Czech Republic
30 March 2008
IBTS
Nad Habrovkou 3
Jeneralka, CZ – 16400 Prague 6


Dear Friends and Family,

This was the week we welcomed Bessie Segran and her friend Amy Banas from Berkeley, CA. Bessie is the daughter of dear Singapore friends who live in Brussels. She is finishing a PhD in Indian studies. We are very proud of her. Amy is a good friend who attends the same church as Bessie. They arrived on Tuesday evening. We spent Wednesday with them in the city, taking most of the morning to tour three museums in the old Jewish quarter of Prague. The museums are housed in former synagogues around the perimeter of the ancient Jewish cemetery where tombstones are stacked one upon another because people were buried six or seven deep. The Jews were not allowed any more space. It’s an eerie sight, unforgettable. Also unforgettable is the Pinkas Synagogue where every wall is inscribed floor to ceiling with the names of Czechoslovak Jews who lost their lives in the holocaust – family groups – grandparents, children, adults. The names are arranged in order of the towns and counties from which the people came. They were first taken to the concentration camp here in the Czech Republic – Terezin. From there they were shipped to other of the extermination camps in Poland and Germany. 77,297 never returned. But the names of victims were listed from the place of origin. And, would you believe it, these lists of names were scrupulously kept along with silver candelabra and other silver worship ornaments such as Torah scroll containers from synagogues in cities and towns all over Nazi Germany and all the occupied territory – scrupulously kept right here at the Nazi headquarters, Jeneralka, now known as the facility of the International Baptist Theological Seminary! When I heard about that, I shivered! Apparently Hitler wanted a special museum in Prague to commemorate the disappearance of a race of people!

We spent some of the day in the Easter markets of the Old Town Square, and we managed to stop for a coffee at a little shop along the route to Charles Bridge. The girls learned their way around the Metro line, so after a visit to the Mucha (art nouveau) museum, we left them to make their own way home. They were fine. And they spent two more days exploring the castle and old/new town by themselves. Of course they also did a bit of shopping since they were particularly taken with the handcrafted jewelry sold in little stalls along the narrow, winding streets.

We saw them to their airport bus on Saturday morning and sadly bid them farewell. It was such fun to have visitors. Actually, contrary to our expectations, they were happy to get up and go to chapel with us each morning while they were here, and they enjoyed getting to know some of our students.

And now we’re looking for our BCOB friend, Billie Boette, who will arrive on next Saturday. We’re learning more and more about Prague and will be ready to share our “adoptive” town with all comers!

Next week there will be guests on campus from the Northumbria Community. This is a group of British Baptists who are discovering a community life after the manner of a new monasticism. We’ll see how it works. It’s new to us.

Today three different groups of the students went to share worship with Czech Baptist churches. So we expected there to be low attendance at our Sharka Valley Baptist Church. But to the contrary, we had a pretty full house today with several visitors and some new adherents. Roger preached today on the second Sunday of Easter. His message was to be taken from the lectionary readings, so he chose John 20:19-22 and spoke on Thomas and the Resurrection. It was a powerful message on belief and faith. Jesus’ words, “Peace to you” are spoken to us too because peace is more than the absence of hostilities, it is the fullness of salvation. Jesus told Thomas that he was blessed to believe because he had seen, but more blessed are those who believe without seeing. Was he speaking of us?

We pray for your faith and belief during this wonderful post-Easter season. At last the rebirth of the earth has come to us here in the Czech Republic. We have things blooming at last. It’s like a reward for our patience. Thank you Lord!

We’d love to hear from some of you.

With love,

Janice and Roger