This month in the Czech Republic, Ashley and I have the opportunity to do ministry apart from our team. The other five members of our team are based in Ostrava, and travel to different cities promoting English camps sponsored by Josiah Venture. Josiah Venture’s main focus is on sharing the gospel and mentoring youth in Europe. JV does ministry in the Czech and ten other European countries. Our ministry this month has been with the Exit Tour. Exit Tour is a part of Exit 316 which represents the "exit" each person chooses when they accept Chirst. The Exit Tour goes to multiple high schools in different cities all over Czech, Slovakia and Poland promoting English and holding ethics seminars. The government recently started to require the implementation of ethics programs in the schools since ethics was never taught under communism.
When we’re in the schools we play interactive games with the students and have English discussion groups that are more like a Q&A with the Americans and then the band plays. After that the students attend a lecture on ethics. We just completed our first week with the Tour in Liberec, Czech Republic. We stayed in a local church with the other 15 members of the Exit Tour team. There are six Americans with Divine Attraction, the band playing in the schools. They are a group of Christian guys from L.A. who are all about our age. The rest of the team is made up of Czechs on staff with JV.
John Michael with Adam and Jirka Ashley with Bety and Hannah
We worked long days, leaving the church at 6 a.m. and not returning for about 12 hours. We’d set up the stage and games and the school, hold the program, tear everything down and load the vans. After school, we had an “Exit Party”. This was held at a different location where another band would play, there was tons of free food and someone would share a testimony about how God had worked in his or her life. It was great to get the students to the party because were much more engaging outside of school. The culmination of our efforts in the schools was the concert held on Friday night. Divine Attraction played a full set in a real theater with a full stage production. Near the end of the concert one of the Czechs on staff, Tomas, got on stage and presented the gospel to the students. For many students, this was the first time they’d ever heard the gospel. Bibles and flyers from local youth groups were passed out and there was an overwhelmingly positive response.
Students at the Exit Party
We are spending a few days in Prague before heading to Pisek, Czech where we will do the program again with the school there. We’ll rejoin our World Race team next weekend for our last week in Europe. We’ve loved our time in Czech and the ministry with the Tour. It is so similar to what we did with the students in China in October. It is so rewarding to see teenage students being challenged and begin to think for themselves about what they believe. Our prayer is that they would know the truth and know that their purpose will be found in Jesus Christ.
The concert Friday night with over 200 students
