Category: Czech Republic

Every post I wrote while we lived overseas.

A Slow Jog and Stories That Stick

Post author By Shay
Post date October 22, 2014
1 Comment on A Slow Jog and Stories That Stick

Ding–early this morning I get a text message from an unknown number. It’s all written in Czech. Just then a Czech friend walked in to the office and I said, “Can you help me read this?” “It’s your gas company…you need to pay your bill.” I promise I’m not irresponsible, but I just can’t win at the whole bill payment thing in Czech. A few more minutes online and my friend was able to help me pay the gas bill, but it’s definitely embarrassing and confusing. That company sent us a letter that we showed to another Czech friend who said they would automatically debit those things from our bank account. I guess that wasn’t the case, so tomorrow I’ll setup a regular online payment. Even as I say that, I have a paper sitting next to me to pay for Titus’ preschool which requires an online bank transfer. If I figure this without losing my mind I’ll turn up “We Are the Champions” and slow jog around the house in victory.

Every night we read the kids their Big Picture Story Bible. We just finished our seventh or eighth time through and have restarted again this week. Tonight we were reading about the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As I opened to the chapter the title read, “A really sad day” which I read aloud to the kids. Avery immediately said, “They ate from the tree…” and followed that with “Adam and Eve disobeyed God and He disciplined them.” She remembered the entire story and I hadn’t even started to read! Now I know kids are sponges, but Avery (who’s almost three) surprised me. I guess it’s the beauty of repetition and stories. Both are so powerful. Like a song chorus that gets stuck in your head, repetition provides an easy way to secure something in your mind. Stories have the same effect with their powerful word pictures and emotional connection. It’s so fun to see it all at work in the lives of our children, and better still, that it’s the truths from the Bible that are sticking.

At the end of the chapter tonight there’s a page about God giving Adam and Eve a glimpse in to how He would one day defeat Satan and sin. Titus saw Jesus standing on the snake and said, “Jesus!” and the kissed the book. Then he said, “He killed the snake!” Yes, He did and by His grace Titus will have a full understanding of what exactly that means in his own life some day. Until then we’ll continue to read to him and Avery the big story of God and trust their view of God will grow too. That’s not just a hope and prayer for the kids, but for Bethany and for me.

Tags Bible, gas bill, money, stories

365 Czech Republic

A Stroller for Two Kids and Celebrating Zach

Post author By Shay
Post date October 21, 2014
1 Comment on A Stroller for Two Kids and Celebrating Zach

It was another one of the full days today from start to finish. Bethany got a call yesterday about helping out at the same preschool where she taught English a while back and decided to go ahead and do it again today. I dropped her and the kids off early at the school and headed in to the Josiah Venture office for our weekly international team meeting (shown below). Bethany and the kids actually finished a littler earlier than normal and had to walk home because I had the car. She told me it took them 40 minutes to walk back and that our little umbrella stroller was just, in Avery’s words, “too bumpy.” When trying to console Avery, Bethany told her that we would probably be getting a more heavy duty stroller for the Czech sidewalks and Titus piped up asking, “A stroller for two kids?” We’ll take that into consideration, buddy.

Dave taught again this morning out of the book of Philippians. He brought a few visitors with him all the way from Louisville, Kentucky. I believe they are part of a church there that has had a long history of partnering with Josiah Venture and we were blessed to have them in our Bible study today (Dave’s wife, Connie, has a few photos of them from their time together this past weekend up on her blog). The passage in focus this morning was Philippians 1:12-26, looking at Paul’s time in prison and his perspective during that time. Dave broke the passage down in to two categories: 1) Prison Problems 2) People Problems and we looked at how those things could affect our own ministry today. In the end, it’s Paul’s focus on Christ that is really the point of it all and that’s what radically changes in perspective and ours. Great stuff!

Tonight we had the privilege of celebrating with my good friend, Zach Zegan, on his birthday. His wife Kara secretly invited us over for what a mini surprise party and we just had fun enjoying dinner and spending time together. Zach has been a close friend since the 4th grade and he and his family are very special to me. I think often of the great memories we had growing up and how blessed we are to be serving together in Czech Republic today. God has done incredible things in both of us, given us incredible wives, and given us a passion for the gospel. Happy birthday, friend.

The kids came to the party too and decided to make “Uncle Zach” birthday cards. Here’s Avery (left) and Titus holding up their creations:

Oh, and here’s another one of Zach being Zach:

Tags birthday, team meeting, Zach Zegan

365 Czech Republic

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…

Post author By Shay
Post date October 20, 2014
1 Comment on It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…

Today was Titus’ third day at preschool. We all got up and walked together to his class this morning which is actually really fun. As we were putting his stuff in his cubby he told me, “I bonked my head over there,” pointing to some area in the bathroom. We’re still not quite sure about that or what exactly happened. Other than a head bonk, Titus is loving school, which makes it much easier to leave him in the morning. When Bethany went back to pick him up this afternoon he said, “Mommy, I didn’t cry for you.” He was talking about the past two days where apparently he was crying. Poor guy, but so glad he was happy to not cry.

For me (Shay), the past hour or so this evening was more eventful than the entire day. I took the car to get gas around 8:30pm tonight. We’ve got an early morning and I was going to do gas and a grocery run and grab a few things for Bethany. When I got to the station I realized I forgot my wallet and had to turn back. Upon returning to the station I pumped the gas and went inside to pay. Swipe…card declined. That’s weird? I know how much money is in our account and I used my card earlier today with no problems. Swipe again…nope. The lady of course said something to me in Czech, but it was clear when she said, “Ne” or “No.” Ok, try another card. Swipe…nothing. Swipe again…still nothing. Card number three comes out and it’s my Czech bank account card with a special chip inside. I swipe it, the lady tells me in Czech that it has a chip and to hold on a moment. I put the card in: “Enter Pin.” Oh no. I don’t know the pin to this card! I call Bethany at home, she scours through a stack of paperwork and finds my pin, I enter it, and…approved! Finally! Can I go home now?

It took some time, but I finally got it squared away with our bank on the phone tonight. They thought there had been fraud but we cleared it up. And I did end up making it to the grocery store which is where I saw the above photo as I was driving in to the parking lot. Just outside of Tesco (one of four different grocery stores we shop at) is a huge Christmas tree, fully decorated. It instantly brought a smile to my face and I took the photo so I could show it to Bethany. I like the big star on top. I like the size in general of the entire tree. It’s funny how weird it was to see one. Maybe they are super normal in Czech, but I genuinely don’t know. Halloween isn’t big here and they don’t really have Thanksgiving (that I know of), so I guess Christmas is the next big holiday? Either way, it was nice and a bit of a bright spot on my night. Even as I write I’m reminded why we celebrate Christmas: the coming of Christ. It’s a sober reminder because we know it meant He would come and eventually die for our sin. But it’s a welcome reminder as to why I’m sitting in the Czech Republic: to tell others about Him.

Tags bank, card, Christmas tree, preschool

365 Czech Republic

Sunday School Isn’t Just For Kids

Post author By Shay
Post date October 19, 2014
1 Comment on Sunday School Isn’t Just For Kids

One of my favorite sayings is “Never stop learning.” I actually have a print of it next to my desk that Bethany got me. It’s one of those life philosophies that I adhere to and kind of drives me to read, study, and continue to grow in all areas of my life. I realized this morning while sitting in Titus and Avery’s school school class that each and every Sunday here we’re learning. I know we have things like “Sunday School,” but for a foreigner like me it’s more like “Sunday University.” At least, that’s what today felt like and the funny part is we never even made it in to the sanctuary. Here’s four lessons we learned today:

1) Being in the right classroom is a good place to start learning – We got to church this morning and found our way to the kids classrooms. Avery was downstairs and Titus’ was upstairs. Bethany stayed with Avery because she was a little sad and I took Titus to his class. When we got there the kids were sitting at the table during what seemed to be a teaching time (photo above). I put a chair at the end for Titus and the teach asked in Czech what his name was (which I understood!) and also if we spoke Czech (which I also understood!). I did my best to keep Titus focused and listening but after about 10 minutes Titus says to me, “Daddy, this isn’t my class.” Uh oh. I waited a little longer. “Daddy, where’s Beni and Caleb?” Titus asked because they are normally in his class too. Oh no. We better go.

2) Employ family to help in the learning process – Titus and I kindly left the class and went back downstairs to Avery and Bethany. I told Bethany that wasn’t the right class and we decided to switch so I could stay with Avery and she could go with Titus to try and find the right one. As I sat with Avery, they kids were painting little leaves (shown above). As I sat just observing I was picking up Czech phrases like “pro maminku” (“for mommy”) as the kids were finishing their artwork. I figured out was “mám rád” (which I’ve heard a lot) means “I like.” Listening to the teachers speak SIMPLE Czech was so helpful for me to just try and pick up what they are saying. Then I got a text from Bethany: “I found it. Beni’s here.” She means she found the right class and Titus’ friend was there. Whew. That’s like 2 lessons: a) language lesson b) church building geography lesson. Sweet! This must be a 4-credit class. Oh, and those little leaves the kids were painting were put on a piece of paper that read: “The Lord creates colorful leaves.” Yes, He does.

3) You’re never too old for the tiny chairs. – When it comes to learning, you sit in whatever chair is available and in both Titus and Avery’s rooms this morning we were hanging out in tiny chairs. You’ll even see the teacher in the photo above in the small chair. Learning is more important than comfort, I guess. Also, and this is really a bonus, you can be pretty funny from the tiny chairs. Today I had the kids cracking up by making silly faces. Here’s a photo I got of them laughing at me (side note: I also dig the kid in the background feeding another kid a cracker).

4) Have fun after class.- This evening I had plans to take photos for our good friends Zach and Kara. At the castle yesterday I was thinking I’ve gotta go back and do photos there so Zach and Kara were my models today. We had a lot of fun and I was excited that Bethany could come too and see it all for the first time. The weather was incredible today and perfect for enjoying some family time and photos of friends. Here’s a couple photos (captions below each):

Zach and Kara having fun watching Titus try to make them laugh. It worked!

This is Bethany and Avery overlooking our city from the Poland side. It was a little windy, but what a great view today.

Avery’s legs because she’s still so little and cute.

Titus in his natural state…”hanging” out.

A quick shot of the streets of Poland, just inside the border.

That’s all, folks!

Tags church, friends, kids, learning, photos, Poland, Sunday

365 Czech Republic

An Unexpected Walk in Poland

Post author By Shay
Post date October 18, 2014
1 Comment on An Unexpected Walk in Poland

This morning Bethany had plans to be at a baby shower for our friends John and Erin. Their son, Shade, was born about three months ago and some of the missionary women around here decided to through Erin a little shower and bless her. Bethany made a couple breakfast quiche dishes and off she went around 10:30am. I didn’t have any serious plans with the kids until I got a text from Casey who’s house the shower was at, “Hey, what are you doing today? I have to leave my house for 3 hours…do you want to go to the park?” Casey has two boys who are friends with our kids (all of them shown above) so I said, “Sure, let’s meet at 11.”

The park was a bit soggy from rain last night but the kids were having fun. Casey and I were just talking and hanging until he said, “Hey, have you been over to the castle?” “Nope,” I replied, “How far is it?” Casey said we could practically throw a rock to it and said we would really like it. As soon as I told the kids we were going to a castle Avery got really excited and said, “A castle?! Princesses live in castles!” With that kind of excitement we had to go so off we went.

We’ve said before we live on a border town of Czech and Poland–literally on the border. When we left the park we crossed the river and went right into Poland where the castle is. I guess it’s like a castle ruins of sorts with lots of cool structures in a beautiful park-like environment. It was built in the 13th century! It’s all free to walk around in and explore, and apparently you can go to the top of one of the castle towers but it costs so we didn’t do it today. Everything was majestic because of all the leaves on the ground and the kids were having fun dropping leaves in to this huge, I mean huge, dungeon like whole thing. I don’t how to describe it and I don’t have a photo, but when I read the plaque they said it was for prisoners. Let me just tell you…you would not want to be a prisoner in that thing.

Here’s a few photos of the leaves and the one remaining castle tower (of the original 4):

After the castle we decided to walk further into the town square. Our town is a lot like Kansas City in the states, a city that spans two states. In our case it’s two countries. On the Polish side it really feels like Europe. Small streets, little sidewalks, cobblestone, and just a little more charm. Don’t get me wrong, the Czech side is great, but it feels a lot different on the other side of the river. Casey knew of a little place to get food that was kid-friendly so we grabbed lunch right on the town square. Everyone was pretty hungry from all the fun. Here are the kids chomping away.

This is a shot of the town square (below). The kids enjoyed chasing the pigeons around and making noises at them. I’m never sure how we look to the nationals, but I guarantee our kids are the loudest ones around.

Even though we had a great time, there was a lot of walking so by the time we started to head home the kid’s energy was starting to fade. Below is a photo of us heading back towards our house on the Polish side. Shortly after this photo we were walking down some stairs and Avery stepped in doggy doo-doo…and it wasn’t a small amount. I was helping her get it off but she was wearing her Crocs which just spread the mess inside her shoe. A nice Polish lady saw my trying to scrape it all off and offered me her little bag of tissues–it as really kind of her. After a few minutes I got it figured out but Avery was not happy about her foot having doo-doo on it and was sad about it most of the walk home. I was proud of her though because despite all the walking she didn’t really want me to hold her and did it all on her own. When we got home I gave her a bath just to make sure we got her all clean!

Start to finish we were gone for about two and a half hours. We got home around the same time Bethany was getting back from the baby shower. Our kids took a nice long nap this afternoon, but I’m glad we got them outside and the weather was nice enough to walk around. I’m super thankful for Casey showing us around Poland and I’m excited to take Bethany over there at some point. I really don’t have any excuse when we can just walk there!

Tags castle, Europe, kids, Poland, walk

365 Czech Republic

It’s All in a Day’s Work

One of the great pleasures of being part of Josiah Venture is serving with a team that not only loves Jesus a whole, but are a pleasure to work with and are great at what they do. Two of those teammates, John and Daniel, are who I spent the day with today. I spend a lot of days with these guys, but today was just different. Instead of meeting at the Josiah Venture office, we decided to hang out at another house where Daniel is house sitting (Mel and Amy’s house) and we had a lot of fun just being together and being creative. We had a fire going in the house, fresh coffee, and Daniel brought in some fresh croissants for us to munch on.

Our plan today was to really work through some final design work for next year’s camps. The camp design is something that will be seen and used by literally thousands of people, especially young people on flyers, t-shirts, and banners. Camps are such a big part of what Josiah Venture does and every year many young people hear the gospel for the first time and begin to follow Christ. Local churches in 14 countries will use the material that we create to go and invite students to camp where they learn music, English, sports, and always hear the Good News. It’s a joy for our team to create materials that will bless our staff and be used as a tool to eventually bring young people to a place where they hear the gospel.

Back on the home front Titus attended his second day of preschool. It was fun dropping him off again and feeling more comfortable. Like Wednesday, we had no issues and Titus didn’t cry or get upset when we left. However, Bethany was just a few minutes late picking him up today and he was pretty sad. He told me, “Mommy didn’t come so I cried and cried.” I just laughed. She wasn’t THAT late, pal. He also told me the class went for a walk, but outside of that I don’t know what else happened. I’m glad he’s doing good and hopefully starting to adjust. We’ll continue to have him go three days a week for now and reevaluate it at some point.

I did the grocery shopping tonight by myself. Shopping is still a hilarious experience because there’s so much I don’t know. I end up calling Bethany on the phone five or six times asking, “Wait, what does half and half look like? What kind of package does it come in?” “I have no idea where to find cottage cheese.” “How do I know if the grapes are seedless?” Tonight was an ever bigger challenge because when I got to the check out counter the water I was buying broke open on the conveyer belt. The lady said something to me in Czech that I didn’t understand but wasn’t about to continue checking out my groceries so I ran those bottles back and grabbed another set of water and we continued. Then when we were all done there was some issue with the computer and my bank card so the line began to back up and people were not looking at my very happy. In the end we did get it to work, but it took a good five minutes of a lot of card swiping and re-swiping, a lot of Czech I didn’t understand, and multiple employees. My only concern is that I was now charged for the same amount twenty times over. Only time will tell, but until then…goodnight.

Tags Daniel, John, team, Titus

365 Czech Republic

Email, Pizza, Date

I got an email from our landlord the other day. The subject was “Wash exterior window sills” and the email read,

Hello Mrs. Bethany on Thursday morning ie. Oct. 16. 2014 at home?
You will need to wash again sills and you have a lot of work with children, so I ordered the lady who would at 9.30 pm. Washed it in the apartment.
Greetings to all .Thank you.
Musilová

What a great email. Not only is she very nice in how she words everything, but she paid for a lady to come and wash the window sills for us. I’ve shared before about the window sills, but they are big and there are a lot of them. With everyone not feeling great it’s been hard to get them cleaned. We were so thankful for the kindness of our landlady to do that for us. The only tricky part was the 9:30pm part. I assumed it was AM, and I was actually right, but she came today around 11. No biggie. We were home and she did an awesome job.

For lunch today we decided to get pizza to-go from a local place here in town. To give Bethany a little break, I took the kids with me. It’s a walkable distance, but with Titus and Avery it pretty much doubles the length of time I’m going to be gone. It was raining lightly when we left so I brought umbrellas which quickly turned in to “bumper umbrellas” as the kids kept running in to each other and laughing. The pizza guy speaks great English so I ordered and I told him we would be back in a few minutes and off we went to the bookstore.

I needed to look for some new Czech language books as we are pursuing a new teacher and she goes through different material. I was able to find the books after going through the store two times over. The only problem was they only had 1 set of the books in stock (there are 3 books in the series). When I got the checkout it proved very difficult to communicate that I needed another set. After a few minutes of trying to speak and trying to use my phone to translate I kind of got the gist: I think they needed to order more and would arrive in the future, maybe next week? Another lady in the store overheard me and the clerk trying to communicate and walked up and said, “Do you need help?” in perfect English. Score! I told her I think I know what’s going on but she was able to tell me that they are ordering the books and they will come tomorrow. Ah! “Tomorrow…” — that’s the word I confused as “next week.” Now they know why I need the books.

Tonight we got a babysitter and had a date night. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten away together just Bethany and I, so it was a blessing. We had originally planned to go to dinner with friends but I felt like we just needed some time to ourselves tonight. A girl from our church watch our kids and she was great. Bethany and I went to the mall in Ostrava and had–wait for it–Burger King for dinner. Don’t judge us. It actually sounded really good, is cheap, and just the small taste of America, fast food or otherwise, is a blessing. After dinner we just walked around and relaxed and ended up leaving earlier than we expected. It was a fun night together and I’m thankful for the focused time with my wife.

That’s all for today. Onward.

Tags books, date night, language, pizza, windows

365 Czech Republic

Titus’ First Day of Preschool

Post author By Shay
Post date October 15, 2014
2 Comments on Titus’ First Day of Preschool

My son went to preschool for the first time today. Even though missions work had been on our minds before Titus was born, I honestly wasn’t thinking that one day he would start school in Czech. But that was the Lord’s plan and that’s what happened today. I brought my camera along today and will do my best to tell the story with photos and captions.

The morning started early, before the sun was up, so we could get everyone ready to walk down the street to where the school is. Our friend Misa met us at our house at 7:15am and was our help in translating everything this morning, and a huge help she was! Titus was really excited as we started to leave and he and Avery started running down our street.

When we got inside we had to figure out in which cubby to put Titus’ stuff. His classroom is upstairs and he actually had two cubbies, one upstairs and one downstairs. The one downstairs is for his outside shoes and his one upstairs is for his change of clothes, backpack, and coat. One thing we’re still not clear on is the change of clothes. As the kids were coming to their cubbies their parents would immediately change their clothes. Titus’ teacher said the same thing to us and suggested he change his shirt for playing outside. We haven’t had time to ask someone about this, but it seemed kind of strange to change his clothes right away.

Inside there’s a big, little bathroom. It’s big because of the number of stalls and sinks, but everything is little in size. Above is a photo of Avery checking it all out. She loved it…maybe a little too much, but more on that in a bit.

When we got into the classroom, Titus ran right to some toys he thought he would like. I got the above photo of him just enjoying himself. I know it feels a little lonely him sitting all by himself, but we were some of the first people there which kind of helped get us settled and find our way around. Even as kids showed up, Titus was discovering all the new things to play with. Here’s another one of him with a European style race car.

I’m sure he has seen me ironing before, so I laughed when he found the iron by the girls and started to play with them. Shortly after I got this photo he said to me, “Dad, do you want to iron too?” I just laughed at him.

Avery was getting in on the action too. Here’s a few shots of her playing:

While the kids were playing and I was taking photos, the teacher, Bethany, and Misa worked through all the details. Here they are (below) looking over some paperwork, actually, a lot of paperwork. It’s amazing how much longer the process takes when you’re having to translate everything. The one funny thing that still confuses me is we have to go to the post office to pay for Titus’ lunches. You pay by the month, but I’m not sure why we go to the post office? While in the classroom I had to pay for a trip they are taking to the cinema (at least, I think that’s where they were going) but I just paid cash right there. It’s just funny to me.

The whole trip took about 45 minutes from the time we left our house until finally leaving the preschool. Amazingly, we didn’t cry. I think it was just crazy enough with figuring things out and Titus had such a good attitude that it made it all a smooth process. We got so many notes from people praying for us and I think God answered those prayers with a great morning. I know I said “we” didn’t cry, but Avery had the hardest time of all of us. She was sad that we couldn’t stay with Titus and I think she was enjoying herself. Here she is on the stairs when she sat down in tears not wanting to leave.

Titus went today from 8-12pm and Bethany picked him up. He ate lunch (chicken soup and toast according to Titus) and played outside a lot. He told us tonight that, “I bonked my head on the wall and I was crying for you.” Bethany asked him if they comforted him and he said, “No, they just waited, waited, waited.” We laughed! When Bethany picked him up she tried to ask the teacher how he did by pointing to him, smiling, and giving the thumbs up. The teacher answered back in her best English saying, “You don’t have to worry, he did fine.” I wonder if she read our blog last night?

At the end of the day, we are excited about what God has for Titus and for our family in this new phase of life. Only the Lord knows what the future holds, but we’ll take his Word and the broken English from Titus’ teacher: “You don’t have to worry.”

Tags first, first things first, preschool, school, Titus

365 Czech Republic

Worrying, I Mean, Thinking About Tomorrow

Post author By Shay
Post date October 14, 2014
2 Comments on Worrying, I Mean, Thinking About Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Lord willing, will be Titus’ first day of preschool. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been thinking about it all day. There’s a mix of emotions that come with this step and it’s something I’ve been trying to take the to the Lord. I say “step” because that’s how it feels, like a step of faith. We’re dropping our kid off tomorrow at a school that only speaks Czech, to a group people we don’t know much about, and expect Titus to do his best without us there. That requires faith. Faith in many different things, but mostly in the God we serve. Many have done this before us, and thankfully we’ve had a local church environment to sort of prepare him, but that doesn’t mean this dad (aka: me) has prepared himself. That’s probably why my heart was drawn to Matthew 6:25-35 tonight. It reads,

[25] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? [26] Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? [27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

[34] “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

There’s a lot to worry about. How will Titus do? How will the teachers treat him? How the other kids treat him? What happens when they don’t understand what he says to them? What happens when he doesn’t understand what they say to him? Do I trust these people with my kid? What if he disobeys? How long will it take for him to get a grasp of the language? What if he struggles with the language? What if he hates it? What if he struggles?

See what I mean? There’s a lot to worry about. But Jesus says, “…do not be anxious about your life.” You can’t take that to mean much else except that you shouldn’t worry about anything in your life. Oh sure, He qualifies it with a few things like food and clothing, but we know He’s talking anything in your life in it’s fullest sense…like your kid’s first day of school. And Jesus explains why. I’ll paraphrase and apply to my situation, but He’s essentially saying, “God is control. He takes care of everything else, so He’ll take care of your son at preschool. Listen, I know what you need and I know what Titus needs. I will take care of it all, you just seek after Me.” That’s a lot easier than worrying, especially since the Creator of the universe has got it all under control. I’ll just seek after Him.

I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Maybe it’ll be great, and I hope it is. Maybe it won’t go so well, but I hope not. Either way, I can trust the Lord knows and is in control of it all. I can look to Him when I don’t know what to do or what to think. He has a vision for our lives and specifically for Titus’ life and He will be faithful. I realize it’s just preschool…but I love my son. I want the best for him like every other dad and sometimes that can can push me in to anxiousness. Praise God that I don’t have to stay anxious, but can seek after Him and trust He will take care of it all.

Tags anxiety, fear, preschool, Titus

365 Czech Republic

Titus Didn’t Start School But Made Himself a Sandwich

Post author By Shay
Post date October 13, 2014
1 Comment on Titus Didn’t Start School But Made Himself a Sandwich

Today was supposed to be the day Titus was going to start preschool. I had hesitated to write about it because I really didn’t want to get my hopes up about it and I had a feeling something would go awry. As suspected we got a phone call a few days ago telling us that the preschool would be taking a field trip today and we would need to have a Czech/English speaker come with Titus. We discussed it, made a few phone calls to see anyone could do that for us, and finally decided we would just wait until Wednesday (10/15) to start him. With everyone not feeling well it just made sense to wait and see if Titus’ cough goes away and hope we can take him on Wednesday. Honestly, I’m trying hard not to be anxious about it because I know this will be a big change for our family. But I also know it’s part of life, and definitely a great tool that God will use to get us in to the community and getting Titus learning the language. I guess we’ll see how it goes on Wednesday.

Above is a photo Bethany sent me today of Titus making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He’s probably seen his mommy make them a thousand times and lately he’s been helping her and today he said, “I can do it myself, mommy.” Bethany said he needed a little help, but that he did a really good job on his own. Watching him grow is such a blessing, but it’s also hard (as I’m sure many parents know). You just want them to stay small. I know it’s the Lord’s plan and growth is part of life, but that doesn’t mean he has to make his own sandwich!

Here’s another photo (below) that Titus said he wanted to send to me. When I showed it to him later on my phone, he said, “That’s the cross.” Thanks for reminding me of the cross, son.

Our friend Tadek came over this evening and brought us our new winter tires for our car. They weren’t cheap, but its’ a Czech law to have those kinds of tires on your car by November 1. Tadek, who originally help us buy our car, is such a great resource and help to us–I don’t know what I would’ve done without him. So now I’ve got a stack of tires in the car that I’ll have put on in a few weeks. Before he came over I played with the kids outside and got this photo of Avery. This kid is seriously gonna break some hearts…unintentionally, of course.

Tonight Bethany had a ladies hangout at our friend’s house. Normally they would do a Bible study, but the leader is gone right now so they decided just to hang and watch a movie. I’m glad she got to get out of the house and enjoy some fellowship. I had a good time with the kids just finishing up dinner and cleaning the house. They both went to bed very easy tonight so I assume we tuckered them out today. Avery cried just a little bit for mommy so I laid her in our bed and she went right to sleep. And speaking of sleep…it’s about that time for me too.

Tags kids, preschool, sandwich, tires