From long-term missionary Ashley Effken in the Czech Republic
“Every summer for six years now, members of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Los Gatos, Calif., have come to Trinec, the town where I live, to teach English at the church’s summer English Camp. This camp is a week-long experience of English learning for middle and high school-aged students and for Christian outreach. About two-thirds of the students who come to English camp are unchurched, but come to improve their language skills.
“This year, 18 members of Holy Cross and Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Churches, came to teach English and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to approximately 50 Czech students. The Americans, the Czechs, and I formed some wonderful friendships and had a number of incredible conversations. So many of the unchurched students had a lot of questions about who this Jesus is, and so many of the churched ones had questions about spiritual growth.
“During the course of the week, a small handful of students even made their first professions of faith in Christ. Praise God for this! At the camp, I had the opportunity to teach new praise music for an hour every afternoon to those students who were interested. On Saturday afternoon, one of the students brought some music of his own, wanting me to help him to understand it. The song was ‘When I Go Down’ by Relient K. He told me that it was his favorite song. I praised God for this! The song speaks about hitting a spiritual bottom after trusting in one’s self and putting hope in friendship for salvation. It also shares the realization that, from that low point, only God’s love that can lift us up-only hope in Christ is real hope. After I explained the lyrics to him, he was thankful to understand it, and said that the song described him. How wonderful that this young man understands the Truth that Jesus is his only hope and salvation!”
