Find Maggie's Czech trip collage on the Maggie blog!

The vicissitudes of pollen and Prague

My hairstylist's appointment book won't budge until after the big dinner. Twenty essays demand grading. Driving to school, my hair at the miserable can't do a thing-with-it-until-its-cut stage; I glance down noting the floor mats need vacuuming. The brake fluid light shines red and the low coolant light beams yellow. Yellow pollen covers the car. The windshield wipers, sans fluid, turn the dust into yellow granular slimes. As I pull out a quick glance at the mailbox reminds me that the mulching is undone and the snapdragons await planting.

Thoughts turn to home and five loads of laundry awaiting sorting, suds, drying, and worst yet--putting away. Thankfully the Christmas tree is down and put away, but weeks after Easter the fancy eggs from Prague still need nestling in their storage box. Problem is, getting that storage box out would mean opening the pantry which would remind me of the need for grocery shopping and restocking. Restocking the pantry will remind me again, that my husband and son are vegetarians and that I just don't have a good rhythm for meal planning yet. So, it's been three years. My pre-vegetarian meal planning rhythm wasn't all that great either.

Thinking of the stack of unread news, home decorating, and church leadership magazines irks me momentarily until I refocus on the irksomeness of the driver in front of me who seems to think blinkers are for ordinary people. I hope that a few minutes of NPR will help me focus on something more than the cruel vicissitudes of appointment books, pollen, and unread articles. Just my luck. It's pledge drive week.

How much more could wrong?

Now it's nighttime. I stop working on my classes about 10:30 p.m. and contemplate a couple of pictures we took on our recent trip to the Czech Republic.

The first is Wenceslas Square. Home of the Prague Spring---the momentous events in 1968 when a nascent democratic movement was crushed by Soviet tanks.

I see the picture we took of a little wrought iron plant holder mounted on a tile on a building close to the square. I took the picture because I thought the plants were cheery and the wrought holder clever. Stepping closer, I saw an inscription on the tile. The plaque memorializes a 50 year-old woman who was shot and killed at that spot in 1968. Maybe her kids or grandkids put the flowers there last week.

What a luxury to experience appointment books, pollen, unread magazines, and ungraded essays as the vicissitudes of life.

Click here for a link to photos taken by Honza Dadak of Brno.

Next, join in some thanksgiving.

Thanks
Thanks to our God and Father of our Lord for all of the spiritual and every other blessing on our trip. My prayer is that God will take each of our efforts and bless them for his kingdom. He said that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. From the giving of something very small, God can make great things. Jesus showed us what he did with the loaves and fishes of a small boy. He feed five thousand. May he increase our small efforts for the praise of his glory.

Thanks to each student in this group for your spirit of service, love, and cooperation every single day.

Thanks to Eddie White for his passion for Christ, his love for people in Brno, his enthusiastic support and nurturing of our group.

Thanks to Honza, Merrick, Turtle, Vitale, Irena and the others at Brno for making us so welcome.

Thanks to the Dentons for taking their spring break and going with us.

Thanks to your parents for preparing such resonsible and loving kids. Thanks to them for their financial and spiritual support of our trip.

Thanks to all those who so graciously donated to our trip. Special thanks to Tim Dunn and the Campus Church of Christ for their generosity in support of fund-raising.

Thanks to the GACS Development Office for processing all the donations.

Thanks to Ted Thames for his commitment to us in prayer.

Thanks to Matt Elliott for his devotion to the Brno church and for praying for us.

Touring Brno

Today we toured Brno. We met our penpals early this morning and toured the Mendel Museum and Capucchin Crypts. Next the students took a walking tour of the town by doing a scavenger hunt. I am pasting an link on this blog so that you can view a small album of photos tonight.
Czech these out!

Its very late, so I'll back off now from adding any more to the blog.

Keep your prayers going. Everyone is warming up to the pen pals and the coffee house tonight was a great success. Over 17 Czech students came. More soon.

Great worship, great mall, great kids

Hi Folks.

You may be anxious to hear directly from your children. We plan to make this computer available tomorrow afternoon so they can send emails. Also, I set this blog up so that anyone can leave comments. Sorry if it was complicated the last day or so.

These are terrific kids. The moms and dads already know this, but I just thought you might want to hear it from someone else. We’re so proud of the way they get everything done.

It’s 11:00 p.m. in Brno while y’all in Georgia are hopefully still enjoying your Sunday afternoon. We had a sweet day today. Everyone got up, dressed and ready to go bright and early to worship at the Brno church. We pretty much doubled their usual attendance. They actually rented a conference room today in an office building for the service. The singing was inspiring. We sang each song through in Czech and then in English. The kids sing out with great spirit. An added blessing is that they sing particularly well.

Ty Smith, Chris Jackson, and Will Sansom read from the Psalms. Scott Smith and Cameron passed communion.

After worship along with many of the church members we took a very long walk through town. They wanted to show us their brand new mall. We went there for lunch. It was a Czech version of a food court. It turned out to be a little chaotic. The gelato made up for any shortfalls.

Tomorrow at the school the group is going to sing an old gospel song for the Czech students. You may know the selection, “Down to the River to Pray” as sung in the movie Oh Brother where Art Thou? We practiced that tonight along with doing a dress rehearsal for our presentations. We meet our pen pals in the morning!

Train, planes, and Easter eggs

A real live steam locomotive, black, grey, and white swirling smoke billowing up into yet another cloudless Czech sky set the scene for GACS kids and a group of about 18 folks associated with Dagmar Orphanage to take a one hour train ride to Pjernstein Castle. The train only runs a few times each year, so it was a special event. We knew we were in on a cultural phenomenon when we saw dozens of folks all along the way taking pictures and videos of the train. What they couldn’t get on film, but hopefully several of the students captured, was the way our kids reached out to make friends with the kids from Dagmar. One group of Dagmar kids and GACS students played some rousing rounds of the handclapping game “Rhythm.”

After the train ride we had lunch on the grounds of the castle. Thanks to Will Sansom and Amanda Circiu for making the sandwiches for our sack lunches. We hiked up to the castle entrance, thought about taking a tour, then thought about touring a freezing cold 13th century structure for 1.5 hours with at least 7 children under the age of 7 and figured it was a good time to hide our Easter eggs. Pulling off the covert operation of egg placement were Scott Smith, Malcolm Montgomery, Hillary Einfeldt, Chris Jackson, Whitney Snell, Sarah Gwyn, and Allison Turner. There may have been others, but with it being a covert operation, giving any more information may prove dangerous.

The little ones seemed to truly enjoy the day, and the GAC students did a great job of reaching out. Maggie Fincher may get the award for holding the most children and working the hardest to learn Czech.

Arriving back to the A-Austerlitz about 5:00 p.m., the students took a few minutes to freshen up then went to dinner at the Sharringham, a small restaurant some found “reminiscent of Medieval Times (the dinner theater) without the jousting.”

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to work on presentations to be made on Monday at the school, then upstairs to a devotional lead by Eddie White. Eddie inspired us with a message of encouragement using an illustration of the potential for exponential growth. Ask Allison Turner and Amanda Circiu about the math. We will wait for the Lord to show us the reality.

Cameron led us in “Prince of Peace” and Malcolm led a prayer.

It’s after midnight here, about 5:00 p.m. there, and we are all exhausted and ready to sleep. We plan to attend the Brno Church of Christ in the morning.

We heard about the pope. I’ll pass on the news about Survivor and American Idol. I think it was Cameron who suggested we see who will be eliminated today from the mission team, but we decided to wait on that suggestion. I’m hoping to get some pix up tomorrow. We are grateful for a great day . . . more to come tomorrow.

Thank the LORD!

Ahoj parents and friends!

After a pleasant dinner and a great trip, the young ones are safely checked into the A-Austerlitz and are getting ready for a good, well deserved night's sleep. Each of them seem in good spirits and good health. Thanks for all of your prayers, love and support.


KLM from Atlanta to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam to Prague; our GACS students traveled quietly through seven time zones. We arrived in Prague on time, with all of our luggage, (and all of our students) and moved quickly though passport control and customs. The crisp cool temperature gave our jet-lagged bodies a boost after our night of flying. We loaded four vans with our luggage and headed to the train station.

The backdrop was a cloudless Czech sky. For a few miles silver birches still without leaves streaked upwards towards the skyline lining the sides of a stream. Then we rode by miles of pines along the river. The three hour train ride found most of the students snoozing, but catching glimpses of the beautiful Czech countryside.

We made up our Easter eggs after dinner and will go in the morning to meet children from the Dagmar orphanage for a locomotive train trip to Perjnsten Castle.

We thank God, thank you, and must say good night!