Czech Republic
24 February 2008
IBTS
Nad Habrovkou 3
Jeneralka, CZ – 16400 Prague 6
Dear Family and Friends,
Today has been a beautiful, warm day! Quite a contrast to the dull and cloudy, cold and windy days we have had all week. Roger went out with Nancy and Bill Lively for a long walk in the national park along with hundreds of Czech folks out appreciating the warmth of (we hope) an early spring! I stayed in because I woke up this morning with a recurrence of the sore throat and sinus pain I thought I was getting the better of last week! Ugh!
This week the routines were the rule of the week. We did have a rather large group of seminary and Bible college presidents here for a retreat/conference. “The Overseas Council for Excellence” sponsored this gathering, and the theme this year was “Leadership.” At the last minute Keith asked Roger to give a twenty-minute devotional on each of two mornings. Of course Roger was ready, because he has learned to be prepared for any occasion. There are very few engagements planned far ahead of time. It’s a challenge. On Monday morning we ate breakfast with two of the leaders of this conference, one of them lives in Malaysia! He is one of the leaders of “Compassion,” a group that works on Child Theology. There has been a succession of worldwide gatherings called, “The Penang Consultation on Child Theology.” They publish a journal to encourage churches and church leaders who work with children. They are also very concerned about children who are abandoned, who are refugees, or who are marginalized for one reason or another. We were pleased to meet Dan and to talk with him about the interesting visa he has to be in Malaysia. It’s called the “Malaysia My Second Home” visa. This man has deposited some money in the bank in Malaysia, applied for a visa, and his family can live freely and legally in Malaysia. What a change from the old days when we were there, begging for visa renewals, sometimes on a monthly basis.
The general secretary of the European Baptist Federation, Tony Peck, went with a small group of European Baptist leaders to visit the Palestinian Baptist churches in Israel and the West Bank. He came back with stories of difficulty and persecution. There were three particular young men he asked us to pray for, Alaa, whose Master’s Degree studies at Jerusalem University have been interrupted because of the wall, supposedly erected to protect Palestinians. The second was a Baptist pastor, Daud (David) whose problem is his land. The third young man is an active Baptist, Hanna, and the head of the YMCA. Their building was bombed because the word “Christian” is in the title. I spoke briefly with Tony after he gave these prayer requests, and he promised to give us more information. It seems to me that we don’t often remember the Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters who live in such difficult circumstances when busses can be bombed and school children can be killed and churches can be destroyed because of sectarian violence. I will wait for Tony’s notes, but meantime, if you are interested you can find things to pray for on the EFB web site.
The Polish student, Anna, is preparing for taking the listening and speaking part of the First Cambridge Certificate Exam at the British Council next Saturday. I think I am even more anxious about this exam for her than she is! On Friday we went over some scenarios for the speaking part of the test, and she just goofed off. Oh well, I guess it is really up to her to get serious. I don’t suppose I’ll get ulcers over it, but it worries me as her tutor. I guess I really wish I could take the test for her. ? Do most private teachers feel that way about their pupils? My Russian student is doing very well. She has ups and downs, and she always wants me to emphasize the “rules” of the grammar, but as I can attest by my experience in Bulgarian, you just don’t really learn a language by learning the rules. It’s not possible. So I am giving her as much practice in speaking and gaining confidence as I can, and she’s doing well. We begin Unit 8 tomorrow.
You may remember that we had to go to Dresden, Germany to apply for our Czech visa. We have to return to that city sometime in March, but meantime we have a problem because we need an official document that our health insurance is valid here. Finding all that information is not difficult over the Internet, we can show our cards and our policy. But there has to be an officially stamped and attested document to prove the existence of our insurance. Oh dear! Of course we did not know all the details necessary for our visa validation in the States when we made our plans to come here in the first place. Maybe we’d have brought a special document with us. But really, we may simply have to buy Czech health insurance for the rest of our time here. And, I suppose, at the moment, feeling the way I do, maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Medical costs overseas have always been very reasonable for us to pay privately when we needed to in Singapore. And we were remarkably well in Liberia. Anyway, we’ll just have to see what develops.
Speaking of Liberia, Olu Menjay, who is still here, tells us that it is not surprising that President Bush was so warmly received in Liberia. He is credited with getting the nations to pressure Charles Taylor to leave the country. The people of Liberia are thrilled with that and so happy with their peace and freedom and rebuilding, that they welcome this American warmly, proud that he has visited their humble home and partaken of their hospitality. Olu himself is very fond of President Bush and personally appreciative. His wife told him when he talked with her over Skype the other night that he was listed on the program for welcoming Pres. Bush.
Wow! Tomorrow is Thomasin’s 38th birthday! How can that be? It was such a little while ago that she was my little baby! Was 1970 so long ago? God bless you Thomasin. Have a wonderful birthday!
With love,
Janice and Roger
