Category: Czech Republic

Every post I wrote while we lived overseas.

Dependence Day

Post author By Shay
Post date July 4, 2014
1 Comment on Dependence Day

This is the first time in my life I’ve been out of the United States on one of the most American holidays that exists: Independence Day. I find it simply ironic that not only am I not in America today, but we spent our morning trying to get paperwork together which will allow us to live and work outside of the States. That’s why I have titled this blog “Dependence Day.” Because had it not been for our friend Jitka (pronounced Yeetka), we wouldn’t have gotten done today what we did. Right now we are very dependent on the help of translators and the Lord to get everything in place for our visa appointment next week.

Today we had one goal: get visa photos taken of the entire family. Since we live in a good size town everything we need is right in the town square, including a visa photo place (photo above). Oh, don’t let the gun-yielding, Inspector-Gadget-looking guy on the sign fool you. This place has the goods! In fact, I laughed when we went inside because literally the right half of the store is guns and knives (think hunting shop) and the left half is novelty photo gifts, photo development, and yes, a photo booth. I guess the only relationship between cameras and guns is that both are things that shoot–makes sense!

We had to walk to the back of the store where the vintage cameras were (think awesome) and where the little photo booth was. The man that took our photos (shown below) was very kind and patient, especially to our kids that clearly can’t speak Czech and don’t want to sit super still for 4 photos. Considering everything the kids did really well. Titus would puff his cheeks when we told him not to smile and Avery cried for the first part of it, but in the end we all got our Jason Bourne style photos done and we were on our way.

Should you normally give your kids ice cream cones at 10am? No. Do you offer it to them as a reward for not crying and sitting still to get 4 visa photos taken in a foreign country? Yes! Ice cream for everyone!

The last order of business today was to get some some papers notarized. Again, everything you need is in the town square so we just walked on over to the town hall (literally across the main square from the camera/gun place. In fact, we never used a car once today! The lady that helped us was very nice as well and we got our rental contract notarized (x4!) and away we went.

Even on Independence Day we’re all dependent. I’m thankful the Lord gave us Jitka to depend on today to help us get a lot of very important documents in order. And I’m thankful that we’re dependent on the Lord each and every day, no matter what the task or goal!

We’ll miss celebrating and watching fireworks tonight, that’s for sure. I have fond memories of enjoying fireworks on July 4th as a kid and I know that my kids won’t have that same experience. I guess that’s something I have to depend on the Lord for as well…new memories and new fun. He’ll provide the grace for that too.

Happy Independence Day, America. We hope you have a great night celebrating together! Now go crush the guts out of a baseball for us.

Tags Cesky Tesin, errands, notary

365 Czech Republic

Containers and Visas and Paperwork! Oh My!

Post author By Shay
Post date July 3, 2014
1 Comment on Containers and Visas and Paperwork! Oh My!

Let’s be honest: not every day is fun and games and trips to Poland. Sometimes you gotta have an admin day. You know the days I’m talking about. Pay the bills. Run some errands. Or like us, wake up in a panic because your kids accidentally read your email on the iPad and you missed an email dated 2 days ago from the container company telling you to send a pile of a paperwork or they’ll start charging you a small fortune to store your stuff at the port! You know, one of those kind of days.

Honestly, it was a stressful morning trying to pull together a ton of documents from powers of attorney to foreign police documentation to get our container released at the port in Germany. The last thing we wanted was to be charged a daily rate for storage at the port. By God’s grace, we have lots of support here with Josiah Venture and everyone is chipping to help. If I’ve understood the emails correctly, I believe we have everything in place and paid for to clear customs this week and maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a date of arrival for our container in Czech!

Along with our container paperwork, I spent a lot of time today working through the documents we’ll need next week at the embassy. Our long-term visa appointment is at 9am on Tuesday (July 8). Obviously, when you’re applying for a 2 year visa there’s a lot that goes into setting that up. With that, I took my first trip into the Josiah Venture offices (pictured above). This is a place that I’ll be spending a lot of time with the communications team, but I just really needed a printer and scanner today to get everything in order. We’ll be getting our visa photos tomorrow with a Czech girl who is helping us so I’m sure that’ll be a fun little outing.

This photo (above) is of a little brick archway/window next to the Josiah Venture offices. I just thought it looked cool so I grabbed a shot of it.

Today marked a bit of a milestone for the kids. Both Titus and Avery woke up around 5am (still too early, but much better than 1-3am), took normal naps, and even woke up from their naps on their own! This might seem trivial, but it’s been a challenge to get our kids on a normal schedule with such bad jet lag. We have had to wake them up so they don’t sleep too much during the day. In general the kids have been happier today and that’s why I wanted to post a photo of Avery playing with her lunch. She loves her chicken hot dogs and now she has found it entertaining to put the pieces on her fingers. It’s a joy for all of us to begin to adjust back to some kind of normal sleep pattern. We’re praising God for these little victories we get, even when it’s just an admin day.

Tags Frydlant, office, paperwork, visas

365

To Poland We Go

One of the joys of living in a border town is that you can cross the border and head into Poland! You would think you’d have to go through some kind of border guard, but there are actually wide open borders here and you can drive in like you’re crossing a state line in America. Today we had the pleasure of visiting our friends the Carlsons and kind of unexpectedly spending the entire day with them. It’s pretty great when you have friends that live in another country but are only a 20 minute drive from you! As a double blessing we got to spend time with two of our other teammates, Daniel Reimer and Jacob Hash. Those guys are currently traveling around all of Eastern Europe working on video stuff and I’m excited to see what kind of footage they get when they’re all done.

Heidi and Greg (Carlson) were so hospitable and we’re super thankful for their kindness to us. We basically called them last minute and said, “Hey, we wanna come to Poland today! Are you around?!” Thankfully they didn’t turn us away, but were even kind enough to cook us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was especially excited about breakfast because we had pancakes. There’s just something about pancakes that screams “home” and Greg knew we would enjoy a little taste of home.

It rained a good amount today. We’ve been surprised about just how much rain they get here, even in summer. We were even told that the area where we live gets more rain than Portland, Oregon which just seems weird. Right now the change in weather is really great, but I do wonder how we’ll feel about it in the future.

I don’t have a photo of it, but we had our first team “meeting” today with all of the Josiah Venture Communications Team staff. I’m putting “meeting” in quotes because it was a video conference with the entire team. There are still a lot of staff out of the country right now and one day we’ll all be in the same office together. It’s exciting to begin to think about some of our upcoming projects and see how the Lord will use those things to change lives!

I couldn’t help but post this photo (below). During the afternoon Bethany and Avery fell asleep on the recliner and Titus was playing games on Bethany’s iPhone. Our sleep schedules have just been all over the place and I know I haven’t slept past 4am since we arrived. Nevertheless, we’re thankful to the Lord for a fun day in Poland and a great time with brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are serving alongside some incredible people and it’s a pleasure to join this work with them.

Tags Carlsons, friends, Poland

365 Czech Republic

You’ve Got Mail

Yesterday when we visited our landlord she gave us a piece of paper and we were told we had some mail already waiting for us at the post office. Why did the mail go the post office and not to our apartment? I have no idea. But out of sheer curiosity we went to see what might be waiting for us.

We were instructed by our friends to go in, find the shortest line, give them our piece of paper and then say “Ya Ne Mluvim Cesky…Promotz Mi” or “I don’t speak Czech…help me.” So that’s exactly what I did. Actually, I added the word “Prosim” which means, “please.” The lady laughed and said something to me in Czech which I assume was along the lines of “you’re speaking Czech now, aren’t you?” She motioned to Bethany and I asking who’s name was on the paper and it was Bethany’s. Then she stood up, walked away for a bit, and came back with a letter. She asked for Bethany’s passport which we gave and after a minute we were on our way. Who was it from, you ask? It was the shipping company confirming that our container would be arriving in Germany tomorrow (July 2). I’ve been working with a local customs agent here and we’re hoping to have our container within a week!

After our mail time fun we walked over to one of the local playgrounds since the weather was so nice. Somewhere along the line someone told us that if the sun is out the Czcehs are out and that was definitely true this morning. The park was full of families with kids playing. Bethany observed that there’s just something universal about the way moms talk to their kids. Although the moms were speaking Czech, we knew they were saying things like “Be careful!” and “Good job, you did it!” to their kids. Bethany also said she looks forward to being able to communicate with the other moms some day at the park. I hope she gets that opportunity someday too.

We had homemade pizza for dinner tonight! Considering everything that’s quite an accomplishment and Bethany is a pro at the grocery store now. It was unspoken, but I think the pizza was our way of celebrating our first full week living in Český Těšín. It’s been a great week and we’re thankful to the Lord for His provision and care for us during this transition.

Tags Czech Republic, mail, park, post office

365 Czech Republic

Meeting Our Landlord and Seeing Our Apartment

Post author By Shay
Post date June 30, 2014
1 Comment on Meeting Our Landlord and Seeing Our Apartment

For the first time since we arrived in Czech we got to go inside of our new apartment. We have been staying in a another missionary’s place temporarily as we wait for our shipping container to arrive, but today we actually got the keys to go and see where we’ll be living for at least two years.

We had a meeting with the landlord around noon and she doesn’t speak English so our friend Mel drove over to help us communicate and make sure all the paperwork was in order. It’s a great place that we think should work well for us. I hope to post photos as soon we get the time to shoot them. After our walkthrough, Mel, myself, and our landlord drove to the electric company to transfer the power into our name–I didn’t even know that was on the agenda. Sadly, because we don’t have visas yet, the electric company said they couldn’t process the request yet and we’ll have to go back. Hopefully we’ll get our visa approvals soon so there won’t be any issues in the future.

Helena (our landlord) is actually a very sweet lady. She brought little chocolate wafers for our kids and even offered to upgrade us to a larger garage on the property for about $10/mo more which we did. This was a blessing from the Lord as we really do need the extra space for storage and it looks like we should have plenty of room now. Before we arrived she had already added our name to the call box outside the gate (shown in the photo above) and in general she was just really kind to us. We look forward to getting to know her more, even though it will be a challenge with the language barrier.

It basically rained all day today. For us southern Californians it’s a nice change. Titus really wanted to go to the park, but it was just too wet to make that happen so we let the kids jump in puddles and play on the sidewalk as we walked to and from our new apartment. Rain is very common in this area so I’m starting to wonder how we’re going to get creative with things to do for the kids when it’s too wet to go outside.

Tomorrow we have the exciting task of going to get our mail at the post office. Apparently some things came in already and so we got a slip from our landlord telling us to go and pick it up. According to our friend Mel this is, “one of those cultural experiences you just need to have.” He was laughing when he said that and it sounded more sinister than sincere. I guess we’ll take it one day at a time…what else can you do?

Tags apartment, landlord, rain

365 Christianity Czech Republic

Our First Sunday at Church

Today we had the pleasure of worshipping at the church we will be part of here in Czech. The church was actually significantly larger than we had originally expected. In fact, we were told it’s the 3rd largest church in Czech with about 250 people. For the most part, the worship service ran very similar to what we might experience in the States, and we were super encouraged by the music and teaching of God’s Word. Obviously, everything was in another language, but our friends Mel and Amy were helping translate for us to keep us in the flow of the service. It’s especially sweet to hear Czechs sing in their native language and it’s actually a really helpful tool for language learning as it slows down the words and you can clearly hear the annunciation.

We sat upstairs because we were a little worried about our kids disrupting the service. There was no Sunday school this morning because many of the moms and kids were gone at a camp so we had the kids with us during the entire service. Avery was especially tired this morning as she was up really early, so we were trying not to be a distraction. At one point the pastor called our family to the stage and Amy introduced us to the entire church. It was fun to stand up there and see people smiling. I wish I could’ve taken a photo. The pastor shared a few encouraging words to us while we were up there which Amy translated into English. He was so gracious and kind and Bethany and I thought we were going to cry.

In the photo below the pastor was actually talking directly to the couple you see in the front row. This was a baby dedication and they are holding little Daniel. One of the things that struck me was that the pastor was sharing with them how they are raising their son in a very dark and evil world, but that they need to be an example to him and show him Christ on a regular basis. He emphasized teaching and being an example and that both had to be at work in their parenting. It was fun to watch the pastor care for this young couple and he had the congregation stand and had the couple pray. What a blessing to participate in that.

The sermon this morning was around the book of Daniel in honor of the baby’s name who was dedicated. The emphasis was on the character of Daniel and how he served the Lord faithfully. One quote that I thought was interesting was that the pastor said, “The Bible says nothing bad about Daniel, even though Jesus was the only one who lived a perfect life.” He charged the congregation to live like Daniel in this wicked world and serve the Lord faithfully. Who doesn’t need to be reminded of that?

After church we drove to our other teammate’s house, John and Erin Kloosterhuis. Even though Erin is basically full-term with their first child, she was kind enough to cook us a great meal and have us over for the afternoon. John and Erin serve on the Creative Communications team with us and they are a joy to be around. Thank you, John and Erin, for your hospitality and for sharing a meal with us. We’re praying that baby comes soon!

As I close my day here in Czech all I can think about right now is worship. I don’t just mean the act of singing songs, though that’s definitely part of it, but just the idea that we are all created as worshipers and will by our nature seek to worship something. The Bible teaches that we were created to worship the one true God, but so often we don’t and we worship our own idols and false gods who will never satisfy. Oh sure, I may never worship a literal golden calf, but I’ll bow down to the god of comfort in a heartbeat.

All of that to say my heart needed to sing with my brothers and sisters this morning the simple chorus to the song Here I Am To Worship. “Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that You’re my God. You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.” That may be a simple truth, but it’s a great reminder that we exist to worship a worthy and wonderful God.

Here’s a little video of the chorus from this morning’s worship service.

Tags church, Czech Republic, worship

365 Czech Republic

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Post author By Shay
Post date June 28, 2014
1 Comment on Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Benjamin Franklin said, “Early to bed and early to rise makes and man healthy, wealthy and wise.” But I don’t think our man Ben meant rising at 1:30am because our family tried that today and it really doesn’t feel healthy, and I definitely don’t feel wise. We did, however, find it a great time to get some email done and do a little more grocery shopping!

We literally went to the grocery store at 6am today, right when they opened. Since we had breakfast around 3:30am, we had plenty of time in the morning to get ready and leave the house. Sadly, because of our early day, the kids weren’t as cheery about it as we were and they were starting to get tired by the time we got there. Bethany knew we at least needed some lunch food and so we prepared ourselves to just buy one meal and leave, so that’s just what we did.

Our afternoon was quite uneventful. We put the kids down for a nap around 8am and Bethany and I were working on communicating with our shipping container company and even finishing up some last minute details that we didn’t do before leaving the States (like canceling our U.S. cell phones). Bethany got a little laundry done, but there is no dryer here so she put out the washed clothes on a drying rack (below) and set it near a sunny window. Don’t worry, we’re just airing out our clean laundry, not our dirty laundry. Dad joke.

Tonight was really the highlight. Our friends Mel and Amy Ellenwood who have been actively helping us during the transition invited us over for dinner. It was a great meal complete with red quinoa, noodles with balsamic vinegar and veggies, bratwursts, amazing pork chops, and chicken hot dogs for the kids! The Ellenwoods even have a nice garden in their backyard where the kids got to pick and eat fresh raspberries off the vine. It truly was a fun night and we’re so thankful to have other missionaries near by to help and support us and occasionally throw in a pork chop!

I’ve driven in Los Angeles enough to know that you need to read the signs. Sometimes you can’t park on one side of the street on the 3rd Thursday of every month, other times you can only park between 1-2pm, and just this week I read about a “1 Minute Parking” sign on an L.A. street. Needless to say I know I’m supposed to read the signs. But what if the sign is in Czech and it lists numerous times and days!? I stared at the sign below for a while before finally deciding we were fine to park there on Saturday night after 13:00 (aka 1pm). Was I sure? Nope. Is that just life right now? Yup. Now back to bed!

Tags dinner, raspberries, sign

365 Czech Republic

Jet Lag, Courage, and Ice Cream

Post author By Shay
Post date June 27, 2014
1 Comment on Jet Lag, Courage, and Ice Cream

You would think that on our fourth full day in Czech we would be over our jet lag, but today may have been the worst yet. We’ve heard it takes about a day per hour of time change to adjust, so for us that would mean it would take us nine days to be fully adjusted to our new time zone. Sing it with us, “Whooaaooohhhh, we’re half-way there!” Our “nap” this afternoon accidentally turned into a five hour sleep session so we’re definitely still struggling.

Since we were all awake by 4:00am this morning we had breakfast at 5:00 and then went for a walk around 6:30. The weather was wonderful today. All the clouds cleared for the first time since we’ve arrived and we had a brilliant sunny day. On our walk we passed by what appears to be the town square with a water fountain in the center. There were lots of little cart stand owners starting to setup their shops, and we saw they had many different items for sale from wooden trinkets to roasted nuts.

Walking through town is like being on a movie set–everything just doesn’t seem to be real. Everywhere you look there are fresh flowers, like on the street lights (above), and we joked that the only place we’ve really seen those is on Main Street in Disneyland.

Our walk this morning took us to a park along a river which doubles as the border between Czech Republic and Poland. Since it was early, there were a lot of people walking their dogs. It’s really fascinating to hear people talking to their dogs in another language. The park is very nice and we even found a play area for kids which Titus and Avery loved.

I’m realizing it does take a little courage to go outside and try something new. Bethany asked me to go to the store before dinner for some bread and milk and I definitely hesitated. You just fear you’ll be stuck in line, unable to speak Czech and come home with nothing. But I’m so glad I finally did it! Going to the store is a language learning opportunity and now I’m sure I’ll never forget the number four because that’s how many pieces of bread I had and the lady at the check out counter kept saying it to me!

After dinner we ventured down to the street to get some ice cream. We can see the ice cream shop from the window of where we’re staying and we figured even if it was hard to communicate it be worth the effort. Avery was able to get a strawberry sugar cone and Titus a lemon/vanilla cone. The girl at the ice cream place realized we spoke English and she spoke a little herself so she was able to tell us what each thing was. The kids thought it was great fun which is always a joy for us.

Although it was a somewhat uneventful day, the smallest things are big events. I know we’re tired and jet lagged, but our world has been flipped around for sure. Some things are familiar and other things are just simply foreign. That might sound simplistic, and maybe it is, but even the simplest things can be a challenge. I’m thankful for the time we have right now to just adjust and take the posture of learners.

Tags Cesky Tesin, walk

365 Czech Republic

From Sour Milk to a Spaghetti Meal

Post author By Shay
Post date June 26, 2014
4 Comments on From Sour Milk to a Spaghetti Meal

Bethany and I were pretty proud of ourselves. We went to the grocery store all by ourselves, I picked out a little thing of milk, and Bethany got the correct amount of Czech crowns (money), we paid for it and left. Both of us were even talking about it after we got back to the flat we’re staying in. “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be!” I said proudly. “Yeah!” Bethany agreed. Then she took a drink.

In my defense it was clearly marked “mléko”, or milk. What I didn’t know was this was some kind of “special” milk that Czechs enjoy to be healthy. After Googling it for a minute, I think it’s some kind of fermented milk…I don’t know! Unfortunately for Bethany, she was the first to try and as fast as she drank it was as fast as it came flying back out and into the sink. And there it was…our first trip to the store as a family for one item, and we failed. The moral of the story, you ask? Look for milk that is marked “čerstvý” or fresh.

Thankfully, it didn’t ruin our day. We did spend some time this morning walking around our new town and just trying to get a feel for our new city. We are currently staying in a friend’s flat and as soon as our container arrives we’ll be able to move into our flat which is just down the road. It’s a great little city here. Everything is basically in walking distance and it’s just a nice place.

The above house is where we (think?) our new flat is. We’ll be living in the bottom floor. You’ll notice a large catholic church in the background. While we were walking around the bells from the clock tower rang out. I wonder if they do that during the middle of the night?

After our walk we all took a really long nap. The funny thing is it was 10:00am at that point and we had all been awake since 4:30am. Mel and Amy Ellenwood, who have been in Czech for twenty years, came by our place around noon to welcome us and help us get settled. Amy took Bethany over to a local pre-school to try and register Titus. Unfortunately there are no spots available yet, but they are aware of our family and they said the next open spot will be for Titus. Later, Amy took Bethany shopping for groceries and Mel helped get our phones working here, as well as helped me navigate the arrival of our shipping container. They are a precious couple and we’re so thankful for their help today and for answering all of our questions. These early days are not easy, especially with jet lag and little ones, but we are thankful that God provides friends and resources like the Ellenwoods to help keep our heads above water.

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Finally, because of her time with Amy at the store, Bethany was able to make a great meal which we all really enjoyed. She even expressed to me at dinner that she was really encouraged by all the familiar brands and different types of foods that are available which we weren’t originally sure we would see. We sat down for our first home cooked meal and it was a delicious spaghetti with meat sauce and side salad. Thank you, wife, for your courage at the store today and for a delicious meal!

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Tags Czech Republic, meal, milk

365 Czech Republic

Driving East and Foreign Police

Post author By Shay
Post date June 25, 2014
1 Comment on Driving East and Foreign Police

Today was our first full day in Czech. Last night we planned to stay in a hotel near the airport because of our late arrival time. It was a great hotel, but unfortunately we didn’t do a lot of sleeping there. As a family we stayed up until around 2am because of our jet lag, but that didn’t last long and we all woke up around 5:30am. Since we were up we decided to make it to the hotel breakfast which started at 6:30 and then we went outside to jump in the rain puddles.

Our good friend Kara (also a missionary in Czech) came to Prague and picked us up in a borrowed van. We packed that thing to the ceiling with all of our stuff and started heading eastward toward Český Těšín (pronounced Chesky Tesheen) where we’ll be living. We had to make it to the “Foreign Police” by 5pm in order to register ourselves in the country so we can begin our visa application process. Honestly, I was really tired while we were there, so thankfully Kara helped us and spoke Czech to the officer and got our paperwork squared away. I believe we have everything in place to get our application for visas rolling.

2014-06-25 16.10.36

Finally, around 5:30pm we made it to where we’ll be staying for a few weeks. Another missionary (her name is Rachael) is graciously loaning us her flat in Český Těšín while she is away because are waiting for our container to arrive in the country in the next few weeks. We have great accommodations here and it’s fun to see the little town that will also be our home. Bethany and Kara went to the grocery store tonight to get some food for us and the brought home some kind of flat bread gyro sandwich thing that was really yummy for dinner.

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No we’re super tired…I mean, really tired. Bethany is laying on the couch and we’re hoping to put the kids down for bed and see how long they and we will sleep tonight. Thank you for your continued prayers for us during this first week of transition. It was a really great day to catch up with Kara and just enjoy the Czech countryside while we drove. Please pray for the coming days as we will be more on our own and continue to explore this new place.

Tags Czech Republic, travel