Tag: kids

Working With Avery

One of the joys of finally being more settled here in Czech is that we’ve been able to really have focused time with our kids. It’s not that we didn’t focus on them, but when you’re traveling the U.S. in a van for nine months during support raising some things fall to the wayside. Bethany would often say, “When we get to Czech we’re gonna _____________ .” For example, we’ve wanted to reinstate “room time” for our kids where they can just spend time playing while Bethany and I work around the house. Our traveling just didn’t allow for that kind of time for them and now that we’re here we’ve gone back to that which has been really great. Another thing we had talked about was small chores that the kids could help with, like emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, or helping do the laundry. The goal is just to give them some different, practical activities they can do with us. It’s been fun to see some of those things come to fruition.

Avery (she’s 2) completely impressed me this morning. I think it’s a combination of us working with them more and just Avery’s sweet heart, but while Bethany was making breakfast Avery came into the kitchen and I said, “I help mommy?” Bethany was making Swedish pancakes from scratch and there’s a lot of stirring so Avery helped mix ingredients and then stir everything together (photo above). Once she was finished, Avery grabbed some clean plates from the dishwasher and said, “These are for me and Titus…” and went into the dining room and put their plates on the table. Then Bethany asked her to continue setting the table so Avery grabbed all the plates, silverware, syrup, jelly and set the entire table herself (photo below). Minus the sugar in the glass container, Avery carried out everything and set the table all by herself and she said to me, “Daddy…Titus is sitting by me.” That was right after she explained to me that she was taking bowls to the table for her and Titus to have yogurt (which she also took out to the table).

After breakfast we went outside and Bethany said, “I’m going to work on potty training with Avery.” This is just another one of those things that got set on the back burner as we were support raising and preparing to move. We just never felt we could on it and we were driving so much that we decided to wait. But today we began the slow and steady process of teaching Avery how to “go potty on the potty.” With Titus we made a little chart and reward system so Bethany did the same with Avery today. Even though she had a lot of accidents, we were much more prepared and Bethany really worked hard with her. Lord willing, Avery will adjust soon and we’ll have another potty trained child in the house…and a lot less diapers!

Tomorrow is Sunday and that means we’ll be at church. As I’ve written already, Sunday is yet another opportunity to work with our kids and teach and train them. Pray for us as we continue to get settled and spend more focused time with our kids.

Tags Avery, kids

365 Czech Republic Videos

The First Wednesday of Every Month

Post author By Shay
Post date August 6, 2014
2 Comments on The First Wednesday of Every Month

People told us it would happen. They said the first Wednesday of the month at around noon you would hear a loud alarm. After talking to Bethany neither of us could remember where were on July 2nd which was the first Wednesday that month, but then I checked the blog and we were actually in Poland that day. That makes sense because even the most jet lagged person on the planet wouldn’t be able to sleep through or forget this noise. And thanks to modern technology we can share the wonders of this amazing sound with all of you through video. Consider yourself warned (pun intended).

The speakers for this warning system are literally across the street from us on top of the fire station. It’s the kind of sound that blankets your entire body. There’s no escaping it. Thankfully it only last for about a minute or so. To be honest, even though I’ve asked I still haven’t really gotten a straight answer as to what exactly it is. Some other missionaries from the mid-west are used to that kind of noise because of tornado warnings but us West Coast kids just didn’t grow up with any kind of public warning system. The only warning we got growing up is “Hey! We’re having an earthquake!” Which now that I think about it, why didn’t they just let me sleep through it!

This morning I had an early, but short meeting with Dave Patty. He was preparing to teach at a reunion event for leaders at Malenovice which is a hotel/camp center/training center that is owned by Josiah Venture. Malenovice (pronounced MA-LEN-O-VEE-SEH) was where Bethany and I came and stayed on our first trip to Czech. I hadn’t been back in 3 years and I think I just forgot how incredible the view is from up there. The hotel sits on the side of a mountain overlooking a few different valleys and it’s just breathtaking. I had a moment before Dave was free to chat so I snuck out on the balcony at grabbed a panoramic shot (above).

Back at the JV office it was “moving day” so to speak as we changed around most of the offices to accommodate our team. It was a lot of manual labor and moving desks, tables, and bookshelves up and down the stairs, but in the end my team has a bigger space and I think everyone else is happy with their new spaces. Below is the room we have been working out of which is now Mel’s office and below that is a photo of our new space on the 2nd floor.

On the home front Bethany has been working really hard to continue to empty boxes and clean, clean, clean. We had a language lesson this afternoon and when I got home the place looked amazing and Bethany even had lunch waiting for me. Who deserves such a humble, selfless, and sacrificial wife? I sure don’t, but I’m super thankful to the Lord for who she is and how she serves me and the kids.

Speaking of the kids, they tried on silly glasses today.

They also enjoyed playing in the drying rack. In their minds it’s only a fort and serves no other purpose.

Tonight we had our friend and teammate Rachael over from the late afternoon through dinner. Rachael is a joy to be around and you can’t help but enjoy her Northern Irish accent. Bethany and her just spent a lot of time hanging out and chatting but one of things that excites me the most about their time chatting was that Rachael is going to help us get better connected to the youth ministry at our church here. She said there are actually no married couples currently on the youth staff which hopefully means they may have a need there just for some balance to the leadership. The youth meet on Saturday nights at 6pm which isn’t the best for our family, but we’re going to see what we can do to get involved there and what God might have for us. This is really something we have hoped for, prayed for, and our excited about pursuing!

Finally, tonight as Titus and I were playing outside the sun peaked through the gray clouds just before sunset. Our place sits right next to a huge Catholic church and the sunlight shown directly on it making it look incredible. I took the photo below of the reflection off of our window.

Tags alarm, kids, Malenovice, office

365 Christianity Czech Republic

Jesus and the Kids’ Bible

It rained a lot today so Bethany got creative with the kids in the house. Titus and her played tennis in our living room and Avery lined up her wooden cookies on a box. We have this kind of second living room where our desks are and there’s a lot of open floor space so hey, why not a little game of tennis?

That cat from yesterday came back today right during dinner time. We were again sitting at our table and it popped up only this time our window was close so it glared at us (like cats do) and was gone as quickly as it came.

There have been a lot of “firsts” since we arrive and today was no exception. My team at Josiah Venture had our first official, everyone-in-person, meeting! It was fun to be together in Czech, but we didn’t waste any time with the pleasantries. We have a lot of projects right now and we’re really just trying to stay afloat. I stayed up late this evening trying to finish up one of them because tomorrow we’re off to Bratislava to work on items related to our short-term visas. It’s a 4-hour one-way trip so it’s going to be an 8 hour driving day tomorrow. Not something I’m super excited about but it’s necessary for us to continue to live and do ministry here.

Tonight as I was reading the kids their Bible, I was just reminded of the gospel. I don’t know if you can read the story of Christ on the cross without it realigning your heart. It makes no difference to me if it’s in my regular Bible or the kid’s storybook Bible, the cross of Christ is so important to the Christian faith. While reading I tried to tell the kids, “This is a sad and happy part of the Bible.” Our kids have commented on the pages before but when Avery saw the thorns in Jesus’ head she said, “He has ouchies.” Yes, he does. And it was my sin that caused it.

These pages (shown above and below) are actually very powerful and I could tell our kids got more quiet as I read. This page below is especially interesting and moving to me. The vantage point from above the cross to the people below is new and the page only says, “On a small hill outside the city of Jerusalem, Jesus was nailed to a cross and died.” Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s a kids Bible or not…how can you not stop and ponder the cross in that moment?

The chapter actually ends right there in the book, and normally I would only read them one chapter a night, but tonight we kept reading. We went on to see the tomb, the then empty tomb, and then Christ revealing himself to the disciples. Avery and Titus’ faces lit up and Titus actually started jumping up and down on the couch in excitement because Christ came back from the dead. I know he’s just a little kid, but I want that excitement. Shouldn’t I be the one jumping up and down? Shouldn’t all Christians be so blown away by Christ’s work on the cross that we’re just ecstatic about it? Oh, I realize that’s not realistic in many ways, but in other ways it absolutely should be. We should be so thankful that Jesus rises from the dead! Because if Christ isn’t raised, then what does Paul tell the church at Corinth:

[17] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. [18] Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. [19] If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

(1 Corinthians 15:17-19 ESV)

But he does rise! He does overcome sin and death! He declares victory over sin and wipes my slate clean! That’s why I should be jumping up and down on the couch like Titus. And that’s the thing I want to be thinking about as I go to bed tonight. I’m thankful for the work of Christ!

Tags Bible, Christ, kids

365 Czech Republic

Rain, the Sandbox, and How to Dad

Post author By Shay
Post date July 28, 2014
1 Comment on Rain, the Sandbox, and How to Dad

Lightning struck, thunder rolled, and it rained a lot. They say that in July is the wettest month in this region. I believe it. Today’s storm packed a punch and when the lightning started it didn’t stop for a while. I shot the below video today while at the JV offices. We have those ceiling windows which made it fun to look straight up at the raining pouring down. If you watch closely a white lined appears about 3-4 seconds in and that’s actually a flash of lightning that my iPhone can’t seem to handle.

When it rains we pretty much have to keep the kids inside, especially when it comes down like it did today. But after I got home this evening things had cleared up so I took the kids to the park while Bethany went to the store. We have some visitors coming tomorrow and Bethany wanted to make sure we had enough food while they stay with us. More on that in tomorrow’s blog!

Titus wanted to take some sand toys to the park so we carried (well, Avery carried) the buckets over and we walked down the street to the closest play area. Even though it was a little muddy the kids took their shoes off and began to dig. Titus said, “Just like the beach!” so I just went with it. We packed the buckets as much as we could and started to build a castle fortress. That’s what dad’s do, right? Our job is basically to up the awesome in whatever we’re doing with the kids (sometimes to the chagrin of mom!). So I got down in the sand and we filled up some buckets and built ourselves a castle. I actually had a lot of fun. It was wet, my hands felts weird from the sand, but the kids were laughing and loving it and that made it all worth it.

Later tonight the kids had a little snack at the table and I was finishing up some of my own Bible reading and just happened to be in Proverbs 4. I told the kids, “Let me read to you from my Bible.” In dramatic fashion I was reading to them from that passage which is a chapter written from a dad to his son. When I got to Proverbs 4:7 I said, “Get wisdom!” Bethany then brought me a little book we have called “Get Wisdom!” that is written as a little study for kids and parents so I flipped to the first section on “Listening” and the kids and I worked on their listening skills. Then we flipped to “Orderliness” and we started cleaning up the room and putting all the toys away.

During those moments I was reminded how important it is for dad to be dad, especially when it comes to spiritual things and leading my kids. It’s not that I didn’t know that, but I just had a fresh reminder of it tonight. I need to be able to play with them in the sandbox and practice with them in our house. I need to be able to “Wraskel” (wrestle) with them in our bed and then work with them and help them grow.

That’s probably why I was so impressed today by a commercial that Cheerios released on YouTube this past week. For the first time in a really long time it’s actually in praise of dads. So often in advertising the dad is seen as inferior to mom and kind of an idiot, but in this ad Cheerios actually praises fatherhood. At one point the dad even says, “Dadhood isn’t always easy because when a rule is broken we’re the enforcement…but when a heart is broken we’re the reenforcement.” Now that’s a message I can get behind–that’s how to dad.

Tags fun, kids, rain, sand

365 Czech Republic

Parenting and Doing Church in Czech

Post author By Shay
Post date July 27, 2014
1 Comment on Parenting and Doing Church in Czech

Today we enjoyed our fifth Sunday at our new church here in Czech. For the most part the services are very similar to a church service in the States with music, announcements, preaching, prayer and sometimes a testimony or two. Today they did a baby dedication for a little baby named Matthew. It’s the second one we’ve seen and it’s always a joy to watch the care the pastors have for the families here and as we listen through a translator we can tell they truly care about these parents and the children. Even this morning the pastor reminded the parents and the rest of the church that children are a gift from God (see Psalm 127:3-5).

We probably needed that reminder more than the parentings dedication their baby today. For whatever reason our kids just didn’t want to be in church today. Now, granted, it’s different for them right now. Everything is new, they are having to sit with us through the whole 2+ hour services, it’s hot, they’re sweaty, and it’s just generally a little hard. But we really are trying to work hard at teaching and training them to listen, obey, and be respectful of everyone else during the service. They only usually last about an hour (at most) before the “breakdown” as I’ll call it. Today I think it was only 30 minutes before Titus was bursting out crying and Bethany was carrying him out of the building. Avery lasted a little longer with some distraction, but soon she was bolting for the door saying, “Mommy! I want mommy!” For a while we were in and out of the service and just kept switching. It feels like those wrestlers who stand outside the ring waiting for a hand slap and then they’re in and the other one is out.

For the summer months the church doesn’t really have Sunday school classes for the kids. A lot of people are on holiday (vacation) and even though there are still a lot of families around they just don’t do classes for the kids until the fall months begin. So you can imagine the challenge for us as we try keeping our kids behaved while listening to the service through a translator ear piece and hopefully not be a huge distraction from the worship. Thankfully the Czechs seem to be very forgiving of us, but it’s like flying with screaming kids…you just feel the burden of it as a parent. For the last 20 or so minutes of the service Bethany finally resorted to taking both kids outside where a few other families were as well (shown below playing in dirt).

Really what we need right now is prayer specifically for church and Sundays. We need patience, grace, wisdom, and love for our kids. Our desire is to stay calm, be understanding, but also help train them during this process and transition. Sundays are important to us. There’s a lot going in as we learn the culture, meet new people, learn the language, and try to participate in the worship service on Sunday. But today those things were definitely put on the back burner as our kids really just needed us to work with them. Please pray for us as we learn and grow in all of this.

Beyond church afternoon was actually really restful. Chris spent most of the day with us and had to leave for his meetings around 4 o’clock this afternoon. It was such a joy to talk with him and hear his heart for the people of Slovenia. We’re thrilled that God has called the Wick family to they very needy country.

Later Avery and I played a little game of Candy Land and it was fun just spending a little one on one time with her.

Tonight Bethany made home made pizza and we just spent time together as a family. We tried Skyping with Bethany’s parents but there was something wrong with their connection and all of our troubleshooting just didn’t seem to fix it. We try to Skype at least once a week with them and usually Sundays are good time for that. Hopefully we can figure out the technical glitch and get another time in with them this week.

As I was doing the dishes the faucet just kind of came off the pipe (shown above). That has never really happened to me and I genuinely starting laughing out loud when it did. “Bethany!” I yelled from the kitchen. “The faucet just fell off into the sink!” She immediately started laughing too. I don’t know why I was laughing because honestly that would really frustrate me normally. Maybe it’s just because we kind of expect that kind of thing to happen now? Things don’t always work like the way we think they should here in Czech. That’s just life right now.

But God is still in control and He cares as much about how I respond to my faucet as how I respond when my kids are loud and crazy in church. A lot of it is a change in my attitude. I should expect that it’s going to be hard in church and not normal for our kids. That’s OK. With a few cranks of my wrench I was able to get the faucet working again and with a lot grace, patience, discipline, love, and the Lord’s help I hope we’ll be able to sit through a Czech church service as a family. God is in control and that’s enough for us today.

Tags church, kids, parenting

365 Czech Republic

Church and the Zoo

Another Sunday in Czech and another great day with God’s people. Our church here in Czech has long been partnering with an American church and Welsh church to put on an English camp near our town. Today those two churches (the American and Welsh churches) came to our church to share about this past week’s camp and what God had done. In the above video, the whole camp sang “10,000 Reasons” and our friends said it was the first time they had ever heard an English song in this church since they came here three years ago. What’s neat too is that Bethany said she had prayed this morning that they would sing a song she knew the melody too. Obviously, the Lord provided the melody and the language. Amazingly, they also sang “How Great Thou Art” in Czech later in the service!

Today our friends Casey and Kristin (along with their two boys) took us to the zoo in Ostrava! We had talked about it earlier in the week and we thought this Sunday would be a good time to go and it definitely was. Although it was a little hot outside, we had a great time. The funny thing about the zoo here is it’s a whole lot more than a zoo. It’s very kid friendly and there must be a dozen little parks as well as water play areas. The kids loved it! We probably spent 70% of our time playing and the other 30% looking at animals. The Ostrava zoo is very nice and the prices of food and drinks is super reasonable so we enjoyed a lunch together as well. It was a really fun day enjoying the weather, friends, and the amazing animals that God created. Here’s a bunch of photos from our day.

Tags animals, church, kids, zoo

365 Czech Republic

“What people are bad robot”

Post author By Shay
Post date July 16, 2014
1 Comment on “What people are bad robot”

“What people are bad robot.” That’s a translation we came up with tonight while studying Czech. It’s also about as clear as we are on this new language.

Tomorrow we’ll have our second formal Czech lesson and Jitka (our teacher) got us our new books and gave us a little homework. Czech is not easy. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. Just the basic greetings and salutations can be enough to make my head spin right now. There is a lot of formality to the greetings when you’re talking to someone you don’t know and if you use the informal and not the formal you can offend, so that’s a little tricky. I guess we’ll just have to take it step by step. See what I did there?

Even though there are no words, the IKEA instructions can sometimes be like learning a new language. I began building our wardrobe today and I’m just not in the groove of building IKEA furniture…yet. I messed up one hole and hammered something I wasn’t supposed to so I was little frustrated. In the end, I think I’ve got it right but I’m only half done. There’s another section to build and then I have to put the doors on. Hopefully I’ll have time this weekend to finish it off.

I’ve begun working a bit here in the Josiah Venture office and at home. My team (Creative Communications) has some big projects coming up and I’ve been helping with the discussions and starting to take a more active role. It’s been good to start slow here and get back to normalcy before diving head first, but I’m excited to get some projects going while we’re moving in and learning language.

Bethany made cookies tonight, but as she was about to put them in the oven I heard, “Oh no…” from the kitchen. Then I said, “What’s wrong?” Bethany replied sadly, “My cookie sheets don’t fit in the oven.” Welcome to Europe. Our tiny little oven/stove just doesn’t cut it with these big cookie sheets. Thankfully the oven has a few other sheets included with it so Bethany cleaned them and we used those. We got some great cookies, but I’m guessing we’ll probably have to get some cookie sheets that actually fit. Here’s a fun fact about Czech: you can’t really buy chocolate chips. Bethany brought a huge Costco size bag of them here, but if you want to make chocolate chip cookies without importing, you need to cut the chocolate chips up yourself! Oh the humanity!

I feel bad for Titus sometimes. These photos (above) kind of symbolize a little bit how his life is right now: upside down. Yesterday he said, “Dad, I want to go to In-N-Out.” Sorry, pal. Then tonight he said, “We go swimming there?” in reference to our friend’s house in California. Can’t do that either, buddy. I know this probably isn’t as hard on him as I think it is, but I also know that he understands our life is much different than it was before. We’re trying real hard to explain things to him like taking off your shoes when you enter someone’s house (cultural thing in Czech), and it’s going pretty well. It’s just weird for me to be experiencing the change with him and not having the experience ahead of him. I guess it’s like language learning–we’ll just have to take it one step at a time.

Tags kids, language

Family

Avery Is 2

Today is Avery’s 2nd birthday.

We have been in Kentucky spending time with my (Shay’s) family and we knew we would be celebrating Avery’s birthday while we were out here. Though we weren’t able to invite a bunch of friends and family, we had fun today unwrapping a few gifts and taking Avery to Chick-Fil-A for some chicken and a peppermint shake (OK, maybe the shake was more for Bethany and I but it’s a good excuse). Bethany baked some cupcakes which we’ll enjoy later, and hopefully tonight we plan on going to see a Christmas tree lighting in Louisville or a nearby town. And you know I wouldn’t leave you without a few photos so here’s some of Avery opening presents.

Tags Avery, birthday, fun, kids

Family

Hipster Kid

Bethany pulled out our little blow up pool this week and set it up on the patio. Yes, it’s the middle of March and our kids are swimming on our patio. This week’s weather in SoCal has been in the upper 80’s and beautiful. Definitely not the best weather to get us ready for Czech Republic, but such is life!

Tags fun, kids, patio, summer, Titus

Family

Home For Christmas

This year we were home for Christmas. That may sound normal to you, but we’re usually flying some place and spending it with our extended family so being home is a nice change of pace.

As our little family grows it’s fun to start and/or continue traditions. One tradition Bethany grew up with was eating breakfast on the floor in the living room, beneath the tree. We have continued this the past 2 years and it’s a fun way to start Christmas day. This year we enjoyed sausage, bacon, eggs, and freshly baked cinnamon rolls! After that we broke open the stockings and started tearing into the wrapping paper. Since we have family out of state we open presents “together” over video chat which definitely saves money on airfare, but doesn’t replace actually being together in the same room. We still had fun giving and receiving gifts and our families are always very generous.

Bethany got some new everyday dishes, a few books, and some clothes. I got books, books, and more books. They are basically all I ask for so I’m stoked (more on this in another post). Titus got a bunch of toys but all he really cares about is the remote control car Nana got him. Honestly, it’s a pretty cool car so I totally understand his never-ending desire to run that thing all around the house. And finally, Avery got a real metal shopping cart (mini size), a few dolls, and of course some clothes–girls always get clothes.

We have been greatly blessed this year and it’s a great joy to celebrate the birth of Jesus. More than ever before I feel like I’ve been thinking about Christ’s death more than his birth. Christ knew his purpose and from birth he was destined for the cross. Praise God for his sovereign plan in saving us and for Christ’s humility in coming as a baby and paying for our sins on the cross!

Here’s a few photos of our Christmas day:

Not enough Thomason Christmas for you? Click here for more photos.

Tags Christmas, kids, presents