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the new czech project is kicking it on facebook and else where…

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That’s right and you need to check it out! I was tempted to say “Czech it Out” but I have been hear too long to do that, I think… 🙂 So here you go, you have 3 options:

  1. Go to the EVENT PAGE
  2. Join the GROUP, BECOME A MEMBER
  3. BECOME A FAN

This is our attempt to try to do the “viral marketing” (I guess, “viral recruiting”) thing with the project. Thus the two newest videos that I cranked out. You can find the full video and the teaser in a number of places too!

  1. VIMEO (which I have a small love affair with, um, not really!) – FULL VERSION or TEASER
  2. YOUTUBE – FULL VERSION or TEASER
  3. At facebook links above

Ok, I do need to be honest vimeo, rocks my stinkn’ face off! So much sleeker than youtube and it just has a better feel to is. {insert “arrogant mac guy” comment against pcs here;-)} One of the cool features of vimeo is you can download the video! Check it out, it’s in the bottom right hand corner under the stats area. I also hope to get the two videos up on my podcast feed via iTunes soon, so you can rock them on your video iPod too (click the little dude below to subscribe!).

podcast_guy.jpg

So many options I know! I really hope this helps us with recruiting and that God would use it to call God-loving, passionate, sport-loving, culture engaging Christ-followers here this summer on the summer project and beyond! Pass the word, or video, or link, or whatever might come next on to someone you think might be interested! Thanks and as always – Be a revolution!

is zach alive?

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Well hello, yes I am alive… I haven’t blogged since my birthday, in MAY?!?! Yes that is a true statement. Wow, as said before, it seems that when life accelerates here in Prague, my blog is the first thing neglected. Which is understandable but at the same point, I’m not a fan of the neglection of zACHhARROD.com! You might have been wondering, “What Zach has been up to over the last couple of months,” or you might not care at all, either way my last 3 months were filled with our AIA Czech Project, a coaches trip to Berlin, Czech Senior Nat’l Team training camp, a 2 week AIA Holland/Czech co-op Project in Southeast Czech, a much needed holiday away (in Sweden), another Czech Senior Nat’l Team training camp, a “friendly” game against Slovakia with the Czech Senior Nat’l Team and this week it’s been all Czech Junior Nat’l Team! It’s been full but great! So many great opportunities and I’m thankful that God continues to bring them and I pray that He is using me in the midst of all of these opps…. I thought it would be fun to share some vids of the Czech Senior Nat’l Team with you. We actually got a lot of press on Czech TV over the last couple of weeks, which is great for the game here in Czech. The first video is from the first news spot we were on:


The second is a quick highlight video, I threw together for the team.

Please keep the Czech Junior Nat’l Team in your prayers as we drive through the night and play our first game against Holland tomorrow. It will be tough, but if we get some sleep on the bus and don’t have mental mistakes we can win the game. Then we will take on the winner of the Great Britain – Serbia game on Sunday, if we win and the loser if we lose. It will be a whirlwind weekend as we leave Prague at 6:00 pm Thursday night and will get back at 8:00 am on Monday! Pray for a safe trip, hard fought games, no injuries and spiritual convos! If you want to read more about the tournament click here. BE A REVOLUTION!

slowing down…

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That’s me. That’s me learning a bit about slowing down. See the majority of this week I was quarantined to my house, and this particular couch is my favorite. You may ask, “Whom quarantined you Zach?” Simply put, God.

Yes, I said God. It wasn’t my boss, my coach, this culture or a co-worker, but God. God wanted to get my attention, he wanted me to slow down. See I’ve been going hard, like most of us, for quite some time and it would seem to have caught up with me. It was in this that God got my attention and caused me to slow down. This might make some people squirm a bit, saying that God has made me slow down, but I was reminded of it once again, as I read Psalm 23.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake. vv. 1-3, emphasis added

I’ve always pondered and wondered about those verses I have in bold font. They are God acting statements, not me acting, but God acting. God makes me rest. God grabs my hands and leads me to quite places and into places of right standing before Him. God brings restoration to my soul. Why does God do all of this? For “His name’s sake.” So that He would be made much of in my life and in this particular situation, through my resting. Really? Can that be true? Can I rest in such a way that God is glorified?

He can be. Recently for the Czech Project I did a ‘foundations talk’ and I included some great stuff from my friends at Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA about our Gospel Identities and Daily Rhythms. You should head over to their site and check out what they are doing! One of the Daily Rhythms is (re)creating, and as I’ve been stuck in ‘my cave’ (i.e. flat) this week I’ve been reminded of what I heard Jeff Vanderstelt, pastor at Soma, share about the Daily Rhythms at a church planting conference here in Czech last fall.

“The Gospel also enables people to truly rest when not working, because they know that God is always working – they don’t have to worry that their lack of work will prevent the world from spinning.”

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t say that Gospel always impacts the way I rest and I continually need it to. If I don’t believe this Gospel then I will falsely believe that I have far greater control than I can imagine, including far more control in respects to my salvation and the salvation of others. The Gospel should thus enable me to rest knowing that everything, everything is under God’s providential hand, thus enabling me to rest. There’s a bit more…

“Because God has accomplished everything necessary for our justification and is the one who will finish the work He started in us, we can rest. Whether working, playing, sleeping or creating – we rest in His work and His abilities and His power. Our rest then is not only a result of the Gospel, but a demonstration to the world not at rest in the gospel.”

I need not try to justify myself through ministry, work, maintaining an image or etc. Ultimately, if God has done the work of my justification I can rest and rest well. The question is, ‘Do I (you) rest well?’ Then by me resting well, I can demonstrate that I am not trying to save the world, that I’m not trying to work for my justification, but that I ultimately trust God. Of course, we need to be careful here and not take this to an extreme, becoming passive bystanders, that never do anything more than rest, claiming that God’s a work, therefore I need not do any more than rest. The Gospel calls us to rest and also act, but it impacts the way we rest and the way we act. Do you believe the Gospel this way? Do I believe the Gospel way? May we act with a deep love and boldness like never before believing this Gospel and may we also rest deeper knowing that God is on His thrown upholding “the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). Slowing down….

the project has begun…

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Wow, has it really been over 10 days since my last blog entry? Dang! I’m so, so sorry. I have been delinquent, will you forgive me? If I have any readers remaining out there, after a sparse few months of blogging. I’ll see what I can do about that in the midst of things here. One of the reasons I had a 10+ day blog silence is because the Czech Project has started. That has pulled me away from my blog. But no fear Rach is figuring out this blog thing pretty quick and you can head over to her blog for some reading in the void of me not getting on the blog train in this season.

You might be wondering what’s up with the project this summer. Well, we were planning on having a minimum 6 students this summer to make the project go, well a month out that didn’t happen. So as we prayed about it we decided to go forward with the project. We had hoped for about 4 projectees (or maybe projectors, or students), but we got two. So we are pushing forward with the project in the midst of this, I’ve jokingly said it is more of Proj-ship – a mix of a project and an internship. I’m excited we decided to move forward, because this project serves our ministry here for three reasons:

  1. To help us, as a staff team, grow in leadership, and also building into student-leaders, with the hope that they may join us in the future, and if they don’t that the would be lifetime laborers for the Gospel.
  2. To bring cohesiveness and synergy within our team here.
  3. To help infuse a fresh breath of fresh air, as having new people always brings in a new level of energy.

Thus far, four days in it would appear that this is happening. It also means that I am prepping talks and doing a fair amount in that area, which I love, but I’ve found it tough in the midst of still being in season, trying to set up my trip to the States this summer, doing relationship well, as well as doing community well, coming off a long, hard year and more. God is showing up and bringing balance and rest in it all. I know by the time I get used to it, June 22nd will be here and it will have been behind us, so I’m trusting, praying and working hard to get after it all now. I (we) would love your prayers for us this summer, as we push forward!

late night procrastination…

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Oh my… So I am somewhat the media department for AIA||Czech Republic and that has meant that I’ve slowly acquired the tools to create quality pieces for us, as well as ways to express myself creatively, and much more. During my trip back to the States, I acquired another couple of pieces to add to those tools and I’m stoked to use them. I’m currently working on conceptualizing, shooting and editing a promo for the Czech Project, but in doing so I’m trying to learn how to use these tools while I’m in the process of creating. I’m thankful for the world we now live in that allows me to find and consume information and etc. so quickly but it could also lead to hours of sitting and “learning” (let’s just call it that, it makes me feel better, but in reality it’s procrastinating a little, I guess!). In that I stumbled upon the videos of a guy, named Ugurcan Kara, on vimeo and I love what he is doing! He is using something called the “Magic Bullet Look,” which I’m trying to figure out how to join in this look, but do it under a budget. Anyway, I wanted to share two of his videos that have served as inspiration and procrastination at the same time for me! I really want to do some projects like these, just beautiful work! Enjoy!


balon from ugurcan kara on Vimeo.


bittersweet from ugurcan kara on Vimeo.

i need your help…

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Alright, I really need your help! So please, please use the response feature on my blog after you read this and let me know what you think and help me out with some ideas! So I’ve told you before about the Czech Project and us having it here this summer, and we are thinking through curriculum, recruiting, and etc. One of the things on my plate is a 30 second video spot that we will use on youtube, facebook and the web to get people thinking and praying about it. So here is where I need your help, I don’t know what to wrap the video around, themes, how to get people excited and etc. Will you help me? Here are some questions:

  1. What themes related to an international summer missions trip would get you to consider coming?
  2. What makes your heart beat?
  3. What images, sounds, sights would get you thinking and praying about it?
  4. Flat out, do you have any ideas for me?

Remember it’s only a 30 second piece, but my [our] hope is that it will be something that grabs people and can be a good ‘get to the site and start praying about spending a month here’ type of video. Thanks in advance for your help! I’ll be shooting it and editing it after Christmas. Be a Revolution!

sign up! {slightly updated}

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That sexy logo you see above is a little magic from my stud of a graphic designer friend, Mike Gorter, (Mike did a sweet skyline of Prague for me, thanks again Mike!) and a bit of tweaking on my part. I like how it came out. I wanted to blend the old, classiness of Prague with a very contemporary, urban font and after trying some 20 variations our staff team sided on the first one, which you see above. So you can head over to the AIA site to read more about the project, and if you are a college athlete pray and consider joining our wonderful staff team, in this wonderful city, for a wonderful month next summer, and then tell your friends to do the same! Be a Revolution today!

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