Czech Log, Day one

So, for the next week, this is my new Czech blog. Check (hopefully daily) for updates.

August 1, AM: We arrived safely with very little travel setbacks. One of our boarding tickets would not scan, we received a bag of cookies instead of the lunch listed on our itinerary, and our eight hour layover was not that bad. We found some lounge chairs in one part of the airport that allowed us to sleep.

Our team met our missionary leader…Steve and his family. They are putting the long, hard days, weeks, months and years necessary to reach these people. They are so concerned for them. Over the generations, “church” has become something to be distrusted. It takes time to develop relationships so people will let their guard down and see what Jesus is all about. Our goal this week is to help start those relationships through our English classes and other interaction.
Today, we learn. We familiarize with the materials we will be using, learning more about the culture, and how we will work together.

August 1, PM: We saw a castle today. Amazing what man can build. Speaking of which, we did not have time to go inside (maybe Wednesday), but we stopped by St. Charles Cathedral. Breathe taking. I wonder if this is the kind of thing Jesus really wanted built. But, I heard an interesting presentation about architecture in the Bible years ago. The Tabernacle and the Temple were exquisite. God does love creativity. I just wonder about this tension though.

The strategy here is to build relationships. We will do this by starting with a survey about spiritual matters. We will then invite them over for English study in the evening. From there, the church can continue contact. The relationship and community is vital for a Czech. It often takes over a year before someone commits. We will be part of that chain.

We enjoyed the first service for Bridge Community at their new location (which also happens to be where we are staying). Most of the service was in English, but we sang some of the songs in Czech and the passage was read in Czech too. Since it is common to take one’s shoes off before entering a home, we had our church service in socks or bare feet. I’m going to try that some Sunday at Zion just to see what happens.

Finally, it was almost 8PM and our team had no supper yet. We head to the mall for a quick bite. We ate at a place called McDonalds. A big mac is a big mac is a big mac wherever you go. The mall has shops of the very expensive to the somewhat expensive. I drove through Eastern Europe (including Prague) twenty years ago. The change is drastic from a cold war era grey town to one filled with commerce and color. But overall in terms of Jesus, they are no better off. This is a tough place to work.

Pastor Joe