Archive for July, 2007

My friend Steve McCoy, did this rating thing with his blog and I thought it would be fun to see what would come up with mine. I agree with what Steve said about his rating:

Actually, I would rather rate it PG-13 at best. I write for an adult audience.

So I was really disappointed that mine got a G. Not that I write sketchy stuff, but I don’t right for children. I guess, it’s a good thing! Well, I have to jump in the shower and go to Athlete’s in Action’s 40th Birthday Party! Have a great night!

It’s true, Czechs are adventure junkies! They love “action sports”! Which is fun for me, because it means doing ministry with them while they do these sports! So yesterday, when I was getting lost in the world of YouTube, I found the QuikSilver ad you see below. I don’t know if its real or how they did, but its crazy even if its fake! There is a word used in the song that I don’t condone and I also don’t condone throwing dynamite into historic rivers (yes, I said dynamite!). It will give you a bead on how they market to Czechs though! Sorry for being on this Czech marketing kick with my last two posts! Enjoy the video!

I just got back from picking my good friends, the Garretts, up from the airport and I’m getting ready to go to bed, but I had some work to do (i.e. returning emails). In the process of returning these emails, I had to watch my main promo video on YouTube and I of course was sucked into the other videos they have links to and I found two videos about Czech and Prague. Czech them out and notice how differently the city of Prague is marketed between to the two videos! I find it very interesting how the same place can be marketed so differently. I hope this makes you want to come to Prague! I love to show off “my” city!


For an extra bonus here are some travel pieces about Prague! I can’t wait to get “HOME” come September 4th! Enjoy the videos!

I AM ALIVE and so are my buddies who went with me! But I have a new found appreciation for the wild creation that God made and also for kayakers (for instance, rolling a kayak when you are upside down is really, really hard! I maybe had 60+ attempts in the pond and only had 2 successful attempts!)! It is way harder than it looks and as I sit here today I am very, very sore! I don’t have to much to update you on yet, but if we were to give out awards from our group yesterday here are the awards I would have won:

1st to nearly drown
Dumped in the Rapids the Most
Thus, The Best Swimmer Award
Use Your Butt as a Pinball Through the Biggest Rapids Award!

But you know what? I loved it! It isn’t the cheapest sport, but I would love to look into getting into it a bit more. There are some good rivers in northern Czech too! I watched some fun kayaking videos on YouTube and I posted my favorite one below. Kayakers are nuts! I didn’t do anything like these guys, but it’s entertaining. Blessings…. Oh, and thanks again Mom and Dad for the great birthday present!

Good Morning. I’m about to say my prayers and thank God for the exciting opportunity I have today. I GET TO DO WHITEWATER KAYAKING LESSONS! I’m so stoked! Pray that my friend Joel and I are still breathing at the end of today! I have to send a BIG SHOUT SHOUT OUT to my Mom and Dad for this, because they are paying for it for my birthday present! I don’t think I will do anything as crazy as the picture you see below, but I’d like too! Click HERE to read a bit about Whitewater Kayaking. Have a Revolutionary day! Stay tuned for more later!

I just got back from Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park after spending the day with my family up there! It was great! Hopefully, I will have some pics from it up on my flickr site soon! My parents and littlest sister, Mikaela, are in town for XTRACK’s family weekend. It has been great having them here and processing all that is going on with me leaving the country for the foreseeable future! Anyway, as I sat down to ice my sprained ankle (UPDATE - it’s getting better, but I can’t enjoy being in Colorado like I want to!) and began reading one of my new blog reads and found an interesting fact. The Charles Bridge is 650 years old today! Amazing huh? The Charles Bridge is in the middle of Prague and has been made famous in some movies as of late - Mission Impossible and XXX. Anyway, you should go to Radio Prague’s site dedicated to the Charles Bridge and learn all about it! Here is another great link. Have a blessed night!

Indeed, July 6th is a glorious day! On July 6, 1415 a father of the reformation, Jan Hus, was burned at the stake after being dubbed an “Arch Heretic.” In short, Jan Hus was fighting for the Czech (Bohemian) spiritual condition, but today he is nothing more than a Czech nationalist in the eyes of the common Czech. If you would like to read some more about “my boy” Jan, click here and here and here. May God raise up another Czech (or many Czechs) in the spirit of Jan Hus that will fight for the hearts of their countrymen! Here are a couple golden Jan Hus quotes:

“In 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.”

“Therefore, O faithful Christian, search for truth, hear truth, learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, defend the truth till death.”

They keep us pretty busy with this training out here in Ft. Collins, CO but we have moments to sneak away and enjoy God’s creation! This past Sunday afternoon 17 of us went rafting! It was a blast! What a great day of worship! It started with corporate worship at MountainView Community Church and continued with corporate worship in God’s wild! Loved it!

There are often times when I am sitting in meetings and I have trouble tracking with what is being said unless I do something. In the last six months that thing to do to help me pay attention was to Google image search pictures of Prague and Czech at large. Well, today was another one of those days but i expanded the search! The expansion included Czech Castles and I found a page that has an explanation and pictures of each castle in Czech. I have been to two or three of these but there are more to see! Enjoy the pics and click HERE to see the whole list!

UPDATE!! So there is a whole page completely for the “manors” of the Czech too. I don’t know the complete difference between a manor and a castle, maybe someone can help me there, but click HERE to see the manor page and enjoy the pic of the manor below! Amazing, I can’t wait to get back to Czech!

I enjoy keeping up with Czech news via an English speaking news paper in Prague - The Prague Post - and every now and then they have an article that serves as confirmation for why I believe God is calling me to Czech, but specifically Prague. Over the last two years I have had a growing conviction that Christians need to focus on the cities. With the idea that if you reach the City, you reach it all. It definitely was Paul’s approach, see Acts 17 1-9 where Paul and his crew pass through Amphipolis and Apollonia and go to Thessalonica. Were there not people in Amphipolis and Apollonia that needed to hear about Jesus? Of course there were, but Paul’s method was to reach the City and then reach the countryside. I’ve also been growing in conviction through Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll (A Biblical Theology of the City, Christ and the city, Planting a Church in the City, Leadership Lessons from Nehemiah (Part 1), Leadership Lessons from Nehemiah (Part 2), Advancing the Gospel into the 21st Century Part IV: City-Focused Strategy) that we, Christians, NEED to be in the Urban contexts throughout the world to reach the world. Especially since the cities are swelling, the U.N. recently reported, “Some 3.3 billion people will live in cities by 2008, a report by the U.N. population agency report said. By 2030, the number of city dwellers is expected to climb to 5 billion.” (see ARTICLE)

Anyway, back to why we need to be in Prague. I truly believe that the impact Prague will have on Europe and the rest of the world will only increase and a recent article I read at the Prague Post affirms this thought. The article is entitled, “Prague schools attractive to East Students from former Soviet bloc storming the Czech capital.” Needless to say it caught my eye. Here are a few interesting quotes, for the whole article click HERE.

Prague is fast becoming a top destination for many students from former Soviet countries seeking a Western-accredited university degree, which, most agree, helps open a lot of career doors. With numerous U.S. universities choosing Prague as the location for their overseas campuses, word is quickly spreading throughout the Central and East European region of the affordable “Western-style” education available in the Czech capital.

Nonetheless, students at these universities are confident that their education in this city will help them towards a better future. “The truth is, I would recommend [studying in Prague] to anyone who wants to work hard, gain practical skills, learn English and get useful and necessary knowledge for her or his career,” said Oliverius.

As I read this article excitement and anticipation filled my heart! There are students from all over the world (I met many Africans who were also studying in Prague besides other European countries) coming to Prague to seek knowledge and we have the opportunity to help them seek true knowledge!