A Reunion at School

New School Visit

In the summer of 2013 I got the opportunity to meet a young lady by the name of Martina.  She came to the English camp as a friend of Patrik's but didn't know anyone else.  She was a bit nervous but as the week went on she quickly felt more and more comfortable with everyone and had a great week.  She has claimed to be a believer but her father does not agree with Christianity.  I reached out to her earlier this year about the young group but she said that she was unable to attend because of some music lessons.  We had talked about me coming to visit her school but it hadn't worked out until last week.  The Lord's timing was perfect because we have been looking to start an English conversation group at the church for teens and we were also looking for ways to get into the schools.  This provided me with the opportunity to meet the kids in Martina's class and invite them to the English conversation group that starts tomorrow afternoon.  The class really enjoyed it and there was an added bonus that the teacher was a believer and she would like to have me come back to the school and speak with some more classes.  She also distributed the advertisement for the English conversation group to other classes at the school.  The meeting has also opened up the door once again to the possibility of Martina joining us on Friday nights.  Pray that the Lord would continue to open up the doors of the schools to me to be able to build relationships and let more and more teens know about the youth meetings.  Pray also for the English conversation group for teens that begins tomorrow.  Pray that teens would attend and enjoy themselves so that they would want to return as well as invite their friends as well.

Some of the people from Martina's class.  Martina is the one next to me.

Discussion at Youth Group

This past Friday, instead of me speaking, I decided to spend the teaching time with a discussion about religion.  I wanted to see how the teens in the group thought about religion and how they thought others in the Czech Republic, including other teens, think about religion.  It was nice because it was one of the more active nights from the teens.  It can be like pulling teeth to get them to answer questions sometimes but on Friday many different people weighed in.  It was also a good night for several other reasons.  The first reason was that Barča's friend, Nikča, came to the group once again and it looked as though she felt much more comfortable.  Other teens within the group also did a great job in making her feel welcomed and loved.  The second thing was that Anička was back at the youth group for the first time since maybe November.  She and her family have been busy over the last few months which is understandable with five kids but it was great to have her back.  The last thing that was great was that both Barča and Nikča agreed to come to the first Czech Progressive Dinner which will be this coming Friday.  Please pray for this Progressive Dinner that it would be an enjoyable evening for the teens as they get the opportunity to meet some of the families of the church and pray that it would be something that grows in popularity and becomes a great outreach tool for the teens in the future.

Barča, Klára, Sabča, Bára, and Anička playing some game with Czech words.  I opted out of this one.

Just a snack.

Radim isn't messing around.

Bára, Anička, and Nikča

Talking about all the books that Anička has read.  Míla's face lets you know its a lot of books.

Nikča and Barča

We were entertained by Barča's shirt.

Lunch invitations

The church members here in Poruba have been such a blessing to me in trying to make sure that I don't feel lonely while I am here.  They have been inviting me for lunch on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year.  I visited Renča and her two daughters for lunch.  The girls had been asking for me to come and have lunch and play Settlers of Catan with them.  I have spent many years avoiding playing that game in Elverson with the Stoltzfuses but these two girls convinced me to play.  Renča adopted these two girls three years and they are all much happier for it.

Janička and Kačka

Sunday Service

The Sunday service is always an interesting time for me because unless I am preaching I need someone to translate the sermon for me and pretty much all of the worship songs are in Czech so I don't know exactly what is being sung but happy that people are praising the Lord in their own language.  I have grown close to the Navrátilovi family over the last six months or so as they are close neighbors and members of the church.  The father, Mírek, loves music and is one of the worship leaders at the church.  Somewhere he heard that I wasn't a terrible singer and asked if I would do a few English songs with him.  So this is a picture of us beginning the service with a duet in English.