Czech .... the International Language

Today we had a precious experience that was an incredible way to end our first term here in the Czech Republic....

Every Sunday at noon, the Russian Baptist Church (which consists of people from all Eastern European countries) meets at our building for their worship service.  Our Czech Bible study group meets every Sunday evening at 6:00.

Today we combined our services and had a beautiful International service.  We sang praises in English, Czech and Russian and also heard great sermons in those languages.  Larry spoke in English and Lev (the Russian pastor) spoke in Russian and both were translated to Czech.  It is funny to us for Czech to be the common language...we jokingly say it is the "mezinarodni jazyk" (the international language).

At one point my friend Radka leaned over and said, "All my life I heard from Russians that the US is the enemy,... and now today we are hearing the Word of God from an American and a Russian side by side.

There were about 75 to 80 people worshiping!  About 1/3 of the people were from our group, 1/3 from the Russian church and 1/3 came from our church in Konstantinovy Lazne.

At the end of the service, the pastor from Konstantinovy Lazne gave a great challenge to the believers here, and then he said the kindest words to us and they prayed for us as we will be away for 6 months.

God blesses us in so many ways, but He has truly blessed us with precious Czech friends, and we will really miss them while we are in the States.

4 Amazing Years

4 years ago (October 7, 2007) we said goodbye to friends and family, got on a plane in Atlanta, Georgia with our 18 pieces of luggage and began a new adventure in our lives....and what an adventure it has been!

In June 2009, we moved from Prague to Plzen with the goal of telling Czechs about Jesus, discipling new believers and starting a church. Honestly, in any culture it is a daunting task. But how incredible to watch God do something that only He can do...that is...to change the hearts of Czechs and in the process to stretch and grow our family as well.

In the past 4 years, we have seen several people recognize their need for a Savior and invite Christ into their lives, we have watched new believers grow in their faith, we have watched as God has orchestrated little details to make amazing things happen, we have been blessed immensely by mission teams who have come sacrificially to share Christ with Czechs and in the process spoil us.

Okay, the truth is sometimes the differences in cultures can be so aggravating, and learning the language is so difficult and honestly, sometimes we really miss our friends and family in the states, our old house in Pennsylvania, bologna-faced sandwiches from Grandma, our dog Sage, cheetos, tex-mex food....

...but what we have gotten in return has been so worth it.

English Camp Plzen 2011

Picture 1-the children's class as Statues of Liberty
Picture 2- evening English conversation

This year we again offered an intensive English course to the people of Plzen. We met Monday through Friday 9-3:30 with about 120 people attending ages 5 and up. We had classes for all ages and language levels, and we also offered evening English conversation every evening and the room was packed every night.

27 people from Texas (Florida and Idaho) came to teach English, make relationships with Czechs and to share Christ's love. It was an incredible group and they were a huge blessing because they have such servant hearts, they were so flexible, and most of all they love the Czech people and really built relationships with them that will continue even overseas.

A few people accepted Christ as their Savior, and for us one of the best things was to watch the Czech believers speak out about their faith.

Family Camp in the Krkonose Mountains

This year we were able to help our friends with a family English camp. We knew many of these families when we lived in Prague, so we were glad to help with this one. It was a great week. The theme was the Fruit of the Spirit so we played some very fruity games :-). Every morning we divided into groups and had English lessons, then in the afternoons we were free to explore the incredibly beautiful Krkonose Mountains. What an amazing Creator we have!! Every evening we came back together for some songs, skits and a testimony about one of the fruits of the Spirit. There were 40+ czechs plus 12 Americans. Corley Padgett and Robert Cooper came from Texas to help and they were awesome. It was a great week to talk about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that comes from a God who loves us!

Using football to share the love of Christ

In June, 5 men came from Forney, Texas to spend a week with the Plzen Patriots. A few of them are coaches in Texas and some just like to play football, and they came to share their love of football and most importantly- God with the Plzen Patriots.

It really was an incredible week of building relationships with Zachary and Larry's teammates and also for sharing Christ with them. The Patriots loved it. They were so excited about the Americans who were willing to come teach them how to play football better.

The guys gave each player a bag of gifts (mouth guards, t-shirts, ... and a tract). The week after they left, Larry was on the field with the team and someone asked him some questions about what we believe about. He said, "Because, I've been reading this paper and ...." The second player, piped in and said, "Yeah I have it by my bed and I read it every night." The third player responded, "Yeah, but I keep it with me in my wallet, look here it is..."

So what do you like to do? play football? maybe something different? Whatever you like to do, enjoy it, but at the same time, use it for God wherever you are!

And if God lays it on your heart to come to Plzen for a week to use your talent/passion to reach Czechs... give us a call, we would love to have you!

Children's Day in Konstantinovy Lazne

In a small spa town in western Czech (about 45 minutes from where we live) there is a baptist church that we attend as often as we can. The people there have been such a blessing to us. Every spring Czechs celebrate children's day and on this day our church sponsors a carnival in the park for the local children. This year, our family was able to go and teach archery. It was a big hit. The children and adults loved it!

One Amazing Day!

Celebrating Victory in Europe and more importantly

Victoryin the lives of 2 incredible young ladies!

On May 8, we celebrated Larry's birthday, Mother's day and VE day in the best way...with the baptisms of Vera and Bara. Vera accepted Christ during the week of our 2010 English camp in Plzen. Bara,who had also attend our English camp, came to us a few months ago with many questions as she was searching for the Truth. Both have beautiful testimonies and are growing in Christ.

Take Aim!

This semester Larry offered an archery course as an outreach to the community. Those attending really enjoy learning archery and Larry is able to share Christ with them and each week he teaches truths from God's Word that are related to archery.

Digging up our roots!

Easter Monday, Larry and his parents went to Moravia (near the Slovakian border), to a village called Zadverice, to see where Larry's ancestors used to live. They were able to meet Ladislav Sebesta who is a distant cousin of Shirley. He took them to the original homestead where Pavel and Rosina Sebesta lived before moving to Texas in 1851.

Our children are the 7th generation from the generation that moved from the Czech lands to America. I guess it was time to come back to the Czech lands!!

Easter in Plzeň

We began the Easter holiday with a Seder dinner. For most it was an unheard of event and they were very interested to learn more. It is such an awesome way to show that Jesus is our Passover Lamb! Several who attended had many questions and are really wanting to know more about Jesus.

On Sunday evening, we celebrated by first- telling the most amazing story ever-the story of Jesus!... and then we hid over 400 eggs in our yard. This is not a Czech tradition so it is really something special for them to participate in. The children and teens had so much fun looking for the eggs, then they hid some eggs for their parents and I think the parents had more fun looking for the eggs than the children. Larry's parents brought some great American candy to fill the eggs with!

Christmas in Czech

Here are some pictures of Christmas time in the Czech Republic...

1. Carp on the street corner ready to be taken home for Christmas dinner

2. Czech cukrovi (Christmas cookies) and the Nativity...2 important parts of a Czech Christmas

3. Live nativity at the town square

4. Laini's class play

Celebrating what God has done in our lives...this year we invited our friends and neighbors to join us for Thanksgiving dinner. About 50 people joined us for turkey and lots of food, music, and some Thanksgiving traditions. Through a skit, we told the story of the first Thanksgiving. (We had great pilgrims and indians).

And we were so thankful for the new building in which to have this event. It would have been a little crowded in our house.

American Football in Plzeň???????

Plzeň has an American football team called the Patriots. Zachary is on the junior team (ages 15 -19). This was only the second year they have had a junior team and they took a year off in between, so their record wasn't so great, 0-6. But they had a lot of fun.

English, Coffee and Uganda = a great evening

We offered our first "English Coffee House" and the special guest speaker was a local believer and geography professor with a love for Uganda. He just published a book (in English and Czech) about Uganda, "Pearl Rising from the Dust".

Larissa in Turkey

No, I didn't say Larissa is a turkey, but she was in Turkey :-)

Along with a school from Hungary, Turkey and Germany, Larissa's class went to Torbali,Turkey to work on some European project together. It was a great opportunity for her; she was able to visit Ephesus and meet other students from all over Europe.

Fall Party with Friends

We invited our friends and neighbors for some Fall fun!

Each child got to "Trick or Treat" at each inside door of our house. Then we had lots of games, food and fun and fellowship!

Christmas in October

I would say that we had the most memorable Christmas ever! So what if our Christmas tree was a lamp, and the rest of our house was being prepared for a Fall party...Grandma and Aunt Mindy were here and after a great week with them... we enjoyed an awesome Christmas.

...perfume from Egypt, cool knives from Saudi Arabia, and great clothes from America :-) ...

but most of all- a fun time with 2 great people