Meet Thumper!

Dobry den. Jmenuji se Thumper.

Translation: Good day! My name is Thumper.

The Velázquez family in Alaska found me and gave me to Brent and Liz. They didn't want Brent and Liz to be sad and miss the camp's rabbit, Thumper. I was really excited when I found out I would be going to Czech Republic. I was born in China, and have lived in the US for a few years, but this is my first trip to Central Europe! Since being in the Czech Republic I have learned a few words in Czech (which isn't as hard to learn as Chinese, but someone said they thought it was harder to learn than Russian). We've had many fun experiences here and I can't wait to show you pictures and tell you all about my adventures!

After we checked into our hotel we heard loud noises outside and there was a fireworks show. They were glad we came and wanted to celebrate our arrival.

Here's the view outside our window.

After traveling for two days I was happy to be sleeping in a real bed!

Another Exploration Trip To Prague

Two weeks ago, we left our beautiful home state of Alaska for another Czech Republic ministry exploration trip. We've been to Prague before, but because we are contemplating a possible move to Czech Republic, we want to see what life is like outside the city of Prague. So on this trip, we are going to be visiting a number of places several hours from Prague. After getting all of our logistics in order, we packed our carry on luggage and our friend, Gerad Neely took us to the Anchorage airport. 

Our itinerary was rather complex. We left on Thursday night, March 19th, and flew from Anchorage to Minneapolis on a red eye. On Friday morning, we flew from Minneapolis to Charlotte. on Friday afternoon we flew from Charlotte to New York. On Friday night, we flew from New York City to Moscow on another red eye (our second one in a row). After a six hour layover in Moscow, we flew from Moscow to Prague where we finally landed on Saturday night. Our friend, Kelly Prudek picked us up from the airport and drove us to where we'd be staying in Prague. We slept well that night! Before you think we're crazy for embarking on such an intense itinerary, please consider that we booked the itinerary using airline miles and points and that we intentionally picked at least one of the cities due to the possibility of visiting friends.

Our connection time was too short to meet up with friends in Minneapolis. But in Charlotte, we visited with our friend, Marah, who interned at the camp last summer. Even though our visit was only an hour or so, we were so glad to be able to catch up with her face to face.

We have friends in Moscow, and we were excited about the prospect of visiting with them, especially since our layover was originally scheduled to be close to 8 hours long. However, in order to get out of the international transit zone of the airport, we would have had to purchase visas costing roughly $700 each. It may have been possible to wave to our friends through a plexiglas barrier at the airport, but airport security may not have liked that. So instead we had to settle for hanging out in the airport for approximately 6 hours.

So we drank some coffee from a vending machine...

Perused a selection of t-shirts in vending machines we found to be in rather poor taste...

And had our fill of people-watching at Moscow's busy airport.

We left our home in Alaska on Thursday evening and finally arrived in Prague late Saturday night.

We were quite tired by the time our heads hit the pillows.

Update On Life

We haven't blogged for a long time so here's an update on our life:

Work

• We've been serving at Birchwood Camp since April 2010 in a variety of roles: hosting groups, coordinating reservations (Liz), facilitating challenge courses, giving tours, camp orientations, cleaning bathrooms, mentoring college interns, assisting with work teams, chasing off bears (Brent), assisting with summer camp programming, assisting with worship (Brent playing bass and Liz leading hand motions and  setting up worship stations) and many other aspects.

• In addition to the camp we also sub in the Anchorage School District. We both love working with English Language Learners (ELL). In addition, Liz really enjoys working in elementary school libraries. We really enjoy working with kids, the variety of roles and flexibility with our schedule. Where else can you work and be a librarian one day, an art teacher the next day and an ELL teacher the following day? In addition to subbing, we also assist with migrant education literacy nights.

• We also enjoy doing project based work: census, standardized school testing, surveys, pet sitting, construction, we've been extras in a movie and commercial, etc. We value flexibility and travel, so temporary work is very desirable.

Church

• We feel blessed to be part of ACF (Alliance Christian Fellowship). It's one of the most authentic communities that we've been part of. Brent serves as an elder, peaches periodically, and plays bass guitar on the worship team.

• For about a year and a half, Liz coordinated First Impressions coffee and greeting ministry. She oversaw roughly sixty volunteers.

• We facilitated a Financial Peace University class. This 9 week class helped about 10 couples pay off tens of thousands of dollars of debt, save thousands of dollars, and helped many of the couples strengthen their marriages.

• We led a Life Group for about a year, and are currently involved in a life group. This group meets once a week and gives us an opportunity to discuss practical applications of the sermon, talk about things that are happening in our lives, and pray together.

• In the spring of 2013, we went on a short term missions trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. We assisted with an English camp that occurred around Easter. We helped with a clothing giveaway for Central Asians. We visited an orphanage. And we connected with many international workers in St Petersburg.

Friends

• When you live far away from family it's important to have a strong support network. We are thankful for all of our friends who are like family. We enjoy extending hospitality and having friends over to the camp year round.

• We enjoyed having our friends Bella and Holt come and stay at the camp with us for a weekend. We went boating and hiking around the lake together.

Family

• Just prior to Thanksgiving, we were able to surprise Brent's side of the family. One of Brent's cousins, Christopher, along with his wife, Maureen, were in on the surprise. They picked us up at the airport and proceeded to drive us from place to place surprising different relatives. What a fun day that was! Then on Thanksgiving day, we were able to surprise those who had gathered for that event.

• In December, we went to Oregon and spent Christmas with Liz's side of the family. This was special, as we haven't spent many Christmases with Liz's family. 

Fun Highlights

• Last April to July, we took care of an adorable black lab named Marley. Marley brought us a lot of joy with his crazy antics: digging, rolling in the snow, swimming in the lake (and in the process drinking half of it) and thoroughly enjoying everything he did. Aside from the porcupine incident (rest in peace, Mr. Porcupine), we had a great time with Marley. Marley was also a great asset with our summer camps. In addition to making a great camp mascot, wearing a Birchwood Camp t-shirt and carrying a pom pom, he also was very helpful with cheering up homesick campers.

• Last year for Liz's birthday, we decided to do something different. Instead of a traditional birthday party, we hosted a birthday square dance party for Liz and our friend Brian who's birthday is close to Liz's. We had a blast square dancing with the 30 or so guests. The highlight of the day for Liz had to be square dancing to the 80's hit song Safety Dance. 

• This past summer we participated in the Dog Jog, a 5K fun run/walk. We borrowed Brig, our friend's dog and had a blast. 

• Last August a rabbit showed up at the camp. Over time he has grown more comfortable around people. On a regular basis we feed him carrots, lettuce, oranges, peppers, etc. He even puts his front paws on our legs and allows us to pet him while he's eating!

• We've also enjoyed hiking. We finally had a chance to climb Mount Baldy!

• Another highlight from the past couple of years was ziplining through the forest of Talkeetna, Alaska.

Exploration

• Over the past few years we've been exploring film possibilities. We're particularly interested in film crew (behind the scenes) opportunities. While we've had some experience in front of the camera as background extras (see the post from February 2012 and click on the following link): http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=519769254701194. Finding crew positions has proven to be an elusive process. There have been many films delayed due to weather, financial or legal issues. We would love to have a film experience, but after postponing travel plans and decisions on more than one occasion, we're learning not to put our life on hold for a film that may never happen. We are trusting that if God wants us to be involved in film in the future he will open up an opportunity at the right time. In the mean time we continue to enjoy watching films, especially ones with a well written storyline, amazing cinematography and a redemptive theme.

• In 2013 we went on a Prague ministry exploration trip (see blog posts from 2013 and 2014). We had an amazing trip and came away with a sense that God wanted us to continue exploring possible ministries we could be involved with in the Czech Republic. We are now back in the Czech Republic for about 3 weeks visiting with international workers and exploring different ministry opportunities. We'll see what God shows us over the next few weeks.

Harvest Sunday, A New Friend & ICF

Sunday, 11/24 was our last full day in Prague. It was our third Sunday visiting Prague Christian Fellowship (PCF). Afterwards we stayed around for the festivities. What happens when you have a wide variety of cultures in an international church and Thanksgiving is just a few days away? Harvest Sunday, an international potluck with a Thanksgiving theme! We enjoyed sampling the array of tastes from around the world, it caused us to reminisce about our days in NY at ATS.

There are over 29 different countries represented at PCF, we really enjoyed connecting with people from all over the world!

 

Later that day we went to get a chocolate and coconut palacinky (Czech crepe), which was amazing. We also met a new friend. 

I (Liz) was snapping pictures of my new friend when he got a little too close to the camera.

That night we went back to ICF (the boat church). This time we got the headphones with English translation. The pastor's sermon was filled with thought provoking insights. We also enjoyed the music. It was the first time we heard the song, Oceans: Where Feet May Fail, a beautiful song.