Moving Into The Summer

Noc Kostelů

A little more than a week ago the church here in Poruba took part in Noc Kostelů which means Night Churches.  It is an evening where churches in the area open up their doors on a Friday to anyone from the community.  Each church has a short program in about 30 minute intervals and people can come and check out the church, enjoy and take part in some worship, maybe hear a little lesson or testimony and leave and check out another church.  It gives people a chance to see the different kinds of programs and facilities churches have to offer.  Because it was on Friday night youth group had to be cancelled that week but we had a few of our teens serving with Radim as they led worship that evening.  Several people from the church gave their testimony and I was asked to give a testimony also.  It was interesting to see the Lord work that evening because during my time slot a group of about 15 teens came and got to hear about how the Lord orchestrated my coming to serve Him here with the youth.  It was interesting because all of the teens were social and ethnic group that is considered to be the bottom wrung of society here, living in the poorer areas of the city and are often linked to many different crimes in particular theft.  The ministry that brought these teens to our church that night focuses on this group and shows them the love of Christ when many others would quickly dismiss them.  I got the chance to speak with a couple of them after my testimony and I really enjoyed it.  Please pray not only for this ministry but also for this group of people in general.  Pray that the Lord would be working in the hearts of people from these communities and that more Czech believers would take the chance to show the love of Christ to these people.

The youth band continuing to serve the church in general as they prepare to lead worship this summer at the English Camp.

Warmer Weather Means Park Evangelizing 

Over the last week or so it has been particularly warm here in Ostrava.  I know in Pennsylvania we are used to it being in the mid to upper 80's but here that is just not very common.  I don't think that it has ever been that warm while I was here during the summer for English camps but it is threatening to get that warm this summer.  We have had a few straight days with the temperature right around 80-82 degrees but with apartment buildings and pretty much no AC people can get pretty warm pretty easily, especially me who is used to going from my air conditioned house to my air conditioned car to my air conditioned job.  Because of the warm weather and promises of many ice cream shops on street corners people can often be found outside under trees in the park or walking their dogs instead of sweating it out in their apartments.  This helps to create perfect opportunities to talk with people about Jesus as they relax in the afternoon.  On several occasions during the fall I had the chance to walk around some of the local parks and talk with people about Christianity and Jesus with Jarda.  Well, Jarda did most of the talking and I was there as kind of protection but sometimes the Lord opens opportunities for me to talk as well.  On Wednesday afternoon we spoke with four different groups of people and thankfully half of them were willing to speak with us.  Both were willing to take literature about the church, English camp, and most importantly the story of the work of Christ as well as the change that Christ made in the life of Jarda.  We maybe have also even found another family to attend the English camp this summer.  Pray that the Lord would use these 10 or 15 minute talks to change the lives of people.  Pray also that more and more people would be receptive to at least talk.

Beginning A New Series

As we begin into the summer months I wanted to begin a new series with the youth group.  Earlier in the year I did a series on Heroes of the Bible to give people in the group who don't have much experience with the Bible a little knowledge about some of the people from the Old Testament.  I wanted to show how the Old Testament is connected to the new and in fact finds completion in the person of Jesus Christ.  This new series however is called, "God, Who Is He?"where we will take a look at a different attribute of God and discuss it a little bit.  And on Friday I began with a lesson on the holiness of God.  Please pray that as we go through this series the teens and leaders alike would really think about who God is.  Pray also that we would continue to see good attendance even as the weather gets warmer and we go into summer vacation.