugees, brought food to others, and just minister to the refugees around. I was even surprised to find that my Czech somewhat helped with communicating with the refugees who spoke Russian. It's not the same at all, but it's much closer than English or German.

It was definitely an eye-opening trip. It really opened my eyes and my heart to what's happening in other countries...and especially a country that's so close to Czech.

(Here's a picture of everyone in the team but me.)

Train Adventures

Normally, traveling by train isn’t a problem in Czech. You can typically count on the trains to be where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. Such was not the case recently. I was taking (what should have been) a two and a half hour trip. Oh, how I wish it had been. It ended up being a ten and a half hour trip. Yeah, that’s right . . . ten and a half hours! I’ll tell you the story.

I left in the morning at 11:15, and I was supposed to get to my final destination at 1:55. I only had to switch trains one time and I had ten minutes to do so. (There have been times when I needed to do it in three minutes, so I was fine with only having ten.) I arrived where I was supposed to switch trains and literally ran to my next train to play it safe and get there on time. Apparently, I didn’t play it safe enough, because it had already left. So, I checked the schedule, and had 3 ½ hours until the next train left. Which meant, I had to find something to do for that time.

Now, one thing that’s interesting about traveling over here, is that not only do you have to make sure you get on the right train, but you have to make sure you get on the right part of the train. Sometimes, you might get on the back of the train, and they leave it somewhere and only the front continues on to the next town. This was my next mistake. Thankfully, I was able to get off the back in enough time to get onto the front before it left.

After that, we made a stop in a town a few stops away. After about ten or fifteen minutes, I realized that this was a longer stop than it should have been. About a half hour later, and with trying to communicate through my broken Czech, I finally found out that there were computer problems in the next town and they didn’t know when the train would be leaving. The total time of waiting . . . are you ready for this? Four and a half hours!

THEN, literally three stops later, the police came on the train to check everyone’s passports (border crossing) but this only held us up fifteen more minutes.

Can I just tell you . . . I’ve never been so thankful to get somewhere before. But hey, it makes a good story.

EXIT 316 airs Wednesdays at 6:05PM!

Here is the schedule of the episodes:
9/6-Another Dimension
9/13-Love
9/20-Friendship
9/27-Conflict
10/4-Forgiveness
10/11-Image
10/18-Disappointement
10/25-Fear
11/1-Courage
11/8-Addiction
11/15-Sex
11/22-Truth and Lies
11/29-Anger
12/6-Faith
12/13-Dark Side
12/20-Success
12/27-Meaning of Life

Grand Opening

My church in Písek just recently finished building our new church building/youth center. August 6th was the Grand Opening. It was so amazing! Normally, we have about 120 people at a regular service. At the opening, there were about 550!!! We brought in every chair we owned and still didn't have enough chairs to seat everyone. What an amazing opportunity this is. I'm really excited about what God is going to do through having this building.

Youth Camp 2-Písek & Christ Community Church

Youth Camp 2 was much different than I had expected. For starters, I was exhausted. I kept praying that God would give me strength, but the thing I looked forward to the most was taking a nap. I think my body was just telling me that it had had enough. Tuesday night rolled around, and I was flat-out angry with God. I was mad that I had been praying for strength and he didn't give it to me. I was mad that I was missing the wedding of someone who is very important to me. (Which made me realize that I was still mad that I had missed another good friend's wedding when I was in Haiti.) And I was just mad that I was there. This was the camp I was looking forward to the most, and I couldn't even enjoy it or be a part of things because I was so exhausted. So I sat in my room that night, praying and wrestling with God. I didn't want to be there anymore. I seriously considered figuring out how I could leave and get to my friend's wedding in time. As I was sitting there, my good friend, Jami walked in, and she was such an encouragement to me. I shared with her how mad I was and I saw that I had a few things I needed to give over to God. Jami encouraged me with the passages where Paul talks about his thorn in his side. Then Jesus says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I didn't know how God was going to use this, but I knew that He was going to. I finally said, "God, I have nothing left. Please work through my weakness."

That next day, I had planned on going home to get some rest instead of going on the ten-mile hike. But when I woke up, I knew God had other plans. I had more strength that day than I could have ever imagined. So I changed my plans and went on the hike, and the whole way there, I was able to talk with my friend Julie. Pause the story for a second, because I have to fill you in a little bit. (She's in the middle in the picture, and my friend Alča is on the right.) I met Julie last year at camp when she was in my English class. Throughout the year, God laid two people on my heart to be praying for, Julie and Jitka. Before camp, I had the opportunity to request who my roommates would be, and I requested Julie. (And because I was so exhausted and in my room all the time, Julie and I had many opportunities to talk.) Last year, Julie was in the same position that Hanka is in this year. She thought she wanted to accept Christ, but didn't want to make a decision like that at camp. So on the hike, Julie and I had a long time to be able to talk. Later that afternoon, I walked into our room and Julie was reading a Bible. So I asked her what she was reading. In that conversation, Julie told me that she wanted to give her life to God, and she and I were able to pray together. Praise God that He worked and I didn't! I was so weak, and I had nothing to give. But God was able to work though that, and through my exhaustion.

God is at work all around us. These are just a couple of the stories of how He worked at the camps, and there are many others. I can't help but praise Him for how He works through us...and through our weaknesses.

Family Camp-Písek & Christ Community Church

Family Camp was a completely different atmosphere. At first, I thought that having three hours with twenty kids between the ages of five and fifteen would be difficult. But by the end of the three hours, I felt like we didn't have enough time. It was fun working with the kids, and hearing their thoughts on different things.

Youth Camp 1-Blatna & Blanchard Road Alliance Church

Youth Camp 1 went really well. We were able to build relationships with people and share our faith with many. The night the gospel was presented, I was able to share my faith with a handful of people. Earlier that day, I had been very discouraged. I felt like I was having a hard time getting to know anyone. It seemed that a lot of people knew each other, and they stuck with their friends that they already knew. After the gospel presentation, we were given a Bible passage to read on our own. I walked out of my room after that, and after asking God to use me, and sitting outside of my door was a group of girls. Right away, they stopped me and started asking me questions. They said they had questions about the Bible, and when I sat down and asked them what kind of questions, it was like they couldn't wait to ask them. Their first question was about the trinity...and the questions just continued from there. I thank God that He was able to speak through me in that discussion. Later that night, God gave me another opportunity to share my faith with another girl who was hurting. I was truly amazed and overwhelmed with what God was doing in the hearts of so many.

A couple nights later, we had a bonfire where most people end up staying up all night. I walked out to the bonfire at around 11:00 and had planned to just talk for a few minutes and go to bed. I ended up getting into a conversation with a girl named Hanka (she's in the middle in the picture above), and she and I stayed up talking until 2:30 in the morning. Hanka ended up telling me that the only reason she didn't want to accept Christ was because she didn't want to make a decision at camp. She wanted to go home and get into the reality of life before she made a decision like that. So, she's going to go home and think about things, and she and I are going to meet in Prague and talk more about this. Please pray for Hanka, and for our meeting in Prague. I'm hoping we'll be able to meet in the next week or so to continue our conversation. Pray that whatever is holding her back will disappear and that she'll desire to become one of God's children.

Training at Malenovice

I wasn't sure what to think about going to camp training. To be honest with you, I didn't really want to go. I thought that since I had been to camp before, I couldn't imagine why I would need to go to training for it. But I went and I had fun (isn't that always the case?). To me, the best part about it was that the team was able to bond and really get to know each other before we even started the camp. Now, I'm glad I went.