Goofy Tuesday

Our team moved into our second work day with great joy! The weather turned from a beautiful sunrise to a blizzard in less than 2 hours ... but that didn't squelch our enthusiasm.

We started by stopping by the stavebniny (building supply) to pick up some mortar mix for laying up a small brick wall. Mixing mud in the snow was a real treat!

While Mark and Dave got things going with that, the girls (Joyce and Cathy) started picking out rough sawn pine 1 inch boards to use as exterior sheathing on the new barn wall. Not only did they pick them out ... but they measured, cut and installed over 50 boards!
















For a warm-up, we went into the nearby town of Frydlant nad Ostravici to a restaurant for a hot meal. Joyce thoroughly enjoyed her hot pear drink ... along with halusky s zelim (small boiled dumplings and boiled cabbage!).





















Mel Ellenwood stopped by to discuss some ideas and plans ... and we made a shopping list of things we needed at the hardware store!
















We finished the day with the knee wall in place ... and a great 30 minute ride back to the Ellenwoods where Amy had some delicious chili and corn bread waiting for us.


















Oh, by the way, the main reason for this being goofy Tuesday, is that Cathy entertained us with the giggles most of the day ... and we're glad to say that, "missionaries do have fun!"





So long until tomorrow.

Dave & Joyce and Mark & Cathy

Work Day Monday

Today we were able to get after some of the projects that the Josiah Venture folks had in mind for us. We're working on the Pstruzi House ... which will soon be used as a retreat/vacation center for the staff of JV here in Eastern Europe.

We had to shovel our way in because the snow is still piled pretty high in these mountains!

Joyce and Cathy tackled a "deconstruction" project which entailed using hammers and nail pullers to disassemble a floor system. The reason they are doing this is that the JV leaders have decided that they can rebuild a brand-new square log home on the old foundation for just about the same amount of money that it would take to renovate the old house. This will provide a much nicer facility ... with much more flexibility in construction!









While the girls were hard at it, the guys were figuring out how to re-frame the end of an old barn which will be used as a guest house at the retreat center. The rough sawn 2x6 pine (5x15s in cm!) were amazingly straight ... and the final product is kind of starting to take shape.



Tomorrow we'll continue on with the wall framing, along with laying some brick to support a knee wall and nailing on wall sheathing (2.5 cm thick boards) on the outside of the frame wall.

Thanks for keeping up with us, we'll try to update again tomorrow!

NEXT CZ - March 09 Team ... Dave, Joyce, Mark and Cathy

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.

Intro

Welcome to the blogsite of NEXT International!

As we get this site, as well as our home website up and running, you will be able to find up-to-date information regarding the activities and opportunities of NEXT!

Please stay tuned!