Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Big Oversight

Wow, do I ever feel bad. As you can tell, I had one more blog about my class in CZ and I just did not get around posting it until this afternoon.
I left Brno on Friday afternoon to Vienna. In order to catch the train to Baden where someone was going to pick me up, I had to run from one train on one platform to the Baden train on another platform. I even forgot my cap on the fist train. I got on the train (and even at this point I wasn't truly sure I had the right one). It turned out to be a local. It stopped at every station between Vienna and Baden. There are 11! We were making pretty good time until we stopped at one station and waited for about 20 minutes. Needless to say I got to Baden about 35 minutes later than I thought I would.
Pam and I left for the States the very next morning. Pam had to do all the packing. No time, no rest, no exit interviews.
However, Austrian Airlines over booked our flight so they asked if we would want to get 'bumped'. I'm not sure they used that word though. Long story short, we didn't get bumped. They did have seats for us on the flight. But they were in First Class. Well, it was called Business Class. But it was top of the line! So we did get to have some down time and relax while we were fed all kinds of gourmet foods and desserts and movies and hot towels and well it's not nice to boast so I'll stop.
We got home on Saturday, went to Mountain on Sunday and drove to NY on Monday. We stayed there for just under three weeks. No Internet to speak of (The local Mattituck Library once every 4 or 5 days). No cable, only 4 channels that came from Connecticut, and they came in fuzzy. Lots of beach, lots of reading, lots of sand, lots of playing with the grandkids, lots of family time, lots of sand, lots of sunburn, lots of clams, lots of fish, lots of sand and of course lots of naps.
I came back to work last Wednesday and then spent Thursday and Friday at Willow's Leadership Summit. And then played on Sunday. That was fun.
I haven't even gotten to download the summer pictures from the camera yet. If any come out good, I'll post them later.
This will have to do for now.
God Bless
John

The Last Class


A mural of the war against the Sweds 1645. Just the day before it was half covered with Ivy.

Our Thursday night worship experience. Anna gave her Life Story.

I feel so terrible about this. I had one more whole blog written while I was in Brno, CZ but I forgot to post it. I'll give an explantion as to the why in my next blog. In the mean time please read this blog, my last for my last class for TCMI this year.


Pavel asked if the class would be able to participate in a service they have on Thursday night. He wanted us to put a little worship service together. So we sang several songs, read scripture, had a testimony and had a time for prayer. It was interesting for me as it always is. After our section a man got up and starting teaching from I Kings. It was the story where Elijah passes his mantel on to Elisha. After he stopped he said something and then three more people got up and said something. It wasn’t until after the service did I find out that when he finished his part he asked if there were any others that would like to comment on that passage or had any other thoughts about it.

Jan just came back from English camp. The churches here use it for evangelizing. It is a concept in Czech Republic and several other neighboring counties for evangelizing. While talking with him I noticed that he is doing very creative things with youth and their worship. What he would like to do is carry these ideas over into the adult worship. I also read in his paper that he worked one week in a nursing home. He helped for the whole week with the daily routine of an older man who was physically handicapped. This man was also not able to talk. He just made sounds. Jan helped feed, clean, wash, shower him, and clean up after him. He mentioned how much of a humbling experience it was for him. He also mentioned how he asked God why God gave him so much.

Anna I found out half way through the week is the wife of a former student from my class Nick. Pam and I call him, Nick the trumpet player. The first time we met Nick brought his trumpet to play at worship on Sunday morning at a session at the Haus. I knew Nick was Romanian so I asked her how the two of them met. She said that a bus load of Romanians came to her town to work. Nick came to her church and because the only common language they both spoke was English they started talking and well now they have three beautiful children.

Liba – She was the cook when I taught this class in Mancice last time. Mancice is a small village about 40 miles from Prague. Her husband Slavic passed away when 10 years ago. She was 50 at the time. She told me that when it happened she just laid down in prayer and fasting for a week. She realized that that was a time of worship for her. Because of that worship is very important for her. Slavic was the national director for TCM until his death. Now Pavel the preacher here is the national director.

Petra was my translator. She attended my class with her husband several years ago at Haus Edelweiss.

Miriam, Stephanie, and Julia all have stories of giving money, or helping out people less fortunate then they.
I am just in awe of God’s mighty grace and the many ways, the many stories of how it overflows from His people to those who need to experience His grace. It is through people like this that God is moving. It is through people like this that God becomes real to people who so desperately need his grace and love.
John