Friday Update

The rain started early in the morning on Friday, intensified over the course of the day, and then finally cleared in the evening. We packed and moved our bags from the cabins in the lower part of the camp up to the main hotel area, as most of the teams we trained with left for their camps at other locations.

A smaller team from Christ Community Church in Chicago joined us, and we spent the day getting to know them, including a lunch at a restaurant about 1/2 mile from the camp. The variety of selections on the menu was amazing, especially considering that the average price was about $7. I had venison and dumplings, and it was great. There were some dramatic (exotic?) offerings such as duck, wild game, and a few meats that you would not find on a menu in the US (horse steak, anyone?) Most team members chose conservatively, enjoying blueberry dumplings and svíčková (pronounced SVEETCH-ko-vah), the Czech comfort food equivalent of meat and potatoes.

Svíčková

A number of Czechs from the local church arrived to begin their leadership duties, and we visited with some of them whom we have known for years. We also learned that we have a 1-to-1 ratio of leadership-to-students, and 38 of the 51 students are not currently believers.

We ate dinner together with our new arrivals and then met for the first time as the full camp leadership team. We continued setting up and moving equipment.

On Saturday, we will meet in the morning about final preparations before the students arrive in the afternoon.