Czech 2011 - Mountains, missions and More sleep please

Today was a great day. It started with breakfast at Lubo's house. His wife prepared homemade apple "cakes" (simular to a long version of our apple turnovers) and a traditional Czech breakfast of rolls, meats and cheeses, YUM! We had a great start to the day eating, laughing and sharing more of our lives together. Meeting Lubo's wife and 2 of his 6 kids was a treat.

The day continued with a ride to the top of a local mountain. This included minor hiking to see the pagan statue to the Radhost god. This statue is from a pre-literature time and is said to have stood in contrast to one of the first churches ever to arrive in East Europe. The missionaries of this church later formalized the Slovak language and grammer.

The hike turned into a delightful lunch that a local business man sponsored us to have. He treated us to a traditional Czech meal full of sauerkraut soup (surprisingly delicious), fried cheese, fried potatoes and a spread of other delicious meats.

With full stomachs we lad in a local patch of grass. Prayed about what God has already done in this land, the forgotten heritage that it holds and the need for local church leaders to remind this community of it's lost identity and influence.

The time on the mountain included coke from glass bottles (a favorite from Czech), meeting a pet skunk, and some fun family moments for Jonny and Lisa.

We then traveld to a near town where the Moravian church started, was persecuted and fled to Germany and where it gave birth to one of the largest missionary movements in history until then. This village and small community of believers (300 or so) shaped Lancaster Pa, India, Africa, West Europe and most of the known world.

This was a sweet time of exploring the town, hearing it's history, climbing it's watchtower and eating local desserts (desserts that started after a freak flood defeated an invasion from Genghis Khan's army's in the 1400's).

The evening ended with relationship building time over yet another meal with lots of laughter, challenging, dreaming and excitement about what the future might hold. Jonny and I extended our evening with further talking and the simple joy of being friends and catching up.

It's now close to 1:30 am and bed is screaming for me.

Here's pictures from today's journeys, enjoy!

Czech 2011 - Hrad Hukvaldy (aka "the Castle at Hukvaldy)

Yesterday was a little straight up Robin hood, except for the stealing from the rich to give to the poor, or fighting with Little John to be granted permission across the river, Kevin Costner already did that, duh.

Lubo, the Czech pastor who has organized our time here in Frydlant Nad Ostravici, is wanting to give us experiences that will help us have a better understanding of this community and the uniqueness that creates this magical little town. Our first stop was to pick up an old friend, Katka Vlnova! Katka is dear to the LCBC story and visiting with her is time well spent.

Pearl and Katka catch up on life as the rest of us bum around the town of Hukvaldy.

Lunch was in the small mountain town of Hukvaldy. This oasis sits nested in rolling hills and hundreds of years of history. After lunch we walked a couple of miles up the mountain (no joking UP) through the town, past it's historical church, and finally to Hrad Hukvaldy (the castle of Hukvaldy).

Thanks to Google maps here is an arial view of the castle.

The hillside getting to the castle is steep. The trees along the way have adapted to the slope by spreading their roots out. The roots were amazing. They spanned 30 feet or so in diameter.

But the walk was well worth the view. The Castle was breathtaking and renovated to such a point that you where were able to start to picture what life was like there, yet all the details were not spelled out to leave room for your imagination.

We took time while exploring to just sit and pray. We sat in these ruins that once marked a thriving society, a society that was greatly shaped by the story of Christ. These lands were once the homes of Christian voices that have shaped history, that have directly shaped the community I now call home, but the story of Christ has been all but erased from here. Out of the 10 Million citizens that call Czech home only 73K clam any Christian roots (that .07%). We took time at these ruins to ask what's next for Czech? What's next for the church of Frydlant?

Once off the mountain we a saw a hot air ballon, random but still exciting.

Pearl and I had dinner with a local family. We talked about softball, photography, kids, church, life in Czech, and about a million other things.

Pearl and I finished the night with great conversations with our dear friends the Lobels. Jonny and I are convinced we were separated at birth somehow.

We had a funny moment when talking babies, Pearl mentioned our baby is about the size of a lime, so Jonny found us a lime.