Easter "lamb cakes"

This week we have been celebrating Easter in my English classes. It has been exciting! There is a tradition that is held by most Czech people of making cakes in the shape of a lamb for the Easter holiday. Unfortunately, most of the students do not seem to connect that tradition with the Passover or with Jesus-the Lamb of God.

For the Bible portion of our lessons this week, we read from Exodus Chapter 12 about the first passover celebration. What a great story. The students heard how Moses repeatedly asked Pharaoh to let the Israelites be released from their bondage of slavery. Pharaoh refused to let them go, despite the plagues that God sent across the whole land as a warning to him. We read about how God instructed His people to sacrifice a perfect one year old lamb and then put the blood from the lamb on the doorways of their homes. The Israelites obeyed God and their sons were spared when the Spirit of God passed over the houses in Egypt, killing the firstborn sons. Pharaoh did not obey and his son died. What a powerful illustration of the power of the blood of the lamb!

In our classes we connected the story from the Old Testament to Jesus Christ, the true lamb of God. We talked about how, like the passover lamb was sacrificed to save the firstborn sons from death, Jesus died to save US from sin and death! When we acknowledge that Christ died for us (and drink his blood in communion with him) God passes over us...we are saved from death and eternal punishment in hell! Jesus' blood frees us from sin. He died and rose again so that we can have new life with God! Alleluia! It is finished. Through the blood of Christ we are forgiven and can live with God in His kingdom for ever and ever! :) Hooray. What good news!

Let us pray that the students will understand what Jesus did by dying on the cross for them and rising again at Easter. Let us pray that the lamb cakes that the Czech families make will have new meaning this year because of the students' knowledge that Jesus, the lamb of God, died to take away the sins of the world (including their sins!)

Also...thank you for your prayer for my students...steps of faith are being made!

When asked how she would describe God, Jana accurately described Jesus Christ with many true characteristics including his love and forgiveness. When asked the same question, Alena and Jarmila agreed that God exists in the Trinity. Hooray! This is progress (especially in a society where many people refuse to acknowledge God's existance at all!)

Another student, Jitka had a question about how God could be both loving and just...but she agreed with John 3:16 that Jesus Christ died for her sins! Hooray!!! Rejoice! :) Let us pray that Jitka will continue to grow in her faith in God through prayer and reading of the Word and that she will be surrounded by a loving community of believers.

Thank you for your prayers! God hears and He answers us! He is working and His Spirit is moving here among these Czech students. Let us pray that the seeds of truth that have been sown in peoples' hearts would continue to grow and that the next few months would bear eternal fruit for the Kingdom of God.

Advertising...

So, I have been noticing the advertisements around Prague lately. It is disturbing! It is hard to avoid being attacked by ideas from "the world." There are posters on escalators going up to street level from the metro, in the metro, on the busses, and on billboards around the city.

The messages that these billboards send are the opposite of the truth that God wants us to hear! The Bible says "...In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Psalm 16:11)

But what does the world say? But this car and you will be happy, buy these products and you will be happy, look a certain way and you will be happy...

The most disturbing billboard that I saw was a picture of an attractive lady who was actually kissing the devil! How evil! That message says: in order to be attractive, you must kiss the devil?! How foolish! How ridiculous! I pray against that lie in the powerful and precious name of Jesus Christ!

God our Father in heaven loves us unconditionally! We don't have to look for happiness apart from Him!

Let us pray that we will have discernment to be able to resist these falsehoods, turn away from temptation, guard our hearts and find our true identity in Christ. Let us also pray to our Sovereign Lord who has control over the advertising in all parts of the world asking Him to remove the advertisements that would propagate lies and to help us replace them with truth by sharing the gospel of hope, love and peace with people in the world who are starving for meaning, purpose, direction and truth!

"Christy" movie parties

Last fall I had the opportunity to meet with a Czech language partner. Every Wednesday Mirka would help me with my Czech and I got to help her with her translation of the American novel "Christy" ! :) For the past 10 years Mirka has been translating "Christy" from English into Czech. Her translation is nearly complete! (Would anyone be interested in sponsoring the publication of this book in the Czech language??!)

This Christian novel is based on a true story about a young schoolteacher who goes to teach at a mission school in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Because of the setting, the novel includes a lot of slang and "mountain dialect" (which was certainly a challenge for Mirka in the translation process as she tried to find the Czech equivalent of the meanings of the mountain slang words.)

Mirka was kind enough to let me borrow an extra copy of the novel and I really enjoyed the book! It was an encouragement to me to read about the young teacher Christy's struggles during her first year because this is also my first year of teaching! The book helped me to put things in perspective...I became grateful that I didn't have a herd of pigs living under my classroom, that all of my students have textbooks to use that are at their level and that people in my community are not battling typhoid or other diseases. (I guess the Lord gives strength to all in the proportion that they need it, but the community in the novel certainly had a lot of challenges to face!)

I was excited to learn that the novel "Christy" has also been made into a TV movie series! One of my friends here has all of the DVDs and she was generous enough to let me borrow them! We have been able to haev two "Christy movie parties" so far. On Saturday afternoons at 1:00 girls (including my students from my classes, students from English camp, Czech friends and other missionaries) have come over to enjoy refreshments and then watch "Christy" together! It has been a fun time of fellowship with good discussion about Christian themes. I'm hoping that we'll be able to enjoy more parties in the upcoming months too! :)

I am thankful for Christian authors (like Catherine Marshall, author of Christy) who are bold enough to write honestly about the realities of life from a Christian perspective. Let's pray that as we are challenged by other peoples' walks with the Lord that we will be motivated to find new faith and trust in our God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, who always loves us and who is always with us! :)

For more information about the "Christy" movie series, please check out this link:
http://members.tripod.com/~Constance_2/index.html

Thanks! :)

Worship nights

Over the past few months my roommate and I have been hosting worship nights at our apartment with our neighbors Petr and Mirka. It has been such a blessing.

I realized before Christmas that my soul had felt like it was withering away without being filled with regular worship in English...so it was time to find ways to try to fill this emptiness.

Thankfully others were willing to engage in worship of the Lord Jesus with me too! We found some chords and lyrics in Czech and English and with Petr's accompaniment on the guitar, the worship nights came to life. :)

Various groups of people gathered here at the apartment on the different worship night occasions, so each evening of fellowship had a little different flavor, but I think that the evenings were a blessing to all who were able to come.

We worshipped the Lord together!

We also enjoyed each others company over coffee/tea and other refreshments, spent time praying together, conversed about the Word and other important life topics and read some Scripture together. It was so refreshing to be in the presence of other believers, discuss important questions and share life togehter.

Let's pray that all in this community will live with their hearts filled with worship and praise the our God, the one who loves us and who made us.

Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his [a] ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

"Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts." -Ephesians 5:19

Goulash!

Our church has decided to have parties after the services on all of the "fifth Sundays" of the year to encourage community and fellowship. For the "fifth Sunday" in January we had a community dinner that was pretty exciting...the theme for the luncheon was traditional Czech goulash!

I had the opportunity to learn to make Czech goulash with my neighbors Petr and Mirka on the day before the party. It was quite amazing...they had purchased the ingredients and there were pounds and pounds of meat...Petr said that he had purchased all of the pork that the local butcher had available! It was enough to make at least 50 poritons of the goulash! We cut up all of the pork and many, many onions. Then Mirka started cooking the goulash in four different kettles-using every burner on her stove. We added spices like paprika and we each took turns stirring. The stew boiled for at least four hours...and it turned out well!

The actual party was quite a bonding experience for all in attendance. There was enough goulash for everyone to eat their fill and it was served with rye bread and cranberry sauce. Other guests brought more tasty food contributions such as Czech salads and desserts. It was a fun event!

Let's pray that the people who come to Skalka will feel welcomed as part of the family of God and that the name of the Lord Jesus will be praised by all! :)

Kid's Club

We have started the new semester at Kid's Club! We meet every Wednesday to study English and have a Bible time together.

Last semester for the Bible lessons we focused on God's Ten Commandments. This semester we will be studying "Heroes of faith" from the Old Testament.

Will you please pray with us that the attendance at Kid's Club will increase? We had quite a good turn-out at the beginning of the year, but recently only a few kids have been coming.

Will you please pray with us that it will be an enjoyable time for everyone, that the teaching will be truthful and filled with God's love, mercy and grace and that the kids will come to know the the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Friend?

Thank you.

New semester at Skalka

February marks the start of our second semester of classes, clubs and programs at Skalka!

We were pleased that some new students have already come to join in our classes this week. We hope that their hearts will be ready and that they will be open to hearing the words of the gospel-of repentance and forgiveness of sins!

This is a great privelege and a great opportunity to reach out to new people with different circles of influence in our society here.

We are hoping that the students will feel welcome, that they will find a class at the level that matches their ability and that they will get integrated into the classroom environment.

May their lives be changed and their hearts be touched with the truth that they hear about the love of God and the grace that we have through the blood of the Lord Jesus our Savior!

"In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (Revelation 5:12)

Will you please join us in prayer for this next semester? We would love to see the fruit of faith growing in peoples' hearts here!

Thank you!