First Sunday

Well today was my first Sunday in Czech Republic. This is Maranatha, the church I work for now. It awesome to say I work for something. Those of you that know me know that I haven't really "worked" in quite a while. Sure I've worked here and there for various people. Ms. Prince was very good to me and more generous than I deserved. But I am so proud to be a part of a Church and this Church in particular. It's a pretty young building. It's only been around since 1929 or so. 

Today Ivana, Petr's wife gave the sermon. She was the pastor at another Methodist Church in Plzen before and now preaches from time to time at Maranatha. I was prepared to just not know what was going on but Petr introduced me to Teresa (I am sure I'm misspelling everyone's name that isn't named Petr so I'm just going to have to ask forgiveness until I get Czech spelling down) and she translated for me. It was a big help and she was very nice. Teresa speaks remarkably good English. She doesn't really have an accent. 

So Petr introduced me to the Church at the end of the service and I embarrassingly had nothing to say. But they of course were very nice.  The service was a lot like what I'm used to in many ways. They sing praise songs just like Northside. Well, not just like Northside. They sing in Czech. They don't have an organ. But there were two girls and I assume their mother that played flute, violin and acoustic guitar. Yeah you're right is was very pretty.  The songs were similar in structure to most of the praise songs that Americans are used to but they use minor keys a whole bunch more and I totally dug that about it. 

After the service a bunch of people went down to the little cafe in the Church downstairs.  This is a very cool idea by the way. Another Petr invited me down and gave me a nice strong coffee. The cafe filled up with Dads and their kids and Moms too. The kids didn't drink coffee though. They have Coke here too thankfully.  

Anyway I had a nice conversation with this Petr. It turns out he went to University for Missionary studies. How cool is that! Plus it turns out he plays football (soccer to you Americans ;)) and he has a band.  So I'm pretty much set.  I had only a few modest goals for my time here. 1. Most importantly to do a good job teaching English. That is why I'm here after all. But I was hoping I could find people to play soccer with and musicians to play with. And Bang! One dude does all that stuff. Well he doesn't teach English. You got me. 

After hanging out at the Church cafe Petr Prochazka (the Pastor at Maranatha) and I went and had lunch at this cafe. This is the view from my bathroom window.  It was my first meal outside of my apartment or Petr's or Becky's and Linda's apartment (Becky is American, Linda is South African and live downstairs from me. They've been lifesavers for my big dumb American butt.)

Petr ordered for us one of the specials of the day. It was pork (you know I luvs me some pork) with green peppercorns and fries and cabbagey cole-slaw type salad. Yes Mom I did eat the cabbage. I'm not only eating sausage. (mmmm sausage) Boy was it good. Anyone coming to a new country for the first time is always going to be afraid they'll hate the food. I'm no different. But I gotta tell ya I have yet to have anything that wasn't really tasty. My stomach doesn't always like me very much but he'll just have to get over it. 

Here's some random photos I snuck on the street today. I'll just leave it at that for now. 

Shalom

Thank you Northside UMC

I want to thank everybody back home for keeping me in their prayers. I just happened to be reading Acts in my study Bible (NASB) really I'm not making that up ;) when I came to 6:6 and was reminded of Northside last Sunday. I know it meant a lot to my Mom. It was as if Pastor Don read her mind. It meant a lot to me too.

Acts 6:6 "And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying they laid their hands on them."

The notes in my Bible explain that this refers back to Gen 48:13-20 and conferring blessing on a person and commissioning a person for new responsibilities (Num 27:23) in the OT. And in the NT there is blessing (Mark 10:16) commissioning (Act 13:3; 1 Tim 5:22) and imparting spiritual gifts (Acts 8:17; 19:6; 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6). 

Sorry for getting all Bible nerdy on y'all but it so exciting to see this stuff and know that it is real and applies to me. I have my Mom especially but also my family at Northside to thank for this. So I thank you all very much.

Ok, no more mushy stuff!

Believe it or not I made it!

Well I finally got here. Actually I've been in Plzen since Wednesday. But I've been in a jet-lag fog pretty much the whole time. Add to that the fact that I got the wrong kind of adapter plug for my computer and I've been less than productive on the blog. Also I have yet to master the art of taking pictures on the street without looking too touristy.

But I did take a few pictures today. This is the swing set we put in today at Maranatha. This is the back yard behind the church. The crew in this photo from left to right is Petr, Petr, Petr, Witek and Petr.  Apparently everybody in Czech Republic (including me) is named Petr. Except Witek of course

In this photo the crew is Petr, Peter, Petr, Vitek and Petr.  That time I messed it up with my weird American spelling.

All in all it was a fun time.  None of the guys really speaks much English except Petr Prochazka so I was doing my best to soak in what few Czech words I did know. Fortunately "dobry"(good) was said quite a bit and at the end I'm pretty sure someone said "Super" so I think it turned out well.

It is definitely very exciting to be here finally. So far I haven't ventured out on my own too much. I did go to the Tesco by myself yesterday and got some groceries. Apparently Tesco is Great Britain's answer to Walmart. It's fine with me 'cause I can just pick out what I want and I don't have to bother anyone with my non-Czech speaking shenanigans. 

One thing that becomes immediately obvious in the supermarket here is that Czechs love them some sausage. I would like to go on the record as being 100% on board with this, down with and all other superlatives I can't think of.  So far I've only sampled a couple. One I don't know the name of and Khlobasa which I bought and grilled with my neighbors. I've got so many to try that it's good I have a year to get around to them. There was one intriguing black sausage that I'm pretty sure is made with just blood, mmmmm blood sausage. Hey don't knock it! It might be awesome.

Gearing Up

It's officially less than a week before I leave for Plzen.  I'm still trying to get all the last million or so little things done.  Of course, I'm figuring out that I should have done lots of stuff a long time ago. 

I would really like to set up a link so that those of y'all out there that feel generous can donate to the cause. However I see that I need to set up a special account with the Church specifically earmarked in order for donations to be tax deductible.  I will pursue this. Hopefully it will work out.

I feel like a big jerk asking for money. I have most of the money I need. It may actually be enough. However, when I started this whole process I was thinking the money I had would be plenty. Most places to which missionaries go have a much, much cheaper cost of living. While Czech Republic is cheaper that the US it's not as cheap as I would have hoped. So there ya go. Once I get to Plzen I'll have a better idea of what the expenses I'll need help with are. 

I'm going to teach English among other things. But Maranatha does not have a curriculum in place. According to folks who live in Czech Republic and Slovakia it is best to purchase a curriculum locally in order to get one crafted more specifically to the folks who will be using it.  Anyway, I'll get together with the Pastor and we will get the best program we can find. Hopefully I will be able to afford. But I may need help. Hence, me being a jerk asking for money. Hey, maybe I'll get lucky and it won't cost too much. 

Day One

Well, I'm scheduled to leave for Plzen on 25 August. I'm still trying to sort out the visa issues which may get in the way. I'm making a leap of faith and hoping it will all work out. 

I'm very excited! This time next month I'll be in Plzen helping the pastor at Maranatha United Methodist Church. I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm not an expert in much other than taking it easy but I'm confident the Lord will use me as he sees fit and we'll get to do great things in serving Him and bringing His Love to everyone we can.

More to come. . .