Grace Avenue UMC, Frisco TX

Today was another awesome day!  We couldn’t work at Holy Hill today because the clients had to attend a meeting so we did a walking tour of Plzen instead.  Then we were to meet with the Vice Mayor in City Hall but she was delayed and we met with the head of the City Council and the head of the drug prevention program instead.  Later this afternoon we met with the Mayor.  These meetings were important to encourage the mayors and city council to support Teen Challenge.  It seems to carry more wieght if the mayors see that Americans spend time and money to come here and support the program. 

 After those meetings, I had asked Peter if he would take us to see one of the clients from last year that is in the hospital.  When we were at Holy Hill last year one of the clients was struggling with his drug addiction and lstruggling learning to accept Christ in his life.  Before we left here last year he opened up to us and he told me that he wouldn’t be where he is if he had had a mother like me.  That of course touched my heart and he is one of the reasons I wanted to come back this year because I promised him I would be back.  He is now in the hospital for depression and is struggling to survive.  Peter took Jennifer, Freda, Joyce, Lisa, and me to see him and I’m so glad we went…..it was the highlight of my week so far.  He was so glad to see us and told us that his mother lives not far away but she has not visited him…..we were the only visitors he has had in the 14 days he’s been in the hospital!!!  It broke my heart to hear that but I knew then that God wanted us to be there for him.  We prayed with him and let him know that we will continue praying for him and that seemed to make him happy.  He said sometimes when he has trouble focusing on things he watches Texas Rangers on TV and thinks about his American friends……how cool is that!!!

After the hospital visit, we attended the bible study at Maranatha church and then Jennifer and I went to the home of some staff members for dinner.  It’s always nice to have an opportunity to visit individually with the staff members in their homes even though it is sometimes challenging to communicate,  but we always seem to manage somehow.  It was a very full day but an awesome experience! 

We spent Monday and Tuesday working alongside the clients at Holy Hill.  What a great experience!  Monday I spent the day cleaning old bricks off, so that they could be used again.  The work was fun, and during different parts of the day, a number of the clients came over to help us.  Thomas was one of our favorites!  He speaks a little English, but clearly understands more than he speaks, because often when Trish and I would be talking, he would smile or laugh at our conversation.  But he still denied that he spoke any English :-). 

 On Tuesday, Freda and I got to go up into the loft of the old barn and work with Olda and Thomas to take things from the main barn floor and store them in the loft.  We spent a lot of time chatting and laughing with the two clients.  They are obviously starting to feel more comfortable around us.  At one point Thomas came over to help me paint the gutters.  He told me that he had only been at Holy Hill for 8 days. I asked him if he thought that program was good.  He hesitated and then smiled broadly and said, “Yes..very good!”  He seems to be happy and smiling most of the time, I hope that his positive attitude will help him to be successful in the program. Each day they seem to be more comfortable around us. Although I think that they wonder why these crazy American women, who spend so much time smiling and laughing would spend their own money, and vacation time to come and work alongside them at Holy Hill.  I think that even some of the staff at Holy Hill wonder the same things.  Paul worked with Trish and I on Monday, and he asked what I did for a living, then asked if this was my “holiday time” that I was spending here.  I explained that Jessica and I usually take a week’s vacation and go to the beach, but this year we chose to spend our only week of vacation together here in the Czech Republic.  He was very surprised to find out that we pay our own way to come here. 

 It does feel like just our being here, working (happily) beside them makes them feel good that there are people so far away, who care enough about others, and for this week, about them specifically to be here. 

 Last night we had a dinner with the staff of Marantha Church, the people who are here from Paris, TX and Decatur, TX.  It was a great time!  Pastor Peter took the time to explain the history of Holy Hill to Tracy and I. It was really informative and I was surprised that it all started with some missionaries who came here that were of Czech decent who were living in Texas. I guess that it is just natural that connection be continued into the present day.

I do miss a few of the comforts of home, like a bathtub :-).  The hours are long, and the sleep is pretty short, but for some reason, I’m not feeling tired.  Just excited about the work and relationships we are building here. 

That’s it for now!

I miss you all!

Donna

Ahoj,

I have had such a great time. I just got here on Monday and I flew over with nice people from FUMC Paris. Seeing all of the clients again and seeing their smiles when we get there is so nice. Today we met with the mayor of plzen. Tonight we are having dinner with some families of the church. I look forward to our trip to prague tommorow. Love you all, see you soon

So we are in plzen, we have been here for 5 days now, and it has been AMAZING! Even though i was nervous at first to meet the guys at holy hill it was awesome. They are all great guys, but some of my favorites are patrick and pavel. I worked with them in the kitchen the first day and it was awesome. Thankfully patrick speaks english VERY well so we were all able to talk and get to know each other throughout the day. Then at the end of the day while we were washing dishes patrick starts telling me this whole story of eveything that happened to him, and i was in complete shock. That was definately my high for that day, that he was able to come out and tell me that even though we had only met hours before. Then the next day when we went to work during group gathering HE TOLD HIS STORY IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!!! I was sooooo impressed and excited and proud of him, i was trying not to scream when he raised his hand to talk, afterwards i ran up with this huge smile on my face telling him how proud i was, he was really happy too. The guys have been a ton of fun, but the country is also amazing, its fun to go exploring and find stuff that is completely different from the u.s. I met this girl named Teresa who goes to Maranatha and she took me on a personal tour through plzen, so i got to see a side of it that a lot of people don’t. It’s just been a really blessed trip. And i am so excited for friday because i get to meet and hang out with a bunch of the youth, it will be awesome! anyways i’m trying to keep it short and sweet lol. I still have yet to write my devotional, shhhh don’t tell. lol miss ya’ll and see you soon!