Shay Thomason – Page 14 – everything beautiful in it's time

Holiday At Home

Throughout the day today I was getting little photos of our kids messaged to me from Bethany. Above is a photo of Titus dancing on our ottoman to a song that he can’t seem to get enough of lately. We love music in our house and we often have “dance parties” when we just want to get some energy out. Titus especially loves music and always ask for “rock songs.” I guess he’s enjoying his week off from school because of the “Spring holiday.” It’s always fun to have a holiday at home.

Below is another photo Bethany sent me of Avery painting. Apparently she was painting a picture of me and said, “Daddy has glasses.” I think I look great.

Here’s another one of Avery folding here little wash clothes and baby clothes just like mommy does. It’s really fun to see Avery copy Bethany and want to help around the house. The other day I found all of Avery’s babies lined up perfectly, each one with their own tiny blankets.

It rained a little today and the weather has been warmer, but definitely not warm. Bethany commented that we needed a little rain. It feels like with all the snow melt and and dirt that the roads and sidewalks just needed a rinse. Other than that, it’s just been a normal day. We didn’t do language lessons today, but we’ll pick things up tomorrow. We’re also working on a plan to take a mini vacation to Prague this weekend to see our friends Zach and Kara. We’re hoping to take the train and rent a little apartment because it’s the most affordable and comfortable way to go. We’ll see how it goes!

Tags fun, holiday, home, kids

365 Czech Republic

Titus and Mommy Go On a Date

Post author By Shay
Post date February 23, 2015
No Comments on Titus and Mommy Go On a Date

Tonight was the first time Titus and Bethany have gone on a “date.” Titus has had this idea in his head for about a week now and he has been talking about it a lot. Bethany and I decided they would go tonight and they had to drive a little bit, but they went to an American classic: McDonald’s.

As they were trying to get out the door Avery was crying a lot. I think she was a little confused as to why mommy and Titus would leave and she not be allowed to go. We reassured her it was OK and I tried to distract with the grilled cheese I made her for dinner. From the sound of things, I think Titus had a fun time. Bethany said they met a few Czech kids at the play place and she successfully asked them their names in Czech. Strangely their names were Max and Samuel. I say strangely because those are just not normal Czech names, or they are not Czech names we have heard before. Apparently Titus did really well and Bethany said she was surprised he that he finished his entire Happy Meal. I’m really glad they got some time together. It’s something we have wanted to do for some time now, and you really just have to plan to make the time. Here’s a few more photos Bethany got.

Avery and I enjoyed just playing at home and here’s a photo of me putting her “way up high” and her laughing.

We continue to push forward every day with Czech language speaking drills (aka: “LAPS”). Today it actually felt like we were running laps because the difficulty level increased immensely. Today we were working on location type words like besides, beneath, above, and in. It’s pretty incredible how much sentences in Czech will change depending on whether, for instance, a pen is “in the book” or you are “putting the pen in the book.” They are basically completely different sentences. To practice we were putting papers on our heads and books under the table and all kinds of things. At one point Titus came and sat on my lap. We were doing the drills and he just decided to grab a piece of paper and copy us. It was pretty funny and I got a photo of it.

That’s all for today!

Tags Bethany, date, McDonald's, Titus

365 Czech Republic

Church and Exploring Poland

Post author By Shay
Post date February 22, 2015
1 Comment on Church and Exploring Poland

Everyone was up early this morning to get read for church, including these two rascals you see in the photo above. I was enjoying a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee before church and we were having fun hanging out in the kitchen. “Dad, take a picture of us!” Done.

We had a good morning at church. It was the first time we have all been as a family in three weeks and the kids did pretty well in their classes. Bethany went with Avery to her class and I stayed with Titus in his. Titus’ class read from a book which was an illustrated version of the parable of the lost coin. Both teachers in his class could speak English so they would ask the kids questions in Czech and then turn to Titus in English and ask him. They also celebrated one of the kid’s birthdays and sang to him “Happy Birthday” in Czech. Then I heard the kids saying, “Anglicky!” or “English!” They sang “Happy Birthday” again in English which was fun for Titus…and me!

We were thinking over dinner last night of what we might be able to do this afternoon and one thing we’ve wanted to do is check out a few stores we’ve heard about it Poland. One is a grocery store and Bethany also wanted to go back to “TK Maxx” (or TJ Maxx in the States) which she had visited back in August. The grocery store was amazing. It was kind of like a Super Wal-Mart, at least that’s the best way I can explain it. They had a wide variety of items and they are only store that we know of that carries flavored coffee creamers (a favorite of Bethany’s). Not only that, check out this meat selection (photo below)!

Bethany and I were pretty focused on trying to scan and see all that the store had, but apparently Titus had a little time on his hands because at one point we looked down and he was applying tiny stickers to his face. Here’s a photo I got of him.

After the grocery store we headed over to TK Maxx which wasn’t far away. That place turned out to be our golden ticket and we found a ton of things. Some of the best finds were two little books we got for the kids because most of the kids book they had were in English! This might not be a big deal to some people, but for us it was shocking. Another huge win was that they actually had shoes in my size which I haven’t been able to find since we moved here. I didn’t end up buying any today, but we plan on going to back at some point and spend more time.

We actually had a really fun day together even though we were most just walking around and exploring. There is so much to see here and we’re enjoying the search for new things.

Titus is off school this coming week because it’s “Spring break.” He’s excited he doesn’t have to go to school, except I’m concerned he thinks he never ever has to go back. One week feels like forever when you’re a kid, I guess!

Tags church, Polands, shopping

365 Czech Republic

Saturday is for Strollin’

Post author By Shay
Post date February 21, 2015
No Comments on Saturday is for Strollin’

Often on Saturdays we find ourselves trying to catch up on house work and errands. Today we spent the morning and early afternoon focused on cleaning up the house. Bethany worked with the kids on getting toys put away while I helped get the kitchen cleaned up. We have what I’ll call a half-size dishwasher which means we just can’t do large loads. One large pot or pan in that thing and it feels full. This means if we even delay one load we’re backed up. I’m happy to report we’re back on track and things are nice and tidy.

After the housework we decided to go out and just spend some time in our town. The weather was in the high forties and we had clear skies, so it was a nice day for a walk. We headed to the town square where the kids like to run around the water fountain. They were sad that it’s not running right now, presumably because of winter, but we had fun chasing each other in circles around it. Below is a photo of Avery on the big concrete pillar things that line the square and beneath that is a shot of Bethany with Avery in our big stroller in front of the town hall.

While we were out Bethany remembered our friends telling us about a little cafe that we had never been to. A lot of stores and shops are closed by noon on Saturday in our town, but we decided since we were just walking and having fund we would go see if they were open. Amazingly, they were, and we went inside. It was a fun little place and they even had a little play area for kids inside. Below is a photo of Titus beginning work on a puzzle he found among the books and toys.

We had fun trying to figure out how to order hot chocolate for the kids and coffee, for us but the woman running the cafe was very gracious with us. They didn’t really have hot chocolate in the traditional sense, but they had this kind of hot chocolate pudding stuff. I can’t really describe it, but it’s thick enough to eat with a spoon. It wasn’t expensive, and you could order lots of different flavors. We ordered chocolate/banana and chocolate/strawberry for the kids. Titus and Avery weren’t really into, but Bethany and I loved it! I’m so glad we got to enjoy that little shop and hopefully we can go back some time.

The kids enjoyed a little video chat time tonight with Nana and Papa (Bethany’s parents). Papa was kind enough to read them a book over the computer and the photo above is them just enthralled with the story and Papa’s storytelling abilities.

Immediately after we finished with Papa and Nana we headed to youth group at our church. It was a special night where they were inviting friends and doing an extended music time. There were a lot of students there and we were a little late so there weren’t really and places for us to sit. It probably wasn’t the best night to bring the entire family, but the kids had fun listening to the music and they were a little sad when we left early. It was fun to be there and I like that the students are getting more familiar with us being around.

All that to say…it was a great Saturday!

Tags chocolate, coffee, Saturday, town square, walking, youth group

365 Czech Republic

Verbs, Czech, Love, and Optimus Prime

Post author By Shay
Post date February 20, 2015
No Comments on Verbs, Czech, Love, and Optimus Prime

We spent a more extended time in our Czech language study today and it was a mix of grammar and speaking. This morning we had our normal language grammar lesson with Tamara and we were working on verbs. There are so many forms that verbs in Czech take, it’s amazing. After some serious drilling and writing, I was feeling much better about it. Tamara has been a huge blessing and I’m very thankful for our time with her.

Above is a photo I took of Bethany during our second round of study today. We were doing our normal speaking drills with Jenny and Landen Llamas and we were building simple sentences like “I picked up the book” or “I put the book on my head” and I just had to get a photo of Bethany because it made us all laugh. You’re not really thinking about what you’re physically doing, but mentally just trying to put sentences together and I realized I should probably get a photo of it.

As Jenny and Landen were leaving they found a package on our doorstep from America. Even though it took a little while to get here, we received our Valentine’s Day cards from Bethany’s parents which they have been sending to us for years now. There was an envelope for each of us and they threw in some of our mail that was delivered to them in the States. Bethany’s dad also included a handwritten note inside which was really nice. We don’t get much mail, so when anything comes it’s kind of special. Thank you, family, for thinking of us even on Valentine’s Day!

Tonight we took a short trip to the grocery store as a family just for something to do. We only picked up a few things, but as we were walking around and just browsing I turned around to find Titus with this mask on (shown above). He kept saying, “Dad! Take a picture of me!” I didn’t realize until tonight that it was a mask of Optimus Prime from Transformers. Titus has no clue what that is, but I just love that he’s enjoying being a boy. While driving to the store he told Bethany he wanted to go on a date with her tomorrow. They have been talking about it for a while now, but I think it’s going to happen tomorrow. I just hope Titus has more ideas on what to do on a date in Czech because I’m just plain out of them!

We had some plans to make a little trip to Prague tomorrow to see our friends, but we’re delaying them until maybe next week. The youth group at our church is having a big party tomorrow and we would really like to be part of it. But we also want to get out and explore Czech. We’ve never really had much opportunity to spend time in Prague so we’re hoping to do that soon. It’s so crazy that we live in Europe.

Tags Czech, language, store, Titus

365 Czech Republic

Why A 15 Second Instagram Video Made Me Cry

Post author By Shay
Post date February 19, 2015
No Comments on Why A 15 Second Instagram Video Made Me Cry

I would repeat tonight in a heartbeat. I had the privilege of speaking on social media in the ministry context and I seriously had so much fun. I’ve been sharing the last few days how I’ve been in and out of Josiah Venture’s “National Orientation” where 19 men and women from 8 countries are officially joining the JV family. They will finish up tomorrow and I was able to be part of their last night together.

As I spoke tonight on what God did with our family this past year, and how He used Facebook and Instagram to connect us to many individuals who are now on our support team, I was overcome with emotion. Even as I prepared my presentation earlier today, I began to cry and think about how many people are sacrificing and generously supporting the work we’re doing in Czech Republic. I’m truly and deeply thankful for each and every one of them. What’s absolutely incredible to me is that in a round about way, our supporters are supporting these nationals who heard me speak tonight. Hopefully I was able to impart to these nationals some help and encouragement and that is definitely in thanks to our supporters who allow me and my family to be here!

Above is a photo I took while I was speaking and I told them all it would be on the blog tonight. You can pray for all of them as they now turn their efforts towards raising support. This is a significant challenge for some of them. Many of their church cultures and countries are not accustomed to supporting missionaries and could very well be confused by their efforts. My hope and prayer is that these men and women will be part of a movement in their countries that sees the church rise and up send out workers in to the harvest! Being with them tonight reminded me that the work is not always easy, and I need to continue to pray that God would shower His grace on them.

Below is a video I posted to Instagram back in June when we finally reached 100% of our support. I showed this video tonight and that’s when I was overcome with emotion. Praise God for His faithfulness and for the many people (maybe even you!) who support our work here. We are truly thankful.

Thank you to all our incredible supporters. We're done! Buying our plane tickets today and planning to leave for Czech in a couple weeks. To God be the glory…Thank you! #the100club

A video posted by Shay Thomason (@shaycam) on Jun 10, 2014 at 9:26am PDT

Tags missions, national orientation, support, technology

365 Czech Republic

Full Days This Week

I don’t like to talk about how tired I am, but at this moment I’m really feeling a little out of gas. The last few days have been longer than usual with different things going on at Josiah Venture, including the national orientation that I talked about yesterday. Above is a photo that I took this morning of the entire group and some of the leaders of the orientation. It hasn’t been snowing the last few days, but it was still pretty cold out and you can see just how much snow is still on the ground. I believe there are about eight different countries represented in that group and I was told by one of the leaders that they seem to be a really great group with lots of energy and interaction. Tomorrow I will be with them and sharing a bit about our story and how God used technology to help us connect with others during our support raising. I’m really looking forward to it!

We had our usual language talking time at home this afternoon and if you look on the far right (in the above photo) you can see we’ve added another member to the group. Our friend and teammate Daniel joined us today for some Czech language and we had a good time together. Mostly we’re making sentences like, “I took the bus to the store,” with really basic grammar and words. As has been true thus far, it’s amazing just what you can learn by repetition and listening.

I didn’t do a great job of being daddy tonight. Shortly after I took the photo above, Avery spilled that orange cup of dirty water all over the floor and me. I got pretty short with the kids and just in general didn’t have a good attitude. Bethany pointed it out to me and finally I realized I just needed to lay down, which I did for about 20 minutes. Tiredness is never an excuse for sin, but it definitely can influence it.

The night ended better and we enjoyed a good dinner, Bible time, and a new thing we’ve been doing with the kids which is there verse. Bethany has a little verse on the wall in their room and for the past week we have been reciting it with them. The kids and us say together,

When I am afraid,
I will trust in You!
In God I trust.
I will not be afraid.
Psalm 56:3-4

The kids have it completely memorized and they can recite it together and by themselves. It’s been fun to do and serves as a reminder to them that they don’t have to be afraid of the dark. I was blessed to hear them say it again tonight and am so glad we’re able to watch them memorize Scripture at such a young age.

Tomorrow we’re up early to head to the Foreign Police to receive our official two year visas. We won’t be going with a translator because we’re told it’s not hard to do, but you can definitely pray it goes well. Until then…

Tags Czech, language, national orientation

365 Czech Republic

Pancake Day, Beautiful Weather, and National Orientation

Post author By Shay
Post date February 17, 2015
No Comments on Pancake Day, Beautiful Weather, and National Orientation

Today was “Pancake Day” in the U.K., and since one of our teammates, Rachael, is a Northern Ireland native she brought pancakes for us to enjoy this morning at our team meeting. Traditionally you eat them with sugar and lemon juice which was new to me and surprisingly tasty! At one point I asked for a fork, but Rachael noted that she usually just rolls them up and eats them. So if you’re feeling international and hungry for some pancakes, don’t heat to IHOP. Make your own at home and grab the sugar and lemon juice!

It was bitter cold this morning (in the teens), but by the afternoon we were enjoying temperatures in the mid forties! You wouldn’t think that would merit opening the window and thinking it’s a Spring day, but that’s exactly what was happening. In the photo above that Bethany took you can see how the snow was melting in the sun, but anything in the shade is just solid ice. It’s such a dramatic change for us living here when it comes to weather, but we’re getting used to it.

Unrelated to weather, here’s a photo of Titus with pipe cleaners on him. Just for fun.

Finally, tonight I had the privilege of introducing my team at the Josiah Venture national orientation. No clue what that is? Let me explain. The mission of Josiah Venture is to “equip young leaders in Central and Eastern Europe to fulfill Christ’s commission through the local church.” One way that is accomplished is through a core value we call “indigenous empowerment.” Basically, we want to see the nationals (that is, anyone from the same country they serve in), we want to see them empowered to reach their own people with the gospel. Josiah Venture helps support those local ministries and today began a 3 day orientation where 19 nationals become part of the greater Josiah Venture family. This week they will learn about JV, our core values, history, etc. and will be introduced to raising support in their countries as supported missionaries. I will actually be teaching them on Thursday about how to use technology and social media to aid in their support raising efforts. I’m looking for to my time with them! Here’s one photo I got of the room tonight. Pray for these leaders!

Tags kids, leaders, nationals, pancakes, weather

365 Czech Republic

Titus’ First Official School Photo

Post author By Shay
Post date February 16, 2015
No Comments on Titus’ First Official School Photo

You remember that day a few weeks ago? You know, the one where there was a party at Titus’ school that we didn’t know about? Well, I’m proud to show you the photos from that historic day! Bethany was sold these photos today at Titus’ school and above is a photo of his entire class. That being said, there are a few things I would like to point out about this photo:

I love the kid with the beard in the back row, middle. He just looks awesome.
I love that pretty much the entire back row is not looking at the camera.
The kid rubbing his eye in the front towards the left is just classic.
My favorite: the smiling Darth Vader kid laying on the ground in the front is all kinds of strange and amazing. There is so much to love about this photo. I’m so glad it exists.

You may recall from that day that Titus had to go downstairs to get another photo taken, an individual shot (shown above). I wasn’t there for the group photo, but I was there for this individual and I’m actually really excited about how it turned out. There is just something joyous about the fact that Titus’ first, real, official school photo is of him wearing a Buzz Lightyear costume…and wearing it proudly. His smile is so genuine here, and thinking back on that day I’m so surprised we even got this face out of him. He had been crying and sad not long before we went downstairs so it’s quite a feat to see him happy as a clam. These are great memories and I can’t wait to show this one day in his wedding video montage.

As for other things from today, we were back at it this afternoon doing our Czech speaking with Jenny and Landen. I can’t say enough just how amazing it has been and how much I have learned in just a week. I really do love learning the grammar when we do our normal lessons, but the speaking and just listening to Czech has been unbelievably helpful. Bethany even said it’s shocking how this system works and how even when you think, “Oh, I didn’t study…” or “I don’t think I’ll do well today,” you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Bethany actually did the best speaking today out of all of us! We’re hoping to go five days straight this week with these extra speaking lessons. It’s a full week with lots to do, but I guess you’ll just have to come back tomorrow to find out what happens next…as the world turns.

Tags kids, photos, school, skolka, Titus

365 Czech Republic

Learning By Listening

I was back at church this morning by myself because the kids were up most of the night coughing. I asked Bethany if she wanted to go and I stay with the kids, but she was up most of the night attending to them and was really tired. So I was by myself for the second week in a row, but I guess this really isn’t much different than some weeks we had in the States.

I shared last week that I’m changing the way I approach church here. Instead of trying to get what I can out of the English translation of the sermons, I’m just approaching the morning as a language learning opportunity. For now, this means I’m writing down every Czech word I can hear or understand and marking it a little notebook. As I hear the words repeated I put a hashmark next to them.

Today I heard 122 individual words. We had a guest speaker who I believe is a pastor from another church, but I’m not really sure about that. The word I heard the most was “Kristu” (a form of “Christ”). I also heard “children,” “father,” “youth,” and “now” a lot. At one point I understood we were turning to 1 John, but it wasn’t until it came up on screen that I knew what the reference was. Here’s the passage the pastor read from:

I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.

That’s 1 John 2:12-14. I guess it makes sense that I heard those words the most. I assume because they were in the text that he was just referencing those words more often. The pastor seemed very passionate about what he was saying. There were a few moments where he was choked up and couldn’t talk. Maybe he was sharing some of his testimony? I also observed that he was making people laugh, even just shortly after showing his own emotion.

Even though I don’t know what exactly was what communicated, I’m learning that simply by listening and making notes I can actually start to make clearer distinctions in the language. Much like doing Bible study where you observe what is written first before going deeper, I’m trying to observe and just listen to Czech. I’m even starting to pick up more on the cadence of the language. It’s weird to feel like an outsider with the language, but I know this is just for a time.

As for the rest of the day, we’ve been taking it easy this afternoon and mostly resting. It’s almost dinner time and Bethany made cookies for dessert! I’m off to enjoy that and the rest of our evening.

Tags language, Sunday