He Is Risen!

Easter Weekend

This past weekend we spent time in somber remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and were once again reminded of the true weight and cost of our sin.  Thankful for us, we also celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Both of these things were needed to make our eternal salvation possible.  Praise the Lord!  This Friday, the Poruba church held its first Good Friday service.  Last year they invited the community to come to the church and watch the Jesus Film  but this year they held their own Good Friday service with a short message by Petr as well as the reading of scripture and worship.  They also held a separate service aimed at outreach which included classical music performed by a professional, who is also a believer, along with some reflections on passages from the Bible or about Jesus in general.  On Sunday the congregation met once again to celebrate our risen Lord.  Although a group from the church went out for their traditional Easter Monday festivities, I didn't attend this year.  Once was enough for me. :)

The Youth Groups of Ostrava

Three Fridays ago, several people from our youth group joined along with teens and leaders from multiple Christian youth groups all across Ostrava.  One of the young ladies who helps to lead one of the youth groups organized the meeting in the hopes of building unity among the Christian young people of Ostrava.  The evening included games, worship, testimonies, a lesson and time of fellowship.  After the meeting I spoke with several of the girls from our youth group about what they enjoyed about the evening.  They said that they enjoyed the lesson, worship and fellowship.  I thought that it was a great opportunity for them to see that there are other teenagers who are seeking to follow Jesus just like they are.  They may worship in some different ways but their love for Jesus is the same.  Personally, I found the worship very encouraging.  The worship team was very polished  and passionate making it very easy to focus on worshiping the Lord.  I was also happy because Lenka, Barča's cousin, who hasn't joined us in more than a year joined us for the evening.  My hope is that she might feel more and more comfortable to join our group on regular Friday nights.  I also enjoyed the time of fellowship.  I got a chance to speak with one of the young ladies who shared her testimony that evening.  I understood some of what she had said but I wanted to get a clearer picture.  Her name is Lůca and she became a believer about a year ago.  Since then she has become completely focused on growing in her relationship with God and leading others to Christ.  Before leaving I spoke with the organizer of the event about helping to organize and maybe even hosting another event like this in the future.  Please pray in general for these young believers.  They are definitely in the minority in their schools and in society in general.  Pray for their spiritual growth and encouragement as well as boldness to spread the love of Jesus Christ to those around them.

A few photos of the worship team for the evening.

Lůca, as she gave her testimony.

Student led Bible Lesson 

Last Monday, I was invited by Lůca to join with some people for a Bible study.  I was interested to attend because she said that she was going to be leading the study.  So after teaching a few English lessons in the morning and meeting with Matouš in the afternoon for a Bible study, I jump on a tram headed for the central part of Ostrava.  I didn't know what to expect in terms of numbers but I found a small group of teens from the 7th Day Adventist church along with their youth leader meeting for this study.  Lůca spoke about the resurrection of Jesus.  I was impressed by her use of both the old and the new testament when leading this study.  She had obviously put a lot of time and effort into it.  I also got a chance to speak some Czech with the group because several of them were not very skilled in speaking English so it was a nice exercise for me to use what I have learned so far to communicate with them.  In the future, I would like to encourage some of the teens from Youth Revolution to attend this Bible study, at least once, to help them to see how they can learn from and teach each other.

Opening Up New Opportunities

I know that several weeks ago I asked for prayer about the Lord opening up more opportunities for me to get into some of the local schools and I wanted to let you to that God has answered those prayers, at least in part.  Earlier I spoke about visiting a school last Monday.  The school that I was able to visit was the school that Matouš and several other people from Youth Revolution and English Camps attend.  I have found it particularly difficult to get opportunities to speak with classes at that school but last week I spoke to three classes of 12 year students and also organized a meeting with several of the English teachers at the school.  Because of that meeting I will be visiting their school twice this week and speaking with at least two different classes.  The teachers got to know me a little and more students got a chance to meet me and find out a little bit about why I am here.  Please pray that my relationship with this school would continue to grow and that we would see even more students and families from this school involved in the English Camp as well as at Církev bratrská.