Updates from Matt and Sarah

English Class Small Groups

Andy's class


Ron's Class


Sarah's class


Nick's class

Progress report from English camp

Hi everyone!

We finished our first full day of English Camp. Our schedule each day consists of the follow:

9 AM-12:00 English class - the whole camp is broken up into small groups for learning and everyone is around a table in the cafeteria. I do not teach but sit at a table by my self with a sign that says "table talk with John." It is for anyone who wants to ask me a question or whatever. One lady came to talk and was distressed about some guilt that she carried about her grandmother's death. She wanted to know if God would forgive and wanted to know how she would know for sure that He did forgive her. She is not a believer but God is drawing her through her pain.

1 PM - 5 Free Time/Activity - Today, most of the people went on a loooong hike and so did I. My daughter hiked with me and we joined Courtney who was also on the hike. I interviewed her about how things were going...



Tonight at the evening meeting, I presented to the camp that Jesus is creator of the universe from John 1. I sensed the group warming up to me and my tandem effort with the translator went incredibly well. We had discussion groups after the message concerning what they heard and most people vocalized their disbelief in God. KEEP PRAYING!

Leaving for the English Camp

Hi everyone! We've leaving for the English camp this afternoon which is about 3 hours away from Prague. Prague is such a beautiful city that I am going to be sad to leave it. Every building is as old as Moses...or at least older than America. We visited Jon Hus' church called Bethlehem Church which is a reconstruction of it and his statue that stands in a prominent place in the town square. Jon Hus was an early reformer in the 14-15 Century. He precedes Martin Luther by about 100 years. In fact, Luther was indicted by the Catholic inquisitors as being a Hussite.

Thanks for praying for us. We have met many of the church members of this small church plant here and have been encouraged by what we see. Two nights ago, one of the women in the group came bounding up to the lead missionary, Mark Potma, and announced that she had just recently trusted Christ! Her husband had committed his life to Jesus about a year ago. Both of them were Jehovah's Witnesses before turning to Christianity. They have now a passion to reach this cult. The husband already has a website focused on reaching JW's!

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...