Welcome the New Year, Welcome Our New Team Member

So much of life is process.  Sometimes long.  Sometimes short.  But always process. In the process there are often sweet wonderful joys and gifts found along the way.  And as it has been said so many ways and times, God never does things the way we dream or expect, He is always doing bigger and better things - more than we can ask or imagine.  So wonderful is He!

This is a brief story of a long process, beginning even before we arrived on the field, we begin to pray for team members to come join us. You know, we had ideas. Ideas of what they would be like; how we would work together; where they would fit in—sort of.

Then last summer we had visit from a veteran missionary who was somewhat interested in moving to the Czech Republic and joining us.  All went well.  The time together was simply too brief to base any kind of major decision on what we knew of each other.  We both needed more.

(Inviting someone new is almost like getting engaged.  There’s commitment, the need to listen, love, help, support, and so much more involved in an invitation to join a team on the field.)

So we invited our friend to return and work with us and visit with us.  We wanted to really get to know each other in a deeper, soul-knowing way.  The Lord was gracious to us and really began to turn our hearts to the opportunities and possibilities of what could be, of friendship that could deepen, of laughter to be shared, and of good works yet undone.

Soon the invitation was offered and accepted!  Our prayer is that soon our new team member Miriam Grady will be on her way to Zlin.  Please pray for all the details of things we all will have to deal with before she arrives in the Czech Republic.

But foremost, rejoice with us!

It's Great to be Home for Christmas

We have been in the United States for one month today.  In that short space, we have enjoyed Thanksgiving with our family, visited with Christ Community Church in Frisco, Texas, reported to Mt. Hebron Baptist in Leeds, Alabama, and made a trip to the MTW home office in Atlanta.  We really enjoyed seeing our friends at each of these stops, and all along the way.  Worshipping God in English has been especially delightful for us.

We are now happily settled into our "semi-permanent" home in Birmingham for the duration of our time in the US.  Dear friends have provided generously for us at every turn. 

Christ has blessed us with his presence in many ways.  As we turn to thoughts of his incarnation, we are humbled to think of his truly amazing cross cultural transition in coming to earth - into the depths of our evil world - and embracing our sorrows, even dying for them.

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands

We are so thankful and excited that we finally have Czech language copies of Paul David Tripp's book Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands!  We are so grateful to all of you who helped make this project possible.  We were able to use the book in our recent Marriage and Family Conference.  Each family that participated in the conference took home a copy of the book.

Please pray that the Lord will make this a very useful and powerful tool in the Czech Republic, and that all of the copies we printed will soon be sold.  We believe it has great potential.

2012 Family and Marriage Conference

Winter winds blew some rain and snow our way this past weekend, but they didn’t dampen the spirits of our friends who attended the conference.  It seemed to us that many went away encouraged that the Bible has very powerful and practical solutions to the problems we all face in our human relationships.

Our guest speakers, Jeff and Beth Stull, taught a group of about 20 adults using principles from Paul David Tripp’s book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands.  Miriam Grady helped us teach the children and prepared crafts and games for them; in her service to the children, she allowed the parents stay focused on the conference sessions.

The Lord definitely heard your prayers and came to help us.  Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who prayed for this event!