Czech Republic Day Four

Today was an exciting day for everyone on the team as this was our first day in the classroom. We began our day with a team devotional. We were reminded of God's unconditional love as we read Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were sinners, Christ died for us."  The team agreed that we were grateful for His unconditional love towards each of us personally and asked that the Holy Spirit would fill us today with His love and have it naturally pour out onto everyone around us both with the team, in our classroom with our students and interactions within and around Sedlecany. 

Sherry and I were ready to meet our students. We had sixteen Tercie Beta (13/14) year olds for the week. We were super excited to meet our students and begin our teaching lessons. We enjoyed a brisk cool walk to the school from the community center & saw a few snow flurries. The town of Sedlecany was bustling with people getting to school and work for the first day of the week. It was so nice to see all the shops and bakeries open for business as everything was closed yesterday. Then we were at the school. The first thing we learned was that in Czech you don't wear our outside walking into schools and homes, so you must carry a pair of indoor shoes with you. As soon as we entered the school, we took off our outside shoes and wore our "slippers" or indoor shoes. Our team agreed that this was pretty nice and we could get use to wearing our "slippers" to work. After a brief tour of the school, we headed to our classroom and anxiously awaited to meet our students.

The school bell rang for second class and then we welcomed our students. There were six teaching teams of two from our group. Ages of the students ranged from boys and girls sedkuna alfa & beta (12/13 year olds); Tercie alfa & beta (13/14 year olds) and kvarta alpha & beta (14/15 year olds). Then the lessons began for the day at 8:55 am with four small teaching breaks in between concluding before lunch at 12:35 pm. Our teaching topic was learning about our students, their families & friends. We had various assignments, lessons, games and group projects and we interacted with them.  Everyone on the team agreed that our first day was loads of fun and that teens are the same even all the way around the world. We did have a few funny stories- one classroom the girls prior to school that morning tried to pierce their ears in the bathroom. Several students wanted to take "selfies" and many students wanted a career as teachers, doctors, nurses and social media influencers!  

After our classes we enjoyed lunch at the school and then headed back to the community center. This afternoon we were able to relax, walk the town, enjoy a coffee & pastry or just rest.  Beginning tomorrow afternoon and for the rest of the week, we will have afternoon activities with the students. This is our chance to really get to know not only our students but the other students at the school. It is here at these special activities that we have the opportunity not only to show God's love but to share about Him as well. We ask that you pray for amazing gospel centered conversations & connections. Then this evening our team enjoyed a lovely home Czech dinner of potatoes and vegetables. Afterwards, we prepared our lessons for tomorrow and Wednesday. We look forward to tomorrow and all that the Lord will do in us and through us. We've included some more pictures of our teammates in the other classes as well. Enjoy