Progress and Practice

It's been an uneventful week for the most part. But I have made some significant progress. I got a PlzenskaKarta. Which is a pass for the trams. I put that to good use today. I took the picture on the way over to the office to get the card which was an all morning adventure to find. I had as bad a case of bedhead as it's possible for me to have. I admit it may be hard to tell. 

But the best news is that I've actually started doing what I came here to do, officially anyway. I have one English student. She doesn't really even need my help. She speaks quite good English already. But I've been helping her get used to hearing English again. She's going to Texas this week with a couple other women from Maranatha to meet and spend time with their sister Church there. She is putting a Power Point presentation together for the 4 services the Texas Church does every weekend.  I think she said it's one on Saturday evening and three on Sunday. Whew!

I guess she won't mind me telling y'all her name. She's Linda Cechova. Actually she is Vitek's wife. I've mentioned him before. He's a great guy and their children Stepan and Kristina are lot's of fun too. We all went to lunch after Church today. Vitek is well known around Maranatha for being the guy to go to if you want to know the best places to eat. We ended up going back to U Mansfelda again 'cause his favorite Italian place was inexplicably closed. That place is so good. I had wild boar last time. This time I had a wild boar steak. It's different, seriously. This dish has a sauce with cranberries and congac and almonds. Whoowie that's some good pig. Oh and I had bacon knedliky (dumplings) as a side dish.  So good. 

Also one really cool fact. Mila is Vitek's brother. Mila is looking after the other American, Deidre in Karlovy Vary, a town about an hour from Plzen. Their father is a well known artist here in Plzen.  He painted this huge mural.

In this painting are all famous Plzners. On the right is a guy that created a famous marionette, the guy climbing up on the ladder invented electric street lights and there's all kinds of significant people.  I don't know if y'all have noticed but if you click on the pictures you can see a much bigger version in which you can pick out a lot more detail. I highly recommend it here. This mural is so cool.  There's actually a guide to show you who all the famous dudes are. 

I took a picture of the text but it's in Czech so it won't do any good anyway.  There is so much public art and a lot of it is 100s of years old. So it's especially awesome that Vitek's Dad has such respect that they want him to do something this huge and this significant. All Czechs are fiercely proud of their cultural heroes and each town is very proud of their local historical figures.  

It's funny now that I've been here for a little while I'm starting to get used to stuff. But every once in a while I walk by something like this and I'm like, "Whoah! Holy cow! That's right I'm in Europe!" This kind of stuff is all over the place. 

There are also a few reminders that I'm in Eastern Europe in particular. There is a "Culture Center" that was built during the communist time and it is about as soul crushingly ugly as would only fit with communist architecture. 

People can laugh now about how ugly the commie buildings are which is nice. But they haven't forgotten how bad it really was either. 

This is an exhibit in the main square of town. It is a representation of a concentration camp that was operated by the Czech Communists. Not the Nazis.  The photos are the file photos of actual victims. Their names and portions of their stories are in the exhibit. 

As you can see the exhibit covers the years after WWII up until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. There were students as well as people old enough to be their grandparents that were taken. Also many, many Priests and clergy were put in the camps. Basically anyone that may at all be suspected of being against the regime could be taken. This is what the UMC faced in Czech Republic. Vitek was saying that Maranatha consisted of 3 old ladies during these years. 

But at least this ended. After the Velvet Revolution people swarmed back to the Churches. I've covered a lot of this before I know. But apparently many people started drifting off after a while. Unfortunately many of the people that became Pastors right after the revolution have since left the Church. We don't really know why. 

So enough of the gloom and doom portion of the show. Things are going well. I used my new tram card to do some aimless wandering.  There are 4 tram lines so I hopped on #1 and just rode it to the last stop. Guess what? It's awesome! There's a big park right where you get out.  It's not that far but check it out! It's like you out in the wilderness!  . . . sorta

It was nice to be able to get out in some trees though. I start to get a little twitchy if I'm cut off from them for too long. Here's some proof.  I can't ever tell when my camera is actually taking a picture. I was too busy looking around to make sure nobody saw me taking my own picture like a big loser. 

I guess I might as well go all the way with it.  My Mom likes it when I put pictures of myself in here so bear with me. 

Hi Mom!

So I had a fun day. I also got some good news about the whole teaching thing too. Slavo, who will be my new neighbor starting in October, has taught English before and is totally fluent and all that. He's Czech. Anyway Pastor Petr told me today that Slavo said he'll put together some lesson plans for me that I can use to teach English to Maranatha folks. The upshot of all this is that I should finally start to have a regular schedule of classes to teach. Having Linda Cechova as my only student is really nice but it will be good to really get down to business. 

Here we go! Hopefully. 

Egghead Time

OK so I'm going to be all tedious and philosophical this time. I don't have any pictures or funny observations (that I know of) so please bear with me.

I went to an English Movie night that's put on by my neighbor Becky as part of her work with Y.Y.M.  Maybe some of y'all know what that is but I admit I can't remember what it stands for. I do know that "Youth" and "Mission(s)" are in the name so that gives a bit of an idea what the organization is like.  

Well the movie we watched was Unbreakable starring Bruce Willis. It's directed by the guy that did The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan. Unbreakable is about a normal guy that discovers that he may in fact have extraordinary abilities. In short that he's a super hero. I happen to think that this is one of the most woefully underrated movies of past 10 years but what do I know?

 Throughout the film nobody can bring themselves to believe it's possible for a guy to have these kinds of abilities. It's a big theme of the movie. The main character goes through a tough process of discovering his abilities and believing that it's actually true. This leads him to a decision of whether or not to use these abilities. 

As we discussed the movie and the things we liked about it this quote (which I can't remember exactly so I'll paraphrase it) came up. "People can easily believe something that is impossible but cannot at all believe something that is only improbable." This got me to thinking. 

Whenever a believer (a character that thinks Bruce Willis has superpowers) in the film tries to convince someone that he really has these abilities they are resistant. People do not want to believe that someone may be extraordinary. Why is this? There are people (some of my friends among them) that do not want to believe in God, any God, much less Jesus. Why? I have not always been a Christian but I've always wanted to be. I've doubted, I still struggle with it from time to time. But my desire for God to be real and for Jesus to have really died for my sins has been constant. A world without God is pointless, hopeless, cold and empty to me. Why do so many people seem to be comforted by the idea of a Godless world? How could this be preferable to an eternal life full of love?

What is so threatening about the idea of God? C.S. Lewis was a notorious Atheist in his earlier life. But even he wanted to believe. He felt that the Christian story was a beautiful myth. A way of explaining things that were unexplainable to people of the time. The story goes that J.R.R.Tolkien (my hero) and another of The Inklings (I think it was Charles Williams but I'm not sure) locked themselves in a room with Lewis one night and refused to leave until they convinced him that God was real and he could in good conscience believe in Christianity. It worked obviously. I like to flatter myself that I could be Tolkien to some of my friends' C.S. Lewis. The big difference is that my friends do not want to believe it. How do you get past that? 

I feel like if I could crack the mystery of the desire to disbelieve I could get past it. Really I can only just be the best friend to them I can and always treat them with respect and love. But what is so threatening about Belief? I don't have an answer. So far all I can come up with is that once we believe in Jesus we have a responsibility to live accordingly. It's not a set of rules, "Do this, this and this. Don't do that, that or that." But you can't just pass the buck and say, "Not my problem" anymore. You can't help but feel your connection to people and want to help. The easy thing to do is just be out for yourself and the suffering of others does not affect you. You answer only to yourself. But at the end of the day you're alone.  Is being your own master really so attractive that it is better to die than to serve a higher purpose and have an eternal life? 

I don't mean to make this about being scared of death. But obviously if you do not believe in God then you believe that once you die that's it. You're worm food. I know that being Christian makes life worth living and gives us a much richer experience that we could ever have on our own in a random world of accidents and moral relativity. But there are many very smart people (smarter than me for sure) that prefer that very existence. Being agnostic I can understand. It does not take any amount of faith to say you don't know the answers. But atheists are just as sure (and in many cases much more certain) that they have the answer. They have figured out the true nature of the universe. Really, believing in God is also accepting the mystery of creation and acknowledging that we humans do not have all the answers.  

I'm sure there are Christians out there that think they've got it all down. The whole "The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it" thing. Probably many atheists think that this is what it means to be a Christian. That's one area I know I can change things with my friends. Some people have never known an actual Christian for whom they had any respect. I like to believe that's just 'cause they haven't known many genuine Christians. So when we let our light shine they can see the source, hopefully. But how do you crack that barrier of just not wanting to believe? 

So I'm not any closer to an answer now am I? I guess not. One of those myriad people smarter than me is this guy Michael Novak. He's written a book called No One Sees God that seems to cover this exact topic I've been rambling on about. I haven't read it but he has an article on National Review Online about it. I think it's definitely worth checking out. His article is mostly about the argument for Belief. I've basically just said many of the same things. So much for my big original insights. But it doesn't really attack the answer to the question "Why do atheists not want to believe in God?"  

Since I don't have the answers obviously I invite anyone and everyone to put their two cents in the comments. I'm all ears!

Big Weekend cont'd

OK so now I'm really going to talk about Sunday. I hope. 

Sunday we all went to Church in the morning of course. David talked about the Team's week and all the close connections they made. Very nice. Then we all went down to Vitek's jewelry shop so the Team could get some stuff. Vitek makes his own jewelry at his shop. It's really cool to see him work, he's a true artist. He also has some antique jewelry too btw. I left the guys there though because I had to go get ready for The Picnic.

We had a family day out at a park in town. I finally got to play fotbol! Yeehaw! It was fun but it really showed how bad out of shape I am. I managed to hold up alright though. Somehow at the end of our game it was 6 on 3. Three Petrs (including myself) against Vitek and a horde of kids and adults both. I think we won though. I can't remember for sure but we played much harder then. Tons of fun. 

Then we retired to the playground and fire for lunch etc. 

This is the fireplace where we roasted, you guessed it, sausages. I can't say how I am glad at  how much Czechs love sausage. Sausage has always been one of my favorite things to eat. I never get tired of it. So I've come to the right place. 

Sausage wasn't the only thing on the menu that day though. Periodically this loud blaring music would ring out like a demonic ice cream truck and shock everyone into silence. At which point some unknown purveyor would sing "Laaan-goshe!" Then then everybody would laugh. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then Vitek came up to the table with this stuff that kind of looked like a pizza, if pizzas were made by Lunchables sized for adults.  It was a piece of fried bread (yum) with ketchup (eeew!) with some unmelted cheese on top of that. Believe it or not it's pretty tasty. Nobody believed me though when I kept saying I liked it. 

All in all it was quite a pleasant little picnic. We were intruded upon by a beggar though. Just look at this shameless miscreant!

Just look at him! Food all in his beard! Giving us those "sad puppy dog" eyes! Shameless I tells ya! He did get some sausage before he was through though. Weiner dogs are popular here for some reason. Go figure. This guy was pretty funny. 

I planned on getting a picture of the kids in their natural habitat playing on playground but they spotted me.

These are the Prochazka kids, Petr, Barbara, and Karla. They lined up like good little kids when they saw me. I tried to get them to just go play but they don't speak much English so I just went ahead and took the picture. They crack me up. Whenever I run into them they do a bit of a double-take while they remember how to say "Hello" or "Good Morning" in English. They think it's hilarious to say "My name is. . . " in English.  Petr has the makings of a legendary "preacher's son" by the way. On the way to the park, Ivana, their Mom was teaching one of the kids words with that rolling R sound sort of like some Spanish words. I was like, "This is great! I need practice with this!" It was comforting to learn that some of their weird 6 consonant in a row words give them trouble too. Even if it's just the little kids. 

But the picnic wound down and it was time to get home and get ready for the farewell dinner for the Team. 
The dinner was at U Mansfelda, an old (I'm guessing it's old, everything else here is too) restaurant that serves traditional Czech food.  That's Karl in the white shirt. And of course I got the back Petr Balous. That's Mirek on the right. I had wild boar with the Czech dumpling assortment. Boy was it good. Oh so you think I should have gotten veggies? This is Czech Republic! Actually the boar came with a little salad on the plate which I promptly ignored. I could have been worse though. One guy had fried cheese as his main dish with french fries on the side and he was Czech. John sat next to me and got Trout. Believe it or not it tastes a lot like American trout according to him. John was on a quest to get carp at some point during his trip. 

In CR it is a long standing tradition to have Christmas Carp. Every year people go a buy a live carp. You know those things are huge. Anyway, they keep it in the bath tub for a week or so to let it's (aherm) system (ahem) clear out.  The kids play with it and all that fun stuff. Then they eat it on Christmas day. I'm so looking forward to that! Uh, not really. Well because of this John was curious to see how they prepare the notoriously gross-tasting fish. Alas it was not on any menu the whole time he was here. Which to me just proves that nobody actually likes to eat those nasty things they just do it for tradition. 

Well dinner was finished and dessert gotten through and the party broke up. I rode back with team to drop them off at Hotel Plzen.
Here's the gang again once more. Kellie, Serena, Karl, David and John. I only really got to hang out with them for a weekend but felt like I'd known them for a long time. I'm glad to say they're keeping in touch. They all got home OK (with a few adventures in customs). I really appreciate their openness and how they took Deidre and me in. We're all on the same Big Team.  Thanks guys.

pax

So I had more to say about last weekend. "Not possible!" you say? Oh yes I do. That big long post was just Saturday in Prague. Not even the whole day. It was a big day. 

Well, we all got back to Plzen fairly early in the evening. We were pretty wiped out but it was about time for supper anyway so we ate together because that's what we do. We decided to just eat at Hotel Plzen where the team was staying. Good food there. There was a couple who I'm just going to say were from Germany, they just seemed like Germans to me. One old lady seemed a little alarmed at us being kind of loud. Well you know what? We were a bit loud. That's one stereotype I don't mind perpetuating. What's wrong with people laughing and enjoying each other's company? Nothing that's what. 

So maybe we weren't the most high minded bunch that night. We somehow seemed to get onto the topic of certain Czech phrases and words that could be misconstrued by an English speaker as having scatalogical meanings bear a striking resemblance a certain word of old Saxon origins that has taken on impolite connotations in recent years.  OK so what I'm getting at is sometimes Czechs sound like they're cussing in English when in fact they are really saying perfectly respectful things in Czech. We found this to be very funny. Mostly because it is very funny! 

Anyway it's nice to be able to just relax with folks. I very much appreciate this about the Team. They are very easy to just relax and be yourself with. We didn't only talk about funny words though. We did talk about what we are doing here. I must say I'm pretty psyched about what's going on in Churches these days. I've been running around the world in a way this past year and have been blessed to meet people from all over. We ran into some girls from Kansas when I was in Nicaragua, I got to be good friends almost instantaneously with the TN Team this week, and Deidre is a strong member of the Texas contingent.  So many in America are looking outward and humbly (that's essential) trying to spread the Good Word and just really, truly, and sincerely going out of their way to love their brothers and sisters. 

I know I said no more mushy stuff but I feel like this is kind of important. Pretty much any Christian I've talked to in the last year shares a sincere and humble wish to serve and really live Jesus' commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. There are all kinds of different challenges around the world. There's so much poverty in so many places. And there are Christians in all of those places trying to help. But there is also the challenge of relatively wealthy peoples that just have forgotten (willfully in some cases) the Good News. That's what I've been drawn to do something about. Living in New York really made this impression on me. 

In a lot of ways I feel like someone who did not grow up in the Church. This won't make my Mom happy but it is the truth. I've always gone to Church. But until I was in College it never really made much of an impression on me. Mostly because I am willful and like to do what I want to do and not so much what I ought to do. I've always believed, or wanted to, but I didn't really have the foundation to back it up. That's not my Mom's fault. It is to her credit that I went to Church at all.  

I apologize for rambling so much. I've been trying to sort this all out in my own head for a while now. I have yet to really explain it to anyone with any success although I have tried. 

Most of my friends are not Christians. For the most part they just were never exposed to it. Some are even very hostile to the idea of any kind of God. But just by being open about my faith, not pushing it on them, just living it openly has changed some of their attitudes. I've even had friends ask me, "So what's this Jesus thing really all about?" I know, what a question right?

That's a big one to answer on a 2 minute subway ride home.  

Here's what I'm getting at. These are my people. These are the people I want to reach. I relate to these guys, they are my friends. This is the challenge in a place like Czech Republic I think. This is why I wanted to come here. I've had a running "discussion" with Mom for years. So much feels like preaching to choir to me. I certainly support and have benefited hugely from the fellowship within the Church family. I mean look where I am! That's because of my Church family. But I also feel like I'm one of those people outside the Church. Or maybe that I'm straddling the line between those two. I want to pull my friends, my "people" in that are on the outside.  But one thing we have got right is humble, loving spirit with which "Church Folks" are reaching out to those on the outside.

This is why I put Mathew 5:14-16 up at the top of the blog. That's my goal. The trick is not hiding the light under a basket. "Hide it under a bushel, NO! I'm gonna let it shine!"  Your supposed to sing that last bit by the way. 

OK so this is not at all what I meant to write about. I hope it made sense and is not too much of a self important bore of a rant.  I feel like such a windbag!

pax

Adventures of a Monolingual Doofus

OK so I've been slacking a bit. My internet went down a few days ago so I was unable to finish writing about the weekend. Of course now it's almost the weekend again but hey, such is life. Turns out I had internet all along I just couldn't figure out how to fix it because all the instructions and information are in Czech. I've learned a valuable lesson, Learn Czech! 

I actually went down to pay for my internet (you can't just pay online here, you have to go down to the bank and fill out a form etc.) and of course I paid with the wrong ID number. Yep, I'm that guy. The thing is, I didn't know I needed a number when I went down to the bank. Fortunately I always use the same 4 digit number when asked so I used it. 

But when I got home I found out that Pilsfree (that's the internet service) gives you a number. So I texted that number to the Jan, guy who installed my stuff. Then I got into my profile by accident and discovered that my correction was in fact not my ID but Petr Prochazka's. So I texted Jan again with my actual ID. I think I spent 15 Krowns in texts that day. OK so it's not that bad, that equals a little less than a dollar. 

I just hope they get around to attributing that payment to my account. By the way I've still got a month before it's due but I somehow managed to forget that in my panic to get internet again. Duh!

Big Weekend

So I've been on the move for the past few days. It's a challenge to get my thoughts together in a coherent way. I'll start with the fact that I've gotten to know a lot more people and it's been a great time. 

The TN Team. 

Kellie, Serena, Karl, David and John. They represent 3 different Churches in the Johnson City/Tri-Cities area over in East Tennessee. I think I mentioned it earlier but they worked out at Holy Hill last week doing lots of digging and getting dirty. But of course they were there to be with the guys and just be loving friends. Which for these guys comes pretty naturally.  Deidre, the "other" missionary here in Czech Republic said she felt like she's known them forever.  I think this illustrates how open and fun they are. 

Deidre is in Karlovy Vary and has been here a bit longer than me but we've got a lot of the same challenges (and some different ones). Well she spent big chunk of the week with the Team out at Holy Hill. She then rescued me from sitting around the apartment all day. Wow there's some much stuff that I can't possibly really do any justice to how much fun we've all had. 

Friday Deidre and I walked around town and did a few errands etc. Then we went to U Salzmannu, a traditional Czech food restaurant. I had some gnocchi but it was Czech style. Which means it comes with sliced pork and a healthy portion of "cabbage." To a Czech person there isn't really sour kraut there's just cabbage. At least that's what I have gathered so far. Anyone who knows me will know that I am not a fan of cabbage in general and especially sour kraut in particular. But you know what? I don't mind it. I kind of just made up my mind that I might as well pretend I like it until I do because there's no getting away from it. That's cool though. I am actually starting to like it. They've got some kind of red pickled cabbage that's really good actually. So Mom I'm proud to say that I do eat veggies and cabbage is a big part of that.  But in the interest of full disclosure I eat a lot of meat with dumplings most of time. 

So anyway, as I was saying before that tangent we went around. We happened to be near the Team's hotel friday afternoon.  Then Deidre got a bright idea. "You know what? The Team is going to Prague tomorrow. I bet we can we can go with them." I thought, "That would be super cool!" so we headed up that way and lo and behold there they were walking up the street. 

So we asked David, who was the team leader, if he thought it'd be OK if we tagged along. Of course he and the Team all agreed it was great idea.  The trick was we would need a ride but that was easily taken care of because Petr Balous was driving his car too and we could go with him. We kind of forgot to ask him about it though.  But not to worry, David got a call from Petr while we were eating (oh yeah, the Team was on their way to dinner and invited us along. Nice folks them).  So it was settled over dinner and quite a few laughs and cigarette smoke from the Germans next to us. We'd all go to Prague and be proper tourists. It was a great time. 

Unfortunately, most of my pictures from Prague will make no sense. I did a particularly bad job of photography on the trip. My execution isn't so bad. It's my choice of subject that is the problem. For example

Nice picture right? Do you know what it is? Neither do I! It's up by the Prague Castle. That's about all I can tell ya. But if you are ever in Prague you must go there it is truly a beautiful place. 

Here's the Cathedral from a bit of a distance right when you get onto the grounds. I think I caught the back of Deidre's head here on the right in the foreground.  Actually I think that might be Serena in profile there in the middle. See how observant I was? Oh don't worry I've got plenty more where that came from. 

Here's where I thought I'd be funny and get a picture of everyone taking pictures of the Cathedral. This was going to be my big "look at all the fun we had" picture where you could see everyone in a candid moment. That's John getting a picture on the left. That guy's got some serious energy when it comes to taking photos. He must have taken 300 pictures. His catch phrase for the day was "I'll catch up with y'all." Then he'd run off and take some more pictures.

You might be able to see a little bit of Petr's hat poking out between Deidre and Kelly. That's his arm pointing at the Cathedral. I think that's what he's pointing at. Anyway, as you can see (or not see actually) if I hadn't cornered the Team last night a gotten that picture at the top none of y'all would know what they actually look like.  I must apologize especially to Deidre though because I did not successfully get a picture of her face. But you folks out there will see plenty of her in the coming year. Assuming she'll let me take her picture that is.

There was a huge mob of people trying to get into the Cathedral. The let you take pictures in there and everything. It's pretty amazing Church. There's so much to see. But my camera only holds like 6 pictures at a time so I had to ration them out. 

But as you can see it's a huge building. I took a bunch of pictures inside with my camera too but they didn't come out so well. 

By the time we went through the Cathedral we walked all over the grounds and saw the changing of the guard and all that cool stuff. Nope, I didn't take any more pictures up at the castle. You see the next thing to do in Prague is to walk the Charles Bridge. Which has a great view of the Castle. Check it out.

That's the castle way up there on the hill. The bridge is really cool too though. There are these statues along the way. I set one as the wallpaper on my phone 'cause it's got a creepy skull and cool gothic (in the real architectural sense not pasty teenagers with their hair dyed black) stuff around it. Too bad you wont' see it though. Not unless you or I go to Prague again. OK so I may take a proper picture one day. You'll just have to stay tuned. Assuming you like skulls and creepy stuff. Doesn't everybody?

By the way, we ate at McDonald's just before we got to the bridge. And before you roll your eyes and groan, we had good reason. Everything up there on that hill there you see? All of that stuff costs about double what it would anywhere else. Look at all these people. All of them are tourists. It doesn't make it any less fun or anything. It was weird though, it got to where I was surprised to hear someone speak Czech.  I've gotten so used to hearing it all the time it's just normal now so it was a bit surreal. So anyway all these foreigners means "We must double our prices." to all the merchants and restauranteurs. Plus we didn't want to spend the whole afternoon in a restaurant. We had things to do and stuff to see. 

Like now I have proof that I have done a bit of traveling in my day. Woohooo!

Apparently there is this amazing clock in the old square where Apostles come out and tell you what time it is or something. I don't mean to be disrespectful. Anyway, after we all convened at the end of the bridge we needed to hustle over so that we could see the clock at the top of the hour. Here it is in all its glory.

So my camera doesn't really do it justice but we were kind of thinking the same thing you are right now. Really? OK, that's cool. . . I guess. I did like the little skeleton that rings the bell. But when you consider how old (100s of years) it is and all the workmanship that went into it it is pretty impressive. Oh and it keeps accurate time by the way.  Also, look at all these people! 5 of them are Czechs. 

I was a bit worn out by that point so I was glad to get away from the big crowds.  We saw a lot of huge and impressive and beautiful things over the day. But I think this might be my favorite.It's a statue in memorial to Mozart's mother I believe. I was all cocky and thinking I'd remember what that little plaque says. But Noooo! I can't. Should have known. This is outside a Mozart Opera House? Something to do with Mozart where they perform his stuff.

At the end of the Prague portion of the day we kind of went off to do whatever around the big Wensil Square. This was where the Velvet Revolution got started. There's so much to be said about that I just don't have the space here to get into it. We decided to split up and do our own things for a little while before we got on the subway back to the cars.

Deidre and I went to this big book store so she could get a travel book for her impending trip to Turkey. She didn't get a Visa either and her first 90 days are about to be up so she's going to Istanbul.  

So now that I've told you her business (sorry :) ) Deidre kept getting called out for holding up the group whenever we were supposed to meet up. I didn't actually notice that she was late all the time. Well my point is that we were 10 minutes late in meeting up with the group. I feel it my duty to point out that this last case was entirely my fault. 

I had decided I wanted some coffee.  There's a cafe in the bookstore but they didn't seem to do take out. So Deidre graciously agreed to sit with me while I drank a latte. (She doesn't like coffee) There was a really nice little balcony outside, we saw some folks sitting out there so we decided to sit out there too. But as I was trying to close the glass door I discovered that there is no handle on the outside. So there I was trying to swing it closed and jerk my hand out before the door came to. Finally one of the patrons inside helped me out and closed the door. Now a more thoughtful person would have considered that this might be a bit of an obstacle in the way of getting back in. Not me my friends! Did not even occur to me. 

So I had my latte and we had a nice little break from the walking around. Then Deidre noticed that we were late to get back. Woops! That's about the time I noticed that there was no door handle. What's a guy to do? Fortunately I didn't have to poke the glasslike a caveman noticing his reflection in the water but once or twice. Those same nice guys from before let us in.  Then we hustled back to the group. All My Fault.

So that was the big day. I had a great time. Petr Balous was very gracious and patient with us. He's done that trip a million times and the crowds don't get any easier to be around. But we all got to know each other pretty well over the course of the day. I have more to talk about so I'll just put in another post. This must have tried your patience I'm sure. I don't plan on making a habit of writing novellas every time I post. 

Comments are welcome

 It's come to my attention that a couple people may have had a hard time trying to contact me through the blog. My email is pcbowen@gmail.com It should be in my  profile somewhere. I'm not really sure what it looks like to y'all out there that are not logged into the editor function of the blog. 

Anyhoo, if you click on the comments link at the bottom of each post next to that little envelope thingie you can leave your own comment as well as see those from the rest of the peanut gallery.  I would love to hear anything you guys have to say. I count on y'all to keep me straight. 

So please comment away or email me if that strikes your fancy! Thanks to all two of you that actually read my wandering musings. Just kidding I'm sure there's a least 4 of ya. 

PeterCleveland

ps What has two thumbs and loves comments?

                                                           This guy!

UMC History in Czech Rep

OK so I don't have any pictures for this post. Sorry. But I learned some pretty interesting stuff today. 

Right now there's a team from East Tennessee here helping with a project out at Holy Hill, a retreat in the countryside near Plzen where the Church helps young men with drug/alcohol type problems. It's a great thing. It's not conditional on becoming a Christian. It's just a loving place where guys can get help with whatever they may be seeking help for.

Anyway, the good folks from TN gave little presentations on their home Churches. They're really nice folks and the Maranatha people really appreciate the connections between our Churches. Kelly from the TN Team said she felt like we Americans have a lot to learn from our Czech brothers and sisters. I couldn't agree with her more. The Church here has some big challenges and they are very much like a family. The fact that it's even still here is pretty miraculous. 

The Methodist Church was established in Czechoslavakia during the 1920s by Americans that had emigrated from Czechoslavakia. The Church grew well up until the 30s when the Nazis came around. The Methodist Church was seen an American so when the Nazis took over they pretty much wiped it out. 

Then after the war the Soviet influence made it almost impossible for the Church to recover. The UMC had a lot of property but it was nationalized by the communists. The communists in Czechoslavakia had a habit of barring people that did not tow the commie line from certain jobs. Being a member of UMC put you on the wrong side of the government. Teachers, for example, were not allowed to be members of a Church. So the only people that could openly join the Church without reprisals were laborers. As a result Pastors pretty much had to do all the jobs around the Church because there was nobody else to fix leaks and mow the grass. Pastors were on their own without any lay help really. It was too risky for most people

Before the communists there were something like 10,000 Methodists. Today there are maybe 2,000 in the whole country. And that's after almost 20 years of rebuilding. Fortunately UMC was able to get a lot of their property back. Maranatha is once again a Church. It housed a University during the communist era. They didn't get all of their property back though. That's an ongoing challenge apparently. 

It really makes you appreciate how blessed we are in America where the worst thing that could possibly happen to you for joining the Church is that someone might make fun of you. It also makes me glad that American Churches seem to be really looking outward for ways they can help and share fellowship around the world. I remember how we ran into so many people from mission teams in Nicaragua. And the folks here this week have ongoing relationships with Churches in Mexico as well as here.  I don't feel like I'm doing anything all that special. To be honest I almost feel guilty because it's a big adventure for me. I just hope that I can give them back at least a small portion of what they are giving me. That includes you folks at home too.

shalom

New Stuff (literally) WoooHoo!

Well after a week of timidity I've finally just gone and done some stuff.  I had been reluctant to go off on my own to get a telephone 'cause I was thinking it was all complicated and the whole language thing would mess me up. But I girded myself with all the bravado I could muster and trucked on down to the Vodafone store to get me a cell phone. I did it! Woo hoo! I was very fortunate that the girl at the shop speaks English so it was actually easier than I was afraid it was going to be. 

However, as you can see the instructions are all in Czech. So I still haven't figured out what my phone number is. It took It took me a good 20 minutes to get the menus etc on the phone switched to English. I was starting to worry that I'd be stuck with the Czech. I'd learn it eventually of course. (Wink!)  But I do have my groovy new EuroPhone so now I should be able to coordinate with people a bit easier. 

But in order to not be a bad stereotype I've started trying to learn Czech. I got this program that uses flash card type thingies and a dude over-enunciating the Czech words so that you get to hear the words and see how they correspond with the spelling. I'm working on numbers right now. This card is for Twenty One. I's really not as hard as it looks.

I've also gotten some teaching materials at the English Library. I still don't really know what level the students have reached so I got these intermediate level deals. 
I showed them to Petr and he may have been a little dubious. But hey! You gotta start somewhere right? The good thing is that this stuff didn't cost me anything and if it's not quite right for us I can just take it back and get something else. But I need to sit down with the students before I'll really know what will work best for us.

Ahoj "Ahoy" for now. Oh yeah this is hello and goodbye or more like Hi and See ya later. It's kinda cool. Their word for Attention is Avast. So you get to feel all nautical and piratey. Loads of fun.

New Header Photo

Just a quick note on the new header. I was not really comfortable with my mug at the top of the page. Y'all know what I look like now and that's not that interesting. 

Anyway the pic is a street sign at a bridge. I love the street signs here. As you can see they are more expressive than the stick figures we have on our signs. I feel like the signs here are telling a nice fairy tale and if you follow the right route around town and avoid these guys  you get to see the happy ending with Grand-PaPah and little Marlenka safe back at home in good old Sweetsie-Land.

Week One

Well it's officially been a week and I'm still here. I've sort of gotten to know my way around now and I've got my library card for the English language library. It's in a really old building. Of course all the buildings are really old around here. But it's right in the big square in the town center where the main Catholic Cathedral is. That is one seriously huge Church and it's 800 years old. Very impressive.

Fortunately also at the English library are many, many books and resources for teaching English to Czechs. It's a good thing too since I didn't bring anything from the States with me. There are a few ladies from Maranatha that are going to Dallas in October and I'm going to help them get ready for that trip linguistically. Hopefully I'll get an idea of how to do this stuff and we can add more folks and get a more formal structure in place. But for now we're kind of just playing it by ear.

Revolution Church New York

I've asked for (and been given) permission to put a link up on the blog for Revolution NYC. This is  the Church I attended in New York. Wade still goes there too. It meets at a bar called Pete's Candy store in Brooklyn. Jay Bakker is the pastor. Some of y'all may have heard of him. His parents are kinda famous. Wink Wink. Anyway, Revolution is a big inspiration for me. I came back to living my faith everyday thanks in large part to what I got out of going to Revolution. It's also a big reason I decided to come here to Plzen in the first place. 

New York is not an easy town in which to be a Christian. Jay has said telling a New Yorker that you're a Christian is like telling them you believe in the Easter Bunny. Revolution is a missionary Church in many ways because they reach out to New Yorkers that may have a bad impression of the Church and Christians. Plus it provides fellowship that is so crucial to those of us that might feel alone in our faith there in NYC. I may not agree with every stance Revolution takes but they don't hold that against me just like I don't hold it against them. Every thing they do is in the spirit of love and compassion with the goal of spreading the Good News of God's free gift of Grace through Jesus. That's what matters most. 

So I would like to encourage everyone to go and check out there site and support them. Just click on the links here in the post or up in the links section on the right. They have a paypal link you can use to donate. It's an uphill battle for them in New York so they need all the help we can give. They also podcast all the sermon. You can listen to them on the site or subscribe to it on iTunes like I do.  I've been listening to old sermons pretty much everyday. It really helps me to stay connected.

Pax