Czech That

It's interesting how things happen sometimes isn't it? One minute you can be cruising along and think that you've got a "plan". And then something happens, something that you hadn't seen coming and blows 'your plan' out of the water. We are going home on vacation to Iowa/Illinois from 28 June to 10 July. When I say "we", I mean Kathy, Katlin and myself. Kiel is not going to go with us because we feel he needs to work before he goes off to school in Orlando. Anyhow that's my plan - we go home on vacation and Kiel stays and works. (I didn't say it was an elaborate plan, I just said it was a plan).

Friday evening the phone rings and it's lady from our church and she (Stephanie) wanted to speak with Kiel. Of course he wasn't home, I'm not exactly sure where he was or what he was doing but he wasn't home. She started explaining to me that she wanted to speak with Kiel about a trip this summer to the Czech Republic that she was putting together. Her sister and family live in the Czech Republic and in the summer they host an English Camp to teach English to the Czech kids. She told me there is a very strong desire by the Czech people to learn to speak English. They also use the camp as an opportunity to show and share the gospel message with these kids. She wanted to speak with Kiel and see if was interested in going to English Camp in the Czech Republic. She thought he would be a good fit for this trip and felt led to ask him to go. She started to give me the particulars about the camp. Then she told me the cost and the dates of the camp were from 4 July to 19 July. While she was talking to me I thought there is no way he can go because of the cost and that's when we are on vacation and he has to stay here and work. We finished our conversation and we hung up.

I told Kathy who called and what we discussed. Immediately her response was the same as mine - It's too expensive and he can't go because he has to work. While we were discussing it, I was reminded of something my wife had told me earlier in the week. We had been working on something and had encountered an unexpected problem that stopped us dead in our tracks. After it happened she told me "I know you probably don't want to hear this but maybe the reason this isn't happening is because God has something else in mind?." She was right, I didn't want to hear that. But she did make a valid point and it caused me ask God if what I was doing was what he wanted. Anyhow, I remembered this experience and replayed it back to my wife. I said "Perhaps the reason Kiel isn't going home on vacation is because God has something else in mind?" (I love when I can get my wife with her own logic). I went on to say 'I know you probably don't want to hear this but maybe God may wants Kiel to go to the Czech Republic and serve Him there?" I told her at this point that I didn't know what the answer was but I didn't think it would be wise on our part to dismiss the idea because it didn't fit in with 'our plan'. She agreed and we said we would discuss it with Kiel and pray about it.

For some reason I had decided to cook breakfast on Saturday morning, something I rarely do. I usually like to go out for breakfast on Saturdays. I finished cooking and woke the boys up and we all had breakfast on the porch. As we were eating, I took advantage of the opportunity and mentioned to Kiel that I got a call from Stephanie about English Camp. Kathy and I expressed what our thoughts concerning this were. He was pretty much caught off guard and seemed genuinely surprised. He knew that there was a trip to the Czech Republic but hadn't given it a second thought. I told him we needed to think and pray about it. I also told him we needed to make a decision pretty quick in order to get a decent price on an airline ticket and to ensure he would be on the same flight as the others who were going over. The next day Kiel spoke with Stephanie after church about the trip and got some detailed information about what would be involved. Sunday came and went and we individually prayed and thought about what Kiel should do. Late Sunday night I asked Kiel what he thought - he said that he was leaning towards going. I told him I felt the same way and that I didn't know why he should go but I did know I felt that him going was what he was supposed to do.

Now the next concern we had was the cost. Since this was pretty much short notice and something that didn't have the opportunity to plan for it - it would be a cost we weren't expecting. The church that we attend operates under the premise of "Where God Guides, God Provides" - meaning if God is going to lead you to do something then He will provide the means to do it. It will take faith but we believe that God will provide, not sure how but He will and it will work out. In this instance we feel very strongly that He is guiding - so we're looking to Him to do the providing.

All this brings us to where we are now. It looks like my plan of Kiel staying here to work has been shot to hell - literally. A higher and bigger plan has seemed to take shape - one I never would have planned on. We booked Kiel's flight to Prague yesterday - so he's going to go to the Czech Republic for English Camp this summer (2 weeks). We're pretty excited for Kiel and can't wait to see what's in store for him on this trip. Like I said earlier, it's interesting to see how things happens sometimes? Stay tuned - we'll keep you updated as this adventure unfolds…