Yesterday was Capture the Flag in the woods. Mixer time included the crowd favorite, "Have you seen my goat?" Of course, with the English language groups this was no problem to play. When translated into Czech, however, the word "goat" has the slang connotation of "women's breasts," so once again we bumped into a language barrier. Since we found it inappropriate to play "Have you seen my breasts?" at youth camp, we changed the game to "Have you seen my dog?" The game went great from there. Good thing God has a sense of humor.
Today's invited speaker was a former Czech Olympic athlete, Vladimir Kocman, who won a bronze medal in Judo at the 1980 Moscow games. Since the US boycotted those games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the USSR in turn boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, he was not able to compete against American athletes. (The 1984 boycott encompassed all communist east block countries including the then Czechoslovakia). He was proud, though, that he was able to compete in the 1983 US Open Games, where he also received the bronze, and thereby legitimized his Olympic success. He passed around his medals, so we each got to hold an Olympic medal, which we found pretty special. We spent a few tense moments praying that Eric would not drop one of them on the floor and put a big gouge in the side. He didn't. The story turned as Vladimir told of how his 6 year-old son was dying of leukemia during the very time he was at the height of his sports achievements, and how he would have traded his medals in a heartbeat to make his son well.
His quest for solace led him and his wife to the church, where he ultimately found peace and answers to his deepest yearnings for comfort, understanding, and a renewed hope. The youth were spellbound by the 3-hour presentation (two hours this morning and another hour this evening), and many indicated that they were moved to take their own faith journeys to a deeper level. We were particularly moved by the immediate bond Vladimir forged with the wheelchair-bound young lady who is among the youth in the camp. It was as though he was drawn to her with a special message of hope, just for her. So often we have witnessed how one man's perseverance through a trial in life becomes a gift to someone else in a time of need. This was such a time.
The food has continued to be a highlight of our "authentic" Czech experience. On the way to camp we stopped at the Misov (add an accent over the s to give a sh sound) Barbeque, where we ate barbequed pork chops with mustard, onions and cabbage. The first night of camp we had boiled pork and pickled cabbage stew. Sunday was potato dumplings covered with poppy seeds, bread crumbs, melted butter, and powdered sugar. Interspersed have been vegetable soups of various kinds, and always great breads, especially at breakfast. Meals have all been eaten outside, which is a wonderful custom, except the bees are ample.
While Americans can be accused of putting ice into every drink, the Czechs serve everything hot. Hot tea is offered at nearly every meal. The first night, the kool-aid (or something similar) was also served piping hot.
Tomorrow we have forest games, continued ping-pong tournaments, and another seminar. We are also continuing the daily morning Bible studies (we are leading the English language group), and the evening English language discussions on current topics (we just completed a discussion on what - if anything - makes a war "just." The discussion was deep and lively, and opinions where quite nuanced.) Wednesday is Phil's turn to speak at the seminar, so he continues to prepare.
Oh, and we almost forgot - hair wrestling made a big splash!
Some pictures (next time we might try to go high tech and add a video clip):
The Tachov crew getting ready to leave for Youth Camp. 2nd from the left is Pete Perhach's younger twin brother (he has all the same mannerisms and everything). In the white tank top is Simon, aka Kyle Snoich's twin, though you can't really tell that from this photo because of the sunglasses. Get him behind an electric guitar and it's an exact match. We have also met a Dan Talbert stunt double and a Lauren Galbraith look alike. It's kind of uncanny, we don't go around looking for this, it's just that we'll look at each other and both say at the same time, "That kid really reminds me of ...".
The title slide of "Mighty to Save" as we sang it in worship this evening:
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