Days 8-10 – 2012 ABCRM Czech Republic Mission Trip

On Friday, September 7, our mission team started the day after breakfast at the International Baptist Theological Seminary by attending the daily 9:00 a.m. service in the IBTS Chapel as we had done the previous Friday.  Immediately afterwards, we stayed in the Chapel to hear from Czech Baptist Union staff members Honza Jackanič and Iveta Prochazkova about how they’re spreading the message of Jesus to non-believers in the Czech Republic, a formidable task considering that over 80 percent of Czechs consider themselves atheists.  Our mission team prayed for them as we ended our meeting.

In the afternoon from 3-5 p.m., our mission team went with Nora to the “Teen Challenge” facility in a residential area of Prague, where we helped Director Anna and her staff (Margarite, Bela, and Renee) with fun activities for Roma kids from surrounding neighborhoods between the ages 4-14.  This included the kids making bracelets and necklaces with beads brought by Clara, as well as making “lion’s head photo frames” with paper plates, crayons, construction paper, and the kids’ photos taken/printed by David and Brian. Clara told the kids the Bible story about Daniel and his trial of faith while in the lions’ den.  Then David and Meghan accompanied the elementary kids and several staff members to a nearby park for exercise, while Joe, Clara, and Kerry accompanied the pre-school kids to a nearby playground with other staff members.  This was the last of the projects done by our ABCRM Czech Republic mission team, and we all enjoyed doing fun activities with Roma kids.

On Saturday, our mission team did sight-seeing in Prague with Pieter, including a morning visit to the Prague Castle that overlooks the city.  First constructed in 870, the castle later was expanded through the centuries to today being an enormous structure that’s over 1500 feet in length and 400 feet wide with a steeple 300 feet tall, making it the largest castle in the world.  Pieter was an excellent guide in showing us various places in the castle complex, telling us about the historical events that happened in each place.  An especially interesting area is “Golden Lane” that used to be where various artisans (including alchemists) lived in small homes attached to the castle walls.  House 22 was the home in the early 1900’s of the famous German writer Franz Kafka.  Later in the day, team members saw the famous Charles Bridge (built by King Charles IV in 1357) that spans the Vitava River, as well as other scenic places around the city.  Prague is truly one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

On Sunday, October 9, our mission team attended the Prague International Church service with Pieter, Nora, and Norita, where the Kalkmans are active members.  Pieter introduced our mission team to the congregation during the service, and we enjoyed talking with congregation members afterwards.

To finish our time in the Czech Republic on this last day of our mission trip, Pieter took us in his van to the Karlstein Castle about one hour from Prague.  Built in 1348 by King Charles IV, this castle is the second-most important castle in Czech history after the Prague Castle.  Our team took a tour to see (among other things) the Chapel of the Holy Cross in the Great Tower, where at one time the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Czech crown jewels were kept for safe-keeping.  The mission team enjoyed our last evening meal together at a Czech restaurant next to the Karlstein Castle. 

Early on Monday, September 10, our mission team members parted to various destinations after being together since the team’s arrival in Prague on August 30.  We were extremely blessed by being able to complete our projects at the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church and the Teen Challenge facility in Prague.  We also were blessed by Pieter and Nora being our ABC-IM missionary hosts, and by the nearly perfect weather we enjoyed throughout our stay.  Our mission team members made many friends here, especially with members of the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church.  We hope to return some day to see the church after it is completed.  We praise God for allowing us to serve Him through our ABCRM Czech Republic mission trip.

Days 6-7 – 2012 ABCRM Czech Republic Mission Trip

With the large amount of progress made during the first two days of the week building walls for the new church, and with Meghan, David, Brian, and Kerry now very efficient in supplying bricks to those laying the bricks, the remaining supply of bricks bought by the church before the mission team arrived were quickly used up during the morning of Wednesday September 5. This was an accomplishment that no one in the church or on our mission team expected before we began the project on Monday.  Pastor Jerry later commented that this was the first time their church had experienced a shortage of materials rather than a shortage of workers in working on the construction of their new church!

 

 

Now the only remaining tasks left to complete for the first-floor walls of the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist church were to build arches for windows and lintels for doors on the top of the walls.  This would be done after our mission team returned to the U.S., so we spent the remainder of the work-day chipping off 100-year-old plaster that coated the outer wall of what used to be a movie theater that would now be an interior wall of the church’s sanctuary.  With Kerry, Brian, Meghan, and David using a pick-axe, chisels, and hammers, this was very tiring work, and we were happy when most of the plaster was finally removed. Clara did a lot of sweeping up of the plaster that was chipped off the wall.

   

 

With the most difficult project of our mission trip completed, team members enjoyed Wednesday evening celebrating with a dinner at a nice restaurant in the center of Konstantinovy Lazne, walking less than a mile there from our inn through the beautiful heart-treatment spa areas that this city is famous for.  It was a fitting reward for all our team accomplished since arriving here on August 31.

 

On Thursday morning, our mission team packed up to return to Prague for the last four days of our trip.

We’d spent a wonderful five days in Konstantinovy Lazne in holding a Crafts Fair at the church, helping to build the new church’s walls, and seeing sights in and around the city.  We’d be missing staff members Robert and Matt of the “Flora” inn where we stayed and ate most of our meals. We’d especially miss our good friend Maja, who is a member of the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church studying towards her PhD in Mathematics in Prague, who’d been our translator and co-worker during several workday along with spending fun time with us.  Before we left, Pastor Jerry stopped by to give each team member special gifts from his congregation to thank us for our mission trip that was a tremendous boost towards the completion of his church.  With the $2300 of ABCRM missions funds allocated to this mission trip for buying the foundation and bricks for the church’s first floor, and with the combined efforts of our mission team and the church’s construction workers, they estimated we’d accomplished in three workdays what would have otherwise taken the church three months to do.

 

On our way back to Prague in Pieter’s van, we stopped in Pilsen to see the town square with its enormous cathedral initially constructed in 1295, and later we also visited the memorial and museum at Lidice that commemorates the complete destruction of this once quant village on June 10, 1942 by Nazi soldiers in retribution for a Nazi commander being killed by Czech agents in Prague the previous month.  It was quite emotional to learn in the museum of how the children of Lidice parents were forcibly taken from their parents by soldiers and subsequently gassed in the trucks they were transported in, as well as our mission team walking in the exact area next to the museum where the German soldiers had executed all 173 men in the village over 16 years of age.  It is a tragic event in the Czech Republic’s history that no Czech will ever be able to forget.

 

When we arrived back in Prague, our mission team checked in again at the International Baptist Theological Seminary for the last three days of our ABCRM mission trip to  the Czech Republic.  Tomorrow Friday, we’ll being doing crafts and having fun with Roma kids from ages 4-14 at the “Teen Challenge” facilities in Prague.  We’re looking forward to this last project of our mission trip.

Days 4-5 – 2012 ABCRM Czech Republic Mission Trip

When our mission team arrived in Konstantinovy Lazne on Friday August 31, and saw the bare flat concrete slab at the new Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church construction site where new walls would be built, it was difficult for us to imagine how much we could accomplish in just 3.5 work days working with six members of the church.  However, on Monday, September 2 after we’d finished breakfast and read/discussed the daily ABC-IM Short Term Missions “Watch for God at Work” devotional guide at the inn, we optimistically walked to the site only 100 feet from the inn to begin our first workday.  The church’s construction project manager put us to work by first moving bricks from a storage area next to the site to the concrete slab.  The church’s workers started immediately laying the first rows of bricks for the new walls, and the construction project was off and running!

As described in the “Watch for God at Work” guide, our mission team members acted as servants to the church’s workers (who were construction experts) by continuing to deliver to them bricks they needed for the wall-building.  With the bricks being covered with an orange powder than easily rubbed off, our clothes became covered with dust within the first hour of work, but it didn’t bother us in the least.   The building of the walls went amazing fast, and by the time we took a lunch break, we could already see how the architect’s rendition of their new church building we’d seen was becoming real.

After our lunch, our mission team and the church’s construction workers kept doing the same thing to making the walls higher until they reached the height of the first floor (9 feet(,  By the end of the first work day, some of the walls had reached 5-6 feet in height.  Although it was a tiring day, our mission team was happy we’d accomplished so much with our Konstantinovy Baptist Church fiends.

  

On Tuesday, September 4, we kept the same schedule as on Monday, starting our work at the construction site at 9:00 a.m.  Because the walls were now too high to add new bricks from the floor, scaffolding was assembled for the outside walls, and the church’s construction workers began adding new layers of bricks.  On of our team members (Joe Kong) decided to try building a short interior wall, and it turned out looking pretty good.  Also, the church’s construction leader asked Clara to be the mixer for the glue that held the bricks together, and she did a got job at that too.  By 3 p.m., the first outside wall reached the height of 9 feet.  By the end of the day, we could no longer look across the concrete slab that had been completely flat on Monday morning.

By the end of Tuesday, the new walls for the first floor walls were far enough along that they will be completed on Wednesday.  Our mission team will then be doing other construction tasks since it will take some time to install the steel beams for the second floor.  Tuesday was another tiring day, but our team members were very happy about all the progress that has been made so far.  We are so thankful the Lord has led us to this project with the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church!

 

Days 2-3 – 2012 ABCRM Czech Republic Mission Trip

On Saturday September 1 morning, our ABC-IM missionary host Pieter Kalkman showed the mission team historical sights not far from Konstantinovy Lazne.  The included the remains of the Krasikov Castle on Swan Mountain that was constructed in 1287, and served as the center of power in Bohemia for over 200 years.  After the castle was destroyed by fire in 1644, the only structures left standing today are the castle’s now-abandoned Catholic church and one of the fortress walls.  From the top of this wall, team members enjoyed the spectacular views of the green valleys and scenic small Czech villages below.

After the mission team also visited the small historical village of Utersky Potok in the morning, team members held a Crafts Fair at the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church (that temporarily uses the local community center for meetings and services) in the afternoon that included ten children, their parents, and other members of the church.  Thanks to the crafts=coordination efforts of mission team member Clara Kong, the children enjoyed making “lion head frames” for photos taken of each child by Kerry and printed with his laptop and Pieter’s printer, laminated crosses, and bracelets and necklaces of stringed beads.  Both the children and adults of the church had a wonderful time during the Crafts Fair!

On Sunday, September 2, the mission team attended the morning service sat the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church, with translation to English provided to us by Southern Baptist missionary Larry Lewis (who lives with his family in nearby Pilsen).  Kerry gave greetings to the congregation from ABC churches in America, and let them know how happy our mission team was to be in the Czech Republic to help their church.  Both Pastor Jerry and his wife Lydia are wonderful Christians who are doing a wonderful job of spreading the words of Christ in this country having less than 1 percent Christians. 

In the afternoon, our mission team visited another historical castle in the city of Bocov with members of the Konstantinovy Lazne Baptist Church, and toured the castle’s museum that contains restored relics of the Catholic Church dating back to medieval times.  Next, the combined group went to the beautiful city of Marienbad that has many mineral springs known for their therapeutic effect.  With the sun shining brightly on a mild Sunday afternoon, walking along the promenade in the center of the spa area with a concert band playing classical music nearby, beautiful flowers everywhere, and many fountains was a fantastic experience!

Tomorrow Monday, our mission team starts helping to build the walls of the new Konstantinovy Lazne Church for the next three and a half days with members of the church.  We’re looking forward to it!