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!

The Strain of Following Christ

Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a super-natural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself ~Oswald Chambers

A Lost Harvest

Living in the Czech Republic now for nine months we have had the privilege of enjoying a sample of all four seasons. As we have driven throughout this beautiful land, we noticed the roads lined with fruit trees, mostly apple and some pear trees. Now, when I say lined I am not exaggerating. For miles and miles these quaint little European roads were completely bordered by fruit trees. I have to confess that on more than one occasion while out on a family drive we would pull the car over and just help ourselves to some delicious fresh fruit. The interesting part about these trees is that they appear to belong to no one. There is no orchard and no farmer; indeed these are wild trees. As the summer was coming to a close and fall was setting in on us, we could not help but notice that many, if not all, of these trees were losing their fruit. It was literally rotting on the branches and then falling to the ground dead. None of it was being harvested. We are not talking about crab apples. These apples would put the best Ontario apples to shame (no offense if you happen to be an apple farmer in Ontario). Rachael would often comment on the sad waste of all that fruit, “How many people could have been fed if only there were workers to harvest the fruit.”

I remember one particularly beautiful early fall day here when this really began to set in. We had gone for a Sunday afternoon family drive to a nearby town. As we were heading out of town we came over the crest of a hill and saw a little country road full of apple trees whose fruit was rotting. In that moment, a powerful picture hit me as hard as I’ve been hit in a while. These trees represent the people of the Czech Republic. We live in a country of 10 million people who are everyday rotting and falling to the ground dead, never having received the message of Salvation through Christ alone. And Rachael’s words came back to me, “If only there were workers to harvest all this fruit, imagine the people it could feed.” Wow, if only there were more workers here and more resources available. Imagine all the people who could hear and respond to the Gospel and in turn imagine all the people they could feed. What a tragedy that all this fruit is dying, never having been harvested. Last week this picture really hit home for me. I was told of 3 great tragedies that took place in the last two weeks right here in our own community of 10,000 people. The first is the story of a man who on Sunday night was out drinking with friends. At 2 o’clock in the morning he called his wife to come and pick him up. Sadly when she got there he pushed her out of the car and took off driving. The man drove his car right into the side of a small hotel/restaurant and died. What a loss! My heart was so grieved to think of how quickly life can end, and if it ends without Jesus: what a loss indeed! On the same weekend there was a man in his 40’s partying in a village five minutes from our town. It was a village wide celebration and many town officials were there including several fireman. In the middle of the afternoon this man who had been drinking very heavily, jumped into a pool. While people stood by laughing, thinking he was joking, the man drowned. Finally, two weeks ago an 18 year old boy who only had his driver’s licence for a few months went to pick up some friends who had been partying late one night. After dropping off his friends he headed home and lost control of his car. He hit a tree and died less than one kilometre from our house. These stories immediately brought to mind the un-harvested fruit all over this country that is everyday falling to the ground and rotting and dying.

There is good news however, the Bible say the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. That’s what we are here for. We so desire to be those harvesters! For us, God has called us to be the Harvesters in the field of the Czech Republic. For you, it may be elsewhere. Jesus called us to go in to all the world. That means our neighbourhoods, cities, countries and places where no one else is shining His light. Please don’t lose sight of the global call of our mission.
I know God does not call all of us to leave our homes and countries. For if He did who then would minister there? But I believe that God has called us, the Rectors, all four of us, to this country for a season and for a reason. I know that God works way beyond what we can imagine. He also works through the Body of Christ, His church. His church knows no borders and we all have a different role and place within it. For now, ours is to be here to be Harvesters of the lost.
We hope and pray this letter finds you all well. Thank you for your support and prayers. We have been so blessed by the love and support we have received so many times by complete strangers, family and friends a like and above all by our Father in Heaven. God Bless you all and may you know His love and Peace deeper and deeper.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving from Czech

Happy (late) Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a Czech-style Canadian Thanksgiving this past Monday with our friend and fellow missionary, Steve Belzner. It was a great time of food, fellowship and more food!

Hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours was!

The Success of the Cross

The success of the Cross

Close your eyes and picture the cross. Now picture Jesus on the cross, nailed to it bleeding and beaten, hanging for all to see. Picture the crowds mocking and scoffing, hear Jesus as He says “it is finished” and gives up His spirit. See the Roman solder pierce His side with a spear, watch as they take Him down from the cross and what few friends He had left wrap His broken body and lay Him in a borrowed tomb. Imagine what those who followed Jesus while He was alive must have thought seeing all this. Jesus the promised Messiah, the one who would rule with Justice and be the King of Israel is dead, killed like a common thief. Where was the power people claimed He had, this man claimed to be God’s son and now it’s over with out even a fight. If that was the end of the story then what a tragedy the cross would have been, but we know that’s not the end and the cross is the greatest victory the world has ever known. A wise man once said “never let a fool see a job half done” and that’s it. So many times we judge success by worldly standards and we fail to see God’s plan and His perfect timing, we fail to see that many times when we seem to lose its then that God’s greatest work is done. When we come to the end of ourselves and pour out all we have that’s when God has room to do His work, work that only He can take credit for and work that only He can do. Jesus wasn’t defeated not for one second. He was, is and always will be God almighty the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the cross was His great moment of triumph, triumph over death hell and the grave and He won this victory by His obedience to the will of the Father
Luke 22:42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." I can’t begin to explain the mystery of all that Jesus did on the cross, but I know it was all anyone could ever need to be forgiven and I know that the cross despite it’s horror is beautiful and wonderful and victorious and it is the single most amazing picture of true love the world has ever known or ever will know. (John 3:16) And through faith I see the success of the cross.

Bouquet of Virtue

I have always loved a good story. But to me, a European story is the best story. Somehow, everything always seems more beautiful. The heroine is always more beautiful, her hero is always more handsome, the food always looks tastier, the sun always looks warmer, and there is always violin music playing in the background. Even the difficulties of the main characters always seem less, well... difficult.

I don't think that before moving here I expected my life to turn into a European movie. But somewhere along the line maybe I wondered if things really were better in Europe. Having lived here for a bit now, I can tell you a few things: the food really is tastier! You know in the movies when friends or family get together for a meal and the table is heavy with all sorts of delicious looking cuisine? That really happens here...and the food really is presented with such care as to make it look even better! One of my personal favourites (and a Czech national dish) is Knedlo vepřo zelo (dumplings, pork and sauerkraut). "REALLY!?" you say. Now, before you toss my credibility out the window, you will need to try it sometime. It truly is amazing. In fact, I almost can't write about it anymore because my mouth is watering too much.

Another thing I can tell you is that while the sun (at least where we live) is not warmer...the sunrises are more beautiful. I cannot even begin to be able to compare the beauty of watching the sun rise over the tops of these rolling hills with any North American sunrise I have seen. Understandably though, a sunrise is an intensely personal affair and I would not disallow you the right to contradict me on this one.

As for the heroine and the hero... What do they really look like in Europe? They still wake up with bad breath (well, maybe just our hero does). In order so they don't get fat, (due to all the good food, of course) they need to exercise more. They don't hear soft music playing while they stroll through the fruit market. They are late. They are impatient. They disappoint people. They fight with each other, and they are sometimes too hard on their kids.

The truth is, we love our life here. We love this town, we love the people, and we love our God who sent us here. But it doesn't come without stress. If you were to pick a different flower for each of the lessons and virtues that God is teaching us, you would have a stunning bouquet. And the plot line would unfold something like this:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self control, perseverance and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-8 (New American Standard)

If you are wondering what life is like here, or what God is doing personally in our lives, this Scripture sums it up. In the midst of all the hidden stress we struggle through, the joys we celebrate, the faith we cling to and the daily failures we succumb to...you have the story of two servants (not a hero or heroine) who are seeking for God to add to our faith...

Moral Excellence

Knowledge

Self Control

Perseverance

Godliness

Brotherly Kindness

and Love

Please pray for us that we would apply all diligence to this work.

School Days, Happy Days

*Deep breath* It's September! On Tuesday our daughters started kindergarten in a Czech school... Wow, I just have to take a moment because that still amazes me! From 6:30 in the morning, our girls were wide awake and eager to get off to school. You would have thought that it was Christmas with all the anticipation and excitement (Jody remarked that he hopes their exuberance for school doesn't wane over the years!). So after a quick breakfast, some braids and pig-tails, we were headed to the school drop off. Because the girls are in different classes, we dropped Gracie off first. In Czech, the children come to school in their 'day' clothes. Then when they arrive to school, the go directly to a type of cloak room where they change into their 'comfortable' clothes. In the cloak room, there is a spot for each child to hang their belongings in a special bag. Throughout the day, they will change into play clothes, sleeping clothes and then back into their comfortable clothes. Finally, at the end of the day, they will change back into their 'day clothes' for their parents to take them home in. On a side note, I can't imagine how exhausted their teacher must be from helping 12 children change their clothes five times in one day! After situating Grace's belongings in her special spot, we took her to her class. We were amazed at the grace with which she walked into the room and was instantly comfortable. In fact, after a few minutes she actually asked us when we were leaving because she wanted to be at school alone! Next, it was time to get Hannah to her class. There was the same process of changing clothes, etc...and then it was time to say goodbye to her. She also did amazing! Her teacher introduced herself and Hannah walked away like such a big kid off to class.

Now, having never taken my own children to school, I had no idea what to expect. Would they scream and cry? Would they not let go of my ankles and kick up a terrible fuss? What a surprise and relief to see them so bravely walk into a room of complete strangers who don't speak their language, and jump right into things. It was a blessing to know they were happy, safe and enjoying themselves. All day, I kept picturing them in their classrooms, playing and making friends. Around 10:00 am their classes go outside for playtime. I knew they would be outside and I couldn't stand it...I had to know how they were doing. So, (yes I am ashamed to admit it) we slowly drove by the school to see if we could spot them playing outside. I can't tell you the joy it gave me to see my kids playing happily at school with other children! It was like a gift!

Another benefit of sending your kids to school is time. After taking the kids to school, Jody and I decided to 'celebrate' by going out for coffee together. We had been sitting together for a little while talking when an elderly couple sat down at a table beside us. It struck me right away how different our stages of life were. From first glance, I saw that they enjoy the freedom of eating dessert for breakfast, something that guilt still does not let me do. However, I hope one day when I am also wearing orthopaedics, that dessert for breakfast will be a nice bonus. Aside from the age appropriate shoes and their cuisine choice, I thought about how this couple didn't take their children to school today. In fact, it probably has been about 35 years since they took their first child to school. The fact that it was the first day of school in Hlinsko probably had no impact on their life. For them, it was just life as usual: wake up together, head to the grocery store together, do some errands together, have breakfast together, etc... As Jody and I were enjoying our chlebiček, coffee and friendship it struck me that time together builds friendship. It's not that I never realized this before, because I have. It's simply that in the busyness of life, it's easy to forget, and I am thankful for the reminder!

In thirty years, on the first day of school, I hope we are having dessert for breakfast together!

Looking back on the week, the girls ended up doing really well. I think there will continue to be adjustments for awhile yet, but that is to be expected. There did end up being tears on a couple of occasions, but they were short lived. And it was even amazing to hear them come home speaking more Czech even after the first week!

Pray for Hannah and Grace, that they would know above all, they are not alone at school. Pray that they would know the ever-present, presence of Jesus, and His peace.