Hello there.
It is Saturday morning... my day off! yeessssss.
So I left off with painting at a church on wed. morning. That evening we went to a homeless feed at a church just outside Brisbane city. It was really uncomfortable at fist because the majority of our team is female and most of the people there were male. It also seemed to me that a lot of them were either drunk, on drugs, or had a mental disability. After we started serving the meal, I felt a bit more at ease and eventually sat down at a table to chat because there were too many of us serving. I began speaking with a man who asked me about where I came from and what I do for work, etc etc. Eventually, since I am from the States he had to ask an inevitable question.... he prefaced it with "You don't have to answer this, but I'm curious, What do you think of George Bush?".... I knew it was coming... and I just said, "well, I'd sure hate to have his job right now." Kept it really general because I'm not really into debating politics anyways. He was polite, and we just speculated that this coming election will be very interesting, no matter WHO gets voted in... AND, especially if either of the democratic runners get in. I really haven't done enough research myself yet, to make an educated decision on the subject. I'm sure this next statement will raise some eyebrows, but honestly I'm at the point where I'm just not worried about who gets in. Above all else, God is my ruler... don't get me wrong, I'm going to vote and do what I can and what He has empowered me to do, but the rest is out of my control.
Okay, so that took a turn to politics.... anyways... the conversation was good, I took a step out of my comfort zone and invested in a man's life for just 20/30mins. I left knowing that if I give God what I can, He'll do the rest.
On Wed. night just before falling to sleep I was feeling a bit feverish. I finally fell asleep and woke up in the morning feeling average, so I got ready and met my team to go paint at a new recording studio. Painting at this place was not as fun as the other one... could have been the fact that my fever came back and I actually ended up sitting in a room unoccupied by anything for about an hour. Owell... later that day we were going to have "team time"... but Kate cancelled it because there was too much other stuff going on and our team members had work duties on the base anyways.
Yesterday my team went to an old folks home and performed a concert, but I didn't go because I needed rest. There wasn't anything for the artists to do anyways. Laura said there wasn't even an opportunity to talk with the residents because it was a concert and when it was done they all left within 5minutes!
I've been feeling much better today. It was a pretty lazy day... but nice because I got to chat on gmail with my sister and talk to mom and dad as well. Good times.
Leaving tomorrow for Redcliffe.... these next weeks are going to fly by.
Here are a few prayer requests..
1. That I'll focus on my time left here and really pour myself into these last weeks.
2. Details when mom and dad come will pan out... (yeah, fyi. my parents are coming to see me here in a couple of weeks!!)
3. For my mom and dad as they prepare to come... low stress levels.... etc.
Thanks mates!
cheers.
(sorry about the lack of pictures... the security in this place makes it mega hard to upload photos!!)
3.28.2008
3.25.2008
Outreach in AussieLand
Last week our "outreach" activities involved working at a music festival called "Easterfest." I had the great job of manning the art gallery. It really was a sweet deal, the others had really odd jobs around the festival.
Being at the festival was interesting, as I've only been to Sonshine in Wilmar, MN... it definitely was different, less space here and a lot of different things to do and check out. Like, our tent for example was the "Chai Circle"... we served hot chai and had little concerts. One of the days we actually had Geoff Moore in our tent talking about, well I don't remember actually what the topic was, but he talked about an experience in Haiti so I of course was hooked!! If you don't know who Geoff Moore is.. he's a singer from the mid 90's... "I've Got a Friend Like You... (and you, and you an dyou and you)....... Oh the days of Youth Choir....
Anyways... that was one funny highlight... since it's not like he's my favorite by any means. Other highlights were, well... okay highlights is not a good word because it wasn't like the best music festival ever... BUT watching the Newsboys IN Australia, where two of the original band members (who are still with them) are from was pretty cool. They were telling stories about how when they first started out they sold these things called "Lamington's" to get money. Lamington's are along the lines of a "Snowball" cake thing... but they are in strips and small... they actually remind me of this thing you can get a gas stations... usually raspberry with coconut covering them. I miss Phil Joel being with them, they're just not the same anymore.
Jars of Clay also performed, but I wasn't that impressed with them either... I think I prefer them on albums rather than in concert. Some of there new stuff almost harkens the sound of the 80s... ick... for those of you from work who may read this, I was really thinking about Shofar during this one song... it was so strange!! They did do some of there old stuff, so that was cool, but they just didn't have a good stage presence... I've seen them before and liked them better, maybe they had an off day. :)
We got back on Sunday late night, then woke up early on Monday to go to a city called Ipswich to help out with their "Easter Monday FUnday"... I painted faces of children for about 7hours with only about 30mins/less break!! It was insane and intense... and actually went pretty fast surprisingly.
Tuesday (yesterday) was our day off and then today the Czech team went to a church and painted a chunk of a wall outside... it was really fun! Hot and sweaty, but we all worked together and had good conversation, etc. This is something I think we lacked on our outreach to Czech, I think we would have done much better to do some of these types of things before leaving. It really cultivates comradery within the team.
Tomorrow is unknown to me at the moment, but I think tonight we'll find out our schedule for the rest of the week.
That's about it for now.... One month and a day to go until I am back in MN!!
Cheers
Being at the festival was interesting, as I've only been to Sonshine in Wilmar, MN... it definitely was different, less space here and a lot of different things to do and check out. Like, our tent for example was the "Chai Circle"... we served hot chai and had little concerts. One of the days we actually had Geoff Moore in our tent talking about, well I don't remember actually what the topic was, but he talked about an experience in Haiti so I of course was hooked!! If you don't know who Geoff Moore is.. he's a singer from the mid 90's... "I've Got a Friend Like You... (and you, and you an dyou and you)....... Oh the days of Youth Choir....
Anyways... that was one funny highlight... since it's not like he's my favorite by any means. Other highlights were, well... okay highlights is not a good word because it wasn't like the best music festival ever... BUT watching the Newsboys IN Australia, where two of the original band members (who are still with them) are from was pretty cool. They were telling stories about how when they first started out they sold these things called "Lamington's" to get money. Lamington's are along the lines of a "Snowball" cake thing... but they are in strips and small... they actually remind me of this thing you can get a gas stations... usually raspberry with coconut covering them. I miss Phil Joel being with them, they're just not the same anymore.
Jars of Clay also performed, but I wasn't that impressed with them either... I think I prefer them on albums rather than in concert. Some of there new stuff almost harkens the sound of the 80s... ick... for those of you from work who may read this, I was really thinking about Shofar during this one song... it was so strange!! They did do some of there old stuff, so that was cool, but they just didn't have a good stage presence... I've seen them before and liked them better, maybe they had an off day. :)
We got back on Sunday late night, then woke up early on Monday to go to a city called Ipswich to help out with their "Easter Monday FUnday"... I painted faces of children for about 7hours with only about 30mins/less break!! It was insane and intense... and actually went pretty fast surprisingly.
Tuesday (yesterday) was our day off and then today the Czech team went to a church and painted a chunk of a wall outside... it was really fun! Hot and sweaty, but we all worked together and had good conversation, etc. This is something I think we lacked on our outreach to Czech, I think we would have done much better to do some of these types of things before leaving. It really cultivates comradery within the team.
Tomorrow is unknown to me at the moment, but I think tonight we'll find out our schedule for the rest of the week.
That's about it for now.... One month and a day to go until I am back in MN!!
Cheers
3.18.2008
Post Outreach
Post Outreach...
We've been back at the base for a whole week now. I was one of the lucky ones who got to stay a couple days longer before heading to our next destination which is called Easterfest. It's a music festival and we're hosting a spot called the Global Village... it will have musicians and dancers and an art gallery. It should be a good time, we leave tomorrow morning. I still have to pack.... as usual.
I've been feeling my own pressure to post a blog of reflections about outreach, but it has been really hard. I don't feel like posting because there still so much processing going on in me at the moment. I'm wrestling with God about why exactly our team dynamics were so frustrating... why I couldn't seem to figure out how things should change.
I won't be able to post much in the next few weeks, possibly next week, but other than that I'm not sure. I think with more time I'll be able to process this better later anyways.
Thank you for your continued support!!
Cheers!
We've been back at the base for a whole week now. I was one of the lucky ones who got to stay a couple days longer before heading to our next destination which is called Easterfest. It's a music festival and we're hosting a spot called the Global Village... it will have musicians and dancers and an art gallery. It should be a good time, we leave tomorrow morning. I still have to pack.... as usual.
I've been feeling my own pressure to post a blog of reflections about outreach, but it has been really hard. I don't feel like posting because there still so much processing going on in me at the moment. I'm wrestling with God about why exactly our team dynamics were so frustrating... why I couldn't seem to figure out how things should change.
I won't be able to post much in the next few weeks, possibly next week, but other than that I'm not sure. I think with more time I'll be able to process this better later anyways.
Thank you for your continued support!!
Cheers!
3.09.2008
Wrap up in Prague...
Right at this moment, while typing, I am in Germany at Andy's family's house. It is very nice, we all have our own mattresses to sleep on and a huge open area with a kitchen, big bathroom with nice tub and separate shower, and a couch/sitting area with TV to watch movies.
Last blog that had a schedule update, I left off on Thursday... first I will update on the rest of the time and in the following blog I will add in my personal thoughts on the whole thing.
Friday, Feb. 22nd...
In the morning I led a time of worship and prayer with music I picked from iTunes. It was mostly instrumental, to get us into a time where we could just get out all the stress of the last week and lay it at His feet. We then went out into the city and did prayer walks in all different areas as we chose, walking in 2's and 3's. After about 45mins we met back and ate out for lunch.
In the afternoon, the musicians practiced for a gig at a Pub/Hostel called Sir Toby's which started at 8ish that evening. Unfortunately, the place was a bit cramped and didn't really offer opportunity for us to paint while they played. It may have proved to be awkward in that setting anyways.
Sat. Feb 23rd
Our DAY OFF! I took my time, for the most part, waking up and getting ready. A few of us planned to meet at the castle around 2:00, so Laura and I started out earlier and grabbed lunch at a little "Portaviny" (food market) on the way. Originally we wanted to find a little sandwich shop, but the way we were walking didn't cater to our plan. We got to the castle early and went into the cathedral... it is huge and pretty amazing, so much detail in everything. If I remember correctly, I think they said it took 900 years to complete, I can't even wrap my head around the enormity of that fact. We met up with Tammy at 2:00ish, went back into the cathedral a bit and then went on to the Charles Bridge, which is the "famous" bridge in Prague. We walked ALL around the old towne and eventually ate dinner and went to Noah & Andy's to watch movies. Tammy and I had never seen the movie Chocolat, and the others didn't mind seeing it again. I really enjoyed it!
(these re-caps have been long, I'll try to make the next ones shorter)
Sun. Feb 24th
We went to New Beginnings Christian in the morning, had lunch with Jerry and Carol, chilled for the afternoon (which included some "tourism") and went back to our place. Mary Kate planned the evening group time which consisted of dinner and then everyone watching the movie "Transformers." It was a good time to just hang out and have fun... the movie was courtesy of iTunes ability to now rent movies! Very convenient.
Mon. Feb 25th
This was the day I posted the last blog of events... I was at the Laundromat. Upon getting back we ate lunch and then went to a park that overlooked Prague and worshipped in A Capella. We then went into the city and attempted "faith" courses which meant doing a "random act of kindness" or having attempting to speak english with someone and give them an encouraging word. (this is something I will talk about in a later post)
Tues Feb 26th
This morning we had two hours planned quiet time, we could go anywhere and journal, process, etc. I enjoyed this SO much! I just sat in a coffee shop, ordered a pastry and coffee, read my bible and wrote in my journal. I finally took the time to stop and listen to my Father... I found it so hard to do this while on outreach, and wish I had made the time to do it more often. For me, I like when I don't feel rushed because I have to "be" somewhere soon after, and every other time I felt that way. We met up with the rest of the group at noon, ate lunch and went to a museum of the History of Communism in Prague/Czech Repub. Following the museum, we discussed many things about what we saw. It was a great processing time! I may try and expand on the discussion in another blog, if I remember :).
Wed Feb 27th
We went to Andy and Noah's again for a team meeting, we played games and went over the schedule for the next week. There was more free time and then in the evening we went to a young adult home group. It was laid back and casual, we mostly just attended and chatted with the people there, most of whom spoke english. Eryn shared some verses about faith and we discussed and shared about experiences we've had in that area.
Thurs Feb 28th
I woke up early this morning and felt really sick, not specifically nauseous, but still a stomache ache. We had the choice to spend two hours again on our own or sleep in and relax and then eat a nice brunch. I slept. Still felt gross when I woke up later, but didn't want to miss the art museum we planned on going to in the afternoon. It was an exhibit of Salvador Dali's artwork, and actually was pretty disappointing. You'd think for an artistic place like Prague, they'd have a lot of his most famous works, but the ones that were his famous were only copies. We had another really good discussion about the museum... asked the question "What makes someone an artist?" and "What is art?"... Another long discussion that really made me think. Later that day I went to the IHOP prayer night again and then upon returning home Tammy asked if I'd want to go for a walk later. I jumped at the idea... oh yeah... and the rest of that story was shortly explained in a blog or two before this.
Fri Feb 29th (happy leap-day)
During the walk I took with Tammy(last night) we decided that we'd share the "sermon" time we had to do at a chapel this morning. The chapel was for an int'l school of kids that ranged from grade one to grade twelve. There were only about 50 kids total, so that was really nice. It's amazing how much easier it is to speak without an interpreter. The rest of the day we rested up for the IHOP Night Watch, as we were most likely going to stay up all night. The IHOP people wanted us there at 8, so we got there, set up and prepared for the night. It officially started at 9:00pm with worship... well, the whole night was worship with all different bands. Andy started off painting, then Noah joined and I started a bit later. I have to be honest that I still felt very disconnected from the focus, which was the youth in Prague. I mentioned a bit of a struggle in the post I wrote just before I left for the night.
At about midnight, Andy and I had our one on one and discussed a lot of things, since we hadn't met since Plzen. That was really the highlight of my night, being able to be honest with her about how I was feeling about outreach and specifically our time in Prague. I even told her about how I didn't really agree with some of the things that were taught during the lecture phase. It was good to have someone in leadership recognize the things that I was feeling and tell me I'm not alone in feeling some of the things.
Sat Mar 1st
We got back at about 7am and went to bed! We slept for about 5 hours and woke up slowly... ate a bit of lunch then Laura and I went into the city to finish some last minute purchases. Went to a coffee shop and waited until 7:00 to meet up with two others from the team and find a place to eat. We then wandered around Old Town for about 50mins, just when we were about to give up, we found a place on our way to the metro. It was sooooo good! What I ordered was so simple, yet so satisfying... a delicious salad with feta cheese olives and other veggies AND bruschetta. It was sooo great, and reminded me of Angela (my long-time friend and roomie for 2years) because she loves it... and once we ordered it at Green Mill and it was just NOT as good as what she had eaten while in Europe. I didn't know how it could be different... until now :). I miss you Ang!!
Sun Mar 2nd
Ever since getting to Czech I knew there might be an opportunity for me to meet up with Tom and Debbie Johnson (Tom used to be a pastor at Open Door, and now him and his wife are doing missions in Slovakia) as they are only about 2hours away from Prague. We had been in correspondence and earlier in the week they decided it would work best for them to meet me Sunday. Plans were set for 11am, and so we connected up... walked around old town and found a little place to eat lunch. It was so great to see some familiar faces from "home"... they had actually seen my parents just a month earlier as they were in the states for the Holidays. It was also nice because they were people on the outside, I felt like a "normal" human being for that 3ish hours. I don' t know quite how to explain it... but it was really refreshing.
That evening we went to Prague Christian Fellowship for church, following the service I talked to a couple different people, one czech and one american. We then got together as a group and planned for our school cultural presentation that was taking place Monday morning.
Mon Mar 3rd
We had to wake up early and get to our meeting place by ten to eight. The program started at 9 and went over really well. Each country represented shared about their culture. It was hard to choose exactly what to say since America is huge and there are really many different cultures within the country. One of my fellow Americans spoke on the Amish culture and the kids were really interested and had lots of questions. I spoke about the animals and national parks, and also touched very briefly on Native Americans. The last half of the time we actually did the art and music workshops, similar to the ones we did in Plzen. For the art one we had the students draw something from their culture and then share it with us in the end in english. We also had them listen to different styles of music and paint to the music. They really got into this more than I thought, the explanations at the end were very interesting. After our workshop we ate lunch in their cafeteria. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was we ate, something like sweet bread with pudding and a bowl of potato and meat soup.
Later that day we also had an English Club to help out with at New Beginnings, where we had the highschool hang-outs the first week.
Tuesday we had one last time with the highschool group and then we came back, ate lunch and packed everything into two vans that brought us to Germany. Andy's brother in law and friend came to bring us to her family's house. It was about a 3 hour drive, and I was in the middle seat... could've been much worse. :)
Last blog that had a schedule update, I left off on Thursday... first I will update on the rest of the time and in the following blog I will add in my personal thoughts on the whole thing.
Friday, Feb. 22nd...
In the morning I led a time of worship and prayer with music I picked from iTunes. It was mostly instrumental, to get us into a time where we could just get out all the stress of the last week and lay it at His feet. We then went out into the city and did prayer walks in all different areas as we chose, walking in 2's and 3's. After about 45mins we met back and ate out for lunch.
In the afternoon, the musicians practiced for a gig at a Pub/Hostel called Sir Toby's which started at 8ish that evening. Unfortunately, the place was a bit cramped and didn't really offer opportunity for us to paint while they played. It may have proved to be awkward in that setting anyways.
Sat. Feb 23rd
Our DAY OFF! I took my time, for the most part, waking up and getting ready. A few of us planned to meet at the castle around 2:00, so Laura and I started out earlier and grabbed lunch at a little "Portaviny" (food market) on the way. Originally we wanted to find a little sandwich shop, but the way we were walking didn't cater to our plan. We got to the castle early and went into the cathedral... it is huge and pretty amazing, so much detail in everything. If I remember correctly, I think they said it took 900 years to complete, I can't even wrap my head around the enormity of that fact. We met up with Tammy at 2:00ish, went back into the cathedral a bit and then went on to the Charles Bridge, which is the "famous" bridge in Prague. We walked ALL around the old towne and eventually ate dinner and went to Noah & Andy's to watch movies. Tammy and I had never seen the movie Chocolat, and the others didn't mind seeing it again. I really enjoyed it!
(these re-caps have been long, I'll try to make the next ones shorter)
Sun. Feb 24th
We went to New Beginnings Christian in the morning, had lunch with Jerry and Carol, chilled for the afternoon (which included some "tourism") and went back to our place. Mary Kate planned the evening group time which consisted of dinner and then everyone watching the movie "Transformers." It was a good time to just hang out and have fun... the movie was courtesy of iTunes ability to now rent movies! Very convenient.
Mon. Feb 25th
This was the day I posted the last blog of events... I was at the Laundromat. Upon getting back we ate lunch and then went to a park that overlooked Prague and worshipped in A Capella. We then went into the city and attempted "faith" courses which meant doing a "random act of kindness" or having attempting to speak english with someone and give them an encouraging word. (this is something I will talk about in a later post)
Tues Feb 26th
This morning we had two hours planned quiet time, we could go anywhere and journal, process, etc. I enjoyed this SO much! I just sat in a coffee shop, ordered a pastry and coffee, read my bible and wrote in my journal. I finally took the time to stop and listen to my Father... I found it so hard to do this while on outreach, and wish I had made the time to do it more often. For me, I like when I don't feel rushed because I have to "be" somewhere soon after, and every other time I felt that way. We met up with the rest of the group at noon, ate lunch and went to a museum of the History of Communism in Prague/Czech Repub. Following the museum, we discussed many things about what we saw. It was a great processing time! I may try and expand on the discussion in another blog, if I remember :).
Wed Feb 27th
We went to Andy and Noah's again for a team meeting, we played games and went over the schedule for the next week. There was more free time and then in the evening we went to a young adult home group. It was laid back and casual, we mostly just attended and chatted with the people there, most of whom spoke english. Eryn shared some verses about faith and we discussed and shared about experiences we've had in that area.
Thurs Feb 28th
I woke up early this morning and felt really sick, not specifically nauseous, but still a stomache ache. We had the choice to spend two hours again on our own or sleep in and relax and then eat a nice brunch. I slept. Still felt gross when I woke up later, but didn't want to miss the art museum we planned on going to in the afternoon. It was an exhibit of Salvador Dali's artwork, and actually was pretty disappointing. You'd think for an artistic place like Prague, they'd have a lot of his most famous works, but the ones that were his famous were only copies. We had another really good discussion about the museum... asked the question "What makes someone an artist?" and "What is art?"... Another long discussion that really made me think. Later that day I went to the IHOP prayer night again and then upon returning home Tammy asked if I'd want to go for a walk later. I jumped at the idea... oh yeah... and the rest of that story was shortly explained in a blog or two before this.
Fri Feb 29th (happy leap-day)
During the walk I took with Tammy(last night) we decided that we'd share the "sermon" time we had to do at a chapel this morning. The chapel was for an int'l school of kids that ranged from grade one to grade twelve. There were only about 50 kids total, so that was really nice. It's amazing how much easier it is to speak without an interpreter. The rest of the day we rested up for the IHOP Night Watch, as we were most likely going to stay up all night. The IHOP people wanted us there at 8, so we got there, set up and prepared for the night. It officially started at 9:00pm with worship... well, the whole night was worship with all different bands. Andy started off painting, then Noah joined and I started a bit later. I have to be honest that I still felt very disconnected from the focus, which was the youth in Prague. I mentioned a bit of a struggle in the post I wrote just before I left for the night.
At about midnight, Andy and I had our one on one and discussed a lot of things, since we hadn't met since Plzen. That was really the highlight of my night, being able to be honest with her about how I was feeling about outreach and specifically our time in Prague. I even told her about how I didn't really agree with some of the things that were taught during the lecture phase. It was good to have someone in leadership recognize the things that I was feeling and tell me I'm not alone in feeling some of the things.
Sat Mar 1st
We got back at about 7am and went to bed! We slept for about 5 hours and woke up slowly... ate a bit of lunch then Laura and I went into the city to finish some last minute purchases. Went to a coffee shop and waited until 7:00 to meet up with two others from the team and find a place to eat. We then wandered around Old Town for about 50mins, just when we were about to give up, we found a place on our way to the metro. It was sooooo good! What I ordered was so simple, yet so satisfying... a delicious salad with feta cheese olives and other veggies AND bruschetta. It was sooo great, and reminded me of Angela (my long-time friend and roomie for 2years) because she loves it... and once we ordered it at Green Mill and it was just NOT as good as what she had eaten while in Europe. I didn't know how it could be different... until now :). I miss you Ang!!
Sun Mar 2nd
Ever since getting to Czech I knew there might be an opportunity for me to meet up with Tom and Debbie Johnson (Tom used to be a pastor at Open Door, and now him and his wife are doing missions in Slovakia) as they are only about 2hours away from Prague. We had been in correspondence and earlier in the week they decided it would work best for them to meet me Sunday. Plans were set for 11am, and so we connected up... walked around old town and found a little place to eat lunch. It was so great to see some familiar faces from "home"... they had actually seen my parents just a month earlier as they were in the states for the Holidays. It was also nice because they were people on the outside, I felt like a "normal" human being for that 3ish hours. I don' t know quite how to explain it... but it was really refreshing.
That evening we went to Prague Christian Fellowship for church, following the service I talked to a couple different people, one czech and one american. We then got together as a group and planned for our school cultural presentation that was taking place Monday morning.
Mon Mar 3rd
We had to wake up early and get to our meeting place by ten to eight. The program started at 9 and went over really well. Each country represented shared about their culture. It was hard to choose exactly what to say since America is huge and there are really many different cultures within the country. One of my fellow Americans spoke on the Amish culture and the kids were really interested and had lots of questions. I spoke about the animals and national parks, and also touched very briefly on Native Americans. The last half of the time we actually did the art and music workshops, similar to the ones we did in Plzen. For the art one we had the students draw something from their culture and then share it with us in the end in english. We also had them listen to different styles of music and paint to the music. They really got into this more than I thought, the explanations at the end were very interesting. After our workshop we ate lunch in their cafeteria. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was we ate, something like sweet bread with pudding and a bowl of potato and meat soup.
Later that day we also had an English Club to help out with at New Beginnings, where we had the highschool hang-outs the first week.
Tuesday we had one last time with the highschool group and then we came back, ate lunch and packed everything into two vans that brought us to Germany. Andy's brother in law and friend came to bring us to her family's house. It was about a 3 hour drive, and I was in the middle seat... could've been much worse. :)
2.29.2008
Int'l House of Prayer
In just a few minutes I'll be leaving for IHOP Night Watch. We will be in prayer for the youth of Prague and during the whole night all different bands will be performing and doing worship. During this time I'll be painting... it's actually ALL night, so it will be a long night but I am looking forward to it.
I will report more on this later, as for now I just wanted to leave you with a story.
Lately I've been feeling really low, for lack of a better description. I don't really know how to put it, but here in Prague we just haven't had as many events that we've been able to connect with locals. I have a hard time just walking up to someone and starting a conversation, let alone having a language barrier. All this to say.... I was talking to a friend from home yesterday night about all of this and during it, my teamate/friend Tammy asked if I wanted to go on a walk. I automatically said yes, without hesitation. It was about 10:00pm, and it was exactly what I needed. Sometimes in life you just need someone to listen to you, someone right there in person. We didn't have any grand answers for each other's situations, but to just talk about it without any expectations from the other was so refreshing. I really want to take in those moments, and remember that just because I wasn't ministering to someone from Czech, doesn't mean I'm not doing something.
God was with us last night, and I will treasure it for some time.
I can't say that I'm feeling 100% better... but I know God is doing something in me... and I'm not giving up.
I will report more on this later, as for now I just wanted to leave you with a story.
Lately I've been feeling really low, for lack of a better description. I don't really know how to put it, but here in Prague we just haven't had as many events that we've been able to connect with locals. I have a hard time just walking up to someone and starting a conversation, let alone having a language barrier. All this to say.... I was talking to a friend from home yesterday night about all of this and during it, my teamate/friend Tammy asked if I wanted to go on a walk. I automatically said yes, without hesitation. It was about 10:00pm, and it was exactly what I needed. Sometimes in life you just need someone to listen to you, someone right there in person. We didn't have any grand answers for each other's situations, but to just talk about it without any expectations from the other was so refreshing. I really want to take in those moments, and remember that just because I wasn't ministering to someone from Czech, doesn't mean I'm not doing something.
God was with us last night, and I will treasure it for some time.
I can't say that I'm feeling 100% better... but I know God is doing something in me... and I'm not giving up.
2.25.2008
Prague
As I said in the previous blog post, Monday was our day of travel to Prague.... and now I believe my laundry is soon to be done.... here are some thoughts of the beginning of our week in Prague...
We've been here for about a week so far and have had some challenging times going through some conflict within the team, etc. It's never easy learning the hard way, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
Actually, the dryer needed two dry cycles to be really dry. It's kind of expensive too, 60 crowns for each washing and drying, but I suppose it makes up for not having to pay for laundry the two weeks in Plzen and not really doing it anyways for the last week and a half. I didn't wash much in Plzen either, because the washer was about 1/4 the size of a normal US washer and there was little room to hang stuff and 7 other people who had to do small loads every now and then in between. So, yes, this outreach has definitely been an adventure!
This past tuesday was a pretty crazy day. We are teaming up with two different churches here. One is called New Beginnings Christian, and the same people run a Highschool outreach program that runs during the lunch times of the students. They are welcome to come down to this cafe type place and have pizza's, coffee, tea, etc. They've got ping pong and music videos going on during the time as well. It's a pretty cool place, but I guess they just run it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was talking to one boy who told me he wishes it was everyday. I haven't had a chance to ask the main guy who runs it, why they can't do it all week. I played ping pong with all the guys, it's that kind where you play all around the table.. I forget what you call it. That way, everyone can play and I actually like it better I think! :)
After the High school thing, we all went back and had lunch at our place. Which I must mention is a tight squeeze. The shower is actually in the "kitchen." We're actually really living in an office of the other church we're partnering with, Prague Christian Fellowship. There are two rooms we squeeze everyone in, the beds are all tight together with no space in between.
During lunch, we had a "family meeting"... and that's how it turned out... like the "typical" one would go... it was not good. We learned lessons about how to approach conflict... that's really all I'm going to say because, well, there's no reason to re-tell it. We came together again for a meeting with all the leaders the next day and things went much better.
Tuesday night we sat in with a youth group and shared some testimonies and heard some testimonies from the youth that attended. It was a small group and they ranged from 16 to about 22. During the time that we were praying at the end, we were pick pocketed! I guess the doors to outside weren't locked and someone came up outside our room and looked through the hanging jackets. They took the equivalent of about 40 US dollars from Laura's wallet and two other pairs of shoes of a couple of the guys of the youth group. (sorry, that was a jumbled mouthful!) Atleast it wasn't any identification documents or anything worse. How odd though, I actually think they took chapstick our of my coat pocket! How stupid, chapstick... I mean, it is good stuff... Chapstick brand and strawberry, my favoriite. But, come on.... how lame. I'm so glad I had the sense to keep my purse with me in the room!! That turned out to be a late night, we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so at like 9pm we went to a Chinese restaraunt for dinner. I had lemon chicken, and regretted it... not quite what I was thinking. Owell.... it was food and mostly edible...(had to be careful of bones).
Wednesday we went to Noah and Andy's place and had our meeting... it was good. We all got on the same page with things... Noah and Andy explained some changes with their leadership, which explained a lot of the confusion and frustration we were having.
The rest of the day we got to look around town for a bit and relax before going to the same youth group place from the night before. This time, it was younger kids, more about junior high ages. It was a lot harder with them, because they have only learned english for about 2 or 3 years... and probably the same kind of understanding that I'd have with french after only studying after two years or something. I still enjoyed observing and trying to communicate... I told them that I used to help out with youth at home and that no matter where you go, youth still all act the same way (you know, like body language, giggles, etc.). I so had wished I could have a good conversation with them, but even the interpreters were a bit hard to communicate with at times.
So... I still have more days to report about... and this is a long blog...
Thursday we had the highschool group again. The people who run it are Jerry and Carol and Jerry's sister and her husband. I forget their names... oops... they both have daughters, so during the outreach time I volunteered to watch them so they didn't get in the way of the kids playing ping pong. They were fun... gets me excited to see my nieces and nephew... I miss them so much. The girls' names were Sophie and Grace, Sophie is a few months older than Grace and talks a bunch. Grace was a bit quieter, but liked to randomly scream out at the top of her lungs.
After it was finished, the musicians practiced and we made and ate lunch at the center. We had some "chill" time and then Julia, Mary Kate, and I went to an IHOP evening of prayer. If you haven't heard of IHOP it stands for International House of Prayer... not Pancakes! :)
We've been here for about a week so far and have had some challenging times going through some conflict within the team, etc. It's never easy learning the hard way, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
Actually, the dryer needed two dry cycles to be really dry. It's kind of expensive too, 60 crowns for each washing and drying, but I suppose it makes up for not having to pay for laundry the two weeks in Plzen and not really doing it anyways for the last week and a half. I didn't wash much in Plzen either, because the washer was about 1/4 the size of a normal US washer and there was little room to hang stuff and 7 other people who had to do small loads every now and then in between. So, yes, this outreach has definitely been an adventure!
This past tuesday was a pretty crazy day. We are teaming up with two different churches here. One is called New Beginnings Christian, and the same people run a Highschool outreach program that runs during the lunch times of the students. They are welcome to come down to this cafe type place and have pizza's, coffee, tea, etc. They've got ping pong and music videos going on during the time as well. It's a pretty cool place, but I guess they just run it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was talking to one boy who told me he wishes it was everyday. I haven't had a chance to ask the main guy who runs it, why they can't do it all week. I played ping pong with all the guys, it's that kind where you play all around the table.. I forget what you call it. That way, everyone can play and I actually like it better I think! :)
After the High school thing, we all went back and had lunch at our place. Which I must mention is a tight squeeze. The shower is actually in the "kitchen." We're actually really living in an office of the other church we're partnering with, Prague Christian Fellowship. There are two rooms we squeeze everyone in, the beds are all tight together with no space in between.
During lunch, we had a "family meeting"... and that's how it turned out... like the "typical" one would go... it was not good. We learned lessons about how to approach conflict... that's really all I'm going to say because, well, there's no reason to re-tell it. We came together again for a meeting with all the leaders the next day and things went much better.
Tuesday night we sat in with a youth group and shared some testimonies and heard some testimonies from the youth that attended. It was a small group and they ranged from 16 to about 22. During the time that we were praying at the end, we were pick pocketed! I guess the doors to outside weren't locked and someone came up outside our room and looked through the hanging jackets. They took the equivalent of about 40 US dollars from Laura's wallet and two other pairs of shoes of a couple of the guys of the youth group. (sorry, that was a jumbled mouthful!) Atleast it wasn't any identification documents or anything worse. How odd though, I actually think they took chapstick our of my coat pocket! How stupid, chapstick... I mean, it is good stuff... Chapstick brand and strawberry, my favoriite. But, come on.... how lame. I'm so glad I had the sense to keep my purse with me in the room!! That turned out to be a late night, we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so at like 9pm we went to a Chinese restaraunt for dinner. I had lemon chicken, and regretted it... not quite what I was thinking. Owell.... it was food and mostly edible...(had to be careful of bones).
Wednesday we went to Noah and Andy's place and had our meeting... it was good. We all got on the same page with things... Noah and Andy explained some changes with their leadership, which explained a lot of the confusion and frustration we were having.
The rest of the day we got to look around town for a bit and relax before going to the same youth group place from the night before. This time, it was younger kids, more about junior high ages. It was a lot harder with them, because they have only learned english for about 2 or 3 years... and probably the same kind of understanding that I'd have with french after only studying after two years or something. I still enjoyed observing and trying to communicate... I told them that I used to help out with youth at home and that no matter where you go, youth still all act the same way (you know, like body language, giggles, etc.). I so had wished I could have a good conversation with them, but even the interpreters were a bit hard to communicate with at times.
So... I still have more days to report about... and this is a long blog...
Thursday we had the highschool group again. The people who run it are Jerry and Carol and Jerry's sister and her husband. I forget their names... oops... they both have daughters, so during the outreach time I volunteered to watch them so they didn't get in the way of the kids playing ping pong. They were fun... gets me excited to see my nieces and nephew... I miss them so much. The girls' names were Sophie and Grace, Sophie is a few months older than Grace and talks a bunch. Grace was a bit quieter, but liked to randomly scream out at the top of her lungs.
After it was finished, the musicians practiced and we made and ate lunch at the center. We had some "chill" time and then Julia, Mary Kate, and I went to an IHOP evening of prayer. If you haven't heard of IHOP it stands for International House of Prayer... not Pancakes! :)
The rest of Plzen... updates
(get comfy, cuz this is a long one!)
Today is Monday, I am currently sitting at a Laundromat in Prague about 5/6 metro stops down from the one by our residence. Prague is definitely a DIFFERENT place than Plzen, not better or worse... for the most part. It is a bit more sketchy around here, you really have to keep watch over yourself for pickpockets, etc.
Quickly I'll re-cap what we finished the week up with in Plzen... I shared about Valentine's night the last time I wrote. ACtually, I forgot to write about the day before... it was wednesday and the artists had the task of finding ways to decorate a "marriage" booth for a Valentine's market in the square. A couple from the YWAM team are involved with an organization that is all about marriage. I don't know how to describe it, but at the last minute they were able to get a booth at this V-day market in the square and they asked us to decorate it. For me, this task was super frustrating because we didn't have a good idea of how things were going to look, etc. Not to mention, we only had a day to plan it, with little resources available. We ended up getting some fabric to match the colors of the logo for the organization. Once we finished with that we went back to the villa and had lunch, and the rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and practicing, as the musicians had a concert for a cafe night at the Villa. The artists prepped canvases for that night and finished some decorations for the Valentines night as well.
The cafe night went well, although I had a headache the whole time, I painted one of my best paintings. I actually struggled with it the whole time, not knowing what it really "should" be, etc. I've always had a hard time painting while the musicians perform, I think because it also feels like a performance for me as well. But, I fought the urge to just give up on the concept... and at the end as I was just letting myself do my thing, the song title of one of Matt Patrick's songs came into my head. It's not on any of his recordings, but on his myspace page, it's called The Mess Inside of Me. I added words to this phrase and wrote it on the painting. Here's the painting:
Friday was a pretty good day, although the market was still on and the same people wanted the artists to do portrait drawing at their booth. In the cold. Let's just say, only two people had portraits drawn, and one of them was me! Because I don't do portraits on the spot, and we needed to attract the people, so I was the example :). Andy and Laura are fabulous portrait drawers! That evening we went to a Plzen Jr. Hockey League game for something fun to do... it was, except it was very cold and we left the game early in three shifts. Actually, the last group to leave stayed until the end, but I left after the 2nd period.
Saturday was a long day. We had a creative arts workshop to run at 2pm, but had to clean the villa again and then get the rooms ready. There was one room that Laura taught, it was how to draw a portrait with the correct proportions, etc. I was running a session with Andy that we called "creative expression" where you didn't necessarily have to have any talent. The first part of it we had them get a partner and draw them as a "tree." Sounds strange, but it was cool because for instance, I drew Andy and the tree that came to mind was a birch. They are tall, skinny and strong... I drew fall leaves that were changing because I know there are changes and have been changes in her life lately. Stuff like that, others drew trees with big roots if they knew that person was really grounded or had deep connections with people, etc.
The second part of ours involved the musicians... they played three different kinds of music and the "artists" were supposed to paint according to what the sounds made them feel like painting. I really liked this time, it brought me back to times when I'd just paint with my niece and nephew and not really think about anything I was painting, it would just come out.
After the creative workshop we went to our housing and had dinner with a group of catholic young people who were at a leadership training weekend. They asked us about missions, etc. It was a pretty good night, but I was disapointed that we couldn't drink the Pilsner Urquell they offered us (it's Plzen's beer, the brewery is right in the city) because of the no drinking rule of the YWAM Brisbane base. I'm not much of a beer drinker in the first place, but at the same time it was something from their culture etc. that would have been cool to experience. Owell....
Sunday we woke up stinking early and met Kaja (the pastor we teamed with the whole time) at the cathedral in the square at 7am! He goes to the top every sunday morning to pray for the city, which was pretty cool... both the view and his prayer time. It was also STINKIN' cold!! I think the coldest I've been this winter season!! My toes took forever to de-thaw. Immediately following that, we went to a church service at a Methodist church. We did a couple testimonies and I painted... being that I was cold and tired, my inspiration was really lacking and I really have no idea what I was painting the whole time.
That afternoon we went back to the villa and ate lunch and killed time before the second service we were going to run. This one was at a Gypsy Church... it was really freeing and I really enjoyed it. We had a few people share testimonies, two people painted (not me), and then musicians did the worship. During the worship time I set out paper for the congregation to come up and express worship through words or pictures. The mistake I made was letting the kids come up first. I have nothing against kids, but it didn't quite work well because none of the adults really participated and the kids were really loud so it was hard to completely enter into the time. I didn't let it phase me though, because maybe the distraction of the kids was okay...
Later that night we had a fun night with the YWAM team as it was our last night with them. We talked about what we had experienced the last two weeks and what we'll take away... or different impressions or thoughts. I really enjoyed the YWAMers in Plzen, their approach to missions etc, really resonated with me.
Today is Monday, I am currently sitting at a Laundromat in Prague about 5/6 metro stops down from the one by our residence. Prague is definitely a DIFFERENT place than Plzen, not better or worse... for the most part. It is a bit more sketchy around here, you really have to keep watch over yourself for pickpockets, etc.
Quickly I'll re-cap what we finished the week up with in Plzen... I shared about Valentine's night the last time I wrote. ACtually, I forgot to write about the day before... it was wednesday and the artists had the task of finding ways to decorate a "marriage" booth for a Valentine's market in the square. A couple from the YWAM team are involved with an organization that is all about marriage. I don't know how to describe it, but at the last minute they were able to get a booth at this V-day market in the square and they asked us to decorate it. For me, this task was super frustrating because we didn't have a good idea of how things were going to look, etc. Not to mention, we only had a day to plan it, with little resources available. We ended up getting some fabric to match the colors of the logo for the organization. Once we finished with that we went back to the villa and had lunch, and the rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and practicing, as the musicians had a concert for a cafe night at the Villa. The artists prepped canvases for that night and finished some decorations for the Valentines night as well.
The cafe night went well, although I had a headache the whole time, I painted one of my best paintings. I actually struggled with it the whole time, not knowing what it really "should" be, etc. I've always had a hard time painting while the musicians perform, I think because it also feels like a performance for me as well. But, I fought the urge to just give up on the concept... and at the end as I was just letting myself do my thing, the song title of one of Matt Patrick's songs came into my head. It's not on any of his recordings, but on his myspace page, it's called The Mess Inside of Me. I added words to this phrase and wrote it on the painting. Here's the painting:
Friday was a pretty good day, although the market was still on and the same people wanted the artists to do portrait drawing at their booth. In the cold. Let's just say, only two people had portraits drawn, and one of them was me! Because I don't do portraits on the spot, and we needed to attract the people, so I was the example :). Andy and Laura are fabulous portrait drawers! That evening we went to a Plzen Jr. Hockey League game for something fun to do... it was, except it was very cold and we left the game early in three shifts. Actually, the last group to leave stayed until the end, but I left after the 2nd period.
Saturday was a long day. We had a creative arts workshop to run at 2pm, but had to clean the villa again and then get the rooms ready. There was one room that Laura taught, it was how to draw a portrait with the correct proportions, etc. I was running a session with Andy that we called "creative expression" where you didn't necessarily have to have any talent. The first part of it we had them get a partner and draw them as a "tree." Sounds strange, but it was cool because for instance, I drew Andy and the tree that came to mind was a birch. They are tall, skinny and strong... I drew fall leaves that were changing because I know there are changes and have been changes in her life lately. Stuff like that, others drew trees with big roots if they knew that person was really grounded or had deep connections with people, etc.
The second part of ours involved the musicians... they played three different kinds of music and the "artists" were supposed to paint according to what the sounds made them feel like painting. I really liked this time, it brought me back to times when I'd just paint with my niece and nephew and not really think about anything I was painting, it would just come out.
After the creative workshop we went to our housing and had dinner with a group of catholic young people who were at a leadership training weekend. They asked us about missions, etc. It was a pretty good night, but I was disapointed that we couldn't drink the Pilsner Urquell they offered us (it's Plzen's beer, the brewery is right in the city) because of the no drinking rule of the YWAM Brisbane base. I'm not much of a beer drinker in the first place, but at the same time it was something from their culture etc. that would have been cool to experience. Owell....
Sunday we woke up stinking early and met Kaja (the pastor we teamed with the whole time) at the cathedral in the square at 7am! He goes to the top every sunday morning to pray for the city, which was pretty cool... both the view and his prayer time. It was also STINKIN' cold!! I think the coldest I've been this winter season!! My toes took forever to de-thaw. Immediately following that, we went to a church service at a Methodist church. We did a couple testimonies and I painted... being that I was cold and tired, my inspiration was really lacking and I really have no idea what I was painting the whole time.
That afternoon we went back to the villa and ate lunch and killed time before the second service we were going to run. This one was at a Gypsy Church... it was really freeing and I really enjoyed it. We had a few people share testimonies, two people painted (not me), and then musicians did the worship. During the worship time I set out paper for the congregation to come up and express worship through words or pictures. The mistake I made was letting the kids come up first. I have nothing against kids, but it didn't quite work well because none of the adults really participated and the kids were really loud so it was hard to completely enter into the time. I didn't let it phase me though, because maybe the distraction of the kids was okay...
Later that night we had a fun night with the YWAM team as it was our last night with them. We talked about what we had experienced the last two weeks and what we'll take away... or different impressions or thoughts. I really enjoyed the YWAMers in Plzen, their approach to missions etc, really resonated with me.
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