Summer Trip to Czech Republic Schedule

We're Going!! Follow along with us!     :) 

                       

Summary of Trip:

•  First 2 weeks with Josiah Venture
•  Spend a couple days in Prague getting to know our Pioneer Team Leaders
•  Last week and half in Brno with our fellow teammates who have been on the ground for almost a year.

Why we are heading over this summer:

One of Pioneer's requirements for us to move long-term to the Czech Republic is that we take a survey trip beforehand. This four week trip next month will not only fill that requirement, but also give us a better understanding of the country that we are preparing to move to.

For the first week and half we will be partnering with Josiah Adventure to teach at a youth english camp. After the fall of communism during the "Velvet Revolution", Josiah Venture is a mission organization founded just shortly afterwards whose focus is on reaching out to the the region's young people. Their popular summer camps cultivate a positive environment where American teams can share God's amazing grace through teaching English, sports, games, crafts, music and more. Although there are still many remnants of the old regime who firmly hold to atheism and strongly reject the concept of a loving, personal God, there is an emerging young generation of Czech people who are showing an openness to the message of Jesus Christ. That's exciting!

Who is going?

There will be 8 of us American's along with local Czech leaders and translators. The camp will consist of anywhere of 50-80 campers from the ages of 13-18. After the camp is finished, Dan and I will explore the country by visiting our team in Prague and Brno.

Camp Schedule:

Trip Schedule: Note: Dates August 4-7th are subject to change.

Prayer Needs:

• Pray for safety and good health for us who are traveling overseas as well as for our kids who will be traveling and staying with Lisa's parents in Montana.
• Pray for our kids as we will be gone from them for nearly 4 weeks and which will be difficult emotionally and mentally for them.
• Pray that God would prepare the hearts of those whom we will come in contact with in Czech Republic.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit will move among the students at camp.
• Pray for wisdom and discernment as we travel and see the country.
• Pray that we would be an encouragement to those who are there.
• Pray that we would catch on to the Czech language quickly :)
• Pray that God would be glorified in all that we do.

A Catch Up from this Year

Hello Family and Friends!

What a busy year this has been! We apologize for being so behind on our blogs, so without further ado, let me catch you up a little with what we have been doing.

During the Christmas break through the New Year, we took a trip to Milwaukee and Oklahoma City to see family and friends while also raising support for our trip.

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Over this Spring and Summer, Dan has been super swamped with school and other commitments (But he loves it :-D). Along with taking a full time class schedule, he also had the opportunity to teach a lesson on Christology for the Gordon Lewis Center for Christian Thought and Culture, and will be teaching a lesson this summer on secular humanism. Below are the books that he's been reading through. Pretty impressive - especially for me since it is rare that I actually finish a book.

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I too was involved with a few things.  For the second time around, I was an online grader for 5 students going through the Perspectives course. If any of you are wondering how to get an thorough overview of what world missions looks like through a Biblical perspective, this is a fantastic course to take and I highly recommend it. For more info, go to http://www.perspectives.org

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Spending time with the kids working on letters, numbers, drawing, puzzles ect:

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Spent spring break up at my parents in Montana:

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On May 4th, Nora turned 2!! For 2 1/2 months out of the year both Nora and Andrew are the same age :)

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It snowed on Mother's Day!

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Another thing that we took on was starting a Gospel Community Group here in our apartment complex. For the last 10 months we had been involved with a wonderful group of people, but since moving into our new place and getting to know our neighbors, we both felt that the Lord was calling us to start one locally. We meet on Tuesdays (though July starting Thursday nights), eat dinner together, then discuss the text from the sermon that was shared. Once a month we have community barbecues for whom we invite everyone to come so that neighbors can get to know each other better.

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And a few other fun photo's :)

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A few fragments of 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Milwaukee, WI! 2013 has been a roller coaster year for the Bartol family.  These are a few snippets of what happened: We started the year off in Oklahoma City in the middle of an internship with Sam Storms, then traveled to Chicago to graduate from Moody Bible Institute in May.  In the process of all of that we moved everything to Denver, followed by a 6 week trip around the country, visiting friends and family in IL, WI, and MT.  Then a few weeks after that Lisa and I went to Florida for an orientation with the mission group Pioneers International, where the reality of moving to Brno, Czech Republic became all the more clear to us.

Back in Denver, I climbed my first 14er with my cousin Mark.  Then began the fall semester at Denver Seminary.  The workload I took on was one of the hardest, yet beneficial, challenges of my academic life.  On a brighter note, Lisa and I also celebrated our first 5 years of marriage!  Now that the semester is all over, things have winded down (a little).  We moved into a new apartment in November and we are now enjoying the holidays in Milwaukee (this is my first time home for Christmas since I left for the Air Force).

For 2014, I don't usually take part in the resolution fad, but these are a few things I hope to do more of: -Read more (as if I have a choice), but watch less. -Spend more time alone with Jesus. -Make more room for dates with Lisa -Invest more time in my neighbors and the people closest to us (since moving into our own place this has happened a lot more). -Open up our home to others on a weekly basis.

AND Happy Birthday to Adelyn Marie!  She turned 4 years old today :-D Every Year it amazes me to see how big she is getting from how small she was.  

Quandary Peak

Last Thursday my cousin Mark and I took a trip to climb Quandary peak.  It was a very memorable day, with deep conversations, taking unknown trails and watching a little old lady pass us like she was an olympic runner (at least that's how it felt).  We were determined to make it the whole way up, even though every step began to feel like a task in and of itself around 12,000 ft.

Around 13,000 feet it began to rain.  And then rain some more and well, next thing we knew it was raining sideways and hail began to smack our faces pretty hard and the rocks were getting slippery.  Thankfully a group of 3 were going back and a guy gave his poncho to me (only had a jacket up until then).  But we went a little further and thought we would just rough it to the top, but it just kept getting worse, so we looked at each other and determined that it would be wise to turn back. 

Sure enough, by the time we made it to the bottom the sun was back out and it was getting warm again.  But overall it was a bonding experience (getting to know my cousin has been awesome) and we were able to see a small taste of the bigness of Jesus.  There's so many analogies you can come up with as you think about climbing one of those things.  But hopefully we'll get another Thursday soon to take it on all the way to the top and feel the weight of 14,000ft on the lungs.

The first two weeks at Denver Seminary

Over the past few weeks I have successfully had my head blown off.  Dealing with issues of epistemology, textual criticism/Genesis, the history surrounding the gospels, post-modernism and the Christian worldview, standards of ethics, how to effectively get mentored, and how to write a research paper, I am surrounded at all corners by amazing subjects.  One of the great aspects of being a student at Denver Seminary is the fact that the professors want to see a strong head/heart connection with the material.  And for that I am grateful to be here.  But I will admit, it is incredibly overwhelming sometimes.

Trying to get the word out about our ministry in the Czech Republic (www.TheBartols.com) and attempting to be a good student, while simultaneously trying to be the best husband/daddy I can be is a task that can only be fulfilled by the power of God.  If you're reading this, that is my prayer request.  That I would prioritize effectively all that is in my charge.  I rue the possibility of isolation, putting ministry and school above family, or not taking time for a sabbath to rest with Jesus.  So with these pitfalls in mind I fight for balance, but I'm not infallible and I need to lean on the Holy Spirit to do this.

Not to sound defeated here.  While it is a lot at once, it is fun.  So though I'm pushing toward a balanced lifestyle at Den Sem, it's not as though it were boring.  I have loved studying theology and apologetics/philosophy for some time now, but this is a really enjoyable challenge.

Pray also that the GI Bill money allowance does not become an extreme headache for us .