Czech Mate Ministries International

Ken and Linda Stapleton's news site. Send tax deductible contributions to; CMMI, PO Box 46068, Seattle, WA 98146

My Photo
Name:
Location: Liberec/Seattle, United States

are missionaries living in the Czech Republic since 1997. Their support comes from individuals and churches in the United States and the Czech Republic. Send tax deductible contributions to; CMMI, PO Box 46068, Seattle, WA 98146

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

A Not So Atypical Weekend

This is the time of year for us when snow is deep on the ground, and has been since mid-November. It is the time of year when we do a lot of planning for the coming months, lay out at least nine months of calendar activities, get involved in tons of logistic preparation to facilitate projects that will spring to life when the daffodils push up and it is a time to bolt on the snow tires and spend a long weekend in one of the far corners of our adopted country to encourage and help a budding pastor and congregation to reach their region for Christ. The next four posts will carry you through that weekend. Enjoy, as we did...

Thursday

Early on Thursday morning we packed up our provisions, fueled up the car and made the two and one-half hour drive to our distant friends in a fairly remote edge of the country. As each kilometer ticked off it seemed as if the snow got deeper and the temperature lower. By early afternoon we were parked between two walls of snow in the backyard of a church building that was constructed just fifty years after Columbus first stepped on to that American shore. In no time at all, we were hard at work with the local young pastor reviewing the budget for a two week campaign we will be conducting next summer, laying out a schedule for the present weekend and looking ahead several months as we planned our partnership for the coming season. One of the principal projects for this weekend was to lay the groundwork in inviting local youth to participate in a summer English Camp sponsored by two small Czech churches, pairing with another church from North Carolina. It was our intent this week to visit the local schools and leave information packets and flyers with the Directors and English language teachers. We visited a local printer and got our flyers printed and delivered several of them to two housing facilities where high schoolers live during the weekdays. It was no small feat to negotiate the frozen sidewalks that criss-crossed the town.
Well after sundown, when the temperatures plummeted, we set out over forty kilometers of extremely icy and hazardous mountain roads to reach and speak to a home group in a distant small town. The group has a vision to see a pioneer church planted there and it was our assignment to begin the process of instructing them of the many elements that are woven into a church plant. Our theme for that night was examining the motives, counting the costs and making sure that indeed the group's heart had been broken for their neighbor's need. A slippery road led us back to our awaiting lodging just at midnight.

Friday

A full day of visits and action! Equipped now with all of the flyers and invitations for the planned summer English Camp, we set about visiting five different schools in town. We are focusing this year strictly on teens from fourteen to eighteen so we avoided the lower levels of instruction. At each school, we first met with the Principal and spoke of our plans to offer a Christian based time of English instruction for their interested students during the summer vacation. Without exception they were all enthusiastic about our offer and authorized the posting of our flyers on their bulletin boards. They allowed us to meet with their English instructors. All of the teachers gave us assurance that they would encourage their students to attend our introductory assemblies as well as the actual two week summer gathering. At one point one of the teachers asked why we couldn't do something comparable for them since many of them had no real experience with the spoken aspects of the language. Several of them, former Russian teachers, learned the language through self-study and textbooks to keep from losing their jobs after the fall of the Iron Curtain! Did some hear us say, "Don't throw us in the briar patch!"? We leapt at the thought of inviting all of the English teachers to periodic evenings of "English Encounters" to be held at the local church, just for them... ;~)
By mid-afternoon we were at the train station meeting for the first time a single young missionary who has been in the country for three years and had never truly addressed how to properly handle financial support for his ministry or how to legally remain in the country to serve the needs of this nation. We agreed to spend an afternoon counseling and guiding him to a path of righteousness before the IRS and the Czech government. Our prayer is that our time together helped him realize a long-term call to work in this country. We trust it has since, to date, we've not had any follow up requests for clarification. While in our back yard, we put him to work visiting a Kid's Klub that had been established in a local elementary school following a Service Project we were involved with. For a week we had a large team come in and clear the underbrush from a park adjacent to the school. It had become a hangout and cover for drug users. At the same time, the team constructed an elaborate set of playground equipment for the use of the school and the adjoining community. With the favor that project brought, the local church was given access to the school for an after school Christian Kid's Klub. We are regular visitors there and took our young guest along to help us make masks for a coming masquerade Party and to participate in an unruly kareoke session. What fun... Sometime around 9 PM we took our guest back to his train and spent the remainder of the evening sipping refreshments and providing relaxed fellowship for our young pastor and his wife.

Saturday

Don't be fooled into thinking that life on the field is such an easy assignment. Saturday morning we were awakened by the pastor's two little girls. They'd decided that there family needed to shovel out of the snow and go swimming at the pool in a neighboring town. What could "Aunt and Uncle" say as we read, "we need to relax and retreat" written all over mom and dad's faces... In route to the pool, we passed two markets that had been closed the day before because the weighty snow accumulation had collapsed their roofs. That troubled us little while we romped in the pool, languished in the steam room and sped down the tubular water slide with toddlers in our arms. Ponce d'Leon was looking on the wrong continent for the fountain of youth! On the way home we stopped in at a new supermarket that had been closed the day before for fear of their roof's collapse. To entice shoppers, they offered a 10% discount on all purchases beyond the normal sale items. We all stocked up on staples like any good steward would...
The big event of the weekend was a masquerade Party sponsored by the local congregation for the entire town's children and their parents. It was our task to provide the participants with Ken's skills as a balloon twister and Linda's keen eye as a judge for the best costume in each age group. We had hours of fun frolicking with the kids and giving the local church added acceptability in their community. By the fall of evening, we were retreated away with the pastor, and his wife, doing our customary debrief and personal tune-up session. The snow continued to fall...

Sunday

Sunday morning was filled with a celebration gathering of the entire church, kids, home groups, student teens and the elder members who lurk behind the scenes helping every other endeavor run smoothly. Ken was called upon to share a story of a recent encounter in another church that encouraged everyone to be on the lookout for ways of inclusion for everyone who ventures toward the church and to have a mind-set that brings you together at the church with the intention of looking for ways to give away what you've received during the week rather than coming to see what you can get from others... We spent the afternoon with the assistant pastor and his family building relationship, encouraging them, and examining ways that we can serve them in the future. We know that they are destined to lead their own congregation some day and we want to be a vital part of their development along the way.
There is a group of young men, former (hopefully) Satanists, and general sub-culture youth who are examining the claims of Christ along the way of the spiritual discovery. They've agreed to go through a multi-week introductory teaching time known as Alpha Course. They've rented a storage area of a former garage, equipped it with a small pot bellied stove, layed some small carpets on the floor and painted the walls with multiple shades of day-glo paints. Do you remember that from the 60s and 70s? The temperature outside was -15 but it was a cozy -12 inside on the rock hard, frozen concrete floor! Suffering for Christ took on a whole new dimension for these 50+ year-olds. The good news is that we had some indiscernible greenish tea to warm our innards. We had the pleasure of presenting the week's theme, "Who is Jesus". At the end of the night we were ready for a warm, soft bed but we weren't allowed to leave without promising we'd come back, outside the context of the Alpha Courses, to speak to them about how two former Hippies could make the transition to a life as Christians. There goes that Brer' Rabbit refrain again... A warm and soft night's sleep was the perfect prelude to our long drive home in the morning across expansive stretches of deep snow. We love our life...

Counters
Counters