I hope that you have been having a good summer. It's almost Labor Day...wow. What have you been up to lately?
Here is an update about how God has been working in my life and what I have been doing since English camp ended.
During the month of August I had the opportunity to go to the town of Dobruska, CZ for a month of intensive Czech language camp. It was a wonderful opportunity, especially because the entire experience (books, food, lodging, excursions and classes) were all paid for through a full-scholarship! Praise the Lord.
The course was for "Czech compatriots" who were mostly people who live in other countries whose parents had emigrated from the Czech Republic. There were about 70 students from 35 countries at the camp!! What a neat experience.
We took classes at the Charles University study center in Dobruska. It was quite a wonderful facility. There were dorm-style bedrooms, classrooms, common areas, a large multi-purpose room for activities and a computer room. We could even rent bikes!
Each morning we had breakfast in the main dining room. The had European-style breakfast options such as meat, cheese and bread as well as pastries, cereal and museli (which I preferred).
At 8:05 am morning classes began. The students were divided into classes at six levels. I got to be in the second level. Some of the advanced students were quite fluent in the language because they had grown up speaking Czech at home with their families and were participating in the course to learn more about grammar, reading and writing.
My classmates were interesting. There were 12 students in our class all together. I sat next to a girl named Gili from Israel. She was 13 years old...the youngest student in our camp! She came with her father and her grandmother who were also studying in other classes. Pani Magda, her grandmother, was 90 years old and was continuing to learn the langauge. Amazing. She had grown up in the Czech Republic but had escaped to Israel after WWII. It was inspirational to see her participating and studying.
The other students in my class were from many other places-USA, Germany, England, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil and Moldova! Wow. What a neat group of people. Some of the students in my class were a little bit more advanced than me-partly because their native languages (like Russian) are much closer to Czech than English is. So, when the teacher would ask a question in Czech, some of the students could respond quite fluently, whereas I spent quite a bit of time looking things up in my dictionary. I learned quite a bit of new vocabulary though! :)
My teacher Milena spoke only Czech in class! This was a challenge for me. I had been studying Czech at the Sokol Hall in St. Paul, MN for the past year, but our classes were taught mostly in English. I struggled at first to be able to follow the teacher's instructions, but gradually I became more comfortable with listening to the language. Milena also spoke Russian and German, which allowed some of the students to ask questions directly...but if I wanted to ask a question, it was more complicated because I would have to look up most of the words in my dictionary, haha!
Czech is a complicated language. There are three tenses. But, the complicated part is that there are seven cases within the tenses. This means that there can be up to seven different different endings for a word depending on how it is being used in the sentence (as well as different endings for number and gender of the word.)
I was glad that our couse also included cultural information about the Czech Republic. We had lessons in history, music, art and geography during the course of the month. Our morning classes went from 8:05-12:15 every day.
For lunch we were able to go to the local school cafeteria. Each of us was given a card to use to choose one of three menu options. The choices usually included chicken or pork and a starch such as potatoes, pasta, dumplings or rice. There were different types of sauces for the meals. One of my favorites was the dill sauce. After a few days I determined that the salad option would be a better choice for me. :) Bread, soup and some type of dessert were also available at each meal.
One thing that I had to get used to was the fact that restaurants do not offer normal tap water to thier customers. A person either has to bring their own beverage or pay for water. The typical type of water is "perliva" which is carbonated water. I definitely preferred the "neperliva" (non-carbonated) option. An interesting fact is that water often costs more than a bottle of beer here...
In the afternoons after lunch we had class from 2-3:30 pm. However, sometimes there were other activities to participate in instead such as tours of the local museum, nearby castles or other sights in the region.
Also in the afternoons when we didn't have other programs I had the chance to go running with a friend in the nearby woods. What a lovely time to get away, pray and experience the Lord's peace in the nature that He created! :)
Sometimes we got to go on all-day excursions to see interesting sights. Some of these included hiking to a WWII bunker, a trip to Prague to go to the Senate, and a trip to Hradec Kralove (a major city in the region).In the evenings there were often other events such as ethnic dancing lessons! I was so glad to get to do Czech folk dancing since I grew up participating in a Czech dance group for 15 years when I was younger. :) Some of the teachers played the music for the dances. Some of it was the same music that I danced to when I was younger, but the dances were a bit different. We also played dancing games...my partner and I were the victors in one of the games- "polka musical chairs". :)
Another funny dancing game that was played was done with partners and apples...It was hilarious! If I ever get married I think that I would like to play it at my wedding, haha! In the game each couple was given an apple. They had to dance the polka while balancing the apple between their foreheads. Whichever couple kept their apple balanced the longest was the winner!One of the highlights of the camp for me was the opportunity to get to listen to the other students' presentations of their countries in the Czech language during the "Evenings of the Nations." Students put together nice slideshows with pictures of their home countries. They showed major attractions, scenery and other parts of their local cultures. Some students even brought typical food to share (like spicy Mexican food, baklava from Syria and dulce de leche candies from Argentina), brought souveniers from their countries, wore typical folk dress, performed traditional songs in their native languages.
I was so interested to see the pictures of the Czech groups in many different places around the world. For example, some of the students from Argentina, Russia and Paraguay showed pictures of their local Czech groups...and the costumes, foods, and events looked quite familiar because our group at Sokol in Minnesota has similar local traditions! Sweet! How neat to be able to share a culture with people in so many places.
The schedule at the University was very full and there was not very much free time. In fact, the course director even scheduled classes and other activities on Sunday mornings. Thankfully they were flexible enough to allow me to go to church on Sundays anyway.
I was able to meet with local believers from the same church that I will be working with in Prague (Cirkev Braterska). It was neat. The first weekend that I met with them they were having a big service in the local cinema ("Kino") with believers from many of the churches around the region, which is something that they do once a month. It was neat to get to worship in Czech. Some of the music that we sang has the same tune as worship songs that I know in English, but the words are in Czech. It's cool!
On two other Sundays I was able to meet with the Dobruska C.B. church. It is a neat church-the pasor and his wife host the congregation in the first floor of their home and then they live in an apartment on the second floor with their new baby. It is a small group of worshippers, but they are faithful to meet together regularly and it sounds like their youth group is growing, which is a blessing. The pastor's sister was kind enough to translate the sermons from Czech into English for me during the services, which was such a blessing! I was happy to get to be able to participate in the singing, prayers and hear the testimonies.
Oh how lovely it is to be able to meet with fellowship with other believers. I was invited to go to the house of one of the families from the church after the service for lunch on two occasions. It was so great! The family lived outside of the town of Dobruska in a tiny little village. It was so picturesque and peaceful there. The family had a lovely garden and thier neighbors even had goats. :) It was so good to be able to spend time with a family and get to know them a little bit and just talk about wholesome things...
On the other hand, students at the language camp were not necessarily into such wholesomeness...many of them made lifestyle choices that involved going out to the bar and staying out until all hours of the night...it reminded me of unfortunate decisions that I had made earlier in my life...Praise God for His grace and mercy. The students would invite me to come along with them to the bar and thankfully, by the grace of God, I was able to say "no, thank you." It was hard for me though. I wanted to get to know the other students. But, I didn't want to live a worldly life that would take away from my witness for the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
I was saddened that it seemed that people were not interested in hearing about the Lord. What a contrast from English camp where people would listen with interest when talking about spiritual things. At camp in Dobruska when I tried to talk about spiritual things it seemed like there was a brick wall, that people were not interested, that they preferred living a life separate from the God who created them. :( ...it surely brought me to my knees... When I relized that I couldn't change hearts, I was reminded about the power of prayer...because that is the work of the Holy Spirit-to prepare the soil, to make people seek God, to make hearts turn from sin, to make people desire a relationship with the Lord. ..."Oh Lord, please prepare the way! Please prepare the soil, please allow them to desire a relationship with you...!"
I was also reminded that prayer and intercession are powerful ways to share Christ's love. I wanted to talk with people about the Lord, but I didn't want to go out partying with them because I didn't want to fall into sin, because I know that I am weak and because I wanted to spend time with the Lord instead of risking falling into temptation. If people are living lives apart from the Lord and making choices for their lives that would lead a believer into temptation, a believer can spend time praying for the person and trusting that the Lord will work in their heart and thus be guarded from temptation while still making a difference in the unbeliever's life through prayer!
How it must grieve our Lord to see the children that He has created turn to other things for their identity and enjoy things like drinking and partying more than fellowship with Him...It was sad for me to see the other students trying to get approval, attention and praise from their peers...I suppose that I do the same thing...oh let us pray that we will turn to God to know our identity. That we would fear God more than we fear man. That we would want God's approval more than the approval or attention from the people around us!!!Praise God that when we are brokenhearted He is close to us. (Ps. 34:8) Praise God that God is our Father who comforts us in our troubles. (2 Cor. 1:3-4)
I had some time in the evenings to pray and talk with the Lord about these things...many questions were brought up for me about how to witness in such an environment. ...I felt alone at times. It was hard. But, thankfully, God is good and He draws near to us when we draw near to Him. I was able to meet with God in His word and feel His presence in new ways.
It is interesting...when a person feels attacked and isolated, they realize that the spiritual battle is real. It was a time for me to realize how much I need the Lord. How much I need Him to conquer my fears of man and protect me from the evil that is around in the world. God is faithful. We can rest in Him!
I was encouraged to see how the Lord answered my prayers too...I was feeling a bit discouraged because it seemed like I had not had that many opportunities to share the gospel during the time in Dobruska. So, I prayed and asked the Lord if He would provide an opportunity to share with three people before the camp ended and that He would allow a bigger work to begin in someone's heart-that there would be one lasting relationship that would come out of the time there. ...The next day the Lord answered that prayer! I was able to have a conversation with three people about faith...and I was able to invite two friends who were looking for a place to say to come and visit me in Prague for a few days after camp! Sweet!! God is good. :)
During the experience of feeling lonely at Dobruska, I was reminded how important fellowship is. What a blessing it is to be around like-minded believers...people who know that they have been forgiven, people who are wiling to be honest with each other, people who love God and want to please Him and live for Him, people who are fighting against Satan and the desires of the flesh!
Now that I am back in Prague I have one more week before I will start teaching classes. Every week I will teach five classes. Each class will be two hours long. The class will begin with one and a half hours of English and end with half an hour of Bible study. I am grateful to have this opportunity to share with people.
Would you please pray with me? I have been reminded about the evil that exists in the world, that there is a real battle going on-that Satan has his plans for people and that people are giving in to evil.
But the Lord our God has a better plan for each of us!! He has a plan to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us a hope and a future!! (Jeremiah 29:11-13) Let us pray together that the people in my classes would come to know and love the Lord. That they will call out to Him. That they will desire to live in God's presence. That we will find our identity in Him alone. That we will seek His perfect and holy will for our lives. That in faith we will accept the grace that God offers to us through his son Jesus Christ!
Let us thank God for the good things that He gives us that remind us of His love for us. Praise God for the opportunity that I had to go to the Czech language camp, for the relationships that I was able to gain while I was there and the amazing things in the Czech Republic that God created that I was able to see!
Please pray for strength for me. For wisdom as I teach. For endurance and that I will lean on the Lord in the difficult times. Please pray for fellowship here-that the relationships with my teammmates and other believers would be holy and blessed and that we could encourage each other in faith.
Please pray that I would fear God more than man, that I would seek God's will. That I will listen to Him, trust Him and obey Him!
Thank you. I am so blessed to have supporters like you.
I hope that through the transitions that are happening in your lives you will find that the Lord is faithful, that He cares for you and that you will grow in the knowledge of His love each day as you draw closer to Him!
Please let me know how I can be praying for you too.
Take care,
With love in Christ,
Kate
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