Hope for my soul

Three days ago I returned home from teaching English and my third mission trip to the Czech Republic.
I posted some great pictures.
But
What do I say when asked how it went, certainly there is an expectation to hear about all the marvelous things that we did and saw.  It's similar to someone asking how your day went...
Do they really want to know, is it helpful?
Yesterday I had a great opportunity to talk with a friend from church that had gone on the same type trip 5 years ago.
She said it had been hard.
It was out of her comfort zone, she said.
The expectation to continuously reach out to people that do not speak English is daunting.
However, she said, "Going to Ethiopia where I washed desks, walls and played with children and washed desks some more...
...that was much easier."
Every year the church in Celakovice has potluck for us and I have tried to help with the dish washing and cleaning up afterwards and they always get upset with me because I am a guest.
But it's easier than trying to talk with them!
So why do I go?
There are a few people who have limited conversation abilities that I can share ideas or exchange personal experiences with that I am able to connect with.  I am able to encourage these people that God is real and Jesus really did come to save them and the church is a good place to continue in community.
But it isn't easy.

"Everything that happens fits into a pattern for good, but that pattern and that purpose is to shape us to the likeness of His Son."  Elisabeth Elliot

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son."

Romans 8:29

The first year I went was all learning and observing and letting the experienced ones take the lead.

Last year I felt the leading and emboldening and peace of the Holy Spirit at every turn.

This year was a battle from the moment I stepped off the plane and threw up from motion sickness until we arrived home and our baggage didn't.

Everything and nothing went right.

It was all walking by faith in the one who is the author and finisher of my faith. (2 Cor.5:7) An anchor of Hope for my soul (Hebrews 6:18)

I had impressed upon my heart that verse from Isaiah 6:8, "Here am I send me" when the urgent call for English camp teachers went out in the spring. And I can say with confidence that He did a great work through me but it wasn't easy.  There isn't another English camp for two years.  So we will continue to pray for those wonderful Czech people and wait and see with confident expectation that God will direct our steps.

Czech Gifts

This English Camp this year was the largest the Brown's had put together in the Czech Republic and it had the smallest team from America.  This is fitting because the Gideons were leading it.  God took the smallest team so far and did great things. At the team meeting before camp Marshall gave us a pep talk and shared his excitement of the gospel and it's transforming power.  He mentioned Romans 6:28,   "The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus," and  “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2: 8,9) He went on to make the word picture of being a gift and either opening it or leaving it. I remember him giving us this same pep talk two years ago on our last trip and I was excited to see what God would do this time.

The camp is made up of people from the Brethern Church in Celekovice and their neighbors, co-workers and people in the community.  One of the first years that the Brown's were involved in putting on the camp they advertised in the village paper.  From that advertisement there are a half dozen people that have come back for their third camp.
"Why do you keep coming back?" they ask us.
"Because we love you and want to share God's love with you," we say.
"Why do you keep coming back?" we ask them.
"We have a good time, the people are very nice and our family has a great time," they say.
Throughout the year the church has a weekly English Club for kids.  This is a great way to introduce the kids to the church.  The translator for my class brought their neighbor's daughter to the kids club during the year and then invited the mom and daughter to the camp.  She was an attorney and didn't really believe in God. She didn't feel comfortable saying who God was. You can imagine her discomfort level about going through the creation story and talking about sin.  We knew that it was only the Spirit of God in her heart that would soften her heart and receive the message.  By the end of the week we could see her softened heart and we were rejoicing in her desire to enter into conversations with us.  My translator Jara and her husband as her neighbors will continue to reach out to this woman after I go home.
I had the beginning/intermediate class so there were many conversations that I couldn't take part in because of their level of English vocabulary and my level of Czech.  But I was told that my class was having those conversations with their Czech friends outside of class. During our last class there were a lot of doubts and disagreements shared and even the one lady in our class who is Catholic and I had previously thought was a believer said she doubted whether Jesus really died and was resurrected. And class time was up at that point...it was time for group class and I still had my class gifts to hand out.  I set my translator gifts down at their feet (because they were still involved in their conversations...in the Czech language) and all of sudden the conversation stopped and they reached for thier gifts.  I stopped handing out gifts and told them to wait.....
"Are Jara and her husband excited about their gift," I asked my class? "If they open it and take it home they can use their gifts but if they leave them here unopened then they haven't received their gift.  This is the same with God," I told them.  "You can take this gift He is offering you and make it yours or you can leave it, it is up to you."
After I gave the class their gifts, the sweet couple sitting on the couch next to me gave me a gift.  I told them I would hang it next to my sink and would think of them all during the day while I did dishes. And it has been a great reminder to pray for them and that the Gift of God would grow in their hearts and minds.

Pleasantries

 Yesterday while I was on FB a new friend from the Czech church in Celakovice started chatting with me.
She thanked me for sharing my testimony.
Her father-in--law had thanked me as well after camp when we went to his house for dinner.
I thought it was just pleasantries.
But no.
Three years ago her husband's brother had commited suicide and their mother found him.
She was pregnant with their second child, her husband went to help his mother.
Church people told them that since the brother committed suicide that he will not go to heaven.
I had said in the story that I shared that there were probably some church people that said Stephen did not do good enough to go to heaven.
It struck a chord with them.
I shared with them Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
She said they were still sad and it was hard to be happy.
But she wasn't the only one who had  lost someone recently...
One of my students had also lost a brother five years ago in an auto accident and left behind a three year old son.
I wasn't sure before I left which testimony to God's grace I should share.
Several times I felt like I had affirmation that it was Stephen's story but I just wasn't sure.
Josh decided the day he was supposed to give his testimony that he was supposed to share our hurricane story. He had new perspectives on that time in our life after going through the Tim Keller Idols book that we discussed each afternoon at camp.
Not only did we share the gospel with those who were not believers yet but I my hope is that we encouraged those who were already believers, strengthened their faith and spurred them on to finish the race set before them.

We were blessed to fly economy business from Atlanta to Prague.  I think that meant we had more leg room but not the foot rests that 1st class enjoyed.  My feet were swollen all day yesterday.  But I did sleep, which may have been from the tylenol pm I took or the gin and tonic that was complimentary with our economy business.  I was spoiled and unfortunately we do not have those seats on our flight home.  The movie they showed was.....Jane Eyre! Can you believe it?  I started watching it but the pm/gin took effect and I dozed off.
Arrival in Prague was uneventful, all our luggage was there, Marshall Brown was there to meet us and we were loaded in a nice new 8 passenger taxi and whisked through Prague to Celakovice, 45 minutes away.

Nothing was planned for the afternoon so after Josh and I picked up some bread, a pear and a Magnum bar we went for a walk.  Right behind us came Kacie, Caroline and Lindsey so they entertained us for the next hour as we strolled along the Labe river.

We met up with the Pontigos, Matt and Brendon for dinner at nearby Pizza place and then walked to the Brown's church for a worship and prayer service.  They sang one or two songs completely in Czech and three that were a mixture and ones that we were familiar with so even though they were all singing "Our God is an awesome God" in Czech we joined them in English.  I've heard it before when people have taken mission trips that they say they imagine that's what heaven must be like.  I thought it too. And since I have that wonderful disposition to now cry everytime I sing in church I was a great state to then get up and say my name and how I happened to come on the trip.  All I said was my name and that I cry alot, then I sat down. Kathryn Brown said not her kids know that it isn't just her who does that. We connected I think.We're friends on FB now.
The Browns brought some little plums off their tree to the church and I must've eaten two handfuls.
We were back at the Business School where we're staying by 8.
The rest of the team went to bed but I asked Josh if we could sit outside for a little bit so we sat on the bench for an hour.  A pimped out 4 wheeler circled the block a couple of times, Josh said I should take a picture of it but of course after I got my camera ready it didn't come by again.
This morning my watch alarm went off at 4:30 am...not my plan, I had set my phone alarm to go off at 6:30...stupid watch.  It kept going off. By 5 I was out the door with my shoes on.  Since I knew there was a good path by the river I headed there and jogged for 20 minutes and then headed back. Check that off the list for today.
Breakfast was tomotoes, soft cheese and turkey cold cuts.  There was also yogurt, hazelnut wafer cookies, fresh bread and granola.

We aren't due to leave for camp until 2, I guess we'll wander around Celakovice some more, and buy some more bread.  This will not be a low carb trip.