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Czech Diary, April 2005
The lowdown on mission life in
the Czech Republic |
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Sunday 24th April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve) |
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The Czech Republic has
its own version of Pop Idol / American Idol called SuperStar,
and Varya and I tend to be riveted to it on a Sunday night.
As of tonight there are only about 8 left in the competition,
and we love it! It’s amazing how much our impressions
of a performer are based on how well they can sing in English
:-) as it’s one of our pet peeves when Czechs can’t
pronounce their “th” sounds, get “w” and
“v” sounds
completely confused, or are just generally unintelligible!
That’s not to say that
our Czech is always much better... but this is not about
us. It’s about the Czech Education system that does
not include much or any spoken English in their language
curriculum, despite the fact that most Czechs learn English
for years at school.
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Saturday 23rd April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve & Varya) |

in the butterfly enclosure |
Big day — I was working
with our church music team in the recording studio (well,
the conference room at OM) for about 12 hours, while Varya
took Benji and a couple of friends up to Prague for the day
to go to the zoo. Ah, the life of a missionary! But as a
result we’re both completely exhausted.
Varya: I first met my friend three years ago at
an English summer camp. At the camp there were some evening
sessions talking about God — but she didn’t want to
have anything to do with them. After moving to the Czech
Republic I started to see her more often, and we have become
good friends. Today she, her daughter, Benjamin and I spent
a day out together, and we talked, amongst other things,
about Christianity. She seems to have had some bad experiences
with Christians in the past, but her attitude is changing. “When
I tell my other friends that I know a Christian missionary,
they’re very surprised” she said. “But
I tell them that you’re a very normal, real person.
You’re different
because you’re not just trying to change me all the
time. You seem to value me as a person.” Her attitudes
towards Christianity are changing. Sometimes it takes a long
time to earn the right to talk to people about what’s
really important, but it’s worth it. Please pray for
her :-)
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Friday 22nd April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Varya) |

Harry teaching the Canadian
Rain Dance |
Harry and Astrid are a
retired Canadian couple who every year offer 3 months of
their time to OM ministries in Central Europe. They work
as volunteers doing practical work, helping with teaching
etc. Tonight they put on a Canadian Night for our English
students. It was a real encouragement to see that some of
the students had brought their husbands, wives and children,
and one student brought 2 of her friends, and one of their
friends who is from Norway... so we had a real United Nations
tonight!
These types of evenings are increasingly becoming an important
part of our ministry here. We often find that relationships
deepen as we talk about life over doughnuts and sandwiches. |
19th-21st April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Varya) |
The pastor and mission
chairman of a church in Washington DC visited us to find
out more about the ministry of OM Czech Republic. A missionary
from their church who works in OM in Austria accompanied
them. As part of my role in OM I had organised a programme
for their stay.
As a family we had dinner with them one evening
in a restaurant where there was much laughter, great conversation,
and oodles of encouragement. We felt so blessed that their
church was concerned for the lost people in the Czech Republic.
Benjamin reached a milestone that night - he tasted his
first snails! At least we hope it was his first taste...
:-) He’s an amazing boy. Sometimes it’s hard to get him to
eat scrambled egg and beans, and yet he’ll happily munch
through pickled walnuts, black olives, and snails in garlic
butter!!! A boy of exquisite taste and a cultured palate. |
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Saturday 16th April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Varya) |

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What a wonderful day!
We drove out into the countryside and turned up a dirt track
towards a huddle of buildings where we saw two small girls
playing with their toys and helping their Dad paint the outside
of the house.
Daša and Michal are a couple from church. They had invited
us for lunch with their daughters Veronika and Natalka. As
Daša prepared the lunch, Benjamin and the girls had fun
chasing each other around the lounge and playing catch with
Benji’s favourite toy, Baby Pom!
After lunch we walked to their pond and explored together
some of the surrounding countryside. The sun shone, the birds
twittered, and the leaves swayed happily in the breeze. It
was a tranquil and wonderful afternoon — good food for the
soul... |
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Monday 11th April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve) |
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4 nights in a row, Benji
has not snored. Hooray for adenoid removal!
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Friday 8th April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve) |
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I slept like a baby last
night, for the first time in weeks. Says a lot about the
stress of Benji’s operation.
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Thursday 7th April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve) |
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9PM Thurs night: Benji
is back home and soundly asleep, exhausted from an adventurous
day at the hospital. Varya and I are exhausted too, though
thrilled and relieved that Benji’s adenoids are no more.
We hope that the promised improvements to his hearing, breathing
and snoring will be forthcoming. A brief listen outside his
room just now reveals only the merest hint of snoring...
THANK YOU everyone who has been thinking of us and praying
for us over this time. We’ve really needed and appreciated
it! It has been a very stressful time for Varya and I, though
probably a little less so for Benji, who has faced today
with excitement and bravery.
Admission was at 6:30 this morning, then after dressing
him in hospital-issue pyjamas (had to bring his own slippers
from home — Va and I could not even wear our shoes
in the ward!) he was led off with another wee girl to an
ambulance which took him to some other part of the hospital
for the op. “The little girl was crying for her mummy
all the time”
he tells us later, “but actually I didn’t cry at all”.
He had his “Baby Pom” with him which always makes a difference.
When we came back to see him at 2PM, he was wheeled back
into the ward top-n-tail on a stretcher bed with the wee
girl! It was so cute... he was straight into the food, told
us he had no pain anywhere, and seemed basically completely
fine. Wow! |
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Wednesday 6th April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve) |
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What a complete nightmare
day this has turned into. Benji’s hospital pre-admission
was at 9, but we’d forgotten to pick up his lab results and
have his final checks done at the doctor’s. Lucky he opened
at 8, so we managed to get everything done in time and get
to the hospital in time. Phew. It helps that the GP and the
hospital are very close by.
The doc at the hospital is a laugh. Pavel, who was with us
to translate, sees him first: “hey, see this guy, he looks
like he’s homeless!” he whispers to us conspiratorially.
And he does. He’s sitting there, unkempt, in front of an ancient
typewriter into which two fingers punch a staccato rhythm. “I’m
a victim of socialism”, he proffers by way of explanation
for the typewriter over which his fingers dance. “I can’t
type, and I can’t speak English.”
After the by-now-almost-expected-part-of-such-meetings
“you’re missing a vital piece of paperwork and we can’t proceed”
thing gets resolved, we’re away again. Check-in time tomorrow
is 6:30AM.
Naturally though, that’s not all. A call to the hospital
finance people reveals that they have not heard a word from
our health insurers. Panic call to South Africa: GET IT SORTED
OUT; they promise to. Later in the day I receive an e-mail
from them informing me that they’re about to pay the
GP instead of the hospital... then some guy from their up-till-now-unmentioned
Prague office calls me and tries to tell me that I have not
let him know about the hospital operation at all, so he’s not
gonna pay for it; a monumental breakdown of corporate communication
between offices if I ever saw one, since their other office
had agreed the operation and payment a week ago. Aaaaaaargh!
By now, at the end of the evening I am not only emotional
about my son going under the knife in a foreign country, but
absolutely ballistic at our insurance company for putting me
through extra hell on the eve of the operation. So I’ve just
called South Africa and given them a piece of my mind. Even
made them phone me back. Feel a bit better now. |
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Monday 4th April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve) |
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Varya, Doreen and I were
interviewed today by a reporter from a national Czech women’s
magazine called Kvety (“Flowers”) about being
missionaries here. Very cordial interview, and Pavel had
a chance to share the gospel with the reporter afterwards.
Looking forward to seeing the article (and will reprint here
if possible!). |
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Sunday 3rd April 2005, Prague
(Steve) |
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Off to Prague to see some
friends over from Scotland for their wedding anniversary.
Decided to brave the roads instead of the rails, and very
glad we did! It’s a beautiful drive, and quick and easy
to do a park’n’ride on the outskirts.
We’re becoming SO Czech... even while being treated to a meal
at a restaurant we balk at the cost of a single main course,
which back in Ceske Budejovice would pay for all 5 of us. Tom
and Carrie insist though, and we bask in the glow of scintillating
conversation (at breakneck speed, though Carrie and I resign
ourselves to playing only cameo roles), superb wine, and expensive
food. Life is good. Thanks T&C! |
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Saturday 2nd April 2005, Ceske Budejovice
(Steve) |

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Steve is reading: The
Road to McCarthy / Pete McCarthy
Varya is reading: Around Ireland with a Fridge / Tony Hawks
With both of us reading different travel-related books with
strong Irish themes and a taste for the ridiculous, it was
inevitable that sooner or later the bizarre would leak
into our own reality. And so it happened this morning.
Benjamin came into our room early this morning and said “What’s
that on our car?”. Semi-comatose we imagine it must be something
a bird did... only later do we look out the window and see
Oskar the Octavia bound and trussed like a Christmas turkey...
in pink toilet paper! In denial, I head back to my book
for a dose of normality. Varya has the distinct feeling of being
in a different dimension. We have no idea if this is a case
of mistaken identity, whether it’s a practical joke against
the local foreigners, or what.
TONIGHT, though, was a different matter. It was a combined-churches
praise-and-worship night and it was our church music group
planning and playing. Awesome! We must have had close to 70
people cramming the conference room at OM, and the music and
singing lifted the roof. We counted people from 5 or 6 different
churches, including Catholic, and that’s an amazing sign of
unity around here. Seriously. And everyone loved it.
One guy said he’s been waiting 20 years for something like this...
everyone’s waiting for the next one already... by next time we
should have our album finished as well.
At the back of the meeting are two friends, Milan and Pavel,
grinning conspiratorially. “How’s your car?????”.
Scunners. They had cycled over after midnight last night... |
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