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365 Czech Republic

An Early Birthday and the Trinity

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus got to celebrate his birthday a little early today. Technically he doesn’t turn five until next Friday (the 24th), but since Papa and Nana sent him a package in the mail yesterday, we asked them if he could open it today with them watching via Skype. So with everyone gathered on or around the couch (and Papa and Nana watching via video), Titus dove in to his presents today with full throttle excitement. He ended up scoring (baseball pun intended) a pack of baseball cards, foam baseball bases for the yard, and some new Legos! He was pumped about all of them and here’s the photos of the “event.”

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

His baseball cards had three Dodger players!

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

Titus Open His Birthday Present from Papa and Nana (4/18/15)

We let Titus stay up late tonight and build his new Lego airplane. Why was he up late, you ask? Keep reading!

I Taught Youth Group Tonight (4/18/15)

Tonight I had the opportunity to teach on the doctrine of the Trinity at our church’s youth group. There were about twenty-five students tonight and I had the help of one of the girls who translated for me. This actually proved to be much more difficult for me than I originally thought. It’s really hard to keep any kind of cadence to your speech when you have to stop after each phrase for translation. I never really felt like I found a rhythm, but I’m hopeful that the things I was able to teach were communicated clearly. I told Bethany afterward that I thought it was really difficult and I struggled to communicate what I wanted. Not only is the Trinity full of words that we rarely use in English (e.g. “Godness”), but I just never felt like I could expand on what I was saying because of how long it was taking to translate. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it for what it was and I was able to have some good conversations with some of the guys after regarding the Trinity. I have been very blessed this week to have been thinking on this wonderful doctrine and my study was worth it, even if it was to answer some of those questions.

Lastly, I will just mention that it tried very hard to snow today. I did see a few flakes here and there as the weather took a dramatic change from the beautiful spring air we had earlier this week. Titus and I played outside for a bit, but it was honestly too cold (mid 30s!) to stay out there very long. I guess we’ll just keep our jackets out of storage a little longer.

That’s all for today. Dobrou noc!

Categories
365 Czech Republic

Teaching Fun

Teaching Fun (1/29/15)

I woke up this morning and heard Avery in her room talking. I have no idea how long she had been awake before I got up. When I walked in I found here like this (photo above). She immediately told me, “Daddy, we’re having a party.” For past few days we have noticed Avery doing a lot more playing like this where she sets up a scene or tells you a story about what she’s doing. It’s been fun to see her begin to change and I just wanted to write down this small, but sweet memory.

Teaching Fun (1/29/15)

Today was kind of a special day as I had the opportunity to teach a class with my team at an event called “The Academy” (photo my class is above). Young men and women from around Europe are gathered this week at this event which is led by another team of ours at Josiah Venture. I was asked if my team would teach a workshop on design and I thought it was a great idea. We started today with some basic info, but we had about 10 people in our class, and about half as many countries represented including Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia. These young people mostly serve in their churches and countries and are just looking for practical skills to help them. Other classes included video, music skills, and even productivity classes. All of it was part of a larger event where theme is “team work.” I’ll be teaching tomorrow and Saturday morning and am already having a ton of fun!

One amazing thing about today was the view we had from our classroom. We were meeting in the library of our training center and the view from where I was teaching is shown in the photo below. At one point it was snowing and I was distracted by just the beauty of God’s creation around us. What a blessing!

Teaching Fun (1/29/15)

Teaching Fun (1/29/15)

Lastly, Bethany had the special opportunity to get away from the house tonight and go on a really fun date. Our friend Misa offered to stay with the kids for the evening so we drove to the Ostrava mall (where we often go for dates) and had a great meal, coffee, and hanging out at the mall. These times are not super often just yet (still working on finding regular babysitting), so we cherish them when the do happen.

As we were leaving the mall we realized we didn’t know where we had parked our car. Unless you are really paying attention when you walk in, it is easy to forget! We must have looked really confused because a really nice Czech man said to us in English, “Do you need some help?” We told him we forget where we parked our car and he said, “Oh, this happens even to me!” He recognized us as Americans and we began to chat with him and found out he has been to the States a few times on business and that his house in Czech is not far from where we live. We told him we were missionaries and he told us about his businesses and family. It was actually a sweet exchange, and he was really, really nice. I’m constantly blown away by Czech because this is so strange that he would even approach us this way. If you think of it, pray for him. His name is Marek and he has three kids. Our exchange was short, but it would be really neat to run into him again and talk more with him. Honestly, I feel like we missed a rare opportunity to share the gospel in English with him and I’m really sad about it. Mostly, I think I was surprised by the exchange and caught off guard. Lord willing, we will see Marek another time and get another opportunity!