meeting – Shay Thomason

Doing language learning is worse than going back to school for one reason: you can’t read the directions. Both of the books we have used have used to study Czech employ the theory that if they put the directions in Czech we will learn. In reality, all this does is frustrate me because it takes me an extra three minutes per question to type out the Czech in to Google Translate just to figure out what I’m supposed to do!

Tomorrow morning we have our second lessons with our new Czech teacher, Tamara, but it might be interesting because both the kids are sick and right now and will likely be coming with us to her house. Normally, Titus would be in preschool, but he’s coughing and sneezing and all of that so we decided we’re going to keep him away from the other kids for a day and see how it goes. Hopefully we will still be able to focus on lessons with the kids there.

This morning we had our weekly International Team meeting and we spent some time walking through Philippians 2:1-11. I’ve actually memorized a chunk of that passage and I think it may be one of the most amazing and difficult passages in the Bible. Amazing in it’s theology, reach, and Christ’s example, but difficult to apply, especially as we think about being a humble servant. We were challenged this morning to do just what the text says, “…put on the mind of Christ…” in our service and work here and humble ourselves the same way Christ did.

No matter how many times I hear that or read it in my Bible, it’s hard. It’s hard to apply that when I walk in the door to my family. It’s hard to apply it on my ministry team. It’s hard to apply that in line at the grocery store. It’s hard to apply that in the local church. It’s just hard. Serving with humility is hard, mostly because our sinful flesh fights it. At least I know mine does. But no matter the difficultly or the fight, I do hope and pray that I would seek to have the mind of Christ and serve here humbly. Not only does that show the Gospel in my actions, but it gives God the glory and that’s most important.

It’s called “iTeam.” No, it’s not the new Apple product that launched today, but it’s still something amazing. The International Team (iTeam) is the team that Bethany and I are a part of with Josiah Venture. This is a group of people who are broken down in to small teams but provide support and care for the many ministries and missionaries serving across Central and Eastern Europe. Today we had our very first team meeting together as we prepare for the upcoming conference.

It was nice to be there with Bethany sans kids as we got a babysitter for the morning. The team itself has grown a lot the past few years and we are just two new faces among many who have recently come to Czech to serve in their specific role. Our meeting this morning was a lot of fun, a joy, and Spirit filled. I could tell you all about it, but Dave’s wife, Connie, has put together a whole post with photos about it that you can find here. We’re thankful to be joining a wonderful team of people who love Jesus and want to see more come to Christ. Below is a photo of Dave leading our study through a few key verses in 2 Corinthians this morning.

We shared yesterday that Avery has had a weird skin thing going on and asked for prayer. Today Bethany was able to successfully visit the doctor and we have a diagnosis: impetigo. This was exactly what Titus had before we came to Czech and we’re pretty sure it started as a mosquito bite on Avery that just got infected. Praise the Lord for our friend Kristin who was there to help translate. It took a while in the waiting room and Krisin had to leave to pick up her son, so Bethany called our other friend Martina to translate over the phone. In the end the doctor was able to prescribe some antibiotics for Avery and hopefully she’ll be better soon. Here’s a photo of the kids in the doctor’s office.

Bethany said the whole process of just trying to communicate is tiring and she felt the frustration of not being able to speak the language. I’m so glad she was still able to get it squared away today, but once she got the prescription she had to figure out where to go to get it filled. She called Kristin who told about the “Lékárna” which is where you get medicine. There was inside a local grocery store so Bethany was able to go and get it picked up (photo below). It’s always an adventure in Czech!

Tonight we had a new friend of ours, Míša, over for dinner. She’s a young girl that’s part of our chruch and involved in the youth ministry there. She helped Bethany a few weeks ago with translation for Titus’ preschool and we just wanted to spend a little more time with her and get to know her. Bethany made pizza and we had a really good time just chatting and all of us playing with the kids. Míša hung out for a while and we asked if she can spend at least one afternoon a week with us, just speaking Czech. We might try some simple exercises with her and see how it goes. She’s a really nice girl and it was fun to have her in our home tonight. Here’s a little shot me, the kids, and Míša on the couch. I’m trying to tickle those little ones so they’ll smile for mommy. I think it worked.