The Black Sheep/ Černa ovce

Finally, our band has a name! Černa ovce as in the Black Sheep(singular). I think it works so well. We're a Christian band, with Jesus as our shepherd, so the sheep image fits. Plus the whole concept of the black sheep carries through this culture and perfectly describes the life of a Christian in an atheist world. The youth had this idea and they all like it. We're Černa ovce. Here's an extra mp3 for your enjoyment of one of our favorite songs.

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Next week we have our first concert in the style of a Talk show. We call it POKEC or Chat in English. We'll have a guest, ask questions, sing songs, and a short devotion. The idea was to offer something like youth group, but cool enough that the youth would want to invite their friends. I'm really excited about this. Part of me is frustrated because it's all happening just before I leave. But the greatest part is that the youth are really taking it all on themselves! They selected the guest, made up questions, came up with the flow of the service and even the whole idea of the talk show was theirs. I think they have enough ownership with the idea that they will carry it on next year when I'm in Atlanta. I'm glad I get to be here to see the start of this great idea! Enjoy our poster! See if you can guess which one is me(hint: I'm wearing glasses all the time now).

Life in a free country

Just when you think it's all smooth sailing ahead, a strong wind is sure to blow. This picture you see shows our recently finished church building from the 1930's. The country was flourishing and no one quite foresaw the inevitable occupation by the Germans and then the Russians. Not that our situation can in anyway compare to the totality and devastation those strong winds brought, but our recent strong wind came quite unexpected and feels life threatening for those involved, my sweet middle school girls.

Even before I came, Pastor Jan began having overnights in the church for the religion classes. Each group would have two Saturday nights a year where they played lots of games, ate junk food, prepared something for worship, slept(only a little), and then went to worship together the next morning. He began the nights as a way to reward the kids by giving them a fun time in the church and also by giving them time to get to know one another. The kids were always encouraged to invite their friends, but everyone accepted that they go to worship the next morning together, because it seemed natural since the service would be taking place while they were there in the church. So people who had problems with the church tended not to send their kids at all, just because they didn't want their children socializing in the church.

When I came last year, I automatically began helping Jan with these sleepovers(they total to 6-7 overnights a year, more endurable with two adults). As more and more kids showed up for these fun nights, we decided to open them to kids from the English classes. We lined them up with the Game Nights, so that if the kids wanted to just stay for the overnight, they could. Four of the younger kids from the English Classes got really excited and wanted to come, but only one of them ended up staying. This little boy had an older brother who had come with his friends once before, so he had already heard about the fun times we have. The other kids seemed like they wanted to stay, but still felt too young to sleep away from their parents in a weird place. We all remember those times when we were 7(well, at least I remember calling my parents once at midnight from a sleepover, because I wanted to go home to my mommy and daddy).

The middle school kids experienced it in a little bit different way. Some of them really liked the game nights, but didn't want the pressure to stay overnight and go to the church, so they stopped coming to the game nights all together. One of these kids finally confronted us about it last week. She wrote to me saying that she really wanted to come to sleep in the church, but her parents didn't want her going to the worship service. Her letter was phrased as an apology, but I felt like she was fishing to see if I would allow her to come anyway and skip out on the service. I told her that even if she could not go to the worship service, she was welcome to come to the game night and then go home. I made sure, however, to reply about how shocked I was that her parents didn't want her to come to the worship service. You'd be amazed at how strongly these parents don't want her to go to the service. They feel like we are taking their liberty away by saying that the children must go to the worship. The young girl complained to one of the girls which go to our church,"We live in a free country and the church can't force us to go to the worship just because they need more members." I was so proud of the other girl who replied,"We don't need more members. We have plenty of people who come to worship. The overnight is for those of us who go to religion, so we go to the worship together. It is a free country. You don't have to come." Ah, and there-in lies the rub! Now that this country is free from communism and a government which seeks to control every aspect of their lives, for some people freedom means doing things the way they choose, without restriction.

A year ago, I would have expected these reactions and complaints, but I honestly felt like we have come such a long way in building trust with the community so that they don't feel threatened by the church. I think this was a good reminder that many people still have reservations about becoming "too close" with the church. They believe we "need more members" and will do anything to get people to sign up and join. Once they get to know us, however, I think they will find that we define freedom in a different way. Freedom for people in this church comes in the ability to openly live, work, and worship in a way that pleases God. During communism many Christians were forced to keep their beliefs secret or live under constant pressure from the government. No one in this church would want to "force" anyone towards any belief, simply because they, too, value the freedom of choice, the freedom to believe as you please.

Freedom of religion is still a new concept in this country, and even stranger is the freedom of choice. Throughout history their governments have forced religion and/or other ideologies and at other times suppressed those who worked against them. As an American I have a hard time comprehending the ingrained reflex to reject anything that comes with force.

I feel like I could go on about this all day, but to wrap things up, I'll end with this hope for the future of this country. I pray that these people will learn to open up to each other and accept one another's beliefs in a way that they don't feel forced to live exactly like their neighbor. I pray that as these people learn to live as individuals they remember that they can still work together and help each other around them. Finally, I pray they will find that freedom can be found within restrictions and laws, and that it can only truly be shared within a set of laws that a community supports and upholds.

Entertainment while you wait

Here's a little teaser for you to enjoy while I'm still trying to get the film from the camera onto my computer. Some of our pictures also didn't turn out so well, because of lighting, so I'm waiting for some others from our friends who have more advanced cameras. This video shows some of our practice with the 4th and 5th grade class as we were preparing for the April Fool's Night. We were experimenting to see if we wanted to make a short circus, but in the end we chose to make a zoo. Here you see one of our circus acts.

I feel like I should dedicate this video to Anna Evans, who convinced me to watch High School Musical for the first time. With out her persistent urging to watch it, I might never have experienced the wonderfully cheesy yet entertaining movie. After years of Oklahoma kids and talent shows, the movie just makes me laugh every time. And the song fit perfectly for this video.

April Fool's Night

 
 
 
 What an exciting night! In these pictures you see the preparations for our big talent show, the April Fool's Night. The band played, the choir sang, and all of the English classes participated. We all had a good time and laughed a lot. I'm still editing the video and other pictures so you'll see them sometime next week. I'm so sorry that I've been pretty bad at posting in the last month. I was sick for two weeks and then preparing for this show, but I think it has more to do with my personal feelings that with how busy I've been. I usually post when I have something on my heart or when I have a huge cultural experience and I need to share it. Lately I have begun to feel like I'm completely adjusted to the culture and my job. I know what I'm doing, who I'm working with, and I know how to get what I want. My Czech sounds pretty good. Amidst all my mistakes of gender and cases, I can say pretty much anything. In the kitchen, I can finally make good soup and several Czech meals, enough to make me feel like a good Czech woman. I can make fruit dumplings, potato pancakes, řizek(Czech schnitzel), fried vegetables, American potatoes(fried potatoes), and a variety of cream sauces. You would think that this makes me want to change my mind and stay here, but it's actually quite the opposite. I'm so submerged in the culture that sometimes I feel like I don't see the tides that I want to work against, and they just roll right by. I've lost that cultural innocence that opens up room for discussion, and in it's place I'm afraid that I sometimes resolve that some things will never change. I finally think I've come to the point where I will feel like I've gained as much as I can from living here, and it's time to move on. I'm also thankful that God has provided two wonderful people to carry on for me. Jamie and Jeremy will come in with new ideas and a new energy that I think will give another boost to the program.
Sure we have many more activities before the summer camp in July, but the April Fool's night was kind of the last big event. I think I enjoyed the event mostly because I put in so many of the things I enjoy: music, theater, and silliness. I have so many great memories from this night and I can't wait to get the movie up and share it with you. Give me a week or so and I'll have a fuller post. Until then you can enjoy the happy faces from our kids. These are the faces of the kids and adults that I can always count on to show up for a fun event. Have a great weekend!

The Seder Meal

Seder Meal click here to see whole album

Yesterday went smoothly for our Czech-American-Jewish Seder. If you click on the photo album you can read my comments and follow along with the events of the night.

 

 

All in all I think everything turned out nicely as we drank wine, took time to think on God's faithfulness and mercy, and enjoyed the food which all had meaning(and tasted fantastic--even the carrots and saltwater). I've always enjoyed Seder meals, each one having more meaning and more charoset:)
 

A multicultural easter experience

Holidays always seem to be an interesting time in another culture. I’m expecting one thing, but something else always happens. This Easter Season we’ve been planning a Seder dinner for people in the community and our church. I’ve been to three of these meals in the US, two in Ponca City at First Presbyterian and then one in Madison with a congregation of Messianic Jews. Although each one was different, I felt like I had a pretty good background to at least begin with planning one here in CZ. As I began to work with Jan, I had to stretch my mind to think of the meal from a Czech perspective. We’re trying seriously to be culturally correct and respect the Jewish tradition without twisting it into a Christian service, plus presenting the meal in a way that it will feel more like a meal than a service. I found it difficult to plan a meal respecting one culture, living in another, and coming from another. However this mix of cultures has made it all the more special for me.

Number one, there is no Matzo bread or mix in the stores of Policka, because most of the Czech Jews have either immigrated to other countries or were sent to concentration camps during the Second World War. There are still Jews living in the Czech Republic, but the number is quite low. So we have asked a few ladies from our church to bake us some unleavened bread, but they still feel reluctant to do it, because it's either something they've never done before or they just think it doesn't taste good. The other symbolic elements of the meal will not be too difficult to make here, although Jan refuses to see horseradish as bitter, claiming that it has a sweet and pleasant taste. I did more research to see what other “bitter herbs” we could have in it’s place, but we decided in the end that it would be too difficult to find some Arugula or other Mediterranean leaves. When we came to the main meal portion, we hit another problem, because each American Seder meal I've been too had a pot-luck dinner, and that would just never fit into Czech culture. They would never eat two to three kinds of meat served along side three random side dishes. Each meal in Czech Culture has a small serving of meat with a larger serving of potatoes, rice or dumplings. The side depends on the meat and certain sides never go with some meats or always go with some meats. As I began to look for recipes and plan for the meal section of the dinner, I kept finding myself stuck in American culture and I really didn’t know what we should do. Then Jan asked if we would have lamb, because the Jews would eat Lamb. So we called some of our friends and they’re going to fix some lamb for us. Even this was difficult though, because for some reason many people don't have any lamb meat left right now. We're very thankful that someone has volunteered to cook what we do have. A friend of mine also brought me a Czech Jewish Cookbook, and this I found very interesting. It was kind of proof to me how each culture changes as it enters another. The recipes in this book talk about the significance of the ingredients to each dish, but the end result still fits within the Czech culture. We decided on a nice salad made of lentils, eggs, cheese, and wine. Lentils were very common in Jewish meals as something they picked up from Egyptian culture. I think Americans would find the dish quite exotic, but plenty of Czech families eat lentils on a regular basis, and we think it will serve as a nice accompaniment to the lamb. So I think the end result will have a mix of Jewish, Czech, Egyptian, and American culture, but I think this will make it more interesting and I honestly think it just wouldn’t be possible to do it without having elements of each culture within the whole meal.

Planning this meal has also kept my mind focused on the religious aspect of the holiday. The pagan traditions overshadow the Christians' so much, that many Czechs think Easter comes on a Monday. They have a special Czech tradition where men and young boys visit their friends and family to hit the women with a special traditional whip and the women give them eggs, candy, cakes, and/or alcohol. Although it may sound a little barbaric to our American ears, the real thing can be quite fun. The traditional eggs are so beautiful and the whips look very interesting. The excitement for this Monday morning appears much more enjoyable than sitting in church on Sunday morning or even Friday night. Living in a culture which is predominantly atheist, the whole season of Easter feels more like a multicultural season where many religions and traditions celebrate new life.

I think we have many exciting things planned for this week, with the Thursday dinner, a special Good Friday service and special music on Sunday with our choir and band. My prayer is that this week we will experience what makes Easter more than just keeping traditions, but a time when we can remember and thank our creator and savior for freedom and new life.

A Whirlwind of Fun

Game night and Family Sunday click here for pictures

While the Semi-hurricane Emma was blasting through Europe, we were partying at the Church, for what seemed like a whirlwind of a weekend. It all started with a Game Night on Saturday, where we took a trip to the school gym and played some fun big group games. Just before we were about to finish the power went out!! Imagine a room full of 20 kids when suddenly the lights go out! Luckily it came back on before we left, but we had a pretty funny(maybe scary for some) 5-6 minutes in the dark. Then we came back to the church and some of the kids spent the night. Again we had some problems with the power, but it just made it all the more interesting.
The next morning we had a family worship and our new band played a few songs. You can listen by clicking on the link below or in the side panel. I think they've really come a long way, and we're excited to see how things continue.
After worship we hung around and ate lunch and then went bowling with the families from the church (and people who tag along even without their families like me and Madla). All in all, it was an exciting weekend.
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