Life is a Beautiful thing

        Wow, where do I start? This week was pretty busy and it is going to continue to get busier, which is great. I am continuing to play soccer every monday night with Atletico. This organization is through Majak church and reaches out to kids, mainly boys who enjoy soccer and want to increase their skills. The age groups range from 6-16 with two different sessions; one for the young kids and one for the teens. There is no way to describe how I feel when a 6 year old can out play me in soccer. I am hoping to increase my skills as well as connect with the kids. It's a great way to invite them to youth group, which gives them no choice but to hear the gospel.

        Monday night I went to see 127 hours at the theater here in town. That movie was intense. It really made me think about how important life is and to not take it for granted. I cannot imagine being close to death and not knowing if I'd go to heaven or hell. He doesn't die in the movie but thoughts of suicide fill his head as well as other challenges he faces. I will just leave it at that for anyone who wants to go see it--do it!
       Tuesday I had the opportunity to teach English in the Gymnazium again, one of the high schools in town. The lesson went well and the teacher asked me to come back and teach a different class, the week after the kids get back from break. English studio went ok. The lesson was on Hobbies & free time. This week was a bit more challenging than the first with the language barrier. A few new students joined and it was hard to communicate at times but we got through it. I am constantly learning how to be a better teacher and always asking my students for feedback so they benefit from the time rather than leave confused and not understanding anything I said.

Wednesday was my free day this week. It was beautiful outside so I took a walk around Vsetin.

      Thursday was a great day. I went to one of the basic schools (K-9) with Brad today to help him teach and observe his lessons. We taught 6-9th grade. The classes are 45 minutes in length. It was interesting to see the different level of English with each grade. The teacher we partnered with, Jana, was very excited about me coming to help teach. She wanted me to teach 6 classes each week but I decided it would be best to teach only 4. So, I will be going to the basic school in Sycrov every Thursday to teach 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade English.  My focus is going to be mainly on the Gymnazium and other high schools in town because I want to put my time and effort into building relationships with the high school students and ultimately invite them to youth group as well as English Camp during the summer.

   Brad and Lucie took me to a restaurant in the top of a nice hotel for lunch. I had traditional Czech cuisine which often consists of a soup and some sort of dumplings or potatoes.
    Today, it rained all day and was really gloomy so I stayed inside. I was able to relax, read and have some great quiet time. This afternoon, we had youth group at the church. I came up with games to play for about an hour and the Brad and Lucie talked about teen pregnancy and how our actions can affect the rest of our lives. It was great to spend some time with the kids again--they are starting to not be so shy about speaking English to me! The kids don't have school this whole upcoming week so I have already started making plans with some of them to go for coffee, dinner, and have a sleep over. I cannot wait to see what happens this week with the conversations we have and fun memories we start making together.

Prayer request: That I would be able to get more time teaching in the Gymnazium and that the students wouldn't be afraid of speaking English to me and opening up.

God is good and I am excited to see how he uses me and works in me the next 10 weeks I am here.