Zap!

We're back

Had some troubles connecting to internet over the last couple days abroad, so I update from home.  Thursday, we sent a few poeple to Chotebor to go Bowling with the gypsies.  That was good times had by all.  We did some ESL classes in the evening and wound up our hockey week by beating the Skulls 7-5. 

 

Friday featured a trip to Pardubice for some souvenir shopping, and then to the baby orphanage for the afternoon.  Lots of time to play with babies and pray for them.  We headed back to Dlouhy for the hockey dinner in the evening.  There were about 25 players and their wives at the dinner, which was great!  We had soft tacos and spent the evening hanging out and getting to know people better.  The evening also featured a draw for door prizes, where we had enough prizes for everyone to take one home!  Amanda broke out her wig collection for some great photo op's and a great time was had by all.

 

Saturday took us to Prague to enjoy our last day in style and Fly home Sunday.  What a beautiful city with so much history. 

 

The trip wound up quite well, with a lot of good things coming out of it.  Many relationships were furthered and a lot of people heard testimonies of God's work in our lives.  We've appreciated your prayers through this trip and will have some pics up soon.

Ciao

Dan

Wednesday

Aho, from CZ.  Things are rolling along here.  Today the English camp wound up with a worship service, some baking and ultimate frisbee and a floorball game.  Chris shared his testimony and it was great. Things were pretty emotional at the end. 

 

We played the Panthers tonight and lost 12-5.  I had another 2 goals, but the secondary scoring was lacking. 

 

After the game on one of the shuttle rides back to Dlouhy, the van hit a patch of ice and wound up in the ditch on it's side.  Thankfully, no one was hurt at all!  It looked like quite a gentle landing, considering.  There goes the security deposit.  Ah well.  We will have to go on without a van for the rest of the week... a bit of a bummer. 

 

Please pray for continued safety on the roads as it hasn't really stopped snowing since we got here.  About 1.5 ft of snow has fallen since Sunday.  Pray also for the team as we get run down a bit and people get sick.  Thanks again for your prayers.

Dan

Tuesday Update

Tuesday was a great day here in Dlouhy, CZ.  We had Ryan give a talk on drugs and alcohol addiction with the kids.  he shared about his experience as a worker at a treatment facility and a personal testimony on how God can fulfill better than drugs or alcohol.

 

We went skating with a group of kids and had a ball playing hockey with the orphan boys and just clowning around. 

 

In the afternoon, we headed to Pardubice, about 45min away and watched a Czech Professional Hockey Game.  It was fun to see a different style of hockey (far less aggressive, but fast) and hang out with the kids.  We also experienced a czech mall food court for supper after the game.  New foods.  I had a Tex Burger which was a pita with a deep fried piece of cheese( syr) and coleslaw... very yummy, probably not healthy. 

 

Thanks for your prayers.  I'm battling a bit of a cold, so any more prayers you can float my way would be appreciated.

Ciao

Dan

Update

Hey all, did church this morning.  Were all blown away by the Hlinsko Church youth group band... they really get it!  We put together a band an played a few songs.  Jerrauld from SOS US preached as he was here setting up his intern in town.  We had a great time at Church and everyone was blessed in a different way.

 

After church, all of us got to experience the Czech grocery store...  fun with conversion of money and trying new strange things. 

 

We went by bus to Skutec to play hockey.  By we, I mean the Hockey team, Chris and the van keys in my pocket.  Unfortunately the rest of the group was forced to stay back and get to know each other better. We lost the game 8-6, featuring a goal by myself.  Schmidtke shared his testimony and we gave the hockey players an invitation to dinner on friday and a Christian sports DVD. 

 

Things are going well, despite the little brain fart with the keys. Thankyou for your prayers

ciao

Dan

We made it...

Here we are in CZ. It's quite snowy here. Our flights went smoothe as butter and all our bags made it through. We are settling in tonight, Church Tomorrow and a hockey game tomorrow night.

Keep us in your prayers this week as people will be stretched and challenged in their faith. Thanks for all your prayers thus far.

That's all for now. Czech Big Mac was a success, though the Swiss King is no longer on the menu... sigh.

The beard stays, you go...

I had some fun growing my Christmas beard this year and I kept it a bit longer than usual due to it being so cold out for most of january.  I remembered watching this Kids in the Hall sketch years ago and I can identify with the part where he says "my beard is too tight"... There is definately a stretch of a few days where it's unbelievably itchy, and that's where I usually draw the line and shave it off.  Though I've enjoyed and even got used to the combination chin scruff and handlebar moustache as per my mii, I think I'll be paring down to just the handlebar for Church League hockey and then all the way down for Sunday morning...  Funny, though... hardly anyone says anything in reaction.  I usually expect a few comments or laughs, but people seemed to be oddly polite this time around, or maybe they are just not enabling me by ignoring the undesired behaviour... 

The clip below is about 5 min, but it's got a few laughs. 8 days...