Christmas in July       

Christmas is my favourite time of year. I love the Christmas carols, and smell of cedar boughs and roasted turkey. It is a time for family to gather together and celebrate Jesus’ birth. Living far away makes it difficult for my brothers and I to be home for Christmas. However, this summer we were all able to get holidays at the same time and all be home in the middle of July. Although 5 months early, we decided to celebrate Christmas! Mom loves to decorate and went all out and decorated the house, including a small fake tree and stockings. It was a wonderful time of turkey, small fun gifts and even a fire (in the backyard pit, rather than the fireplace).

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.

Favourite Things

Near the end of the school year I interviewed the elementary Gr. 1-5 and a few high schoolers, asking them, what was their favourite thing about CISP; what did they like about being in their class this year. Putting all of the answers into one video would have made it very long so here is a small sample of their responses put into a video I made for my presentation at church this past Sunday.

Spring Concert

Our Elementary had a Spring Concert at the end of May and the Grade Ones did memory verses and songs to go with each memory verse. It is amazing to see how far their language has come in a year! I was so proud of them and will have to admit I think they stole the show :)

Strangers on a Plane

There is something fascinating about International travel. Ever since I got introduced to the TV series LOST I have looked at flying with a whole different perspective. The idea of putting a couple 100 strangers into a metal tube and sending it flying thousands of feet up in the air, with nowhere to go for a good 9 hours is thought-provoking. My transatlantic flight this time had me on a British Airways flight at the very back of the plane. A little unsettling since in all air-plane movies the people in the tail-end of the plane never survive. So as I took my seat at the rear of the plane the thought I am a tailie was in the forefront of mind. I was soon to discover that my seat-mate also was a LOST fan and had the same apprehensions about being in the rear of the plane. However this same commonality sparked a conversation with my seat buddy that went in a direction I never expected.
  Most often when I fly I get seated next to a business man who is lost in his work or a elderly couple setting out on vacation. Most conversations stop after about 5 minutes of niceties, where are you from, where are you going, and maybe what do you do. After I explain I am a teacher at an International Christian school most conversation ceases. This time I was surprised to be involved in a extensive conversation about faith and to be bombarded with a barrage of  questions.
 Coming from a small village near Glasgow my seat mate had learned a lot about the Christian faith but marvelled at my ability to put my faith in " one wee book" as he referred to the Bible. Before he would ask me a question he would start by saying "You're not going to convert me but..." I finally laughed and asked what he meant by me converting him. He answered with "Well you're not going to get me to put all my faith in that wee book" I replied by telling him that wasn't my job. I shared my heart for Jesus with him for a good portion of our trip answered his questions and challenged him with a few of my own. We parted ways without me "converting" him but knowingly instilling in him further knowledge of God's word and hopefully planted and watered a the little seed of gospel planted in his life. Praying that it may, someday, take root.

Wrapping up the year

There is something to say about teaching a small group of students; the relationships you can build with a small group of young people is priceless. It was wonderful to attend the graduation ceremony and hear the testimonies of how our teachers and staff have impacted the lives of our graduates.

School Family Picnic


Our school has a tradition; on the last day of the school week we do not have class, but rather the families meet together at a local park and enjoy an afternoon picnic together. It was a time for goodbyes, sharing memories and spending a fun filled afternoon together. It was a wonderful way to wrap up the school year.






One memorable activity this year was the result of the hard work of our elementary students. They had taken on the challenge in January of reading 1000 books with the promise from our principal, that if they succeeded he would dye his hair. The colour of choice was rainbow and so at the picnic the elementary teachers got to do the honours of dying Mr. Chumbly's hair rainbow.

Finishing Well

Every year when I get to June I look back and say finished already? It feels as though we have only just begun and yet the year end has arrived. However, this year, more than years before I have strong reminders of just how far we have come.
  What I love about first grade is getting to see the children grow in their reading skills and come from reading, "The cat sat on the mat" to full paragraphs in chapter books. Although this year was significantly different; I had the joy of seeing one of my students not only learn to read, but to go from only being able to speak a 6 word sentence, to being able to describe the story of Noah's ark and help write class stories!
   It has been amazing to watch my students grow not only in size and stature but in awareness of who God is and what an amazing life we can have with God in it. I have never been more aware of the power of words especially God's word than I have this year. The ability to share our thoughts and feeling with one another has been priceless; whether through simple sentences or wild hand gestures. (I think missionaries develop a special skill in charades their first few years in a foreign country.)
   What is exciting is that next year I will have opportunity to teach this class again! So far the numbers have us doing a 1/2 split class. So this year was not so much goodbye but I will see you next year! I really look forward to seeing their learning grow exponentially over the next year; reflecting back to those days when all  they could do was say "Hello, I am Wiktor, I am 7.

Adventures Continue

Discovering Narnia

Stepping through the wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia was a childhood dream I would play with my friends; imagining that there was truly a land behind the press-board wardrobe in our basement. Reading the books and seeing the films (BBC version for me at the time) always drummed up a world of adventure and wonder. So when Adventure Buddy suggested we go to Narnia I was excited. Quite a few film locations for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian (Disney Version) were filmed in the Czech Republic. One scene in particular the back drop was filmed in České Švýcarsko aka Bohemian Switzerland National Park. 

















 Pravčická brána is the larges sandstone bridge in Europe. Due to the fragile state of the sandstone walking on the bridge has been prohibited since 1982. The actors were actually filmed in a studio and pasted into the filmed scenery 

 

The park is a gorgeous place with many hiking trails to explore. One particular hike included two boat rides down a narrow river gorge. This location was also used in the filming of Prince Caspian when Trumpkin goes down the river with the Pevensies. Overall we hiked about 15km (if you can count the 3km in boat rides as hiking). 

To follow are just a few of the many shots I took while exploring this beautiful part of our world.

 

 

 

 

 

 More faces in the rocks

Looking forward to where our next adventure may take us!