{"id":13545,"date":"2017-05-15T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=13545"},"modified":"2017-06-12T10:33:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T17:33:59","slug":"missions-monday-7-english-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2017\/05\/15\/missions-monday-7-english-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Missions Monday #7 – English Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Hanka Rodgers<\/em><\/p>\n

Ever since LBC started going on missions to the Czech Republic, the main focus of the summer trips has been week-long English Camps. It seemed then that the best way to share the gospel with the Czechs would be to offer to teach them English and share the gospel while doing so. That’s because he Czech Republic has about 10.5 million people, and that\u2019s about how many people in the world speak Czech! That\u2019s why every Czech needs to learn a foreign language, which is often English due to its universality. All kids have to take foreign language classes in elementary as well as high school and often even in college.<\/p>\n

Sixteen years after this initial decision, not much has changed. Czechs are still very aware of the need to speak at least some English and are often willing to spend time and money working on their skills. English teachers in Czech schools are usually Czechs and even though today\u2019s young people watch a lot of American TV shows (that\u2019s also why they might think everybody in southern California surfs and looks good), personal interaction with native speakers is usually rare and for the most part is in demand.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why a big part of the day at the Camp is spent learning English and interacting with the team. There are four hours of English classes in the morning and one hour of optional English conversation in the afternoons. Team members are assigned a class level to teach and all the campers are divided into classes depending on their English level. Seeing the same group of campers every day for at least four hours really helps not only with teaching English, but also with building closer relationships.<\/p>\n

However, when Czechs are invited to these English Camps, it\u2019s clearly stated that they are organized by a Christian church and there will be evening programs with Christian themes. When I was first invited to the first LBC English Camp in 2000 as an unbeliever, this was enough to deter my sister and me from going. We liked English just fine, but we wanted nothing to do with Christians. That\u2019s how I missed the first year of the American and Czech church partnership. In 2001, due to some circumstances that year, I decided last minute that I would go to the Camp despite it being run by Christians. Thankfully, God often brings people that wouldn\u2019t otherwise be interested in attending a church-organized event.<\/p>\n

The Czech Republic is sometimes ranked as one of the most atheistic countries in the world. I think that in general, people dislike religion and the church more than they dislike the idea of God or a “higher being.” Whatever it is, most Czechs grow up in a worldview that the Christian God is not real and that the idea of a Christian God is an irrational crutch for people who are weak and uneducated. Even though some people think about God more than others and have a different level of understanding of the Bible, people generally don\u2019t rush to repentance and don\u2019t run to churches right after hearing the gospel. In fact, it\u2019s quite the opposite. I was 16 when I first heard the gospel clearly and even decided it might make sense, but becoming a Christian still felt like too much of a change compared to what I had believed the first 15 years of my life. It took months before God softened my heart completely and I repented being willing to deal with all the implications of my decision. The Czech Republic is definitely not one of those countries where people are eager to hear the gospel and believe in Christ.<\/p>\n

This is one of the reasons why it\u2019s so important to come to these English Camps ready to genuinely love the people God places in our lives. Even though we want all unbelievers to be saved more than we want anything else, they are not a project we get to work on. They need to know, see, and experience that thanks to God\u2019s love for us, we can love others like ourselves. We want to show them that we care about them, not just about having another tally on our \u201cevangelism list\u201d and we want to share with them that life with God is better than the life they are used to.<\/p>\n

As you can tell, this is no easy task. Please join us in prayer for God to soften hearts this summer and for unbelievers to be miraculously saved. Please pray for the team as a group of naturally selfish people is trying to share God\u2019s truth in love with unsaved people. We are working hard to prepare, but we are ultimately so grateful to know that it\u2019s by God\u2019s grace that lives are saved, not by our own doing. Let\u2019s plead with our Father that He saves Czech souls this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Hanka Rodgers Ever since LBC started going on missions to the Czech Republic, the main focus of the summer trips has been week-long English Camps. It seemed then that the best way to share the gospel with the Czechs would be to offer to teach them English and share the gospel while doing so. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-czech-republic","category-missions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13546,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13545\/revisions\/13546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}