An Interesting Holiday Season

Youth Revolution Christmas Party

Christmas is the time of year that many people feel excited and happy and are a little more willing to visit the church and think about Jesus.  In fact, in the Czech Republic, they don't have the tradition of Santa Claus or St. Nicolas bringing presents but Ježíšk or baby Jesus bringing the presents.  At Youth Revolution we had a special collection of activities prepared for the last youth meeting before the New Year.  The plan was to have a lesson, some worship and lots of games. After all of those activities we also had a Harry Potter Movie Marathon planned which would begin on Friday night and end Saturday night.  The hope was that we would have a few new people join us, and we did.  Míla and Radim's niece, Alice was able to come.  We also had a guest that Matouš invited named Adele.  We had two girls that are heavily involved in the local YoungLife group their names are Zuzka and Magda.  And we had a girl that recently became a believer and has been meeting with Petr for some discipleship, her name is Katka.  We had a blast.  A gift wrapping competition, white elephant gift exchange and few other games provided us with some fun and then we settled in for the movie marathon.  We used the church's projector and sound system and alternated between watching it in English and in Czech.  On Saturday I made tacos for everyone which was the highlight for Patrik.  And by midnight on Saturday we were walking out of the church after almost a day and half of being together.  (Nobody killed anyone else.  Hooray!)

Getting instructions for the "Greatest Wrapper of All Time"

Matouš competing in the most perfect wrap round

Míla and I competing in the speed round (she beat me)

Some of the other games

Adele playing with one of the white elephant gifts

Klára likes it too

Kuba being weird

Off For Christmas

The afternoon after the marathon I boarded a train and headed to Kroměříž to see Anička and her family for Christmas and also to visit both Anička's school as well as her mom's school once again.  However as I was stepping off the train, I sprained my ankle badly.  I would add a picture of it but I don't want to upset anyone's stomach.  Thankfully, God allowed it to heal pretty quickly.  I had to take it a bit easy but I was able to visit the schools and walk around the town a bit with only a little pain.  I was able to speak at Anička's school about the school system in the United States and see some performances for the two different choirs at her school.  When I visited Vendy's school the following day, I was able to see many of the same students that I had met several months before. The last time I was there I had mentioned Oreos and many of the kids remembered.  Several of them got me some Oreos as a little gift and one little girl actually made me an Oreo keychain.  It was really cute.  After two days of school visits I was able to just relax and spend some time with the family celebrating Anička's younger brother, Matouš' birthday and spending time with Jirka (George) again.  Once again it was wonderful spending time with this wonderful family when I couldn't be with my own for Christmas.  On December 25th I returned to Ostrava to have dinner with the Poláchovi family and to be able to spend some time at home and recharge.

Some pictures from the choir performance at Anička's school

Some pictures of Vendy's class 

Some Christmas pictures

Not So Relaxing Vacation

I was hoping to be able to reenergize over the holidays but on Tuesday, December 29th I woke up with a bit of a headache and fever.  I tried to just take it easy and rest but my temperature continued to climb over the next two days so that on New Years Eve I found myself wrestling with idea of going to the hospital because my temperature was nearing 104 degrees.  I don't like going to doctor, let alone a hospital in another country, but I told my mom that I would be responsible, so I called Petr and let him know.  At 2:30 in the morning two EMTs came to my apartment to give me an injection to lower my temperature and a prescription for some medication.  I am still taking the antibiotics but am finally feeling much better.  I must admit that the last time I can remember being that sick was when I was 4 or 5 years old and had to wake up several times one night to take cold baths to lower my temperature.  Even though I would have preferred to spend my vacation in a different way I was happy that God allowed it to occur when I actually just had time to relax and rest instead of having to worry about the many different responsibilities I normally have on a weekly basis.  Petr and Petra were great in picking up medicine and bringing me some food so I could just stay home and rest.  I also had phone calls and a visit from some of the people from the church.  Just a couple more of God's mercies.