Last week our long-term staff team, minus Adrianne and the kids, went to the KrkonoÅ¡e Mountains and got some great skiing in at Å pindlerův Mlýn. Most things over in Europe are more expensive than in the States, but the one thing that seems to be less expensive is skiing and skiing related things. It was a great two days of skiing and team building/bonding. I’m grateful that we got it in. I love the mountains up there. The Czechs can be very critical of their own mountains, because I think they try to compare them to the Alps. But being a kid who grew up ski racing and training on a former garbage dump (Which is humorous, because they call themselves a mountain!) the Czech mountains are great! Here are some pics…

“You won’t open presents by yourself will you?” Those were the concerned words of my parents a couple of weeks ago. It’s a valid concern. Since this was only the second Christmas in 27 years we have been apart and the last time was 2004, and I was with 40 other interns in Switzerland and more than a little distracted. Even without having the Swiss Alps looming outside to distract me from being away from my family during Christmas I was very, very blessed to see my “family away from family” here in Prague make it a blessed Christmas. So even though my stocking (see above) was empty Christmas morning, my heart by the end of the day was over flowing with love from my “Prague family”.

My Christmas celebration began on Christmas Eve at Mark & Joanna Stewart’s for dinner and a gift exchange. As I sat there with some of my closest friends in Prague, I felt that being there was the only gift I really needed. See the Stewarts and my friend Jason McFarland have been among the biggest gifts and surprises of my return to Prague. I knew a lot of people that were here, but I had no idea that I would have the Stewarts and Jason, so it was a beautiful time to celebrate the birth of Christ with them, a Christmas gift that arrived in Prague while I was back in the States.

Then I ran back to the flat to exchange gifts with my goofy and all too lovable roommate, Ernie, and no my nickname isn’t Bert! See Ernie was leaving our flat at 4:30 am to catch a Christmas flight back to the Great White North of South Dakota. We had a fun time exchanging gifts. I got Ernie a teapot so he can drink more than one glass at a time and he gave me a great set of stained glass candle holders (it’s the hopeless romantic in me, I love candles!). They are great. Then it was a goodnight to Ernie and off to bed…

Christmas morn came and so did Erin, my teammate/co-worker with AIA, in her car to go up to Billy and Adrianne’s, my director and his wife, for Christmas breakfast and opening gifts with them and their three kids. It was a beautiful morning. Even with Levi using my gift that I got him to try to cut my head off, he plays David and Goliath a lot! Usually I’m Goliath. The joy of children on Christmas morning is infectious, I love it. It was such a blessing to be with the Crossans. They go above and beyond to love us as their team, but also as their family. I can’t get enough of being called and feeling like I’m their Uncle. Thank you for a great morning Crossans!

Then from there I came back to my place and slept for 30 minutes before going to the Davis family Christmas celebration. Phil is my pastor, friend and confidant here in Prague with our church, Faith Community. He and his beautiful, and very pregnant wife, Shanna (She’s due next month and the running joke is if their little girl comes quick they will just call me, the son of a midwife, to run to their house, which is 5 minute away, and catching their little girl. My mother has taught me more than I want to know over the years, but I don’t think I could handle it!) are great at opening up their home and loving on many here in Prague. We had a great time of hanging and the “Kitchen Elves” did a masterful job with a delectable meal! Thanks for loving well Phil and Shanna! You are appreciated more than you know… My night wrapped up with some calls from great friends back in the States, praise God for Vonage! There you have it, my 2007 Christmas. Sheer Beauty and Love. I pray you had a blessed Christmas and I pray for a blessed 2008 for you as well. Here are two of my favorite random pics that came out of my camera…

“Post-communist or Postmodern?” That is a question that has been discussed often in several of the ministry circles I am involved in here in Prague, Czech Republic. Most of us “Western” missionaries have to wrestle with this answer (and let’s be honest the few indigenous ministries need to wrestle with this too). I’ve seen ministries that are almost completely run as if this culture is “postmodern” and then I see other ministries that ignore the discussion about postmodernity almost completely. So they operate in the extremes and not the reality. I think that is us as humans to a degree, maybe even us as Americans; we live in the black and white and we can’t see that the answer is somewhere in the gray in-between the opposite poles. Well, I hope to write more about this, but we will leave it there for today. I did want to share a quote from a fellow missionary and friend here in Prague, this is what George Swain has to say about this question:

A lot of the folks that we meet in Prague are still in prison but don’t know it. The prison that still exists in their minds due to coming out of communism. It limits the topics they feel that they can talk about and the friends that they can have. We have had students tell us, “I don’t trust anyone but my parents!!” It is invisible but very restrictive. Some folks like Vaclav Havel have totally unlimited attitudes. They accept everything but it is usually the Godless side of everything. Those people are mainly the film writers or the authors that the western world identifies as being postmodern. Then the mistake that they make is to assume that the majority of Czechs are also postmodernists like the rest of Europe. The vast majority however, are post-communist in their thinking. It’s a totally different animal. Even our students are mainly post-communist.

This has to be quick, because I have to leave for school in about 2 minutes. But I wanted to give you a quick update. My stuff (long awaited shipment) is in Europe, actually it’s in Czech, actually it’s in Prague. BUT I don’t have it yet. It has to get cleared through two custom houses and blah, blah, blah…. God has given be incredible patience in this, because I have been heated at times. I figured it out, by the time I get this it will be 3 months over due. Anyway, please pray I get it tomorrow (Wed.) or Thursday. I need somethings in it ASAP. More to come. Blessings!


UPDATE! So we have a date. We have a date. Thursday at 10 am my shipment should finally be here in my flat (a.k.a. apartment) BUT from out of nowhere I have to pay $1000 more dollars for a “dock fee.” Again a surprise added expense. Praise God this is almost done.


ANOTHER UPDATE! Okay, the guy I’ve been working with here in Prague actually called me today and confirmed tomorrow. So at 10:00 am my long-awaited shipment will be here at Rooseveltova Ulice! It’s crazy to think after 4 months my stuff will finally be in my possession! Please pray that God would somehow give me favor and this $1000 will be taken care of. More to come…

Earlier this week I posted about a new ad campaign, Say It (or in Czech, “Řekni To”), that is running here in Prague to help individuals caught in the epidemic, known as Sex Trafficking. This morning when I was working through my daily blog roll, I read an article at the Prague Post entitled, Crackdown: New law aims to limit prostitution in public places . Some interesting stuff in the article. It was good to hear a Czech public official say this,

“Municipalities should not have to tolerate these activities, which threaten general good manners and affect the moral upbringing of youth, in public areas,” says Prague Deputy Mayor Rudolf Blažek.

“Affect the moral upbringing of youth.” This was very interesting and refreshing! This week when Ernie, my roommate, were heading to class we began talking about what children over here are used to seeing from a young age. From prostitutes on the streets to newspapers that can be bought at any news stand that have nude pictures all over them. Kids here definitely see more than they do in the States, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own issues in this arena. Needless to say, seeing things like this passed is good, but there is more to it.

As these laws are passed and enforced it is good for the public not having to see this, but it is detrimental to the woman in this industry because it forces it underground.

“If these limitations are imposed, the trade will go underground, which will create illegal sex rings and heighten the [prostitutes’] dependence on organized crime,” says Petra Hamerníková, assistant director of Rozkoš bez rizika (Bliss Without Risk), a nongovernmental organization providing health and other services to prostitutes. By restricting the activity, the new ordinance essentially forces prostitutes to lead a life of crime, heightening the risk of abuse. “I don’t think that any regulation will stop our clients from doing what they do,” Hamerníková says. “They will simply hide away in private bars and apartments, where we cannot save them from extortion.”

Tough. How does this problem get solved? What is best for all involved? Will governments programs, laws, restrictions and etc. solve this problem. I would say they are nothing more than I band-aid on the problem What needs to be seen is what we see in John 8:1-11:

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

May love, grace, and truth of Christ flood the streets of Prague and Czech!

While I was looking for the video you see below, I stumbled upon these two videos that are put out by the book, unChristian. I haven’t heard of the book yet, but it looks interesting and these videos were definitely interesting as well. Check them out!

Mega-church, WillowCreek, has set the tone for church growth formulas and etc. over the last decade, or more, and recently they came out and revealed that the programs and etc. haven’t produced the spiritual growth and depth they were going for amongst their members and regular attenders. Without making any judgments on their methods, I was excited to see their humility to admit this and I’m even more excited to see what their new study, dubbed Reveal, will actual reveal about the health of the American church. I have increasingly moved away from program dependent ministry in my own life and ministry because I’m not working amongst a people or generation that gravitate towards programs, but towards relationships. So this is intriguing to me. Here is the short video but click here to watch the whole thing.

(HT-Dana)