BMA's Catch It Retreat Starts

“Catch It” is an amazing concept that God gave some of BMA’s Christian students a few years ago.  They were at a conference in Budapest and it seemed that the Holy Spirit was prompting them to take some new action to bring Jesus to their unbelieving friends.  The first “Catch It” happened in 2009 and several kids traced their conversions to this exciting time.  It was so encouraging that the third edition will take place this weekend (Thursday - Saturday April 28th - April 30th).

I’m writing this note as the students are gathering at the conference center up the mountain from us.  It’s called KAM Malenovice.  In a few hours I’ll be heading up there to lead a night game in the woods.  I made up a complicated three-team strategy adventure.  To help me prepare, the kids gave the list of the Catch It participants.  It’s a thrill to read the names.  There are 36 kids.  15 are first year students.  Less than half are believers.  All the kids signed up for a weekend in which they knew there would be games and fun but they’d also get serious teaching and a direct spiritual challenge.

I’ve been to lots of teenager retreats in our seven years here.  A lot of them involved   trekking through cold, wet wilderness to get to chilly cabins in the middle of nowhere.  Almost all of them involved early mornings without quite enough coffee, long afternoons with crazy activities, late nights with tea and profound conversation.  But none of them have borne the kind of fruit that this Catch It enterprise has.  Maybe it’s because this one is not top down (conceived by the youth leaders or teachers) but bottom up (we adults are the guests.)  

A couple of years ago, I was invited to lead a drama seminar.  I’m attaching some of the pictures from that!  The kids invited me to do that again this year, too, but I urged them to get a fourth year student involved instead.  He just landed a spot in a very prestigious university drama program.  So they signed me up to create a night game.  I will have three teams running around in the dark.  Two teams will attempt to smuggle gold through the woods and up the foothills of our mountain, and one team, the police, armed with flashlights, will try to intercept them.

The invitation that really honors me is to give a testimony on Saturday morning, near the end of the program.  They asked me to take half an hour, and to somehow coordinate with Dave, the lead teacher.  Dave will focus his three sessions on questions like, “Who are we?” “Who is God?” “What is our biggest problem in life?” and “How does Jesus solve that problem?”  I am planning to talk about my teenage journey -- how I grew sick of myself, began to recognize the problem of sin, and heard about Jesus from an amazing Sunday School teacher who took me to hear Billy Graham.  

But I’m not sure.  I really have to pray.  I’m definitely willing to get a completely new inspiration from the Holy Spirit.  

Great Praise!

We just received news of another B.M.A. student coming to Christ.  A dozen of our kids are on a service project with Petr Hermann and 2 graduates, working in an orphanage  in Ukraine.  Two Christian students led a first year boy to the Lord!

The story began in November, 2009, when Petr and I traveled around our region doing advertisements for BMA in feeder schools.  We made a first time visit to a village near Frydek-Mistek.  I remember it very clearly: as I did my English lesson, my voice had to compete with a construction crew right next door.  (If any of you ever had to teach in the classroom next to me, you know that I held my own.)  During and after the lesson, one ninth grade boy was especially enthusiastic, trying to use his English in creative ways and galloping after me as we headed out through the main corridor, wanting more time to chat.   The commercial was successful, and he entered BMA in September.  Starting with our traditional Fall retreat, he was full of questions about spiritual things.  

Jonny Lobel is his home room teacher and leads weekly Bible study.  The curriculum I wrote for them is “all Jesus, all year.”  There’s more about our Bible curriculum on this blog’s BMA page.

Jonny also organized this week’s trip to Ukraine.  There is a Christian school in Kiev with mostly English speaking students. In a footnote to our personal story, nicely crafted by the Lord, we seriously considered serving with the Kiev school instead of BMA seven years ago.  We know we’re in the right place now, but it is a delight to see Him bring these missionary students into our lives. They graciously invited BMA students to join their service project, and they raised money to help the less-well-off Czech kids pay for the long train journey.  But Jonny has a new baby, so he didn’t volunteer to lead the trip. Instead, our director, Petr, is with them, as well as two Christian graduates of BMA who are on break from university. 

I am so thankful for the Lord working through this team.  Think of all the people working in unison, playing their parts and helping this teenager find new faith:  a school in Kiev, BMA teachers, a family of supporters who uphold those teachers, BMA graduates, and a faithful pair of BMA students.

They're Still Here...

Sharon and I went across the border to Poland for our anniversary.  We saw several things that reminded us of the Communist heritage in this part of the world.  Check out the reading material our stone friend is carrying.  In the second picture, Sharon is standing in front of one Warsaw's most impressive buildings, "a gift to the Polish people" from Stalin.     But more significant than the architecture is the lasting political and cultural influence.  Here in the Czech Republic we are constantly coming across things that remind us that this land still needs deliverance.  Our attempt to buy our building will have to get past a legislature with many Communist Party members -- possibly the ones who go to the annual Spring fundraiser at the restaurant on our street.  (Please jump to the BMA page for more information about our building.)  The way people of our generation and older think about leadership, about business, about education -- all these things are still deeply influenced by totalitarianism.      I'm not just speaking as an American who gets frustrated by the tired shopkeepers who treat us with disgust until we acknowledge their authority.  Our Czech friends and colleagues lament their own bureaucracy, and the attitudes of the bureaucrats.  

     We took Izak to the clinic the other day, and a kindly nurse asked him what name he was giving to his new toy puppy.  She was a gifted health care professional who had given Izak the present a week ago with the assignment: "Why don't you tell me what it's name is when you come back?"   Izak decided on "Pomeranč" which means "Orange."  When he told the nurse, she said right away, "Oh, no, we don't give doggies names like that."  No affirmation for creativity or even cuteness.  It was remarkable that a woman who performed her job so capably felt that she had to squash our three-year-old's happy idea. We were puzzled.  Was this simply a cultural difference?  Later, though, Petr Hermann heard about it, agreed that it was strange. His comment was: "The heritage of Communism."  

One of the exciting things about BMA is the determined attempt to teach from a different kind of heritage.  Communist education stressed conformity without questions, and shame.  We try to encourage creativity and questions, and care for the students.  We hope this brings honor directly to Jesus Christ, author of creativity, who invited questions and cares for us still.

Izak and Pomeranč

Paul Hugh Peregrine Till

 

Paul Hugh Peregrine Till was born this day fifteen years ago.  He has always been amazing.  

  But today we are especially proud of the young man who struggled so hard to enter this new culture, who succeeded, and now is helping a demanding little brother find his way in Till culture.

A few of Paul Hugh's greatest hits...

Prayer time, August 22nd, 1999 (Paul Hugh was three): "Help no lions to come and no sharks and no swordfish and no bloody fish and no trees with mouths and black knights are evil, and gold knights are good... Amen." 

In the car, January 2nd, 2003 (Paul Hugh was almost seven): 

"I hate the word 'may.'  I always say, 'CAN I please?"  

"Why?"  

"Because I hate words that start with the letter M."

"Why?"

"Because they remind me of people running around naked."

"Why is that?"

"Because 'naked' starts with N and M sounds so much like N." 

Much of Paul Hugh Peregrine's name is hidden in the older translations of Psalm 84: 5.

"Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage."

"Hugh" comes from an ancient word for heart or soul, and "Peregrine" means pilgrim.  

Please pray with us for Paul Hugh's pilgrimage, that he would truly go "from strength to strength" until he "appears before God in Zion." 

First Blog

     Thanks for visiting our blog.  We are rookies.  Here's what we think is on this blog page, although you never know -- what I thought was a nice update on our family might actually be a link to something awful. Please let me know if I made a really silly mistake.
If you don't know who we are or what we are up to, please go to the Introduction page for an introduction.  Paul and Sharon's pages are for honest reflection -- less news than opinion and commentary.  We expect to be brutally honest in both our observations and in our thanksgiving to God.  We know that people who support our ministry want to keep track of our financial needs, so there is a page for that.  The Beskydy Mountain Academy page is about the school with a strong emphasis on spiritual developments and prayer needs.
     It is Saturday afternoon, February 5th.  Izak is supposed to be napping.  Paul Hugh and Lucy Rose are out in the woods somewhere with friends: Lucy walking, Paul Hugh fighting with wooden weapons.  Sharon is practicing the piano and singing ("Simplemente" from the old Rehoboth songbook) and Patrick is back at Brown University.  This evening we will cash in a big pile of food certificates and treat my director's family to dinner on the town square.  (All teachers in the Czech Republic are assigned monthly certificates to cover their lunch expenses and I've saved mine up.) My director, Petr, is a faithful and courageous believer and we are looking forward to getting our families together because it doesn't happen often enough.
     "Spring" break has just begun.  Czech school districts rotate their vacations and our region has just been put back to the front of the line where we started six years ago, in other words, early February.  I don't think I mind.  In fact, it feels like it's just in time for us.  We are a tired bunch.  Sharon has only just got the cast off her broken right hand and is learning exercises for rehabilitation.  Izak is still learning about obedience and truth-telling, and that's demanding for all of us.  The weather has been frigid.  We're weary.
     You will notice on this page a new e-mail address.  Please feel free to use it.  Up until now, the best e-mail for contacting us has been
haworthmoor@earthlink.net
but we are now experimenting with
tilcum@me.com
so please feel free to write us at either.
     Thank you for your prayers and your visit! - Paul