Škola v Přírodě

It is typical for Czech schools to take their students on a week of school in nature. As an international school in the Czech Republic, with some Czech staff, CISP also takes the middle school students on Škola v Přírodě or School in Nature. The students had chances to be active, use map reading skills, spend time in nature, work on teamwork, have Bible devotions, and learn a little more about Czech history and culture.

 Tuesday, we went on a long bike ride through small Czech villages, through the woods, up and down large hills, and over steams.








Our group ended up following the wrong trail and went in the wrong direction. We probably went about 15 kilometers more than originally planned,

meaning we went about 35-40 kilometeres total.

 Good thing there was ice cream waiting for them at the end of the trip! They were happy about that.

 Thursday, we took a tour of a Czech castle called Červená Lhota. We learned about the history of the castle and the family who used to live there.

 After the castle we went to a museum in the Czech town of Jindřichův Hradec. The picture is of the castle in that town. At the museum we saw the world's largest mechanical (moving) nativity scene.

Thursday evening we had them focus on team building through slack line activities and an activity called the "spider web". They had different goals for getting across the slack line. And for the spider web, they had to get their team through the wholes without the person touching the ropes. 

The staff also decided we should try to go through the spider web as well. 

 Our hiking day was Friday. In our groups, we broke out the maps again and found the best routes in wooded trails and on roads to get to a tower over looking a part of the country called Česká Kanada.

Later on in our hike, the students had a chance for some more team building. They had to build a fire. This fire was used for them to roast their snack on, which was sausages they had to get by rowing to an island across a lake.

 They also had to order themselves in specific ways on a log without falling off. They did pretty well working together and helping others not fall off in the process of moving.

By the end of this day, their map reading skill improved greatly. We made it back to our camp, going through beautiful woods, without any problems.  

Saturday morning, before packing up to leave, the students talked a little bit about what they learned. These are some of the things they said.

• How to read a map. 
• How to be patient with people in our group. 
• How to trust other people when they have the map. 
• That we don't always understand maps, just like we don't always understand God, but in the end they both get us to the best destination. 
• That their bike rides or hikes are kind of like life in the way that they weren't always easy, perfect, safe, or clearly marked out, but they were good. And sometimes those hard parts ended up leading to the best parts. 

Praises: 

1. No one was hurt to the point of needing to go to the hospital (which has happened in the past). 
2. Our students worked well as teams and learned cooperation. 
3. Our students were able to have fun, learn practical skills, and grow closer to God through it all. 

Prayer Requests: 

1. That our students will take what they learned and apply it to their lives. 
2. That the relationship that grew and bonding that occurred wouldn't fade away when school starts again on Monday. 
3. Pray for rest for our students as they are all very tired, and they have one day to rest before having to be ready to go at school on Monday.