Just a few hours ago, I finished my first week of teaching English.  Despite countless hours of meetings in Czech with few translations and many many students that speak relatively no English, I managed to survive my first week as a licensed teacher in the Czech Republic.  Boom!  I have found out through the courses that I teach in a local high school that I am a massively intimidating individual.  For anyone that might have once doubted my severely serious ways, apparently I came off as so intense that some of the students are trying to drop my class for fear of failure!  Yikes.  Overall the students tend to feel ill-at-ease with speaking English and shy… except for the middle school boys.  They aren’t shy at all.  I put on more of a “teacher-face” than I knew I was capable of and, despite the language barrier, have had the pleasure of chastising some boys after class.  Forcing any student that knows he is in trouble to look you in the eye as you speak to them is difficult anywhere in the world.  Ha.  Even though I have had to pull the big, mean and ugly teacher card a few times, I absolutely love the students here.  I don’t know who has laughed more: me or them.  I laugh at any given ridiculous moment due to cultural differences, and they just plain old laugh at me and my awkward pantomimes, as I try to explain various ideas and terms to them.  I am sincerely looking forward to the meaningful relationships that I hope we will build this year!    

I still have $2500 to raise before December 31, 2011, so if God has put on your heart to contribute to this mission, you may do so by going to teachoverseas.org/contribute.php.  If you have given, then please know that you are an enormous blessing.  With each dollar that I receive I want to shout for joy not that you are helping me, but that your heart is in a place of financial surrender to God.  I know that He has profound plans for the people here in Western Bohemia.  He is the God of this nation.  I pray that there will be a revival here that these people have never experienced.  I pray that Jan Hus himself would stand amazed at the number of people that stand with hearts enraptured by Christ’s glory, with even more taking up their cross than during his Protestant Revolution.  After looking at the architecture here that has been developed to appeal to God in the form of numerous Gothic and Baroque churches, I ache to see them once again filled with Czechs who yearn to serve God with their whole beings.  If you cannot contribute, that is perfectly alright as well.  Prayers mean more than money ever could.  Please pray that Cody and I are able to hearts abandoned.  Pray that we lose sight of our material and worldly needs and focus on spiritual growth for ourselves and those around us.  Thank you so much for your love and support.