Viva La Boheme!

This post marks the last one that Lena and I will be posting together. Lena leaves on Tuesday morning for a brief stay in the States before returning to South Korea to tour and promote her new CD with Eojin. Consequently, our week has been filled with lots of reflection and goodbyes. The Northumbria Community from the UK led the campus in a weeklong set of prayers, worship, and lectures. For me, Regina, it was a step back from studying and refocus on God. Lena taught her last classes this week and her students sent her off with lots of chocolate. She will miss them greatly!

Saturday we went out on one last exursion with several of our friends to the fairy

tale village of Czechy Krumlov in the land of Bohemia. Despite the iffy weather, we had a wonderful day taking in the castle and other medeval buildings and gardens. Sunday evening our friend, Hparat, cooked our

group of friends a meal of traditional food from her country of Myanmar. Yum! We are so thankful to have been blessed with such amazing friends. Please pray for us during this time of transition. Now a short reflection from Lena:

I, Lena, have fully

enjoyed my time here and especially working with and getting to know the youth. They are a great group kids and we often have a lot of laughter and fun in our lessons.

This year, between Korea and Czech Republic, I have fully enjoyed getting to know the variety of people God has

brought my way. I feel so blessed to have made so many friends from many different cultures. We all have such different backgrounds but are all united in the body of Christ. "The 'body' is made up of many parts," this is a beautiful image that has been made more real for me. The "body" can be bigger than my family, my church, even my country; it stretches around the world. It is so encouraging to meet other Christians working towards the same goal. This year has challenged me in so many ways between the two cultures and I believe I have grown a lot and learned a lot about myself. But the most valuable thing for me has been seeing Christ in so many different forms and really learning that life is so much bigger than yourself. I still, of course, have not completely mastered this but it is something I daily try to work towards. God has been so good and faithful and I am excited to see what the future holds.

Kids, CATs, and a Challenge

With the farewell to my (Lena's) family I started another week of teaching. I believe this has been the best week of teaching yet. We had some really good sessions where the students seemed to overcome their shyness or reserve and open up more. We had lots of laughter during classes this week and have fully embraced the other form of communication which is: if neither the teacher or the student can seem to understand the other you draw pictures... which causes more laughter since I am no artist and none of them seem so inclined either. I starting working with them on a song that they will, hopefully, be able to perform for Easter. They want to show their hard work to the congregation. I especially love the evenings where I get to work on music with them. They love learning the songs and don't want to stop practicing when we run out of time. I will also admit that I fully appreciated their version of "Happy Birthday" they sang to me for my birthday. It was very special and made me feel loved.

Thursday I, Lena, once again, accompanied Pastor Gennadiy to Azil, the refugee camp. This time we split them up into two groups, a Russian speaking group and an English speaking group. I was, of course, in charge of the English speaking one. There was about six of us and it was a really good time of conversation and sharing of our faith. One of the women there has lived at this camp for a number of years and has had a hard life. However, she is so open and passionate about your faith. She feels that her mission is to reach out to the other refugees living there and share her faith and God's love with them. She doesn't know how long she will be there or what is next, but that is where God has her for now and that is her mission. I was challenged and encouraged by her. Instead of letting the hardships tear her down she used them to strengthen her relationship with God and although her living conditions are not ideal she chooses to use it as a witness. Her love and passion for Christ I will not soon forget.

Since this week was my birthday the CATs threw a pizza party for me on Saturday. Danny, the Italian, made the pizzas and they were fantastic. I "lost" count on how many pieces I actually ate after the fourth one. I can only console myself in the fact that the crust was very, very thin so it would take about four of those to, surely, make up one of American size pieces...right? I felt quite loved and blessed this year and it seemed as though my birthday lasted a whole week; since I got several little celebrations.

My (Regina's) week again revolved around reading and note taking. The topic for my papers are as follows. In "Anabaptists, Authority, and the Bible", I will be examining how Anabaptist hermeneutics (biblical interpretation method) can address the current state of Christianity in the United States. In my "Church and Social Ethics" class, I am studying the evolution of the Anabaptist/Mennonite peacemaking ethic based upon their history and hermeneutic. I have yet to read a book in my research that I have not enjoyed.

This morning in church I (Regina) was challenged by the message brought to us by a member of the Northumbria Community in the UK. He emphasized "right seat, fitting task, willing heart", or being present and feeling God's call were he has placed you at this moment. It challenged me to focus on the work that God is doing in me and through me while I am in the Czech Republic, instead of focusing on, and worrying about the future (i.e. what in the world I'm going to do after mid-June?) You can pray that I can be more attuned to what God is calling me to do during the remainder of my time in the Czech Republic. I pray that you all my find God were you have been placed. Thank you for your continued prayers and support! We appreciate them greatly.

A Visit

This week was a semi-vacation. We had the pleasure of having Lena's family around for the week. Lena took them to all the Prague sites, the Castle, Wenceslas Square, Old Town, and the Jewish Quarter. Regina read and took notes on the books that Leah so graciously brought from the EMU library. She did however, get a chance to spend a few days out with the Rissers. Along with the Prague sites, some of the group visited Karlstejn Castle outside the city. They were awestruck. We also celebrated Phil and Lena's birthdays on Friday night at a nice little Italian restaurant. The Italian food was great, but nothing can compare to Czech food, especially sausage. Just ask Jason. Saturday night Lena and I took Leah out for a nice dinner before reluctantly sending her back to school. Today, Sunday, is a wonderful relaxing end to the week. We're glad that we had this time with them and having this chance to share our lives in Prague with them. Next week, back to reality.

In sickness and in health...

In the promise of spring through sunshine and warmer weather I, Lena, always find excitement and rejuvenation. I also find that it comes hand in hand with my least favorite part... runny noses and laryngitis. I have new found appreciation for cold medicines and steaming cups of peppermint tea and the blessed relief they bring. As I look back on this week I find great humor in the fact that the week I am asked to help lead music, I lose my voice. But, that is the beauty of life and its many surprises.

This week I, Lena, continued using my music and culinary skills to serve the IBTS and Russian Baptist church communities. I joined two CAT students, who were leading chapel, to help with music. I also volunteered to help with coffee time every morning. To my great pleasure, I was told I could provide a freshly baked snack whenever I wanted; so, I promptly took advantage of that offer.

I have continued my English classes this week, however we only met once since the other days did not suit the students. For the first hour we met to sing together. They seem to thoroughly enjoy learning songs in English. I am hoping to find Russian translations so they can more fully understand the meaning of the songs. We then had a birthday celebration of very yummy cake and cookies and finished off the evening with an English lesson. It is always encouraging to hear a groan or an exclamation when I say, "That is all I have planned for this evening." The youth seem to genuinely want to speak English, its just difficult to connect what is learned in a school classroom to conversing. They keep telling the youth advisor

not to translate unless asked because they want to try and understand by themselves. It seems

these classes in the evenings are good because it gives the youth something to do and keeps them out of possible trouble. However, it also seems that maybe there are some complications with homework getting done so my classes have been shortened to three times a week. So, prayers could be used on how these youth can best manage their time. Also, how I can most effectively teach with only three weeks left. Time seems to be flying by.

As mentioned before, I was in the middle of a full blown seasonal cold by Thursday and had to take the weekend lighter. So, I missed the fun excursion in the snow to the Karlstejn Castle on Saturday. It looks like Winter is not quite ready to say goodbye just yet.

It has been a blessing living with Lena, but the downside is catching her cold symptoms. After taking the train 40 minutes outside Prague to view Karlstejn Castle, I,Regina, came down with a slight fever and head cold. Before that

however, I enjoyed the day with friends exploringthe castle which was built by Charles IV to guard the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire. Earlier in the week my activities included the important but slightly monotonous tasks of reading books and taking notes for my papers. I am finding lots of overlap between my two topics and in my sources which is great.

Lena's family arrives in a few hours and we are excited to spend the next week showing them our lives in Prague. Continue to pray for motivation both in researching and in my job search. Your prayers continue to be greatly appreciated.