Czech Republic Day Six

Wednesday, April 9th- well it's "hump day" or the middle of the week for our team. The team woke up needing a little bit more coffee/tea as our afternoon with the students would begin promptly after lunch because the school lets out earlier on Wednesdays. This morning our teammate Trinity led us in team devotions. She shared about God's giving love through a passage of Scripture that we are all familiar with- John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The generosity of God is amazing that He would love us so deeply to send His one and only Son so we can have eternal life. This is a very impactful verse for anyone who has ever been on a mission trip because you experience God's amazing love of the world when you go into other parts of the world and leave the comforts and easy of home. We each thought about the ways we as the english teachers can reflect God's generous love in the Czech Republic. Trinity reminded us that we are all giving generously of our time, resources, kindness and simply being fully present in the classroom and the afterschool activities with our students. Every act of generosity can show others the incredible giving of God's love to those who do not know Him.
Speaking of teachers, our team had the chance to meet the english teachers at the school as well as the Administrators. They expressed their gratitude for us as "english experts" being here this week and the great opportunity for their students. Each teacher will sit in on our english classes tomorrow for a bit. 

    Let me share with you about Nadia. She's the one in the middle with the bright smile & glasses. She is a teacher at the school & has been an amazing host this week. Our team has felt so welcomed each morning when she greets us. She makes us a coffee, cappuccino or latte during our first break so we can have energy and checks in with us to see if we need anything.  We have all really enjoyed getting to know her this week. Remember our why? part of our time in the schools is helping our missionary Matt begin to make spiritual conversations & connections in Sedlecany. We've been praying a lot for her and our desire is that we are displaying God's amazing love through our words and actions.
      Today's english lessons surrounded the topics sports and health. The students enjoyed learning english vocabulary words. We played a game called "swat it" with our english vocabulary words. The students loved this game because we used fly swatters for them to identify the health words. Most of the games we play are competitive as the students I mentioned are ages 12-16. And yes, CANDY was definitely involved along with the phrase, "english only please".  Our team agreed that the students are beginning to come "out of their shells" and are feeling more comfortable talking and interacting with us. Sherry had this great idea to make invitations for our students to invite them to the afternoon activities that are planned for the rest of the week. Our students loved getting these personal letters and many of our other team mates did some creative advertising for our afternoon events. Sherry and I tried to be very intentional to bring in some gospel centered words throughout the day. Denise shared a brief bit of her testimony to the class during her sport lessons. She shared that sports is where she learned that there was a HIGHER BEING WHO LOVED her and her identity was never about achieving her in sport but instead was rooted in a perfect love established before the foundation of the world. Denise and Sherry both reiterated that if any of the students wanted to learn more about this LOVE, to please come to the afternoon activities. We both pray that seeds have been planted for the future.

    After our english lessons for the day, we had lunch in the school cafeteria (lentils & rice) and then we headed down to the gymnasium for our afterschool activities at the school. This was a great strategy to get more students to come as many take buses back to the their villages. Some ride the public bus for over an hour to get to school. Our team enjoyed seeing so many of our students come to the gym to play games. We taught the Czech's some American games like Dodge ball & Telephone while the students taught us their Czech version of dodge ball (yes, it's different) and handball (yes, it's different too and uses a volleyball net) . Matt led a "camp game" that they play for their english camps each summer called "Ship & Land". All we can say is that there was a lot of running, dropping and other antics involved & tons of laughter. We also just got some one-on -one time with our students. Our team agreed that we burned a lot calories and were ready for dinner of Ovocne Khediky (fluffy dumplings with fruit- blueberries, apricot or forest fruit which were mixed berries). Ah, yummy! they were amazing and tasted so good after all the fun today. And yes, Czech pronounces all the letters in their words. We will you with pictures from our delicious dinner tonight. Thank you for those who are reading this blog. We would ask that you continue to pray for our team as finish up our last two teaching days. Ciao!