Over the weekend we picked up a cheap bubble machine in Poland which we thought would be nice to have around as the weather begins to warm up (side note: it was actually cold today, so…maybe we purchased the bubble machine too soon?). Despite the chilly air today, the kids convinced me to take them outside and play with it which we did this afternoon. Above and below are some photos. We couldn’t stay out too long with the wind, but the kids were bubbly with joy.
Bethany was out tonight with some of the other missionary women at their weekly Bible study. She said they had a great time being together, just chatting and hanging out. The kids were a little sad when she left and Avery cried a little when I put the kids to bed. While Bethany was gone I had the chance to video chat with a friend which was a joy. He is another missionary and is serving the Lord faithfully in a key part of the world. I just really appreciate his heart and what God has been teaching him and how ministry there is going. It was fun to catch up and see a familiar face. Thanks for the time, brother!
Right now Bethany is working on the kids’ baby books. She said with number 3 coming she wants to get things more completed in those books because she feels like she’s already forgotten so much. She keeps finding things in the books and making comments. Just now she held up Avery’s tiny footprints and was getting very sentimental. It’s always fun to look back and see how the kids have grown, even in just a few short years. All that to say, we are getting excited about meeting our next daughter and seeing what she’ll be like. I get more excited every day, while Bethany gets a little more physically uncomfortable. Please be in prayer for us with this next child and all that will happen between now and the end of May when she’s due to arrive!
We had lunch this afternoon at home and Titus was the first one done. The kids know they need to ask to be excused from the table to take their plates and silverware to the kitchen sink. As Titus got down from his chair, he said, “I gotta go work on the blog.” I began laughing hysterically, but Bethany missed what he said the first time, so Titus repeated himself and then we were both cracking up. It was in that moment that I realized just how many times he has heard me say that since we moved here. Actually, it’s possible he’s heard that a few hundred times.
Today marks our three hundredth day in Czech which means there have been as many blogs. Although I don’t usually start working on the blog until we’ve put them to bed, not all nights are the same so no doubt the kids have heard me say, “I gotta go work on the blog” more than once. It has become such a part of our lives that even this morning I said to Bethany, “Wait?! Did I write a blog last night?!” I genuinely couldn’t remember. It’s like when you can’t remember if you brushed your teeth or put deodorant on (maybe that only happens to me?). It is just part of the routine and some things get some routine you have a hard to remembering if you forgot to do it! We ended up letting Titus go over to my computer and “work on the blog,” so I got this photo of him in front of the computer this afternoon (shown above). This is spot where the blog happens every single day. It’s a joy for the whole family!
We’re preparing for Titus’ birthday this weekend and we needed to go to the store to get a few supplies and try to find out if they have cupcakes. Instead of shopping in Czech, we actually went to Poland because they have a big store there with a ton of variety, and we also knew they had party supplies. Titus has been really in to Hot Wheels for some reason, so we tried to find some themed items there. They did in fact have Hot Wheels plates and even some of those noise makers that you blow air in to so we picked those up. Unfortunately they didn’t have cupcakes, but we’re going to try to figure out another solution to that problem. We’ll be joining up with our friends, the Stephens, whose twin boys turn four the day before Titus. All of us are going to the zoo on Saturday and hopefully some other people will be able to join us!
As we walked in to the Polish store late this afternoon all I could see were people holding ice cream cones. You would’ve thought they were handing them out for free by the sheer number of people eating ice cream. Then we saw the line! There were a ton of people waiting for ice cream at this little pop up style store just before you walk in to the store. I told Bethany we needed to see what all the excitement was about when we leave the store. We did just that and above you can see the photo I took of the place, complete with American flags. It was called “American Ice Dream” and I have no idea why it was named that. We were trying to figure out the Polish words for vanilla and “mixed” when the guy behind us said, “Do you need some help?” We were very thankful for him and we chatted for a few minutes in English which was nice. In the end we spent $2.68 (USD) to get all four of us ice cream! It was awesome and check out my “large” ice cream (below).
Since we didn’t want to eat in our car we settled down in a bench near a little kids play place in the mall and enjoyed them as a family. The kids wanted to play so we let them for a few minutes, but right next to was this little merry go round that Avery was excited about. I’m guees I’m a bit of a softy when it comes to Avery, so I ended up spending the fifty cents to let her and Titus ride around. She loved the fish she chose to ride and when they were finished we left for home.
It’s gonna be a full week with one of our pastors from our sending church and his wife coming to visit, Titus’ birthday, a doctor appointment for Bethany, and final preparations for the upcoming Josiah Venture spring conference. I’m excited for whatever the Lord has in store for us this week and look forward to telling you all about it right here on the blog. It reminds me of the classic line from Pinky and the Brain. “So Brain, what do you want to do tonight?” “The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try and take over the world!”
Titus got to celebrate his birthday a little early today. Technically he doesn’t turn five until next Friday (the 24th), but since Papa and Nana sent him a package in the mail yesterday, we asked them if he could open it today with them watching via Skype. So with everyone gathered on or around the couch (and Papa and Nana watching via video), Titus dove in to his presents today with full throttle excitement. He ended up scoring (baseball pun intended) a pack of baseball cards, foam baseball bases for the yard, and some new Legos! He was pumped about all of them and here’s the photos of the “event.”
His baseball cards had three Dodger players!
We let Titus stay up late tonight and build his new Lego airplane. Why was he up late, you ask? Keep reading!
Tonight I had the opportunity to teach on the doctrine of the Trinity at our church’s youth group. There were about twenty-five students tonight and I had the help of one of the girls who translated for me. This actually proved to be much more difficult for me than I originally thought. It’s really hard to keep any kind of cadence to your speech when you have to stop after each phrase for translation. I never really felt like I found a rhythm, but I’m hopeful that the things I was able to teach were communicated clearly. I told Bethany afterward that I thought it was really difficult and I struggled to communicate what I wanted. Not only is the Trinity full of words that we rarely use in English (e.g. “Godness”), but I just never felt like I could expand on what I was saying because of how long it was taking to translate. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it for what it was and I was able to have some good conversations with some of the guys after regarding the Trinity. I have been very blessed this week to have been thinking on this wonderful doctrine and my study was worth it, even if it was to answer some of those questions.
Lastly, I will just mention that it tried very hard to snow today. I did see a few flakes here and there as the weather took a dramatic change from the beautiful spring air we had earlier this week. Titus and I played outside for a bit, but it was honestly too cold (mid 30s!) to stay out there very long. I guess we’ll just keep our jackets out of storage a little longer.
We had our weekly language lesson this morning with Tamara and it was a very helpful one. Above you can see a photo of us trying to categorize certain words based on masculine, feminine, and neuter and then we had to add an adjective in front of it. In English this really isn’t too hard grammatically, but in Czech there are a lot of things that change based on the gender. The simple act of drilling these things is always so helpful to get it to really stick.
This afternoon we were driving up to our house after picking up Titus from school and we saw the postal service lady on her bike delivering our mail. As we got closer we saw her launch a package over our fence on to the wet brick. When I say “launch,” I mean it. That bad boy flew! After parking the car in the garage Titus ran and got the package off the ground and I heard him say, “Hey!!!” as he realize who’s name was on there. He saw “Titus Thomason” written on the front and it was a package from Nana and Papa for his birthday. He was so excited (as you can see in the photo above) and I quickly grabbed my camera to try and capture his emotions. We haven’t let him open it just yet, but he’s getting excited about turing five next week!
Earlier this week I was driving in to the office and I was thinking about how much harder it is to try new things. As we’ve been here almost 10 months we’ve basically settled in to a routine and haven’t really branched out as much lately as we did in the beginning. This goes for everything from food we buy at the store, trying new coffee houses or restaurants, and even just exploring the town. Now, it has been pretty cold until recently so walking the town hasn’t been high on the priority list, but I still think we were a lot more open to getting out there and seeing things in the early days of arriving here.
With that in mind, today at our lessons we were talking to Tamara about our town and things and she mentioned that the Polish side of the town we live in has really good, inexpensive restaraunts. She even pulled out her computer and showed them to us on a map. We wrote some notes and I even put some info in to my phone so that we might explore that later. But this afternoon Bethany said, “Do you want to go try one of those new places Tamara told us about?” I said, “Sure, let’s do it.” Her next questions was, “Are you sure you’re up for that?” What she’s trying to ask is, “Are you ready for the language barrier and the hassle of getting out trying something new.” Because Bethany knows that it’s not easy, just the same way I do. I think that’s part of the reason we haven’t explored more in the recent months. It’s not easy to get out there and test the waters, be vulnerable, make mistakes, waste time, be confused, etc. But we decided to venture out and I’m glad we did!
The restaurant we went to is only a few minutes from us by car, just inside the border of Poland. It’s in the town square and we’ve been there before, and the kids love chasing the birds around. The place we ate was inexpensive and the waiter spoke English which made the experience for us much nicer. The hardest time we had was trying to figure out how to pay for our parking because I didn’t have any Polish coins! I ended up using an ATM to get wash, walking into a Kabob shop and buying a coke just to get change (again, inconvenience often keeps us from trying new things). But we had a sweet time with the kids and we even went ahead and tried their vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce dessert…mmm….it was good. We all loved our food and I’m just really glad we tried something different today. I’m constantly amazed at how hard it actually is to get yourself to do something you know will be annoying, hard, and difficult, even when it’s just going to a new place to eat! That’s all part of the transition, I guess?
“Do you want to see something amazing?” That’s what the text read on my phone that I got from Bethany this morning. “Yes,” I typed quickly back. I had never really gotten a text like that from Bethany so I was very excited about what was to to follow. “Avery made this all by herself,” Bethany wrote, followed by this photo:
When I got home I showed Avery that photo on my phone and asked her what it was and she said “a flower!” Not bad for a three year old. Maybe she has a future in the culinary arts?
Titus got in on the fun as well.
As the days continue to warm up, Bethany has been taking the kids outside for lunch on the grass and play time. Today the kids were exploring in our landlord’s garden (which we also have access too) and picking little flowers. Bethany made a little daisy chain bracelet for Avery which she was really excited about it. I know I’ve already written this, but Avery continues to make us laugh as she grows in her speaking and personality. She’s about as girly as ever and I think it’s great.
Along with warmer days, we have longer days which allow us to play outside when I get home. The last few days I’ve been going out in the yard with the kids and playing basketball, soccer, and even tossing the Frisbee around. Titus has been getting pretty good at it so I took a short video of him throwing today (below). He also does a great job of catching the ones I toss back. I love it!
One of the projects my team has been working on for a while now (I think it’s gotta be eight months?) is a photo book to commemorate twenty years of ministry for Josiah Venture (JV) in Central and Eastern Europe. When you do design work, and work on designs that are literally going to print, there’s nothing quite like getting the finished product in your hand. For my team, that day was today when we finally got to see this photo book and feel it with our own hands. When the printer dropped off the books today at the office my heart was pounding because of the amount of work that went into getting this thing just right (I was probably nervous I would find a typo!). We really wanted this book to be something special for the many donors who have faithfully given to Josiah Venture over the past twenty years, but more importantly as a testimony to what God has done in the lives of young people during that time.
Ministry continues to ramp up for Josiah Venture and there’s a bit of a buzz in the office as we prepare for the upcoming Spring Conference. The conference is an annual event for Josiah Venture missionaries and this year’s theme is “Family on Mission.” Our team continues to work hard on all the conference graphics and materials and I’m excited as well for that project to come to fruition. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that I hope will eventually bless all of the missionaries who will attend.
The weather was just incredible today and it really couldn’t have been more perfect. Bethany took the kids outside a lot this afternoon and it was just one of those days where you could take a good book and enjoy reading in the sunshine. As the days warm up there are just a lot more people out walking the streets and getting some sun which is a nice change from the cold, overcast winter. We are continuing to see more and more flowers and trees blooming which add color and life to the landscape. We’re praising the Lord for his goodness in the weather change and for all that He’s doing in our lives!
This morning during our international team meeting, we had a sweet time applying Philippians 4:6 together. We have been studying Philippians for a few months now and since Dave (who normally teaches) was out, Brian (who led today) decided to spend some time thinking about what we’re thankful for and what we need prayer for. We did this by writing things we’re thankful for on pink and purple Post-Its and then our petitions on yellow and blue ones. The result of the dozen of us there this morning is what you see in the photo above. It was a neat time and I enjoyed praying with our team as well as seeing this visual reminder in the office which will stay up through the summer. There’s a lot of ministry starting up here in the next month or so and our team won’t be meeting for a while. There is so much to be thankful for and so much we need to pray for. Praise the Lord He can handle all of it!
This afternoon Bethany took the kids to the park. As always they loved it, but today they did something a little different and collected rocks during their walk. The kids were really excited to tell me about when I got home and we even spent some time this afternoon playing with the rocks in the driveway. Avery named them “Mommy Rocky,” “Daddy Rocky, “Sister Rocky” and so on. I”m glad they had a good time and here’s a few photos of their time.
Lately the kids have really gotten in to these Steve Green “Hide Em’ In Your Heart” Bible videos. Bethany knows them for her own childhood and our kids are starting to love them. Below is really short video of the kids doing the motions to Luke 2:52 “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (NIV).
I’ve been thinking a lot today about a college friend named Bjorn. We haven’t had much contact (if any) since college, but I’ve been able to follow his life via Facebook since then. Bjorn is a godly man and was definitely example of Christian character to other men at college. During college his girlfriend (another friend of Bethany and me) was killed in a tragic car accident. I will never forget hearing Bjorn speak at a special memorial they had for her at Master’s and he was a testimony to all of us of Christ-likeness during that trial. More recently, however, his niece has been battling cancer and watching from afar has been hard. As we’ve watched post after post roll by on Facebook about her story, we have just been amazed at the faith of him and his family. And this past week we saw the news on Facebook that Bjorn’s brother was tragically killed in a skiing accident. When Bethany told me about it I think I just paused. I think my first words were, “Are you kidding me? That’s unbelievable.”
Last night Bethany and I watched a video sermon/message on trials and suffering. One of the repeating elements in that message was that “Life will come at you,” or said another way, “Life is going to go wrong.” The speaker then went on to outline a Biblical response to trials using the acronym G-O-L-L-D (or “Go for the Gold!). His outline reads:
G – God Doesn’t Make Any Mistakes! (Job 23:10) O – Operate With Eternity’s Perspective! (2 Corinthians 4:16-17, 1 Peter 3:14) L – Live One Day At A Time! (Matt 6:31-34) L – Look For A Blessing In Each Day! (Philippians 4:8) D – Do Something For Someone Else! (Matthew 25:40)
This was only the first half of his outline. He went on to describe a specific plan for responding to trials, including the acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty and even refusing to grumble and complain during a trial. It was a great blessing to be reminded of the truth of God’s Word during trials, even though I can’t say that I’m experiencing trials like my friend Bjorn right now. At the same time I want my heart to be prepared when “life comes at me.” I want to respond rightly to trials, much like I have seen Bjorn do. I want to respond the way Job did in Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, I will hope in him…”
It’s with that in mind that I leave you with this video that has blessed me often. It’s a song based on Job 13:15 and trials, along with a little excerpt from the preaching ministry of John Piper. I hope it ministers to you as it has to me today.
As much as we’ve talked about how sick we’ve been over the past ten months, I’m happy to report we have been healthy now for a few weeks! This is definitely an answer to prayer and we’re thankful for the break from sore throats and runny noses. With the weather warming up this has allowed us to get outside a bit more, which I think is helpful, and having regular sunshine can’t hurt either!
Bethany and I were talking last night just how strange it is to have an actual spring season. In southern California it usually goes from semi-fall to summer overnight. Right now in Czech we’re experiencing the slow change from winter to spring like today which was a little cooler, windy, and rainy in the afternoon. This week it’ll be warmer the next two days but cooling back down and stormy into the weekend and next week. This is actually kind of strange to me because I just haven’t really experienced that kind of weather. California gets storms, but it’s pretty warm all the time.
Today at preschool Titus colored Czech flags (shown above). Flags are so interesting because of what kind of emotions they evoke, especially in Americans. I wonder if the Czechs have the same kind of pride with their flag that Americans do? I know that Czechs are excited about their country. In fact, the other day at the store I saw a whole section of flags, colored pencils, and scarves that all were in support of the Czech hockey team. In a few weeks, not far from us there will a big hockey championship (actually, the USA team will be here!). I have a feeling that little section in the store was for that event, but I can’t be sure.
More than ever, Avery is being more girly than I feel like she has ever been. Tonight she wanted to play “dress up” and wanted to wear a princess outfit, complete with a crown. And on more than one occasion recently I have found her babies somewhere in the house, complete with a pillow and blankie (as you can see above where she had them in the middle of the kitchen floor). As well, tonight I was wrestling with the kids on our bed and Avery just stopped in the middle of it with her two babies, put them in a little red wagon and said, “It’s their first day of school!” Obviously, it’s really cute and we are constantly laughing at her. I love it.
I’ve got more studying to do for my message this Saturday on the Trinity to the youth at our church. I’m getting more excited to teach on this topic, mainly because I’ve been so blessed by the study of our triune God. There is so much packed in to that often confusing doctrine, but the more I read and think, the more I am realizing just how beautiful the doctrine of the Trinity is. Please continue to pray for me as I prepare and then share on Saturday.
Finally, I will leave with this. Tonight as we were eating dinner Titus told us that it was someone’s birthday at his school. He said they sang the birthday song in Czech and Bethany asked him, “Do you know how to sing it in Czech?” He immediate reply was priceless. I posted his words to my Twitter account and Titus said,
Titus explaining how to sing the birthday song in Czech: "Czech, Czech, happy birthday. Czech, Czech, happy birthday."
As planned we packed the van up today with toys and tricycles and headed into Poland to take photos of and for missionaries there. Above is a photo of the back of the van after Titus and I loaded it all. Titus wanted to make sure there was a skateboard, baseball, baseball bat, glove, and frisbee. I was actually impressed that he was able to lift my longboard skateboard in to the back but he got it in there all by himself. When I got the car started he squealed and rubbed his hands together with excitement about us going to Poland. He told me, “Dad, when you’re taking photos in Poland you have to take one of me giving thumbs up.” It was literally one of the first photos I took when we got there (below).
I haven’t had time to edit through the photos today, but I took a quick at look at the shots I got of the different families and teams and am excited to share them at some point. Below is one of the group shots I got of the Poland team. Great people!
We were invited to stay for lunch with the team, but apparently Polish lunch starts at 3pm and that’s pretty much right around nap time for our kids. So we packed the van back up and headed out for a quick lunch on our way home. Since the weather so amazing today we decided to get dessert and sit outside where the kids enjoyed their first ice cream cones of 2015. It was actually as we were sitting outside enjoying the sun that we realized I left my camera gear back at the training center! We ended up going back and getting my gear which was thankfully still there where I left it. Whew.
This afternoon we washed and vacuumed the car which was much needed. I was excited to try out my European extension cord which I specifically had purchased on sale a few months back so I could vacuum my own car (it’s the little things in life). Yes, it worked and the car is looking good! Since we were already outside, Titus and I ended up playing a little baseball in the driveway. Avery was our umpire, but I think we need to install an instant-replay system because it seemed that no matter what happened–if I caught the ball or tagged the runner (Titus)–that he was called “safe!” C’mon blue!
Titus and I went to youth group tonight, but we didn’t know that the start time had been moved from 5pm to 6pm. Thankfully there were a few students there on the music team so we weren’t alone. Instead of going home and coming back we just decided to stay there and enjoy hanging with the students. Youth group is still a challenge because of the language barrier. It never feels normal or right, especially when you’re sitting through all the announcements and teaching with not a clue as to what’s going on. Even Titus turned to me tonight and whispered, “Daddy…they are talking funny.” Nope. We are talking funny; they are talking normal. They are speaking Czech. We…well, we’re not.
