I wanted to give you guys a bit of an overview of what training at Malenovice was like. Hopefully when I get home, I can do a photo update so you can see the views. It was spectacular!
After the race, we ended up at Hotel Malenovice. It is owned by the Czech team there... kind of like Kompas belongs to the Slovak team here. It is positioned in the mountains and you can look across this huge valley to another mountain. Ahhh!!! Gorgeous. The hotel itself was beautiful as well. There were trails around the woods, a patio area, and a cafe/eating area.
There really wasn't a "typical" day for training, but I will try to give a general overview.
We would wake up and get ready, head downstairs to enjoy a delicious breakfast with all of the interns and staff, and by all... I mean over 100 people. We then had worship and devotional time. Worship was amazing - one of our interns, Jordan, played bass in the band. The band was developed when we arrived to Malenovice... so, they had little to no practice time - and they sounded amazing. Thank you, Jesus, for Your perfect timing and for giving these wonderful people talents that they were willing to share with us! Devotion time was led by Rob Trenkman and he did a fabulous job of leading us through developing a further understanding of the Holy Spirit. Wow... just wow.
After woship/devotion, we had a speaker of some sort. It really depended on the day and what we needed training on. The first day it was Dave Patty - President of JV! What a treat! He is a fascinating man and had a lot of wisdom to share with us. Other days we had Rob Chestnut and/or Nate Hughs, Kristy Williams, etc. Everyone had a specific role to play and a different topic to train us on. We did personaility training, team building, English class training, etc. It was a lot of laughter and a lot of trying to stay awake... we were all still pretty exhausted from the race.
We then had a fabulous lunch as an entire group. This was some of the most special time for me. I got to bond more with the SK team, but I also got to meet new people. We usually had break after this. During break I would either attempt to find internet, go for a walk around the property, chat with new friends, or sleep. Pretty standard. We would sometimes have breakout groups or workshop type activities that were fun to attend as well.
We would meet back up for dinner and then head into our second program. We would have worship time... :) We would then hear from a national from one of the Eastern European countries. They would tell us their story and how God is working in their life. It was a powerful and encouraging time during training. It gave me a deeper understanding of what God is doing here and it gave me more of a feeling of purpose than I had before I came. Then we would have Bill and Bobbie Trenkman, Rob's parents, speak. Woah. They were so full of passion. They had amazing stories of how they had seen God work. They are now working as missionaries in Romania! It was an impactful time. We spent a lot of time in the Word and began to understand our roles here this summer. I am so thankful for them and all they are doing!!!
After evening program, we would have the rest of the night to ourselves - they always had delicious desserts for us afterward. I spent a lot of time outside after program - the SK team loved the playground! It was a great time to just sit and talk about what we had learned. Truly amazing.
I did just want to touch on the last night. We do something called the "Labyrinth" at camp. It is a series of stations, each asking you to meditate on something, ultimately leading you consider God's role in your life. So, we, as interns, got to go through the Labyrith. It was a very moving experience. I am excited for students to go through it this summer. We also got to take Communion with our team. What an amazing experience! We were able to just let everything go and focus on Him. It still makes my heart race, just thinking about it. :) Then, we had this really raw worship time. It was so encouraging to hear and see these people surrounding me just singing to the Lord of Lord's. It was almost like what I imagine Heaven being... surrounded by my brothers and sisters, just praising Him. Ah... it was wonderful. As we ended the night, we stood in this huge circle and laid hands on each team and prayed for their team and the summer they were about to embark on. This was the most powerful part of my trip so far. I loved getting to pray for my new friends and send them off to do His work. It was so impactful and encouraging. Hearing people pray for you and what you were about to do this summer... wow.
So, that is a pretty general overview of what I did at training. I am extremely grateful for everyone who put training together. I know it takes a lot of work and I must say, it was worth it on this end. I got to meet so many people that I know I will keep in touch with, even though we are not even serving in the same country. I got pretty close to some of the people on the Poland team during meal and break times... I am missing them!! Also, I got to know some of the Estonia team. I hope all is well with them and am praying for their ministry this summer. I hope you will pray for my fellow interns in other countries as we all work for the Almighty God, bringing students in Eastern Europe to Christ.
If you have any questions about training, or what kind of goofy things happened while we were there... let me know!
For my fellow interns who may be reading this... "Hey little buddy... what's up?? ... LUNCH!" :)
In Him,
xx
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