I'm back

Well I'm back home again. I know some of y'all have been wondering if I would ever post anything again. I will. I'm still adjusting to being home and sorting through all the stuff that comes with that. I'm glad to be home and especially glad to be able to spend time with my family. But I am missing Plzen and my friends there a whole lot too. It's been much harder than I thought it would be. I wasn't really ready to come home really. I will write more when I can get some perspective on everything and figure out exactly what I feelings and thought are about it all.

But in the mean time Wade and I got to go camping and hiking for a week in Switzerland and it was so totally awesome! Here are some pictures.

Reflection

Ok so I know I dropped of the planet there for a while. I apologize for that. I've been having some personal stuff I guess you'd say. I know some of you have wondered if there is a girl involved. Well, there is. I messed around and got my heart broken. We are really close friends still now and I think we always will be. I don't regret anything that happened. She's a great girl. 

It's funny how in the training this exact subject came up. We did a skit about a girl falling for a local boy wanting to stay on. I must admit I did the same thing. The training is very good at warning us what to look out for. I knew about it but life has a funny way of happening to you when you least expect it. I've learned a lot from my experience here. I've realized I had kind of given up on the idea of having a family. It was painful but God showed me I really do want this. 

Another thing to be on the lookout for is loneliness. It will happen. It's just part of being in a strange country on your own. But I am so blessed to be here and I thank God everyday for giving me this chance to learn about Him and myself. 

We all have a part to play. I know most of the missions volunteers go to places without all the comforts I have here. I'll be honest, sometimes I feel a little guilty about that. I have a nice thing going here. I really enjoy teaching English at Maranatha. I hope that I have done a good job. I do know that I've made some great friends in the classes and had some really good conversations about God and His plan for us. 

I guess if I had any advice for folks training to go on a mission it would be to listen to the leaders and really take it to heart. Even knowing what to look for won't stop you from having setbacks. Pretty much every situation we covered in my training has come up with me at some point during my time here and knowing that I'm not the first one to go through it helps. There may be times you feel like you're not helping anyone or making a difference. But trust in the Lord that you are where He wants you to be. We can never really know all the people we touch or what they will take away from knowing us. You just have to be open and show people who you really are. I know God uses us more than we can ever actually realize. 

I get impatient like anybody else and I want to know where I'm going. However, I also know God is not on my timetable. I've been reading Donald Miller's latest book To Own A Dragon. I always take something from his books that changes my whole way of thinking. This one is about how God is our Father. He is THE perfect Father I know is always taking care of me. From my daily bread to learning to grow up and be a man myself He is with me guiding me. I don't always get what I want. He gives me what I need. I take much comfort in that.

One of the other things I've learned is to be able to ask for prayer. Before I came here I was always a little uncomfortable and embarrassed about asking people to pray for me. The Good Lord took that away from me right quick and I can't thank Him enough. Knowing that my Church family back home is praying for me gets me through the tough times and helps me enjoy the good times even more. So on that note, pray for me to find my way in this world and find my way to the family I hope to start one day soon. Thank you all so very much. 

Here's a picture I took on a long walk where I figured out a lot of the stuff I've talked about here. It's from a hill top on the edge of town looking back to the Pilsen city center.  For some reason, "He's got the whole world in His hands" comes to my mind. Peace to everyone. 

I've had a few thoughts since I posted this. I highly recommend maintaining a blog if you have access to the internet in your mission. It really helps to write your thoughts out. If you don't have internet definitely keep a journal. Hopefully you'll be lucky and will have people you can talk to nearby. But writing down what you are going through helps to clear your head and reflect on your experience in a way you can learn from them. No matter how much you are helping people where you are you will feel like you are the one being helped. It is such a blessing to be able to come and be a part of what our brothers and sisters in Christ are doing.

Easter

Happy Easter Everyone! One of the great things about Czech Republic is that Easter is a very big holiday for everyone, even people that don't go to Church. It's also the beginning of spring so there's lots of nice stuff going on. Like this market in the town square. They have booths with sausages and all kinds of crafts. I saw a whole pig being roasted on a spit. I almost felt like I was back home at a pig pull. 
One thing I have not really talked about in the blog is beer. Now I've avoided it because I don't know how all people might react but I'm going to get into it. Beer is a big part of the culture in Czech Republic and especially in Pilsen. It is the birth place of Pilsner Urquell which is one of the oldest working breweries in the world. In fact the Brewery Museum is the oldest one in the world. The company employs many people and is very important to the economy as well as a source of cultural pride. I would say that I resisted drinking beer and only took it up to be sensitive to my hosts but that'd be a big fat fib. I liked beer before I came here. There, I said it. But I know moderation is most important. Having said that, it really would hurt a Czech's feelings if you refused to try their favorite local beer. 

Anyway, Pilsner Urquell sponsors these festivals so there is a lot of advertising for them around. You can see the big blow up arch there? Pilsner Urquell. So you get the idea. 

So as I was saying there a lots of interesting traditions around Easter here. I must be honest, I do not understand a lot of what I was told and I really can't remember everything. So if any of my Czech friends read this feel free to point out in the comments the important things I missed. 

So here's the worst one probably. It's funny but I can see how it might be problematic. We'd never get away with this in USA.  It's called Pomlazka. Basically a pomlazka is a whip made from willow twigs braided together. Boys in the village take the pomlazky and hit the girls with them in the legs and behind. In return the girls give them a decorated egg. I know, it's nutso. Needless to say many of my female friends are not fans of this tradition. Fortunately nobody really beats up on the girls so much anymore. 

Another thing here they do that I love is this spot just off the square. Basically anyone can come up and read the Bible for everyone to hear.  The nice lady off to the right goes to Maranatha actually. But from what I can tell anyone is welcome to come and read. There's a little sign up sheet in that walkway.  For a country that is so secular they still have a lot of affection for tradition and the Christianity is a big part of that. At least I hope so.  Now if they'd just start going to Church again. I hope I'm helping in my small way on that front. 

If you really want to know all about the Easter traditions I found a link here at My Czech Republic. 

The Monday after Easter is a national holiday. So a group of us from Maranatha went out to some lakes on the edge of town to picnic and have a nice day out. It has all of a sudden become the most beautiful weather here. It's in the 70s and sunny most everyday. So nice. 

I apologize for my terrible photography. But over that lake behind those trees is where we went. We of course cooked sausages on the fire all that good stuff. We also played lots of games with the kids. This was so much fun. One of the funniest parts of the day was the big gift hunt. It's sort of like an Easter Egg Hunt but it's really just one big one. They all took off running through forest to be the first one to find it. But finding it was just the beginning of the battle. 

That's right! It was up in the top of a skinny little pine tree. They weren't discouraged though. They went after it. 

But eventually that had to face facts and enlist the help of Honza, the tallest guy out there. 

That's right! I snapped the picture while the present was still falling. I'm very proud of that. So all the kids got their candy and all was right with the world. It really was a lovely day and it's amazing how you can travel such a small distance and be in such great natural beauty.

Happy Easter again Everyone!! Thanks so much to everyone for keeping me in their prayers. I need them and appreciate it more than I can say.

 šťastný Velikonoce!  

(I just know I got that wrong.)

Ireland

Hello! I recently got to go to Ireland again. This time Deidre came so it was better. We saw lot's of great stuff. This is Bunratty Castle in sort of central-western Ireland. I forgot which county we were in. In the course of the day we were in 3 of the 4 provinces.  Here's a little mill near the castle.

I didn't get a whole lot of photos because my camera is old and I never got a proper memory card for it. Sorry. But here's what I've got. 

So you can't really tell much but this is from somewhere in the middle of Ireland. We took a train across from Dublin to Galway. Deidre found this great tour. We took a train to Limerick where Frank McCourt is from and learned about how he came to write Angela's Ashes. Then on to Castle up top. Then out to the Cliffs of Moher. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of that. My camera is not good for landscapes. One of these days if I'm nice Deidre will let me have some of the pictures she took with her much better camera. It was well worth the trip just to see the cliffs. 

I did get a picture in Galway bay though.

It was an unusually sunny day so you could see the Islands off in the distance. We stayed at a bed & breakfast in Galway that night. Galway is a nice town. It's right on the ocean and is a big university town. I love college towns usually anyway but Galway is up there with the top ones. It's surprisingly modern possibly due to the focus of many of the universities. Ireland was way out in front when it came to computers and engineering and science in general. The universities put out many top notch IT and engineering professionals apparently. 

Anyway it was a great trip but by the end we were pretty worn out. Here's my evidence. 

We had a long day of travel that last day. We took the train back to Dublin from Galway, then straight to the airport to fly back to Prague. Luckily for me Mila came to pick us up and was exceedingly generous enough to drive me back to Plzen. I can't thank him enough for that. 

So stay tuned folks. I've got some Easter pictures and stuff to tell y'all about the crazy customs they have here like the pomlázky. 

Update: Here's a few of the pics that Deidre took.

This is at Trinity College in Dublin
And here's a few at the Cliffs of Moher. 

Cleve's Christening

Baker Cleveland Bowen has now been Christened. Have you seen a cuter kid? I know your kids are always the cutest but I'm so proud of this little guy and his Dad and Mom.

Back row left to right: Dad, Bo, Courtney, Lane, Mom

Front row. Dylan, Connor, Cleve. 

I've got a couple more posts coming soon. 

Where The Wild Things Are!!! Plzen

OK so I know I've been a big slacker with the blog and this isn't really that much of an update but I just had to put this up. I don't know of any kid who didn't love this book. And this movie, at least from the trailer looks exactly like the book come to life in our world. 

Well I supposed I should tell you guys a little something about what's going on here. I'm having a great time in Plzen. I love Czech Republic and have made some really great friends here. I'm thinking of maybe staying longer if I can find a job. I figure the way things are back home it might be easier to find one here. But I'm working on it so we'll see. 

Also tomorrow I'm going back to Dublin! Yay! This time Deidre is coming too. I think she may even let me take her picture now. 

So it's still cold here. That's maybe the only real bummer. It's been snowing the last couple days. But I'm used to it now so no big deal. Anyway I'll see if I have some good pictures of stuff since I've come back. 

I've started doing some climbing now. This is Honza showing me how to tie the rope so you don't fall. 

And off I go! Pavlinka is holding the rope for me.

Look folks he's a natural. 

And here's from a night we went out for a hike to an old mine. It was closed off unfortunately so we just went and goofed around. 

Ondrej's go his back turned to the camera, then me then Honza. 

And Madla taking the picture of us. Oh she also got my awesome creation. 

I tried to do it all secretly but she caught me in the act.

OK so that's all for now. I've got some more pictures to show you guys. Plus I'll have lot's of new stuff when I get back from Dublin. Thanks everybody for keeping me in your prayers. 

Nazdar!!!!

Christmas pictures

Hey everybody. I know I've been really lazy about updating. My internet is out in my flat so I won't really write a whole bunch right now. I got to go home for Christmas which was super awesome. Clud and I totally fooled Mom and she had no idea I was coming. Here's a bunch of pictures from the trip home. I'll comment more later when I get internet at home again and can spend the editing time I need to have a coherent post.

It's not that often that Mom gets all her boys in the same room.


 Clevetok!!! The Miiiiiind Taker!!!!!