"Caleb, will you tell me a couple of the highlights from your week-end at Catch It?"
"Lkigoine gosolidn gl kdlkshk ..l.."
Caleb's tired...can you tell?! That's literally about what he said when I first asked him the question.
But, though he's tired, this is what he had to say in answer to his mama's question about the week-end!
"One of the highlights was playing baseball together...you might not expect that! But the things is, baseball is a great setting where we're all interacting outside of school, in a positive and team building, uplifting way...and that's a great model of what the Christian community should look like, what we're working towards at BMA...a healthy, uplifting, encouraging place where people feel accepted, loved, and believed in."
"Next I'd say...it was great having Dad up there to share."
"From the beginning, our goal was for students to clearly hear the Gospel and dad really presented that in a clear and straightforward way. One of the things I appreciated the most about the way dad shared was that he didn't present the gospel in an emotionally charged way, but in a "you need to think about your huge life decisions" way."
"That was good for the students because Czechs are very thoughtful and intentional with their actions and decisions and often take longer to process things. So it was good that he just shared truth and let them think and process for themselves and in the discussion groups.
"We're praying for long term fruit in the BMA community, and are excited about the new relationships and strengthened relationships that were made there this week-end, as well as for the great conversations and questions that were laid out and answered. People had a lot of questions and we did our best to answer them, but also encouraged them to search for themselves, and get to know Jesus better by reading the Bible."
"Caleb, if you had one prayer request for my friends reading this blog, what would it be?
"A big one is discipleship. Even though we are together all the time at school, it's easy to forget that we should be intentional with how we spend our time with people we're praying for and investing in - we want to be active and not passive in how we pursue our friends. Also, that this retreat would spur on the Christian leaders to be more bold in their faith and in how they relate to their friends, and in how they talk about their faith."
Thanks Caleb! Now you can go to bed! GOOD NIGHT!
This is Adam (on the left), Caleb's partner in planning Catch It, as well as Jonny Lobel, one of the American missionary teachers at BMA.
Now that Caleb is upstairs and in bed, I'll just add that Dave came home from the retreat ready to be a high school youth pastor again! He so enjoyed being up there with the students, teaching, hanging out, answering questions, even being a part of a drama workshop led by a student. Dave's been doing youth work for 30 years now, and he still loves it!
Claire was an active part of the week-end as well, leading a discussion group, being up front doing motions as Caleb and Noah lead singing at the retreat, and she also was a photographer too...most of these pictures are hers, except for ones that she's in, which her dad took for her!
We are SO excited about what's happening at BMA and continue to pray for lasting fruit in the lives of students there!
