An Update

It has once again been too long since our last post. Life gets rolling and blogging seems to be another thing on the list sometimes! Why does the list always seem to grow and never shrink?

Anyways, it's time to give a bit of an update on our life here. The past few weeks have been busy for our team as we were preparing for a big Thanksgiving program/dinner for the English school students and their families. It was neat to see how our team really worked together and put together a nice event. The evening started with the students enjoying hot spiced apple cider and snacks while reading about the history of Thanksgiving that we put together. We had set up a tepee in the Entrance hall that gave the room a Native feeling, while 'real' Pilgrims and Native Americans greeted the guests. When it was time, the guests were invited into the dining hall where their first sight was a tribe of Natives, led by Chief Massasoit, sitting around the fire. After the guests were seated, music started and the Natives began a dance. After the dance, Chief Massasoit began telling the story (in 'real' Sioux, mind you) of when white men came to their shores.

After, the guests got to enjoy a dance by some of the youth group girls and a student of mine. The girls choreographed a dance to "Cherokee Morning Song". It was beautiful! Throughout the rest of the program, the guests saw the history of the pilgrim's crossing through video and live action. They saw the Natives, led by Chief Massasoit, befriend the Pilgrims and teach them vital life saving techniques for living in the new land. In the end, everyone was able to celebrate and enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving dinner together. After dinner, guest were challenged to "challenge the Natives" with some silly games. Before saying goodnight, our school Director gave a moving talk about the Lord of the Harvest. We pray that there will be a harvest from this event, that students and their families would have seen the Spirit of God at work and felt his gentle call to become part of His kingdom.

We really enjoyed this event. From working with our team, to setting up, to visiting with the guests, to the last moment of going home. There are times when I, as their teacher, am frustrated by how difficult it can be to seemingly share Jesus with them. During class, I have to be careful that I don't preach at my students because they are paying to learn English. But during events outside of the classroom, we really try to be more evangelistic. It was a blessing to see this come together and hopefully bless people. Thank you for your prayers...please continue to pray that hearts would soften and students would accept Christ as their Saviour.

With some disappointment, we will be staying in Czech over the Christmas season. We have about $2000 that we still need in order to renew our visas, so there was no option to purchase airfare. Our visas expire the end of this month, and must be renewed by the 15th, so we have the paperwork about ready, and are trusting that if God wants us to stay here, He will provide the rest needed to pay for the expense of our visas. Renewing passports and visas overseas is significantly more expensive than doing it in North America, we have found out. And requires a lot more red tape! Lord willing finances and paperwork will all come together in time.

Although we will GREATLY miss being with family over the holidays, we are reminded that God has a plan in everything, and trust that His will is perfect and good. There will be many opportunities over the Christmas season to shine the light of Jesus to those we come in contact with. There will be a group coming from Minnesota over Christmas, so it will be nice to have some down time and hopefully some time of refreshing with the group through prayer and services.

We are also looking toward February and the hockey trip! As we hear, there is still space for some more hockey players and non players on this trip. We are praying that God would bring those He wants as participants. Maybe you know someone or you yourself should come? Please go to canadasos.ca for more information, or e-mail us directly.

Every third Saturday Jody and the teens have been hosting "The River", a youth led church service for youth. Each week a topic is prepared, there is worship, there are videos and a short but pointed message all following the theme of the evening. It seems that God is really moving in this area, and we look forward to seeing what more He has for this ministry. Jody especially feels called to this work and putting his heart into it. He enjoys working with the youth to prepare each service and feels God's anointing as he is preaching the message. The hope is still to one day have a drop in centre where these services may take place, but today, God has given us a great building where it is working. We pray that we can be faithful in this work.

Thank you for your prayers and support! Drop us an e-mail sometime and say hello!