Tag: kids

Restarting Formal Language Lessons

Post author By Shay
Post date November 12, 2014
2 Comments on Restarting Formal Language Lessons

We’ve been trying for quite some time now to secure a new language teacher that could help give us formal Czech training. This has been a little bit of a challenge because it seems like there just aren’t that many Czech instructors near us. You can find a lot of people who teach English, but not that many for Czech. Today, however, we were back in the saddle and reengaging in formal instruction with our new teacher Tamara. She teaches Titus’ Sunday school class at church and teaches Czech to at least two other missionaries. It was a great time today and our two hours together was a blessing for sure. We worked a little bit on some of the basics, some Czech rules, and really focused a lot on our pronunciation. Even though we’re doing more listening than speaking, it’s good to know how something is supposed to be pronounced. Bethany and I are trying to avoid building bad habits in order to make our Czech sound better. Hopefully it will all pay off in the end! Above is a photo of Bethany (left) and Tamara (right) working through one of the lessons and below are just some cards for distinguishing between certain letters and sounds.

We took Avery with us today to lessons since Titus was in school. Here’s a photo (below) of her playing a little table at Tamara’s house. Tamara is also a music teacher so you’ll notice the instruments along the back wall, including the piano clock/bookshelf that she and her husband made! Pretty cool.

We found a box of mini spring rolls at the store today so we went for a pretty Asian dinner tonight. Bethany made rice with chicken and terryaki sauce and we added in the little spring rolls to complete the meal. More and more we’re excited about being able to make things from scratch and just see how it turns out. That being said, I still had to manually type all of the directions for baking the spring rolls in to Google translate to see how long and hot how we were supposed to cook them. How did missionaries survive before Google!?

After dinner Avery rode Titus around the living room like a horse. I got a photo because we were all laughing.

Finally, right before bed the kids decided to do a little coloring. Our refrigerator is packed with these drawings, but hey…they’re only this young for so long.

Tags dinner, kids, language lessons

365 Czech Republic

Little Czech Bakers

It’s about 3:30pm as I write this on a cloudy and rainy day in Cesky Tesin and the sky is already getting dark. According to Google, the sun is setting at 4:12pm here right now. I remember getting off work around 4:30pm in California and the sun being close to setting, but I don’t remember it being quite as dark as it is here. The whole family is back in the bedrooms taking afternoon naps, but I’m a little concerned they’ll just end up sleeping through the night with how dark it is outside.

With all the rain, we’ve been playing inside today. Titus made the word “Zoo” on his own and knew what the word was all on his own. This was a first and we were proud (photo below).

Like most Saturdays, we’ve spent the day cleaning up the house. I feel like we’re always playing catch up right now as we adjust to new schedules and our new life over here. You would think after four or so months here we would have a good routine, but I would say we’re still figuring some of that out. I think that will even have to adjust again this next week because we’re starting (Lord willing!) language lessons again with a new Czech teacher here.

Tonight we had fun making more cookies from the leftover dough we made the other day. On a whim I bought the kids these little hats and aprons for $2 at the store the other day. They were wearing them tonight and they’re starting to look like little Czech bakers. Here’s some photos of the them having fun.

Lastly, I shared last night about being part of EXIT Tour here in Czech and Kevin Dickson, the EXIT Tour director here, wrote a comment saying, “48 Bibles were given out last night with over 40 people saying that they want to know more about Jesus.” Those are incredible numbers and we praise the Lord for his work in the lives of young people over here!

Tags baking, cookies, dark, kids

365 Czech Republic

The End of the Indian Summer

Post author By Shay
Post date October 23, 2014
1 Comment on The End of the Indian Summer

We have been hearing for the past few weeks that we’re experiencing an “Indian Summer” in Czech. They have another name for it like “Grandmas Summer” or something like that, but it’s the same thing: warm weather in autumn. The weather of late has been very warm and nice, with only a little rain. That was until yesterday and today. Wow, can things change fast around here. A storm blew in and it got cold and wet. Even though it’s not really freezing temps just yet (the low tonight is supposed to be 34), the contrast makes it feel like it is.

Since the weather is a little damp, we have to create things to do in the house. Tonight Bethany decided we should hang the fall decorations we were sent from Nana and Papa. They sent us little sheets of sticky leaves, acorns, and pumpkins that go on the windows and glass surfaces.

The kids had a great time with it and I thought did a really good job. Hats off to my wife for the idea and thanks to Nana and Papa for the gift!

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get some time to get our winter tires put on our car. I have no idea how it’s going to play out and honestly am a little concerned that I won’t be able to communicate what I need to. It’s hard enough getting car repairs done in the States, but I have a feeling it’s going to be ten times more difficult in another country and another language.

Lastly, I took a few photos with a new app on my iPhone tonight of the kids. Here’s a couple portraits of these little rascals.

Tags autumn, decorations, fall, indian summer, kids

365 Czech Republic

Sunday School Isn’t Just For Kids

Post author By Shay
Post date October 19, 2014
1 Comment on Sunday School Isn’t Just For Kids

One of my favorite sayings is “Never stop learning.” I actually have a print of it next to my desk that Bethany got me. It’s one of those life philosophies that I adhere to and kind of drives me to read, study, and continue to grow in all areas of my life. I realized this morning while sitting in Titus and Avery’s school school class that each and every Sunday here we’re learning. I know we have things like “Sunday School,” but for a foreigner like me it’s more like “Sunday University.” At least, that’s what today felt like and the funny part is we never even made it in to the sanctuary. Here’s four lessons we learned today:

1) Being in the right classroom is a good place to start learning – We got to church this morning and found our way to the kids classrooms. Avery was downstairs and Titus’ was upstairs. Bethany stayed with Avery because she was a little sad and I took Titus to his class. When we got there the kids were sitting at the table during what seemed to be a teaching time (photo above). I put a chair at the end for Titus and the teach asked in Czech what his name was (which I understood!) and also if we spoke Czech (which I also understood!). I did my best to keep Titus focused and listening but after about 10 minutes Titus says to me, “Daddy, this isn’t my class.” Uh oh. I waited a little longer. “Daddy, where’s Beni and Caleb?” Titus asked because they are normally in his class too. Oh no. We better go.

2) Employ family to help in the learning process – Titus and I kindly left the class and went back downstairs to Avery and Bethany. I told Bethany that wasn’t the right class and we decided to switch so I could stay with Avery and she could go with Titus to try and find the right one. As I sat with Avery, they kids were painting little leaves (shown above). As I sat just observing I was picking up Czech phrases like “pro maminku” (“for mommy”) as the kids were finishing their artwork. I figured out was “mám rád” (which I’ve heard a lot) means “I like.” Listening to the teachers speak SIMPLE Czech was so helpful for me to just try and pick up what they are saying. Then I got a text from Bethany: “I found it. Beni’s here.” She means she found the right class and Titus’ friend was there. Whew. That’s like 2 lessons: a) language lesson b) church building geography lesson. Sweet! This must be a 4-credit class. Oh, and those little leaves the kids were painting were put on a piece of paper that read: “The Lord creates colorful leaves.” Yes, He does.

3) You’re never too old for the tiny chairs. – When it comes to learning, you sit in whatever chair is available and in both Titus and Avery’s rooms this morning we were hanging out in tiny chairs. You’ll even see the teacher in the photo above in the small chair. Learning is more important than comfort, I guess. Also, and this is really a bonus, you can be pretty funny from the tiny chairs. Today I had the kids cracking up by making silly faces. Here’s a photo I got of them laughing at me (side note: I also dig the kid in the background feeding another kid a cracker).

4) Have fun after class.- This evening I had plans to take photos for our good friends Zach and Kara. At the castle yesterday I was thinking I’ve gotta go back and do photos there so Zach and Kara were my models today. We had a lot of fun and I was excited that Bethany could come too and see it all for the first time. The weather was incredible today and perfect for enjoying some family time and photos of friends. Here’s a couple photos (captions below each):

Zach and Kara having fun watching Titus try to make them laugh. It worked!

This is Bethany and Avery overlooking our city from the Poland side. It was a little windy, but what a great view today.

Avery’s legs because she’s still so little and cute.

Titus in his natural state…”hanging” out.

A quick shot of the streets of Poland, just inside the border.

That’s all, folks!

Tags church, friends, kids, learning, photos, Poland, Sunday

365 Czech Republic

An Unexpected Walk in Poland

Post author By Shay
Post date October 18, 2014
1 Comment on An Unexpected Walk in Poland

This morning Bethany had plans to be at a baby shower for our friends John and Erin. Their son, Shade, was born about three months ago and some of the missionary women around here decided to through Erin a little shower and bless her. Bethany made a couple breakfast quiche dishes and off she went around 10:30am. I didn’t have any serious plans with the kids until I got a text from Casey who’s house the shower was at, “Hey, what are you doing today? I have to leave my house for 3 hours…do you want to go to the park?” Casey has two boys who are friends with our kids (all of them shown above) so I said, “Sure, let’s meet at 11.”

The park was a bit soggy from rain last night but the kids were having fun. Casey and I were just talking and hanging until he said, “Hey, have you been over to the castle?” “Nope,” I replied, “How far is it?” Casey said we could practically throw a rock to it and said we would really like it. As soon as I told the kids we were going to a castle Avery got really excited and said, “A castle?! Princesses live in castles!” With that kind of excitement we had to go so off we went.

We’ve said before we live on a border town of Czech and Poland–literally on the border. When we left the park we crossed the river and went right into Poland where the castle is. I guess it’s like a castle ruins of sorts with lots of cool structures in a beautiful park-like environment. It was built in the 13th century! It’s all free to walk around in and explore, and apparently you can go to the top of one of the castle towers but it costs so we didn’t do it today. Everything was majestic because of all the leaves on the ground and the kids were having fun dropping leaves in to this huge, I mean huge, dungeon like whole thing. I don’t how to describe it and I don’t have a photo, but when I read the plaque they said it was for prisoners. Let me just tell you…you would not want to be a prisoner in that thing.

Here’s a few photos of the leaves and the one remaining castle tower (of the original 4):

After the castle we decided to walk further into the town square. Our town is a lot like Kansas City in the states, a city that spans two states. In our case it’s two countries. On the Polish side it really feels like Europe. Small streets, little sidewalks, cobblestone, and just a little more charm. Don’t get me wrong, the Czech side is great, but it feels a lot different on the other side of the river. Casey knew of a little place to get food that was kid-friendly so we grabbed lunch right on the town square. Everyone was pretty hungry from all the fun. Here are the kids chomping away.

This is a shot of the town square (below). The kids enjoyed chasing the pigeons around and making noises at them. I’m never sure how we look to the nationals, but I guarantee our kids are the loudest ones around.

Even though we had a great time, there was a lot of walking so by the time we started to head home the kid’s energy was starting to fade. Below is a photo of us heading back towards our house on the Polish side. Shortly after this photo we were walking down some stairs and Avery stepped in doggy doo-doo…and it wasn’t a small amount. I was helping her get it off but she was wearing her Crocs which just spread the mess inside her shoe. A nice Polish lady saw my trying to scrape it all off and offered me her little bag of tissues–it as really kind of her. After a few minutes I got it figured out but Avery was not happy about her foot having doo-doo on it and was sad about it most of the walk home. I was proud of her though because despite all the walking she didn’t really want me to hold her and did it all on her own. When we got home I gave her a bath just to make sure we got her all clean!

Start to finish we were gone for about two and a half hours. We got home around the same time Bethany was getting back from the baby shower. Our kids took a nice long nap this afternoon, but I’m glad we got them outside and the weather was nice enough to walk around. I’m super thankful for Casey showing us around Poland and I’m excited to take Bethany over there at some point. I really don’t have any excuse when we can just walk there!

Tags castle, Europe, kids, Poland, walk

365 Czech Republic

Titus Didn’t Start School But Made Himself a Sandwich

Post author By Shay
Post date October 13, 2014
1 Comment on Titus Didn’t Start School But Made Himself a Sandwich

Today was supposed to be the day Titus was going to start preschool. I had hesitated to write about it because I really didn’t want to get my hopes up about it and I had a feeling something would go awry. As suspected we got a phone call a few days ago telling us that the preschool would be taking a field trip today and we would need to have a Czech/English speaker come with Titus. We discussed it, made a few phone calls to see anyone could do that for us, and finally decided we would just wait until Wednesday (10/15) to start him. With everyone not feeling well it just made sense to wait and see if Titus’ cough goes away and hope we can take him on Wednesday. Honestly, I’m trying hard not to be anxious about it because I know this will be a big change for our family. But I also know it’s part of life, and definitely a great tool that God will use to get us in to the community and getting Titus learning the language. I guess we’ll see how it goes on Wednesday.

Above is a photo Bethany sent me today of Titus making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He’s probably seen his mommy make them a thousand times and lately he’s been helping her and today he said, “I can do it myself, mommy.” Bethany said he needed a little help, but that he did a really good job on his own. Watching him grow is such a blessing, but it’s also hard (as I’m sure many parents know). You just want them to stay small. I know it’s the Lord’s plan and growth is part of life, but that doesn’t mean he has to make his own sandwich!

Here’s another photo (below) that Titus said he wanted to send to me. When I showed it to him later on my phone, he said, “That’s the cross.” Thanks for reminding me of the cross, son.

Our friend Tadek came over this evening and brought us our new winter tires for our car. They weren’t cheap, but its’ a Czech law to have those kinds of tires on your car by November 1. Tadek, who originally help us buy our car, is such a great resource and help to us–I don’t know what I would’ve done without him. So now I’ve got a stack of tires in the car that I’ll have put on in a few weeks. Before he came over I played with the kids outside and got this photo of Avery. This kid is seriously gonna break some hearts…unintentionally, of course.

Tonight Bethany had a ladies hangout at our friend’s house. Normally they would do a Bible study, but the leader is gone right now so they decided just to hang and watch a movie. I’m glad she got to get out of the house and enjoy some fellowship. I had a good time with the kids just finishing up dinner and cleaning the house. They both went to bed very easy tonight so I assume we tuckered them out today. Avery cried just a little bit for mommy so I laid her in our bed and she went right to sleep. And speaking of sleep…it’s about that time for me too.

Tags kids, preschool, sandwich, tires

365 Czech Republic

Fall Conference: Day 1

Today was the start of the Josiah Venture fall conference, which is what my team and I have been preparing for for a few months now. Tonight, at 7pm, we had our first session complete with an introduction to the theme, a time of worship, and even a few games. After the session, all the attendees met in their assigned small groups for some discussion.

It was an exciting night with tons of energy with people from a lot of different countries. For me, it was my first time experiencing all of the leaders from Josiah Venture and their teams. Josh Patty, the country leader in Slovenia, led tonight’s session on why we’re naming the conference “Re-Jesus” which is really just about going back and looking at how Christ did ministry and modeling our own ministry after his. Even though I couldn’t be in the big meeting tent for the entire talk, what I caught I thought was great and am excited for those who will be here this week.

These are long days during conference for me, and Bethany and the kids are back at home. I’m driving to and from the conference to be home at night with them. Bethany said the kids and her had a good day today and tonight they had popcorn on the couch and watched a movie together. Titus has been wanting to eat popcorn for a few days now, so I know he enjoyed that.

It’s late, so I’m cutting this blog short tonight, but wanted to say thank you for many who have prayed for us. My health is improving, but still not 100%. I’m hoping I will get better as the week goes on. It’s actually a blessing that I got sick last week and am recovering, than being full sick now while trying to help run a conference!

Tags conference, Josiah Venture, kids, popcorn

365 Czech Republic

Working From Home

We had a pretty normal day today, with the exception that I worked from home today for about half the day. My team is working on a 150 page training manual for young leaders that will be launched in a few weeks at our fall conference. Our short-term intern and editor, Amy, and I had to work through a lot of edits and instead of heading to the office we worked at our apartment. Titus kept coming to my desk telling me about his drawings on the magnetic drawing pad we have. The first one was “of you, dad!” and I think even got my hair right. This is probably the best person drawing we have seen him do.

While I was making edits on my computer I could hear Avery giggling over at her little table. Bethany was painting the bottom of Avery’s toes. A friend on our Facebook had posted about a little craft where you make a leaf etching, paint the kids toes, and make little caterpillars. Below you’ll find photos of both the kids giggling away and the final result.

I’m a little tired tonight as today was pretty full at the JV offices. There is a ton of ministry items to prepare for, especially with the upcoming conference. I have to constantly remind myself that the little things we might be working on day to day are a big part of what we do as a ministry and will eventually have, Lord willing, a great impact on the leaders and missionaries in many countries. I guess we’ll just rest in October!

Tags crafts, fun, home, kids

365 Czech Republic

The Zoo Part Two

Bethany and the kids hit the zoo today for the second time since we got here. Last time (aka: Zoo Part One) we went it was really fun, but also really hot. But today they had great weather and since we have annual passes it’s just really the cost to drive and park. The family dropped me off at the J.V. offices and half way there we realized we forgot the stroller. Thankfully our friends John and Erin let us borrow there’s for the day so that was a huge blessing.

In lieu of a normal blog with the full story, we’re just going to post the photos from today’s adventure to the zoo, part two (some descriptions are below the photos):

Go baby elephant, go!

If you look closely at the above photo you’ll realize just how close our kids are to the lions.

And this (above) is a shot that Titus got of the lion as he was walking away.

I love that Bethany took photos the pretty things the zoo has.

Remember these? You put the coin in and watch going round and round. So fun.

Avery loves the flamingos! She kept telling me that she was going to show Titus how to stand like one.

The kids zonked out on the drive home. Great day and I’m glad the family had so much fun!

Tags animals, family, kids, zoo

365 Czech Republic

A Haircut and Titus Starting Preschool

Post author By Shay
Post date August 26, 2014
1 Comment on A Haircut and Titus Starting Preschool

As I was getting my first Czech haircut this morning, I got a call from my friend Kristin. She told me that the preschool Titus was on the waiting list for had a spot open up for him (6 days before school starts!) and I needed to go pick up the application at the school and make a doctor appointment for Titus so he could be cleared to attend school. I felt a mixture of both excitement and panic! I finished my haircut, had lunch and called Kristin again to make a game plan for how I was going to ask for the application in Czech. By God’s providence, Kristin’s Czech friend, Miša, was at their house and offered to come right over to go with us to the school to help translate. The Lord’s provision is so specific and timely! It had been raining all morning so as soon as I could get the kids and I our boots, jackets and the umbrella, Kristin and Miša were here and we started walking.

The preschool is just around the corner from us and maybe takes 5 minutes walking with little legs. In the winter, Kristin said she took her boys to this same school on a sled because there are never any snow days. We got to the school and Titus went right to the outdoor play equipment and as we walked inside Titus and Avery headed for the all the toys. Later, his teacher explained to me through Miša that even on cold, rainy days the kids will play outside so she wanted me to make sure and have Titus bring extra clothes and a pair of shoes that will get muddy and wet. When they come inside they change, put on “house shoes” and keep the classrooms nice and toasty. Miša interpreted while Titus’ sweet teacher explained the application process and asked a few questions about Titus like, “Is he very active? A little energy or a lot?” I laughed and said, “Yes and a LOT!”

You can be praying for Titus that he would be putting into practice at school what we’re trying to teach him at home like self control and kindness towards others, even when we’re not around to train these things. We’re starting with maybe 2-3 days per week from morning until after lunch because I want that critical time with him and I at home and hope his being in school will help me see with new eyes areas we need to focus on with him. You can be praying that we would be faithful in our instruction and discipline of Titus and Avery as we’ve already seen areas they (and us!) need to grow in.

This is the view from the second story window of the preschool.

We walked home and Miša offered to come over and help me fill out the application form since it was all in Czech. Kristin made an appointment for us with their pediatrician and will come with us tomorrow morning to help translate as well. We have met so many sweet and helpful people here; we’re so thankful!

Tags haircut, kids, preschool