Mid-February Update

Slaves to Sin

This past Friday night at youth group I spoke about Moses and the journey of the Israelite nation through the desert.  We spoke about the 10 Commandments and our addiction to sin.  The group was a bit larger than it had been in a few weeks as people seemed to be feeling a bit better after the flu ran through the schools in the Czech Republic.  We have been having the teens share in more of the responsibility within the group such as MCing during the evening and coming up with and running the games each week.  This week Barča led the games and had some interesting ones.

This coming Friday we will not be meeting as a youth group because this week is the Spring Break for the schools in Ostrava.  I know you're thinking, "Spring Break, its freezing here in PA," but here it is just starting to warm up so many of the people from the group are headed to places like Austria, Italy, and Hungary to do some skiing and possibly some shopping.  So I was surprised with a week off.  We are in the middle of the planning stages of the first Progressive Dinner here in Ostrava and maybe in the whole of Czech Republic.  Pray that the teens would signup to come and that they would invite friends to the event.  Families here have agreed to open up their homes to these teens as a way of showing support for the group and building relationships with the teens.

Changes to English Conversation

Over the last few months we have had lower numbers with the English conversation group that meets on Thursday afternoons.  The original idea was to have some English lessons for smaller children with a woman from the church here in Poruba and while the children learn the parents had the opportunity to meet with me for English conversation.  Ratka and her husband have just adopted a little boy and so she has not had time to do the children's program because of this we have decided to change the format a little.  Beginning in March we will have two English conversation groups.  One will be in the evening for adults.  We pray that moving the time back a little will give more adults the ability to attend after work.  The second English conversation will be for teens in the afternoon.  We pray that we can use this as a means to build relationships with more of the teens in the area that they might consider coming to join our Friday night group.  We also pray that we will be able to use this as a means to build relationships with the schools as well to give me more opportunities to get into the schools.