One Month Left in Czech!

I have one month left in the Czech Republic. The feeling is bitter-sweet. I am really enjoying my time here but I definitely miss my family and friends back home. Each week continues to get busier and busier with teaching. I am teaching 4-5 days a week at the high school and once a week at the Basic school. I usually only teach 2-3 classes a day so it's not too difficult.

English through Majak is going great. Our "English Weekend" is in 2 weeks. The theme is "A Trip to the USA". I will be talking about places I have been in the US as well as Brad & Lucie and a few others who have traveled there. Kevin & Susan from my church in Ft. Collins will be coming to Czech next week to be a part of the English weekend. I will teach 5 classes and Saturday night (the main event night), I will be giving my testimony and sharing what brought me to Czech and so on. It will be quite out of my comfort zone to share with around 50 people but God will give me the strength and courage. :) I am really excited to see what God will do that weekend. 

Hotel in Malenovice where the celebration was held.

Last weekend, I spent a good amount of time with some students from the Seminary school in Prague. A group of 20 of them came to Vsetin for the weekend to attend the Majak Anniversary Celebration in Malenovice. I had a lot of fun getting to know them and they had the perfect opportunity to practice their English. The celebration was a blast! It was so great to have the entire church family together! A few people shared their testimony, Freddy gave an annual update, we had a wonderful lunch, and the rest of the afternoon we had free time. There was a ton of snow in Malenovice so we all stayed inside playing games, napping, or just talking.


I had the opportunity to spend a couple days with the Kaspar family. Adam, who is 13 months old, took his first steps and I was there to witness it! I almost started crying and screamed so loud in excitement that Adam almost started crying. We had a great time together. Brad & Lucie are my adopted parents while I am here in Czech. I have been truly blessed by them and their hospitality. I went swimming with Lucie and Adam Thursday afternoon. The pool in Vsetin is really nice and I enjoyed playing with Adam. Thursday night we had a group of people over and taught how to make Banana Bread. It turned out perfect!
Yesterday we had club/youth group at the field. We played baseball for a couple hours and Lucie shared the story about Cain and Abel. It was pretty cold but the kids had a blast. This morning, I taught the Hurta girls how to make Chocolate Chip cookies. Half of them didn't look very good but they tasted great! Tonight, I am playing volleyball like usual. Tomorrow, Brad is giving the sermon. I will attend the CB/Jasenka church service in the morning, have lunch at Mary & Pavel's place, and then go to the 5pm service at Majak.

Sun setting behind the hill across the valley

This coming week is filled with teaching. I also have the opportunity to see the inside of a Czech Ambulance, see the Vsetin hospital, and spend some time with a doctor looking at x-rays and such. Friday after club/youth group, the girls are having a Slumberparty at Majak. I am going to teach them a workout, we will talk about relationships, do eachother's hair, and watch a romance movie. I am really looking forward to some quality girl time! Saturday is a service day so we as a church, will be spending the morning picking up trash and serving the town of Vsetin as much as possible.

Lighthouse Cup 2011

This past week, I was busy teaching as usual. I have continued to get more opportunities to teach at the high school here and I am enjoying every minute of it.

      Saturday was the Majak (Lighthouse) Volleyball Tournament.  We had 4 teams: Club/Youth group, Worship team, English studio team, and a team of a mixture of people. It was a lot of fun! My team won the first game but unfortunately lost the rest of them so we took last in the tournament. It was a great time to spend with people from church as well as some others I hadn't met before. All of the regular tournament games were rally scoring, played to 15 points. When the playoffs started, rally scoring continued but the games went to 25 points.
  



     It was the first volleyball tournament Majak has done and it was a big success. They plan to do it annually and hope that more people will attend next year. The tournament winners received a chocolate medal. Their team was great--they work well together and have a lot of talent.

Majak Volleyball Tourmament 2011

Czech Ball and All

This past week was the most eventful week so far. On Monday, I went to the Sycrov basic school and taught 3rd & 6th grade English. The 3rd graders were adorable and we had a fun time practicing colors and numbers. They asked when I was going to come back. :) Tuesday I spent most of the day, relaxing and in bed because I wasn't feeling well. The whole town of Vsetin has been sick for the past couple of weeks and I seemed to take part. Tuesday I taught English at Majak as I do every Tuesday.

Wednesday, I visited a young girl who is interested in private English lessons to get to know her a bit and figure out a time for lessons. I start teaching/helping her with English tomorrow at 4pm. Also on Wednesday, Jirka & Marcela invited me to dinner at a new restaurant in town called Rosmaryn. There were a total of 9 of us at dinner, all of which are students in Majak English Studio but most of them are Mary's students, not mine. It was a great couple of hours for them to practice their English and just enjoy each others company. The food was amazing. It took about an hour for our food to come out and we were beginning to get impatient until they delivered our food and it looked like this. Each plate was decorated differently with different vegetables and the food tasted just as great as it looked! The Kofola was definitely the "icing on the cake".

 Thursday I taught at the Gymnazium again. We discussed American Holidays and played Fish Bowl. I also taught at the Sychrov Basic school, like usual. Thursday afternoon I moved from Hanka's place in Rybniky over to the Hurta's place in Jasenka. I am living with a family of 6 now which is quite a bit change considering it was just Hanka and I for the first month I was here.
     Friday, I spent the morning at Brad and Lucie's place. Lucie and I made a huge omelet for lunch and we planned out activities for Club. Club this week had the theme of "Superheroes and Princesses". Each student had to dress up as either a Superhero or Princess. I showed a powerpoint on popular Superheroes and Princesses in America which included Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, Priness Ariel, Princess Aurora, and many more. We played a game of "speed dating" where you had 2 minutes with each person and had to ask a series of questions. At the end, we were quizzed on what each person said. It was a great game to get to know each other a bit more. Lucie talked about the characteristics of a superhero and what traits God has.

We had a Club meeting at 9 am Saturday morning at Majak. We talked about upcoming events and the significance of attending club on a regular basis. The team also discussed ideas for a fun weekend they could invite their non-believer friends to. The Czech ball was Saturday night. I got ready for the ball at the Kaspar's place. I borrowed a dress from Lucie and bought cheap shoes from a Vietnamese market here in town. The ball was fun. Honza taught me to dance only 2 days before so I wasn't very good at dancing. It would have been more enjoyable with a date but it was impossible to have my date come all the way from the states. There was live music, professional dancers, and some other short acts through the night. Our group was up in the balcony so we could watch everyone dancing. It was a great night of relaxing and enjoying each others' company. Balls here in the Czech Republic are very popular, especially during winter. They dance to all sorts of music, most of which was in English. The most common dance is the Vienna waltz but they also dance the Waltz, Polka, Jive, Cha-cha, and more.
    Last week was a great week and this week has been too. I had lunch at the Gymnazium high school today which was great. I was able to meet more students and their English is awesome! I am getting more opportunities to teach in the Gymnazium as well as one other high school in town so God is definitely answering prayers. Prayer Requests: That I would continue to be purposeful with my time here as I near the 1/2 point of my trip, more students would come to club, and my students from Majak would all come to the English Weekend in April.

1 month down, 2 months to go!

     Today marks the 4th week I have been in Czech! Time is flying by. My stay with Hanka is coming to an end as I will be moving over to the Hurta's place on Thursday to live with them during the month of March.
     Monday, I spent in bed all day. I got a cold from the hike on Saturday and I wasn't about to go outside in the frigid cold weather to risk getting even more sick, so I stayed in bed, watched movies, and slept. Tuesday, I relaxed during the morning and had English Studio from 4-7:30. This weeks topic was a free day--the students had to big questions/topics that they wanted to discuss. We talked about "dream jobs", artificial intelligence, wildlife & activities in Colorado, and much more. I went on about how much I want to be a nurse and my passion for taking care of people for about 30 minutes until I realized that I wasn't letting anyone else share their thoughts. I promised them next week that I will not talk much. :)
    Wednesday, I spent with the Kaspar's. Lucie called me in the morning and asked me to go to the local Butcher to get some sausage to make for lunch. She told me exactly what to say in Czech and I practiced saying it to her a few times on the phone before I headed out. I asked that she send me a text message of what to say as well, just in case I forgot. So, I walk into the Butcher shop and there are TONS of people and I got intimidated....it was my turn to order so I said to her "Neumim Cesky (I don't know Czech)" and showed her the phone with the text message on it. :) It worked and I probably made her day. Next time, I will order it on my own...I hope.
   Thursday, I taught at both the Gymnazium (high school) and the Sycrov basic school. I taught 11th grade at 8:00 am and gave a powerpoint about Holidays in America. They were a fun class but not very talkative so I am hoping next week, they will be. After the Gymnazium, I taught 7th, 8th, and 9th grade at the Sycrov basic school. We practiced pronouncing words like thanks, father, mother, this, that, and so on. (It is quite difficult for Czech's to say words with "th") I also taught "use to" questions, describing where parts of the body are, as well as animals.

The boys' domino train

 Friday, I spent the morning with the Kaspar's again. Lucie and I made kish together and it turned out yummy! Club (youth group) was at 4pm and Lucie gave the message. At church last week, the sermon was about how you can tell someone is a Christian and what are the defining marks. So, she thought it would be a good idea to cover them again because most of the students who come to club, don't come to church yet they would consider themselves Christian. The talk went well and I ended up sharing part of my testimony which was interesting. I have never done that in a public setting but it was good to help the kids understand why I live my life the way I do now and what it means to me to be Christian.

Playing Spoons

 

       I am officially the "game queen". My job title, if you will, has been established and I am in charge of the games every week until I leave at the end of April. So, at club we played Fish Bowl, Spoons, and then the kids had to build the best domino train they could in 10 minutes.
   Neither domino trains fell like they were supposed to but it was fun to watch.
   I had never played spoons until this day, though I have heard about it many times. One thing to know is that Czechs take their games very seriously...I am definitely glad we weren't play with knifes because someone would have definitely lost an eye.
  My Czech vocabulary continues to grow as the games we play and things we talk about are not always translated... forcing me to have to catch on.

   Today, we had a "Kooking with Krista" day. My parents sent a bag of chocolate chips in the "care package" they sent me for Valentine's day so I thought it would be a great idea to teach the kids how to make chocolate chip cookies. "Chocolate chips" do not exist here in the Czech Republic and brown sugar is quite expensive so it was a treat to have "real" chocolate chip cookies. Only 3 students came to learn (2 of them being guys) so Eva, Hanka, Marci, and I made the cookies while the boys hung out until the cookies were ready to eat.
This evening, a group of us from Majak played volleyball. It was a great time.


Tomorrow, I am going ice skating. I have only been 2 times in my life and I am horrible at it so it will be interesting but should be fun. I am going to have lunch at Ondrej and Hanka's (a family from Majak) and then go to church at 5:00pm. Freddy will be teaching about sex and we invited a ton of the students and their friends so I am looking forward to the service tomorrow evening and meeting new people.

Hiking in Slovakia

       This morning, we took some of the Youth Group kids hiking in Czech/Slovakia. The place where we hiked has many different trails that lead to a ski slope where many of the kids go to ski and snowboard. We only hiked 6 km (about 4 miles) but it was a solid sheet of ice 90% of the way. Me, being the only American, hiked in tennis shoes while everyone else was in hiking boots...I fell 9 times. I was definitely the entertainment for the day! Everyone else was slipping around and fell once or twice but nothing like me; a pig on roller skates!

The main reason we were going hiking was to eat the amazing Blueberry Dumplings at the restaurant at the top of the ski slopes! Wow, they were so good!!!

     Each dumpling was about the size of a tennis ball and there were 4 of them, covered in powdered sugar and a delicious frosting-type sauce. YUM!

    After dumplings and some time inside where it was warm, we headed back down the mountain. The ski slopes are right on the border of Czech and Slovakia so the picture below is of me being in 2 places at once!!!! :) Don't ask me what the sign says because the only thing I can read is "Vsetin" and we were no where near the town of Vsetin.

   Though it was cold and windy, we had a great morning with each other. There were a total of 10 of us. I learned some new Czech words and met a couple of new people! I hope to make it back up there to have the dumplings one more time before I leave! It will be better to hike when there is no ice and next time, we can hike a longer distance!

This evening I went to Brad and Lucie's to celebrate their son Adam's first birthday! It was a great time to spend with people from church and again, learn more Czech!

This week will be pretty busy with teaching but I am still praying that I get more opportunities to teach in the high school here--it's the best way to tell kids about English camp and invite them to Youth Group!

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.

1st Week in Vsetin

"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." -Isaiah 40:10

Saturday marked the first week of my stay in Vsetin. I am getting more comfortable with finding my way around town and  I plan on venturing to the grocery store on my own tomorrow. I am also getting used to walking everywhere and I am learning a new Czech word each day.

Sundays, there are two church services; one at 9:00 and one at 5:00. I plan to attend both of them every sunday so I can see everyone. Most sundays, I will be spending the afternoon with a different family from the church--eating lunch with them and playing games. The first few days I was here, I spent with Brad and Lucie talking about the options for teaching in the schools, catching up, and playing with their son Adam who will be one in a couple of weeks. My first English Studio classes were Tuesday night and they went great. I gave a presentation on myself and Colorado and we had a great time getting to know each other a bit more. Thursday was my first time as a guest speaker at one of the high schools in town. I gave the presentation about myself and played a couple games with the students. Thursday night, Brad and Lucie had Hanka and I over for dinner and we played a dominoes game called "Chicken Foot". Friday afternoon was youth group/klub and the kids threw a party for me as well as Brad and Lucie's return to Czech from being in the states for 3 months. We played games, ate czech junk food, talked, and had a great time.

This week, I am teaching another class at the same high school. The English studio theme for tonight's classes is "Hobbies and Free time" so I am working on the lesson plan for it now. Thursday, I will be going to one of the basic schools with Brad to watch and help him teach 4 classes.