I’m Alive!!
I offer my apologies to all
my family and friends for my lack of writing on my blogs. Since I wrote last we have been in the
Dominican Republic for a month and Ireland for a week conference. Now my team in located in the Czech
Republic. I will do my best to
back track through my blogs of my month in the Dominican Republic and of
Ireland but here is an update of what has gone on so far here in the Czech
Republic.
Follow me on my adventure to
the Czech Republic, bus # 1, to the airplane, to bus # 2, to taxi, to bus # 3,
to the subway, to bus # 4, to bus #5 and we arrived to our destination,
Sluknov, Czech Republic. (I think
I got all the transportation right but might have missed a couple of buses.) Travel days are always eventful and
full of opportunity to love one another.
In Sluknov we are working
with Teen Challenge speaking in schools and participating in Kids Club with the
gypsy children. The opportunity to
speak in the schools is a huge answer to years of prayers and effort by the
staff of Team Challenge. For the first time ever the schools allowed Teen
Challenge to have any sort of involvement. We talked about our experiences of Haiti and had
conversations with teens in smaller groups.
Something I realized is that
teens are teens no matter where you go.
The last class we had were the “troubled” teens and we were advised to
not be offended by their lack of interest. At this statement my heart beat a little faster, nothing
like rebellious teenagers! One
young man, named Jacob, stood out from all the rest of the students. Throughout the presentation Jacob
leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, having a death stare at the Americans
only to break to make a side comment to the girl sitting next to him. When directions were given to get in
groups, Jacob did not move. Being
the loving girl that I am, I went directly over to Jacob and sat right next to
him, I didn’t want him to feel left out.
Jacob
looks like you typical jock, muscular and big but you know how the saying goes,
“the bigger you are the harder you fall.”
Who knew that all it took was a common interest of coffee. Not just any kind of coffee but good
coffee. Coffee without any sugar or cream, straight black coffee. I couldn’t get Jacob to stop talking to
me! Jacob who refused to be
involved in anything turned out to be the one who spoke the best English, has a
heart of nature, and a great taste for coffee.
This leads to a lesson that
I’ve learned in the Czech, you don’t need to have amazing programs to be influential
in peoples’ lives. I didn’t have
anything for Jacob, I didn’t have answers to the complicated questions that he
asked about life, but I was there.
Now I feel like one of those cheesy parent commercials, “Be there for
your children”. It’s what I learned
with the gypsy children too. We had no
way to communicate with the children verbally because they don’t know English
and I don’t know Czech but just being with them and spending time to
acknowledge them is enough. We’ve participated in Kids Club, having worship and playing games every Monday and Wednesday nights. It’s been a blast to be with the children and to see the joy they have even though they still live in a oppressed nation. I even learned a few new dance moves, watch out because i’m bringin’ it back to the states!
Love and miss you all. I will have more blogs for you in the
near future!! Remember God uses each one of us, even if it’s just to talk about coffee.
If we are not facebook friends we should be! That is where all team pics and videos are!
