Czeching It Out!

Greetings from Chotebuz, Czech Republic (try typing that in on Google Maps ... you'll find it!).

Joyce and I, along with Mark and Cathy Jensen arrived here in Czech on Friday morning. Our dear friend, Marek Susta, met us at the airport and took us to our hotel to drop off our bags.

Mark and Cathy wanted to see Prague, so we showed them the way to the Metro stop and jumped into the car with Marek to head off to Chomutov ... the city where we lived from 1993 - 1996.

We had a wonderful lunch of svickova (beef tenderloin with cream sauce) made by Marek's mom ... and a great visit with her and his dad, Stan.

After lunch, Joyce and I wandered 3 blocks over to the Novak's house ... the family who shared their house with us for three years ... where we had an amazing afternoon with the entire Novak family! All of the family members were there, so we shared many stories in an emotional two hours with them. This is the first time that Joyce had seen them in over 10 years! Its hard to imagine that we've been gone from here nearly 13 years! So, after stories, tears and hugs ... it was back to Prague.

Mark and Cathy saw all the main sites in Prague ... so we reconnected with them over dinner. By 9:00 pm we were all plenty tired (Mark hadn't slept in almost 36 hours!) ... so we hit the hay in order to get ready for our 4 hour drive to Eastern Czech (where the Ellenwoods live).

The day was beautiful ... and the ride perfect ... with Dave driving Marek's car, Joyce and Cathy navigating ... and Mark lending his wisdom every once in a while (Mark - "when I see some of those Czech words, I want to buy a vowel!).

















The Malenovice Hotel was our first stop! This hotel is an awesome setting on the side of a
mountain! They've had a ton of snow ... so we were stunned by the beauty of this place that is being used by God to touch hundreds of lives each year!
















Following our time with the Josiah Venture leaders, Dave Patty and Mel Ellenwood, Mel drove us through the valley and up the other side to the Pstruzi House, which is the retreat house where we will be working this week. By this time, we were all ready to go ... but it was dark, so we'll have to wait until Monday. We're ready!




Sunday we went with the Ellenwoods to their church plant in Karvina. Dave was asked to bring a short greeting ... and praise God, the Czech language came out of his mouth pretty clearly! It was fun to bring greetings from our friends and family in the US.



Our day is nearly done ... and we're ready for some work tomorrow bright and early. We're excited to be able to serve the Ellenwoods and their ministry with Josiah Venture in a variety of ways ... so keep us in your prayers and look for future posts in the days to come.