My Week

Now that school has started, my schedule has become a little more regular.  I thought I would give you a window into what my week looks like.  Normally, I would just give you a view of one day, but I have no one single day that looks like another.  The majority of my week is spent in ministry to either the students at the sport university or working with and ministering to the Prague Lions.

Our AIA group meets twice a week.  We meet together for prayer on Tuesdays at 9:00am and gather for our weekly staff meeting on Fridays at 10:00am.  About every other week, we have a "family dinner" following our staff meeting.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I have Czech class from 10:15am-11:45am.  Czech is a very hard language to learn and by the time my STINT time is up here, I hope to be able to be able to at least understand the coaches when they are talking.  Currently, I can order food, read most of a menu, shop for groceries (notice the food theme here), as well as a few general pleasantries.  Some of the first words I learned here, even before I started classes, were numbers and directions.  Both very important for playing football. 

The bulk of my afternoon time is spent generally at the university.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons are generally when I spend a ton of time at the university.  My time at the universities is spent meeting with students, hanging out, and just being present at the school.  I usually eat lunch at the school with some students at least twice a week.  I also utilize the weightroom at the university.  I have developed a good relationship with the guys who open the weightroom, so I can usually get in for student price, or even free sometimes.  I try to lift Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons from 3:00 to 4:00 or 5:00.  Lifting is one of the ways that I am able to engage a different group of students.  Lifting requires interaction and cooperation with spotting, so it is a good way for me to get to know some people.

Athletes in Action teaches a conversational English class that meets at the university at 1:00pm and 7:30pm on Tuesdays.  We each take turns planning a lesson that both classes teach from.  Currently, we are expecting a lot of people to come out for each English class, so I am going to both.  In the future if numbers dwindle, I might have the option to just teach the afternoon class.   The class is purely conversational.  Our lesson plans range from current events to sports to whatever people want to talk about. 

Evening Conversational English Class

I try to spend some time each week devoted to general ministry stuff.  That includes a weekly evaluation sheet, support raising, blogging and writing my prayer letter.  Lately, a lot of that has been happening on Monday afternoon.  Somewhere in there I try to spend some time watching film for the Junior team, preparing a small practice plan for our offensive line. 

The Lions typically had 3 practices per week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights from 5:50-8:30.  We usually left the practice field by around 9:00 or 9:30 once we have wrapped up all of our meetings and all of the guys have showered and left.  Now that the season is over, I attend our team's Nabor (cross between recruiting and try out).  I sometimes help with conditioning or blocking drills, but mostly I just go to start getting in shape again for our Senior season and to meet and hang out with the few senior players who show up.  These practices are at 6:00pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.  

The pace of life might appear to be slower here to an outsider, but a lot of that is because of public transportation.  I generally allow for an hour to get to practice, 45 minutes to get from my house to Billy's for the staff meeting or to the university.  Public transportation is an awesome thing, but you at times have to realize that you are at the whim of the bus/metro/tram schedule.

I use the word "generally" a lot when I talk and write about my schedule.  Meaning that while my schedule is slowly taking shape and some structure does appear to be forming, it is still fairly varied.  So that is my schedule as of right now. You kind of have a window into the organized chaos that is my life here in Prague.

The Oline

One of the aspects of my job here with AIA is that I get to play offensive line for the Prague Lions Senior Team in the spring and I get to coach the Prague Lions Junior Team offensive line in the fall.  The Junior team is more or less high school aged guys.  Since it is the fall and we are slowly wrapping up our season, I thought I would introduce you the guys I work with on the junior team.

My ministry opportunities with these guys range from very limited to plentiful.  I pray that God puts the right guys into my life for me to influence so they in turn can influence the others.  Often my ministry with the guys consists of the bus or metro rides home, so where guys live can play a large factor into how much time I get to spend with them. 

Our starting line up consists of Michal at left tackle, Olda and Petr at left guard, Robin at center, Tomáš at right guard, and Pepa at right tackle.  Our backups consist of Jakub, Vojtech, Marco, and Mara. 

Michal is a huge man.  His first season of football was actually last senior season.  He is probably 6'5" 300lbs.  He is a very good offensive lineman.  If I get him to show up to the weightroom consistently, he could be dominant.  He has a real chance to become the next elite offensive lineman from the Prague Lions.  He could probably play low to mid level NCAA Division I if he were American or he applied himself to the goal of playing University level ball in America.  He is a very quiet kid who only speaks when he absolutely has to.  He is extremely coachable.  Just from the time I have been here, he has improved so much.  He has been having some shoulder problems and has finally sought counsel of a doctor here.  He is having surgery at the end of the month.  My prayer is that the surgery is successful and the recovery time short. 

Olda is one of the newest members of our team, having joined us for only one or two spring practices.  He worked his way almost immediately into the starting lineup.  He and Michal have an interesting dynamic on the left side of the line.  Olda is one of the goofiest kids I have ever worked with.  He is always trying to crack a joke or twist something you say into something that makes you look foolish.  Petr has started a game at left guard and is giving Olda a run for his money for the permanent starting spot.  Petr is a big smiley kid who, given a few more game reps, will also be an excellent offensive lineman.  He is always in a good mood.  His technique has gotten a lot better, but it still has a way to go.

Robin is our center.  Robin is a guy who I spend a lot of time with both on and off the football field.  He is a very talented and smart football player.  He knows a lot about the game.  He was the starting center for the senior team for a couple of games, as well.  Robin is very chatty.  He and his friend Marek (a wide receiver for us) were the first two Lions football players I met when I landed here in May.  They come to our AIA Conversational English classes.  Throw Michal, the left tackle, in with Robin and Marek and I refer to them as the three stooges.

Tomáš is currently our right guard.  I say currently because he can and has played every position on the offensive line.  After three days of football camp in August, he had played every offensive and defensive line position (9 different positions in our system) and played them well.  Tomáš gets very little attention from me simply because he does things right.  He is always looking to improve and is one of the very few guys who is not afraid to ask a question.  I think he even turned a corner in our last game against the Bobcats.  He has gone from blocking guys to dominating them.  He had 3 pancake blocks in the second half against the Bobcats.  He is not a huge guy (around 6'), but his technique is better than most and that puts him in a position to dominate guys twice his size.  He is one guy with whom I wish I could spend more time. 

Pepa is our right tackle.  I spend most of my time trying to get Pepa to be angry and aggressive, to no avail mostly.  Pepa is a good friend who attended the Multikemp over the summer and provided me with a bunch of help.  He is very patient.  Football wise he is getting a lot better.  He still has a ways to go, but he has a lot of upside potential.  He is one guy who I wish I could get more time to hang out with.  He lives outside of Prague, so that makes it very hard to work with him outside of football and follow up things like the Multikemp.  Pepa is one of those guys who seems so open at times and so closed off at others. 

Vojtech is also a new lineman.  He came to us late, so he was only eligible for one season of Junior ball.  He is a guy that I do not know well on a personal level.  I pray for continued meetings with him because he is unsure if he will continue his football career at the senior level.  Technique wise I think he has improved the most, especially considering that he had played no football before this season.  He is a rare guy who can set to a perfect pass set and keep his feet wide enough to keep the defensive lineman in front of him.  We tried him at tackle this year, although if he continues to play for us, I could see him working in at guard. 

Jakub is a guy who got a lot of time on offense and defense this year.  He is one of the few people who tries to help the team by finding sponsors, as well as recruit other people to come out and play.  He is a big kid who needs to be a little more aggressive.  He is one guy that I do not know very well outside of a football context.  I think he could be a leader.  He has the heart and determination to help and lead people. 

Petr is a big, smiley kid who is a lot of fun to hang around.  He was one of the first Lions guy that I met when I arrived.  He likes to have fun.  He is a young guy who still has another year or two of junior football left, which is good because he has a lot of potential.  Petr comes to almost all of our events, both football and AIA related, so I have gotten to know him pretty well.  He is well liked by a lot of people, so I hope that by influencing him, I may be able to influence more through him. 

Well that is a brief overview of the nine guys that I work with the most with the Prague Lions Junior team.  The season is over and I hope and pray that many of them will decide to continue to play for us at the senior level.  All of these guys are a lot of fun to coach and hang out with.  Please pray that I am able to keep in contact with them over the offseason.

The Team

Hey Guys! In my last prayer letter I said I was going to try and start using this blog a little bit more so that i could go into more detail about my life and ministry here in Prague. I figured a good first post would be to introduce you to the people who I work with. These are also the people who receive several mentions in my prayer letters.

First up is Billy, his wife Adrianne, and their three kids. Billy is our country director here with Athletes in Action. He heads up our weekly staff meeting, organizes various team tours sent from the States, represents our ministry on a regional level and about a thousand other things. He has set the vision, goals, and strategies for our team to follow. On top of all that, he is a PhD candidate at the Charles University School of Physical Education and Sport, which is the university where we do a lot of our ministry. He is also a professor at the university. One of the things we try to do here in Prague is become insiders in the culture here. Billy does this through teaching at the university, amongst other things. His position and past activities have garnered a huge amount of favor from the administration. So when we need to schedule our conversational English classes or want to do a special event, we are more able to do that because Billy is a constant presence and has a good relationship with most of the people in power. Billy is also an active runner, competing in many distance races.

Adrianne is Billy's wife. She does a lot in terms of taking care of her family of three children.  She also disciples Becca. Her and Becca are looking to continue a seekers Bible study at the university with a handful of open girls. Adrianne is also helping Becca form relationships on the basketball team, training her on how to do ministry here in this culture. Adrianne makes sure that everyone is taken care of. She is immensely helpful to new staff (Me a few months ago and Becca now) transitioning into the ministry and culture here in Prague. One of the things she did for me was take me on a tour of the supermarket, making sure I knew enough words to at least put together a decent meal with proper ingredients. It is very handy to have words like maso (meat) and máslo (butter) in your vocabulary.

Becca is the newest addition to our AIA team here in Prague. She comes to us from Tennessee by way of Taylor University in Indiana. She arrived a little over a month ago and jumped right in with the Sparta women's basketball team. Her arrival comes on the heals of an AIA women's basketball team being here and working with her team. AIA has had a long relationship with the Sparta basketball team, so Becca comes at a good time to do ministry with the team. We are also praying that she and Adrianne will be able to continue a seekers Bible study that was started by Jenny, a STINTer whose time in Prague ended just hours before Becca's started.

Martin is also a fairly new addition to our team here in Prague. Martin is actually from Slovakia. He is also one of my roommates. Martin is a valuable member of our team because, among other things, he speaks Slovak, which is a language very closely related to Czech. He is able to communicate with students at the university better than I can. He also has a better understanding of the culture here in Czech. He is a quiet guy with a prankish nature. Martin is a full time staff person who is being trained by Billy. Hopefully when Martin's training is done he can either stay here in Prague with us and be apart of our sports ministry, or go home to Slovakia and bolster the ministry there.

Finally, we have Zach. Zach is the guy I work with the most. He has been referenced numerous times throughout past newsletters and blog posts. Zach is a full time staff guy here in Prague. Zach is the offensive coordinator on the Prague Lions senior team and the head coach of the junior team. From a football standpoint, he is heads and shoulders above every other coach in Prague. We place a high emphasis on doing things the right way, not taking shortcuts like other teams in the league, or even the league itself. Zach is all in in the ministry here in Prague, to the point that he is fluent in Czech, not an easy task. His insider role is with the football team. He has made himself an indispensable member of the Prague Lions coaching staff and organization as a whole. He has a passion for the Lions players and the organization as a whole. He takes his role on the team seriously, always having comprehensive practice plans ready, as well as searching for sponsorship for our team. He desperately wants to see Lions guys succeed both on the football field and in life. He has put together a leadership program for the Lions Junior team (high school age) called Srdce Lva (Heart of the Lion). Zach is trying to change the culture here with the football team and is having success. I mentioned some of his work and successes in an earlier blog post.

Well that is a very brief introduction to our team. You will probably see me mention these people in future blog posts and newsletters. Please continue to pray for us and our work here in Prague. We are in the midst of our kickoff week at the university and have experienced a ton of success in the responses we are gathering from students. I will detail more of that in my next newsletter. Praise God because He is moving here.

Micah

Season Update

Hey Guys,
Our season here in the Czech Republic has come to an end. The final for the Czech League championship will be this friday. My team was not apart of the playoffs. Our season kicked off with two games before I arrived in Prague. The Lions lost both games by a significant amount. Those games were against the Prague Panthers and the Prague Blackhawks. The Blackhawks are the team that broke away from the Lions two years ago. Most of our experienced players now play for them, with a few of the better ones going to the Panthers.

My first game here was against the Ostrava Steelers. We ended up losing that game in overtime 12-6. A winnable game. Our kicker was not at the game. If he was, we would have won the game 7-6 in regulation. The next game was against the Bratislava Monarchs. We lost this game 51-0. Despite the score, this was a winnable game. We threw something like 3 pick 6's, as well as a few other interceptions that gave the Monarchs a short field. On the occasion that we didn't turn the ball over, we were three and out. The next game was against the Panthers again. We lost 48-0. While it was a difficult game, we improved so much. The following week, we played the Brno Alligators. Once again, we should have won this game, but we fell 15-7. In this game, we lost our first two running backs to injury. One dislocated his elbow 2 inches, while the other one had a significant concussion with a shoulder injury. We lost these guys on consecutive plays. With those injuries, we rolled into our last game of the season, against Ostrava, with a third string running back who is still eligible to play in the upcoming Junior season. Not wanting to risk his health for his main season, we played a pass based offense. We ran the ball literally 3 times. With an severely one sided offensive attack, we lost 35-16.

Despite these setbacks, our team made great strides this season. We had three games that we were capable of winning. Often our immaturity as a team proved to be our downfall, as we got comfortable and were eventually overtaken. As unimaginable as it may seem, we are one or two pieces from returning to title contention next season. We are actively looking for those pieces.

Right now, we need money and sponsors. The three year plan put together by Zach, and our head coach Martin, is a solid plan to return us to our former glory. We just need money. Money for equipment and personnel. An American quarterback would be a God send.

Please pray for the Lions as we continue to build for the future. As the team goes, so does part of our ministry. It all sounds very material, but it is hard to work on any plan without money. There is very little to prevent our guys from jumping ship to another team, so success in the near future is vital. If guys move to another team, then my ability to affect them on a personal level is greatly hampered. Connections that I have made and relationships that Zach and I have been working on are constantly at risk.

Pray for the guys on the team as well. Pray that they be patient in our search for success. Pray that they stick with our team through our struggles. Also, pray for their spiritual welfare. We have a couple of guys who are close to being saved. I hope and pray that The next prayer letter I send out will have a story along those lines.

Thank you all for supporting my ministry and praying for the work that we do here in the Czech Republic. Feel free to drop me a line at micahlembke@gmail.com or on facebook.

Hello

First of all, I would like to apologize for not keeping this blog updated. One of the promises I made to my supporters was to keep them aware of my situation and ministry here in Prague and I haven’t followed through. For that I apologize.

This post will be mostly information regarding the set up here with Athletes in Action, both at the University and within the Prague Lions football team. The AIA team here consists of Billy and Adrianne, Zach, Jenny, and myself. We work within the larger framework of Campus Crusade for Christ in the Czech Republic, but we are largely independent.

The university that we work at is Charles University School of Physical Education and Sport (FAKULTA TĚLESNÉ VÝCHOVY A SPORTU in Czech or FTVS for short). They teach everything from sports marketing to athletic training to coaching. Our work at FTVS is winding down, considering we are nearing the end of the school year here. At FTVS, we teach conversational English classes here in an effort to engender communication with the students. The classes have ended now that finals are upon us. We are now hosting a study break every Wednesday afternoon at 14:00 (2pm). We will host these all through finals month. Finals work differently here. As I understand it, you can take them over the course of a month, with three chances to pass them. I could be wrong, but think that is how it works.

Sports here are not connected with any high school or college, so everything is a club sport. I play and coach for the Prague Lions American Football Club. They are in the highest league in the Czech Republic. I play and coach on the senior team (ages 18+). We are in the midst of our season right now. We have two games left, plus the playoffs. We have not won a game in two years. Right after I left Prague the first time two years ago, the coaching staff at the time did not like some of the changes that were taking place with the Lions, so they told some lies and manipulated a lot of people into leaving the team and forming a new team. That left us with almost no experienced senior team members. We are still a team of boys playing in a man’s league. At times, we look like we are on the right track during games, but our youth an immaturity inevitably wins out. Our future is bright, however. Despite our recent lack of success, I see real improvement both in the personality of the players and in their play. Our junior team (high school aged) plays in the fall like we do in America and they have won the last two league championships, and it’s because of our superior coaching as compared to the other teams. Eventually, that success will work its way up to the senior team as players we have developed mature further and integrate themselves into the senior team.

Zach is the offensive coordinator for the seniors and head coach of the juniors. The split a few years ago really affected him because a lot of the guys that he had built into for years were some of those who were manipulated away to another team. As painful as that was for him, in the long run I think God’s will has become apparent in that we are able to be apart of a new beginning for the Prague Lions, as well as have the opportunity to affect a new group of people. Zach’s efforts over the last two years here are very evident to me because the guys on the team are much more open to me than the guys on the team two years ago. This has a lot to do with the culture on the team that Zach is working towards, we as well as the fact that the a lot of the guys are simply closer to my age. These first three weeks of getting to know the guys has been a lot of fun.

I think this is long enough for a first post from Prague. Over the next few days I hope to introduce you to some of the guys I play with, as well as get some pictures up from both football and the city of Prague. I appreciate all of your prayers as I have made this transition. Please continue to pray for me and my ministry.

Micah

Moving On

It's been awhile since I first posted. What has happened since January is nothing short of amazing. I finally got all of my support raised just in time to book a plane ticket. I will be leaving Monday, May 16th for Prague. I am currently sitting in a room on my fraternity at Wabash prepping for graduation on Sunday. I left my home in Iowa for the final time yesterday morning. I felt a small twinge of sadness as I departed, but that was tempered by the excitement of what lies ahead.

My family has an interesting weekend ahead. They have departed for Northwestern College in Orange City earlier today for my brother Seth's graduation on Saturday morning. Immediately following that, they will hop in a rented Suburban and drive the 670 miles to Crawfordsville, IN for my graduation on Sunday. After that, on Monday Mom and Dad are riding up to Chicago with me, where I will depart for Prague at 4:00 from O'Hare Airport.

The next few days are going to be interesting, while they lead into a more interesting next few weeks. If my schedule is correct, my first football game in Prague will be next Saturday.

Thank you all so much for your prayers!
Micah

So I have this blog...

I've always had trouble naming things. Many of my school papers had really weird titles simply because I dropped the ball when it came to names. So when it came time to title this entire blog, I froze. I thought about some Biblical principles that might apply, as well as looked at some significant verses and characters throughout the Bible. I also considered trying to find some Czech word with deeply profound meaning that could kind of serve as a war cry, during my pre-STINT and STINT tenures. As you can see, I went with neither of those options. Micah is my actual name, not inspired by the minor prophet. I settled on this name because of its simplicity. It encompasses a lot in three words. In the near future, with my newly formed legion of ministry partners, people will be able to access what God is doing through me in Prague using three simple words. With that, I would like to welcome you to Micah's Czech Blog

The name at the current time is a bit misleading because I am not in the Czech Republic. Yet. I am in the support raising process to do an international internship (STINT) with Athletes in Action (AIA). Eventually, this blog will contain information regarding my time and work in Prague, Czech Republic, but for now, it will serve as a look into my ministry partner development (Campus Crusade jargon for support raising), as well as anything that I feel like God is revealing to me through the MPD process, as well as through His word. Support raising for me in the past has always been an adventure, with some heart warming stories combined with some maddening frustration. It should be a good show, stay tuned.