Tuesday, December 8, 2009

So, What are Things Like There?

You could probably stand in a local store in the Czech Republic and almost think that you are in your neighborhood Wal-Mart.  Well, except for the fact that all the names have been changed to confuse the American.  We have gotten quite a few questions about stores and what they have, so we thought we would include just a few pictures for you to see. 




The store above is some what like the US Best Buy. It is located in one of the malls in Zlin. In the local Tesco, similar to our Wal-mart, we found washing machines, (pračky), microwaves (mikrovlnky) and refrigerators (ledničky).



We hope that we have one of the full size refrigerators in our apartment to store our milk, fresh bread and octopus. Well, octopus and other miscellaneous animals from the sea. What do you make with octopus? Yum.




The Greatest Adventure of Our Lives . . . .

You know how we humans often long for something, think and pray for it and how our hearts often grow so attached to hopes and dreams of things to come? Yet often, when the thing longed for arrives, even though there may be a momentary experience of joy there is an emotional letdown. The thing, whatever it was, simply does not full fill the heart the way one expected. Rarely, is it more.

It seems as if this past year has been a journey of incredible proportions. We came home from English camp in 2008, knowing that we were planning to apply with Mission to the World and move to the Czech Republic. In a very real sense another journey had just begun.

We contacted MTW and they sent to us a lo-o-o-ng application to fill out. I think it covered every detail of our lives and then some. Our friends had to fill out questionnaires about us. Who are we? What are we really like? We had to take psychological tests. This was just the beginning of the approval process. We both began to think and pray about when to quit our jobs, tell our children, friends and a thousand other things that filled our hearts.

Our application was accepted and we were soon signed up for what is referred to as REV. Basically is it a week of evaluation. Little else can be said about it for once you go through this you are sworn to secrecy. For us the week was absolutely incredible. It was hard, but good. I wish that each of you had the opportunity to go through a week like this one.

At the end on the week Johnny and I had a meeting with one of the “assessors” of our team. He told us about the evaluation and said we had been accepted! (As I type the words, they sound rather boring, and dull. I would say that the words themselves were quite simple, but the emotions were anything but!) As the he left the room, Johnny and I looked at each other in amazement, overpowered by emotion. It was then we realized that we were just beginning what was going to be the greatest adventure of our lives.

This time the thing longed for has been more, far more. For, God is always more than we can ask or think. He is amazing.