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!