Shay Thomason – Page 33 – everything beautiful in it's time

Eating Rabbit and Gospel Opportunities

Post author By Shay
Post date August 18, 2014
3 Comments on Eating Rabbit and Gospel Opportunities

Bethany: “So I had rabbit today.”
Me: “Really? Awesome!”

There’s a first time for everything and today it was Bethany having dumplings with rabbit cream sauce. How did this happen? I’m so glad you asked.

It all started yesterday. Bethany got a few texts from some other missionaries near us asking if she’d be interested in helping out at a local preschool here in town. The Czech and English preschool needed someone today and tomorrow to speak English to the little ones for the day. Normally they have a girl from Australia teach English, but she was sick. We talked it over yesterday and Bethany decided she was interested and since she could take our kids with her that made the decision a little easier. So early this morning, with the help of another missionary friend, Bethany and the kids left the house to be at the school by 8am.

Titus hasn’t started preschool here yet, but Bethany would say today was a really great little introduction to what it would be like. Schools in our town have been really full this year and normally they register kids in January but since we weren’t here until June we haven’t been able to get him in yet.

When you walk in the building there’s a place for all the kids’ shoes. Bethany shared the building is actually very large (like the size of a high school), but the preschool uses one classroom about the size of an apartment. She also said it’s a little eerie because the rest of the building is actually empty and not being used at all. It was the Czech teacher’s first day on the job as well and her only study of English was back in 6th grade and she’s a college student now. Bethany said they could communicate just fine so Bethany was instructed to teach the parts of the human body (in English). There were only four students today plus Titus and Avery (so a total of six). She would say “chin” and point and the kids were supposed to repeat it back. They did okay for the most part, but Sonja (the Czech teacher) said they need to make sure they can repeat it back tomorrow.

Outside of a few little lessons like that there was snack time, lunch, nap time and free play. For lunch they had to walk as a class to the cafeteria which was back behind the building. Bethany didn’t know she would have to pay for the kids lunch but thankfully she had just enough cash on her. (Her meal was paid for because she was teaching). Like all Czech meals, it started with soup and today it was some type of egg soup with veggies. Avery seems to really enjoy the soup here and has gotten pretty good at slurping it with a spoon. It’s still messy, but we’re glad they’re getting a little practice in. The main course was bread dumplings and a creamy meat sauce which turned out to be rabbit. Bethany said to me tonight, “I definitely felt sick after they told me I had eaten rabbit.” There’s a first she’ll never forget. However she admits that the meal wasn’t too bad and that for our kids it will probably be a normal meal in school.

During snack times they enjoyed rolls with cream cheese spread and in the afternoon cookies and apples. They always serve the snack with unsweetened hot tea which our kids didn’t enjoy. Once Sonja realized our kids weren’t enjoying the tea she offered some syrup fruit sweetener which Bethany really liked (she ended up drinking their tea).

One of the great blessings for Bethany today was that she was able to practice her Czech with the teacher and the preschoolers because essentially that’s the level of language we are at! It was really helpful to hear the little ones talk in Czech and have the teacher speak in simple sentences over and over.

During nap time Bethany got to spend time with Sonja getting to know her. Bethany shared that as she was talking with Sonja it really struck her that if she doesn’t talk about Christ with this young girl, who will? She’s a full time student with two jobs and has a boyfriend in our town even though she lives about twenty minutes from here. Bethany said she’s a very sweet girl but she still desperately needs to hear the gospel. Bethany really wants to invite her over to our house for a meal. Please pray for this!

As well, a mom named Eva was picking up her daughter and Bethany got to talking with her because she also spoke English. Apparently she worked in Krakow, Poland at an English-speaking business but she has a British accent because she has spent time studying English in England and New Zealand. Bethany told her we had just moved here and was complimenting Eva on her English. Surprisingly, Eva offered to go to coffee with Bethany and told her to get her phone number from the school! This feels like an open door for a relationship. Side note: We have been so impressed how hospitable the Czechs have been. Please pray for Bethany to be able to get Eva’s phone number and hopefully go grab coffee soon.

My wife is courageous. She’s brave. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about her leaving and going to an unknown school in an unknown place with our kids. But then I’m reminded why we moved here. We didn’t move our family across the globe to just enjoy Christ and keep Him to ourselves. We came here with the intention of diving in to a new culture and language with the goal of one day sharing the love of Jesus. By God’s grace, we may get that opportunity sooner than later and in may be even in English! Please pray with us that we would continue to move forward in bold faith and trust Christ with the results.

Tags preschool, rabbit, relationships

365 Czech Republic

Swords, Salsa, and Something Special

Post author By Shay
Post date August 17, 2014
2 Comments on Swords, Salsa, and Something Special

The photo below is of Avery running towards the doors of our church. We were about four minutes late this morning so you don’t see anyone standing around outside, but often there are many people fellowshipping and talking on and around those steps. Right when we walked through those doors one of the pastors saw us and greeted us by saying “Dobré ráno” (“Good morning”) and immediately pointed to his ears. He was motioning to remind us to grab our English translations headsets. Every week someone will translate via a little microphone to our headsets so we really don’t have any issues understanding the flow of the service and the sermon. It’s a huge blessing and I’m thankful for the different people who serve us this way. Even though we’re trying to learn Czech, it’s really nice to be able to come to church and understand most of what’s happening.

Today’s sermon was on putting on the full of armor of God from Ephesians 6. That was actually the first passage of scripture I ever memorized. I still remember it to this day and I even remember reciting it in front of my 6th grade class. At one point during the sermon our pastor put up a photo of a Roman soldier and just started to describe the spiritual armor that correlated with the photo. It was a good visual reminder to me and I think very helpful to the body. He even discussed that the “sword of the Spirit” (the Bible) is one of the only things listed in the passage that is offensive in nature and the other pieces of spiritual armor are defensive. His point was that even though a sword is an offensive weapon, he believes that in the context of the passage it’s defensive. Super interesting thought and something I’m still thinking through this evening. It’s a joy to watch these Czech pastors work through the text, try to understand the original intent, and preach it to us. To be honest, it wasn’t what I had expected we would find when we moved here and from what I’ve heard it’s not the norm throughout the entire country. For all I know at this point our church may just be the exception.

The photos above are Avery and Bethany going in and out of the grocery story this afternoon after church. I had taken the first photo just because I thought they were cute, but then watching Avery cary a few bags of groceries on her way out with Bethany was the cherry on top. Bethany even said that the Czechs were stopping and looking at her and admiring Avery as she was leaving the store because she even had the bags around her shoulders at one point like a purse. Cute kid.

Tonight we had some friends over for dinner and enjoyed a little “American comfort food.” Those are the best words I can use to describe any kind of Mexican food that Bethany makes. In fact, we finished off our only container of Pace picante sauce…let’s just pause and take a moment of silence…it was good run for our salsa, but as my mom always says, “All good things must come to an end.” Some sacrifices in missions are hard…even salsa.

We ended up video chatting with Bethany’s parents late tonight and it was extra special. They kids got to stay up late and say hi but we talked for a while longer after the kids went to bed. For all of the junk that technology produces, one of the incredible blessings is to be able to video chat with family who are over 6,000 miles away. Towards the end of our conversation Bethany’s dad asked what things they could be praying for and he wrote them down and prayed with us. That was special. I guess it was just really practical. He prayed for the things we mentioned and as I listened and agreed I was blessed. God is so good to give us family who care for us and even when life is a little disjointed for us we know that we have family and many others praying for us. And even though miles separate us and time zones separate us, we are united in Christ. Now that’s special.

Tags church, food, prayer, salsa

365 Czech Republic

Working With Avery

One of the joys of finally being more settled here in Czech is that we’ve been able to really have focused time with our kids. It’s not that we didn’t focus on them, but when you’re traveling the U.S. in a van for nine months during support raising some things fall to the wayside. Bethany would often say, “When we get to Czech we’re gonna _____________ .” For example, we’ve wanted to reinstate “room time” for our kids where they can just spend time playing while Bethany and I work around the house. Our traveling just didn’t allow for that kind of time for them and now that we’re here we’ve gone back to that which has been really great. Another thing we had talked about was small chores that the kids could help with, like emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, or helping do the laundry. The goal is just to give them some different, practical activities they can do with us. It’s been fun to see some of those things come to fruition.

Avery (she’s 2) completely impressed me this morning. I think it’s a combination of us working with them more and just Avery’s sweet heart, but while Bethany was making breakfast Avery came into the kitchen and I said, “I help mommy?” Bethany was making Swedish pancakes from scratch and there’s a lot of stirring so Avery helped mix ingredients and then stir everything together (photo above). Once she was finished, Avery grabbed some clean plates from the dishwasher and said, “These are for me and Titus…” and went into the dining room and put their plates on the table. Then Bethany asked her to continue setting the table so Avery grabbed all the plates, silverware, syrup, jelly and set the entire table herself (photo below). Minus the sugar in the glass container, Avery carried out everything and set the table all by herself and she said to me, “Daddy…Titus is sitting by me.” That was right after she explained to me that she was taking bowls to the table for her and Titus to have yogurt (which she also took out to the table).

After breakfast we went outside and Bethany said, “I’m going to work on potty training with Avery.” This is just another one of those things that got set on the back burner as we were support raising and preparing to move. We just never felt we could on it and we were driving so much that we decided to wait. But today we began the slow and steady process of teaching Avery how to “go potty on the potty.” With Titus we made a little chart and reward system so Bethany did the same with Avery today. Even though she had a lot of accidents, we were much more prepared and Bethany really worked hard with her. Lord willing, Avery will adjust soon and we’ll have another potty trained child in the house…and a lot less diapers!

Tomorrow is Sunday and that means we’ll be at church. As I’ve written already, Sunday is yet another opportunity to work with our kids and teach and train them. Pray for us as we continue to get settled and spend more focused time with our kids.

Tags Avery, kids

365 Czech Republic

How Not to Dad

On the whole, we had a great day as a family. Bethany and the kids came out with me to the JV office this morning and we even had lunch together. I basically worked a half day because we had language lessons this afternoon, so while I was at the office the kids and Bethany and went exploring around Frydlant (the town where the JV offices are). There’s a creek nearby (photo above) and they even went to a little park too. I had a meeting that ran long so we rushed home to make it a little late for our language lesson. We enjoyed a pretty relaxed evening at home and some leftovers. I even spent a few minutes photographing the church out our kitchen window. That place still seems to grab my attention.

Tonight as I was putting away the dishes I said, “Hey, let’s go for a walk! It looks nice outside.” That was at about 7pm. In the town square they were having a big concert/festival, including a live band, rides, and little shops. We had seen them setting up for it on Wednesday so we thought it would be fun to go see it tonight. While walking around we came up to the bumper cars. Honestly, most of the rides looked a little sketchy at best, but the bumper cars looked fun so Titus and I got a ticket and jumped in car 17.

I put him in my lap because it was too hard to reach the pedals with him next to me and off we went. In the beginning we were having a great time (photo above) until we got bumped. A mom and daughter nailed us from behind and Titus either hit is face on the steering wheel or just got whip lash and basically put his teeth through his inner lip. I didn’t really see it happen but I felt him kind of curl back into my arms and I asked him, “Are you OK, pal?” And as I looked down I saw he was bleeding. He didn’t cry. He just kind of got quiet and sad (photo below). I kept checking on him as we finished the ride and I knew it if it was really serious he would be crying. Praise God it wasn’t more than just a bad lip bite.

It’s one of the moments as a dad where you feel like you’ve failed. You instantly start saying to yourself, “Man… we didn’t even have to go on this ride.” “Why didn’t I hold him tighter so that wouldn’t happen?” “Titus probably thinks I’ve failed him.” “I didn’t protect him.” As the ride came to an end the first thing Titus said to me was, “I want mommy.” Bethany was taking photos of our ride and had no idea Titus had gotten hurt. Looking back on the photos was actually encouraging because Titus was running of the ride with a smile on his face. Of course, I was heart broken…I had hurt my son. Bethany saw his lip and said, “Does he need stitches?” Calmly I said, “No, he’ll be fine” but in my heart I was saying, “Oh man, I hope not…I don’t even know how that would work in the Czech Republic!”

Our night didn’t end sad. From the bumper cars we headed for home and by the time we got there Titus was feeling better. His lip had stopped bleeding but it was definitely fatter. We did bath time and he seemed to get his personality back. As I was dressing him he said, “Those cars were so fun!” Heart attack over. Those words were soothing to a dad who honestly felt like a failure.

You never want to hurt your kids, even if it’s an accident. I know life happens and fat lips happen, but you feel the weight of it differently as a parent. It’s probably just a good reminder that even has a father and a dad I won’t be able to perfectly protect and care for my family. Things will happen that are outside of my control and other things will happen that I’m directly responsible for. But I serve a God who is in control. He’s always in control and He will always perfectly care for me and my family. Sometimes it takes a little fat lip to remind you of that.

365 Czech Republic

Third Time’s The Charm

It’s 1:11am. Normally I would write this after dinner, but tonight we had some guests over to watch a little Dodgers baseball on the TV. Bethany got me an MLB.tv subscription when we moved over here because she knows how much I love the Dodgers. Basically, when they are playing a day game on the east coast we can watch it live at a reasonable time, so tonight we had Zach and Kara Zegan over which was a lot of fun.

Today we went on our 3rd trip to Bratislava, Slovakia to pick up the kids’ visas. Praise God, they are in and we’re all set with all four of our visas! This is such good news and even though we had a couple hiccups in the process we’re hopeful that by early next week we’ll be set with our 6-month visas. This will allow us to get 2-year visas at the beginning of 2015 and we won’t have to go back to Bratislava (Lord willing) for that process.

Of course we couldn’t go down to Bratislava without getting a few photos so enjoy…I’m off to bed.

Tags Bratislava, Dodgers, friends

365 Czech Republic

It Was Nice To…

Czechs love to walk. Especially if it’s not raining (and somtimes if it is!) or if the sun is out or both. You can walk pretty much anywhere you need to in our town. The post office, the grocery store, the city hall, the bank–it’s all within a few minutes of where we live. Today I had to walk to the bank to finish up the crazy situation with our rent and finally was able to deposit the right amount for our landlord. I asked Titus if he wanted to go with me but he wasn’t up for it so I went alone. There were a lot of other people out just walking. It almost feels like downtown New York to me. That’s the only place I know of and been to where you just walk. It was nice to walk today.

I really enjoyed our Czech lesson today. I’m not sure if it was because I had just gone on a nice walk and my mind was more clear, but I felt like I was really making progress today. I would say the same for Bethany. Of course, I could use more discipline, but I think the work we’re putting in is paying off during our lessons. Below is a photo of Bethany working through a little exercise where we were given a photo of “our” family (it was actually a photo of someone else’s family) and we had to say what relationship we had to the person in the photo and say what their name is…all in Czech. It wasn’t easy but I really thought Bethany and I did pretty well (I better be careful not to overstate our progress because I know our teacher reads our blog!). For sure language learning is slow process, but I really enjoyed it today. It was nice to study a little Czech today.

On my errand to the bank they gave me some paperwork along with our new Czech debit cards that had come in. I wasn’t able to get Bethany’s because she has to sign for it so we decided to walk there after our Czech lesson. The second walk was better than the first. I think mainly because I didn’t feel rushed and we didn’t have a super set plan. It’s nice to just slow down and not have a set plan.

Once we finished up at the bank Bethany said we should go to the Christian book store which we hear may be one of the only ones in the entire country. It was just a block down the road from the bank and I’m glad we went. Bethany was able to pick up a little stack of postcards with Czech verses on them and the kids and I just kind of looked around at all the fun things they had. It was nice to just enjoy the bookstore.

We actually made two more stops before we went back home. The first was at the town square water fountain where the kids and I played while mommy went to get a few things at the “kosmetika” store. I chased Avery around with the stroller and Titus basically ran in a circle around the fountain for fifteen minutes. The second stop was to the little mini-mart grocery store where I decided to spend 77 cents to get the kids a little juice drink and where mommy was getting the last few ingredients she needed for tonight’s lasagna dinner. The whole trip from the bank to home was only about an hour of time, but I loved our little outing. It was nice to walk a second time today.

It was nice today. The weather was cooler and it didn’t rain. I got a few projects done for JV. We had a great Czech lesson. We had a fun time walking the city. Maybe I needed a nice day like today more than I knew. I do know that when I sat down to write this I was happy and smiling and as I finish I feel the same. It was nice to write about today.

Tags city, Czech lessons, walk

365 Czech Republic

The Tale of the Rent and the Babička

Post author By Shay
Post date August 12, 2014
1 Comment on The Tale of the Rent and the Babička

As I was walking in to the JV office this morning I get a text from Bethany, “Are you in your meeting yet?” I wasn’t. She texts again, “Can I call you?” “Yes,” I replied. Phone rings. I pick up.

Bethany: “So…we don’t know how much our rent is.”
Me: “Huh?”
Bethany: “[our landord] just came over and gave me a note written in English that we didn’t pay enough for rent.”
Me: “Oh man.”

And so continues the saga that began with me not paying the rent on time to thinking I had figured it out the second time, to me now not paying enough for rent. Honestly, I’m really trying here. I thought I had read the contract correctly and even after a review of the entire document by both Bethany and I we’re not seeing where the extra fees are coming from. But after having our Czech friend look it over she says we owe what our landlord is asking for which is totally fine, I just want to do right. It’s hard enough going to the bank to try and make a cash transfer to our landlord’s account, but having to do it again and again is just double difficult. Even today I tried to get to the bank on my way home only to find out they close earlier today and I missed it by 15 minutes. I can’t win…but I digress.

Babička (pronounced BAH-BEECH-KA) in Czech means “grandma” or “grandmother.” That’s what our landlord (who lives above us) wants our kids to call her. Even though we can’t communicate very well with her we know she’s really sweet. I actually take it as a big deal that she wants our kids to call her grandma because that means she likes them and whenever she sees them she calls their names and says hi.

Shortly after babička came over to talk about the rent issue, she came bearing a gift for our family. Sigh of relief…she must not be mad about the rent! The gift was a cake. In Bethany’s words it’s “some kind of walnut/nut cake with chocolate mouse and chocolate and vanilla icing.” It’s awesome. Czech desserts and pastries are amazing and this one lived up to the Czech standards. It was a really nice gift and genuinely made us feel like we’re not offending her. I guess I don’t know if that’s actually true or not, but we’re going to work under that assumption! Here’s a photo of the cake.

Today Bethany worked with Titus on his hand writing in a workbook we have for him. When I got home from work he said, “Daddy! Look!” and went on to tell me what he had done. It was really special to me. About drawing the letter “A” he said, “You do this line…then this line…then you pick your pencil up and make a bridge across.” He gets an “A” for awesome job.

I wish I could say that the rent thing was the only hangup we had today, but sadly other things continue to be problematic. While at the JV office today Martina (a Czech who works for JV) came in to where I was working and said, “Shay…I need to talk to you.” Basically, she wanted to know if the Czech embassy said anything to me about getting a special stamp on our visas within “3 working days” of getting our visas. Her concerned look to my reply of “No” was not reassuring. We’re already passed the 3 day mark on Bethany and my visas and we’re headed back to the embassy on Thursday to get the kid’s visas. Now I need to find out if there are any issues with our visas and if this going to be a problem. Pray for us.

Every day we’re making progress on our language learning and the more I work on my vocabulary the better for me it is to understand and hear things when I’m out and about. We have language lessons tomorrow and I still have homework to do. I better get on that before it gets too late!

Tags babicka, cake, rent

365 Czech Republic

One Box At A Time

Some people take life one day at a time, but we like to take it one box at a time. If you’ve ever moved, you know what I’m talking about. It’s like you keep unpacking and unpacking and the more you unpack the harder it gets to find places for everything. There’s actually a part of me that has sort of begun to ignore some of the boxes in our house, but seeing the stack of empty ones that Bethany had from today surprised me. Where are all of these coming from?! Bethany is on a roll right now just tearing through boxes and putting stuff away. I’m so thankful for her. She works so hard for us. I honestly don’t know where she is getting all of this energy.

The past few weeks have actually been very busy at the JV office as we prepare for an international training conference in late September. Over 300 people will come together for an annual conference that JV puts on for the country leaders and others (or least that’s my understanding at this point. I’ve never been to this conference). Needless to say there’s a lot going on with my team to prepare for their arrival and hopefully provide them all the resources they need so they can be equipped to serve Christ better in their countries. For instance, my team is helping build a Web site right now that will be a resource for leadership training material. It goes hand-in-hand with a book that we’re designing (written by JV staff) that will aid leaders to train other leaders. There’s a lot that goes into both projects but things are moving along which is a blessing. My hope and desire is that these will be a blessing to those who use them and more fruit in the Kingdom will come from it!

The other night when Jonny was visiting I was showing him some music that has been blessing me of late. One of the songs I showed him and one that I just can’t seem to stop listening to is “The Only Name (Yours Will Be)” by Benji and Jenna Cowart. I won’t try and explain the song now but recommend you take a listen. It’s a simple worship song and a good reminder about what really matters at the end of the day (or the end of your life!). I’ve placed the lyrics below the video. Enjoy.

The Only Name (Yours Will Be)

Yours will be the only Name that matters to me
The only One Whose favor I seek
The only Name that matters to me

Yours will be the friendship and affection I need
To feel my Father smiling on me
The only Name that matters to me

And Yours is the Name the Name that saved me
Mercy and grace the power that forgave me
And Your love is all I’ve ever needed

When I wake up in the land of glory
With the saints I will tell my story
There will be one Name that I proclaim

Jesus Jesus Jesus just that Name

This song can be found on their EP album “Letters To The Church At Buffalo.”

Tags boxes, moving, music

365 Czech Republic

Making Progress on Sunday

We’ve already shared before that Sundays in church have been tough with the kids. The summer months are especially hard in Czech because our church (photo above) doesn’t have Sunday school for the kids so we’re taking them to the main two hour service. We do our best to have them draw in a coloring book or even (yes, I’ll admit) play a game or two on the iPhone so as not to distract the service. In that past weeks we have ended up outside at some point just because they weren’t staying quiet enough to not disrupt the service. Today, by God’s amazing grace, was the first week we didn’t go outside! Friends have already told us they are praying for this and we saw that prayer answered today. It wasn’t perfect and there were moment’s of frustration, but the kids stayed the entire two hours and we definitely praise God for this little victory. After church we let the kids play in the church yard for a little bit and the photo below is of Avery and Titus walking around with huge branches. Avery’s face kills me in this photo.

Since we had Jonny with us at church we treated him to a pizza lunch in our time. I ordered three pizzas thinking they were small but they ended up being much bigger than I thought. Providentially our friend Rachael happened to be walking home from church and saw us eating so we asked her to join us and help us eat some of our extra slices. What’s amazing is we were able to feed six people for $24 and that included water (which you have to pay for) and a Czech favorite, Kofola soda. Not a bad deal!

This afternoon I drove Jonny over to the train station in Ostrava where he was catching his train to Prague. He and three of his friends are headed to Norway for six days to enjoy some camping and European exploration. While I at the station I saw another JV missionary, Jonathan Rosen, and he asked if I wanted to grab a quick cup of coffee before heading back home. I agreed and off we went to a little coffee shop in downtown Ostrava. Jonathan was actually the intern leader at the very first camp Bethany and I served at in 2012 so it was fun to catch up with him and see how ministry was going. He introduced me to a great little coffee shop and hopefully I’ll get a chance to take Bethany there some time.

At church this morning we were invited by a young Czech couple to hang at a river side park around 4pm. Because of my coffee with Jonathan I made us a little late to the park and it was a new park to us (one we hadn’t been to before) and we just couldn’t find the couple when we arrived. I was bummed, especially since it was really my fault we didn’t make it there by 4pm. Bethany wrote them on Facebook to apologize and hopefully reschedule and we literally just got a message back a few minutes ago saying that we actually didn’t miss them, but that we just didn’t walk far enough on the path to another park along the river. There are a lot of different parks along the river path but we just didn’t need to head further down…bummer. They said they’ll most likely be back there next week to so hopefully we can catch up then. That couple is due with their first child in just three weeks and it would be really fun to get to know them and catch up with them before the busyness of having a baby.

The little trip to the park wasn’t all bad because the kids got a little time to play and swing at the park we did find. We didn’t stay long because we needed to hit the grocery store and make dinner at home so off we went to the local Tesco. Bethany made another great dinner and we immediately did bath time with the kids when we were finished eating. We’re trying hard to get back into a rhythm with bed times and routines and it’s so nice to have a more settled home to do that.

It’s been a great past few days and Bethany commented tonight how much fun it’s been having so many different people in our home of late. In fact, both of us our a little worried we might start getting lonely here come fall because there’s just no one left to come and stay with us! I guess that’s just another reason to dive in and get to know the many people here, Czechs and other missionaries, and continue to build relationships right where we are. That’s really one of the main reasons we’re here and Lord willing we’ll be able to do just that in the months and weeks to come.

Tags church, coffee, friends, park

365 Czech Republic Friends

Uncle Jonny and a Backyard Bash

Post author By Shay
Post date August 9, 2014
1 Comment on Uncle Jonny and a Backyard Bash

In the ongoing series of people coming to see us in Czech, our good friend Jonny Ardavanis spent the day with us and is spending the night tonight! Jonny came early today and we were able to get his clothes washed and ready or his departure on Monday. He has been working as an intern with Josiah Venture this summer here in Czech and his last camp ended this week so he had a little time to come for a visit. On Monday he’s headed off to Norway with a few awesome guys to take in the site and enjoy a little more of Europe. I love his passion, his love for Christ, and his humor. Jonny is a ton of fun to be around and we’ve known him since he was in junior high. To have him in our home today has been such a joy and a blessing to us.

This evening we had been invited to a team get together at he Brian and Aleisha Stephens house. Since our entire team is now in Czech, the Stephens thought it would be fun to get everyone together for a fun hangout and that’s exactly what it was. I took my camera along and grabbed a bunch of shots. Here’s a lot of what we did in photos and video.

Shortly after that last photo the thunder clouds rolled into town and the rain came fast. We all quickly put toys and things away and headed for the house. Everyone that can play an instrument brought them so we had a little impromptu worship and singing time together while the rain, lightning, and thunder came through. It was a fun night and definitely a great time having the team all together. Thanks to the Stephens family for having us over!

Tags bbq, friends, party