Canadian Summer

Glimpse of the Prague Life

One of the great parts about being back in Canada for the summer is the opportunity to connect with supporters and share my passion and heart for what I have been doing with those I meet. Although fundraising is a dreaded chore I am learning to delight in the process. The chance to meet with the many people who have been praying for me and CISP and share how the Lord has faithfully answered their prayers.

Since my time back is so short I decided to have a fundraising and sharing night to give people a Glimpse of the Prague Life; turning our church gym into an intimate cafe, complete with Czech treats, cellists, street lamps and even a beggar. 

     

 

It was a fun evening complete with interactive centres where people could try their hand at Czech, try to convert Czech krounas to Canadian dollars and help fill out a KWL chart for what they know, wonder about and learned about my ministry. 

There were some great questions asked but due to time many of the wonder questions did not get answered.

Over the next little while I hope to answer some of these questions in my up coming news letters.

Many thanks to those who helped with this event especially with set up and clean up. It was such a blessing to have all of your help.

The evening helped to raise another 3% of my support and slowly but surly we are making it closer to my pledge goal of $2 575 per month. Please continue to pray for God's provision and that I will have the needed support before I am set to leave on August 6th!

Boat Day

Every summer our church College and Career group get together and have a boat day where we take over a beach, have a BBQ and enjoy all that Kal Lake has to offer. Many of us look forward to this day and it was a welcome day off.

   

 

I have come to realise that I don't have many pictures of myself enjoying these activities because I am the one always holding the camera. But indeed I was there just behind the lens :)

Climbing the mountain

Starting Over

Hard to believe it has been over two years since I began my water walking adventure. I started out with such fear and wonder of how all that needed to be done would be accomplished. The paper work to be filed, the life to pack up and the money to be raised. All the time the words of Jesus in the back of my mind: "Ye of little faith, why did you doubt?" Oh I doubt because my faith is so small, and yet with my mustard seed of faith (and will have to admit sometimes it was even much smaller than that) I witnessed God answer my prayers in a way I never thought possible. God answered so many prayers: from provision for needed support, to paying off student loans, to receiving my Czech VISA for the next two years! God is Faithful and this I should not so easily forget, as I often do!

So here I am again... seemingly back at the beginning with what seems like a mountain to climb and no peak in sight. Fundraising is the part of this journey that I am learning to appreciate and admire. I admire the generous hearts I encounter and the love and care that each supporter gives. Remembering that for many I am their ambassador; I am able to go share with the nations when they are not. Who am I to question how God will use his people to further his kingdom? Whether it is through their faithful prayers or their generous pockets.

To give a picture to supporters at where I am at with raising my monthly support I created a bookshelf (teachers and their books :). I am about halfway to my goal

Sometimes I look at the budget line and I tremble. Where will it come from? How will I get from here to there? Then I am reminded; I serve a God who makes the impossible, possible.

I had a student ask this year "How much money does God have?" One child was quick to answer "He doesn't need money! He's God!" Indeed HE is GOD! The creator of it all! This is the God that I serve. The Great Provider and it is in Him I will trust.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a partner in my ministry Click Here!

June

Too Much To Say and Way Too Much to Do!


I have been meaning to write about all the things that have happened in the past two weeks and I am just not finding the time to do so! So very quick bullet point over view

June 2 - Prague is hit with massive flooding
June 3 - City wide school closures due namely to travel safety reasons
June 4 - Resume school with shortened days

Currently the flood waters are slowly receding and revealing the extent of their damage. Pray for Prague as the people deal with the devastation that a flood can bring. Praise the Lord that our school is safe from flood waters.




June 10 -13 - Final week of school and last days in our current building

Packing, packing, packing! I am happy that I will not be moving to a new apartment this year but it seems moving is an inevitable part of my life. Packing up your entire classroom is a gruelling task, especially when you are still trying to teach classes. However, I always liked the action of packing boxes since it is like trying to solve a puzzle; trying to get all the items to fit in a particular box is a fun challenge for me. We are somewhat overwhelmed with the sheer volume of things that need to be done in the next week. Please pray for our transition process. That nothing gets lost in the move and that we will get the new space ready in time to open our doors in the Fall!



June 13 - Last day in our building on Perunova - We took down the banner that has been hanging in our hallway throughout our school's history. Goodbye Perunova... Hello Legerova!

Last Journey down our hallway!

It was an amazing year and I was blessed with such a wonderful group of kids. Pray for the next batch as the Lord prepares them to come to our school. Pray for the Lord's provision of new families (we have quite a few families moving away from Prague this summer and we will miss them greatly!) We now have the space for more kids and we earnestly pray that the Lord will fill our classes!

May Moments

May Moments

Whirlwind of events. May began with saying goodbye to Miss Reed, who was our student teacher for the month of April. Our time with her was here and gone in a flash. I had many fears about being a mentor teacher (lots of self doubt that I could never measure up to the amazing mentors I had during my practicum experiences). Yet I was truly blessed by the experience to witness a future teacher learn and grow in the classroom. Thank you for blessing our class Miss Reed!

Next came the visit from the ACSI accreditation team. Although very busy it was encouraging to hear what the team had to say about our school. There were not many surprises about their findings and we are hoping to receive word about their recommendation towards accreditation soon. Most of it rests on details with our new location and policies regarding the new building. Keep praying about these details and that the requirements we need for accreditation will be completed quickly. Basically the hiccup is that some of the things can not be approved until we are in our new location so we just have a few more wrinkles to iron out before receiving accreditation.

May Long Weekend

Through a series of events I got connected with a group of Canadians who get together once a month just to hang out, share stories about our home country and our Czech experiences. Just this past weekend we gathered together to celebrate Victoria day! One gal came across a Canadian flag while visiting a spring market in Germany so she brought it along. It is always great to meet new people and it was fun to step out and meet people outside of my school and church community.

And there was Great Rejoicing

Taking Another Step On Our Journey of Faith

It has been an exciting year for CISP as we have watched God work miracles. A couple of weeks ago my pastor was preaching about patience and waiting on the Lord. He explained we all are in wait-training which helps build spiritual muscles. He announced "Welcome to Prague, God's Gym - a place to learn to wait!" We all laughed knowing how true this statement can be. Things seem to move at a snail's pace around here and yet we waited on God's perfect timing and we have been rewarded!

On March 15th, we greatly rejoiced after receiving recognition from the Czech Ministry of Education! After 7 years of trying we are now a legal school in the Czech Republic! 

At 14:00 on Monday, April 22^nd, Leslie our director signed the lease for our new school building!!! 

On April 24th, the Mayor of Prague 2 signed the contract as well. Officially we are now the new tenants of the school building on Legerova!

Our little school has come a long way since its beginning 9 years ago, with a handful of staff and a dozen or so American students; now we are a school of close to 100 students from 18 different countries and about 40 staff.

Next Steps: 

ACSI Accreditation

Over the past few years we have been preparing to receive accreditation with the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI). The next steps in this process include a visit from a team to assess if we are meeting the needed requirements. Please pray for our administration, teachers and staff as we prepare for this visit on May 12th - 15th. 

Making the Move

Plenty has to be done to prepare the new school to be ready for opening in the Fall. Please pray for the provision of volunteer workers, materials and all needed finances for renovations and moving. We must be out of our current location by June 30th! A lot to do in very little time. Yet, we take comfort in the Lord's timing and promises to provide for our needs. We serve a mighty God and it has been an amazing journey to see his hand of blessing reach out and touch the lives of those in the CISP community. 

Join us... 

Legerova 4, Praha 2

There are many ways you can join us as we move forward. 

1) Please come to our open house in our new facility (Legerova 4) on Thursday, May 2nd, from 6:00 - 7:30 pm. Caution - it may be quite dirty in the building. 

2) If you would like to come over or bring a team to come over to work on our new building, please let us know. 

We need help with: 

• painting - LOTS of painting
• replacing some floors
• packing and moving and unpacking
• cleaning everything

If you want more information or are interested in coming, please email Boyd.Hatchel@cisprague.org 

3) We are in need of some additional IT equipment. If you have any network infrastructure (access points, switches, etc.) that you would be able to donate, please contact Gary.Reigle@cisprague.org 
4) Please continue to pray with us: 

• That the reconstruction and remodelling would get done in a timely fashion
• That God would provide additional funds for us to buy some of the equipment/furniture that we still need
• There would be no interruptions in the process of moving
• Good working relationship with the školník (school's janitor) and his wife

Praise God for his continued faithfulness. 

Spring Break Adventures

CISP goes to ACSI's ICEC at BFA

For the first 4 days of our Spring break 20 staff members from our school travelled to Kandern, Germany to Black Forest Academy to attend the International Christian Educators Conference. It was a great time of learning, encouragement and inspiration as we got to hear from some great teachers and learn about how God is at work in many different schools around the globe. Once again I will let the pictures do most of the talking!

 

*Note when taking a group shot make sure your camera is one of the first ones to take the pictures because near the end the kids start getting restless and get kind of silly.

Having a good sense of humour over our lack of Spring weather!   

 Next Stop: Nice, France

After ICEC my flatmates and I journeyed to the French Riviera for some much needed relaxation time. Pleading for sunshine we were blessed with one day of sun in amongst the rainy days. We spent our days wandering the city streets, strolling on the Promenade des Anglais and tip toeing into the Mediterranean. We also ventured to the second smallest country in the world: Monaco; known for its pricey casinos and fast race cars.

 

 

   

      

  

    

 

It was great to get away and see some beautiful parts of our world, but am happy to be back home and back in the classroom! So great to hear about the kids' adventures from their break. Kind of neat to come back and ask "So what did you do for your break?"  and receive the answer: "Oh we just went to Turkey/Rome/Moscow." The lives of kids in an international school! :)

Now into April we go!