Evening Day 2

I was able to post some pictures today because we had internet access at the Anderson's apartment. They live on the 11th floor. We had to take the elevators up with two or three people at a time because they are so small. We had some delicious European pizza for lunch. It was on a very thin crust with very light sauce.  We took three trains and had to walk more than a mile to get to the campground. It is basically a small hotel with a restaurant and some cabins. We are staying in the cabins and share a community bathroom. It is a very woody area surrounded by hills. Its very beautiful and reminds me of Pennsylvania in the summer. There is a small river (we would call it a creek where I'm from) outside of our cabin. We were joined today by about a dozen Czech staff who will be running the camp. We spent the evening getting to know each other. They taught us the fine art of roasting sausages on a campfire. They were quite tasty. We taught them the fine art of roasting marshmellows and making smores. One Czech staff said that smores where the American's finest invention. As I ate my second one I wholeheartedly agreed with her. Later in the evening we Americans triumphed over the Czech staff in a game of Three Lies and a Truth. I guess I'm not sure if that is something we should brag about. I must say that I'm very proud of the kids on our team. They all have been working hard and have had awesome attitudes. They really do get along well and they all jump in to get the job done. Unfortunately Hannah didn't do anything noteworthy today but there is always tomorrow. Tomorrow we start with breakfast at 8 and then a chapel service at 9. Now its time for some well deserved sleep - bye.
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Pics

DSC03942, originally uploaded by johnvolinsky.

Where do all these pictures come from? Our shutterbugs - John, Ryan and KJ.

Fun at the Park

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Here's the group playing at a local park. Notice the "safety asphalt" there to safely cushion a fall from this fun ride.

Our Group

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Here is our group before heading out to explore the city.

Breakfast at our Hotel

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Here is a group eating a delicous breakfast on our first morning in Czech.

Al and Stacy's Apartment

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Here is the group outside of Al and Stacy's apartment.

Day Two-Our Mission

Some of you are wondering what we are doing here. We are a Bayside Junior High mission group and we will be working with Bayside missionaries - the Andersons. Our main project will be helping to lead a summer camp for Czech students. This all started after the fall of communism when a couple of students from Wheaton College came here to start an English language school. Like most European countries, learning English is very important to landing a good job and advancing in one's education. It is very attractive to learn English from Americans. And while our foreign policy may not be popular throughout the world our culture and way of life is very popular. Of course, most Americans are thought to be beautiful Californians as depicted in your average hip hop video. We are working with about 50 Czech students ages 9 to 15 who pay big dollars to attend a camp led by American teenagers. Their parents are very excited about the opportunity for their children to learn about our way of life. The organization we are working with is a Christian organization but the camp is not strictly a Christian camp. We will have the opportunity to share our faith through our lives and conversation with the students. Czech has a very long and deep religious history which was almost distroyed when the communist took over. Today there are only 17,000 evangelicals in a country of ten million. It's interesting to note that we had over 17,000 people at our Bayside Christmas Eve services this year. I'm excited to be traveling in a country of my family origin. My grandfather on my mother's side is from Bohemiah which is the eastern half of Czech. We are working in the eastern half of Czech which is known as Moravia. We will be at a camp which is only 10 miles from Poland which is where my grandmother on my father's side is from. KJ (our JR High pastor) and I are planning to go to visit Poland one day next week where we heard they have better pastries. And I hope to find perogies (little potato like dumplings) which my grandmother use to make while I was growing up. By the way, I have yet to connect with an actual internet service so I am unable to upload pictures yet. I am updating the blog with my Blackberry phone. I hope to upload pictures in the next couple of days.
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Bedtime First Night

We are finally checked into our hotel room and it is after midnight. One final story from the train. Hannah was ordering some dinner from the food car and she ordered two hamburgers and they came back a few minutes later with a couple of Hamburg Lager Ales. I guess anyone can order a beer here since she is a freshman. She did consume the beverage in order to be polite to the culture and so we had to send her home for breaking the rules - just kidding - have a good night!
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Prague

We arrived safe and sound in Prague. Out of 15 people traveling we only lost two bags. One was a supply bag and the other we knew wouldn't make it on time because of a late transfer. We are currently on the train traveling from Prague to Ostrava where we will spend the night. Ostava is a coal mining/steel city of 350,000. We had our first Czech meal on the train. It consisted of pork schnitzel and Czech potato salad which is similar to our potato salad but the potatoes are more finely chopped. The schnitzel is a breaded pork patty. It was good though a little heavy for 10:30PM. We also got to sample some delicious potatoe pancakes. Everyone is pretty tired and napping on the train. It was interesting to look out the windows and see the beautiful Czech countryside. One of our guides said that the weather here is similar to Rochester, NY which made me laugh because that is where we used to live. I'm working on getting some photos uploaded, hopefully tomorrow. Keep us in your prayers as we get settled in.
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London - we are in London for a two hour layover. From here we have a two hour flight to Czech. Upon arriving in Czech we will board a high speed train to go Odry. We will spend the night in Odry and then head to the camp the next morning. Everyone is doing well with only one mishap when Hanna mistakenly walked into the mens room. She quickly realized her mistake when all the males on the team laughed extremely loud at her (in brotherly love of course). The flight went well with the exception of the audio visual system crashing. As they rebooted it for the second time I realized the problem when the screen displayed these words 4 Proudly Running Windows Vista Software. A special thanks to Tim Chambers for setting up this site. One more side note - save your time and don't watch the Number 23 its really lamem
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Airport

We are at the airport in San Francisco getting ready for an eleven hour flight to London. We will be flying on a 747. After a 2 hour layover in London we will continue on to Prague to begin a 2 week mission trip working at a summer camp with teenagers. I will be running a football (American) class and Uriah will be assisting me. There are eight students and eight adults travelling with us. After two weeks Uriah and I will be travelling to Florence where we will unite with some friends who have rented a villa in Tuscany for a month. From there we will travel to Venice and Rome. I will attempt to regularly update this blog as I have internet access. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures.