zachharrod.com

junior pics…

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I love coaching. I certainly have a bit of my father in me (my dad has been a coach nearly twice as long as I’ve been alive!) and it comes out in many ways on the football field. Sometimes his fiery side that used to yell, “What in the world!” comes out and I have to walk to the opposite end of the coach’s box to keep my cool, but then there are the times that come out that I just teach, teach the game as I’ve watched for so many years, and watching it click in their minds. My dad is not just a coach but a teacher on the field and I’m thankful that it has been passed down to me. I also love that coaching is an avenue to share something deeper than the game of football with my guys over here. I’m always amazed to watch the faces of my guys when “it” clicks and it was done in a way where they weren’t belittled but encouraged. I love the pic, you see above, of Adam and myself! I think it sums up why I coach! Thank you to each of my guys and the Lions for giving me the opportunity to coach and love on you guys through the great sport of American football.


Click here and here to see some pics from our recent 62-8 victory.

miluju podzim!

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It is true, I do “love fall“! This past Sunday, I left my flat (apartment) a little early before church to go for a prayer/photo walk in Prague. I still can’t believe this place is my home! It is unreal in it’s shear beauty, I prayed much for the city as I walked and snapped pics. I dream of this city being beautiful for more than just architecture, buildings, and etc. I wanted to share some of those pics with you and also let you know I’ve also added some pics to my flickr page for your viewing (click the link or go down to the lower right hand side of the page). Here are a few of my favorites and/or notables. Thanks for stopping by.

DSC08313.JPGmy diesels + fall leaves + cobblestone = joy 1

I think this was the first time I’ve noticed this angel statue against this texture on Nerudova street and I love my old school Diesels, it will be sad when they have to be retired due to falling apart.
dreaming and praying 1DSC08307.JPG

One of my hobbies, is trying to find buildings that would be great for a potential expression of a Tram 5(1) Church and then dreaming/praying that God will make it a reality. Above is another example of what I pray for.
DSC08283.JPGDSC08300.JPG

This is a 10-15 walk from my flat! Unreal! I’m very grateful that I can call this place (city, not the castle) home!

church planting, missional communities and moravia

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At this moment I’m laying down typing this on my iPod touch enjoying a beautiful sunset over the south Moravian landscape, which is amazingly beautiful! I’m at the Josiah Venture (a ministry in Eastern Europe that works primarily with youth) hotel and training center for a church planting conference with my friend Mike Gunn (Acts 29 int’l director, pastor in Seattle and former AIA staff guy who helped plant Mar’s Hill in Seattle) and thus far it’s been a blast! The conference starts in an hour but I’ve already had so much to think and pray about while interacting with Mike, who’s a dude! It’s been good. Mike has encouraged me with where I am and what I do know (working with AIA until God raises up Czechs to replace me and/ or says, “move on,” clearly to my director, Billy, and myself) but he also stokes the fires and encourages the dreams of planting churches in Prague, Czech and beyond I have for the future! This should be a cool next couple days. There will be current planters or perspective planters representing 7 European countries here, which is so cool! Well, I wanted to give you all a shout out from Moravia and also ask you to ask our Great God, who is the Chief Church Planter, to show up here in south-east Czech over the next couple of days. Please pray God gives me vision and excitement about what I’m doing now (how I’ve, to a degree, began planting, but in a “less than traditional” way than most) and what I feel He is calling and leading me to in the future here in Czech! Thanks! Off to dinner…

are you zach?

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Every Thursday at noon I meet my pastor, whom I call Philly D to the double D (it’s his hip-hop name), at St. Bucks for mentoring and sharping; well today while we were talking about life, ministry and etc. I was asked by a stranger, “Are you Zach from the YouTube videos?” I said yes and began to turn red, as this stranger said, “I work at the Malostranska Starbucks and saw your video about us on your blog, it’s really cool, I like them.”. Thanks! I didn’t know how to respond but needless to say it made me laugh and I also realized I have more people on this site than I could even begin to imagine. Which is cool and scary too. So here is to all of you out there in zACHhARROD.com land whom I don’t know! Thanks for reading and stopping by! This has made me want to write more and get more zhtv’s online! We will see what I can do about that. I’ll post that St. Bucks zhtv video later when I have more than my iPod to write on. Okay I’m off to my daily spanking, a.k.a. my Czech lesson!

Here’s that video:


Here is a picture Phil took of me today at St. Bucks. This is phonetically how Czechs spell my name, Z-A-C-H, I guess! It’s fun!

i’m not and i’m proud i’m not…

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I’m not a…


Nice attempt, but yet oh so far away…. I had to get a little Apple love on the blog today! Seriously, of course every bit of technology has it problems but I’m going on year number three of being a Mac guy and I have had no problems like I did in those pre-Mac days. Never, ever will I go back… Okay, this is enough of my Apple love for today!

The question is when are you switching or maybe why haven’t you switched?

words of zh.com

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I know many others have done this, and I was trying not to follow the crowd (I “try” to be different, I guess), but I cracked today. Maybe it was procrastination, maybe it was wondering what words would be more emphasized on zACHhARROD.com than others, but either way here is what my current front page looks like in Wordle. I would say that it is a pretty good indicator about what this is about and what I desire it to be about. I would want some words bigger (i.e. Jesus and God), but I will just have to write more about what I’ve written about, which is a desire. I’m not there yet, hopefully soon… Okay, off to practice…

an american-czech is inspiration for us

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For those of you that know me, and have heard my presentation about ministry here, know my three overarching purposes with AIA here in Czech are:

  1. To see a nation return to it’s spiritual roots and know Jesus as Savior and Lord.
  2. A movement that is led solely by Czechs.
  3. To see Czechs being sent into the world and reaching people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

That is what I dream of, pray for and labor towards. This week while reading Radio Praha I stumbled upon an article, The Jan Hus Church in New York – a remnant of the Upper East Side’s Czech past, about a church in New York name after the famous Czech Reformer, Jan Hus (learn more about Jan Hus). I enjoyed most of the article, but really enjoyed the portion about a Czech immigrant to America that served as the pastor at this church for some time. This week, he served as some inspiration for me and the thrid purpose I’m here in Czech – To see Czechs being sent into the world and reaching people of every tribe, tongue, and nation. This man’s name was Vincent Pisek and he was the pastor of Jan Hus Church in New York. Well, I’m not going to recount it all, here is an excerpt from the article about him:

In what sense was he amazing?

“Oh my goodness. He was a tireless worker, he went all over the country in the summers – he traveled all over the world, actually. He helped found churches all over the United States, in Czech communities, and helped nurture them along. He really cultivated the sense of Czech culture…with music, he was a great music fan and he really fostered that here.”

Vincent Pisek was indeed a remarkable man. He became pastor at only 23 and, as we’ve been hearing, remained in the post for nearly five decades. Part of his work involved finding ministers to send out to newly founded Czech parishes in the “Wild West”, while Pastor Pisek also helped set up various Slavic societies and organized missions to Serbia during World War I. He also undertook a dangerous trip to Siberia in 1919-1920 to offer encouragement to members of the Czechoslovak Legion there, many of whom had not been home for six years. The minister made an influential friend in Dale Carnegie, who contributed funds to the Jan Hus Church’s Neighborhood House.

Pastor Pisek died in 1930. The plaque in his honor on the front of the church reads: “His ministry of fifty years was the means of advancing the cause of Christian religion and good citizenship among the Czechoslovak people of New York and throughout the United States.”

So cool. He was sent out to Slavs all over the United States, and even the world, and I’m sure in his journeys he had many opportunities to love on many other people, beyond just Slavs. As I sat reading the article I couldn’t help but pray that God would raise up more Vincent Pisek to cultivate community, reach Czechs, and also take this same spirit all over the world. What a cool piece of encouragement. I was disappointed to read more about Pastor Pisek’s church today. For instance, this sentence, “In terms of our theology we have a very progressive theology, and we’d like to believe that the forward thinking and spirit of the Hussites is still here.” What? I’m not sure how Jan Hus would feel about this, because he was returning to what the Scripture had to say not, what they were dreaming up. It was just a reminder about how striving for progressiveness in the wrong areas – i.e. theology – is dangerous. That’s why I’m down with being “orthodox in theology but progressive in methodology.” Besides this, the article was a great encouragement for me and has me praying again for this place…

new Bible!

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As of today, I have another (yes another) pocket Bible that you will be able to find in my “I-carry-my-bible-books-moleskine(s)-and-wallet-in-it-bag” (not a “murse”) that I’m stoked about. Not so much, because it will help me learn this language, that some days feels impossible to learn, but because of the great things that could happen with it in this country!

About a year ago, I wrote a post, entitled Czechs’ spirituality, Life Change and the Bible…, about Sasa (Alexander) Flek, who was heading up a new translation. Well, it’s done! It should be, from what I hear, released in full by the end of the year and there are already several expressions of it out now. One of those expressions is the Novy Zakon/New Testament version that I am overjoyed to own! On one page the new NBK version (The New Bible of Kralice, or Nova Bible Kralicka) and on the other page the NLT (New Living Translation). So great! As I said, I’m stoked how this will help me, but even more stoked to stock pile these Bibles and give them out like mad to the young men I work with. Tonight I started reading the Gospel of Matthew and was very impressed with the translation. So impressed it’s hard to wait to simply get more that I can give out. Please pray that God would honor the work of Sasa and everyone that put so much time, money, love and much more into this translation. I always talk about wanting, praying for, yearning for, and laboring for a Revolution centered around the person of Jesus here in this city and country and God has given us, through the work of these dear people, a tool to help us move towards that. Please, please pray that God would use this to that extent and that lives, and this country as a whole, would be changed forever!

Anyway, I need to get to bed. Check out the website (click here) and check out the video about the translation, the translation work and a large dose of what it is like here in the Czech Republic. Yearning…

podzim je tady!

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“Fall is here!” I love cool weather and temps, with that said, they have arrived! (Sorry to my friends who are from warmer climates and don’t enjoy this as much as me. I understand I’m a little “different,” as my roommate likes to say.) Soon the leaves will change color and this city will burst into colors that I love! Today was the first day that I took out one of my blazers, scarves and hats for cooler weather and, attempted, to rock them well! I loved it! I thought I would share my joy with you!

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