Now that we have been here eleven days we feel like that we have gone where we are called, even though we certainly did not know very many details the where and why of are going. God has been with us and smoothed the way and changed our hearts concerning our stay in Prague. He has graciously brought people into our lives here who have spoken encouragement to us, given us friendship and imparted their wisdom about living in the Czech Republic.
We had significant advantages over Abraham in that we knew specifically that we were going to Prague and a little of what it would be like, but one can never imagine the details of a place until he has lived there. In our time here we have come to discover that many things are different from what we may have imagined, but that God is giving us confidence to live here. More importantly he is showing us that we are truly needed and appreciate. And most importantly we can see that our backgrounds do make us suitable instruments to carry out his assignment to us. This is a really great feeling that is giving us peace about living here.
After this preamble, I will give you more details of our recent days and try and show how God is preparing us for living here. First, we definitely feel that people who live here are going out of their way to make us feel welcome and needed. He is beginning to establish friendships that can last a life time. We had been here only fourty-eight hours when the Westrums invited us over to their apartment for dinner and gave us lots of helpful advice. The Givens actually went to our apartment before we got there and gave us some food and drink. Lori G met us at the airport and took us to our apartment. These were just the angels from the first two days.
Once we went to CISP we found everyone equally helpful. The first day we visited CISP Eva and Rebeka took us under their wings and gave us a tour and initial information. Rebeka then took us around town to help us get oriented so we could avoid getting lost each time we went somewhere. Leah helped us make decisions while arranging Phyllis' classroom on Thursday. The Givens had a welcome dinner for us at their house on Friday night and then on Saturday Rebeka became our tour guide again and showed us how to navigate outside of Prague - how the buses and trains work and what to do when you arrive at a smaller but picturesque town. Sunday we were invited to the Waldrops for a birthday celebration. While at this gathering Bill gave us lots of good advice.
In other words, each day we have been shown friendship and hospitality and been given a wealth of information. From the quote of Hebrews 11:8 I do not want to imply that we are literally inheiriting Prague, but we are definitely inheiriting an understanding of the City and the love and friendship of many people at the school and church here. These are the things that our gracious God has seen as necdessary to us in the beginning and He is giving us these gifts. How greatful we are for the people and events of our first eleven days.
Now for the less serious aspect of the last two days: Why is there no duck in Tabor? Well, like happens so often to us we experience the results of the Tower of Babel. We can not speack the laguage and hence communicate effectively. We can not read the signs. We can deal with only the simplest situations of life here. The rest is subject to chance of some sort. But, we go with the flow and jsut shake our heads and (hopefully) laugh when unexpected things happen.
The duck? In Tabor on Saturday, Rebeka wanted roast duck for lunch. Liz (aka Phyllis) thought this was a great idea. John likes chicken. So dearest Rebeka - who has lived here for eighteen months and somewhat knows the language - confidently ordered roast duck for 
her and Liz at our chosen restaurant - a pictuesque setting in Tabor. See picture to right.
her and Liz at our chosen restaurant - a pictuesque setting in Tabor. See picture to right.So when our order came John had his chicken dish and Rebeka and Liz had pork! What went wrong. Rebeka, who will not let anything pass, took out her dictionary and realized that the word on the menu that she thought was "duck" was actually the word for "roasted". The two words are very close, but close does not always count in menu reading. The pork was good and good for a laugh after we realized what had happened. After all, the lack of roast duck on Saturday just means that we will need to schedule another getogether with Rebeka to eat duck at another restaurant - this time we will carefully check the menu against the dictionary.
To back up slightly, We left home at 7:15 AM Saturday to meet Rebeka at a local church that is a landmark, then we walked to the metro and rode to the train station. We bought our tickets and set out on a two hour train ride to Tabor. We got there around 11:00 and walked to the town square. Tabor is the most lovely little town I have ever seen - well with the exception of Clitheroe - sorry Shirely. We climbed to different towers for views, clamoured down into an
under ground passageway and generally saw most of the town. Some tme after eating our non-duck lunch, it was tea time. So we chose another quaint shop to have our goodies. Rebeka took Cappuccino, Liz took a latte and of course John took diet coke. Then for deserts, R and L shared a honey desert something like baklava. John took a chocolate, banana, vanilla custard desert. Of coure the girls desert came with only one fork, so we ask for a second fork - at least that is what we thought we asked for. But instead we got a second desert. Fortunately the exasperated waitress took the second desert back. That Tower of Babel is just causing us lots of interesting situations.
We came back by bus and saw the Czech countryside in its late summer beauty. Liz and I liked the bus better than the train, but most people here seem to prefet the train.
Enough for tonight - it is bedtime. Again, the no proofreading disclaimer applies. Tomorrow I will try and tell you about our Sunday.
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