MIA from the Middle of Moravia

Almost two months without a word and then a crazy email about how you can make money…Reminds me of that old commercial, you know the one with the woman saying, “Do you want to make more money? Of course! We all do!” In the same way that that woman had no bearing on your personal life, for the last few months I have not either. With this blog, I aim to rectify that. I have made a Thanksgiving Resolution to be better about updating, in other words to do it once in a while…so this is going to be a newsy type of blog where I catch you up on my life. Don’t expect my usual attempts at wit, sarcasm, or sage advice, because I have a lot of catching up to do. However, anticipate a new blog in the near future in which I will foist upon you all the many facets of my perky personality. That being said, you may wonder, other than being hacked and having many other technical difficulties that make me much to angry to mention to polite society (have I stated yet that technology hates me?), what have I been up to?

First, I have been learning that I officially have a brain drain on my own English skills. While we are constantly told that our greatest skill that we provide to our new community is our ability to speak English as a native speaker, it is amazing how quickly you begin to lose parts of that skill. To explain, when speaking with non-native speakers the most important part of the conversation is comprehension. So when you are speaking, you constantly use synonyms and longer phrases instead of more difficult vocabulary in order to get your students and others to understand what you are saying. It sometimes takes a lot longer to explain, but it is extremely necessary. (It is also important to remember that speaking louder and repeating the same words over and over again will not help someone that is confused by what you are saying, *as seen on TV. Lol). While it is very useful for non-native speakers, we native speakers have realized that it is actually causing our vocabulary to dwindle. Frequently, as we put it, our English dies where we literally can’t think of the appropriate word to use in a sentence. It can be quite embarrassing when a student wants help thinking of a word or you are in the middle of talking and you actually can’t remember what an object is called. And while you may think that I am exaggerating, it happens to us more often than you might believe. Once while on Skype, I couldn’t think of what a light switch was called and had to take the computer camera to the switch so I could explain what I meant. Embarrassing!!

Enough about that though! One of the other things I have been doing and it has definitely been one of the most rewarding parts of being here is that I spend a great amount of time with the youth in the area. In Ostrava, Young Life International (YL) is a pretty big and thriving organization for kids to get involved with. One of the nice things about YL is that many of the kids involved are also in some way involved with Fishnet English classes (my school). It is a great way to do ministry. Both organizations use English to build relationships with the kids and it allows for natural conversations to flow. Since all of the leaders are Christians, the kids are often exposed for the first time to the Gospel and to Christians. It can be a way to dispel many of the thoughts that they have created about Christianity. YL and Fishnet are also great networking tools for those youth that are Christians. Unlike in the States, these kids don’t have countless events to invite friends to in order to help them share their faith with friends.

Many of you know that possibly my favorite weekend of the year is a specific weekend in May in which a group of fabulous teens get together, hang out in the woods and have a blast every year. Of all the things that I am going to miss this year, having to miss my girls’ senior year of the youth retreat is pretty high on the list. However, a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to join in on a retreat here with some great Czech kids. It was through YL and we went to Filmy Vikend!  For those of you that truly know me, you know it was a weekend after my own heart. We watched movies, discussed them, played cards and dice, and spent time outside in the mountains. It was beautiful! And I must say that God must have known what He was doing when He chose Ostrava as my Czech home, because you’ll never guess what game we played so I’ll tell you—MATTRESS RACES!! That’s right! We did a mattress race all the way over here in the CZ! It warmed my heart, Grace Youth! (Click here if you would like to view the Czech edition of this wonderful event, especially considering my team won!!) This weekend couldn’t have come at a better time for me, because while I truly love Ostrava, I am a country girl at heart. The area we went to looked exactly like I was looking at the views from my dorm room at college—minus the creepy graveyard. Lol. (I have also learned to remember, Czechs have a much different idea of an easy hike than I do, especially when I’m still carrying all my junk. J) 

We spent the weekend with kids who may or may not have been Christians watching movies and then talking with them about some off the serious issues that arose in the films and how a Christian might think about it. The youth were free to speak their minds and we had some really great discussions. It was a really cool experience and an awesome idea for a different, more out-of-the-box type of ministry that we don’t usually see done in the States.

In order to not completely overwhelm you, I am going to stop my update here. But know that another one is coming in just a day (it is almost finished)! But I just want to add that through these experiences, I have been able to begin building relationships with people. I ask that you would pray for some of these relationships as they continue to grow that they would be a time of fellowship and discipleship.

Bye for now! More tomorrow…

 "I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."

Film Weekend Fun!!