Prague at night

Prague is a magnificent city and especially so at night. It is one of the few old cities that didn't get bombed in WWII.

After we prepared for our English camp, had dinner with the Potma's (lead missionaries), it was 9:30 PM and we hit the town square and didn't get back until midnight. Wow, check out the pictures....





More sight-seeing is planned for tomorrow and then on Sunday, we are heading up to camp.

Day 2 in Prague

After a good night sleep, we all arrived at the ministry center/church to learn how to teach English and learn more about how the days at camp will go. (For those of you who do not know, we will be teaching English up at a week-long camp in the mountains. The Czech people are eager to learn English in order to open greater opportunities for employment and social interaction.)

Our apartment where we are staying while in Prague is about a five minute walk to the church so the pictures below show you what we saw walking this morning to the meeting.



For lunch we ate pizza, Czech style, which wasn't too bad and some carbonated water and tea. With a full stomach, I almost fell asleep in class because of the jet-lag. Later tonight we will be heading to Mark and Gretchen Potma's house (lead missionaries) to meet the rest of the English camp team around a fire...should be good fun. Tommorow we hit the town for sightseeing.

Leaving and Arriving

Hey everyone! We arrived in Prague safe and sound...and groggy. Wow, I think I slept all of 45 minutes during the flight. Here's a couple of videos that I made during our travels...

Pray for Czech Republic Trip

Pray for our churchs mission trip to the Czech Republic. We leave July 1.

Follow Pastor John on Twitter!

Yes, I finally started Tweeting. To be honest, I really like it because it is easier than Facebook or blogging - I don't have to write very much and I can update it by my phone!

If you want to follow what's going on with me, jump on Twitter and find me

Re-entering the City

In preparation for this Sunday's sermon, I have done quite a bit of reading that has kept my mind buzzing this last week concerning the Christian's role and responsibility in the public square.

After the defense walls were erected around Jerusalem in 445 BC under the direction of Nehemiah, it was important to repopulate the city with God's people (Neh. 11). The place was empty except for a few.

Similarly, our cities in America must be repopulated by Christians and strong churches who stay in the center to "seek the welfare" of the city (Jer. 29:4-7). When I think of the center of the city, I don't necessarily mean the physical center of the city, but its social, economic, and cultural center. Christians need to be where the ideas, plans, dreams, and values of the city are being created and that isn't necessarily the downtown area; much of that happens in the suburbs, too. As the city goes, so goes the culture.

Here's some articles that have stirred my thinking:

Tim Keller, A New kind of Urban Christian

James Davison Hunter, To Change the World