Tag: church

Church, Snow, and Goodbyes

Post author By Shay
Post date January 11, 2015
No Comments on Church, Snow, and Goodbyes

With the busy day yesterday it was hard to wake up this morning to get ready for church. But we were scheduled to share at West Side Church (one of our supporting churches) during both services, so I hit snooze a few times and finally pulled myself out of bed. We had also planned to say a quick goodbye to our friends Blaine and Kelsey from California who had flown in for the wedding. They were at the house around 7:45am and that’s when they told us it had started to snow. We spent a few minutes hanging out with them and said our goodbyes. It’ll most likely be at least another year and a half before we see them again.

The snow didn’t last long (it was too warm to stick), but it was coming down pretty good this morning. By the time we got to church it had subsided. During the second service I took the kids out to get them a snack and it starting snowing again. We walked outside and they were getting really excited so I took a little video (below).

We had another large meal for lunch today with Bethany’s family and the Harpels. It was kind of a time to say goodbye because Bethany’s sister is headed back today towards Seattle and we won’t see them again. There were a couple good football playoff games on so we all enjoyed watching those and even took some photos of Bonnie (Bethany’s sister) and of all our kids. Bonnie is due with their second child in a few weeks so her mother-in-law was hoping for a few shots of her baby bump. I think we got some nice ones of her, but the kids were a much bigger challenge. After a few tries, the moms ended up joining the kids for the photo since we couldn’t get everyone to behave. In the end we got something that will work (I can’t show the photo on the blog because the family hasn’t seen it…sorry!).

For some reason, last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a really bad toothache. Unfortunately, it’s a tooth that was actually damaged when I was a little kid (hit in the face with a baseball), but I haven’t had any issues with it for many years now. Tomorrow we’re going to try and have it checked out at a local dentist in Yakima and hopefully get it resolved, but it’s been painful most of the day and not something I’m excited about dealing with the day before we leave. Lord willing, we can resolve and hopefully it won’t be a huge problem. Please pray for me if you think of it.

There’s other things that happened tonight, but nothing I really feel like writing about tonight. It’s going to be a busy day packing tomorrow and dental work, so I’ll just end this one here. But at dinner tonight I added a little bonus to the chalk walk at the restaurant. Maybe it’s just shameless self promotion (see below)?

Tags church, snow

365 Czech Republic

Blessed on a Sunday

Today we had the privilege to worship at one of our supporting churches, Harvest Community Church in Selah, Washington. It was a pretty special morning as we had time to share during the services, but more importantly, to hear from some of the people about how God has been working in their lives this past year. As a church they took some time today to have an open microphone where they could share and we heard incredible testimonies of God’s goodness. One testimony was from a lady who talked about how her brother who was born deaf was able to hear for the first time in his life at age 53 because of medical advances and a surgery he was able to get. Another was from a young man who talked about a friend of his who was contemplating suicide. By God’s grace, the friend called this young man and he was able to talk him out of it and he asked for prayer for his friend to come to Christ. That young man knows what his friend truly needs, a relationship with the One who can save his soul.

Along with the blessing of being at church, we had the chance to video chat with close friends of ours who live in California. Since we’re on the same time zone right now, it made connecting with them a lot easier. It was a sweet time just catching up and seeing each other’s kids. It meant so much just to spend time chatting about life, even though it was over video. I’m thankful for the friendships God has provided us and the technology to keep up with them, even if it’s from a distance.

I got the above photo tonight of Avery trying to get every last drop of her ice cream dessert out of her bowl. After she tried this for a few minutes she said to me, “Daddy, can you help me?” Somehow she wanted me to scrape more out of the bottom of the bowl for her. I did my best and she was happy. It was a cute moment.

We watched more home videos of Bethany and her family tonight and it was a lot of fun. Our kids love watching one in particular of Bethany when she was about 3 years old sledding in their front yard. I’m glad our kids get to see the footage of Bethany as a kid. But it’s also a reminder to me to make memories for our kids. As I watch Bethany’s family react and talk about what’s on the screen, I’m challenged to think about how I can lead my family and make sure we’re just enjoying life together. It’s so easy to get caught up in the work of ministry or even pursuing language learning that I can forget to take time for us to enjoy family and make memories. By God’s grace, we’ll make sweet memories together in the years ahead and one day we can look back and enjoy talking about them (or watching them!) together.

Tags church, Sunday

365 Czech Republic

Church, English, Mexican Food, and American Football

Post author By Shay
Post date December 28, 2014
No Comments on Church, English, Mexican Food, and American Football

For the first time in six months we attended church in English. I was struck by this reality mostly while we were signing this morning at West Side Church, the church that Bethany grew up in and where here family still serves. I think I’ve talked about this before, but there’s just something about singing worship music in your own language that ministers to your heart. I think that’s especially true for me since I have spent many years ministering in our church through the music ministry. Music is just a big part of my own, Christian heart as I’m sure is true for many others. No doubt it’s been important to Christians since the beginning of the church. I was especially blessed to sing “In Christ Alone” as the closing song today after listening to a message on God’s grace from Hebrews. I haven’t asked her about it, but I thought I saw tears coming down Bethany’s cheeks as we sang. Needless to say, we were blessed.

Although it’s not on the same level, we were also blessed today to do a little shopping at the grocery store. I say this because we secured two kinds of salsa and jalapeno chips! That kind of spice is not readily available in Czech and it was actually fun to have my nose running from all the spice I enjoyed lunch today!

This afternoon we have all taken naps and spent time watching the Seattle Seahawks play on TV. It’s funny to watch a live sports event since we don’t have this kind of television in Czech, and of course no American football. I’m not a huge football fan, but Bethany likes it, along with the rest of the state of Washington. As I write, the Seahawks have just won the game so I’m sure the good people of Washington are breathing a sigh of relief as they look for a postseason run.

Things continue to be restful here in the States which is nice. We’re happy to be spending time with family and just enjoying a little break from life overseas. I’m excited for what God has in store for us when we return, but we’ll enjoy the rest while it lasts.

Tags church, English, football, language

365 Czech Republic

I’m Sorry, I Don’t Speak Headlight

Post author By Shay
Post date November 30, 2014
No Comments on I’m Sorry, I Don’t Speak Headlight

We spent this morning at church in Titus and Avery’s class. We weren’t exactly sure why there wasn’t a class for Avery’s age today, but a lot of her class were combined with Titus’ class so we all ended up just staying together. They did a little activity (photo above) where they had to put gifts on their colored fabric. Tamara, today’s teacher, told us in English that they were supposed to give their gifts to another person in the class the same way God gave his gift to us, Jesus Christ. She followed that by saying, “But none of the kids want to do it.” I guess they’re all still learning how to give gifts.

Here’s a couple more photos from class today. The little gifts they chose from were wooden ornaments, plastic gold stars, and metal bells.

This afternoon I spent a good two hours trying to replace the driver’s side headlight on our car. Outside it was around 28 degrees, but my phone said “feels like 20” because there was a wind chill. I had purchased what I thought was the correct light bulb a few days ago and figured I would be able to quickly replace it. Our owner’s manual is all written in German, so it was no help, and I tried searching online and that didn’t help much either. After removing the entire headlight because I really couldn’t find another way to do it, I replaced the light, turned the lights on and…I had fixed the wrong one. Back to the store for another bulb and to try again.

Since I had already taken it apart once, getting to the light again was a cinch, but the lowbeam bulb was more challenging to replace. On our cars in the States, this process was always very simple and usually didn’t take a lot of time (and often I didn’t even need tools!). Today I had to remove about five different screws and the entire headlight. The cold was hurting my hands outside, so I brought everything inside where could let my fingers thaw out and try to see how to get the bulb replaced. It proved much more difficult than I thought and thankfully my dad head given me a metric star shaped screw driver which was a life saver today since I don’t have any of those kinds of tools. Finally, I got the lowbeam replaced and in, took it outside, and put it all back in place. Amazingly, it came right on and we have two working headlights again!

I really only share that story because it’s another example of what usually is simple is just harder here. Learning the stuff of life here is on the same level of difficulty as learning the language and apparently I don’t speak headlight. But with a little more work and some extra time I was able to get it fixed and get everything working again. Now maybe with a little more work and a little more time the lightbulb of the Czech language will turn on too!

Tags car, church, maintenance, Sunday

365 Czech Republic

Making Progress on Sundays

We’ve been sharing how hard Sundays have been for us the past few weeks. I’m happy to write tonight that today seemed like we made some progress, especially as it relates to Titus. It was just he and I at church this morning because Avery has had a horrible cough causing her to throw up in the middle of the night. Bethany stayed home with her today in hopes of not getting any other kids sick. I ended up staying again with Titus in his class, only this time I just tried to be more of a fly on the wall and observe him than be actively involved in the class. We are really trying to see how he does on his own, with just the teachers and kids talking to him in Czech.

By God’s grace, I really feel like Titus did a lot better at obeying and listening today. I know this is really hard for him, as it is for us parents in all of life here, but I’m excited to see him progressing and adjusting. I’m not sure if it helped, but all of his classmates today were girls and at one point they were dancing and playing with streamers. Honestly, I have no idea what was going on but I got the video below.

Sickness continues to plague us. Both Avery and I have had bad coughs for weeks now and I probably should’ve seen a doctor a while ago. This is definitely not something I want to last much longer. Tonight was the first night that Avery hasn’t had a bad coughing fit while trying to fall asleep, so we’re thankful for that. Unfortunately, Titus has been sneezing and coughing today which is a sure sign that he may be coming down with something. This has been a challenge for our family. Please pray with us for our health and for the proper care in the days ahead.

On a whim tonight we made an IKEA run. We were still in need of some storage items and so we took an evening drive and headed out there. For our kids, IKEA is not their favorite place because we spend a lot of time walking through it so I brought the iPad along to give them something to play with and I got the photo above of them holding hands and laughing at a little game that they thought was absolutely hilarious. It’s always a joy to see the kids loving each other and having fun.

Lastly, we had heard that IKEA sells Christmas trees a while ago. This is something I have been thinking about since we landed (not kidding). I’ve been curious as to how we would be buying a Christmas tree and if we could even get a real Christmas tree. As we were leaving IKEA tonight there was a sign right as you exited (photo above) advertising Christmas trees. Apparently they will be selling trees on December 3! For those of you who have followed our family over the years, you know we have a little tradition of shooting a Christmas tree video of us getting our tree (click here to see the last five years). We’re just getting excited about Christmas and it’s nice to have a little tradition that we can continue here in Czech!

Tags Christmas tree, church, IKEA, Sunday, Titus

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

Sunday Grab Bag

On my fifth birthday my mom brought my kindergarten class “grab bags.” They were brown paper bags filled with stuff from a little convenience story, maybe even a dollar store. I remember it being pretty fun to reach in and not know what was in there. Today was a bit like this. It was pretty normal Sunday, but it came with a few surprises.

This morning we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the church here Český Těšín and Dave Patty was asked to preach. Bethany didn’t feel great this morning and the kids still had coughs so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go or need to stay home and help. I ended up going, but I was a little late and got there while they were singing. Even though we don’t live far, I drove, but that proved to be a poor decision because with so many visitors it took me a while to find a place to park. The same was true when I got inside…no place to sit. It was absolutely packed inside! A nice man spoke to me in Czech, offering me a seat in the front row, but I really didn’t want to be a distraction on such a big day so I just stayed in the foyer area and listened through the speakers. Dave preached in Czech so just like last night, I didn’t really know what was going on and since I wasn’t sitting next to anyone I couldn’t really get the gist so I basically just tried to see if I recognize any of the words. I trust Dave preached a great message and that the body was edified.

After church…we went to the zoo? This is why I say it was a grab bag. We had originally planned on going to the zoo yesterday, but everyone just wasn’t feeling good so we canceled that plan. Bethany asked me today if we could go because she felt like we’re going to run out of good weather like we’ve been having and that made sense to me so we went for it. We have annual passes, so it doesn’t cost us anything and the weather was so nice it really turned out to be a great time outside. Our kids love the zoo here and I’ve mentioned before, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there’s like fifteen parks in it! There was still one thing scheduled tonight so around 3:30pm we left the zoo and headed home.

We’ve been trying for a few weeks now to schedule some time to take photos of our new friends Romi and Pichal, with their new baby Ondra. Today seemed like a great time for that and with the sun shining it’s great light for family photos. I had a great time photographing them. They are such an easy-going family which makes it nice to take photos of them and just enjoy the time together. Here’s a few shots:

It’s fun to open up a grab bag once in a while.

Tags church, friends, photos, zoo

365 Czech Republic

Sunday (Literally) or What We Miss Sometimes

Post author By Shay
Post date October 5, 2014
3 Comments on Sunday (Literally) or What We Miss Sometimes

I think Tuesday was the last time we saw the sun shine. It was on our drive home from Vienna and it wasn’t for very long, but I do remember the sun coming out. That was five days ago.

Bethany and I talked today about the sun, or the lack of it. We never really thought we would miss it, but when you don’t see it for five days you really appreciate it and notice it when it does. Things are really gray here when the sun isn’t shining. Mostly, I think it’s because it gets really foggy and the clouds hang low. In California, even if it got foggy, it burned off by noon and you had clear skies. Not so much here. But today the sun poked through a few times during church this morning and then finally stayed out around 3:00 or 4:00 for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written this before, but someone told us once that “when the sun’s out, the Czechs are out.” That was us today. We spent as much time outside as we could. We walked through town (as you see in the top photo) and we played in the backyard (shown directly above and some below). Bethany said, “I didn’t realize how much I love blue skies.” I totally agree. We had so many blue sky days in California you have the opposite problem–you want cloudy days! So we’ve flipped now and I would say we’re still adjusting.

We’ve been thinking and talking a lot about language learning the past week or so. We’re still looking for a new tutor and we’re going to start having a young girl from church come do some mini-lessons with us this week. Today at church was yet another reminder for me how bad I want to learn Czech. I know it’s hard. I know it will take time, but I’m feeling the pinch right now. Our prayer is for God to provide someone soon who can focus with us and be flexible with our family. We’ll see what the Lord does.

Like the sun, we’ve been missing other things lately too. Skyping with our friends yesterday reminded us how much we miss them. Oh, we pray and trust that the Lord will bring new friends and close relationships here, but we left so many behind. I found myself missing the pumpkin patch today. I saw a photo on Instagram of another friend at our favorite place in California with their kid, and that was one of our traditions. Traditions here are unknown right now. I don’t even know at this moment if they have a pumpkin patch for us to take our kids to. Maybe that’s something we left behind as well? Yet the one thing we haven’t left behind, or rather, He hasn’t left us behind, is God. He is constant and unchanging and that is a wonderful reminder.

Last night as we were video chatting with friends in the States they said, “From reading your blog, it doesn’t seem like you miss anything here.” Well, if I’ve communicated that then I’ve probably missed something on the blog! Those big picture things are hard to communicate on a daily basis, but today as the sun came shining through it was a real and physical reminder of what we have been missing. We’re thankful God has brought us to this needy place and by His grace we will continue to do whatever we can to show His love to others. But it doesn’t mean we don’t have moments where we remember what we left, or better said, who we left.

Tags church, friends, missing, sun, weather

365 Czech Republic

A Sleepy Saturday

Why is Avery walking around with an American flag in her mouth? Honestly, I have no idea, but I took the photo below today and was just laughing at her. She was running around with a little flag she has and kept wanting us to do the pledge of allegiance. I’m realizing now that there was a moment today where Bethany and I had our hands on our hearts and we were reciting the pledge of allegiance while both of our kids were holding little American flags. That’s funny to me, but it’s probably because I’m so tired.

I’m feeling the effects of a 3am night last night. No, nothing bad happened. No, I’m not sick or suffering from insomnia. I’ve just become that guy. You know the one. The guy who has to watch his baseball team no matter the cost. The Dodgers were playing their first postseason game and I just got hooked and couldn’t stop. Looking back, it was a terrible decision. The game started at 12:30am (our time) and I was able to watch it through our AppleTV. By 3:00am the Dodgers were leading the game 6-2 and I felt confident I could go to bed around the end of the sixth inning with that lead. But like clockwork the kids were in our room early this morning and I tried to stay in bed. Bethany let me sleep in a bit, and when I did get up to check the score all was not well with the Dodgers. The game was close, but they lost the lead shortly after I went to bed. I told Bethany I won’t do it again. No sports team is worth that kind of lack of sleep…well, unless we go all the way to the World Series. If that happens I’m pulling an all-nighter.

For the most part we stayed inside today. We had some cleaning to do and I just felt like we were catching up on life. It was colder out today (high around 55), but Titus and I did play a little tennis in the yard while Avery napped. When she woke up we did some puzzles inside and played with their toys. Avery has gotten really good at puzzles. I love it when she says, “Hhmm…where this one go?” Above is her putting together the big Curious George puzzle we have.

Tonight I went to youth group at church and Titus came with me. Bethany, Titus, and Avery have all had yet another round of sickness. It’s kind of unbelievable to be honest. Even though Titus had a runny nose and was coughing, he really wanted to come with me so I let him. Youth group was great and the youth pastor introduced me to everyone (it was only my second time being there). The pastor and his wife shared about relationships tonight and were just trying to have some open discussion about dating and marriage. Our friend Misa translated for me so I felt like I got the gist of the content. Titus and I had to leave around 7:20pm (it starts at 5pm) so we could get back for a few Skype sessions with friends and family. I was a little bummed we had to leave because they were about to start so open questions from the students and I would’ve loved to get to know them better.

When we got home we Skyped with some good friends of ours in California. It never gets old seeing familiar faces, especially those of close friends. It was a sweet time together even if it’s over video. Right after hanging up with them we spent some time Skyping with Bethany’s parents. Our kids were just full of energy during both video chats so that wasn’t always fun, but we still had a great time with them too.

It’s getting late and church is tomorrow. You know what they say, “Sunday morning starts on Saturday night” so it’s off to bed for me. Goodnight.

Tags church, Dodgers, sleep, youth group

365 Christianity

Sunday is For Sickness

It finally happened. The first round of colds have hit the Thomason family and so far it has claimed three victims. Bethany, Titus, and Avery have had coughs, sneezes, and some sore throats the past two days with today being the worst. I was going to go to church by myself this morning but Bethany wasn’t awake and I didn’t have the heart to wake her to watch the kids while they’re all not feeling great. So I stayed home, started some dishes, and hung out with Titus and Avery. Unfortunately, I missed a special morning at our church here in Czech where they meet at a different location. Friends here texted us a hand drawn map so we would know where to go, but of course I wasn’t able to use it. I’m still a little confused as to why they change locations sometimes, but I guess I’ll find out next time.

This evening I ended up seeing a movie with my friend, Zach, who had invited me earlier in the day. I had debated all afternoon whether I should go with the family under the weather, but Bethany said she would be okay for a few hours so I joined Zach and a few Czech guys at the theater. Mainly I was there for the fellowship and the popcorn. Movie popcorn just sounded really good and I basically skipped dinner to be there so I guess that was a meal. But while in the theater my friend in the States was texting me about some of the goings on at our home church in California. Apparently they are going through some changes and my friend was kind enough to point me to this morning’s sermon which I was able to listen to the end of tonight at home (isn’t technology amazing?). It sounds like the changes will be good for the church but we’ll be sure to keep praying for them during the next few months.

Below is a photo I got at the mall where the movie theater is. The ceiling changes colors like this and goes up for what feels like a mile.

We got a big week ahead as we prepare for the JV Fall Conference the following week. There’s still a lot to do and the entire Josiah Venture office is busy with preparations for the 300+ attendees. Please pray for all the work that will go into that and for our little family to feel better!

Tags church, movie, sick