Trick-or-Treating for the 1st time

This year, we invited our neighbors to "Trick or Treat" at our house for Halloween. It was very exciting to the families since this is not a Czech tradition. We had a fun "Fall party" with lots of activities. Laini dressed up like a Cowgirl. Larissa was a lunch-lady!!!

Success

Tuesday was the 20th Anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the fall of communism, in the Czech Republic. To celebrate I went hunting and shot my first deer here. It is a Sika deer. I also got to meet and talk with some of the other hunters. All in all a great day.

Cowboy Poet

Last week we had the pleasure of spending time with Lanny Joe and Cindy Burnett. Lanny Joe is a cowboy poet. We took him with us to visit the English classes in one of the Czech schools. The students loved it. Here's a video of a song we did.

www.lannyjoe.com

English Club and Bible Study

In September we started an English Conversation Class in our home on Thursday evenings and a Bible Study on Sunday evenings. We had our "kick-off" while FBC Forney, TX was here.

The English Club has been so much fun with a different topic every week (anything from cowboys to families, to carving pumpkins.) We love the Czechs that come each week!

The Bible Study for now is in both languages (English/Czech) and it has been a true pleasure to hear from God's Word in both languages....to worship in Czech and English and to watch as people really begin to understand Who God is.

Baptism with the Czech church at Konstantinovy Lazne

This was a truly beautiful service.

English Camp in Plzen July, 2009

65 Czechs attended our first English Camp in Plzen. 10 people came from FBC Forney, TX to teach. They did an awesome job. The team was able to share the gospel during the week, and it was incredible to watch as God was opening the hearts of Czechs to listen to the Good News of Jesus.

Cookies from Mistakes

Sunday Night English Club - This English lesson was on Homophones and the Bible lesson was about how God changed Paul's life. So this trick was great for both... Zachary made cookies from flower (not flour), coke (soda not baking soda), chips (potato not chocolate) and an egg-and somehow got delicious chocolate chip cookies. God can take our mistakes and make something beautiful!!

Larissa's Violin Recital

 
We had the privilege of going to the Alps in Italy with our Czech friends! (3 other families)  It was a wonderful trip.  The skiing was great, the time with our friends was wonderful, the time with our family was a blessing, and the Sunshine was perfect!

  

Laini Zachary

Larissa and Tobias (who loves her)

The trip to Italy

It is still amazing to us that we can be to the mountains in Italy in less than the time it takes to get from Pennsylvania to Virginia.  

    
Here we are -stuck on the "fast" German Autobahn.  The kids were so excited to see snow just an hour outside of Prague.  Prague is always cloudy and cold, but we don't get much snow.

 

We always enjoy seeing the towers and castles built in the mountainside along the way.

Zachary, Larissa and Laini in Switzerland.  Switzerland was incredibly beautiful.

Carp for Christmas Eve!

A few days before Christmas, you can buy carp from one of these vendors all over Prague.

Then they live in your bathtub until it is time to cook Christmas Eve dinner (carp and potato salad).  This is William and Mary. 

Czech Christmas Traditions

This Christmas, we enjoyed some fun Czech traditions...

(1) We loved shopping at the Christmas markets on the squares!

(2) Mikulas comes on the evening of December 5 to bring gifts to good children.  Laini enjoyed singing to this Mikulas in exchange for a piece of candy.  Last year she sang an American song, but this year she sang in czech -Kocka Leze Diru.

(3) Families float candles (made in walnut shells) in water and determine their next year's luck by whether or not their candle floats or sinks.  We just thought they looked beautiful on our Christmas table.

(4) Cukrovi (Christmas cookies) are very important!!!

(5) And of course-you must have a live tree!!  It is funny to me to carry a tree through the streets of Prague and then up an elevator.