This has been a very busy spring season for the English Connection and there will be no slowing down as we gear up for the summer camp season. We were busy with promoting camps in schools, helping make plans for the summer camps in Czech, and traveling to other countries in Europe to begin or continue partnerships. God is doing great things and opening many doors for ministry here and the need for more laborers and more resources continues to grow. 

The spring season started with Matt returning from a brief trip back to the states with our friend Forrest from Marathon Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Forrest helped us with promoting an English camp called Fulhaus in the town of Bohumin. We starting working here two years ago and the camp has grown from 3 students to over 20 who are signed up for this year. Praise God! During the month he was here, Forrest also helped start a weekly softball gathering in Bohumin that has been going really well and concluded for the summer this past Tuesday when I joined them for the finale. 

Forrest and I also helped with a small English camp this spring with one of the schools in Prague. A few of the teachers at this school are believers and so we fashioned together an English/sports camp like the ones we do in the summer but we couldn’t explicitly share the gospel because it was a school camp and not all of the teachers were believers. However, we had really great conversations with many non-believing students and teachers because of this camp. And we had a fun moment together at this camp playing softball while it was snowing. The students really enjoyed this camp and some may even attend different Christian English/sports camps this summer. 

Later in the spring Chris, a fellow missionary here in Prague who is a pastor at Prague Christian Fellowship, and I journeyed to Amsterdam to help a friend’s church start an English camp for children. It went so well that it seemed as if this camp had been running for years even though it was the first time. Most of the students as this first camp were believers so hopefully it will grow to reach others who are not in the church in the future. This camp will be on our calendars again for next spring and we could use some more native speakers who would like to join us in Amsterdam. 

After Amsterdam one of our directors, Daniel, came over to travel with us to Ukraine and the ministry we support there called Nehemiah House. We will have some videos coming later this year to describe in more detail the work they do and how we partner with them; it is the second year we have been working together. They do English camps for children all summer long and we help to sponsor children to be able to attend the camp who are refugees from the war zone in Ukraine. Most of the children we sponsor are from families that lost everything because of the war. In addition to Nehemiah House we help with some other local missionaries who work primarily with orphans. We’ll have a video about what they do and how we help coming soon as well. 

The last major project of the spring before gearing up for summer was very exciting for us. We traveled to Belarus to teach English teaching techniques to high school and business English teachers. Last year another fellow missionary in Prague, Brian, who is British and has been doing camps in Czech for 20+ years, brought a teacher and a group of students from Belarus to one of his camps. We work with Brian for winter camps but in the summer we serve at different camps. So Brian set up this trip to Belarus and we were joined by Chris and a missionary couple from Texas, Curt and Vicky.  We went in not knowing what to expect since Belarus is a country under a dictatorship. 

It was a great trip, we met with teachers and some of the students who went to Brian’s camp last year as well as a pastor of an evangelical church in Minsk. In speaking with this pastor we decided to try and put together an English camp in Minsk next June. This is really exciting because for years being a Protestant Christian in Belarus could mean persecution. However, unlike some other Eastern European countries the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches are working together. The Orthodox Church has taken the others under its wing and said if you mess with them, you mess with us. So this is now opening doors for more missionary work in Belarus. If you would be interested in helping with an English camp in Belarus next year we are already in the planning phases for June. 

On July 2, our first of five camps we are helping with this summer kicks off. Be praying for us that we will have the stamina to finish strong. Pray for the students who will hear the Gospel for the first time and for those who have heard it before but have not yet seen the need for it. Pray that we will stay away from distractions and that we will remain healthy throughout this time. The Belarus guide book said that we should plan to get sick while we were there but we didn’t, so Praise God for that! 

Also, if you read my last prayer request you heard about my friend Stan who was supposed to be coming to Czech and now it is confirmed he will not be able to make it. Keep praying for him for his healing, not only for his back but I know he is pretty heartbroken about not being able to be here. Pray that God would use this time to really bring Stan into a deeper relationship with Him. God uses our suffering to teach us much more than He uses the good times. Pray that he doesn’t waste his suffering. God is in control, He knows how the summer will go and who needs to be here. I’m thankful that we just need to rely on Him and He works through us. And if He is for us what can stand against us?!  

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. One last item to report, we have been doing a lot more this spring season than we did last year so we are a running a little lower than planned with our finances; for example, just the visa alone for Belarus cost 60 Euros. We know God is faithful and He equips those He has called. He hasn’t let us down yet, and He never will. If you would like to be a part of God’s equipping of us in the work we do then there are a few giving options on our website: englishconnection.org/donate. 

All of us here at English Connection wish you a blessed summer! Stay tuned for more updates and victory stories to come throughout the next few months.