Mission to the Czech Republic

...especially when you have to plan, teach, write support letters, plan a week-long vacation, shop for Christmas presents, go to Christmas parties, and rehearse for three Christmas concerts! I apologize I have had such little time to write emails and updates. I assure you, if you go four or five days without hearing from me, I'm most likely not bound and gagged in the back of a truck somewhere! But I appreciate those of you who have shown concern for my absense of contact. But yes, this season has brought many more activities! I spent this past weekend in Malenovice (see photo of mountain) rehearsing for the Revelation Christmas concerts. It was entertaining, as usual, especially when the band, followed by the choir, spontaneously broke out in a complete performance of "Another Brick in the Wall" (perhaps we should add it to our song list?). I got volunteered to sing a duet of Hark the Herald. Not because I'm any good, but because I'm the only one who knows all the words by heart! So I'll be interested to see how that goes on Saturday...thank goodness it's not a solo!

The annual Fishnet Christmas party was held on Sunday (see photos of me, Premek, Jesse, and Laura). It was great having everyone there together, and we had fun doing a Secret-Santa-type gift exchange. Although in the Czech Republic, the gifts are supposed to be from baby Jesus so you never reveal who you bought a present for. We looked like a bunch of alcoholics as over half of the teachers got wine. I got warm socks and dark chocolate : )

It hasn't snowed since that one day in November, and it actually got up into the 60s last week. But there's some sort of rain/sleet precipitaion mix going on right now, so I'm sure snow is on the way sometime soon.

I said goodbye to Gabriel last week, and I suppose he's back in Brazil now. I'll miss him a lot, as he was one of my closer friends here. But God keeps bringing people from all over! I met two German guys here recently who are doing volunteer work in the Jewish community and with the gypsies. We're trying to plan a snowboarding trip for January, which should be really interesting for me since last time I was on a snowboard I couldn't even get up the tow rope.

Well that's the news from Ostrava! Hope you're enjoying the holiday season!