Now Christmas time in Canada isn’t complete without a little snow and we got that too! Just had to go up into the mountains at Kingfisher to find it! We are a quadding family so we loaded up the ATVs and took a rocky climb to the top of the lookout at Kingfisher. Although I ached for days afterwards it was a great adventure with the whole family.
God’s Miracles
Being in Canada for a month was a whirlwind trip. It was an
excellent time to visit with friends, connect with supporters, share about my
ministry and see my family. One of the many highlights for me was getting to
visit with some of the girls I taught at KCS last year. I had the amazing
opportunity to teach these girls for two years and it was so great to catch up
with them.
One of the biggest blessings was to see one of God’s
miracles. Hannah, one of my students, has a heart condition and was extremely
sick. Just before I left she was confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk even
the shortest of distances and was at high risk of cardiac arrest. I was brought
to tears when she walked across the room and came to give me a hug. She hadn’t
had a cardiac episode in almost a year and was able to attend school for the
majority of the school year. What an answer to prayer! She continues to be a walking miracle!
What’s it like to be back 'home'?
It was great to be back in Canada, to see my family, friends, familiar places and to be surrounded by Canadians! I did experience a little reverse culture shock. Biggest thing I noticed was how BIG Canada is! Distances to get places, shopping centres, streets, and even food portions in restaurants seemed much bigger. I think the idea of home has become a little blurry for me. Is home where you reside? Where you were born? Where you were raised? Where you have spent the majority of your life? I have come to realize how temporary our time is here on earth and slowly understanding that right now what we call “home” is temporary. Prague is slowly becoming a place dear to my heart and so is Canada and yet I long for the day when life is complete and I find myself at my eternal home with Jesus.
Making Changes
Amazing how many things can change in such a short amount of
time. Changes for me this year include moving to a new flat. It is a few steps
closers to our school and the metro station, with a view of the park.(pictures to follow after boxes are unpacked)
I also will be changing classrooms since I am teaching grade
one and two this year. It will be wonderful to spend more time with my old
class, who are all English language learners; as well as working with a new
batch of grade ones who all have English as their first language.
The biggest change for our school thus far is changes in the
decision for CISP’s recognition with the Czech Ministry of Education. At the
beginning of July we had a meeting with the magistrate in Prague who had given
the recommendation to the Ministry of Education that our school was not needed.
As a result our application for recognition had been denied.
Our director
described this lady’s heart to be quite hardened towards our school and
changing her mind seemed rather hopeless. However, with many prayers and a
petition in hand our administration continued to fight. Addressing the
magistrate with a petition signed by people in the community affirming the need
for our school resulted in a compulsory review of our case. By a miracle of the
Lord the magistrate overturned her decision and gave approval for recommending
our school for recognition! This is a huge victory for our school and a
blessing from the Lord. However the war is not quite yet won. We now need the
Ministry of Education to reverse their decision and approve our previously
denied application for recognition. What this recognition means is that local
Czech residents can attend our school as a legal Czech recognized school. Currently many of our students have to
split their time between our school and Czech school. This recognition will
bring us steps closer to opening our doors to more families living in the Czech
Republic.
Please continue to pray with us that we may receive this recognition
with the Ministry of Education.
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