My First Day of School

Yesterday I had my first day of teaching in the High School!! I am teaching 3 English Classes with Anna, the mother of the family that I am living with. We’re such a great team. In the third class we kept finishing each other’s sentences. I had a fantastic time, and I left excited to read the essays we asked them to do for homework.

I’m learning more Czech everyday, and I’m constantly picking up more and more words. I have been to several meetings, all in Czech, to meet other teachers and church members. It’s amazing what you can learn about people just by the way they participate, even if you don’t know their language.

God shows His presence to me everyday. This weekend was full of mountains that I thought I couldn’t climb, but he brought me up and over them.

First, I went with Pastor Jan on a Youth retreat with some of the youth from the Church. It’s hard enough to speak the language of High School kids, and it’s almost impossible when you really don’t speak their language. I tried speaking to some of them, but it was asking a lot of them and me. 24 hours of living in a completely foreign speaking environment will give you a different look at language. Luckily one of the younger girls spoke with me and included me in the conversations with her friend who didn’t speak much English. On the second day, I taught them to play a piece of music on the Hand Chimes that we brought from the church. Half of them didn’t read music, so they just knew what beat to play and somehow, by the grace of God, they came in at the right time. They did so well, and they all came and played for the service on Sunday morning. It was fantastic. I can still see their faces. The music enabled me to communicate with all of them at the same time even if they didn’t speak English. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!

Next, I led a children’s choir after the church service with Stepanka, one of the women in the church. We started with repeating rhythms, and then I taught them a song, Father, I Adore You, in Czech. Marta, Jan’s daughter, helped me translate it from the English. Some of the boys thought it was pretty funny listening to me teach them Czech words when I didn’t always sing some sounds correctly. They sang anyway, and we had a good time doing it.

I think that’s all for now. Next Monday I will leave with Anna and Jan for a Bible Retreat in Southern France, so I will be traveling again soon. And life was just about to become normal (Well, as normal as you can get living in another country, speaking in another language, and working with youth).