"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! :)