Let It Snow!

This is going to be a pretty long post so fix a nice hot mug of horka cokalada (hot chocolate) sit back, relax, and enjoy! Now, the drink may be a little out of season for everyone there in America but it is actually what we have been living off of this past week (that and cappuccino). I have seen more snow in the past two days than I have in the past two years, excluding a Christmas trip to WV. That's right, it has been snowing here! Though it's off and on and only sticks for a little while, it is still snow and a rarity to see in GA so I have enjoyed it! I could live without the -3 degree temperature but at least I brought plenty of warm clothes. I'm not as brave as some of the college kids who walk around in short sleeves and ballet flats - well, maybe brave isn't the right word! Either way, it has been an adventure! Let me begin my story...

Sunday:
We had church this morning and they have one service at 9:30am. It was rainy and very cold outside but Jen had us run by the store before the service. We arrived a few minutes before it started and I took the time to check out the surroundings. They had acquired a small building from the government to use as their church; it had one large room, which was pretty much a two-car garage, that they used as the sanctuary. Going up a small set of stairs, you come to a little living room and kitchen area and then up a larger set of stairs is a set of bedrooms. This is where the guys were staying for the week. So they had a keyboard and pulpit and an overhead projector and a bunch of chairs set up for the service. Ron gave introductions and announcements but had a member of the church, Petr, translate. And yes, I spelled that correctly! Petr is Lydia's husband, who hosts the prayer meetings every week. He speaks about five different languages. We began by singing some songs, all in Czech of course. But I recognized the melody and realized they were very familiar songs just in another language. I tried really hard to sing along and pronounce things the best I could and I got fairly good at one song in particular. Of course we sang it several times but I was getting the hang of it. Czech words are so hard to pronounce because of the marks above them, and the lack of vowels. It was really cool though listening to how they worshiped God in their language and to think about how God created so many different languages and dialects and understands them all. Announcements followed and then some more songs and Ron had asked one of the Liberty students to share his testimony. It was very encouraging to listen to and appropriate for the people there. Before turning to God, he had a past filled with drugs, alcohol, and bad influences. After coming to know the Lord, he faithfully gave up all the destructive behavior and ultimately ended up giving up his old friends as well. He soon found himself with no Christian friends, yet stayed true and believed that God would bring them in His time. I believe it was very encouraging to a group of people who face that every single day of their lives. Less than 2% of the population are actually believers and that statistic could even be outdated for today. I can't even imagine living in a country where Christianity is not the norm - it is not even the minority. It is actually unknown to most people, yet this small body of believers continue to stand strong and truly rely on each other.
The rest of the service went great. Ron had asked another Liberty student to preach the message and seeing as how it was a week before Easter, he decided to speak about the story of the palm branch and Jesus riding into town on a donkey and colt. He used this story to explain that we need to be the colt and take Jesus everywhere we go, as in work and school and even our own homes. It was a really neat message and to see what a young college student got out of that story was really encouraging. These kids have really amazed me since they have been here - they are really solid! Then, after every service they have a "coffee time" for the members of the church so that they can fellowship with each other instead of leaving right away. This is a great time for the Czech people to get encouraged and to spend a little more time in a positive atmosphere. This gave me a lot of time to meet the members and try to work on my cesky a little.
After coffee time, we were all going to split up and eat lunch with several different families. Jen and I were eating with our land lords and two of the Liberty girls, the leader of the group, and the Barnes daughter Tori. We were going to make the dessert and a salad and Yada and Olga were making an authentic Czech dinner. We prepared our food and set the table and patiently waited for our guests to arrive.
They came up a little after two and we made all the introductions. They showed us what they had brought and it looked and smelled delicious. This was going to be my first experience with authentic Czech food as well, so I was pretty excited. Yada explained that we were having
dumplings, beef, and a mushroom sauce. Normally, the favorite is pork but today they did beef. Olga also made potato pancakes.

The meal was delicious! We stuffed ourselves with food and good company. It was so neat to talk to Yada and Olga; they know a little English but enough for us to have a good conversation. They actually own a rafting business where people can raft down a river that runs right behind the Barnes house. They also gave us a lot of insight on and history on Czech and the economy and all that stuff that you talk about when you have never been to a country before. It was really neat and Yada agreed that if he would teach me some Czech words, then I would teach him some English. It's interesting to see how badly they want to learn that language. I will actually be working with their daughter while I am here to help with her English. After lunch we wanted to play "Spoons" with them; they know how to play and are actually pretty competitive. It was hilarious watching us all try to pass cards and grab for spoons before anyone else! Luckily, no one lost any fingers considering my nails are pretty long but we did have a great time. We ate so much at lunch that we did not want to move - I was definitely feeling a Sunday afternoon nap coming on. But we had other things to do.
We had to go to Krumlov because we were beginning our English classes tonight at the elementary school. The vans came and picked us up and we drove the 20 minutes to Cesky Krumlov. The school is right next door to the Open Door Club, which is a room that they use for outreach in the community. We were holding classes for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced English students, which is what we had passed out fliers for the previous day. We were unsure of the response that we would get but we were all hopeful that we would have a good turn-out and that the Liberty students would be able to teach the lessons they had prepared. Once we entered the school, we had to take our shoes off. As is the custom in all the homes, you also do not wear your outside shoes in the school buildings. So you bring an extra pair of shoes or slippers, which is what most of us did. Since it was at night though, it was acceptable for some of us to just wear our socks. We opened up the classrooms and Ron gave us a rundown of what to do and expect. I was just going to sit in the Beginner class and observe; the girl that was coming to this class would be the girl that I would work with for the next six weeks. The classes started at six, and at first we didn't think anyone would come. But at about 6:15, Yada (our landlord) and his daughter Lita showed up. Yada takes the Intermediate class, while Lita was in our Beginner classes. There were also a couple of other students in the Intermediate class, including a local partner of Ron's who really wants to learn English. The class was really interesting and the girls did a great job! Lita was so excited to be learning English and even had notes from a previous class she had taken. She is very bright and wants so badly to be able to communicate with the Barnes family. Class goes for 45min, then we have a short "Big Group" time in which Ron shares an encouraging word and we sing some songs. After that, we have another 45min of class. Ron comes up with crazy songs for us to sing like "Whadaleeotcha" and "Hi, My Name is Joe." Of course, he also follows up "Thy don't Word" to encourage the students who are most likely not believers. I have never taught or even sat through an actual English class so it was really interesting. You really can start anywhere in the language because they don't understand any of the concepts; of course, it is also hard to communicate because they don't understand much of what you say. But the class went great and it gave me an idea of where to go with her lessons when they left and gave the girls an idea of how to construct the rest of the classes.
Monday:
Today was one of my favorite days so far here in the Czech. The local elementary school, the one that we are using for English classes, had invited Ron's ministry to come into the school and teach the kids about the real Easter. This was an amazing breakthrough because it would make a great contact for their ministry and the fact that an atheist region would allow a religious group to come in and talk about, well, religion was pretty miraculous. Stephanie, from Liberty, was going to teach two classes this morning and Ron took a few of the other girls with them to help out and observe. Luckily, I was able to go as well and I am so thankful that I did.
The kids' English teacher came in with each class; we had a 7th grade and an 8th grade class. Stephanie did a great job by playing a game with them to teach them some facts about America. They all got involved and actually were pretty up to speed on their American culture. She told them them about Easter and how it differed from the traditions and beliefs here in Czech. There was maybe one kid in the first class who had even heard of Jesus or the concept of going to church on Easter. The best part came after Stephanie finished up with her lesson and we had time left over. Ron split up the kids into groups of two and three and then gave each of the Americans a group of kids to talk with. We asked them questions and they did their best to talk to us in English and even ask us some questions. We did this for both classes and I loved it! My heart is with kids and working with them and communicating with them and even though these kids were older, it was such a blessing to be able to talk with them. They acted like typical middle-schoolers: there was the class clown, the quiet type, the girls who were always the "pretty ones," the eccentrics, the jocks. The only difference was that they spoke another language. They were a tad overwhelming all together but once we sat down one on one with them, it was so amazing. These kids were older than I was used to working with and they barely spoke English, but I got past all that and just talked. The quiet ones spoke up, the ones who knew very little English tried their hardest to speak, and they even helped each other understand us by translating. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. These kids didn't care that we couldn't really understand each other or that they probably knew more about our country than we knew about theirs. They opened up to us and really showed an interest in us. It is so strange to see how, even in a very stable country, the citizens are still fascinated by America and wanted to know more about it. Never in America would we be asked if we wanted to go to Czech and what we wanted to see when we got there. It was just so neat to talk with these kids and to even learn from them.

As if I hadn't already had an incredible day, it was time for us to see the city! About twenty minutes from where I live is a little town called Ceske Krumlov, a beautiful old-style town that has become a tourist spot for everyone from locals to people all over the world. We spent the rest of the afternoon here, shopping and sight seeing. We walked down cobblestone streets no bigger than one lane. Little shops lined each side, each one a different bright color and offering everything from garnet jewelry to little wooden puppets. We saw castles and statues and a beautiful river ran right through it all. It was amazing and can really only be justified in pictures. Enjoy!