The past month has obviously been so busy I haven't even had time to catch up with all my "blog readers." As of right now, I am scheduled to fly home on May 5 to get back to the "real world. But the past few weeks have taken me on an interesting journey of decisions and breakthroughs.
About halfway through my time here, my schedule picked up and I soon had something going on every day of the week. I spent most of my time during the day working on "Ron Stuff." Little did I know that I could update a website but give me a user name and password and apparently I can find my way around the back end of a site fairly well. This is just one of the ways that God has shown me I can do more than I thought. Other than that I have been able to catch him in various office tasks like designing letterhead and organizing files. Certainly not the most glamorous side of ministry work but extremely important none the less. The less time he has to spend sitting on his computer and in his office, the more time that he can be doing what he does best. I'm not sure what that is yet, besides giving us a healthy dose of a hard time, but I am sure I will see it soon. In all seriousness, Ron has an extremely important job here in Czech and excels at it. He is a great communicator and builds relationships easily - that trait is vital here. So I am glad to help him out in any way I can so that he can spend his time on the field, training leaders to be great communicators. Oh, and he plays the guitar in our Praise Team - without him we would lose the beat!
My other time is spent in various outreaches and ministry projects. As I am sure I have already mentioned, I teach English to my landlord's daughter Lida and to the Barnes' Czech teacher, Magda. I meet with Lida every Tuesday and Thursday night at 5:00 and I meet with Magda usually on Wednesdays when she comes to teach the family. This has been a huge learning experience for all three of us. As they have learned English, I have learned a little Czech and I have learned how to teach someone the basics of a language. Through teaching, I have learned how to learn. I also had the opportunity to teach the Seminary students an English lesson when they came to Budejovice for a day. That in itself was a task I was surprised I could accomplish. And finally for the past month, I have gone with the team to a local elementary school to work on English with 7th and 8th graders. This is one of my favorite parts of the ministry because I love working with younger people and I really enjoy getting to know the kids every week. Sometimes they get nervous about talking but it's always a new experience every time we go. I knew that I was coming here to teach English, and I underestimated it's difficulty as I prepared to come. Teaching something that we know as basic knowledge is harder than it sounds and I say this not to boast but to show God's greatness. He has given me the strength and the confidence to work with these students, hopefully having an impact on their language as well as their lives.
About the time that my schedule picked up, my heart began to soften for this city and this people. I had become very comfortable here and began to get accustomed to the ways of the area. It can be a discouraging ministry as many days will go by and you may think that nothing has been accomplished or no one has been affected. In one of the darkest spiritual countries in the world, the work here is often planting seeds and praying for rain knowing that we may never see the fruits of the labor. Yet I wanted to be a part of it. There were so many more things I could accomplish and so many more opportunities for me to get involved. There were relationships to deepen and new ones to form. With so many outreaches planned for the summer and even the breakthroughs I had seen since I had been here, I could see the land was becoming fruitful and the laborers were coming. The city is primed and ready for us to reap a bountiful harvest! I began to seek God about my role in this; after all my trip was only scheduled for two months and I have a job in the States that I did not want to lose. How excited I was though when God blessed me with the opportunity to stay, after a slight furlough in America of course! So now here I am in the Czech Republic again for three more months. I am overwhelmed at what lies ahead but excited beyond words and still in disbelief that God has chosen to use me! I would like to ask you to pray for me and the team here as we enter into the busiest time of the year. May we see this summer for what it is - three months full of opportunities to build relationships and show God's love, not a time to stress about the busyness. Please also pray that the financial support that I require to live here will come in God's great timing to take care of me. God Bless!!
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