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.

Zachary and Larry recently had the opportunity to attend training in Michigan to become Centershot Archery instructors. Centershot is a Christian archery organization that is using archery to introduce people to Christ. We are very excited about the possibility of using archery here in the Czech Republic. We are thankful to Centershot Ministries, Mathews Archery, and Jay's Sporting Goods for donating equipment and training. Please pray that God will provide the remaining needed resources as well as a place. If you are interested in using the Centershot program in your church or community you can find more information at www.centershotministries.org

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.