Liberec, Czech Republic (And a Few Small Towns Near)

So Last week Joshua and I went to the Czech Republic. We stayed with some family friends who are missionaries there, Ken and Linda Stapleton. Their ministry in Czech is to develop friendships with the people by hosting English speaking classes in different churches near Liberec. Czech's have a very hard time opening up and trusting people because of the Communist era 20 years ago. 99.5 percent of Czechs say that they do not believe in God. This makes Ken and Linda's ministry all the more important. Please keep them in your prayers. 

This is the name of one of the churches where Ken and Linda host a conversation group. The group is open to everyone. 

This is a typical Czech Nativity scene, everyone from the town is there. Czechs don't have a Santa Claus  for Christmas, they believe instead that "Baby" Jesus comes to bring gifts to the children. This is very sad, because it becomes natural for the people to keep Christ in that confinement, of being only a fictional baby who brings you gifts. One of Ken and Linda's goals is to bring Czechs to the realization that first of all, Jesus is NOT fictional, He grew up and died for us, and oh yeah....He doesn't bring you gifts on Christmas.... Your family and friends do.

Snacks at one of our discussion groups. 

This is the Town Hall in Liberec, just up the street from Ken and Linda's apartment. Those aren't stars in the sky, they're snowflakes! We were able to expierience our first European snow.

This is a monument made from house keys dedicated to some protesters in Liberec during the communists era.

Here's something you would never find in America today, a Nativity Scene in the town square.

Early morning snow outside our bedroom window. I'd never seen such large snowflakes! Each one looked to be about the size of a dime.

Faith was able to give the Czech people at one of the discussion groups a little taste of America, a homemade Chocolate Walnut Pie.

Let me rephrase that. TWO Chocolate Walnut Pies! That girl is one of a kind.

Linda had recently had a birthday, so everybody lined up to tell her how much they loved her with a kiss on the cheek and a few kind words. They even presented her with flowers.

Birthday Cake

At every discussion group we went to we had to bring house shoes.

Faith and I decided to go for a walk in one of the small townes. As we did, we passed a couple of little boys. So I said "HI!". Annnnd before we knew it, we had 10 little kids following us everywhere. It was funny for about 5 minutes, but half an hour was a little overkill.

This is a Thanksgiving dinner that Ken and Linda put on for the Czechs every year. People really enjoy this because they get to learn about American culture and also eat from a whole turkey which is really rare. 

Typical Czech cake

Joshua and I were asked last minute to help out with some of the Christmas songs. I had never even attempted to play a tambourine in my life. 

This was such a cool bus stop. We had such a wonderful time with the Stapletons. We would love to go back to Czech in the future! Keep them in your prayers. 

Strictly Informational...

Joshua wrote the last blog and I realized after reading it that it makes more sense to have the captions at the bottom of the pictures instead of the top. I always do things in a quite contrary way, so I am going to flip it around and do it Joshua's way....

and probably most of the worlds way. 

Here you go...

Captions at the bottom.

So here is what a typical German Village looks like from the major street.

......

This is really hard for me....

I keep wanting to write it on top.

ok... Maybe this will help...HEADLINE/TITLE/BANNER..whatever you want to call it: PETER AND ANA'S HOUSE

The house that you see ABOVE is an old building that has been many things in the past and now is the home of Peter and Ana and their two lovely daughters. They have worked very hard to make the bottom floor and few rooms on the top floor into a bed and breakfast. 

The bed in the Rose room. I loved how she made the beds so much that Joshua and I make our bed like that now.

The ceiling. There are so many rooms and they all have a different theme. Let me know if you want to stay there and I will ask for the website. I can't seem to find it on Google.

Then you get a real German breakfast. 

This is Peter and Joshua and Koda's look alike. Josh and I spent the day working. Josh chopped wood and I helped clean the rooms.

Josh being the jokester he is, decided he would try to make me laugh by grabbing a bunch of cigarettes and pretend he was buying them. He got them from behind the little glass/metal wall you see on the left. As soon as he put them on the conveyer belt. The wall lifted up and closed off the cigarettes so we couldn't put them back. So we had to explain to this poor old lady who knew no English that we were just joking about buying them. Everyone in line was laughing at us. It was the ultimate game of Charades.

This is strictly informational so now you know for SURE that there is a hardcore Hello Kitty fan in Brandis, Germany.

Walking home from Andres house.

Our house has a 22 in the window because we are going to open it on the 22nd of December for the living advent calendar. We have to figure out something cool to do for the people who come to see us open the window. 

Incase you really wanted to know, these are examples of our dinner

This is what our bed looks like 4 days out of the week! The other three, well....

Josh standing next to all the wood he and Manfred chopped for Manfred's garden house. Most Germans have a garden and a garden house! 

He invited us over for games. Tee and Kaffee. Then we realized that we needed to rush to the next window being opened at the 17th hour. 

We got there too late. Everyone was eating food already and told us we missed a really good little skit. 

I just put this picture on here because it was cute. These kids were at the mall baking Christmas cookies. And because it reminded me of my Sister-in-Law Jenna because of the little boy she babysits apparently owns a huge bakery in Germany. I hope I didn't blow his big secret. 

Oh and if you want a pet chipmunk you can get one at the mall.