May 2006 English Classes and Hippies

During the months of April, May and June we were asked several times to talk on the topic, "We were Hippies". We have spoken in five different towns. To our surprise this is a topic that interests many people, young and old alike. We dress up like hippies, show a five minute clip from a 1970 home video, give a brief history about the roots and ideals of that movement and then Ken gives a testimony about his conversion and the Jesus People Revival. We then have a break where we serve Alice B. Toklas Brownies (minus the marijuana) and Electric Kool-Aid where we substitute fizzy vitamin C tablets for the LSD. At the end we have a question and answer period. The pictures show one such meeting in the Liberec F-club where 70 people attended.

We also continued to teach four English language outreaches each week and one English conversation group each month in four different towns. Our last gathering was June 15th. Now we are gearing up for our busiest season. From June 22 to August 22 we will be working with American teams coming to work with Czech pastors: one construction team and three English camps. We would really appreciate your prayers! Thanks.

Outreach to Slovakia April 7-14, 2006

The week before Easter Ken led a parade of Czech translators to Liptosky Mikulas in Slovakia to minister with MCYM in their annual Service Project.

Linda also drove one of the 5 cars on the 10 hour journey through snow filled mountains and beside flood-level rivers. The 25 Czechs were quickly assigned to one of the 13 sites that the 750 American military youth came to bless. This was our 6th year that we have partnered with this exciting ministry. For those of you who do not know, Military Community Youth Ministries is an organization that conducts weekly Christian clubs on American military bases. Once a year all the European clubs join together for a Service Project to build playgrounds for schools and share their Christian lives in classes and in an afternoon VBS-type club for the younger kids or a youth club meeting for the older ones.

Ken was assigned to help the construction team, went from site to site delivering material, made sure all was well and generally handled many of the spontaneous problems that always seem to arise.

Linda was assigned to be the head Relational Minister at the Basic School in a small village called Kvacany. This school had 750 students from 1st to 9th grades coming from 10 different surrounding villages. We sent 3 teams a day into English classes and in the afternoon we ended up having 3 after-school clubs: one for 1-3 graders, one for 4-6th graders and one for 7-9th graders. All staffed with volunteer military teens and their leaders and only 4 translators. The Principal thought that not many kids would be able to come but we ended up with 80 kids each day. Each evening the MCYM team had club for their teens and were able to challenge them to grow in their faith. By the end of the week God was able to greatly impact many Czechs, Slovaks and American teens and I am sure many adults too.
On the final day of the project each site had a community celebration. Linda's site included a ribbon cutting ceremony, the children performing for us and we put on a passion skit for them and their parents, relatives and friends who joined us for the celebraton. Even the mayor attended.