My Sunday in Pictures

Lindsay and Me

The Prague Zoo...7th best in the world!

Faith Community Church

Hanging out after church....

(guys are not so great at simultaneously posing for pictures)

Zach
and
Jason

(girls pose beautifully, of course!)

Lucie and Dot

Castles and Contemplation

Here's one of the many nice perks about Prague: amazing castles. Saturday, five of the interns and Jason, our friend from church who has a ministry working in hostels, went to Karljstien. It's a lovely old castle about an hour outside of the city. We took a train to get there, which was probably the sketchiest train I've ever seen, but we had a great ride through the countryside. We hiked up a long hill lined with souvenir shops, all of which looked like a little Swedish village. The castle itself was gorgeous and pretty architecturally interesting, but the tour guide's lengthy descriptions in heavily accented English were not so exciting. We were sleepily leaning against castle walls as she talked...so much for our attempts to be culturally sensitive and engaged! We tried, but when you're running on limited sleep, what can you do? We were starving after the tour, so we hiked down to the souvenir village and ate at a really delicious Czech restaurant. I ate a very traditional Czech meal of pork, sauerkraut, and a huge potato pancake. Most Czech food tastes kind of disgustingly heavy, but this was actually delicious. But the best culinary delight came from a street vendor, when we ate a traditional Czech dessert called “turtlenik" (I probably just butchered that spelling). It's a large, thick, hallow tube of fried dough, covered in cinnamon sugar and pecans. The vendor we bought them from spread Nutella on them (YUM), but Jason and Will held out for a different vendor that sold them straight off the roasting rack, melt-in-your mouth warm, which was even more incredible. Seriously, Czech desserts need to migrate to the States.

My heart is already starting to get too attached here. We had a Culture Night at Jason's flat on Thursday night, where we discussed life as Christian expatriates, and watched a foreign film about a French exchange student trying to adapt to life in Spain. As we watched the end, the guy cried as he walked the streets of his homeland again after his travels, realizing he was suddenly a stranger in his own land. I felt a sudden, deep sadness as I traveled home to my flat that night, wondering if that will be me in a couple of months, wondering if I will have to strength to return. I'm not sure I will know what it means to be home after this summer...and I'm actually grateful for that uncertainty, to shake me out of comfortability and break my boundaries of viewing the world. I don't know what the future holds, but I do have great peace and hopeful anticipation.

I'm sitting in my flat with four other interns as I write this (on Saturday night, though I'll be posting it later). We're all listening to sad songs and watching pictures of our first two weeks here and talking about how much we'll all miss this whole experience when it's gone (sound a bit ridiculous and depressing, but true)! And it's only been two weeks....

Rollerblading in Rainstorms

Last night, Jeremy, Lindsay and I all made plans to go rollerblading with our Czech friend Lenka and her friend, Cameron. This was probably the craziest adventure I have had since coming to Prague. To begin with, we're riding the trams out to where we're supposed to meet her, and it took us about fifteen stops away from our metro stop (this is REALLY far). We started wondering if we were even in Prague anymore! Everything is starting to look like countryside, except for these random industrial buildings. We finally arrive, to this large sports complex where we rented our skates. Now, I used to rollerblade back in high school, but it's been quite some time. I assumed it was like riding a bike, so my muscles would magically remember...but I was sadly mistaken. While Jeremy zoomed along with our new friends (who are rollerblading pros), Lindsay and I slowly stumbled and wobbled our way up hills and zoomed without any control down into valleys. My first fall occurred within 100 feet of the building, and it only got worse from there. We keep skating, without any idea where we're going, through large fields of grass towards an ominously dark sky. The wind starts blowing and whipping the trees as we travel, and suddenly it begins to rain. Just in the nick of time, we skate into a little trailside food shelter, when the worst thunderstorm of all time begins. Hurricane winds and torrential rains....even under the shelter, we're completely drenched, and standing helpless and shivering in our skates in deep pools of water, crowded under a tiny roof with a billion other soaked skaters. All we could do was laugh.

Finally, the rain lets up a little bit, and we start to skate back, not knowing if the storm will worsen. Now, the rain is still pouring, so here we are, rollerblading through the Czech countryside as sheets of rain blind our eyes while completely soaking through our clothes. Gigantic peels of thunder are sounding overhead as bolts of lightening blaze through the sky., and we had to weave around the dozens of tree branches that had fallen all over the slick trail. We were thankful not to get electrocuted, considering the amount of trees we had to skate underneath. I think I fell a total of six times, and all of them were pretty brutal wipeouts, some on pavement and others on pools of water and dirt. I have two gashes down my arms today, and a huge one on my knee....probably some internal bruising, too. By the time we returned to the sports complex, I was covered in mud, completely drenched, and blood was running down my legs and my arms. The Czech lady at the desk ran for a first aid kit and tried to bandage me up, but my skin was so wet that nothing would stick to my wounds.

This whole thing probably sounds pretty miserable (and parts of it were), but honestly, all I could do was laugh most of the time. It's one of those situations that was so dangerous and crazy and horrible that all you can do is laugh or cry. Lenka kept apologizing, and we just laughed and told her it would make a great memory. I almost wish I had a picture of us after that night, because we all looked so ridiculously terrible. We had planned to go out and watch a big soccer match in the Old Town Square, but the three of us decided that we didn't want to be seen by other human beings after that! What a night....we've decided to create a new Czech sport called "Extreme Waterblading," which must involve lightening, mud, rain, and rollerblades.

Human Nature, Scenic Nature, Au Naturale

Tuesday felt like a long day, but it sure was a good one. Early in the morning, we traveled to meet a couple of guys in a prayer room in the city. One of the them was a Czech man who lived with his family many years in America, before being called to come back to Prague to share the gospel. He and the other man explained to us in great detail the cultural and political history of the Czech Republic that has shaped the current spiritual climate, which was fascinating for us to hear. The Czech people have a long history of having their freedoms and cultural traditions obliterated by domineering foreigners (from the Hapsburgs to Nazis to Communism), which explains their fierce nationalistic pride today. Distrust of religious institutions is a very entrenched element of this nationalism, which was worsened when misguided American missionaries swarmed into Prague after the fall of Communism in 1989 and tried to draw the people into the organized, programmatic, Americanized church. Naturally, this approach made Christianity appear to be like the culturally destructive forces of Communism in the eyes of the wary Czech people, and they rejected it.

In terms of hearing the actual gospel message, my generation in the Czech Republic has had about the same opportunity as people in many third-world countries. It would be very strange for someone my age to have read a Bible in their lifetime. Though hard work is being done on a translation, as of now there is still not a good modern translation of the Bible into the Czech language. The men we talked to work with the man doing the translation, who has been working on it for over fifteen years. When he recently finished the New Testament, he released it and it instantly hit top three of the Czech best-seller list. Though it is currently estimated that less that .5% of Czechs profess faith in Christ, it is clear that there is a deep spiritual hunger here for meaning and truth in a postmodern world.

So anyway, back to the story of my day. We went with these guys to a tract of land they have purchased inside a large, beautifully wooded wilderness preserve in Prague, where they are attempting to transform old farm buildings from the late 1700's into a spiritual retreat center. I think it will be a wonderful thing to have in this city. We walked around the location praying, and then our intern team helped to clear land around the buildings by chopping/hauling wood and bushwacking overgrown weeds/brambles. I think I have earned a far greater respect for the centuries of people who cut their firewood by hand.

While inside this wilderness-park, we also took a steep hike up into the forest and from the top we overlooked the city and all these majestically beautifully mountains. It felt so good to be out in nature, breathing clear air, climbing rocks, hiking a trail. It was good to have a day of physical exhaustion after feeling so much social exhaustion at the end of each day. Being in the city has helped me to realize that I am most definitely a mountain girl at heart. I decided that if God ever calls me to live in a city, I want to be close to somewhere like this, where I can get out and enjoy nature.

After all this strenuous hiking and land-clearing, we took a trip to the local swimming pool. Oh my, the culture shock...let me take a deep breath and suppress some gag reflexes as I recount this highly cross-cultural adventure. So this pool is packed, but almost no one is swimming. Instead, there are dozens of people laying around on the grass surrounding the pool (which we discovered was ice cold, as we froze trying to swim in it). If anyone has ever been to a European swimming pool, you will understand what I mean when I say that American swim attire suddenly seems highly conservative and modest to me now. In Europe, when you go to the pool or the beach, swimsuits are VERY optional, on men and women, on young and old, on the fit and the extremely not fit.

Some people are never meant to be naked in public. Hmm, make that most people. Wait, pretty much all people. I almost threw up a couple of times.

Enough about poolside culture-shock. Let's not relive that memory of mass public nudity anymore. Tuesday nights are Family Night, which means that all the interns and a couple of people on the team here come to the Stewarts' house for a big family dinner and a night of games. It's awesome. Tonight was Taco night (yum) and we had a surprise birthday party for our fellow intern Will (meaning we got Joanna's Mississippi Mud Cake...double yum). It's funny to have a 21^st birthday in a country where the age 21 has none of the American associations. People pretty much drink straight from infancy here. Just kidding...but I mean, almost. I found out today that you can take a pitcher into any pub, and they'll fill it up for you to go. You'll also find beer on tap at your neighborhood McDonald's, right beside the Coca-Cola. There would be a national revolution if American alcohol restrictions were instituted here!

A Strand in a Tapestry

Sundays are always great here. I am assured of two consistent staples: delicious brunch at the Stewarts', and a great afternoon church service. By the end of the week here, I really crave worship and the teaching of the Word. This Sunday, we had a long, beautiful reading of Anglican liturgical prayers before the sermon. After church, pretty much the whole congregation goes out to have dinner every Sunday at a nice outdoor garden where they sell really tasty, fresh cooked sausages for about two dollars. Sausage is definitely the fast food of choice here....kind of the Czech equivalent to American hotdogs or hamburgers. Wherever you order them in the city, you typically get a gigantic sausage (probably three times the size of an American hotdog), along with two small pieces of wheat bread (no buns), and some yummy mustard sauce to dip your sausage in (no one uses ketchup, and if you do want ketchup, you have to pay extra).

p.s. - that picture is not our church...but it's pretty awesome.

Sunday was also great because of time with new friends. Our Czech teacher ate brunch with us, and told us stories of her childhood living in a Communist country....of how the ability to buy basic things like food and books were so limited, and all their travel was very restricted. They grew up learning Russian and being taught about how amazing Russia was, while being taught that America was the enemy. I often forget how recently Communism ended here, so it was sobering to understand that a woman not much older than all of us grew up under Communist restrictions. She also took us out for a long walk in a Prague park, which was beautiful. The city is great, but I need some nature every now and then!

After church and dinner, most of the interns went with a couple of Czech girls we met at church to Sir Toby's, a beautiful hostel in the city. Hostels are great places to meet people, because so many people are traveling through and are interested in talking to new people. We went down to the hostel pub to try to meet people in the crowd watching the soccer game (“futbol” is huge here). We ended up sitting down beside two nice English speaking guys in their late twenties, one from Canada and one from America (Raleigh, NC, surprisingly!) Both guys had quit their jobs back home and had been traveling (separately) around Europe for months. They regaled us with amazing tales of their adventures in Amsterdam, Switzerland, Egypt, Istanbul, Croatia, Germany, France...the list goes on and on. I decided that when I go back to the States, I should probably find a job that makes tons of money, then quit and travel around the world. Sounds like a great career path to me...yep, my life calling, it's decided. Just kidding, but let me tell you what, being here definitely makes me wish I could travel more.

It's difficult meeting lots of people like these two random guys tonight, knowing you will probably never see them again, and hoping that your one interaction was somehow meaningful in their life. I've always been scared to care about people wholeheartedly and then watch them slip out of my life. In watching my college friends move on this year, I wondered how big of a difference those couple of years would make in our lives in the long run, and I'll always remember what my friend Paul told me: that every friendship, every opportunity to show love, every opportunity to learn something new from someone else is important, no matter how brief and temporary. What a shame it would be to never start a conversation with someone you might only see once, simply because you knew there could be no lasting friendship to come out of it. What a shame to never invest in a person's life, just because that friendship might only last a couple of hours, a couple of weeks, a couple of months, a couple of years. What a shame to never care deeply because you are afraid of the pain of letting go. All things go, all things die, new things are born in the shadow of what has passed away- this is the consistent ebb and flow of joy and sorrow in all of nature. In the grand scheme of eternity, I am a strand that is woven into the tapestry of someone else's life, and my brief engagement in their life experience can be a small, integral part of a larger picture I'll never see here. Every person is valuable, every person is made in the image of an incredible God, every person reveals to me a different facet of His glory....and I never want to miss that in anyone.

Hope and Beauty

Ahh, Thursday was amazing. Probably my best day thus far. Thursday mornings are the one “protected” free time for interns, meant to be used as a spiritual retreat and a time for rest. I got to sleep in for the first time since coming here, and then I went to a little sidewalk cafe for a couple of hours where I finally had time to journal and pray and think (all while drinking espresso and eating pastry, of course). It was nice to have some alone time...the introvert in me needs it.

Then during the afternoon, we took a gorgeous two hour walk along the heights of Prague. We started at an old Jesuit (or maybe it was Franciscan?) monastery/brewery, and then walked through over a mile of orchards and a rose garden, all overlooking the expansive, majestic city of Prague. I had my breath taken away so many times!

The female interns had a girls night at Joanna's, and she fixed us a lovely dinner of herbed pasta, fresh tomatoes, and goat cheese, which we ate out on the terrace as the sun went down over the beautiful old buildings and the sky turned purple. We sat talking late into the night and had some wonderful fellowship (and great pedicures)! This is a picture of the girls having some delicious European ice cream bars in the rose garden.

Friday, Hannah and I spent most of our day at Nadaje, the homeless shelter. Nadaje means “Hope” in Czech. It was hard, but really rewarding. After spending so many days looking at all the beauty in the city, it was eye-opening to see the other side....the poverty and the pain. The director explained to us that the homeless aren't just a bunch of drunk old men (though there are some of those).....there are young people who have addictions or addicted family members, former prisoners who are blacklisted from getting any work, and elderly people whose families have abandoned them. We brought food to them as they sat down at tables, gave them hot cups of tea, and washed dishes. Working with the homeless is definitely a crash course in Czech- they all want to talk to you, and I would have to shrug my shoulders and say, “Nerozumim!” (I don't understand). They would look at me with confusion in their eyes and then I would point to myself and say, “American, American” (Amer-ee-chan). At this, some would roll their eyes and grunt and mumble...Americans are not regarded too highly here. Some would smile and say with a heavy accent, “Thank you very much” or “Good bye!” A couple of the homeless men kept pointing to me and Hannah and saying something to us, and finally I pulled in the young director, Adam, who spoke a little broken English. He asked them in Czech what they were saying, and translated back to me “They say.. that you and your friend are...beauty. Great beauty.” I laughed and said “Dekuju” (thank you).

My fellow adventurers:

Will, Jeremy, Lindsay, me, Hannah, Michael

Why I Dislike the Number Four

I thought I would try to post a few more pictures this time around....

This is the market we bought fruit at a couple of days ago (called a “potraviny”) Looks delicious, huh?

This is all of the interns (minus me) at the metro station we frequent the most, Hradcanska. In the middle is our friend and language teacher, Lenka.
She is a fun young Czech woman who makes us laugh constantly through our language lessons (mostly at ourselves). We have discovered the absolute worst thing to try to say in Czech (well, thus far). Are you ready? It's the number four. Four is “ctyri” (with little marks and squiggles over it I can't type). This may look easy to say, but in Czech, none of those letters make the same sounds they would in English. The closest phonetically I can come to sounding it out is to say something that sounds like “sh-tear-gee.” (the letter "r" is horrible. you have to roll the r and then make a sound kind of like a "j") After discovering how incapable we were of saying “four,” Lenka decided to make us say “one hundred forty-four” which was far worse and more hilarious. We walked down the streets that afternoon all pronouncing the number, and realized how funny we must sound to the Czech people. I can't imagine someone walking down the streets in America saying the number “forty-four” in a horrible broken accent over and over again!

This is my new best friend Sasha. I got to babysit him yesterday and we had fun playing a game I invented called “Kick the Bottlecap On the Sidewalk" (my ingenuity is amazing). He also told me lots of stories about Frog and Toad (one of my favorite childhood books). We had several elderly men stop to talk to him, and I just smiled and nodded because I had no idea what they were saying past the normal greeting of “dobry den!”

I should note that people here never stop and smile at you. People sometimes give me very strange looks when I smile as I pass them on the street. You rarely see people laughing or joking or being loud on the street. However, this is an extremely dog-friendly culture, and I've heard that if you walk a dog around, you will make tons of friends. People just stop and talk to dogs like people would stop and talk to a child or a baby in America. There are so many people with dogs here- most dogs don't wear leashes, and you're totally allowed to take them on the tram or the metro.

I asked Lenka yesterday what Czechs think about Americans. She laughed and said “True?” I answered, “Yes, true! You can be honest.” She said hesitantly, “Well...we think they are a little stupid. And very loud.”

Truer words were never spoken!

Dobry Den!

As the Beatles would say, “It's getting better all the time!” Every day here I am starting to feel more at home, and every day has presented new challenges and joys. We had our first Czech language lesson Monday, which was very enjoyable and difficult! We have a wonderful Czech teacher, but I'm sure she was dying with laughter at most of our feeble attempts to speak. The words I use the most so far are: “prosim” (please), “dekuju” (thank you),” and my favorite, “dobry den” (hello!). Everything, and I mean everything, is written in Czech here. We had our first lesson in grocery shopping today, so we wouldn't starve this summer because of being unable to read what we were buying! There are also several fresh markets with wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables, which is where I plan to do much of my shopping...along with the local bakeries and coffee shops, of course!

The fact that everything is in Czech makes learning my way around the city somewhat tricky, as I can barely pronounce and read the road signs, tram stops, and metro stations....and we use public transportation every day here. We're getting the hang of it pretty quickly though: the female interns walked back to our flat by ourselves last night from the metro, which is a huge step. From the first night we were here, our missionary leaders told us to be carefully watching where we were walking and riding, so that we could find our own way around the city. I think one of the most intimidating obstacles for me has been the expectation of independence, but it's so essential to what we do here, and it's really helping me grow individually. Our leaders were right....it's getting easier every day to get our bearings in the city and understand the transportation.

Speaking of leaders, Mark and Joanna Stewart are the young missionary couple who lead our internship, and they are incredible. During this week of orientation, we've been going over to their house every morning for breakfast and many suppers as well. Joanna is a world class creative cook- I've never had such delicious food! They also have a little two year old son, Sasha, who we all adore. Playing with him brings so much happiness to my day! Spending so much time at the Stewarts' home has really made us feel like we're a part of family here, which is wonderful. We're so busy right now, and all very tired, but I'm enjoying it a lot.

If anyone ever gets the urge to write a letter (which I hope you might!) here you go:

Kristi Townsend
c/o Stewarts

V.P. Ckalova 10

160 00 Praha 6

Czech Republic

It's almost midnight here....so I must get to bed. It's strange to think that it's almost 6:00 PM in the States right now....

Prague at last!

MY NEW HOME ----->>

Yes, I am here in Prague!

First of all....I wish I could post a million pictures. Every minute here is a picture. I've already taken over 300. I promise they will be on Facebook when I return to America.

I can't believe I'm actually here. Even after a couple of days, I'm still pinching myself to see if I'll wake up from all of this. A lot has happened in the past 48 hours, but let me back up. Our flight left Philadelphia at 6:00 (well, actually 7:00 after an hour of sitting in the plane lineup). The flight took about seven hours, but it felt like an eternity. Lots of meals, snacks, and drinks, but sleeping was almost impossible. When light peaked in through the windows and they started to serve breakfast, we all looked at each other with disbelief and frustration that we still hadn't slept. We mostly all sat together, but I was also beside an interesting old man from India who told me why he hated America, but loved President Bush. It was quite a strange combination! Because of the time difference, we landed in Frankfurt, Germany at about 8:00 Saturday morning(middle of the night back in America), and had a three hour layover, which was a nice length of time, because our first flight came in really late, and it took us an eternity just to get through the maze-like German airport and get to our gate. We then had a forty minute flight to Prague, in a much smaller, older plane, where we all sat by ourselves (which was good, because we had time to think and pray before landing). The first thing we saw in the airport after we got off the plane was a pub, so we knew we were in the Czech Republic!

Our missionary leaders, Mark and Joanna Stewart, picked us up and we all took taxis back to our separate apartments (or “flats” as they call them here). The girl interns have a very big, slightly older apartment close to the Stewarts, and the boy interns have a fancy new apartment that's further into town. We all love our flats, which is great. So by this point, we were all reeling....none of us had slept in quite a long time, we hadn't showered and we all smelled really bad in this point in our clothes from Friday morning. We were basically the cast of Night of the Living Dead. But of course, the best cure for jet lag is to not sleep...so to ensure that we didn't sleep, we had to hit the ground running. We unloaded our bags in the apartments, and immediately began touring the major tourist sights of Prague. The Stewarts practically had to drag us along the streets, we were all so exhausted. We saw the famous castle, walked across the Charles Bridge, and walked the streets of Old Town, before finally getting to bed around 11:00. It was such an overwhelming experience....and I think nothing was like anything any of us expected.

To top it off, not only was I tired, but also very sick. I had completely lost my voice at this point, which has been a real lesson in humility. We talked a lot at WHM orientation about cross-cultural communication...and its been interesting feeling like I can't use my typical conversation strategies and humor to break the ice with people, because I'm embarrassed about the sound of my voice. I think all of the interns (especially myself) have been surprised at how much our pride and selfishness has come out through being in an unfamiliar country. From the moment I got here, I suddenly realized “This whole thing is not about me, and I always subconsciously believed it was before.” As someone at WHM said, “As interns, you are boarding a train that's already left the station....you're running after a moving car.” That's pretty much what it felt like as we arrived, realizing that we were just a small part of everything that was already happening with the missions team that is already here working. It's very humbling.

Though last night's whirlwind experience was somewhat miserably overwhelming, but Sunday was dramatically better. We got a lot of sleep, ate a delicious brunch out on the Stewarts beautiful balcony that has an amazing view (oh, and Joanna is an incredible cook). We toured more of Old Town today (lots of walking and tram riding), toured the Czech Inn (it's the most beautiful, contemporary hostel, run by members of the team- look it up online), and attended our first service at the church here. It's small and intimate and reminds me of Spring Garden, my church in Greensboro. The church services here are at 4:30 in the afternoon, which was an interesting switch. After church, we went over to the Davis family house, (a couple who are another part of the WHM team here- Phil pastors the church plant) where we had an incredible cookout and all the interns got to fellowship with the whole Prague team.

There's so much more I wish I could say, but I have a busy day ahead of me. I'm about to begin my first Czech language lesson. For right now, I will just ask for prayer....for courage, because I'm scared of getting lost when we have to be independent in the town (everything is written in Czech and it all looks the same to me right now, but I'm trying to learn tram/metro stops and lines quickly). For boldness in meeting new people and in pursuing relational ministry. For energy, because our days are full and I'm still getting over my sickness. Most of all, that I will be filled with the love of Christ that casts out fear and doubt and insecurity in a strange new environment. Things are not what I expected, but they are wonderful.

Almost there...

Phew, it's been a crazy few days! Traveling in NYC pretty much wiped me out. I had a lovely time last night staying with my fellow intern Lindsay and her wonderful family. We are now in Philadelphia, and spent most of the day orienteering (yep, I think I just made up that word) at WHM headquarters. They had incredible food for us (true Philly hoagies, mmm) and the atmosphere there was really wonderful and supportive. Our whole Prague team was finally united, which was exciting, and we got to meet some London interns as well. Tonight, Lindsay and I are in a lovely little house in Philly, enjoying our last night in America! I think our whole team is kind of in shock that we are leaving tomorrow. We head to the airport at 2:00, and our plane departs at 6:00, we'll fly straight to Frankfurt, Germany, and then we'll have a layover for several hours there. If all goes according to plan, we should arrive in Prague by early afternoon (early morning in the U.S.). Yay!
Please pray for safe, smooth travels, good bonding time, and good health....I am unfortunately rather sick as of right now, and my voice is fading fast to a horrible croaking whisper. Even if I can't speak the language, I would at least like to be able to speak once I get to Prague! I suppose being mute for a while would give me an interesting/disastrous crash course in cross-cultural communication...but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that!

Pursuing the Road Before Me

Okay, inaugural post! Here goes...

I suppose it's rather typical of me that I'm writing this at 2:00 AM, the night before I leave. I don't know when I'll have time again on the road this week to get to a computer, so I thought "Why not type instead of packing?" Maybe not the smartest plan...

Anyway....The purpose of this blog is to keep my friends and family involved with what I'm doing in the Czech Republic this summer. From June 12-August 12, I will be serving as an intern with World Harvest Mission in Prague, working with full-time missionaries alongside a team of five other summer interns. I will try to post updates, prayer requests, and pictures from my life abroad as often as I can, and if I happen to like the whole blogging thing, perhaps I'll even keep it up after the summer.

The title of my blog comes from Isaiah 52:7, one of my favorite Bible verses:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”'

I always think of this verse when I see the scene in Return of the King, where the beacons are being lit across the mountains. That's a beautiful visual to me of the spread of the gospel, as is this scripture.

So, back to last minute packing. I leave tomorrow with my family, drive 10 hours to New Jersey, take the train to NYC where I will spend all day Tuesday, my family leaves me in Pennsylvania Wednesday morning, orientation begins in Philidelphia on Thursday, and we fly out to Prague on Friday. What a week it will be!

Tolkien says it best:

"The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And wither then? I cannot say."