Saturday, June 9, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Another day in the life...
Today we:
- Navigated between the missionaries apartments, around the open air market and downtown Ljublijana
- Took some fun video and pictures
- Had a little best friend bonding
- Figured out how to use the bus system and took it to the church (we will be living in an apartment above the church).
- Used/decoded the grocery store that we will be using throughout the summer (remembered details like that they charged for plastic bags :)
- Felt the language barrier and became familiar with being helpless to communicate/learned to use other means of communication besides Slovene
- Remembered all the shops and places from last time/became reaquainted with Ljublijana
- Had good conversations about missionary life
- Went over details about budgeting and camps (looks like we may help at a camp in Croatia after all)
- Went to church to hear a visiting pastor (from Belfast Bible College in Ireland)
- Reunited with Meta!!! Glorija and Sebastian! Metka (our fellow intern)!! Naja, Neja and Sasha at church. Also saw Johnny and Josh, Katka and David.
- Went to 'youth group' at the girls' apartment and played mexican train and rummy.
A good day :)
Mary for the LindyMary team
- Navigated between the missionaries apartments, around the open air market and downtown Ljublijana
- Took some fun video and pictures
- Had a little best friend bonding
- Figured out how to use the bus system and took it to the church (we will be living in an apartment above the church).
- Used/decoded the grocery store that we will be using throughout the summer (remembered details like that they charged for plastic bags :)
- Felt the language barrier and became familiar with being helpless to communicate/learned to use other means of communication besides Slovene
- Remembered all the shops and places from last time/became reaquainted with Ljublijana
- Had good conversations about missionary life
- Went over details about budgeting and camps (looks like we may help at a camp in Croatia after all)
- Went to church to hear a visiting pastor (from Belfast Bible College in Ireland)
- Reunited with Meta!!! Glorija and Sebastian! Metka (our fellow intern)!! Naja, Neja and Sasha at church. Also saw Johnny and Josh, Katka and David.
- Went to 'youth group' at the girls' apartment and played mexican train and rummy.
A good day :)
Mary for the LindyMary team
Thursday, June 7, 2007
a day in the life of a missionary :-P
Training is over and we're officially in Slovenia (and have been for a little over a day).
We've been staying at David and Katka’s apartment. Today was our day of rest.. and boy did we take advantage of that! We didn't even THINK of rolling out of bed until after 10 :-) SWEET DEAL! That's what I'm talking about :-)
Neja came and visited after her test around 2 and finally Mary and I left the house at 4 to take her to the bus stop. I can barely believe that's even possible to not even step foot outside until 4... especially when both of us are healthy.
We were gone maybe 15 minutes and then we sat down to watch Pride and Prejudice (which I've never seen) and enjoyed some wonderful, home made, Slovene hamburgers. The movie ended just as Mateja came and joined the party.
A little before 8 David, Katka, Mateja, Mary and I all got in the car to see Gašper at a 'drum' performance. We were in for a real treat. At this concert there were many performers who played marimbas, drums and other percussion instruments. Did you know that one player can actually play with 4 sticks!! I was so incredibly impressed with the talent displayed. Gašper really stole the show with his creativity though… wish we had taken some more pics.
Then we came home around 10 PM and enjoyed great conversations over a home cooked meal- Chicken, corn, rice, followed by some wicked awesome ice cream.
But don’t let today fool you, today was our ‘lazy day’. We are so pumped for these next couple of days and about what the missionaries are going to teach us. They're really trying to give us a vision of what our lives will look like some day. Including obstacles we'll have to overcome like: transportation, language, shopping, how to plan successful outreach stuff, etc.
We’ve had a full day and we’re heading to bed.
Nočko (nighty night)
Lindy for the MaryLindy team
We've been staying at David and Katka’s apartment. Today was our day of rest.. and boy did we take advantage of that! We didn't even THINK of rolling out of bed until after 10 :-) SWEET DEAL! That's what I'm talking about :-)
Neja came and visited after her test around 2 and finally Mary and I left the house at 4 to take her to the bus stop. I can barely believe that's even possible to not even step foot outside until 4... especially when both of us are healthy.
We were gone maybe 15 minutes and then we sat down to watch Pride and Prejudice (which I've never seen) and enjoyed some wonderful, home made, Slovene hamburgers. The movie ended just as Mateja came and joined the party.
A little before 8 David, Katka, Mateja, Mary and I all got in the car to see Gašper at a 'drum' performance. We were in for a real treat. At this concert there were many performers who played marimbas, drums and other percussion instruments. Did you know that one player can actually play with 4 sticks!! I was so incredibly impressed with the talent displayed. Gašper really stole the show with his creativity though… wish we had taken some more pics.
Then we came home around 10 PM and enjoyed great conversations over a home cooked meal- Chicken, corn, rice, followed by some wicked awesome ice cream.
But don’t let today fool you, today was our ‘lazy day’. We are so pumped for these next couple of days and about what the missionaries are going to teach us. They're really trying to give us a vision of what our lives will look like some day. Including obstacles we'll have to overcome like: transportation, language, shopping, how to plan successful outreach stuff, etc.
We’ve had a full day and we’re heading to bed.
Nočko (nighty night)
Lindy for the MaryLindy team
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
up 'til now
wow, so many cool and amazing things to say.
Lisa Hora
A group of people climbed to the top of Lisa Hora (the tallest Mountain in Czech). The weather started out nice and sunny on the way up... in fact, it was a little too humid for my liking(think rainforest, no joke). However, that was about to change
it was slightly discouraging to be climbing amist the fog, MAJOR FOG..., like if someone was 5 ft ahead you couldn't see them fog, like tall thin trees on a hillside and fog (really Lord of the Rings-ish, in fact they did film too much of it here)... so many details, most of you have already realized that this was Mary taking over while Lindy was gone... Here she is again :)
*ahem*
...like I was saying... MAJOR FOG.
The fog ruined the view but it was really cool to climb through clouds and to reach the top... my legs are still screaming "WHY ME!?!" but it was worth it.
We lost 2 girls on the hike and on the way down it rained.. not only did it rain- it POURED! Not only did it POUR there was THUNDER AND LIGHTNING!!! AND we got to be surrounded by it!!!!!! yeah... you guys don't fully understand the greatness of this moment.. We even got some of it on tape.. (By the way the girls were found)
it's really a shame that we can't recreate some of those deep conversations and the company. We really should have tried to record the convo between mary and I trying to find some really "spiritual significance" in our hike...There's a lot of analogies about not being able to see ahead or behind... we're good :)
Debrief of the rest of training: Here's Mary...
We were so blessed to learn under Dave Patty the president of this organization. We went through the entire book of Ephesians last week. A couple of "gold nuggets" we pulled out from that are:
The last session we talked about the armor of God. We were really enlightened about the specific ways that each attack can be responded to. I was really encouraged by this practical knowledge and also by the reminder that we have absolutely no reason to fear in a Spiritual Battle because we have Christ on our side.
We also were encouraged to submit to other team mate's strengths and cover their weaknesses. I also was reminded that there is no reason to feel threatened by others strengths because as a part of one body, they are mine too...
Also, we have been challenged to live in light of who we are in Christ (blessed, chosen, holy, blameless, redeemed, forgiven, predestined for a purpose, adopted, included in Christ, God's posession!!)See Eph 1. We were struck with how often we are not living according of who we are in Christ, how often we don't believe that we really already am all these things because of what Christ did. Often I think we search for grace and try to earn it back when we have had it all along. It's really hard to find what you already have. God's shown us a lot in this area...
We also talked about personality types and I found out although I wasn't too surprised that I am more like a:
"Beaver" organized, detailed, self disciplined, systematic, creative, loyal/faithful and that Lindy is mostly an:
"Otter/Seal" fun-loving, outgoing, talkative, enthusiastic, loves people, I think I have some of this too.
We also learned about conflict styles
Mary is more of a Lion, goal-oriented and aggressive. while Lindy is more of a passive aggressive Beaver. This could potentially be a very hard obstacle to overcome.
I (mary) am having a bit of an identity crisis with this because my form of conflict is effective in that it gets the job done but very intimidating and can cause people to withdraw. Basically I feel confident in this style but it is not always good for my teammates...I'm feeling sort fo discouraged because I can't find too many positives for this... This is an area that I know will be stretched and challenged this summer. Please pray for us.
Update about our schedule etc:
First off, all of this could change at a minutes notice if needs change but here you go anyway.
Lindy and I will be doing 2 camps... not 8, sorry for the confusion, we can't do all the camps happening in SLO this summer because a lot of them are happening simulataneously.
Unless something changes, we will not be at the GSCC camp. We will be working at a smaller camp in the 4th largest city in SLO Celje (tSell yay). This is sort of a pioneering thing and we are excited for it. As for our second camp, it looks like we will be in a village that has never put on a camp before, but we're not sure. Later, we also might help out with a camp in Croatia, again, not sure.
We are excited that a lot of our next few weeks will involve experiencing "real" day in-day out missionary life. We will learn how to navigate the city, attend language classes (a few), work on logistics for camp (lots of buying and organizing) we will even learn to drive here...just kidding, that'll have to wait till we're somewhere for longer, plus Mary is way too timid of a driver for intense Euro traffic :)
Pray for us as we ask God if this is something He would have us do in the future (live here as a missionary for a year or more).
Well that gets you up to date, if you made it all the way through this post congrats it was a bit of a marathon.
We are so blessed to have a great support base.
Mary and Lindy for the marylindy team
PS We're living in the future...literally
PS. Contrary to popular to believe based on our last email- mary and I DO NOT hate each other... we just want to be extra sensitive to the fact that at times our friendship WILL be attacked this summer. Sorry for confusion :-D
Lisa Hora
A group of people climbed to the top of Lisa Hora (the tallest Mountain in Czech). The weather started out nice and sunny on the way up... in fact, it was a little too humid for my liking(think rainforest, no joke). However, that was about to change
it was slightly discouraging to be climbing amist the fog, MAJOR FOG..., like if someone was 5 ft ahead you couldn't see them fog, like tall thin trees on a hillside and fog (really Lord of the Rings-ish, in fact they did film too much of it here)... so many details, most of you have already realized that this was Mary taking over while Lindy was gone... Here she is again :)
*ahem*
...like I was saying... MAJOR FOG.
The fog ruined the view but it was really cool to climb through clouds and to reach the top... my legs are still screaming "WHY ME!?!" but it was worth it.
We lost 2 girls on the hike and on the way down it rained.. not only did it rain- it POURED! Not only did it POUR there was THUNDER AND LIGHTNING!!! AND we got to be surrounded by it!!!!!! yeah... you guys don't fully understand the greatness of this moment.. We even got some of it on tape.. (By the way the girls were found)
it's really a shame that we can't recreate some of those deep conversations and the company. We really should have tried to record the convo between mary and I trying to find some really "spiritual significance" in our hike...There's a lot of analogies about not being able to see ahead or behind... we're good :)
Debrief of the rest of training: Here's Mary...
We were so blessed to learn under Dave Patty the president of this organization. We went through the entire book of Ephesians last week. A couple of "gold nuggets" we pulled out from that are:
The last session we talked about the armor of God. We were really enlightened about the specific ways that each attack can be responded to. I was really encouraged by this practical knowledge and also by the reminder that we have absolutely no reason to fear in a Spiritual Battle because we have Christ on our side.
We also were encouraged to submit to other team mate's strengths and cover their weaknesses. I also was reminded that there is no reason to feel threatened by others strengths because as a part of one body, they are mine too...
Also, we have been challenged to live in light of who we are in Christ (blessed, chosen, holy, blameless, redeemed, forgiven, predestined for a purpose, adopted, included in Christ, God's posession!!)See Eph 1. We were struck with how often we are not living according of who we are in Christ, how often we don't believe that we really already am all these things because of what Christ did. Often I think we search for grace and try to earn it back when we have had it all along. It's really hard to find what you already have. God's shown us a lot in this area...
We also talked about personality types and I found out although I wasn't too surprised that I am more like a:
"Beaver" organized, detailed, self disciplined, systematic, creative, loyal/faithful and that Lindy is mostly an:
"Otter/Seal" fun-loving, outgoing, talkative, enthusiastic, loves people, I think I have some of this too.
We also learned about conflict styles
Mary is more of a Lion, goal-oriented and aggressive. while Lindy is more of a passive aggressive Beaver. This could potentially be a very hard obstacle to overcome.
I (mary) am having a bit of an identity crisis with this because my form of conflict is effective in that it gets the job done but very intimidating and can cause people to withdraw. Basically I feel confident in this style but it is not always good for my teammates...I'm feeling sort fo discouraged because I can't find too many positives for this... This is an area that I know will be stretched and challenged this summer. Please pray for us.
Update about our schedule etc:
First off, all of this could change at a minutes notice if needs change but here you go anyway.
Lindy and I will be doing 2 camps... not 8, sorry for the confusion, we can't do all the camps happening in SLO this summer because a lot of them are happening simulataneously.
Unless something changes, we will not be at the GSCC camp. We will be working at a smaller camp in the 4th largest city in SLO Celje (tSell yay). This is sort of a pioneering thing and we are excited for it. As for our second camp, it looks like we will be in a village that has never put on a camp before, but we're not sure. Later, we also might help out with a camp in Croatia, again, not sure.
We are excited that a lot of our next few weeks will involve experiencing "real" day in-day out missionary life. We will learn how to navigate the city, attend language classes (a few), work on logistics for camp (lots of buying and organizing) we will even learn to drive here...just kidding, that'll have to wait till we're somewhere for longer, plus Mary is way too timid of a driver for intense Euro traffic :)
Pray for us as we ask God if this is something He would have us do in the future (live here as a missionary for a year or more).
Well that gets you up to date, if you made it all the way through this post congrats it was a bit of a marathon.
We are so blessed to have a great support base.
Mary and Lindy for the marylindy team
PS We're living in the future...literally
PS. Contrary to popular to believe based on our last email- mary and I DO NOT hate each other... we just want to be extra sensitive to the fact that at times our friendship WILL be attacked this summer. Sorry for confusion :-D
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Highlights of Intern Training
We will have to do bullet points which really won't do justice to how impactful this time has been but what can you do? >>Ask questions by e-mail and I will be happy to clarify/expand anything. That applies to the whole summer<<
- Really good teaching by Dave Patty about Ephesians and who we are in Christ and how we need to live according to that identity. See Eph 1:3-12. We heard some pretty life changing stuff tonight that I haven't had a chance to process yet so will write about later.
- We both have loved talking to people who are living out how we see ourselves two years down the road (graduated from college, in language school, at the beginning of a 2 year internship. We are LOVING the access we have to all these interns to answer our questions and are excited about all that we will be able to absorb and learn as we live and serve with so many people who we highly respect and are in many ways living out our dream.
-Building relationships with fellow interns. it is amazing how small of a world it is, we are connected to so many people through other people, churches, ministries etc. Some people are even familiar with my old church in Texas! We have so much we have in common even though we come from all over the country.
- Really Really good food. We are so spoiled :)
-For Lindy coming in 1st place in Bunco was a highlight.
-Oh and the beauty of Malenovice, it looks out on a beautiful canyon and little town and is tucked in the middle of mountains. We won;t be able to upload pictures for a while so search for "hotel Malenovice Czech republic" if you're curious.
-Also on a funny note, having a pigeon interupt our English study seminar TWICE this morning by flying in was pretty histerical.
That's it for now!
--> Mary
For the team
- Really good teaching by Dave Patty about Ephesians and who we are in Christ and how we need to live according to that identity. See Eph 1:3-12. We heard some pretty life changing stuff tonight that I haven't had a chance to process yet so will write about later.
- We both have loved talking to people who are living out how we see ourselves two years down the road (graduated from college, in language school, at the beginning of a 2 year internship. We are LOVING the access we have to all these interns to answer our questions and are excited about all that we will be able to absorb and learn as we live and serve with so many people who we highly respect and are in many ways living out our dream.
-Building relationships with fellow interns. it is amazing how small of a world it is, we are connected to so many people through other people, churches, ministries etc. Some people are even familiar with my old church in Texas! We have so much we have in common even though we come from all over the country.
- Really Really good food. We are so spoiled :)
-For Lindy coming in 1st place in Bunco was a highlight.
-Oh and the beauty of Malenovice, it looks out on a beautiful canyon and little town and is tucked in the middle of mountains. We won;t be able to upload pictures for a while so search for "hotel Malenovice Czech republic" if you're curious.
-Also on a funny note, having a pigeon interupt our English study seminar TWICE this morning by flying in was pretty histerical.
That's it for now!
--> Mary
For the team
First Reflection in Anticipation of the Summer
I personally am so glad to have had some time to sit down and process the team building that happened during the race and in the last few days following it. Lindy and I have each gotten to get a little bit more sleep, although our schedule is pretty packed with training details. Let me share a bit of what we have learned about our team...
In our debrief time, we all came to the conclusion that part of the reason our team was so successful (We came in 2nd by 5 minutes!!) was because we each have different talents that didn't compete with each other. For example Anna is good at encouraging, strategizing and identifying people's strengths and helping them use them at the right times. Lindy is good at details, and solving riddles, she also can run for a LONG time and motivated us in that way. She also was able to give us an extra dose of competitiveness if ever we needed it. Metka has an amazing talent for finding just the right people to help us find our way :) She was willing to walk up to anyone and ask them for help, she also is very flexible and can put aside pain etc to keep going. She also is very persistant and willing to give all she has for whatever is important. (Mary was too humble to put her strengths here so.. I will) Mary has a photographic memory as well as strong will and determined spirit. She was great at locating places by the pictures we were given along with motivating us to have fun amongest the chaos. (None of us realized how hard we pushed ourselves until we stopped!!).
We have a great team!!
We realized that when we were united together and had a tight bond within the team we were able to meet the challenges ahead in such a powerful way. Unity will be so important as we meet the common challenge of sharing our lives this summer.
Please read the e-mail we just sent out for current prayer requests. We plan to update events and reflections by blog and prayer requests by e-mail, so please keep in touch with both so that you will know both the context of our prayer needs and our requests.
Mary for the LindyMary team
In our debrief time, we all came to the conclusion that part of the reason our team was so successful (We came in 2nd by 5 minutes!!) was because we each have different talents that didn't compete with each other. For example Anna is good at encouraging, strategizing and identifying people's strengths and helping them use them at the right times. Lindy is good at details, and solving riddles, she also can run for a LONG time and motivated us in that way. She also was able to give us an extra dose of competitiveness if ever we needed it. Metka has an amazing talent for finding just the right people to help us find our way :) She was willing to walk up to anyone and ask them for help, she also is very flexible and can put aside pain etc to keep going. She also is very persistant and willing to give all she has for whatever is important. (Mary was too humble to put her strengths here so.. I will) Mary has a photographic memory as well as strong will and determined spirit. She was great at locating places by the pictures we were given along with motivating us to have fun amongest the chaos. (None of us realized how hard we pushed ourselves until we stopped!!).
We have a great team!!
We realized that when we were united together and had a tight bond within the team we were able to meet the challenges ahead in such a powerful way. Unity will be so important as we meet the common challenge of sharing our lives this summer.
Please read the e-mail we just sent out for current prayer requests. We plan to update events and reflections by blog and prayer requests by e-mail, so please keep in touch with both so that you will know both the context of our prayer needs and our requests.
Mary for the LindyMary team
Friday, June 1, 2007
We had fun talking to strangers
so, you want details?? You don't really have a choice :-P
This Amazing race started much before getting the first clue. At the Frankfurt Airport we ran into two other interns who said that we should make our packs as light as possible because that's what we will be carrying around during the race. Mary and I, being the competitive girls that we are, decided to put all of our important things into one bag.. to share... oh yeah! That means one bag for the both of us for three days... it also meant ONE PAIR OF CLOTHES for 3 days. Mary and I took advantage of our one-hour flight to study about JV with our flashcards.
Day One:
Our team consisted of Anna (JV staff), Metka (may-t-ka, Slovene intern), Mary and myself. Our first stop was making a Mosaic. Next, we made our way to the bus where we met a Czech guy named Jan (Yawn) who was extremely helpful and carefully explained all transportation routes as well as pointed us in the right direction for our nest stop in Old Town Square, Prague. Here we were given 8 pictures to help locate JV staff who greeted us with multiple choice, trivia questions about JV staff members and JV ministry. THANK GOODNESS FOR OUR NOTE CARDS!! After this stop our team was known for our intense running and helpful note cards.
After answering the questions it was off to find a pizza place to make our very own pizza. Again, we found some very helpful Czechs. The map of Czech that Mary brought from home was put to good use as well. We finally ended up at the hotel Krystal where we stayed the night and had a wonderful breakfast in the morning.
Day Two:
Our team left for the 'Czech Inn' for our first assignment. We were the first team to arrive (which was awesome since we were the third team to leave). At the checkpoint we were greeted with three bags of plastic cups and six 2-litter bottles of Kofola (kind of like coke.. but grosser). Our instructions were to pour a glass for random people on the street to drink and empty all of the bottles before going to our next checkpoint. Metka was super helpful. She talked to LOTS of people, in fact, we're convinced that she was our secret weapon :-) Anywho, we finally got rid of all the Kofola and were on our way to sing “When The Saints Go Marching In” with a jazz band on the Charles’ bridge.
Because the Jazz band didn’t finish setting up until 11 our team decided to complete the physical challenge part of our clue. Mary and I rented a paddle boat, met JV staff in Vltana (the river under the Charles’ Bridge), got a bucket from them, went under the bridge, and waited for our teammates to pour water over the bridge into our bucket. We displayed some mad skills. Mary was balancing on the boat while I tried to keep the boat in on place and Anna and Metka were enjoying pouring water on us from above- that’s what we call teamwork… and free entertainment for the Czechs.
We finished up in record time, sang with the band and then were off to Old Town Square with a picture of our next destination. We located the silk shop, found the what we needed and were off to the train station.. in first place!!
Unfortunately, our train was delayed and 3 teams caught up with us then :-(
We were given, yet another picture. After looking in an ossuary and finding the correct skull that matched our clue (a picture of a skull) we ran helter-skelter to the train… but we read the schedule wrong and had a whole half hour to rest and catch our breath, as well as get a bite to eat. Finally, the train came and we were on our way to Ostrava to inhale nasty sausages as fast as we could. Everyone was given three sausages and two pieces of bread.. Anna and I ate four sausages each to get rid of our team’s food. Finally, we received our next clue.
To our dismay, our clue was blank accompanied with a CD. Finding a computer that will play a CD was an interesting task. the CD played the song “Desperado” and our team thought maybe we’d have to karaoke in a bar or something (don’t tell our parents :-P) It turns out that there’s a bar named Desperado and once we found it we made our very own Mojitos (virgin, of course). This was our last checkpoint until we checked into our hostel.
Day 3
We left early in the morning to find a high tower to see our next checkpoint. We actually raced neck and neck with another team during this stretch. We made it to the tower and spotted our next destination. Mary and I ran down to get our other team members and didn’t stop until we got our next clue.
Our clue sent us to a Mining Museum. The transportation was very difficult but once again, Metka found just the right person to ask for help. With a ton of luck and some helpful Czechs, we actually passed the other teams while on the bus. I do remember the strange looks we girls got when Mary shouted “DUCK!” and in unison we all hit the floor of the bus, as not to be seen by the other teams.
At the Museum we completed 3 tasks: A mining rescue training course, Archery (I got 2 points for the team and Mary got the other one!! woohoo!!) and finally a ropes course where both Anna and Mary showed their bravery and jumped off a 40ft pole (they were harnessed in- don’t worry)
After that we were instructed to find a well in Poland. So, we left for Poland and stayed in Poland for maybe 10 min… the border patrol wasn’t so happy with us. After that we stopped off at a farm and then instead of waiting for a train we ended up having enough money to pay for a taxi for our last two stops :-) That’s what you get when your team never spends money on food!!
At this point we were following one team to Malenovice, the training center, and then raced to find the Staff member in the camp shirt. We came in a very close second place. It was another 10 min before another team showed up- we were proud of us :-)
and now we’re in training and doing debrief stuff…
this was more than a mouthful. Mary will be updating soon about the things we learned as a team and such.. so be watching for that.. or maybe wait for a while so you don’t feel so over loaded.
-lindy for the MaryLindy team
This Amazing race started much before getting the first clue. At the Frankfurt Airport we ran into two other interns who said that we should make our packs as light as possible because that's what we will be carrying around during the race. Mary and I, being the competitive girls that we are, decided to put all of our important things into one bag.. to share... oh yeah! That means one bag for the both of us for three days... it also meant ONE PAIR OF CLOTHES for 3 days. Mary and I took advantage of our one-hour flight to study about JV with our flashcards.
Day One:
Our team consisted of Anna (JV staff), Metka (may-t-ka, Slovene intern), Mary and myself. Our first stop was making a Mosaic. Next, we made our way to the bus where we met a Czech guy named Jan (Yawn) who was extremely helpful and carefully explained all transportation routes as well as pointed us in the right direction for our nest stop in Old Town Square, Prague. Here we were given 8 pictures to help locate JV staff who greeted us with multiple choice, trivia questions about JV staff members and JV ministry. THANK GOODNESS FOR OUR NOTE CARDS!! After this stop our team was known for our intense running and helpful note cards.
After answering the questions it was off to find a pizza place to make our very own pizza. Again, we found some very helpful Czechs. The map of Czech that Mary brought from home was put to good use as well. We finally ended up at the hotel Krystal where we stayed the night and had a wonderful breakfast in the morning.
Day Two:
Our team left for the 'Czech Inn' for our first assignment. We were the first team to arrive (which was awesome since we were the third team to leave). At the checkpoint we were greeted with three bags of plastic cups and six 2-litter bottles of Kofola (kind of like coke.. but grosser). Our instructions were to pour a glass for random people on the street to drink and empty all of the bottles before going to our next checkpoint. Metka was super helpful. She talked to LOTS of people, in fact, we're convinced that she was our secret weapon :-) Anywho, we finally got rid of all the Kofola and were on our way to sing “When The Saints Go Marching In” with a jazz band on the Charles’ bridge.
Because the Jazz band didn’t finish setting up until 11 our team decided to complete the physical challenge part of our clue. Mary and I rented a paddle boat, met JV staff in Vltana (the river under the Charles’ Bridge), got a bucket from them, went under the bridge, and waited for our teammates to pour water over the bridge into our bucket. We displayed some mad skills. Mary was balancing on the boat while I tried to keep the boat in on place and Anna and Metka were enjoying pouring water on us from above- that’s what we call teamwork… and free entertainment for the Czechs.
We finished up in record time, sang with the band and then were off to Old Town Square with a picture of our next destination. We located the silk shop, found the what we needed and were off to the train station.. in first place!!
Unfortunately, our train was delayed and 3 teams caught up with us then :-(
We were given, yet another picture. After looking in an ossuary and finding the correct skull that matched our clue (a picture of a skull) we ran helter-skelter to the train… but we read the schedule wrong and had a whole half hour to rest and catch our breath, as well as get a bite to eat. Finally, the train came and we were on our way to Ostrava to inhale nasty sausages as fast as we could. Everyone was given three sausages and two pieces of bread.. Anna and I ate four sausages each to get rid of our team’s food. Finally, we received our next clue.
To our dismay, our clue was blank accompanied with a CD. Finding a computer that will play a CD was an interesting task. the CD played the song “Desperado” and our team thought maybe we’d have to karaoke in a bar or something (don’t tell our parents :-P) It turns out that there’s a bar named Desperado and once we found it we made our very own Mojitos (virgin, of course). This was our last checkpoint until we checked into our hostel.
Day 3
We left early in the morning to find a high tower to see our next checkpoint. We actually raced neck and neck with another team during this stretch. We made it to the tower and spotted our next destination. Mary and I ran down to get our other team members and didn’t stop until we got our next clue.
Our clue sent us to a Mining Museum. The transportation was very difficult but once again, Metka found just the right person to ask for help. With a ton of luck and some helpful Czechs, we actually passed the other teams while on the bus. I do remember the strange looks we girls got when Mary shouted “DUCK!” and in unison we all hit the floor of the bus, as not to be seen by the other teams.
At the Museum we completed 3 tasks: A mining rescue training course, Archery (I got 2 points for the team and Mary got the other one!! woohoo!!) and finally a ropes course where both Anna and Mary showed their bravery and jumped off a 40ft pole (they were harnessed in- don’t worry)
After that we were instructed to find a well in Poland. So, we left for Poland and stayed in Poland for maybe 10 min… the border patrol wasn’t so happy with us. After that we stopped off at a farm and then instead of waiting for a train we ended up having enough money to pay for a taxi for our last two stops :-) That’s what you get when your team never spends money on food!!
At this point we were following one team to Malenovice, the training center, and then raced to find the Staff member in the camp shirt. We came in a very close second place. It was another 10 min before another team showed up- we were proud of us :-)
and now we’re in training and doing debrief stuff…
this was more than a mouthful. Mary will be updating soon about the things we learned as a team and such.. so be watching for that.. or maybe wait for a while so you don’t feel so over loaded.
-lindy for the MaryLindy team
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