Scripture engagement, skiing disaster and snow galore!

Last week I ventured across the Czech boarder with the rest of the team into the snowy wilds of the south Polish mountains for a week long conference with other student leaders from 10 countries in north central Europe. Going I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I wasn’t sure how different to other conferences I’ve been to it was going to be but I loved it! It was great to meet people from some many different countries and to hear about the work going on there. We heard stories such as about how the Mark Drama is being used in Latvia to bring people to know Jesus, about big festivals being run in Hungary with 700 students attending and God has been working in miraculous ways to turn university lecturers in favour of Christianity in Slovenia. I loved meeting so many colourful characters, coming from such different backgrounds and cultures yet able to have fun together.
The two main strands of teaching during the week were scripture engagement and the kings of Israel and Judah. It was encouraging and challenging to be reminded how amazing it is that we have God’s word and the importance of it being at the centre of my life in order to serve God better. We spent some time thinking how we can help our students to really engage with scripture and specifically in the Czech context, how to get the students to see what the Bible is and the authority it has. I was also massively reminded of the importance of prayer in all this and how I really need to be praying for the students much more. In relation to the kings we looked at the importance of finishing well and walking close with God, being careful not to stray, which is something we all need to be reminded of!
The week also including my first ever skiing venture. It was a complete disaster! I can safely say that skiing is not one of my hidden talents. One of the lovely Latvians, Igors, tried to teach us to ski. In some cases he was a success and some people were whizzing down the big slop in no time at all. For some of us though, it couldn’t be more opposite. I mastered falling over pretty quickly but standing back up took me about half an hour. I spent most of the time lying in the snow in painful positions, stuck in either deep soft snow, the red netting at the bottom of the slope or the ditch by the ski lift. I provided much entertainment for the man who was manning the ski lift who laughed a lot at me and even had to come and get me up and turn me around when I fell off the ski lift. The only comfort was that my friends Heledd was just as bad as me so we were able to suck together. I also woke up the next day nearly unable to move because I ached so bad. Conclusion – ski camp in a few weeks is going to be interesting!

Heading home for Christmas (well, hopefully!)

I’m currently sat in Prague airport waiting for my pretty badly delayed flight back to Anglie for Christmas and felt this was probably the perfect time to do a little reflecting on my first term here in Prague.
First off I can’t believe I’ve actually done one term, it’s gone so fast but so much has happened as well. It’s hard to imagine that only 3 months ago I was heading out to Prague with not really a clue what to expect or what I’d actually be doing. In the groups that I work with I’ve seen so much happen and change and then also with some of the individuals I meet as well. I’ve also come to really love Prague as a city and I feel really settled here, I’ve even surprised myself with how quickly this has happened!
There have been some difficult times and some struggles when I’ve really missed home and found living in a new culture with a new language challenging. But now I find myself a little sad to be leaving for a few weeks. I’m so excited to see friends and family and just to be back in England but I think I will also quite miss Prague and the people here.
I’m pretty tired and so the small amount of creative juices I have aren’t really flowing so this isn’t going to be a big epic post but looking back I’ve had an amazing term. I’ve met some amazing people and done so amazing things including my exciting driving on the wrong side of the road experience. E students I’ve met are little stars and I feel very blessed my God and I’m very thankful to him for bringing them into my life because I’ve learnt so much off them and been so encouraged in many many ways.
I’m now looking forward to next term, the struggles that no doubt lie ahead (Czech uni is a bit of and oddity from January till March), but also to the joys and growth to be seen. I’m excited about more adventures in Prague and further afield and any new discoveries to be made.
Finishing statement: God is good all the time! Merry Christmas!

Some days I just love my job!

I have wanted to blog about so many things recently but just not had the time to sit down and write about them. But I want to share the encouragements and blessings that God has given me in the last few weeks.
While at orientation I was pretty much told that the only expectation I should have for this year was that it will be really really hard and I can understand why they would say that. It’s definitely better to surpass your expectations rather than to find out that things are worse. There are things that have been really hard in the last few months but there have also been massive encouragements. God has been so good in giving them to me and it is all a testimony to his great power and love because it definitely hasn’t been because of my strength.
One big blessing has been meeting up with a student from church. She is a new Christian and we meet once a week just to chat and pray. Each week she comes with a million questions for me and we try to work our way through them and look at what the Bible has to say. She is so hungry for God’s word and is seeking after him so much. Every time I come away from meeting with her I’m buzzing with excitement, it really is such a privilege to meet with her and I’m so thankful to God for her. It’s amazing to see someone so affected by God and so keen to learn what he has to say.
I also meet with another girl who is a new Christian as well. This week we were able to get excited about how Jesus has done everything for us and how because he is perfect and was completely able to pay the sacrifice needed for our sin, then we can be sure that we are saved. To be able to witness someone grasp this amazing truth and to be able to look at it again myself was, to quote a friend, ‘flipping awesome’!
It’s also been a week of seeing students using God’s word and searching for the truth in one group as well as seeing students pushing themselves to do new things and learning more about God’s great power and all he is capable of. Through this the students have been such an encouragement to me and I feel God has really used them to show me that he is working in the Czech Republic and is powerful enough to work through all our most pathetic weaknesses. For this I’m hugely thankful to him because he in no way needed to do this and I’ve done nothing to deserve it but because of his great mercy and love he has!
I can’t believe how quick this term has gone, I arrive back in the homeland two weeks today which seems completely crazy! But as I look back on this term there have been highs and lows but God has been there through it all and students have grown in him and have been spreading the good news of Jesus which is what it’s all about really!
I hope this might be an encouragement to you too, that God can work through our failings and weaknesses because he is powerful and also the privilege it is that he does choose to use us even though we are like that. And if you don’t know him and his power yet, then use Christmas to check it out because we see both these things in Jesus, woop!
The photos show God’s great beauty in Prague and the amazing goodies I received from friends and family last week!

Whoosh! There goes 8 weeks

How time flies when you’re having fun! I think I may need to start blogging more often as I always a feel like I have so much to talk about but have forgotten half of what I wanted to say by the time I actually get round to writing something!
I’ve been here for about 8 weeks now and I can’t believe its been that long but also at the same time just how much has happened. Apart from the odd bout of ‘England sickness’ I really enjoy living in Prague and doing my job. I have now met with the groups that I’m working with at least twice, some more and it’s great to get to know them better. They are all so lovely and friendly which helps with the language barrier and I am now meeting up with a few students to study the bible with them which is so exciting and such an amazing opportunity from God. There isn’t really a culture of meeting up in the Czech Republic and it takes a while for students to trust you so it’s a real blessings that these meetings have come up so quickly.
I have also now become the Czech Republics number 1 English teacher! I know, ‘Edwina, you can’t even speak English yourself let alone teach’ but it’s happening! We have some funny moments for example when someone asked me ‘Is royalty a adjective?’ I replied saying that I have no idea, I don’t even know what an adjective is, to which they all started laughing. Although I feel massively out of my depth it’s provided a fab opportunity for me to get to know some non-Christian students and it’s a privilege to be able to use the language God has given me for him, which is something I never would have thought about before.
Czech is coming along slowly. I’ve started having lessons now but I’m finding it hard to remember and my prunciation is pretty terrible. I really want to learn though because there are some students who are perhaps not that confident speaking in English so they don’t want to speak to me because it’s too much hard work. It can be really frustrating when you want to say something it just can’t, which is something I’m experiencing as well as the students. It’s teaching me more about rely on God to know what he’s doing but sometimes I feel a little useless and annoyed at myself for being so rubbish at languages!
God has been moving in amazing ways though. At one group we found two new group members through song! One heard us singing a song he recognised so knocked on the door to see what was going on and the other I heard playing a song on the piano so I told one the students that I though she was a Christian and he got chatting to her. Turned out she’d been praying for somewhere to get involved and serve and then we popped up, brilliant! So God is definitely showing that he’s sovereign.
There have been some tough times over the last few weeks too. Last week was a fairly emotional week when I missed home and England in general quite a bit and I hadn’t made a decision about church yet so was feeling a little unsettled. It’s stupid how even when you are doing a ‘Christian job’ you can forget God so easily. It just shows how sinful we are inside. And so, rather than turning to God and seeking him, I sought sausages, BBC i-player and other familiar things that I can’t get here. But I know it’s to him that I sould turn and it’s in him that I should find comfort and my life, not spooks and cheap baked beans! I know that Jesus gave up so much more for me than I could ever conceive and I need to look to Jesus again, it’s just not something that I’ve been that great at recently. This is quite a personal thing to talk about but I realised the other day that if you read my prayer letter and my blog you would think that everything was preaching and that my walk with God was as good as it had ever been. This is quite a personal thing to share but I want to be honest about how things are and just writing this has helped me to think and pray things through. I’ve just been reminded while writing this of the words of a pretty amazing hymn, ‘We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling and needed more each day thy grace to know’. What an amazing God he is! He works through our massive weaknesses!
So it has been an up and down few weeks. There’s been highs and lows but God is the same and that is a truth to cling to. Things are going well though and I’ve now decided on a church and starting to feel settled and at home there which is a really blessing from God. And I’m still enjoying the beauty of Prague, especially when I got up at half 6 in the morning to go to Charles Bridge and take photos at dawn, it was beautiful!
I will end it there to save you from the pointless babble to come. I also need to go make tea in a min, we’re having chilli, and sort the bomb site, which is my room out. Tra!

New experiences, good surprises and genuinely odd sights

Although I wasn’t really expecting it, the last few weeks have been remarkably busy and quite a lot of big things have happened. First came the first ever UKH national conference for Christian students from across the Czech Republic. To be honest we did have quite a random bunch including those who were no longer students and even one girl who was only 16 and was still at school but it was amazing that they could all come along. We had about 20 students over the course of the conference, but as I’m learning, Czech students don’t really like the idea of commitment so we had people coming for the odd day, a few hours, or just disappearing for half a day in the middle of the conference. Despite all of this it was a really encouraging few days with good and challenging teaching on Philippians from Adam Jones, the IFES Ireland general secretary. The students seemed to really enjoy it, one even used the word inspiring, and I was really challenged that the greatest need of the Czech Republic is not political reform or anything else but is in fact is Jesus! Which was a great reminder.
Since then I have also met two of my groups that I’ll be working with and they both now exist which is amazing! God really answered prayer in this way, providing keen students that want to be involved and are excited about reaching their friends and dormitories with the gospel. It has been really exciting to hear about all that is going on in the universities in the UK, the way that there have been so many people wanting to join the CUs and even more exciting that people have become Christians! Yet it’s been good for me to remember that the God that is working in the UK unis is the same God that is working in the Czech unis and the fact that he has awarded prayer by bring new and enthusiastic students along is amazing!
The past few weeks have also held some new experiences. One of which was driving in main land Europe for the first time! It wasn’t just a short drive either, it was a 2 hour drive back to Prague from one of my groups. I had great fun! We had the odd little glitch when I was grasping for the gearstick on the left and then when I pulled out of a petrol station on the wrong side of the road but apart from that it all went rather well. You can probably guess that the head of the Czech movement, whose car I was driving, is fairly chilled out about most things and he even fell asleep on the way home!
There have also been some odd sights in Prague, mainly involving animals. I’ve seen a girl walk past on a busy street with a White rat on her shoulder and then the other day I was on the tram sat opposite an old man who had a magpie perching on his finger. They seem to really like their animals out here. People in general don’t really seem to care what people think of them which is actually quite nice.
Well I could talk forever about little stories but I won’t because if my housemates were here they’d interrupt about know and say ‘and then you found a fiver’! But I’m quite enjoying Prague now and so excited to be getting started with the students. Next time I’ll explain how I seem to be turning into the Czech Republic’s number 1 English teacher hehe!
The photo was taken at the national conference and in case you were wondering, we’re all trying to be snowflakes, don’t ask!

Finding my feet

Hello from Praha! Check my Czech out hehe. I’ve now been in Prague for over a week and it’s actually gone pretty quickly. Last week we had team orientation which saw the six of us heading to a little village about an hour south of Prague. We stayed in the most amazing old Czech farm house with the loveliest garden ever. It was a great few days just getting to know the team a bit and to think about the year ahead. We spent some time looking at Haggai and thinking about how God works in his own time and way. It was good to be reminded of how we need to have hearts that desire to be with God and willing to follow him wherever it leads us.
We also spent time chatting about the year ahead and the student groups that we’ll be working with. There are potentially 3 groups that I’ll be working with but at the moment none of them properly exist. One is likely to be an international group in one of the big dormitories in the east of Prague. One is a group that already exists but isn’t part of UKH so we don’t really know what state it’s in. The other is in a place called České Budějovice about 2 and a half hours train journey south which at the moment doesn’t exist because all the students left last year. As the above shows, the student work here is very changeable and varies massively year on year. I’m excited though to try and find some Christian students in these universities and help them to start up a group. Although it’s going to be hard work it’s also an amazing privilege to hopefully be there at the start of the groups. And ultimately God is sovereign and it’s a real comfort to know that he knows the students coming to those universities.
I’ve had a great few days in Prague too. Pretty much bought the whole of ikea on Friday and made some DIY curtains out of a blanket and some bull dog clips and a wardrobe out of a shower curtain! Also visited 2 churches on Sunday. Both international churches and different but enjoyed them both a lot. I’ve also met some really lovely people and have discovered some exciting things to get involved in including a knitting group, quiz nights and pottery spinning classes.
All in all it’s been a pretty good week and a bit, there’s been times when I’ve missed home and the UK but there’s also lots about Czech culture that I love including their bread, salamis and these sweet wafer things called horalky.
Below is a photo of the lovely Czech team.
Čau

Countdown, one week.

So I thought, for those of your who are the blogging type I’m going to attempt to keep a blog while in Prague. It is likely to be a bit random with odd stories and lots of photos but we’ll see how it goes.
I leave a week today, which is crazy! Can’t believe it’s coming round so fast but it’s exciting. It’s going to be a bit of a busy week trying to pack and get everything sorted but I’m looking forward to getting out there and finding out a bit more about exactly what I’m going to be doing.
I had orientation the other week in Gloucester which was such a helpful week. It was hard at times thinking about the challenges ahead and hearing from some of the other Interaction workers some of who have been doing this for quite a few years about the trials and hard times that they’ve been through. It was good to think about having realistic expectations and to learn from some of the experiences of the others. It was also really nice getting to know the Prague team better although our team leader was not well so wasn’t able to make it which was a shame.
I’ve had a lovely few weeks recently being able to catch up with loads of family and friends from home, uni and relay, it’s been fab to catch up with them all before going. Below are some photos of my gorgeous friends!