the month in review: june

Holy cats.
So, the summer interns arrived on May 27th and life hasn't been the same since. The first thing we did was our JV version of the Amazing Race:


In Budapest acting out Batman. We also ate nasty super spicy pumpkin soup, balanced bats in front of a cathedral, interacted with carnies in Vienna. Highlight: hitchhiking in Slovakia.


The team! Nik, Dan, Lisa and me. Martin at this point is still finishing up school in Scotland. Highlights so far: sharing our testimonies, our 2 Corinthians study and our little vacation in Pavlov.

After a pretty intense week of intern training, my team and I hit the streets of Ceske Budejovice, Strakonice and Cesky Tesin doing:


School visits! Inviting students to camps and teaching conversational English in area high schools. Highlight: meeting Ewa Farna at the Polish HS in Tesin. As one boy told us "She's the Czech Hannah Montana." Or Avril Lavigne. Czech her out here


Manual labor! I love it! Here Eva joined us in Cesky Tesin and helped clean the youth leader's new apartment. Highlight: feeling good :).


Hanging out with students and youth groups! Here we are playing the monster game in Strakonice...


...and in Ceske Budejovice playing Jitka's foot game. Highlights: Carcassone with Dominik and the gang tonight, Nik falling into a ditch, meeting a girl who draws amazing anime, The Average concert at the Rokac...it's been so rich


Another fun thing we do is getting to know the people we'll be serving with at camps. Here, we're with Bonnie and Jon's team and part of the Strak team at the Strakonice castle after church last Sunday. Highlight: Kaakushe acting out Harry Potter and me thinking it's Star Wars. Generation gap?

Next week camps begin! This June has flown by, but it feels like eons since we picked up all the interns at the airport. I'm so thankful that we are on the same team and have gotten to live a lot of life together these past weeks. Today we washed windows at our church and hung out with some of the Strakonice gang. Tomorrow we'll go to church, take the train across the country for our work project. Tuesday begins US camp team training for our first camp, Ceske Budejovice, which starts on Saturday. Bring on July!

English Camps a-comin'

...and so are the summer interns! This Wednesday everyone joins up in Vienna to begin the Amazing Race that leads us into intern training at Malenovice. EEEEE!!!

Southwestern Bohemia Youth Conference 2009

Youth groups and individuals from at least 4 different denominations and several cities in this region came together for a weekend of worship, teaching, community service and hanging out May 3-5. The last night David Novak (a denominational youth leader) challenged us to come to Jesus and drink of the living water. At the front of the stage were pitchers of water and glasses and students went and drank as a symbol of taking a step of faith to receive from the Lord. Young people gave their lives to Christ and rededicated themselves to the Lord that evening, it was beautiful!

Eva Eve: Pisek Girls’ Weekend, April 24-25

We ate, we talked, we threaded beads, we danced around a firepit--pretty much your typical weekend de la femme.


But what was so special about this weekend was that the age range was toddler to grandma; finally generations got to mix it up, hear each others' stories and encourage each other. Sweet times!

Why Europe Rocks: Reason #39

The Unbearable Uncertainty of Public Transportation


Monday, May 18

5:10--Emily and I leave apartment
5:30--get on bus to Jihlava
8:35--miss first bus, stay on bus, decide to catch bus from Brno, have a hot dog for breakfast with Klara
9:45--miss second bus
10:16--miss train
11:00--get into Brno, have to wait for next train which will get in at 13:47. Czech Embassy closes at 14:00. I call the number I have to see if they'll wait for us--the lady on the other end is not helpful.
12:16--get on train to Bratislava
13:35--call Autumn who's already there. She says she has to return to the Embassy in a half hour for her visa and will wait for us.
14:00--train gets in, Em and I run to the taxi.
14:15--Autumn, Emily and I all meet at the front door of the Embassy. Autumn gets her passport with visa and I beg the lady to please let Em and I get our visas. She's all smiles and helps us. !!!
14:40--say HI to Laura and run to take taxi to train station
15:00--get on train to Prague
22:30--arrive home to Strakonice! With our visas!!!

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youth groove and gettin our camp on

Our new and improved Strakonice youth team! Jozef (not a cannibal) and Dominik; me, Kaakushe, Alca and Eva. I love these guys!!!


Part of our 2009 Strakonice English camp team: Dominik, Jozef, Kaakushe, Naomi, Jakub, Alca and me (with Nate and Jitka in the bkgd)

Ondra vs. mr.--the birthday party

The boys' birthday youth group--the intro to Ondra's song for Marcel. Smile Marcel!

Why Europe Rocks: Reason #38

breakin' the law, Euro style: Michelle and me

Rumor has it that when the Obamas were in Prague this past weekend, Michelle caused a stir by not wearing nylons. Ha! Oh, Michelle, I know, I know. I personally hate nylons and cannot tell you how many times I've been called out for having bare legs during the spring or fall. When Monika got married, I went sans nylons and a Cesky Tesin granny touched my calves and said, "Dzuszko, kai mosz silonky?" ("Little daughter, where are your nylons?")

Michelle also got busted for hugging the queen of England. While I've never hugged royalty, I have MANY times hugged the wrong people and created awkward scenes. Like the time I hugged my new pastor, or a student's mom, or a teacher I worked with, an English student, uh...I dunno, I like people, I get caught up in the moment, I hug, I'm American and I'm Leah so, yeah, hugging. I would probably also hug the queen if we were talking about shoes and being girly like that.

JV Ladies 09

Before the conference, I was feeling like a little butter spread over a big piece of bread (to paraphrase Bilbo Baggins--is it weird how often LOTR comes up in this blog?) I hadn't been so busy, but was still feeling worn. Spending time with women who understand meant sooooo much to me. Thank you Kristy (above, sharing about her life) for great talks!


And thank you Cassie (the foxy blonde sitting next to me) for serious encouragement. Between late night talks with Cass and the amazing teaching from Joyce and Jerri, I felt like a new lady by the time I left.


One of the tamer pictures: Amy, Lisa and Laura competing during game night. Believe it or not, we all got a little wild that evening...even missionary ladies need to let off steam sometimes, ahahhaaahhhhaaaa! :)

Mmmm, guilt.

Jerri to Joyce: are you wearing that?

I feel guilty most of the time. I have this idol in my head of "perfect Leah," she looks kinda like Jesus and kinda like me; she says and does what the perfect missionary/discipler/friend/servant/daughter/etc says and does. She's hard to please. When I don't do what she wants, I whip myself and bring her the guilt offerings she requires: more props, more time, more energy. She's a--you know. Jerk. But bowing before her is as natural as the most comfortable outfit.

At our JV conference, my eyes were opened thanks to Joyce, Jerri (above) and the Holy Spirit (all around). It's so simple, you know, taking off the old nature, our "old clothes," and being clothed with Christ. Duh, right? But when you've got on, say, an ick lavender outfit (above) you've worn forever, or guilt that has been your favorite sweatshirt for years, it's hard to do without. But that week I took it off--the guilt sweatshirt that actually binds like a straight jacket--and pray that I'll keep it off.

The real Lord Jesus (not the one who looks too much like me, small and petty with a beard) came and kicked my idol away. Literally kicked it, with his big bare foot. And he said, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ" and gave me a new sweatshirt of righteousness. It feels great and looks much better: like peace and confidence and outward-focused love.

My hand still reaches for the old guilt, though. I put it on the other day and donned it again this morning. And took it off. And lifted my eyes higher to see the real Lord.

us 3

These girls are so great! I love being involved in their lives and am encouraged by their faith and service here--yay Emily and Autumn!!!

Autumn's here!

...and is making tea. :) Autumn is started her 2 year term as a missionary March 5th and is studying Czech, serving in Vysoke Myto part time, and living with Emily and I part time. Originally from Chicagoland, Autumn is 27 and lived here for a year 2 years ago, and helped with Exit Turbo. We're excited she's back!

Emily's here!

Yay! Dear Emily K. flew in February 16th from sunny CA to serve in Czech until the end of the summer. She's newly 21, has a rad laugh, is brave and loves the Lord like crazy. And she speaks Czech like crazy, too.


Ha! Maybe you can't tell, but her accent is really good. Emily will be serving in Cheb (like 3 hours west of here) during the weekends and also doing a day in Ceske Budejovice. I'm so excited to have her here; we all are!

to the JLP from Czech with fondness

I have a few addictions: coffee, pleasant smells, Full House and the John Larroquette Project. The first three are rather obvious, but some of you may not know about the JLP. It's this blog by a friend of my kins, and it makes me laugh out loud--well, sometimes it doesn't, but if JLP ever fails there're always the comments. Sometimes the adjectives are disturbing (like "supple") and sometimes the content is uncomfortable (like, animal hoarders) and sometimes you can find the a*word and sometimes he goes on about music that I haven't heard of, but overall I laugh just as much as I do at the antics of Stephanie and Kimmie Gibbler.

The reason why I'm writing this is because of a project we're doing for the upcoming JV Ladies retreat, to quote: "We will provide pretty A4 (that’s just regular sized European copier paper for those of you who may not know) sized notebooks for each of you, and we would like to fill it with something that you want to share with your friends. It could be:

A few new recipes that you’ve been enjoying
Some thoughts from a Bible study you’ve done recently
A Bible study that perhaps you’ve written and would like to share
A list of cool websites that you like to frequent
...
Money saving tips
Your favorite list of songs/artists/movies"

A cool website? Dy-no-mite. And then I knew I had to share the joy of JLP, specifically, the Michael Landon post. I tried to contact the author, but to no avail, so if you see him, could you please tell him that I properly cited JLP and am spreading glad feelings to missionary ladies all over central Europe?