| Of espresso and Czech day four |

While much is still likely to happen today (it's only 5pm here), I felt the need to blog about what has already happened today.

It began early. I was awakened by my insecurities and a nightmare at around 4:30am. I hopped out of bed and found myself in the bathroom sweating. Instead of trying to go back to bed, I decided to see what time it was, and upon finding out the time, I opted to stay up and call Emily.

After a great early morning conversation (late night for her), I blogged, cried, and got ready for the day. I specifically remember writing my blog and the tears rolling down my face, for Martin turned to me and asked if he could pray for anything. There wasn't anything to pray for, for God had already broken my heart a bit for what breaks His.

By 7:30am we were off to school in Pardubice. At a local business high school, we worked alongside of english classes by entering into mundane and ordinary conversations all day long. This helped to strengthen and challenge the english language skills of the students. For many of them, this was their first experience with native-english speakers.

One rather interesting thing was that none of them could even fathom what a 'pastor' or 'priest' was, and there was seemingly no language to describe it. In fact, religious language seems to be rather lost in the culture. Perhaps this is indicative of just how lost the Czech culture is from God; they have little language to even comprehend Him, His church, or His people.

After the english classes (we were done by 1:15pm), we were given the afternoon to shop, eat, and relax. I had the most delicious prosciutto and mushroom pizza, followed by an espresso with dinner. Then at the mall I stocked up on some snacks, and another espresso. European coffee is so much better than Canadian coffee. I will surely miss it.

Well, dinner is in a half hour, followed by some more downtime, and a hockey game at 9pm Czech time (3pm Toronto time). Go SOS Canada!

Cheers.

- - - - - -

Well we lost the hockey game, though we made it close in the third. Altogether I'm not too worried about winning or losing, for our purpose is to shine the light of Christ into the darkness in Czech through the game of hockey. Even when we're down, I see smiles and laughter. Joy even in loss, that is the result of joy founded in Christ!

After arriving back at Immanuel, I went to my room and prepared some of my sermon. The sound of many voices downstairs grabbed my interest, and so I ventured forth to explore. To my surprise, the team had all gathered and was entering into a time of sharing. And so just as I had begun to think that maybe prayer and the spiritual dimension of this trip was not going to take a place of importance, I was blown away by the stories, the encouragement, and the sharing of the whole team. The Spirit had been leading all of us as individuals, as though each were playing a part in the grand orchestra wherein the the Spirit was the conductor.

Altogether, many tears were shed. God is breaking hearts and working through each of us here. It's incredible to see the seeds that have been planted and nourished over years of work begin to flourish and blossom. For anyone entering into ministry, this is why continuity and follow up is so important. We see the same in the life and ministry of Paul in Acts; he was always travelling back through the same cities and his letters were another source of encouragement.

Stay tuned. Day five is already well on its way and I'm sensing exciting things ahead. Maybe our first win? Hopefully.