Czech Rep - Day 1 & 2

We safely arrived to Vienna on Friday morning (July 19).  Little did we know as we were still traveling Friday morning from Germany to Austria, that all flights were being grounded behind us in the US in wake of an IT crash.  Another former missionary from Czech Republic that I knew wrote on Facebook, "Sorry Prague, guess we will see you tomorrow."

We are extremely grateful that the Lord was watching out for us, so that we could arrive to Vienna on time without any travel issues. Please pray even now that we will not have any travel issues when it is time to return home.  We enjoyed a 24 hours in Vienna to explore the city and be tourists for a day, but this is not why we came. We are excited to have gotten to Brno, where we will begin the English camp on Monday.  We will meet 33 kids on Monday, many of them coming from families who are lost and being lost themselves.
Pray for us as we show them the love of Christ and serve them and their families.

The yellow building in the background is Shönbrunn Palace.  It was a summer residence for the rulers of the Hapsburg Empire.  The overlaying waterfall is called the Neptune Waterfall.  In it Neptune is being begged by a sea goddess, Thetis, to favor the voyage of her son Achilles, who has set off to conquer Troy.  The picture reminded me of how the word of God washes over us as we learn to follow Him in faith.  The Lord brought this to my mind and prompted me to pray for God’s word to wash over Austria 🇦🇹 and Czech Republic 🇨🇿 so that many would come to faith in Him.  Would you join me in praying for this to take place?

Darkness in Europe is thick, but there are glimmers of light shining through.  Tomorrow Stephen will be preaching from John 13 - Jesus' example of humility and love as displayed through washing the feet of his disciples, whom he loved to the utmost. Jesus selfishly put on humility and gave his disciples an example to follow in how we are to serve others (vs. 15).  Then he later commanded them to love one another.  As they love one another all people would know we are His disciples, if we have love for one another (vs. 35).  True love and humility is selfless. We are called to love and serve others like Jesus did.

Tomorrow we will go to the main Baptist church in Brno and worship with our brothers and sisters.  Then we will be a busy in the afternoon as we finish setting up for the camp. In the evening Stephen will preach at Runway, the church plant in Bystrc.  Pray for us and the Czech team that we will be united as we get everything ready for Monday.