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We are back from Czech!

Wow! What an amazing experience. Our time in Czech was wonderful. It was so fun to spend time with our old friends and make new friends. It was also so awesome to see what God has done in Tabor in the last two years.

Since our first camp, some students have come to Christ. One particular student we knew has been completly transformed by God. He was in our English class (Oscar and I taught together) and the things he would say during prayer time or discussion groups was God talking through him. He was a new person and it was so amazing to see God changing lives. It is so exciting for us because we go into English Camp to build relationships and plant seeds. And we know that we may never see fruit. It doesn't meen it won't happen, we just may never see it. So to start another camp was so encouraging that we might actually get to see what God does in the peoples hearts.

We have a team update at Good Shepherd this Saturday, August 1st. We would love for you to come hear from the team. Thank you so much for all your prayers and financial support. We wouldn't have been able to go with out your help, and we wouldn't have been able to do the work we did with out your prayers!

Also, look back at the previous posts because I am going to add some pictures now that I can.


Good Bye!


The Czechs came to pick us up at the Prague Hlavna Nadrazi (main train station) and then we went to Malenovice (about 6 hours away) for 3 days of training. This is Klara, Mr. Poky, and Koty. Missing Lenya in the picture:(


This is Josiah Venture's Training Facility in Malenovice. Pretty Nice!



Waiting for a train.
Our Camp building!



Our English Class. Team R and B (Rethwill and Banister)





On Hike Day, we hiked to an old Castle Ruins. It is amazing how old things are in Europe. This day was so fun. It is a good time to get to talk to people, practice English, but build relationships. This is Lenya and David.


Our friend Jiri and his girlfriend. We stayed with Jiri at follow up 2 years ago. He wasn't able to come to camp, but they did visit for one day. We miss you Jiri!










In Tabor, at follow up. We had a good bye dinner at the church with smores. Most of the Czech's don't like them because they are too sweet. I found this sweatshirt at the Nike store in Tabor. The sleeve says Eugene, Oregon, Track Town USA. Crazy! And the adorable children belong to our host family this year. They have 4 kids. And the blue house with the Ivy is thier home. It was about 1 block from the main square. They are wonderful people, Jiri and Anita.


Here is our family (minus Jiri who was working). They came to say good bye with us and all the Czech's at the train station. The Czech's are so awesome because they really love, and when it comes to saying good bye, it is all very long and sad. We waited in the station for about 30 minutes, saying good bye and giving hugs. Then our train comes so we say good bye one more time. Then we get on the train and the Czechs all come out to the platform and as the train is leaving we are grabbing hands out the window and sometimes they start running with the train and it is all very sad. So this time we all cried and went back into our train car. Aleah was in our car and in the midst or sadness she gets a bag thrown in her face from an angry Czech, who doesn't speak English. So funny now!





Some fun in Prague.




Our English Class: 1st Picture- Czech Smile, 2nd Picture- American Smile. Missing Jiri, so he gets his own picture.
L-R: Poky, Oscar, Klara, Jachym, Nikola, Tara. Where's Stacy?

English Camp... Almost over... Already?

I can't believe how fast this week has flown bye. So many great things have happened. I can't wait to post pictures when we get home. Oscar and I have been able to teach together, which has been pretty fun. We have an amazing class. They have made it so much fun. On Saturday we will be leaving for Tabor, about 2 hours from here. We will be staying 3 days with a Czech, then we will be leaving for Prague. Today our old friend, Jirka, came to camp to visit for the day. We stayed with him 2 years ago in Tabor, so it was great to see him again. He invited us to stay again this year... I think we will but not sure yet. I was able to got to the city close to hear with Jirka to get snacks for the camp. It was fun to see another part of the Czech Republic that all tourists would miss out on.

Today in English class we were talking about the U.S. and we had the Czech's list all the states possible. Eventually we got them all. They are very good. Then they wanted us to list all the countries in Europe. So we did and they were impressed we knew most of them (luckily I teach history so I must know some of this). There are a few small ones, and ones that are parts of countries.

Bye the way, obviously the campers arrived to camp- Thank the Lord a bus was provided.

Please keep us in your prayers!

We're off to camp!

Thank God that a bus will be taking the Czech students to camp tomorrow! We are heading to camp today, by train, about 7 hours, to get set up and ready for the campers. We will be doing English testing tomorrow first thing, to determine what level of English class students should be in. This is hard so pray that we will do a good job.

Thanks!

We are in Czech!

Hey all... Just wanted to let you know that we made it to Czech. We have been through a lot of stuff since we have been here for a short time. All has been good. All 28 of our bags arrived and no one has gotten lost.

We are at our training facility (with internet!) until Friday morning, which then we will head out to camp! Please pray that the Tabor Youth Group will be provided with a bus to transport about 70 students to camp and back home at the end of the week. So far there are no arrangements, and it doesn't sound like "plan B" exists.

Also, keep checking the Team blog for pictures and more update.

We're leaving for Czech

Thank you to all of you who are praying for us. We are very excited that the time is almost here. We are leaving tomorrow, July 7. Check our Czech blog for updates at our training facility, at camp, and at follow up in Tabor (with the Czech youth group). http://czgscc.blogspot.com/

Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July! We started the day off with a run (at least I did :) and then rode our bikes into Portland from Gresham with my parents. It was a nice, relaxing 22 mile ride. Needless to say our butts are out of shape.

Then we celebrated with our friends the Jenkins, at their new home in Vancouver. I am excited to have some friends in Vancouver. They already said I could come over for dinner when I have long days at work.

Troy's Motorcylce

Troy was keeping this a secret from our parents (because my dad said he would have to give back the truck if he ever got a motorcyle). This picture was taken a year ago in Florida. Now that Troy has moved to San Diego our parents know about his tricks (he needed their help moving). So I was thinking about this and thought I would share.

Party's Galore

We have been to so many Graduation parties this summer. It is so awesome to see such success. Especially because we know that not everyone makes it :( This was Jami's grad/birthday party. Her and her family have long been friends of the Dickey's.

Happy 30th Oscar!

Oscar turned 30! We celebrated with a SURPRISE Disco Party (since Oscar was born in '78). It worked out well, Oscar was surprised. Thanks to all the people who helped pull this off, especially getting Oscar out of the house!

Young Life Happenings at Bay

So here is a collection of photos from our Young Life Club. We meet every Monday night in Vancouver- We are a Hudson's Bay Club. The exciting pictures are from our recent 80's skate night at Golden Skate (Looks just like SkateWorld did 20 years ago!)

Czech Retreat

Learning the camp song and making our journals.

Please pray for our team! So many things: Czech students will come to our camp. We would be ready for camp with lots of fun activities and good english teaching ideas. That we would make connections with the students that would remain after camp. For our travels. And that we would raise our financial support.




We also went for a hike at Angels Rest and had a campfire. We roasted hot dogs and smores. Yummy!

San Diego, even if we Bust!

At the beginning of the month Troy would be making his transfer. After living in Jacksonville, FL for 3 years, he had to make the move across the country (for the 2nd time) to San Diego. He was given lots of notice of the move, but only a few days to actually make the move. He was authorized to leave Jacksonville on Friday and had to be in SD by Monday AM. He ended up being able to leave one day sooner. I, being the good sister (and wanting to take a trip) arrived in Jacksonville on Thursday morning. Troy was able to leave a bit sooner, picked me up at the airport, and we were on our way. This gave us 3 1/2 days to cross the country.

We were overloaded, as Troy had all his belongings in his truck and trailer. Our parents were a day ahead of us driving his car. To make a long story short- we got delayed in Ocean Springs, Mississippi for more than half a day. We were just outside of Mobile, Alabama when we had a tire blowout. I was very scared because I was driving (in the middle of rainstorm- remember the tornado was a few days later). I had no idea our tires were bad, and I thought Troy didn't either. But it turns out our dad actually offered to get Troy new tires and he said NO, they would be fine. So we were forced to stay in Mobile for the night (scary) and look for a tire store in the morning. The closest one that had the tires we needed in stock was 40 miles away in Mississippi. So we unhooked the trailer, drove to Ocean Springs. They had some problems. We went back for the trailer and finally left Mobile at 2pm the next day. Praise the Lord we were able to leave a little early!

We ended up making it in time. Had lots of fun, did lots of driving, and took pictures of all 7 states we entered (some twice!)

Troy is now flying a new (to the Navy) helicopter in San Diego. He will be there for the next three years.