God understands Czech when we do not!

Many of you have asked what we have been doing for church...

Most Sundays we attend the Czech Baptist Church in Prague. It is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. At first this was a great adventure...listening to a sermon and singing all in Czech and trying to learn new words as we listened!

6 weeks later, it is not such an adventure :).

Sunday, the service was 2 1/2 hours long. It seemed like they were having a nice time. (Some day we will actually know what they are saying.) There is just enough room in the pews to squeeze in , so once you are in, you don't move.

***Actually we have been enjoying the singing. This Sunday, we were even able to know what song number we were on without peaking at our neighbor's hymnbook. And it is very nice to experience this...to hear people worshipping in another language and knowing God completely understands!!!

Some weeks, the children go to a children's class, and Larissa and Laini have attended. I'm sure that is as challenging for the Czech teacher as it is for them.

Playing on the Same String!

The blessing of a violin teacher -

Recently our Czech friend, Dominika, was trying to be helpful...She knew that Larissa played the violin, so she set up an appointment for us with the music school. Larissa is just a little stressed from the difficulty of communication and wasn't ready for such an undertaking yet... However, since the appointment was made, we showed up on Tuesday, with violin in hand...(thinking that Larissa was just to play a few songs so the teacher could know how far along she is). After some difficult communication, we entered a room. However, there was not just one teacher to listen; it was many. This was not what we thought it was! It was an audition to see if they would even accept her. Personally I was very nervous for her. I think at 11, I may have run out the door. But Larissa played very well and never batted an eye. (Thank you Marlyn!)

After the performance, they asked us to leave the room. We waited forever while they discussed their decision. (Well it may have only been 5 minutes, but it seemed like forever!)
Finally, the director came out, and in broken English said, "I call you to tell if it is possible."

What did that mean???? Just tell us Yes or No!! (Those may have been some of our nicer thoughts). So we left thinking that was the end of that school and we decided we would look for a teacher that could speak a little English.

Thursday the director called to set up an appoinment for Friday (to tell us if it is possible). The way he kept saying it made it sound like it was not possible. But we weren't sure why he couldn't just say no.

On Friday, he took down all of our information (I thought maybe he was appeasing us, because he still didn't tell us Yes or No). Then he led us to the room of a teacher we had not met. She spoke close to perfect English, and we liked her right away. Her name is Hana černa. After we discussed the violin, she asked us why we were in Prague. When we told her why, she said "I knew the moment you walked in that you must be a Christian. I am one also."

We discussed several other things, and then as we were leaving, she said, "It appears we are playing on the same string for many things."

For all of you who have been specifically praying for Larissa, we just want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. God was so obviously in this and Larissa, who has been anxious about many things here, was put at ease right away with this teacher.

Florbal?????

by Zachary





On Sunday night I found out that I could play in this floorball tournament for school. The teacher had tried to tell me about it, but I didn't really understand what she was saying. But, I saw a kid from my school on Sunday night and he told me about it (through an interpreter) and he asked me if I was going to play. He said I had to be at the school at 7:00 a.m. and I had to have white-soled tennis shoes. So, I went home and looked on the internet for floorball rules, and at 5 o'clock Monday morning, I got up and went with my Dad to get shoes at a 24-hour Tesco store, cause you need a certain type of shoes. Then we went to school at 7 o'clock. Then I walked to the bus stop with the other boys that were going; we got on a public bus and rode it a couple of stops to this place where there was a gym and we had a floorball tournament with other school teams. I think my team lost the whole thing. We only won one match and that was only by one point. But I had fun and didn't have to go to school.

Three ways To Know Your Not In The USA!!!

#1 Your the only ones trick-or treating and you never leave your house. (The kids found whatever they could to make costumes and we gave them candy at home. Zachary is a secret agent, Laini is a rabbit, and Larissa is a mouse.)



#2 You can ride a train anywhere you need to go. (This weekend we rode the train to Hradec Kralove with some friends. The trip down was great. The kids were in one compartment and the adults were in another. We saw a ton of deer and other stuff. On the way back there were people standing. Fortunatley we all had seats, but not together.)

#3 You buy something that has to be assembled and the directions are in 8 different languages and none of them is English.

Our Apartment

Some of you have been asking about our apartment, so here is a short tour. The video quality is not great. It is from our digital still camera, but hopefully it gives you and idea.