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365 Czech Republic

Let It Snow

Loving the Snow (1/27/15)

We’re a little enamored with the snow right now. As you can see in the photo above, Avery was sitting in our kitchen window this morning just staring at the falling snow. It is unbelievably beautiful to watch. Bethany even mentioned today that the snow actually makes Czech brighter which is just interesting. Everything doesn’t feel so gray and dreary, but nice and clean, and soft. Even some of the other Josiah Venture missionaries were talking about this today. One friend commented about the color of the buildings in Czech. Often they are bright orange, green, and even pink and he was observing that they look so much better against the clean white backdrop of snow. He’s right.

My team is preparing to teach at a big event this week here in Czech called the Josiah Venture Leadership Academy. There will be 220 attendees (if they trudge their way through the snow!). The communications team (which I lead) will be doing some training in the area of design and design software. Our class has 10 participants and people are coming from all over Europe to be together for a five day conference. Mostly these are people who are lay leaders in their churches and are just looking for some practical skills and training. I’m excited to teach a 3-day class with my team and hopefully share our combined love for design and Jesus! Pray for us as we prepare for that and for the time with our class.

The Bakers (1/27/15)

Tonight Bethany had some fun baking with the kids. We have been talking about making cookies for a couple of days now and it just feels right to enjoy some warm cookies on these cold days. Titus some how convinced me to let him eat three cookies. Little stinker. They enjoyed using their Czech chef hats and aprons so we got a few photos of them. These are fun days.

The Bakers (1/27/15)

Categories
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).

Rainy Day Fun (11/8/14)

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.

Rainy Day Fun (11/8/14)

Rainy Day Fun (11/8/14)

Rainy Day Fun (11/8/14)

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!

Categories
365 Czech Republic

The Field Trip We Didn’t Know About

Bethany: “So, I think Titus went on a field trip today.”
Me: “Really?”
Bethany: “Yeah, he was telling me all about it.”
Me: “That’s hilarious.”

Why is that funny to me? Well, it’s because we had no idea this was going on today at Titus’ preschool. Other missionaries have told us repeated stories of this happening to them and today it happened to us. Our four year old went on a field trip some place without our knowledge.

Making Cookies (11/3/14)

Bethany got to the school this afternoon to pick him up and no one was there. She texted me and wrote, “So I’m here and nobody’s in his class? His coat is here so they’re inside somewhere?” She said she saw pumpkins sitting in their classroom but really didn’t think much of it. The kids were actually at lunch when she and Avery arrived so after about 10 or 15 minutes they all came out, she got Titus, and they walked home. On the walk back Bethany was asking Titus about his day and the conversation went something like this:

Titus: “We went to the pumpkin patch!”
Bethany: “Oh, really? Did you walk there?”
Titus: “No.”
Bethany: “How did you get there?”
Titus: “We took the bus!”
Bethany: “You took the big bus? You walked to the bus station and took the bus?!”
Titus: “Yeah.”

That’s about all we know right now. I asked Titus more about it tonight and he said something about playing on a playground there, but I’m not sure what that was all about. Bethany made a good point too, regarding pumpkin patches here. We’re not aware of any that are close and they’re not super common from what we can tell, so there’s a good chance that bus ride was out of town and to someone’s farm, but we’re just speculating. All we really know is that we paid a stipend at some point for trips like this so that’s probably what they used to buy his bus ticket (they use the city bus and not a school bus system). And apparently signing up your kid for school is all the permission slip you need for them to go on a field trip. That’s good to know!

Making Cookies (11/3/14)

In other news, we made cookies tonight as a family. IKEA had a little set of cookie cutters that we bought yesterday for a few bucks and we thought it would be a fun activity to do with the kids. Everyone got involved and the kids were excited to put on aprons and help put the ingredients together. Here’s some photos of the process and final result.

Making Cookies (11/3/14)

Making Cookies (11/3/14)

Making Cookies (11/3/14)

Making Cookies (11/3/14)

The cookie cutters are setup to make standing cookies. Below is the final result of Titus’ little tree he made.

Making Cookies (11/3/14)

Every day is a new adventure around here and tomorrow will probably be another. I am leaving for two days to go on a retreat with the Josiah Venture Creative Communications team. I’ll be gone for just one night, but I never enjoy leaving my family for any extended time. If you think of us, pray for Bethany and the kids. Hopefully Titus won’t go on any field trips without our knowledge, but if he does, I’m sure it’ll be on this blog!