Bible study – Shay Thomason

I’m not a great Bible study leader. I really want to be, but I just haven’t had a ton of experience at it. There are some guys I know who are masters at leading small groups and forming questions from the study and just have a knack for fielding those questions and watching the ebb and flow of the group. I’m not that guy. I usually prepare for Bible studies the way I have prepared for preaching. I realize that they are quite different, but they are very similar in that you still need to study the Bible to understand what is being said and then you have to teach it. All that to say, I had the opportunity to teach the international team Bible study today and I didn’t feel like it went amazing, but not terrible. This team is used to hearing Dave Patty, one of those master small group leaders, and I felt kind of like they called a Minor Leaguer and gave me an at bat. I fouled a couple off and hit a dribbler down the line. Despite my efforts, I do hope the truths of Galatians 2:20 were clear and the staff was encouraged by God’s Word.

There were some great discussions after Bible study amongst my team today and that was a blessing to continue to talk about God’s Word together. Things are going pretty well at the Josiah Venture office and there will be a lot of staff going to Israel at the end of next week. Everyone is gearing up for summer ministry and our Spring Conference coming the first week in May. My team is prepping a lot of different materials for upcoming ministry events so we have had full, but fun days.

When I got him this afternoon Titus was playing with some Army guys that the kids had dug up. Bethany and the kids were cleaning up their room today and they found a bucket of todays they haven’t played with in a while, so the kids were kind of rediscovering them. I hadn’t really ever seen Titus playing with Army dudes so I got down with him and we were having a “battle” together which mostly consisted of his men knocking my guys over. During the “war,” Avery was busy pulling tiny animals in a tiny toy wagon (also toys she found in the bucket). At one point the animals got caught in the cross fire and she wasn’t super happy about it, but we brought in a medic and all was well in the world of tiny animals.

I got some resources tonight on the doctrine of the Trinity which I am excited about working through. My friend Landen asked if I could teach on the Trinity to the youth group at our church on April 18 and we finalized that today. I’ll be speaking through a translator, so that will be different, but I’m excited to get up in front of the students and teach some of these core truths. Please pray as I study and prepare that I would be clear and it would be helpful to the students.

It’s past midnight now so I’m off to bed, but here’s a little video of me jumping over a creek today.

I Believe I Can Fly from Shay on Vimeo.

The doctor is not in. That’s what Bethany, the kids, and our friend Kristin found out this morning after they walked to the pediatrician. The door was locked and there was a note explaining that the doctor was on holiday. Another doctor’s hours were posted (shown above), but of course that doctor didn’t hold hours during the time that our family happened to be there. They’ll try again tomorrow. Hopefully someone is there! Why were they going to the doctor, you ask? Good question.

Right before we moved to Czech, Titus had gotten a rash. It started as little red dots that ended up spreading under his arm. At first we thought it was eczema (which he has), but it got worse and worse until it spread on half of his chest and we took him to our doctor in the States who gave him antibiotics for some kind bacterial skin thing. Thankfully, after a few weeks it went away. We’re not exactly sure how he got it, but it was weird. Now, sadly, we think Avery has the same thing.

It started as one little dot on her face that we honestly thought was a mosquito bite (which we get a lot of here on warm days). But in the past couple of days it has spread to her shoulder and on to more of her face. You can see her face and shoulder in the photo above. For the most part it doesn’t bother her, but we’re trying to stop it before it spreads more. On Titus it got pretty bad, but it never got on his face. Hopefully we can get her to a doctor that understands what it is and can prescribe the right medicine for Avery. Please pray with us for this!

We had incredible weather today in Czech. To me, it was about as close to Southern California weather that I’ve seen since we’ve been here. There weren’t a lot of clouds, but there was a light breeze, and the temperature was very comfortable. I walked with a few people of our team to a lunch place today and took the above photo. Shortly after returning to the JV offices I sent out the leadership book we’ve been working on to the printer! This was a huge project and even there’s still a few things left to do I’m glad to have handed it off.

Tonight Bethany went with a few of the missionary girls over to a little Bible study. Most of the ladies there are part the international team that serves all of the countries that JV works in. Bethany said she really enjoyed herself and that she especially liked listening to the two Czech woman who attended. There’s something neat about listening to the way Czechs describe their faith and even though English may be there second language, it’s always impressive to hear them articulate their faith. I believe this will be a regular thing for her so I’m glad to stay home with our kids while she gets a little time out of the house.

And that’s exactly what I did tonight–spent time with Titus and Avery. We had dinner (which mommy made before she left!), played outside, played inside, took a bath, did Bible time, and finally got tucked in to bed. Those two are a handful, but it’s really fun to spend some dad only time with them.

Tomorrow we have a baby sitter coming in the morning so Bethany can join me for an international team meeting at JV. It’ll be the first one we’ve been to and it’ll be the first time we let a Czech girl watch our kids. We’ll see how it goes and you’ll be sure to know all about it when we return with full coverage on this blog tomorrow.