Grace Avenue UMC, Frisco TX

We had a fabulous Mother’s Day here!  First I want to wish my Mom a Happy Mother’s Day…(We love you Mom and were thinking of you!) And also want to wish every mother at Grace Avenue a wonderful day!

We started the morning in church…which is always such a blessing at Marantha.  It is wonderful to worship and celebrate with our Czech family.  It is so much fun to see everyone here and find out what has been happening in their lives over the past year.  It is also wonderful to see and hear about everything that is happening at the church.  Simone gave a report today on the Rainbow group that was started originally to provide a support system for Mother’s, but has grown to include so many other things!  And they have great plans for improvements and expansion of the program over the next year.   They are obviously very excited about this new outreach program….and we are excited for them as well.

This afternoon we went to visit a castle, which was very cool…because it looked exactly like a castle should.  It was surrounded by a large mote, and the only way to access it was via a draw bridge.  It was a very large stone structure, with towers and windows to keep watch over your “kingdom”….It was the castle that I would draw, if someone asked me to draw the perfect castle!  We had a wonderful lunch there, and were joined by Petr B., Merrick, Nadia and George, as well as Gustav and his family.  It was a beautiful day!

After lunch we went to a glass shop, where we saw a master glass artist blow glass, and then we had the opportunity to try our hand at the glass blowing process.  It was very hot in the room where the furnace was…but it was really fun!  After we finished our pieces, he showed us the oldest process used for making glass in the Czech Republic.  This is how they did it before they had the ability to blow the glass.  Instead, they used wooden instruments to mold the glass into shape.  It took him about 1/2 hour to create one vase…it was such an inspiration to see someone with so much talent!  He had been doing this for over 30 years!  This was definitely a man who was using the gifts and talents that God has given him to create beauty in the world! 

This evening we had dinner in the home of one of the church families.  Jessica, Joyce and I went to the home of Zdenka and Anna Velichovi.  Anna is going to University here in Plzen and is majoring in English… so she spoke English very well.  They also invited their friend Joseph who has travelled to the U.S. three times, and has been working on his English for the past 15 years.  They live in an apartment just a block off of the square in downtown Plzen.  We were able to walk to their flat in less than 10 minutes from the church…(oh wait..EVERYTHING is just a 10 minute walk from the church! :-)  The food was SOOOO GOOD!  I think it was the Czech version of a bbq.  We had what looked like chicken fried chicken (without the gravy) and the Czech version of potato salad.  They told us it was a traditional Czech meal…but it didn’t seem that different from what we often eat in Texas.  We had wonderful conversation, about the differences between University in the Czech vs in the U.S.  (the biggest being that in the CZ, state university is free to attend!), as well as sharing how we each became members at our respective churches.  We learned that Zdenka has an office in the same building that Pastor Petr lives in…and that she was one of the early members of the church.  She became a member in 1998, and has been very active in the church ever since. They were all such wonderful people!  And they told us that we were their first international visitors!  We felt very honored!  We have definitely made some new friends here! 

We off to Holy Hill tomorrow and look forward to our first day of work there!

Many Blessing!
Donna

Church was awesome today!  Pastor Petr delivered the Pentacost message of the Holy Spirit.  We also enjoyed the new projector and screen they used for the words to the songs and also the scripture.  We were surprised by a visit from several of the Friday Club members who came to church to see us.  In addition, we met the Teen Challenge clients we will be working with the next week.  Then we had cake and coffee in the new coffee shoppe inside the church.  Then it was off to lunch on the grounds of a castle and a tour of a hand-blown glass shop where several of us blew the finishing touch to a glass piece.  The evening was completed by dinner at individual homes of church members.
Tomorrow we start our physical labor at Holy Hill with the clients at Teen Challenge.  Please pray for our success in making connections with these guys. 

What a wonderful day we had this Mother’s Day!  We started with breakfastg in the hotel that is always so good and so different in that we can have meat and cheeses as well as sausages and eggs. 

We left for Church about 8:45 and had our first introduction to the clients from Holy Hill.  There are 8 clients and all of them are new to us this year.  Only one of the men speaks English as well.  So it might be abit of a challenge but we are definitely up for it.  We are told that they have lots of “hard” work for us out there.  Tomorrow morning will be the
first day there.

Church was wonderful as it was Penetcost and Pastor Petr’s words were translated for us.  They have a great Praise type band to provided their music.  Even though we do not know what the words mean, we could feel holiness and glory in each song.  A “tea” was provided in the church basement with their traditional Czech pastries.

We were then taken to a small village with a castle and moat. Absolute beautiful fields of yellow are everywhere.  It is undetermined what the vegetation is, but a cooking oil is made from it.  At the castle, we had a delicious lunch and then a “long” walk around the moat. 

We were then taken to a “glass factory” where we could actually blow glass balls.  They are so beautiful and it was such a wonderful experience. 

We returned to the Hotel to prepare our gifts to take to the host famlies for dinner.  Freda, Tracy and I went to Petr and Simona’s beautiful house out in another village.  They have a marvelous home that is a few years old and gorgeous flowers all around.  They have two young boys and one baby daughter.  We took a LONG walk around the village and returned for dessert. 

The only way Mother’s Day could have been better would have been to have my children and grandchildren here with me!

Love to all

Trish Scates

Hello eveyone!
It is Sunday here and Mother’s Day. We started out at Church. It was good to see all of our old friends. We even sang Worthy is the lamb. They sang in Czech and I sang in English. After we had coffee in the room downstairs. Our friend Adam and his Mother were making it for everyone. He was in the program 2 years ago and is doing GREAT! He seemed so happy and full of smiles.  We went to an awesome Reastruant at a Castle for lunch. Afterwards we went to a Glass Blowing shop. Some of us made really cool water bulbs for our plants. It is a beautiful art i have never been that close to. A VERY hot profession our teacher had been doing for 33 years. We had a great dinner at some new freinds house. We go to work tomorrow at Holy Hill. I miss you all and feel your prayers.
Joyce

We had a great trip to Plzen, Czech Republic with just a few minor hiccups.  Most significant was that neither Charles or I had our luggage when we arrived.  More importantly, we didn’t have the two bags with t-shirts and gifts for all our friends here.  However, unlike in the US where it takes days or weeks to receive your lost luggage, ours arrived at our hotel at 11pm, just 12 hours after our arrival. 
Our first day was filled with food and fellowship, what more can you ask for?  We were met at the airport by Gustav, Ruda, Marek and Petr.  First stop was a new restaurant with a picturesque view of the countryside where we were met by Gustav’s wife and two daughters as well as Nada, the office manager for Teen Challenge and her husband George.  We were presented with gift bags and all the women received a beautiful Mother’s Day rose.  After an incredible meal, we were off to settle into the hotel.  And then was our traditional trip to Tesco (like WalMart or Super Target) where we stocked up on bottled water and essentual snacks including chocolate bars.  Charles and I each purchased a change of clothes just in case but didn’t need them as our luggage finally arrived.  It was probably not a pretty site or a quiet event as we climbed three flights of stairs with 4 bags, each about 50 lbs a little after 11pm. 
And of course, the day would not be complete without a walk to our favorite pizza joint for Mozzarella, basil and tomatoes and a Margarita Pizza.  
This morning we are headed to worship at Maranatha, just a short walk from our hotel and then off to a tour of a hand-blown glass place.  And I’m positive there will be some great food mixed in there as well.  We are looking forward to seeing the guys we worked with last year in church and also meeting the guys we will be working with all this week.  
All of you moms have a blessed Mother’s Day!