Worshiping Images

I am reading Knowing God by J.I. Packer and I came across an interesting comment about worshipping images of the Godhead.

Commenting on the Second Commandment in Ex 20:4-5 he says, "In its Christian application, this means that we are not to make use of visual or pictorial representations of the triune God, or of any person of the Trinity, for the purposes of Christian worship. The commandment thus deals not with the object of our worship, but with the manner of it; what it tells us is that statues and pictures of the One whom we worship are not to be used as an aid to worshipping him." He goes on to say that this outlaws any pictorial representation of Christ and even may rule out any pictorial aids for teaching.

I'm not quite sure I agree with him. I have some ideas why, but I am more interested in hearing what others have to say. Let me know what you think.

Empty Address Book

So, the good news is that I have a new hard drive! AND, it was free. AND, it is now 80 Gigs, instead of 60 GB (insert Tim Allen manly grunt here). The other good news is that nearly all of the information was saved!

The bad news is that the one thing that got lost was my address book. My Palm didn't sync very well with it and I never bothered to figure it out...DUMB. I have all my old emails, so I am now adding addresses back in, but it is going to be a couple of day process. Once that is done, then I'll create new groups and send my update out!

I hate this...

Crashed Hard Drive

I am currently out of commission. There is really nothing that affects the ability to work and communicate like a crashed hard drive. I can't do anything. Fortunately, we have had meetings and been traveling the last couple of days, so I haven't needed it. But, that ends today, so now I have to borrow my roommates computer when he isn't using it. All that being said, if you are awaiting my February Email Update, it won't be coming for a week or so (hopefully). If I'm not responding to emails, its because I am only answering the most pressing work emails. Sorry.

I actually got pretty lucky because just last week I backed up a good majority of my stuff! I don't know why I did it, but the Holy Spirit must have known and saved me. But I think that I may have lost all my emails, my journal from the last year and a half, and some of my email addresses. Please pray that they would be able to recover that stuff from my hard drive!

I really hope to be back up and running by the weekend or early next week. Thank God for extended warranties.

-22º C (or -8º F)

Do you see that thing to the left. Yeah, that white thing with numbers running up the side and some red thing beside the numbers. Yeah, its called a thermometer. It measures outside temperature. Do you see the black numbers. Yeah, the ones below the red ones. Well, those measure negative temperature. Negative temperature (in the Celsius system) is below the freezing point. Yeah, that says -20º C. That was last night before I went to bed. When I woke up this morning it was -22º. I can't believe it. It is so freakin' cold here!! This is what I've learned so far...

• It is possible to have 1 inch of ice coating your car
• If you don't breathe carefully, you are bound to freeze the snot inside of your nose
• If I don't blink frequently enough my contacts will freeze to my eyes (seriously)
• When walking from my office to the apartment, keep legs moving or risk never moving again
• Alcohol always sounds good
• No wonder the Russians lost so many soldiers in WWII
• Buildings are my friend...walking in open areas = wind...wind = colder...colder = SUCK!
• Don't forget your power plug for your laptop at home on the coldest day of the year
• Why did I leave Arizona again?

Uncle Rico

Church services are interesting here in the Czech for me. I know enough Czech so that I can pronounce the words when I'm singing. I know enough vocab, so that I can usually get the main meaning of the song. The sermon, on the other hand, is another level in which I have only begun to ascend. Half the time it is Polish anyways, so what I usually do is find out what passage the pastor is speaking on and just read the surrounding context and related passages for 45 minutes. It is a really great practice, but I began missing the art of preaching. I missed hearing the Scriptures read and expressed from another's mind and experiences. Because of this I started downloading sermons and listening to them on Sunday afternoons or on long car rides. Rob Bell has become one of my favorites and so I listened to him this morning.

The title of this particular sermon was "How to Lose Your Life". He started with telling the story of Mary (the one called Magdalene) seeing Jesus in the garden from John 20. He talked about how, after realizing it was Jesus, she clinged to Him and how Jesus told her to stop and to go tell her brothers that He is going to return to His Father. Rob asked, "Why did Jesus do this? Why did He tell her to stop clinging to Him? Why did He tell her to go tell her brothers that He must return to the Father?" His answer, expounded upon through the Scriptures was because a new time was coming in which Jesus wouldn't be on earth and that she couldn't hold onto Him and the way things used to be, but rather, by the power of the Spirit (2 Tim 1:7), she needed to prepare for this new time. His application was that our tendency is to hold on to the way things used to be. We fear change and the future, so we remember the past and we fight to keep things the same. This is when he moved to Matt 16:24-25. Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." We cling to life. We cling to the way we want life to be, we cling to our hopes and our dreams and we cling to the past. Jesus says that if we are trying to save our life, we will miss life. We will lose out on what He has for us. But if we lose our life, if we lose our life for Him, we will find it!

Man, this spoke to everything that is inside of me. I love the old days. I love the way things used to be. I find myself remembering Arizona. I find myself remembering Oregon. I find myself glorying in the past. It's sad but am I much different than Napoleon's Uncle Rico? Glorying in the days of the past only to be living in a van, watching life pass me by? God has something great for me. He has taken me from humble Redmond, Oregon, population 7,000, child of a raised-Catholic neighborhood babysitter and an Agnostic mill worker/landscaper (who now are both following the Lord) and moved me to the Czech Republic to work to expand His Kingdom! He has given me the responsibility to help run and organize 20+ camps in which 300 American students and youth leaders will be profoundly changed by experiencing dynamic, life-changing, relational evangelism, where 300 Czech students and youth leaders will experience that same evangelism with their peers and 800 unbelievers will hear the Gospel, some for the first time! And yet, I think back to yesteryear. I think back to what was. I sometimes LONG to go back to what was...internship, seminary, the familiarity of friends, the feeling of knowing and being known.

I am losing my life. While watching re-runs of 1996's Senior Year or 2000's Summer of Fun or the ever popular hit from 2001-2004, The Intern Years, I am missing the show that God is filming now. I am starring in a show right now in which I am a missionary in the Czech. God has huge things planned. God has a never-ending budget and I am watching re-runs in poor quality. He has brought me so far and yet I am not grasping onto the future. I am not living for now. I am just content with living in the past. And in doing all of this I am going to "lose my life"...

So what do I do? I don't know. I know that God called me here. I know that God called me to do what I am doing. I know that I have the Holy Spirit inside of me who wants to use me. Even though I often feel no passion for what I'm doing, I know that I need to take hold of what He has called me to. I need to heed Paul's words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, "to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

Mufin Muž (pronounced "Moof-in Mus"-pronounce s as in measure)

OK, first off, it is freakin -15 degrees Celsius outside right now! That is 5 degrees Fahrenheit for all you "Americans" (I put quotes, because I feel that is something Christian would do in his mocking voice).

OK. So, one day I am hanging out with some friends (Ameicans and Czech) and we are talking. Now, you have to understand, my Czech is not good, but I like to translate American things into Czech, just to screw around, because I know my American friends who can speak Czech will think it is funny. So, I don't know what we're talking about but I start singing a song. It goes like this:

Znate Mufin Muž
Mufin Muž
Mufin Muž

Znate Mufin Muž,
když bydli na Drury Lane?

Translation:

Do you know the Muffin Man
Muffin Man
Muffin Man

Do you know the Muffin Man
who lives on Drury Lane?

So my American friend, Leah, starts laughing...the Czechs laugh too, because they've seen Shrek and we're all having a good time. Then they start calling me Muffin Man.

Fastforward to yesterday. I spent Sunday afternoon at, my friend, Lucka's house and she has a nephew. I walk in the door and he says, "Mufin Muž!" So all day he calls me Mufin Muž...

Next time I go over there I'm bringing muffins.

Crazy New Year's Day: Part Two

So, part two actually occurs chronologically first, and humorously second, but I still think it is a good story.

Prague was insane on New Year's Eve. I mean crazy. If It would've been twenty years ago during the Cold War, I would've thought that the Russians were attacking all day, because the minute it looked somewhat dark outside the fireworks came out! It was crazy. There were explosion after explosion all night. It was definitely sweet. So, obviously, fireworks are readily available and one of my friends bought a ton of awesome ones. Our plan for the evening was to kick it, play some games, talk, then go outside for our personal firework show, and then head downtown to watch the fireworks from one of the Bridges. So, we went outside around 10:30 for what we thought would be about a 30 minute firework display. Well, Chris had bought a ton of fireworks and one of our other friends did as well, so we proceeded to go nuts. We were rigging these "artillery shells" so that we could launch them at a 30 degree angle down this path. Then we would go down the path and try to stop where we thought the fireworks would explode so that we could be showered in sparks! (Side note, we were all sober...) So our firework insanity ended up lasting an hour and before we knew it, it was 11:30. We had about a (normally) 20 minute trip by tram and metro to the bridge, so we got our stuff together and hustled to the tram.

The tram ride went easy and we got to the metro about 20 minutes before the New Year. The trip is about a six minute trip by metro and in the metro stations there is a clock that shows how long has passed since the last metro left. Ours said 5 minutes, so we knew we didn't have long to wait...

As the metro station filled with awaiting (mostly drunk) passengers the clock rolled on, 6 minutes, 8 minutes, 12 minutes and still no metro. We knew there was still one metro coming, because the metro doesn't stop running until midnight, but we had never waited so long for one. We thought about going back at least to be above ground before midnight, but we decided to press on to the bridge. We joked about how "fun" it would be to celebrate the New Year's on the metro. Then at 11:54 the metro pulled up. We crammed in with the thousands of others on their way to the bridge. 11:55, 11:56, 11:57, 11:58, 11:59. We were one stop away and time was clicking away...as we pulled up to our metro stop my watch hit midnight...yes, New Year's on the metro! Marisa and I shared a kiss and then prepared for the mad rush out of the metro.

We were in one of the first cars and close to the escalator, so when the doors open we made our run for it...and so did everyone else! Luckily we were in front of the pack, but people were closing in. As we neared the escalator we glanced up to the digital clock hanging above it...the glowing red numbers showed 12:00:21. Yep, we had surely spent New Year's in the metro. Others saw the clock as well and began yelling and cheering celebrating the beginning of newness. As Marisa and I held hands running up the escalator (probably 50 meters long), she panted, "I'm dying". I was too, but we had to keep running or fear the trampling of two thousand feet. I pulled her along as we reached the peak of the escalator. With the chill air of winter surrounding us and the sound of explosion and cheers all around, we rushed the final few meters to the bridge to meet thousands of other onlookers watching fireworks explode over the Vltava River.

When I pictured celebrating New Year's with Marisa I imagined a romantic night on the Charles Bridge holding each other and counting down to midnight and sharing a romantic kiss together. The last thing I expected was to be holding on to her with hundreds of bodies pressing against both of us, the smell of cheap beer and cheaper champagne wafting through the already stale air of a metro, counting down to midnight on my watch, and almost getting trampled.

Crazy New Year's Day: Part One

It is late on the first and I had to post a story before I went to bed. This will be the first of two funny stories from my New Year's.

Marisa left this morning. She was here for three weeks (hence the lack of blog posting!) and we had a great time together. But this post isn't to talk about out time...

This morning my stomach was feeling a little uneasy, but we had to get to the airport early, so I didn't have time to go to the bathroom. I got Marisa taken care of, we said our goodbyes, and I watched her pass through the passport checkpoint, on to her gate. Immediately after waving goodbye, I made a bee-line to the bathroom. I hustled my way in sat down and did my business. As I sat there, I heard a voice from the stall next to me. The voice startled me, but not because of what they said, but because it was a woman's voice!! I sat there in disbelief thinking, "No, no, I'm totally in the guys bathroom...aren't I." Then I heard a brutally loud fart come from another stall...this again made me question whether I was in the women's bathroom. Then I heard more voices and they were all female. "How did I make such a drastic error," I mused. As I thought back to coming into the bathroom, I couldn't remember seeing any urinals and I remembered thinking to myself, "That is unusual that all but one of the stalls is occupied..." It now all made sense; I really was in the women's room. But to finally confirm it, I took a peek at the shoes of the person next to me...yep, high heels. Mistake confirmed. Commence embarrassing scenario.

So, I sat there, and sat there, and sat some more. I thought through all my options: pull my hood over my head and run out (no, too creepy, stalkerish), yell from the stall, "Hey, there is a man in here. I'm sorry, I didn't realize I went into the women's room (no, no guarantee that anyone would understand me in English and too much trouble to try and explain myself)...the only other option was just to wait it out and hope that I can find a time when there are no women in the bathroom.

Women take forever in the bathroom. I knew this before, but nothing makes you realize it more than when you are sitting in one of the stalls! One mother and daughter had to have been in there for 10 minutes just talking to each other. I had no idea what they were doing. Before this experience I would have said that I would want to know what happens in a woman's bathroom, but now I wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then...the loud fart, the constant chatter...it was not a pretty scene.

Eventually the talking and flushing stopped. From my position I could look under my stall and see the other stalls. I couldn't see the sink area, but I could see most of what I needed to in order to determine if someone was in the bathroom. When I didn't hear the mother and daughter any more, I made one last check from under the stall, saw no one there and made my break for it. Fortunately, no one came in and I was able to make my way to the men's room to wash my hands.

Shea Star

Many of you have probably heard about my friend Shea Hickok and her brother Luke. They were in a terrible accident on Friday night in Georgia. Shea has been in critical condition, but God is totally doing miracles in her life. Please pray for Shea as she has a long road to recovery ahead of her, Luke and Jesse, her brothers, and Steve and Susan, her parents.

Here is a link to a blog that they have started for her: http://sheahickok.blogspot.com/

Wrestling with God

Below is an edited excerpt from my journal:


I am learning a lot about myself right now and it isn't fun. This past month has been one of the hardest of my life and I think that last night was a true breakthrough in many regards.

For the past month I have been wrestling God. For the first four weeks I didn't even realize it. By moving here I relinquished my hold on many things. Language, understanding of culture, friends, family, etc. I don't know if I was truly ready for the shock that it would cause my system by not being able to "do" anything. I found myself grasping onto anything that I could control. The most natural thing to grab and hold onto was my new apartment. It was something that was tangible. Shopping, painting, building things; all of these were tangible ways for me to control something. Painting was painting, building a desk was building a desk and I could go to the store and buy something and see results. I paid, I got something. But even these things that I thought I could control, I couldn't. I had to continue going back to Ostrava (a city 45 minutes away) to shop for more stuff for the apartment, because we never got everything we wanted in one trip (or six!). Before we even could paint we learned we had to scrape all the old paint off the wall. There was even one wall that the paint fell off of! Nothing was simple. Building our couches was a nightmare. I built a desk drawer incorrectly and couldn't correct it. Everything that I tried failed.

This is when you'd think that I called out to God for help, but I didn't. I kept pressing. Kept holding on. Kept wrestling with God.

Then on Thursday as I was building something, alone with my thoughts, I began to realize that I have been wrestling with God. He has been trying to get me to depend on Him and to release my control of life and I just grasped tighter. It was really just a passing thought. I actually think that my stubbornness pushed it aside, because I wasn't ready to release things yet.

I really try not to over spiritualize things in my life. I think there is often too much over-spiritualization and not enough proclaiming of what is truly spiritual, so I am always skeptical when something happens in my life that may be overly spiritual. But on Thursday night I woke up with a terrible pain on the top of my foot. I was only awake for about 30 seconds, but when I got up in the morning and when I took my first couple of steps of the day pain shot through the top of my foot. I immediately remembered the pain from that night. I tried to think back to what it could've caused this pain, but nothing came to mind. Thursday night was the first time I felt this pain.

Friday, I worked on the apartment most of the day. Forgetting what God had tried to get through my mind on Thursday night, I continued striving with Him throughout the day and into the evening as I failed in more things.

On Saturday, my friends and I went for a hike (the pain in my foot still persisting) and then went to a play that night. The play was about the life of Jacob. It was all in Czech, but I could follow the story easily enough. Near the end, as God and Jacob wrestled, I thought to myself, "Gosh, that is what I've been doing with God for the past month!" Then God broke Jacob's hip. The similarity was unmistakable. "Did God break my foot Thursday night?"

Fast forward to Monday night. Dave (the president of Josiah Venture) spoke on Luke 9:1-6. The text is about going out without anything. The point that really struck me and ministered to me was that Jesus commanded that the disciples go out without anything. They had no tools, no food, nothing. They were forced to rely on the Lord daily for their provision. He gave them power and authority in verse 1 and that was all they needed for their ministry. They had to let go of everything that they had. This message pierced my heart. Everything began fitting together. I have been stripped of all that I consider a comfort and a help. Language, friends, understanding of culture, comfort, knowledge of how things work, etc. God is wanting me to rely on Him daily. I have nothing. I am carrying nothing with me and yet I have this huge task to do. I have this ministry, but I am going crazy because I don't have anything to do it with.

I thought.

Jesus has given me power and authority to do ministry. He has given me the tools that I need for right now. Today it may be very little. Tomorrow it may be less, but He will provide for me whatever I need each day. I can continue to wrestle Him. I can continue to try to do things on my own, and I will continue to fail. Or I can release to Him all that I have held on to.

I just tested my foot to see if the pain was still there. It is. I don't know if God "broke" my foot. But He is breaking my will and I know that this injury will continue to remind me that I need to surrender my will to Him and allow Him to provide for me daily.

Apartment, Part Three: "Finished" Living Room

We still have some plants to buy and some pictures to put up, but our living room is pretty much done! It is nice to finally have a place to relax and "unwind". The bedroom is pretty much finished, but we still have a couple things to touch up.

Here are some new pics.




My Friends Helping Out


Mr. Biceps


The Finished Living Room!

Emergent vs. Non-Emergent (for lack of a better term)

I think if I were to come back to the states that I would want to be a part of an "emergent church". I have some friends who have started an emergent church. I haven't been, but I imagine that it is a good blend of relevant worship and theological soundness.

But being in the Czech, I have been thinking a lot about what are the concepts of the emergent church that I can grab onto and use and what things have no relevance here. There are some things that would totally work, but others that would be a huge turn off. It has actually made me question how much I really know about this culture. What I've realized is that no matter what style we use, outreach is about going OUT.

I was just with a youth leader this weekend and he has been hanging with a group of students in a pub throughout the week. All these kids from this one high school go to a pub nearly every day and hang out. When he goes there they talk about life, but spiritual things always come up...It is amazing. He doesn't do anything fancy. There isn't a really cool program set up, he just goes, hangs with them and outreach is being done. It is totally incarnational. He is even thinking about starting a bible study in the pub! It is really cool. This is all being done in the capital of one of the most Atheistic countries in the world. It just proves that people are spiritually interested even in spiritually "dead" places.

I think it is sweet to set up a church in a way that unbelievers want to go, but what I think is more important is going TO them. I hear people talk all the time about doing outreach, but how often is that outreach really going out and how much of it is "inreach", where a relevant event is planned and the people are invited, but the unbeliever is forced to make the first step? I think that it is expected of missionaries to be involved in the community and reaching the people, but where are the missionaries to the States? How many youth leaders and staff are actually going out and hanging with students in their environment? When I was working with students in the states I was constantly hanging out with them at their houses and hang outs, BUT I was hanging out with the Christians...Don't get me wrong, I think this was equally beneficial, but I wasn't doing outreach. Consequently, they weren't either.

I am currently studying Acts and in Chapter 3 Peter and John are on their way to the temple at the hour of prayer (I wonder if they were going there to pray or if they were going there, because they knew that there would be people to get in spiritual conversations with!). Anyways, on their way they heal a man who has been lame from birth and a crowd gathers and then Peter shares about God. This is continually happening throughout Acts. The apostles GO OUT and get in spiritual conversations with people. The ministry that they do "inside" is to the body. I'm not arguing that we should set up services that are only for believers. I'm also not arguing for street evangelism. My point is that we need to be going out and reaching out to people in their world. We can't expect them to come to us. We need to build relationships with unbelievers and use that relationship to talk about spiritual things.

Part Two: Bedroom

We've started on painting the bedroom and it is looking awesome!!

We still have another coat of paint to do, some work on the ceiling and some detail work, but it is looking good. Here is the progress.

Room: post-primer, pre-paint


Room: Post-first coat (sorry that it is vertical...I tried to fix it forever...)


Working Hard Again!

Apartment Remodel: Part One

We are working to make our new apartment our own, so I am going to start a series keeping you updated on how everything is coming. I wanted to do a live webcam, but we don't have internet yet and I don't have a "cam". So this is the best I can do. It is not really live and not really a cam, but it is on the web and you will get to see progress.

Here are the first few pics of us scraping old paint from our living room walls and ceiling!


Room with old paint.


Hard(ly) at work.


The Final Scrape.


Room post-scrapping.

40 Korun Profit

The Charles Bridge is one of the most popular sites in Prague. During the day you can find a multitude of vendors selling their various trinkets to eager tourists and during the night the bridge is lined with couples experiencing the romance of Prague, the destitute begging the now not-so-eager tourists, and many different performing acts. Sometimes there are one-man bands. Sometimes there are fire-breathers. Sometimes jugglers. There are always a variety of different performers.

This is the story of two of them.

The last night with my intern team we decided to go to the bridge to say goodbye to the city. We ambled across the bridge, stopping to take in the view of the castle, take pictures, and just enjoy one another. As we neared the end of the bridge someone (it very well could've been me, but I don't remember) got a great idea, "What if Nate and Breanne performed to see if they could make some money? Nate could beatbox and Breanne could dance." I was reluctant to just drop my bags and just "perform", but I also knew this was the last opportunity to see if we could gather a large crowd. Breanne and I looked to one another. Neither of us needed to say yes, the affirmation was found in our eyes. In a matter of moments Breanne had transformed herself into a hip-hop dance and I became a beatboxer. A hat was laid on the ground in front of us and the show began.

Beats were flowing, Breanne's body was "popping" and a crowd was gathering. There was a smattering of applause as we finished our first set, but we were definitely getting people's attention. We began again. Bass, hi-hat, and an occasional scratch flowing from my mouth, while Breanne shook her body all over the "stage". Asians, Americans, Brits, Czechs, Slovaks, all gathering around to see this once in a lifetime show. People's hands dig into pockets for lose change and silver and gold fly into the hat. Even the One-Man-Band, pushing his instruments home after a long day's work, stopped to watch and even throw some of his hard earned profit into our makeshift bank.

We performed for about 15-20 minutes and ended up with over fifty people who stayed to watch at least a part of the show. As we packed up our bags and counted the change we found about 80 Kuron (about 3 dollars). We figured that our friends put about half of it in as motivation for others to do the same. 40 Koruns earned. Not bad for a night's work.

The Bartending Missionary

I have a friend who is a missionary. He is what is called a tent-maker. He and his wife moved to the Czech without raising support and are helping start an international church in Prague. In order to pay for their expenses they are working regular jobs. The work that they are doing is running a pub! That is right, running a pub. They own and operate this cool little pub in the basement of a hostel that is owned by a Christian couple. Is this a paradox? Christians and pubs? Beer and Evangelism? It can't be! Please tell me this isn't true! Well for those of us who love beer, this is a dream come true.

Chris and I met in Colorado at missionary training. As we talked and found out that we both were working in the Czech, one of the first questions I asked was, "So, do you like beer?" He replied, "For sure." To which I replied, "I don't think that you can be a missionary in the Czech without liking beer!" SIDE NOTE: Marisa was also a part of this conversation and she later told me that this comment that I made was one of the first things she liked about me! In a culture like the Czech, beer is a way of life. EVERYONE drinks beer. They drink more beer per capita then any other country in the world. They love beer. Not only that, but it is usually the cheapest drink on the menu. For a half liter of beer you typically pay about one dollar!! That would cost $4-5 in the States!! Many times Czechs think we are crazy for ordering soda since it is usually much more expensive than beer.

This week I got to hang out with Chris and Laura in Prague. On Friday night he had to work. I said I'd come along. He had a lot of office work to do and asked if I wanted to pour beers for him. I said yes. So, from 8-1 AM I poured beers and talked with people from all over the world. It was really an amazing experience. I talked to people from Australia, Germany, Britain, Belgium, Czech and the States. The kid from Belgium and I talked for about two-hours. We talked about travel, life, and love. It was really interesting to talk with him about what was driving him in life and what he cares about. Chris gets to do this four to five nights a week. He said that he has had some wonderful conversations with people.

On Sunday mornings the pastor of the church hosts a simple bible study in the Chapel at the hostel (oh, I forgot to mention that the chapel is a room that is located in the pub!!). Usually they only get a few people to stop by, but imagine the people that they are reaching.

This may sound like cutting edge ministry, but it is ministry that Jesus would do. This is vintage Christianity. Jesus went to where the sinners were and conversed with them on their ground. He resided with those who others wouldn't and couldn't reach. That is what Chris is doing. He is on the front-lines of ministry, meeting people where they are at.

Border Crossing

Since I don't have a visa yet to live here I have to leave the country every three months in order to be considered a visitor. I will start the visa process in September, but my first three months came up the other day, so I had to cross the border. Now, this isn't a big deal considering in live in Česky Těšín, which is the Czech side of a border town on the Czech-Polish border, but getting to the border wasn't my problem...

Mel drove me to the border and told me to just walk across through one building, cross the street, and then come back on the other side and that will be enough. I was a little nervous, because I don't know what they are going to think when they see me walk across the border and then come right back. I'm thinking that this could hurt my visa chances if I get caught. So I go through the building and the guy asks me where I'm going (I've told this story to multiple people who live in Česky Těšín and they say they have never been asked this question). So I tell him I'm just going into town. He says, "Today is a holiday and the stores are closed." I now start to get a little flustered, because I'm not prepared to answer questions. I stutter and say, "OK," he stamps my passport and then lets me through. Then the Polish guy looks at my passport, flips through it, stamps it and lets me go through. I proceed to the nearest door, because I want to get out of there as quick as possible, and the guys both yell out and point to a back door...more attention being drawn to me.

I should also note that I am wearing a brown sweatshirt that says OREGON on it, with a brown trucker hat cocked to the side, and brown Vans...my sweatshirt might as well have said FOREIGNER on it...

So I head out the back door walk down the side walk, cross the street and then hang another left and start heading toward the border again. I have no idea if the guys can see me in the other building but I felt like a flashing neon sign was attached to me (or maybe one of those neon cowboys with the moving arm pointing at me).

So I approach the other border guards (they are outside checking motorists) and hand him my passport hoping for a quick escape...no such luck. He looks at me and asks where I'm coming from (again I'm not expecting a question, especially that one, because I figured, hey, I'm walking from Poland, he should be able to figure out where I'm coming from). So, I stumble though the fact that I was in Czech, but then I came over to Poland and now I am going back. He tells me to speak slower. I tell him again. He looks at me oddly and says, "So you were in Poland for one minute?" Apparently the flashing neon cowboy pointed me out on my way over the first time. I say, "Yes." He says, "Hold on," and takes my passport to some building.

By now I'm a little freaked. I'm wondering if he's going to let me back in the Czech and even if he does if he is going to direct me to the bus station to send my butt back to the states...as I'm pondering how I'm going to tell my supporters that all of their money is being divided between the other missionaries in the Czech and wondering if Mountain Valley Church still looking for a youth pastor, a police car pulls up. Now my mind really starts going. I start thinking of the benefits of living back in the states and how God is sovereign and how He must want me back there. The cops pass without a word and the border guard comes out. He then asks me where in the Czech I am living. I technically can't be living anywhere, because I don't have a Visa, so I tell him I'm staying in this town. He then hands me my passport and sends me on my way.

I have no idea what all the hassle was about. I don't know if I'm now footnoted in the Passport computer as the "Sketchy American Border Crosser", but I am really hoping that this doesn't affect my visa application. Lucka, my friend who will be helping with the visa process, says it'll be no big deal, but we'll see. I also leave the country on Wednesday for vacation, so it'll be interesting to see if my vacation is a permanent one back to the states...

Interns and I at first camp

Interns and I at first camp,
originally uploaded by Micczech1212.

Moje Čeština je kostrabata...

"My Czech is bumpy..."

This is a phase that I learned from a Czech friend of mine four years ago when I was here. I only know it because he was trying to tell me that his English was bumpy. It has proved to be a useful phrase to know.

I know hardly any Czech. I can ask for a couple of things and I can understand the gist of some conversations, but I am barely scraping by this summer. Let me give you an example of what a Czech hears when they talk to me.


This is what I imagine a conversation with me is like. It is translated into English because I don't know Czech and you probably don't either.

Hotel Receptionist: "Hotel Babi Vrch. How can I help you?"

Nate: "Good day."

HR: "Good day. How can I help you?"

Nate: "Uh, five...evening...uh...uh...evening...18:30..."

HR: "Do you have a reservation?"

Nate (hearing word that sounds like reservation): "Yes, reservation."

HR: "Do you have one or do you need one."

Nate (hearing the word one): "No...one...uh...five...uh...five...evening...18:30..."

HR: "So you'll be here tonight at 18:30 and you need a reservation..."

Nate: "Yes...18:30...evening...reservation...Nathan Hughes...uh..."

HR: "What?"

Nate: "What?"

HR: "Do you need a reservation or do you have one?"

Nate: "uh...no...no understand..."

HR: "Do you need a reservation or do you have one?"

Nate (really confused now): "No understand...uh...goodbye..." (Nate hangs up)

Team (now in English): "So did you make sure that we have the reservation?"

Nate: "Sure did!"


This is typical of my summer. So far we've always had a place to stay and only Ashley and I have gotten on the wrong train once and we still managed to make it to where we going on time...

On the flip side, I was able to form a successful sentence today. I asked a woman at Tesco (similar to Wal-Mart), "Where is the Milka without sugar?" She responded, "Coffee without sugar?" I said, "No, chocolate." She understood and took me there.

It was a small victory, but I was very excited...

Ammendment to Bizarre Cultural Differences: Part 1

I got a receipt from a food stand at a pool the other day that had three pictures on the back featuring topless women!!