Czech Republic
27 April 2008
IBTS
Nad Habrovkou 3
Jeneralka, CZ – 16400 Prague 6


Dear Family and Friends,

Boom! It’s spring! Wow! We were looking for the warmth and flowers, and it came at last – all of a sudden! Actually, it’s still not so warm. In fact, this morning when we got up, it was 39 degrees outside, but it promises to warm up to the mid-sixties sometime this afternoon, and the spring flowers know it right well. There are tulips and flowering cherry and quince and pear-trees, apple trees, plum trees – everything that can bloom is doing its best – wonderful!

On the avenue to the city we notice lilac bushes showing a bit of color. By this time next week they’ll be bursting forth and sharing that wonderful fragrance we remember so well from Bulgaria. But they’ll only last a couple of weeks, I suppose. They are lovely while they last.

We’ve had bright sunshine several days this week, and with an ecologist leading chapel, we’ve been reminded again and again of the importance of “creation care.” I like the term. This professor, Dr. Graham Ashworth, is a Baptist who has been a university lecturer as well as a member of a special Queen’s council on the environment in Britain. He’s really the one responsible for some of the measures in place here on the campus; these are measures that qualify the institution to be called an “eco-seminary.” I’m sure I’ve mentioned before our huge recycling bins, our plantings, and, of course, our goats.

We will also have an important visitor next week. It’s Craig Evans, a New Testament professor of some renown from Arcadia Seminary in Canada. He’ll be offering a module – lecture series of several hours on New Testament backgrounds. Roger is excited.

We are personally expecting a visitor in the second week of May. Melanie Williams will come for a few days. She wrote that she wants to have at least one opera evening. She specifically asked for “Rusalka,” an opera by the Czech composer, Dvorak. (There should be an accent marking over the “r” to make it the Czech sound of something like a “j.” It’s a real issue of pronunciation for me even in other, less important words!) Of course we’ll do several other musical things with Melanie. But the tickets for “Rusalka” were not difficult to get; the only trouble is that she arrives on the 7th, and the opera finishes on the night of the 8th. I hope she can get over jet lag quickly! And we’ll plan some other excursions too. I am sure the royal gardens will be fabulous by then, and Nancy Lively assures me that the terraced gardens ascending to the castle will be breath taking. Prague in the spring, according to all reports, rivals Paris. And there will be more and more sidewalk cafes.

Yesterday we accompanied the students on an excursion to Karlstein Castle. The little village that the castle dominates from a prominent hill is about 20 miles from Prague, but it is easily accessible by train. We took the bus and two Metro rides to get to the railway station, and we rode on a really modern, double decker coach through greening countryside all along the river out to the village. There we hiked the paved roadway up to the enormous fortress. From time to time we had to be careful of the vehicles. As it turned out, yesterday was a busy day for weddings in the chapel of the castle. When we finally reached the castle courtyard, we saw the first happy couple come out into the warm sunshine to the applause of the rice-tossing crowd. Everyone agreed that the groom was not particularly attractive, but Roger assured us that he was, after all, the prince; so he must be a fine fellow, especially to live in such a grand house! By the time we finished our tour and had eaten our picnic lunches at a table near the ramparts, there were two more happy couples tying the knot in that lovely place. The tourists were all around enjoying the festivities as well and snapping photos.

Our trek down the hill was much more pleasant because we took a pathway through the forest. Underfoot there was occasional mud because of Friday’s rain, but it was still nicer to be out of the traffic and away from the other tourist crowds. There were 13 of us. You see only 12 in the photo below taken at the not so picturesque train station. Roger was snapping the picture. And our train ride on the return was not so picturesque. It was an old carriage from the WWII era, I think. But we could see out the window, at least, and most of the students were asleep anyway.

I’ve saved this piece of bad news to the end because I didn’t want to spoil your day. Maybe you’ve heard about the high pickpocket rate here in the Czech Republic. Well, you guessed it! We can testify now. On the Metro, on the way home from the city on Monday evening, we were surrounded by a group of well-dressed men, who pushed against us when the tram door didn’t open. They kept saying, “push” and seemed to be trying to pry the door open with their hands. There were others interested in getting out that door, so naturally Roger also participated, using both hands to pull back on the door. That must be when it happened. As soon as the door was opened and we were out on the platform, he realized, “they’ve got my wallet!” Of course they were gone like a shot. And that was that. We suppose the whole door-stuck episode was a scam. Maybe somebody was actually holding the door closed.

Roger called our visa company, Wachovia, as soon as we arrived home to report the card missing. The very pleasant woman told him that somebody had already tried to use the card but was blocked because of the incorrect pin. She said she was already alerted to the possibility and was actually looking at Roger’s file when he called. She gave us the date and amount of his last transaction using the card. Wow! We were impressed. Roger was also advised to put a “fraud alert” on his credit. He did that with the three different national credit companies. There’s so much talk about identity theft nowadays. And the next day he sent notification to the Medicare and Blue Cross people so that we can get those cards replaced as soon as we return to the States. Fortunately my card number is different, and we only use the one card. We didn’t have to make extra calls to cancel the cards. In addition to his several medical cards, Roger lost his driver’s license (due to be renewed in Dec.) and there was money. But we are thankful nobody was hurt, and now we can sympathize with several others who have been robbed. Roger says he has been “Czech-mated” or “Czechered” or something like that. When we went out yesterday to the castle, he said he felt very free without a wallet to trouble him. Once it has happened – then it can’t happen again, right?

In our service this morning, Kyler Rubesh was dedicated. It was a lovely gathering. Tima Cheprasov, a PhD student from Russia, did that part of the service and then our preacher was Dejan Adam from Serbia. He and his Estonian wife Daily have just disclosed that she is pregnant. He introduced his sermon by sharing his initial fear and sleeplessness when he considered the awesome responsibility of bringing a child into a world like ours – a world of hate and terrorism and hunger. He said he knew he should be comforting and caring for his pregnant wife in those early weeks, but it was she who comforted him with the words, “It’s a beautiful life!” And he knew that in the strength of our God, in the power of His Spirit he would be able to provide this child with hope and peace as well as everything else he or she might need to live with joy in this difficult world. It is the love of Christ that makes this possible. He can be a good father by introducing his child to the Really Good Father. “We are His offspring.” The passage was from Acts 17.

It was a wonderful message for the day of a baby dedication. In fact, the entire service was such a family time. And yet we remembered to pray for the children of the world, organizations who work on behalf of children, and for governments who need to put measures in place to prevent the trafficking of children. For many of the children of the world, it’s a cruel world out there. We must learn to share our resources and our Lord and ourselves with them.

Bless you all as you bless the children.

With peace,
Janice and Roger