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.