CZECH IT OUT!

SO!


I AM BACK!


Phew.


23th September 2010 I left for Northern Ireland, came back to Czech for a week over Christmas and went back on 31st December, and 31st May is the date I got back for good. Back to Czech I mean.


My last days in Ireland were sweet. I was the only one in all NI who wasn't realizing it was time to leave, so I took everything as it came with a smile and a thankful heart, never thinking of not being there the next day to hang out with the same people at the same places I got used to. Even when Valerie drove me to the airport on the Tuesday morning I didn't realize I was leaving. It was so weird.


I flew from Belfast to Krakow, where my mum picked me up and we drove to Ostrava where she dropped me off at the train station and I left for Prague - pretty intense, but so what I needed.
I was asked to help at the Amazing Race for JV summer interns, who were arriving on Wednesday morning. I arrived in Prague, found the hotel, found Emily, got to meet Audrey and see Rob and Nate, got my instructions and went to my room. There it hit me for the first time. I was gone. I was not to have tea with Valerie, I was not to see Paul in the morning, I was not to pick up the girls from school or be at Dship the next day. The room I was staying in was full of people I did not know and therefore I found it scary. I didn't even feel like meeting new people for I felt like I wanted to process the fact that I just left half of my heart behind without even noticing it. I needed to be still. I wanted to cry.
This is a feeling I have had so many times since coming home - wanting to cry, but at the same time knowing that if I give into it and start crying, I will break down, you know. But God has always been so good to me in these situations (and so much more!) that before I decided if I wanted to break down or fight it, He sent an angel to me who made me think of different things and entertained me so much that I didn't want to cry anymore, if that makes sense.
So I finally started getting to know the people, but it was bed time anyway. I got to meet more of them the next morning and got to know some of them more during the first and second day of the Race. I got excited when at the Old Town Square which was their second station, and seeing all the interns running around, having fun and getting to talk to them. It was fun!


I went home on Friday and had my first Entrance University Exam on Saturday morning in Opava.
This is a funny story -
   I set my alarm clock at 830AM, for I thought I didn't change my time from the N.Irish time zone to Czech. But what I found out the next morning was that I did change it before, which meant I slept it. I woke up at 830AM but wanted to at 730. My bus was leaving 833. I hesitated a few seconds before deciding I can give it a try and if I don't get the bus, there is no way I am going to get the train. Well I gathered all my things, I changed, and I ran. And I MADE IT! So here I am, sitting on a bus, putting my make up on, brushing my hair, properly waking up... I made it to the Opava University on time. We got the test and had 50 minutes to do it. I was done in 10 minutes, went over it a few times before deciding I was finished, and then I sat there thinking the rest of the time. I was sitting at the very front so I could hear the two female teachers talking about me, ha ha. I thought I either had it all very wrong or the test was that simple. (Later I found out the test was that simple for I got accepted.) I thought it a good time and trip going to Opava, I love travelling by trains and walking and it was a hot summer day, too. I walked back to the train station and took the very same looking train to Ostrava. It said it was going the same direction as the one I took to Opava. Well, I didn't think much about it and got on. What I found out later was that I was far away from Ostrava and ended up getting off at a train station I have never been to, and have never heard of the name of the town. Ha ha! So my 'a few hours' trip to Opava ended up being all day trip as I sat there waiting for a train going the opposite direction of the one I got off.
Ha ha I like this story.


Anyway, I went to my youth group that night and most people were surprised to see me for I did not tell many people when I was coming back. I got to meet our new minister who moved to Ostrava this past January and 'has heard so much about me.'


I think it's mostly thanks to him that my church gave me such a warm welcome back. When I went to church the next morning (my first Sunday) he welcomed me back from the pulpit, and many older people came to me after the service to ask how I was doing. Next week I got to share about my time in Ireland, as the minister asked me to. It was short but I had some people come to me afterwards and ask more questions and being genuinely interested.
I realize that is a blessing, and I am thankful for it. Not every missionary gets such a warm welcome from their church, especially when there are no connections during the year and I am not even a member of the church. Wow.


Well and since that week (that was two weeks ago) I have been working. My mum is a manager of a bakery and they needed some people, so I volunteered to do it. That gave me two weeks of work every day, I worked 2PM till the end, which could be any time from midnight to 2AM. It was intense, it was hard work, but it was a gift from God too for it kept me so busy I did not have much time to think about Ireland. Ha ha!
Although I had a few days off over the weekend and that was when I had the awesome and pretty lady named Nicolette at my place. She is a JV summer intern this year and her intern team is doing the Ostrava camp, so when they came to visit the youth group and the church, she was the one to stay with me. That was a winner. She was another of those angels God keeps sending my way. People in NI talked about her, but I never actually met her. Then I saw her at the Amazing Race but we didn't get to talk much because the schedule of it was so full, and then my youth pastor asked if I could host an American girl for the weekend, I said sure and found out it was her. Talk about coincidence, there is no such thing! God is good. We had a great weekend together full of laughs and conversations and worship over how faithful and big our Father is.

So this is what has been going on, next I will post about what I am doing now and what about the near future!


I also have had such a great time with my mum and brother since I have been home. I love my little brother more than anything in this world and I cherish every minute possible I get to spend with him. And I think I am going to write a blog post about my mum : )


Thanks to all of you who have been praying, I can see the evidence of those prayers in my every day life, they keep me up and together. Thank you.