Ahoj! This is my second day in Prague. I arrived at 1 o'clock (Czech time) on Saturday afternoon. I have already had the chance to do some sight seeing and this evening I went to the local church. Sadly, the Southcity Church (which meets in an elementary school) is the only evangelical church in the Southcity side of Prague's 4th district. There is one Catholic church also but that's it. This means there are only 2 churches for 45 thousand people! Can you imagine? On the way to the service Mark Potma (missionaries I'm staying with) told me that Czechs don't even use churches for weddings and funerals! But I was going to talk about my flights. Wow! I could totally tell you guys were praying. Everything went so smoothly. I also got to have some really neat conversations with the people who sat next to me. From Chicago to London I ended up sitting between two University of Missouri students. They were also on their way to Prague for an exchange/study abroad program. Jo...
Good news! Good news! Everyone has survived the first day of VBS! The power point was down 20 min. before we started, the sink in the girl's bathroom started leaking half-way through and we had to do some improvisation in the programing but in the end everything worked out and it was even FUN! My volunteers were awesome ( even if half of them showed up late and 20 kids showed up early)! There were 60 kids in total and every day the number will increase as each kid tells their friends. I just don't know what I'll do Friday and Saturday when Marisa (the pastor's wife) isn't around to lead the worship. She did a fantastic job and threw in a bunch of games that involved one team competing against the other. Pray that someone will step up for that. While I love children what most thrilled me was seeing the young people of the church stepping up and serving. Many of them have leadership gifts and so it was really neat to see that coming out. I just wish they'd stretch...
I released my death grip on the bar. Even if I did fall after a sharp turn the press of bodies in the bus would probably keep me from hitting the floor. The smell of unwashed bodies mingled with the smell of open sewage from the ´river´ (read open sewer canal/channel) that runs parallel with the road and flows into an actual river somewhere in Sao Paulo. All of this reminding me yet again that I am very very far from home. Today was hard that way. It wasn´t so much the sewer or the fact that I waited a half hour for my bus. It was really an accumulation of many factors. The lack of private space, the inability to get around efficiently and effectively, the fact that no one seemed to be placing a priority on finding a new place for me to stay and of course the lack of sleep, all of which led to a tearful morning. I was ready to pack my bags and head home. There is only so much ´otherness´ that a person can take and I´d reached my limit. Thankfully everyone was very understanding and I a...
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