YFC Czechia Preparation Series

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” - Genesis 22:1–2 (ESV) As I was praying for our trip last night--for our hearts, the airfare, for wisdom, and our finances--one of the things that I found myself asking was, "What do you want us to learn from this, God? Fundraising hasn't been as easy as most of us have hoped. What is it that you want us to learn from this?" I've asked this question often and to be honest, until last night, I had no idea what I would say regarding Financial Preparation. I could talk again about seeking God's Kingdom first and His righteousness, encouraging us that putting our money towards Kingdom work is never a waste, or  I could harken back to the Parable of the Talents to remind us that these are Go

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Luke 9:57–58 (ESV) When we first look at this passage, it might seem that the unnamed man with whom Jesus is speaking is rather admirable. I mean, he even tells Jesus that he will follow him wherever he goes without Jesus  having to say, "Follow me" first! Yet, Jesus' response isn't what we were expecting. He doesn't say, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith," like he does in Matthew 8:10. Instead, he responds by telling the man that following him isn't easy, and that it requires more from him than what he thinks. I wonder if the man here is more like us than we'd dare to say. Often our expressed commitment to Christ doesn't exactly match our lived out commitment to Christ. Like the man in Luke 9, w

Imagine this scenario: the trip is getting closer, and you find yourself nervously excited. We board the first plane in Chicago, then the plane in New York, and finally we arrive in Prague. Ah, the splendor! The excitement! The newness! We arrive at the camp a few hours later and you think, “Well, it might take some getting used to, but I think I’m going to like it here!” The next morning, we head off to church and the experience is wonderful--everyone is so welcoming and kind despite the language barrier! You feel united with your Czech brothers and sisters after only having just met them and you’re excited for the camp to begin the next day. Then Monday comes. The day is long. The kids didn’t seem as engaged as you had hoped. The language barrier is hard to get over and you feel like you have more enthusiasm than all the kids at the camp combined. Day 2, while a little better, is still a struggle and you wonder if we’re making a difference at all. It isn’t as easy as you were

Greetings, all! As the countdown towards our trip continues, I thought it might be helpful to talk about specific areas of preparation! (I tried to come up with a helpful acronym but unfortunately, nothing was working.) These areas of preparation are as follows!  - Physical Preparation  - Emotional Preparation  - Spiritual Preparation  - Mental Preparation  - Relational Preparation  - Financial Preparation  This week, I want to talk about Physical Preparation! If you look at the photo included in this post, you will see an image that I screenshot from Google Maps that was taken in June of 2017 (as you might be able to see by the little compass icon in the bottle right-hand corner). This will be a portion of our walking tour route in Prague! What you might not be able to tell from this photo is that this walk is relatively steep. How steep, do you ask?  Well, let's just say that by the end of this 17-minute walk, we will have ascended (or gone up) 249. 34