Joeletter 6.3

The Joeletter

Wow, it's been way too long since I wrote last time. It's going to be difficult to write every week, based on how much time I have to be on the internet. But I'll try my best. There is a lot going on, and I want to share it with you.

Ben and I have been going to the gym on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Ben is showing me what to do. It's fun to be with him, and learn about weight lifting. Afterward we go somewhere to eat breakfast. Steve Cone is going to start going through Mere Christianity and A Long Obedience In A Single Direction with us during these breakfast times.

I love the metro! I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I love the metro! It's so nice to be able to go anywhere in the city, fairly quickly. I don't have to have a driver's license, just a metro card. I can get on any form of public transportation, and go anywhere. It's very convenient. I'll miss it when I come home. The funniest part of Prague's metro is the escalators. Many of the escalators that take you from the surface to the metro, and back up to the surface, are six or six and a half stories tall! It's amazing, and slightly mesmerizing to ride up and down. If you watch the ceiling while riding up, you may fall backward! And once you start, there's no stopping!

Saturday afternoon I went with Marek Mudrik to his son's hockey tournament. Just about every weekend they have a tournament somewhere. The games are either in or close to Prague. It was fun to be with him, and to watch Jan playing. Those kids are really good! They've got a lot of balance, and pretty good control of the puck. Part of being at the ice rink, even though it was indoors, was the cold. It was frigid, and we stayed for about five hours. But even so, it was fun.

Speaking of cold, it's been pretty cold here. I was looking on a map, and the CR is above all of the US. We are on the same line as Canada. That makes for some fairly cold weather, at least right now. Fortunately the public transportation is pretty warm. That helps a lot.

I'm learning a little Czech, slowly. The hardest part is learning what some of the letters sound like, that are different than we would say them. For example, c never sounds like "ka." By itself, c sounds like "st." With an accent mark over it, the c sounds like "ch." And ch sounds like "hu," expelling breath. Oh, and all Czech words are emphasized on the first syllable. As long as I remember that, it makes it easier to know how to say the word. But it's still not easy. The worst letter is r with an accent mark. R by itself is like our r. But with an accent mark it becomes like a cross between "zho" and "cho." The tongue touches the roof of the mouth, and moves forward. But no breath is expelled. And you have to roll the r while you are saying it. It's the most difficult letter in the Czech alphabet, even for Czech people.

I'm being helped by Carrie and Marquetta, and by their brother Jakub. They are part of the Christian community here, and wonderful people. Carrie spent four months in Virginia as part of a college internship. She speaks the best English of the three, but all of them do somewhat. Jakub (pronounced ya-cub - all 'j's sound like y's here) also goes to the gym at the same time we do.

Sunday evening I was invited to go to a gymnasium to play floor-ball with Jakub and his friends. Floor-ball is like hockey, but not on ice and with a ball. The goals are smaller too. The game lasts two minutes, and whichever team has the most goals in those two minutes wins that round. If you win the round you stay in and play the next team. It was very fun, even though I'm not very good yet. A few of the guys speak enough English that we could communicate. That was nice. One of the guys spent a year studying in San Diego. Now he calls everybody 'Nigga.' I call him 'White Trash.' He's a very athletic guys, and very good at floor-ball. For about five minutes at the end we played basketball. Now I wish I would have played more at home, and gotten better. These guys don't play very well, and they're still a little better than me!

Afterward Jakub and I, and a few other players, walked down through the castle. They explained some of the stuff about the castle, practicing their English. We shared quite a few laughs. The city was all lit up, and very pretty at night. That, to me, is the redeeming value of large cities. They are so beautiful to look at at night. I learned what my nickname means too. Carrie was the one who gave me this name. It's Shmudla. It means leprechaun or Dwarf. It's because of the way I am wearing my green balaclava. I tucked the end up into it, and am wearing it as a toboggan cap. But because of the way it is shaped it makes me look like....maybe like a Gnome.

They meet each Sunday night, and I'm invited back. I really hope that it will continue to work out to go each week. It helps me learn what it means to respond to God, to pursue Him, around people. That mindset helps, because I'm there to be with God, not to impress anyone. And that's a good thing, 'cause I sure wasn't very impressive.

God is teaching me about seeking Him in each thing. I'm learning about seeking Him around other people, and seeking Him in study. Also, I'm learning some about seeking Him in stress, and seeking His calmness and plan. Everything is about Him, I just have to learn to see that. And He is faithful.

I'm working on getting pictures on my blog from our flat, and other places around the city. It may take a little bit, but it's coming.

Thank you all for your continued prayers for health, and responsiveness to God. And thank you also for your comments.

In His Time,