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