Week 1

Hello friends,

Hope you are all well. Thanks for the encouragement, prayers and emails during my first week here. It's good to hear from you. I hope that you're enjoying lovely summer days.

I like it here in Prague so far! I've been staying with a family from Bethlehem, the Potma's, and it has been nice to be a part of their everyday routines because what is typical for them is all new for me! I have been blessed to have been able to join the family for meals, pray with them and join in their daily devotions. It has been wonderful to be living in a Czech neighborhood and to get to do things with "locals" like going to the grocery store and experience "public" (the transportation around Prague by bus and metro).

...One of my first experiences riding the bus alone turned into an adventure when the bus broke down! Hehe! It started making strange noises and then all of the passengers were rushing to get off and were dashing onto another bus. I followed them, but it turned out that the new bus was an express route! Thankfully a helpful lady advised me to get off at a certain stop where I could get on the metro for one more stop to where I needed to be. Thank God for helpful Czech people! :)

All of the people doing ministry here are preparing for the English camps that will be happening starting this weekend. There will be 130 students at the first week of camp including children and adults. The camps are held in the mountains and students will have English lessons, learn about the Bible and do other camp activities. There will be 30 instructors (including me) who will be helping to teach the campers. Tomorrow the majority of the volunteers from Canada and America will arrive and then we will have training on Friday and other activities before we head for camp on Sunday!

I have been able to help out with preparing some of the lesson materials this past week, which is a huge job because there are so many age groups and levels. I was able to help with the creation of the packets of English activities that each camper will receive to complete during the week and the accompanying instructions for the teachers for the lessons.

Please pray for safe travel for these short-term missionaries and that our weeks at camp will be glorifying to our heavenly Father...that each camper will have an encounter with the truth about who Jesus is, who they are individually in God's eyes and that each of the camper's lives will be changed as they grow deeper or develop a relationship with Christ our Savior!

Besides preparing for English camps during the past week I was able to go to the foreigners' police to register as a "legal alien" in the country. The requirement is that a foreigner should register withing three days of arriving in the country. Hmmm, we didn't realize this until after more than three days had already passed... So, when I got to go to the office to register I was concerned because I was at risk of having to pay a fine (or get deported!) But, with the help of one of the other missionaries I was able to fill out the paper work. We didn't even have to wait in line for eight hours! The process went quite smoothly in the end, praise the Lord. I am now officially registered to be in the country and I didn't even have to pay a fine! Hooray! :)

Also, I was able to meet the teacher who has been teaching the English classes that I'll be teaching in the fall. She is going on her home assignment for a year and I'll be house sitting in her lovely apartment while she is away. What a blessing! Housing accomodations are hard to come by here in Prague and the quality of the apartments is quite variable too. Most of the people in the city live in "panelak" apartments built during the Communist era. Some have been re-done on the inside and others have not and are covered with graffitti and have become quite run-down. It just so happens that the Lord has provided Pat (and therefore me and my new Czech roommate Tereza) with a lovely re-finished apartment! Hoorah! I'm so grateful. And Pat is being so generous to allow us to use her furniture and everything while she is away. Incredible. Plus it is located within about five minutes of the Skalka ministry center where I'll be teaching in the fall. :) Praise the Lord!

Additionally, I was able to attend my first Czech worship services on Sunday! Hooray! Although I wasn't able to understand much of the first sermon, which was in Czech, I did get an English translation from the preacher who came out to lunch with the group of young adults after the service. Hooray for answered prayers for fellowship! It sounds like there is quite an active young adult group at the church I'll be going to here, which is a wonderful blessing. I'm looking forward to getting to know them more this year and inviting other new Czech friends to join us as well. Praise God for the body of believers.

Thank you all!
Take care,
Love,
Kate