And the Beat Goes On...

Greetings Blogosphere!

This week marks one month since we arrived in the Czech Republic. My, how time flies. It has been a week of highs and lows. Regina received some disappointing news about a job in the States, but also sorted out details to spend two months in London. Also, I am happy to report that by this time next week we will be enjoying the company of the Risser family. Lena's parents, two sisters, and brother-in-law are coming for a visit! In our excitement, things have been humming along nicely.

Regina has been reading extensively for both her papers. She has decided on the topic for her paper for the Church and Social Ethics. If you want to know, leave a comment and ask

:) Lena Teacher has had a busy week. She spends her mornings preparing to teach anywhere from 3-8 students a night. She also cooks with her students and teaches them praise and worship songs in English. In fact, she heard several of them singing the song they had just learned on the Metro. She grinned from ear to ear. Another task Lena is taking up this week is helping the school hostess, Yulia, out with our daily coffee time. It gives her a reason to bake, but I don't think she is excited about it at all. ;) We continue to enjoy working with Youth Praha on Friday evenings. This week we helped to organize the games. Our interaction with the IBTS community continues as well. Lena sang in chapel this week and Regina continues to attend a weekly Bible study. We have been greatly blessed here.

This weekend, while Regina worked on job stuff, Lena and our friend Maryia went exploring Prague on a gorgeous sunny day. They viewed the Castle, Lesser Town, and

reviewed Old Town Prague. They had a blast staying out the entire afternoon. Sunday found us visiting the International Church of Prague with some friends. Since then, we've been enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. Lots of love to all of you back home. Thank you for your prayers.

English, music and research

This week marked the start of English conversation classes and the discovery of Lena's music and culinary abilities. Originally, the Russian Baptist church was only planning on English classes; however, as soon as the youth advisor discovered Lena's love of music and cooking she quickly incorporated them into the schedule. Lena will be teaching English on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and on Wednesdays she will help the youth with their singing and teach English contemporary christian songs. At some point there will be a baking and movie night. She fully plans on treating the youth to some home made doughnuts when she discovered they don't really get them here. So far, the class attendance consist of students anywhere from 3-12. We'll see if the numbers plateau out as the weeks go by. Regina has a rough thesis for her first paper and will have a loose outline by the end of the week. She is also reading heavily for her Church and Social Ethics class.

We have continued getting to know the CAT students with Regina going to the Bible studies on Tuesday nights and both of us working with Youth Praha on Friday nights. Our weekends are usually filled with exploring the city and spending time with the friends we have made at IBTS. This weekend we explored the Jewish quarter. Back in the 13th century Jews were banned only to that part of the city. The cemetery is known as being one of the most remarkable ones in Europe as there are roughly 12,000 tombstones and as many if not more than 100,000 burials. On a more exciting note, we did get to, finally, eat some traditional Czech food. Somehow by the end of the ordering process I, Lena, ended up with a huge hunk

of pork all to myself. Which was quite tasty but way too much meat! Regina made the smarter order of Czech pancakes made out of onions, sauerkraut and sausage. Very tasty!!

We are really growing to love Prague and the European culture. We never know what God is going to bring our way or what doors he will open. We have and are learning to be flexible, vulnerable, and open to whatever is asked of us. Please continue to keep us in your prayers! God bless you all! :)

New Friends and Full Stomachs

Literally, as we write this we are still full from an amazing homemade Armenian meal that we had this evening. This experience was courtesy of Pastor Gennadiy's friends at the Russian Baptist church plant in Brno. We regret not taking our camera to help convey the wide array of food we enjoyed. The four hours we spent in the car were totally worth the relationships we made and the hospitality that was shown to us.

The previous evening found us in the living room of a youth worker in Pastor Gennadiy's church. Every Saturday night they have a get together where they study the Bible and reflect. The topic of the evening was Baptist and Anabaptist history and faith stories. Once again we were grateful to have some friends to translate for us from Russian into English.

Friday night we were invited by CAT (Certificate of Applied Theology) students at IBTS to participate in the Youth Praha (Prague) meeting that occurs in the campus chapel every week. About 40 international middle and high school students gathered to hear the Word, worship, and play games. Youth Praha is organized by the International Church of Prague and we hope to get more involved with this program in the future. We also connected with the CAT students and several expats working with the church which was a great opportunity to broaden our social circle. We're feeling very blessed with all the relationships we are building.

In the middle of the week (Wednesday), Lena left with Pastor Gennadiy and three other young adults to visit Azil, a refugee camp. Once a month Pastor Gennadiy visits the camp to share the Gospel, hold discussions and answer questions. The refugees living there are from all over, from Morocco to Ukraine. The sessions are held in Russian, however, there are English speaking refugees that occasionally attend; so, Gennadiy or one of the other young adults will translate from Russian to English. During this visit I, Lena, was able to share my testimony and pray for a man who has lost his whole family and is searching for contentment and joy in this life. I was truly blessed through this experience and was stretched all around.

Regina began her Church and Social Ethics class this week and ended the intensive portion of her Baptist/Anabaptist history class. Her main focus now is reading and formulating theses to shape into her final papers. She has enjoyed accompanying Lena on adventures and looks forward to the many to come. We continue to covet your prayers and support.

Love always (On this Valentines' Day), Regina and Lena

Charles and the Russians

As we enter into our second full week of cultural adaptation we are once again looking back at our lack of travel experience...and surprise success. It is amazing the ways God provides for us and the people He brings into our lives and how the best laid birthday plans sometimes fail...only to exceed expectations in the end. We, once again, started the weekend off with an excursion into the city. This weekend our destination was Charles Bridge and a bite to eat. After crossing the historic bridge and satisfying our cravings for carbs in the form of bagels and drip coffee, we admired the architectural beauty of Prague's cultural history. Arriving home after a busy day, we decided to plan out fun events for Regina's birthday on Sunday. Our plans, however, were altered quite a bit after calling Paster Gennadiy, the contact we are working with. Consequently, we found out church does not start till 3 pm and would go to at least 7 pm. Promptly changing our plans to fit the new schedule, we decided to celebrate Regina's birthday in the form of a brunch at the expat bookstore and cafe, The Globe. After a delicious meal of blueberry pancakes, eggs, bacon and, of course, coffee we prepared to meet the congregation we would be interacting with. The church is Czech Brethren composed primarily of Russian and former Soviet bloc immigrants. The services are conducted in Russian with an adult service and a youth service. We met some very nice young adults that spoke English and translated for us. It was exciting to meet more people and continue building relationships. I (Regina) am continually amazed at the universality of the Lord's Supper. It was a blessing to share the Bread and Cup with our Russian brothers and sisters.

After the service ended the church held their annual meeting. Two hours later, we found ourselves sitting in a McDonald's eating chicken nuggets and learning all about Russia from two young adults. It was a great evening spent learning about each other's cultures and digging play dough out of a Scooby-Doo mummy. Needless to say, there was a lot of laughter shared all around. It was a wonderful, if unexpected, birthday celebration.

Finally, one of the activities Lena will be leading during her time here is language study with the youth three times a week. She will be brushing off some of her English conversation techniques from Korea for these classes. Regina is knee deep in her intensives and is enjoying studying Anabaptism and reading Stuart Murray's "Post-Christendom" for her final thesis. As always, prayers are appreciated and felt. Thanks for your support.