Advent

We are into our final course of 2009 on Sunday mornings, looking at "The Mission Heart of God".  The planned Monday evening course had to be cancelled this time as we didn't have enough people signed up.  Please pray that we will have renewed - and increased - interest once we start again in January.  The Monday class will either be the "Mission" course we are doing at the moment on Sundays, or the "Introduction to the Old Testament" we had planned to run, depending on interest.  As with all our classes, information and materials are available on the website, www.icpstudycentre.cz.
ICP starts its Advent series on November 29th and Simon will be preaching on Psalm 23 on December 6th, as well as speaking at the Christmas Eve Candlelight service.  Please pray for him as he prepares these talks.  Also pray for him as he speaks at the Riverside School Christmas service on December 10th.

Some random shots of Prague

Latest Courses

The last couple of weeks I've been working on a series of studies for ICP on spiritual gifts. Next Sunday, 20th, is Welcome Sunday here as the new academic and church year starts. For the following four weeks we are hoping and praying that as many people as possible will follow this study so that they come to understand what their gifts are and begin to see where they can use them. At the end of the study, we will be holding a Missions and Ministry Sunday with various opportunities for service available as we encourage everyone to get involved in the task sharing the message of the gospel. The studies are available for download from the Study Centre website (http://sites.google.com/site/icpstudycentre/) for anyone who is interested.

We are also about to start two other courses. On Monday evenings, we will be running the "How to Read.." course that we first ran at ICP in the spring. This is open to people from churches all over Prague, please do pray for a good number of people to be involved. this starts the first Monday evening in October. On Sunday mornings, we will be starting a course called "Introduction to the Old Testament" which is exactly what it says!! I am working on the study booklet for that and we begin on September 27th. The full study booklet for "How to Read..." is available from the website as is a short information leaflet on the OT course.

We do appreciate your prayers for these courses, that the right people will attend and that they will be encouraged and built up in their faith.

Web Site

I've spent some time over the last couple of days putting together a basic website for the Study Centre. Not got our own domain yet, so it can be found on Google sites at http://sites.google.com/site/icpstudycentre/.

Family

Rob and Lucy came back from their six months in India safe and sound and seem to have thoroughly enjoyed their time there. Only a few days after they got back to Exeter, they and Kristina and Jon came out to stay. It was great to see them all, the first time we had been together as a family since the beginning of January.

It was our 25th wedding anniversary in July, so we all celebrated that - together with Trev and Ali and my mum and dad. Lovely meal in a hotel on Old Town Square in Prague.

Soon after they went home, Dorit and I drove up to Denmark to spend a week with Dorit's family to celebrate her mum's 70th birthday.

Celebrations of one kind or another all over the place!! Being on the continent makes travelling so much easier. Denmark is only 10 hours away by car, without having to worry about ferry or flight times. though most of the German motorway system appears to have metamorphosed into one large construction site.

It was good to be with everyone, and great to get a few days break before starting the new church year.

Finally...... a blog!

Apologies for the length of time it has been since I last posted anything here. No real excuse, I'm afraid. Life just goes on and suddenly four months have passed.

So, a quick update.

The first Study Centre course finished back in June and I think it went quite well. We had 6 people who went through the whole course - which seeing as it started at 9 am on a Sunday morning wasn't bad!!

We also held our first seminar in July. This was run by Bill Miller who is a member at ICP and was on building trust in leadership. Not as many came to that as we had hoped, but that may have been because it was held after schools had broken up so a lot of people were already on holiday.

Otherwise, the time last term was taken up with preparing for the course and getting materials together for the ones we are holding in the autumn.

Thank you for your prayers over this time, we really do appreciate them.

Office update

Not only have we started our first course, but we have also some offices!! ICP has rented an extra office at IBTS which allows us to be together with the other people working for ICP which is great. We are very thankful for the space this has given us to work. It is in wonderful surroundings and easy to reach by public transport. There are, of course, a number of things still to sort out with setting everything up, but we are making good progress.

First Course

Last Sunday we started our first ICP Study Centre course. This is a short course in the basics of Bible study and will last 6 weeks. Based on the book, How to Read the Bible for all its Worth, we are covering some of the techniques and skills that we all need to be able to gain the most from God's Word.

At the moment, this is only available to ICP members and is taking place before our Sunday morning service. Last Sunday, there were 10 people there which was a really encouraging start. Please do continue to pray for us as we move on with other plans including a leadership seminar in July that will be aimed at both Christians and non-Christians.

Office Space

Been a while since I wrote anything here, but hopefully you should have received our latest prayer letter. If not, and you would like to, please do contact us and I will send one wending its way to you almost immediately!

We have asked for prayer for office space to be made available for us so we don't have to work from home. Dorit and I went to look at some great premises last week in a Christian run family centre. We won't be taking up that space but the possibility of working together with them in one way or another is a very real one, so please pray about that.

But it does look like we will have an office fairly soon, on the same site as the ICP offices. This would be very practical for us on a daily basis but isn't so practical when it comes to running courses in the evening as busses are fairly infrequent at that time of the day. Please pray that the right decisions will be taken.

Getting on with it

One of the chapters in Aubrey Malphurs' book Advanced Strategic Planning is called "What we are supposed to be doing".  If you turn that into a question, that's a little bit like how I feel at the moment!!  This past week saw Dorit and I start work proper at the ICP study centre which, at the moment is a desk in the ICP offices when available!  Otherwise it is our dining table.  There is lots to be done and part of the problem I face at the moment is knowing exactly where to start. Thinking and planning are all very well, but we want something from the centre to be up and running at Easter, so we need to get on with things.  So I am working on aims and vision for the centre to begin with so that we at least know what the centre is trying to achieve.  I would very much appreciate prayer for wisdom in this as decisions made now will affect the way in which the centre is set up and runs for the foreseeable future. Please also pray for office space to become available for Dorit and me to work from.  The situation we have presently is far from ideal for all concerned.

Settling in to Prague is not just about working on the centre's plans; we also are coming to terms with shopping where you don't understand any of the labels!  It's not always easy to see if you've picked up a bag of flour, or salt, or sugar - not until you open it at home, anyway.  So please pray as we set about some basic language study.

We have met some of our neighbours in the block of flats where we live.  Next door is a Japanese couple with two boys who are over working with Toyota.  The circumstances in which we met them were far from ideal; we managed to lock ourselves out of the flat while moving stuff down to our storage room in the cellar.  No way in, freezing cold outside, no coats, no money, no mobile phones and the only people whose address we knew were Trev and Ali and the live about 8 miles from us - not a quick stroll round the corner!  So, knocked on the neighbours' door.  They were very friendly and we soon got a locksmith to break in for us.  It just emphasised for us how difficult things can be when you don't speak the language!

We are hoping to get our resident's permit organised this week, so please pray that this will go smoothly.  We have heard all sorts of horror stories about the process - and other stories where it has all gone smoothly.  We'll wait to see which type our stiry will be.

Settling in

After all of the travelling around over the past couple of weeks, we are finally settling in to life in Prague.  Dorit came out last Wednesday and I followed on Friday after a couple of meetings in the UK related to the study centre.  Thank you for all your prayers for us; all the travelling went well but it is good to have arrived!  The flat is gradually being sorted - Dorit was in IKEA today buying shelves!! - and with pictures going up on the walls it is beginning to look and feel a bit more like home.

This next week has been put aside for practical things like settling up a bank account, arranging internet access and buying our passes for the Prague public transport.  Please pray for these things, not particularly exciting but needed for 'normal' life (though I quite like having to come down to our local cafe in order to catch up with emails!).

We were at ICP on Sunday; it was good to be part of the service there in what is now our home church.  They were very welcoming and we are looking forward to working with and for them over the next few years.

Robert and Lucy have arrived safely in India, which is another answer to prayer.  The temperature there is just a touch different from that in Prague.

Valedictory Service

If there have been many moving moments over the past few weeks and months, then yesterday's Valedictory Service for us at BHC was right up at the top of the list!  It was great to be able to be there and say good-bye properly to the people we have worked with and served over the past 8 1/2 years, but very difficult to finally leave.

Thank you to all who came along but all who worked so hard in putting the programme for the service together, especially to Steve Sowden for leading in such a sensitive and appropriate way and to Derek Burnside for a challenging and encouraging message.  Not only did the service strike the right note, but the food afterwards was great!  I was asked by a couple of people if I could leave again!  

It was a real privilege to be sent off to Prague with the blessing and prayers of BHC, but especially so as we were able to share the service with Rob, our son, and his wife, Lucy, who are off to Hebron School in India on Wednesday to work as volunteers for 6 months.  Please do pray for them.  Pray also for Kristina and Jon, our daughter and son-in-law as they remain in Exeter.

Do pray also for BHC as they seek a new pastor, details are on the church's website at www.beaconheathchurch.org.uk.

Prague move

Prague is a long way from Exeter by road when travelling in a 7.5 tonne truck at 56 mph!!!

Many thanks to everyone from Beacon Heath Church who helped empty the house and load the truck on Saturday last week.  Everything went very smoothly and the truck was loaded in what must have been record time.

Russell Fenn and I drove out to Prague, leaving on Sunday and arriving at lunchtime on Tuesday.  To say it was cold would be a bit of an understatement!  Even though Exeter had been colder than usual, Prague was more like a freezer!  With great help from members at the International Church of Prague the truck was unloaded and all our stuff taken up 58 stairs and five floors (by lift!) and deposited safely in the flat.  I think Mike Yurkovich must have thought he had changed into a yo-yo as he spent much of the afternoon riding the lift up and down with all our worldly goods.  We really would like to thank everyone at BHC and ICP who lent a hand, without you we would not have managed the move at all.  And a very special thanks to Trev, my brother and his wife, Ali, who have been tireless in doing things for us in Prague as we have planned this move.  From buying water when the mains supply failed on our first day (!) to looking at flats, signing contracts and generally always being there when we've needed help.

Russell left that Tuesday evening to drive back to the UK on his own while Dorit and I tried to sort out the boxes.

We are amazed at God's goodness to us, not just in the people who have shown real Christian love in helping, but in his provision of a great flat for us.  Pictures of it can be seen (with all the boxes and attendant mess) at http:www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58746&id=609047197.

We both travel back out to Prague later this week to settle in properly.

Please pray for the various practical things that need to be sorted over the next couple of weeks.