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

10-10-10

What a great day to celebrate! God did more than we could ask or imagine!

10-10-10 was the day of our first Worship Service in Plzen, Czech Republic.

41 local czechs (10 have been attending our weekly Bible study and the others came for the first time)

+14 people from our church in Konstantinovy Lazne came to support us. What a blessing that was!

+15 Americans (our family, 8 from Texas and an awesome couple that we are working with here in Plzen)

Our New Place!

This month we have a new place to meet...in a great location...somewhere bigger than our living room, ...and made possible by a great God, prompting believers who are excited about what He is doing in Plzen, Czech Republic.

This week 8 people from Forney, Texas were here to help us celebrate what God is doing here.

Youth Group met on Thursday and about 22 czech teenagers/young adults enjoyed games, Bible study and worship in a great new place.

With no expectations on who would come...Friday we opened up the building for anyone who wanted to come hang out... and 45 people showed up and stayed for hours just talking, eating, and playing on the Wii. It was a great opportunity to continue building relationships here in Plzen.

English Camp Plzen 2010

100 students - ages 4 to 74 - came this year to English Camp in Plzen. 16 incredible people from Forney, Texas came to teach English, build relationships with the Czechs, and most importantly to share Christ with them. We had 22 teachers total in 6 different classes ranging from beginners to advanced. In all of the classes, we had so many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ. To the advanced class, we offered the option to attend a discussion of what the Bible is all about. 14 people (teenagers and adults) attended this class.

Sharing the Best Story Ever!

This year we celebrated Easter with lots of friends (30). We used the Resurrection Eggs to tell the Easter story in Czech and English. Then we enjoyed an incredible Easter egg hunt in our back yard with lots of children and 300 eggs, and a great meal together with friends. It was a great opportunity to share the most amazing story ever, and 2 families that came to the Easter party decided to come to our Bible study on Sunday evenings.