Easter, Surprises?

Second Meeting of the Regional Youth Groups

Last Friday night we had our second meeting of the regional youth groups.  In November, our group hosted the first meeting with lots of interaction between the youth groups so that people could get a chance to know each other a little bit.  This was the vision of the pastors when they first discussed this idea.  When we met at the church in the center of Ostrava there were more people in attendance then the first meeting and they had a great band to lead worship for the evening.  I am not certain but I think that the worship was done by professionals or at least they got paid for it that night and there were people who came that evening that were not involved in any of the youth groups but came for the band.  For our group I think the evening was a little difficult because the evening was full of talks and worship and for many of the teens, especially those who are not believers this is tough to sit through for 3 hours.  There also were not many opportunities for our group to get to know many new people through games and the like but hopefully if we do this again that change will be made.

Pray that the Lord would use opportunities like this for these teens to be encouraged in the knowledge that there are other teens just like them trying to follow the Lord in a society that sees faith in anything as ridiculous.

Good Friday

On Friday evening I got the opportunity to speak with some of the teens from the youth group and an older gentleman (who came early for the movie) about what Christ suffered on our behalf.  For most of the people in the Czech Republic, the Easter weekend is little more than a day off from work on Easter Monday.  This was the first Easter season that this church has had a building of their own so they used the opportunity to show a movie about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection to anyone from the community that was interested to see.  Because of this, Youth Revolution only had about an hour to meet but during that time we were able to play a game and then I spoke about the brutality of crucifixion as well as the separation from the Father that Christ suffered because of our sin.  After I finished speaking, I took a play out of the Steve Estes playbook and asked the teens to write down their sins on a piece paper and nail it to a big log that we used to represent the cross.  I know when CEFC did this several years back it was a very powerful and real experience for me.  Pray that they would consider what they were doing and what it was representing and that that experience might either draw them to Christ or give them an even better understand and appreciation of the faith that they already have.  This has already opened up some opportunities to speak with some of the teens a little more frankly about what they believe and has opened up Patrik once again to talk more specifically about Christianity.  Pray for me as I talk with him and pray for him and pray for Patrik as well as I asked him to begin talking to God each day about something, anything.

Velikonoce

So, today I was introduced to a very big Czech Easter tradition.  By the way, the word Velikonoce mean Easter in Czech.  In the United States we can all remember searching around the back yard or the park to find the Easter eggs that have been hidden, here the tradition is a little different.  You have to chase down the keepers of the eggs and hit them with a stick known as a pomlázka.  The keepers of the eggs are females.  Young girls and grown women alike will take time either decorating eggs or cookies or getting chocolate.  I assume that you are reading this with some sense shock.  I know that I was was really surprised and a bit offended to tell you the truth.  I had the custom explained to me by several people and they said that the custom promotes youth and fertility in the women.  I kept telling people that I would just ask for eggs instead of hitting them and they said, "No you have to hit us."  So, this morning I hiked with about 15 people from the church to the highest point in Ostrava which is actually a hill made of the dirt and sulfur excavated from the coal mines.  We just don't do hiking like they do in Europe.  It was about an hour and a half to reach the top and hour and a half or so back down and I think that for the most part they all thought it to be no big deal.  My knee said otherwise, but as you can tell by the fact that you are receiving this update, I made it back down.  When we got to the top and the chase began, I stood back and watched for a few moments deciding if it was something that I felt ok with taking part in.  What I saw was a very playful interaction between brothers and sisters in Christ.  It is true that some men in this culture abuse this tradition and actually try to inflict pain but our group would just tap each other.  For me, having grown up in American society, I am very sensitive to the various types of abuse that some women endure everyday and I don't want to belittle an ounce of the suffering that they endure but I want to give you a view into the culture here.  Sadly, for most people here, this is the only thing that they think of when they think about Easter, instead of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Pray that more and more people would come to understand the real meaning of Easter instead of focusing on old pagan fertility rituals.  And pray for any situations in which men abuse this tradition and abuse the girls and women in their lives both physically and emotionally.

A view of Ostrava from the top of the hill.  (My legs still hurt!)

Me and the pomlázka that I was given.

The sharing of candy and eggs.

The egg on the left was made by Eliška and the egg on the right was made by her sister Táňa.  If you don't recognize the names, both girls are from the church and involved in the youth group each week.

Táňa was a big reason why I participated in the tradition.  She spent four hours painting personalized eggs and mine was the one that took the longest.  If you can't tell it is an egg version of me with an orange tie and a blue cardigan sweater, the outfit that I wore the day before at church.

Here is a group picture from today.  You can't tell how tired everyone is.