Dear friends,
Both camps are behind us, vacation is ahead of us, so we have had a bit of time to reflect on what the Lord has been doing here in Pelhřimov in the past weeks and months.
IMPORTANT: first there is a general overview, and then a very exciting story - a bit long, but worth it 🙂
After a two year COVID gap, we were able to have both, the English and the Basketball camp. The two teams that came to help us - one from Christ Baptist Church and the other from Providence Baptist Church were great. They came to serve and assist us in any way we needed, and they did a wonderful job!
The Gospel was shared with even more openness than the previous years. This is due to the fact that we have been working with many of these people for a long enough time to earn their trust, and even though most of the young people and their parents are not followers of Christ, they are open to hear the message.
VERY EXCITING! The most exciting moment was our annual cookout during the basketball camp. Not just the good food… although that was excellent, if I may say so myself. A young man by the name of Richard, who made a decision to follow Christ during our evangelistic afternoon in May of this year asked us if he could be baptised during the basketball week, since he will be there anyway (he lives in Prague where he goes to the medical school).
We set everything up - we ate and talked with the basketball players and their family members who came to this event, then we invited everyone to our meeting room and sang a few songs. Then Richard shared an incredible testimony about Christ changing his life (both in Czech and English), and then we went outside to baptise him.
What we did not expect was the work that the Holy Spirit was doing in another young man from our church, who also gave his life to Christ on the same day in May but was hesitant to be baptised due to a number of questions he was still struggling with. When he heard Richard’s testimony and saw him walk outside to be baptised, he started weeping, and asked if he could be baptised too (he is the one standing with me in the background of the Baptism photo).
And that’s not all. That afternoon Milan and I both agreed we should ask Vašek, our co-elder, to baptise Richard, since he was the one who shared the Gospel with him during the past two years most often. Instead of one, Vašek got to baptise two young men, and the second young man, whose name is Ondra is his son.
Thank you all for your prayers and partnership. We are so grateful for all of you who are willing to be a part of this ministry in so many ways.
Vlada and Eliska Donat
Pelhrimov, Czech Republic