The Wonder of Worship

Hello There!

I took the summer off from writing to enjoy some time with friends and family. Many exciting things happened over the summer that I will be sharing with you all starting now!


THE WONDER OF WORSHIP

As you probably know, Europe is very different from the United States. There is really not a single aspect of life that is not at least a little bit different. One of the main differences that we found here in Prague was church; both in the amount of churches and in the type of services available.

So it comes as no surprise that one of the things we were looking forward to most about returning home was a chance to visit our home church again (#SummitRDU). We did not realize how much we missed it until the music started. Before I get into that, let me back up a bit and lay out the whole scene for you.

We got home on Saturday afternoon and had a chance to see our family and catch up. After Heaven on Earth in the form of a Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Chick Fil-A, we went to bed early to win the fight versus jet lag.

The next morning jet lag hit us hard, so we had to go to the later service (of two on Sunday morning at The Summit Church). When we got there, we were late, so we were escorted to the front row as the music began. Our church is quite large, so being on the front row is something akin to being at a rock concert, minus the beer and pot smoking. The music began and we began to sing, but before I could get out the first line of the song, a strange feeling came over me. All of these emotions flooded me at once. I began to weep as we sang. I felt so awkward, because I have never burst into tears in a church service before. I glanced at Tonya and she too was in tears. I put my arm around her and we just let the wonder of worship fill our hearts. It was like God was saying, "Welcome Home."

We traveled a lot this summer so we did not get to be at every single service, but when we were there, we wept. We wept for joy at the voices lifted in praise to The Savior who loves us so much.

The Miracle at the Ministry of the Interior

Getting a visa in any country is not something that should be taken lightly. Our experience here certainly proves that. 

Our initial visa that we got in the U. S. lasted for six months. That meant in February, we needed to get our visa renewed so that we could continue living here. Well, the deadline in February came and went. We were given a piece of paper that said our paperwork was "in process." That was good enough to give us permission to stay in the country, but not enough to let us travel anywhere outside of the country. 

The consequences of not getting a renewal meant having to stay in the US for 90 days before returning. That meant that we would have to miss the first month of school or more in the fall. In short, very serious. 

There was always one thing or another getting in the way of getting an appointment to get our visa renewed. We tried not to worry about it, since we could not control it. We were preparing ourselves for all scenarios. 

Now we were here in our final week, four days from leaving the country. We got up early and arrived at the immigration office at 7:40 am. We took a ticket and sat down to wait. Approximately three hours later, our ticket number was called and we walked to the counter with our translator. 

After a heated exchange with the person behind the counter, it was clear we were not going to get our visas at this place. Our translator explained to us that they only wanted to validate the visa for two weeks. That meant we could leave the country, but not re-enter for ninety days. That was not a path we wanted to take. 

We left that office to go to another immigration office. On the way there our translator said, "It will probably be too crowded to get seen today, but I can show you where it is and you can go there tomorrow BY YOURSELF." (I added the emphasis there.) This was not going to work for us, because if we were even asked one question by the official we would not be able to answer it because we don't speak Czech. 

The building was very small on the outside, with a few people waiting at the entrance, finishing their cigarettes. I thought, "This might work out, thank God!" Then, we climbed the stairs and entered the lobby. The tiny building on the outside belied the long, crowded waiting room. There were 130 people waiting ahead of us. It takes about twenty minutes  to get processed if things are going smoothly. Multiply twenty by 130. We were not getting seen that day. I began to pray something like this, "God please help us to remember how to get here tomorrow and to make it on time. Please help the process to go smoothly tomorrow." 

Then, I got a text message on my phone. It was from God. No, just kidding. It was from Shara, our friend who works with us here in the Czech Republic. "What time are u going to immigration today?" it read. "We are currently there. The first place we went to would only renew for a couple of weeks. We just arrived at another place," is what I replied. I assumed that Shara was curious and wanted to pray for us or something like that. I looked at Tonya and told her that this was not going to work out today, and that we should be ready to get up early tomorrow. Then, the magic began to happen. 

In about two minutes, Shara walked around the corner. My first thought was, "How did she get here so fast?" If you know public transit, then you know that she could not have gotten there in less than an hour. 

"My administrator made an appointment for 11:30 and I am about to be seen. I had a gut feeling that you were standing here in the lobby. I am sure they will see us all at once," she said. I got goosebumps. I had this moment where I felt like I heard God say,"How about we get this done TODAY, My way?" All of my plans for working things out "tomorrow" were joyfully crushed before my eyes. I stood in awe of Him. 

We finally got our visa approved at 12:19 pm on June 25, 2013, in the only way that could give God the appropriate amount of glory and honor He deserved. I thank Him for his great love and provision for our needs. 

The ironic part of it all, is that our friend who made the appointment, was not able to get her visa that day. (She got it the next day.) Clearly, this appointment was for Tonya and me, even though it was made by the administrator of another school for another teacher. It was nothing short of a modern day miracle. 

The apostle Paul said it best in Philippians 4:19, "And my God will supply all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." Tonya and I are living proof of this verse. We have seen it happen more than once while living in Prague.  We are simply in awe of the work of The Lord in our lives. 

The Champion Awards

When I was in college, my roommate and I had a term for when someone did something stupid. We called it, "Being a champion." Well, I have had some championship caliber moments while I have been overseas. These are just some of the lowlights.

The last weeks of February will go down some of the strangest weeks here so far. On the 28th of February our visa was going to expire so we had to have some passport photos taken. We went to the metro station where there is an instant photo booth that also takes passport pictures. I was very excited because the instructions were in English! I put in the coins and waited for my photo to be taken. The computer told me that my face was not fitting in the screen so I had to move forward. I moved forward and waited. Nothing happened. I looked down at the screen to see if I needed to press a button or something. As I did that, the photo was taken. So my first passport picture was of the top of my head. I tried again. I placed my face within the frame and then waited. Tonya counted down for me as she peered into the booth. The computer told me to move my head forward to fit into the frame again. I did and sat and waited. This time the picture took. The photo was zoomed so close to my face that it bordered on ridiculous. The deputy principal commented on the photo: "I thought this was supposed to be a picture of you." Classic.

The next day I was walking out of our flat and was carrying a large box. It was cold but appeared to be dry outside so I gave it no thought as I walked down the steps. The steps were covered in black ice so I slipped, sending the box high into the sky and me crashing down on the steps. The pain, oh the pain! I just laid there for a moment, hoping that I had not broken my rear end. I didn't, thank The Lord. But as I write this, I can't exactly sit properly. Amazing.

The next day was cold. So cold that I put on a light coat and a heavy coat. I was walking to the bus trying to zip up my coat. It was a struggle, which made no sense, because I learned to zip a coat many, many years ago. After getting off the bus, I stopped to assess what the problem was. To my humiliation, I had zipped the two separate coats together. Legendary. 

To begin the week, I received a certified letter from the post office that my beef jerky was being confiscated. That has received its own blog. The Champion Award goes to...me.

There's No Incident Like an International Incident

So I got my sister to send me some beef jerky from the USA a couple of weeks ago. The package took a long time to get here and it made me wonder what was happening. As it turns out, jerky cannot be mailed into the country. I violated the import laws of the European Union. The entire EU vs my beef jerky. Needless to say, my jerky lost. What's more, I have to pay 996 crowns to have them destroy my jerky and deliver the rest of the package to me. How in the world does it cost fifty US dollars to throw beef jerky in a trash can?

Who would have thought that beef jerky would cause an international incident?

I can just see in my head the Czech postal workers sitting back with their feet up in the desk eating my beef jerky. "Vyborna!" (Excellent) they exclaim as they steadily devour the tasty meat snack intended for me and a couple of students.

The really scary part? Another friend just mailed us some Girl Scout cookies. I shudder to think of the ramifications of importing Samoas or Tagalongs could be. Maybe I'll just run across the Charles Bridge like Tom Cruise did in Mission:Impossible on my way to
Finding sanctuary at the US embassy.

This will be the cause of world war three. In the history books, years from now, school children will refer to this day as the Jerky Incident or the Beef Jerky Contra Affair. Who needs to assassinate an archduke or bomb a military base to start a war? Certainly not me. I'll just use beef jerky.

Top Changes of 2012 Part Two

Here is the finale of our Top Changes of 2012. These are the real hard ones to get through, so bare with me.

Leaving GRACE and Teaching in Another Culture: This was very difficult for a few reasons. GRACE had been our home for the past nine years. We knew everyone and were very comfortable to just continue on there. As a teacher, I had a great rapport with my students and Tonya and I were involved in so many different aspects of the school. Fast forward to September: We don't know the language, We speak differently than the last speakers did so the students struggle to understand us (some of them anyway), and everything is different. The Grading Scale is different. The computers are different. I didn't know how to erase emails because I did not know the Czech word for "delete." There were just so many differences all at once. I would go more into them here, but I'll save that for later. Look at it this way: take everything you are used to, turn it upside down and backwards and then make it black and white instead of color. That is almost close to what we experienced in the first two months here.


Leaving Family: I have always been very close to my family. Living only forty-five minutes from where I grew up certainly helped. My parents, my sister, and my brother would come to our team's basketball games. We would go out and eat every couple of weeks. My dad always helped me with things that need to be fixed in our house. My mom always wanted to make sure we had enough of anything and everything we needed/wanted. We even lived with my sister and brother in law for the last month of our stay in the USA. The last day we were all together, we ate breakfast at the Atlantis Restaurant in North Myrtle Beach, SC. There were tears and long held hugs just before we pulled away. It is a hard thing, leaving a piece your heart behind. We look forward to the day when we will all be together again.

Leaving Basketball Behind: This is where it gets really difficult. We coached basketball together for ten years. One year at a school in Chattanooga, TN, and nine years in Raleigh.

Basketball became more than a chance to win championships or trophies. We had the opportunity to be around some of the most amazing girls that anyone could ever meet. We were coaches and we were friends. Sometimes we were the bad guys, and sometimes we were the heroes. 

We coached middle school for a few years and then were blessed with the opportunity to move up to high school. I'll never forget our first year when we did not win a game until the last two weeks of the season (we won a total of three that year). The thing that really stood out to us that year was our lone senior captain. A girl who almost did not play at all, but decided to give a young couple a chance to make her better. She was our cornerstone. Thank you #55, we are always grateful for that. 

Years past, and we went from bad to good to great. We won championships, shared family heartbreak, and became a family ourselves. The team became "Our Girls". 

Then, in January 2012, we knew it was time to go. The Lord had called us to do something else for Him, and we were going to. All that was left was to tell our girls goodbye. We knew we were leaving for about one month before we told them. On the night of our first and only JV Championship we knew we had to tell them. Our varsity girls had just lost their championship game and we knew the whole group would not be together again for a long while. It was the hardest thing that we have ever done. If you have ever had to break the hearts of twelve teenage girls all at once, then you understand how we felt. My wife, I think felt it the hardest. Basketball has always been a huge part of her life, and saying goodbye was painful. It was clear that it was God's time though, because she had such peace about it. So with 83 wins and 58 losses, three varsity championships,(two tournament and one regular season)  two 1,000 point scorers, and one girl playing in college, Coach Tonya Taylor left the building. Here's to hoping she will get the chance again one day, God willing.

If you ever played for us, thank you. You all impacted our lives more than you will ever know. 

I am sure 2013 will be a year of change as well. I could do with a little less than 2012:) 

The Top Life Changes of 2012, Part One

Hello Again!

The topic this time is the Top Life Changes of 2012. I know this type of thing is usually done around the end of December, but it took a while to narrow it down. Here we go:

Selling our House: This event was huge because we needed to sell our home quickly, and we would totally have to rely on God to sell it in a timely manner. "You can't sell a house like yours in this economy," was a common sentiment among friends and relatives. Many people thought it would still be ours when we left for Prague in August. I think lots of people simply did not believe that it could be sold in just three to four months, which was a reasonable thing to think, based on the housing market at the time.  We were connected by GRACE parent to a wonderful realtor. She was a Godsend, because she understood our urgency in needing to sell our home. Our house went on the market on April 1st, 2012. It sold on April 14th, 2012. What a mighty God we serve! We knew it was His way of showing us that we made the right choice.

Giving Away Our Car: This was a big change because it continued a trend of getting rid of our reliance on self. We spent the final month in the US without a car, which was very strange. The best part, though, was that we got to bless my sister Laura with a vehicle that she needed.

Training in Pasadena: Here we learned about our ministry and how to do it effectively. We faced emotional hardships and were tested and tried in many different ways. We also made a few close friends, for which I will always be grateful.

Christmas away from home: This would have been so much more difficult if my sister Jennifer and my brother in law Travis had not come to visit. They really helped ease the sting of Christmas away from the rest of our family. As an added bonus, just a few days prior to Christmas, the Brown family went out of their way (literally) to come to Prague to visit us and brought us some wonderful treats from home. They were a huge blessing to us at the exact time we needed to see some familiar faces.

Christmas in the CZ

One of the more peculiar things about the Czech Republic is its often contradictory way of doing  things. Take Christmas, for example. Ask anyone here and they will tell you that this is a predominantly atheist country. Yet, Christmas is still held as a sacred time.

Old Town is lit brightly with a larger than life Christmas tree. It is packed daily with shoppers perusing the Christmas markets looking for a perfect gift to give their loved ones. Nativity Scenes decorate store fronts and smaller squares throughout the city.

Families gather on the twenty-fourth of December and decorate their Christmas tree and enjoy fried carp for dinner, accompanied with a type of carp soup. Potato salad is also served, and is considered a special treat.

Instead of Santa Claus, on the night of the 24th, the Baby Jesus pays each family a visit and leaves presents. There is even a church here that has a Baby Jesus doll that has its outfits regularly changed. Whose job is that?

The Christmas tree and The Cathedral in Old Town. 

As you can see, Prague was truly beautiful at Christmastime. Soon I will have more pictures up on Facebook!