We are a few months into 2019 now. Addey is 9, I have a little more gray in my beard and we’re into our regular rhythms in Olomouc. Except for the sickness that has been settling over our house for the last few weeks.
In January our church took a break from our regular small groups to do a church wide focus on inductive Bible study. We’ve been looking for ways to better equip the church with regard to Biblical literacy, and this was a great way to get the people to better handle God’s Word. Once February came around we launched our small group again at our house and it’s been a good start with the regulars coming. We share a meal every week and spend time discussing and praying over the text that was preached the previous week.
A few weeks ago I also had the privilege of preaching on Malachi 1:6-2:9, as we’re working our way through the book. It was a challenging text, but much needed for our family and the church. If you would like to listen to it, you can click on the player below. It begins with the reading of the text in Czech, and I begin speaking at around 3:40
Over the half of December leading into January we had the joy of visiting Lisa’s family in Montana for Christmas and New Years. It was a great short time of rest and reconnecting with family. The kids got to meet three of their new cousins for the first time, and reverse culture shock coming back to the U.S. was a reality that was a little adjustment for us. When the kids got off the plane in Denver the kids were speaking Czech at Chick Fil e (God bless America!), and when they realized everything was in English, they screamed in unison, “THEY ALL SPEAK ENGLISH?” It was cute. But we had a great time and the brain recharged well enough for us to get back and soak in the Czech language a little easier. Now, we’re back into a good rhythm of language learning and it is nice being able to read the signs in the world around you.
If you haven’t heard, we had a little problem with the residence permit application the day before we left for the U.S. We had to have a document to them within 7 days or our application would be thrown out and we were already passed our expiration dates at this point (which is normal). So, we prayed, went on our way, and when we got back we made our way to immigration to czech back in with them to let them know we’re here. Before we could ask any questions about the permits, we were told that everything was in order and that the application was accepted! Praise God! We did our little happy dance out of there, and our two year permits are now in hand.
We also learned of an organization (by the generous help of our tutor, Jana) that mediates between foreign families and Czech schools. So, now we have the kids in a separate Czech class along with a Chinese and Ukrainian student and Lisa and I are learning a little through it as well as we help the kids along.