After a busy week

First Week of English Conversation Groups

This past week, I began once again with the English conversation groups.  One group is for teens and the other is for anyone teenage and above.  We advertised the meetings on Facebook, and through personal invitation.  The teen group was small the first week but several people who could not make it said that they were interested so hopefully we will see them over time.  The adult group had a much better turnout with several regulars from last year and at least one new person attended the first week.  These conversation groups are not only an opportunity to serve the community but also a means of introducing people to the church building and some of the people from the church.  Pray that these groups might yield some people visiting the church on a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon.

YOLO

YOLO is an acronym for, "You Only Live Once."  It was made popular a couple of years ago to promote I lifestyle of throwing caution to the wind and enjoying everything that THIS life has to offer.  At the youth meeting I spoke of living a life devoted to serving others and serving the Lord rather than our own sinful and selfish desires and the immeasurably greater reward that we will receive in heaven.  There are so many things that American and Czech society tell young people that they should spend their lives going after; money, fame, pleasure and things but these things can not fill the hole in our souls that only the Lord can fill.  Pray for these young people as they are constantly bombarded with this wrong ideal in the media and from their friends.  Pray that the Lord in His mercy would give them the grace and obedience to follow Him and receive rewards in heaven much greater than anything that we can find here.  On another note there is a young lady that is friends with a young couple from the church.  She has recently become a believer and would like to join our Friday night group.  While talking with Pastor Petr she asked, "If you can only go to heaven by putting your faith in Jesus, what should be done about all those who don't know about the gospel?"  Petr replied, "We tell them."  Her response was to say that she wants to bring her friends from school to the youth group. On Sunday afternoon, she brought her mother, an atheist to church with her.  I can't remember her name at the moment but please pray for this young lady as she seeks to know the Lord better and tell those around about the good news of Jesus Christ.

In the middle of one of our games last week.

Julian and Petr as I explain to them the show, "The Office."

Having some fun singing some Pop songs after the meeting.

Sunday's sermon

This past Sunday I spoke on worship from 2 Samuel 6:12-23.  My goal in the sermon was to encourage those who felt like they needed to restrain themselves during worship because of what others around them might think.  I also wanted to warn others to examine their own hearts when they were tempted to judge others for singing too loudly (when their singing voices aren't the best), clapping, raising their hands and even dancing like David did.  The Lord was so merciful to me as I prepared last week because I had that to prepare as well as the youth lesson and God allowed me to think through the passage very clearly and quickly so that I didn't feel like either the sermon or the youth lesson suffered in anyway.  Praise the Lord.