Shay Thomason – Page 15 – everything beautiful in it's time

Heart Day and When the Youth Pray

Post author By Shay
Post date February 14, 2015
No Comments on Heart Day and When the Youth Pray

Bethany always does something special on Valentine’s Day, especially for the kids. It started this morning with heart shaped Swedish pancakes (above) and this afternoon it was heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (below). It was really fun and the kids are always so excited to have different shaped food. Beyond the food, we didn’t do much else today for V-day other than rest. The kids are still getting over being sick so their noses are running and they’ve got lingering coughs. I had fun playing with them in their Thomas the train tent thingy and we all snuck in some early afternoon naps which was nice.

After lunch I spent some time reading my Bible and studying a little bit of Czech. I’m really not trying to allow any day to go by where I don’t spend a least a few minutes working on Czech, even if it’s just reviewing or going over my vocabulary flash cards. I WILL learn this language!

Speaking of language, I had the opportunity to join our church’s youth at their English Camp meeting this afternoon before youth group tonight. They are gearing up for the summer ministry and camp is a big event for them. The entire meeting was done in the Czech language, but one of the young people (his name is Daniel) was kind enough to translate for me. This year’s theme is “You Are Here” and follows the life of Paul in the book of Acts. Basically, the idea is that you might be at one place in your life, but you shouldn’t stay there. God is calling you to “move” from the place you are to where He wants. My team at Josiah Venture helped create this year’s theme and my church had a poster we did out on the table during the meeting (below).

The one thing that struck me today during the meeting was that these young people love to pray. You would think a big camp meeting would be a bunch of planning, but it was actually minimal today. Mostly, they wanted to meet and pray AND plan to pray more. Not only did we spend an extended time asking the Lord to bring many unbelievers to camp, but later they setup a time that on Wednesdays at 9:30pm they would all seek to pray either together or alone for the camp…every single week until the summer. Ondra, the leader of the youth ministry, gave them a charge to continue to pray and stay in the Word of God as they prepare for the summer ministry. I was encouraged and challenged. Here’s a photo I got as they all prayed in their native tongue.

At youth group tonight (after the camp meeting), we spent more time in prayer. I was able to sit with the two young men, Ondra and Marian (who lead the music), and listening to them share their hearts was just incredible. Marian shared that his vision is to see another 35-70 young people join the youth ministry through evangelistic efforts. He said he wants to go out in to the community with the other youth from the church, play music, share the gospel, and invite young people to church. I’ve been doing youth ministry for a while now and I don’t remember an 18-19 year old with that kind of vision. Not only that, he setup a time next week to do just that and has sent out invitations on Facebook, inviting lots of unbelievers. We prayed they would come next week. Lord, make it so.

I had a great time building relationships with the youth at our church and I left so encouraged. Their heart to see their community reached with the gospel is inspiring. Their passion to see Christ exalted is exhilarating. And their desire to pray and bring it all to the Lord is humbling. Do I pray like that? I couldn’t help but think, “What happens when the youth pray like this?” What happens when the young people take the gospel to their unreached friends with fervor and compassion? I have no doubt it’s like a fire that can’t be stopped. Oh sure, Satan with do whatever he can to stop it, but we serve the King! The war has been won by the Savior and we can all go out boldly. When young people pray like this, asking for God’s help and His grace, I know God will give it in abundance.

Pray with us for these youth. I was so encouraged by them tonight and we want them to see their vision realized. In the end, it means more souls in the Kingdom of God and all glory to the King of Kings.

Tags camp, church, evangelism, pray, prayer, Valentine's Day, youth

365 Christianity Czech Republic

Czech After Dark

I should probably stop going to the store here at night. It seems that every time I do something eventful happens.

Tonight I took the kids to the store and it actually takes me longer to get the kids into the car than to drive there. You could almost walk, but it’s just far enough to make it worth taking the car for a quick trip. As we were driving, there was one car in front of us that was about to turn into the same store parking lot. All of a sudden they swerved left as if to avoid something. I wasn’t following them closely so I slowed down, but through the headlights I realized what they were trying to swerve around: a woman.

Praise the Lord, they missed her but it definitely shook them up because I saw them hit the brakes and pause for a moment while I was coming up behind them. The woman was stumbling around the edge of the snowy sidewalk with a large purse and as we passed her I realized quickly that she was drunk. There weren’t many other cars around so I stopped my car not far past her and turned around to watch her in hopes she would get back on the sidewalk safely. To my surprise, she did the exact opposite. She walked in to the middle of the road and began raising her hands and walk straight towards the oncoming traffic. I could see headlights coming down the road and because of how dark and not well lit the street is I thought I better turn around and do something!

I flipped the car around at the store entrance. Titus said, “Daddy why are we going back?” and I can’t really remember what I told him because I was a little worried in that moment. My plan was to either warn the oncoming cars by flashing my lights or try to think of something else so nothing terrible would happen. Thankfully, by the time I got back on the road she had moved herself toward the sidewalk but was struggling to stay standing. The kids and I drove by her again and I just watched to make sure she was going to stay off the street, which it looked like she was. I genuinely thought in that moment that I was going to witness something horrific which is why I turned my car around. Praise the Lord, nothing happened.

I realize in some sense that drunk people are relatively common around the world, and I’ve seen my share of them in the States. But I have definitely seen more here in the past 8 months than I’ve probably seen in my life time. According to some sources, Czech is ranked 6th in a list of “alcohol consumption per capita.” On Thursday morning I went to the store at 10am and it was very busy. The one thing that stood out to me was that 80-90% of the shopping carts had numerous large bottles of beer or some kind of alcohol. It’s very prominent here. I also realize that beer and alcohol aren’t the problem in this country. They are simply the manifestation of a bigger problem, a heart problem the Bible calls sin.

Whether sin comes out in drunkenness, anger, selfishness, lying, or pride, it’s all the same in the eyes of the Lord. It’s universal for all men, including me. In fact, outside the grace of God, I’m really not much different than a drunk woman playing a horrific game of chicken with oncoming traffic. But that’s the beauty of the gospel of Jesus! He gave his own life for all of that sin. One of my favorites verses in the Bible is in John 19 when Jesus says, “It is finished.” Those are His dying words, but they mean life to the world. “It is finished” means that sin has been conquered. Every sin that has ever been committed in the past, present, or even in the future has been paid for by the blood of Jesus. As one songwriter wrote, “It is finished. It is done. To the world Salvation comes. Hallelujah, We’re alive. Hell was silenced when You cried “It is finished.”

After leaving the store with the kids, I found myself scanning the sidewalk for the woman. I didn’t see her and hopefully she made it to where she was going safely. I don’t know where she stands with the Savior, but if it’s true that this is one of the most atheistic countries in the world then it’s likely she doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus. This is just a deep reminder to pray for her and this country. It’s also a reminder for myself to continue to push hard into the language so we can communicate the truths of the gospel with the people we meet and come in contact with or even the ones we see stumbling down the street.

Tags drunk, gospel, Jesus, woman

365 Czech Republic

A Good Work

In Philippians 1:3-6, Paul writes these words after his initial greeting to the church in Philippi,

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Those words rang loud in my heart tonight as I writing a few different emails to some of our supporting churches in the States. I sat here tonight praising the Lord for the many different people God has used to send us to a place like Czech to bring the gospel of Jesus. There is a “partnership in the gospel” that amazes and humbles me. And then there’s a promise that a “good work” is going on in our lives and the lives of our supporters that God promises to complete! This too is amazing and humbling. I praise God tonight for the work He is doing around the globe to not only call others to Himself, but to work in the ones He calls to make them more like Jesus every single day.

We had the joy today of going to another doctor visit as a family where we got to hear the baby’s heartbeat. Titus thought we would see an ultrasound, but that wasn’t on the docket today. The doctor gave us a good report that everything looks normal thus far. Praise the Lord for his continued grace with our third child.

I took a short trip with my team and another missionary to Poland today to, believe it or not, look at some t-shirts at a printer. Next month we’ll be ordering around 4,000 shirts that will be worn by as many young people around Central and Eastern Europe and our team was asked to meet the printer in Poland and pick out a nice shirt. These are for this summer’s camps where thousands of young people will hear the gospel for the first time. It was a fun little trip and even though picking a shirt sound trite, I know that they represent an opportunity for some young man or woman to come to Christ. That is my prayer and I will ask you to join us in praying for the hearts of these young people to be open and ready to bow the knee to Jesus.

This afternoon we had our third day in a row of language practice with our friends Jenny and Landen (you can see them in the photo above). Today was a very encouraging day because by the end of it we could hear a simple sentence and know what’s being communicated. For instance, Jenny could say “I went to the post office by car” in Czech, and Landen, Bethany, and I could understand. Then, we were able to build different sentences ourselves and say them back in Czech. It’s a little to explain the process of how we could come to that point so quickly, but we were even surprising ourselves that we could do it! It’s weird how just speaking the simple sentences over and over you start to hear the nuances of the language and can kind of just, for lack of a better word, feel the right words come out. Like I said, it was really encouraging and I’m excited about our progress in such a short amount of time.

Our language lesson went a little late tonight so we decided to actually go back over to Poland tonight with Jenny and Landen for a quick dinner. They had never been to this fast food place that has cheeseburgers and chicken, so we decided to all go together. It was a great finish to a full day and I’m just happy tonight as we get ready for bed. God is so good and so faithful. It’s such a joy to serve the King.

Tags Jesus, language, Paul, Poland, shirts

365 Czech Republic

Please Sign Receipt

Man am I dumb. I honestly have no idea what I was thinking, but what is done is done. In the words of Kronk in the Disney movie The Emporer’s New Groove, “I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt me.”

Tonight I needed to to go to the store and pick one item: a metric screwdriver. I decided I would take the kids with me, get gas, and then hit the store. I went to the local Kaufland mainly because (to be honest) I was avoiding the drunk guys hanging out at the other store I usually go to. Everything went great. We found the screwdriver, it was cheap, and then I got the kids some gummy bears just for a fun thing to do since we were out. I wen through the checkout stand, paid, signed the receipt and off we went. As we walked to the car in the parking lot I said, “Who wants a gummy bear?!” to the kids who both said, “ME!” Oh I wish it ended there.

As I was buckeling Avery in to her car seat a store employee came running outside to me, yelling at me in Czech. The only things I could understand was “kartu” (which means card) and “podpis” (which means signature). I pulled the receipt out of my pocket and showed it to her but she kept motioning for me to come back inside. I told her “moment!” and got the kids out of the car and went back in.

When I got back to the register where I paid there was a huge line of people and now three different employees who were visibly upset and trying to fix the computer which apparently had frozen after I left. My total was still on the screen and it read “Please sign receipt” on the card reader. Again, I showed my receipt to a second employee who was now picking up a phone and calling someone (you can see her in the photo above trying to get the computer to work). Titus said to me, “Daddy, are we done?” Of course, I couldn’t answer him because I really didn’t know what was going on. After a few minutes of button pushing and a phone call the lady finally came around and got under the register to where the cables were (see photo below).

I think she reset the computer or something because a few minutes later they cleared the screen and said I could go. During all of this I had said to myself, “I’m not showing them my card again,” mainly because I had an authorization code on my receipt and I didn’t want to be double charged. They told me I could leave and as I was about to step away the lady said, “Chislo! Kartu!” which literally means “Number! Card!” Apparently, she wanted my card number. I said “Ne chislo!” and showed my receipt but they weren’t going for that. So in a moment of confusion and just not knowing what to do I pulled my card out and that’s when they started writing it down on the back of another receipt. I told them I was upset and didn’t like it, but couldn’t communicate that well. The clerk who spoke a little English said, “You don’t have to worry” which is theologically accurate but didn’t really calm my worry in the moment. So now my debit card number is on the back of some receipt at some store in Czech.

After rushing home, I put a hold on my card and will keep it that way for a few days. I’m actually kind of a freak about that stuff to the point where I don’t even share passwords, numbers, or just about anything over the Internet or on paper. If I absolutely have to write something like that down, it ends up going through the shredder. Even in our home I find myself whispering that kind of info to Bethany because you just never know who’s listening! Unfortunately, I just can’t cancel my card because having one shipped to Czech is even more difficult so I will just have to trust the Lord. Lord willing, it won’t be misused and hopefully will be thrown away! Like I said, I’m dumb.

Ironically, I hung the above frame and print in my team’s office at Josiah Venture today. It says, “Never Stop Learning.” It’s really a philosophy I live by and am applying tonight. I thought “never give your card number to a stranger” was a given, but when you’re in a new place and unsure what to do you can find yourself doing weird things. Hopefully I learned something tonight.

Tags card, culture, learning, money, problem

365 Czech Republic

Learn. Speak. Repeat.

This afternoon we started our first series of “LAPs” (Language Acquisition Projects) with our friends Jenny and Landen. Basically, it’s a bit of a counterintuitive approach to learning any language. It was a system we learned at our pre-field training in Colorado and something we haven’t really been able to try out until now. Thanks to Jenny (our “language helper” and native Czech speaker, we basically just learn sentence, speak it, and repeat. More than anything though, we spend our time listening and trying to hear the nuances of the language. Much a like a child learns their native language, that’s sort of the approach of LAPs.

We will definitely continue our normal lessons with our friend Tamara, but I guess (and I’ll make up a phrase here) “LAPs fill in the gaps.” If our usual book lessons focus on grammar, then LAPs just focus on talking and hearing the language. If our normal lessons focus on vocabulary, then LAPs focus on creating sentences and phrases. We’re hoping for the best of both worlds and based on our time today I think it just might be the extra dose of language we need.

With the added language time, it’s going to push our schedule around a bit so that’s going to be a stretch. However, we always felt that our time in language is some of the best use of our time and will allow us to be more effective long term in the Czech culture. Please continue to pray for us as we make a transition here and hope to continue regular focused language instruction and practice.

Tags friends, language, LAPS, lessons

365 Czech Republic

Memory Monday

One of my teammates, Daniel, celebrated his birthday yesterday and a few of the missionaries here wanted to do something for him and celebrate. We decided that this morning would be a good time to take him out to breakfast and enjoy some fun together. After taking Titus to school, Bethany, Avery, and I drove out to a little cafe in Ostrava to join the fun. Breakfast places are actually kind of rare in Czech and this little cafe made some great food. I believe I had my first omelet in Czech and the only one I’ve eaten since leaving the States. I trust Daniel was blessed and I’m glad we were able to celebrate him while he’s so far from family and other friends. I hope it made a memory.

The snow was falling all morning and this made Bethany’s drive back home a little challenging. I had actually caught a ride with Daniel to go back to the Josiah Venture office which is a different direction then our home, so I wasn’t with her. She ended up being about 30 minutes late picking up Titus from school but they were very understanding. It has been snowing all day since this morning and we’ve got at least four inches on the ground, even though it might be even more now.

Bethany was nervous about putting the car in the garage because she thought she would have to come pick me up due to all the snow that was coming down. I ended up getting a ride home, but here’s a photo of our car in the driveway as it sat when I got home. It took Bethany and I a few minutes to wipe it all off and put it back in the garage, but we were laughing and having a good time. It made a memory.

Another really fun moment today was going to the post office. I can’t believe it, but I was able to send a letter to America and buy stamps all in the Czech language! Granted, I wrote everything down and had notes I was using, but it really doesn’t change the feeling of being able to actually do something in another language. As I walked out of the building I took the photo below of the outside just to remember the moment and I said out loud, “YES! I did it!” I have a renewed passion to do as much Czech speaking and learning as I can possibly do and today was a win in my book. It made a memory.

I also got a quick video of my excitement.

A video posted by Shay Thomason (@shaycam) on Feb 9, 2015 at 8:28am PST

Lastly, tonight we opened our February envelope! Each month we open an envelope from our small group back in the States. This was a really fun envelope from some great friends of ours. It’s bittersweet to see the notes and kind words from them and remember the sweet times we enjoyed with them. Thank you, friends, for caring for us and sending us these wonderful gifts. Here are a few pictures of the kids opening it up and some of what was inside.

A sampling of things inside were new toothbrushes for the kids, Burt’s Bess lip balm, new books (see below), coloring books, a puzzle, bead key chains (a craft for the kids), a drawing from our friend’s kids and a nice card for us.

It looks like someone was scanning our Amazon.com wish list. Thanks for these awesome books!

I tried to get them to smile for this last one, but it didn’t happen. Smile or not, they were happy to get these new fun things and so are we. Thank you!

Tags birthday, Czech, Daniel Reimer, envelope, language, snow, speaking

365 Czech Republic

A Better Sunday

With snow swirling all around me, I made it to church this morning by myself. Avery has had a cold for a week and now Bethany isn’t starting to feel that great. I didn’t want to try and battle the Sunday school thing with Titus today, so we opted to just have the family stay home and I would go to church alone. And even though church is often difficult, today was a much better Sunday for me than last week. I approached church this morning with a completely different focus, one that might seem even a little strange–to learn language.

One of the tools we learned at Missionary Training and one that my friend Landen reminded me of last night was approaching church with a focus on writing down words and engaging the language. Basically, with a notebook in hand, I wrote down every word I could understand and then would add a mark if I heard it again and so on (below is a photo of my notebook). Believe it or not, I heard and wrote down 101 words that I heard at least one time. The most repeated word I heard was “manželský” which I believe means “marital” or “marriage.” I heard at least a form of that word 28 times. Maybe the sermon was about marriage?

You might be wondering why this could be helpful. I think the main reason is that it makes me more engaged in trying to listen to Czech and distinguish sounds, words, and phrases. Do I know how to spell all the words? No. Do I even know if what I heard was correct? No. But the process of trying to listen and write them down is putting my mind in a language mode and not a “tune out because I don’t know how to speak Czech” mode which is often the case. Another reason it’s helpful is it gets new words into my vocabulary by forcing me to learn the meanings. If I hear a word and hear it correctly, then I go back and learn the meaning. It’s actually a pretty incredible experience for a language student and I’m truly thankful for it. As much as I would like to listen to the sermon, my time is actually better spent just trying to understand the actual words being spoken. Long term, this is an infinitely better use of my time for now.

It snowed on and off all day and the wind was up. At one point, there was snow falling and I could see the sun shining. I tried to get a photo of it, but it just didn’t turn out (show above). During the afternoon we basically tried to clean the house up and our friend Misa came over at about 3pm. She is leaving tomorrow to be in Prague for a bit and then off to the States in a few more weeks. We had a good time chatting with her and actually helping her understand English and American culture better. During that time I was working on sizing and cutting a print to fit a frame, both of which I brought from the States when we moved. I took a little time to get it all measured and cut it, but I’m happy with the final result. I plan on hanging it up in my office at Josiah Venture. Below is a picture of it and it’ll be a constant reminder to my soul of why we’re here–to see more come to know the Light of Life.

The last week has brought excitement, clarity, and focus for me. I’m excited about what God is doing to help realign my heart and invigorate me to learn a tough language and continue to strive to see more people come to Christ in this place. I’m thankful for how God is using our circumstances to make us more like His Son! It’s not always easy or fun, but I can rest in the fact that he is working in all of it for my good and His glory.

Tags church, excited, language, print, study, words

365 Czech Republic

Sledding in Czech, Church Youth Group, and Hope for Language Learning

Post author By Shay
Post date February 7, 2015
No Comments on Sledding in Czech, Church Youth Group, and Hope for Language Learning

Today was a beautiful, sunny day in Czech. I don’t remember seeing a single cloud, even though as I write this evening the clouds are rolling in for another round of snow. Our plan to go sledding today came to fruition and we had a blast! It’s hard to describe Titus’ excitement when we made it to sledding hill, but he was basically squealing and jumping up and down. The hardest part was keeping him from running to the hill himself while we got everyone in their snow gear before heading out to it. This specific hill (shown below) was one I saw while teaching last week at the Josiah Venture Leadership Academy. There were a lot of other families there today, and now I know why.

Not only was the hill easy to get to, it had great runs which today were really fast since it was around 26 degrees outside and the snow was packed down hard. I’m pretty convinced some of those Czech kids were moving around 20mph down the hill. Our kids weren’t so ready for those kinds of speeds so I would take them about half way up and send them down on their bellies at first (like Titus in the photo below). We got a couple of cheap plastic sleds this morning that worked really well.

Here’s a video of Avery heading down on her own. You’ll see just how far and fast she could go and we were only half way up the little hill!

Here’s a video of Titus using the red sled in a sitting position. He mostly liked the little blue slide that Avery was using, but I’m glad he was brave and tried the bigger one too. In this video he puts his arms behind his head like he’s relaxing and then crashes. But like any boy having tons of fun he gets up quick and smiles for the camera with mommy cheering him on.

Here’s a few more photos that Bethany got while we were playing and having fun.

If there is “Part 2” to this post, then this is it. Tonight I was able to attend our church’s youth meeting which happens most Saturday nights at 5pm. Bethany stayed home with the kids because they were basically exhausted from sledding. It was a sweet time with the young people, and I had the chance to talk with a young man named Simon. At 19, Simon already speaks five languages (Czech, Polish, English, German, and Slovak), not to mention a local dialect called “Poneshemu.” He’s a great guy and plans on going to university (college) next year to study engineering. We were paired up tonight to play a game where I tell him what I see on a piece of paper that was given to me and he draws it. The only catch is that we’re sitting back to back and of course he can’t see what I’m looking at. I thought it he did great and here’s a photo of us during that little game.

They also prayed for our friend Misa who is heading to America to study. I got a photo of the prayer time and I thought it was really neat to see them kind of send her off. They also sang a song in Czech to the tune of Happy Birthday, but I’m not exactly sure what they were singing.

After a testimony from a gentleman in the church, there was a shortened message from one of the gospels (I couldn’t quite figure out which book we were in!). Then we spent some time singing an English song that had a bunch of motions. After that we all played a little round table ping pong, but there weren’t enough paddles so I used a clipboard. I did not win. Here are a few more photos.

One fun thing about youth group was that this was the first time I got to see the new youth room that has been being built since before we arrived in Czech. They’ve only been meeting in it for a few weeks and it’s really, really nice. It has basically been a labor of love as many volunteers have helped build it from the church. In fact, in one of the walls there is a large stone sticking out (shown below) that confused me. I asked Simon what it meant and he told me that he didn’t know how to explain it English, but they have a word for it in Czech. Essentially, he said it’s like a piece to remember that the building was, in his words, “built by this generation” and they should remember that. It sounded like a neat thing to me and I took a photo of the stone, which sits near the entrance next to the light switches.

Finally, a few avid blog readers know that our friends Jenny and Landen moved to Czech a few months after us and we were all living in the same town in California before coming to Czech. Jenny is actually from Czech and Landen is an American, but they have been in the states for I believe 6 or 7 years. Their current ministry focus is with the youth group at our church and I saw them tonight and Landen invited me over to their place tonight to chat and catch up.

During our discussion, it became clear that we have the same passion to learn Czech and do greater ministry here. I loved Landen’s statement that he’s “learning Czech to love Czechs” (this may be a paraphrase, but the gist is there). His heart is to learn their language so he can have deeper relationships and more impact on them (e.g. love them), not to mention he would be able to preach and teach God’s Word. As we talked, they both shared their desire to help Bethany and I get more opportunity to learn language and so we’re basically going to work together in this process. With Jenny’s help as a native Czech speaker, we are going to use some of the tools we all learned at pre-field training in the States. This should give Landen, Bethany, and me more opportunity to study and engage the Czech language on a consistent basis. This is huge!

All of that is really exciting to me and it seems like a huge answer to prayer! As we talked tonight I could feel my heart stirring with greater passion and excitement in a way that I haven’t in quite some time. Jenny and Landen have such a great heart for Czech and we share their passion to see God work in mighty ways here, even through our efforts in language. Many people have been praying, as have we, and I feel like this simple discussion was such an answer to prayer and the work of the Spirit of God in all our hearts. I’m excited to see what the Lord does with this and how it will have a greater impact for the Kingdom of God!

Tags fun, growth, language, learning, sledding, snow

365 Czech Republic

Back in the Saddle…I Mean, Sedlo

Post author By Shay
Post date February 6, 2015
No Comments on Back in the Saddle…I Mean, Sedlo

We were back at it this morning, continuing our formal language learning with our our Czech teacher. It felt really good to be back in the saddle and just pushing forward. Speaking of forward, that’s pretty much what we we were learning, that is, directions. In the photo below, you can see Bethany working hard at reading a sentence with directions on a map and then trying to understand where exactly we are supposed to go. Left, right, down, up, turn, forward, straight, go. These are the kinds words we were focused on.

For me, today was one of my favorite lessons because I’ve begun to write down confusing sentences and words in my Field Notes notebook so I can ask Tamara (our teacher) about them and get some clarity. I like the idea of capturing words and then working on what I hear. If you look closely in the photo below, my notebook has sentences like “I am not stupid,” “I’m cold,” “Let’s go (forward)!” and “Nevermind.” Those might sound pretty scatter brained, but they are legitimate phrases I’m curious to know and now have in my book where I can review and see regularly. Our ears hear lots of things throughout the day, so being able to say, “What does that mean?” and write it down is just really helpful.

We also had a little review time, which you can see in the photo above. Tamara was holding up photos and asking us certain things about the case (masculine, feminine, neuter) to see how much we could remember. Bethany was much better at recalling that info that me, so I have some studying to do!

We’re planning a little fun for tomorrow with the kids. It’s actually supposed to be sunny, but cold and we’re hoping to do a little sledding near the mountains. Titus has been asking me when Saturday is because we told him about it earlier in the week and he’s been pretty excited. We have a wooden sled that we got a few months ago, but I’m hoping we can find a plastic one on our way out of town. We’ll see how it goes!

Tags Czech, language, learning

365 Czech Republic

Celery and an Early Valentine’s Day

Post author By Shay
Post date February 5, 2015
1 Comment on Celery and an Early Valentine’s Day

As happens often I have to go on a hunt for a single food item. Tonight that item was celery. Bethany was making potato soup and needed a few things from the store. I went straight to the store that I thought would surely have everything, but for some reason they either didn’t have celery or they were out.

My quest was actually complete at the second store I visited. But while in line someone dropped a large bottle of some kind of alcoholic beverage. It smelled weird and went everywhere. I’m not sure if it was the girl that was in front of me or the guy in front of her that was at fault, but not a single person did a thing about it. Everyone acted as if nothing had happened, including the check stand lady and security guard standing right there. It was all very confusing for me because we just all began stepping over and into the liquid, making a bigger mess. No one was coming to clean it up and I honestly would’ve done it but trying to explain that in Czech would have proved more confusing than the situation itself. Spill on aisle 4 anyone? How do you say that in Czech?

On a happier note, I got home from the store and the kids told me “Daddy, we have a surprise for you.” They both brought me big red cards that they made with stickers and drawings (shown above). Avery also brought me that cat frame which she painted and added jewels to. The cat actually came with the frame. Bethany told me that Avery said, “Daddy will like that.” She is right.

On the back of the cards were lots of fun phrases that I will share with you here:

From Titus:
Why do you love Daddy?

“Cause he “raskles” (read “wrestles”) us a long time.”
“He’s our friend”

From Avery:
Why do you love Daddy?

“Daddy likes to play Candyland”
“Daddy likes to “raskle” me”
“Because he has an ‘A’ in his name”
“Daddy likes to give me a kiss.”
“Because I love him.”

It’s never too early to get a Valentine’s Day card for your kids.

Tags culture, spill