Greetings from Radonice, my temporary new residence. I'm staying in a mother-in-law type apartment that is attached to the home of the owners of the apartment I'll be moving into later on. The village is a pretty little town in the green rolling hills of Central Bohemia, only a 10-minute bus ride to the nearest public transport hub in Prague.

Unlike an AirBnB, my current place is intended for people who already have all their own stuff...which of course, I don't, so I have begun accumulating the boring but necessary paraphernalia of life--and figuring out where to get it. There's only so much I can carry at a time, so it takes planning. And since I'm going to move it all AGAIN in the next few weeks, I have to hold back a bit (I have ONE plate to eat on.) An IKEA run is in my future.

Last week the Czech Evangelical Alliance helped host a one-day conference for Czech and Slovak leadership, and the keynote speaker was an Australian author named Mark Sayers (via simultaneous translator). His message was one of encouragement for the spiritual leadership of Europe, which has long struggled under the narrative that the church is in decline and becoming increasingly irrelevant. But there's evidence of change brewing...and historically, this is when things just start to get interesting! As we face these new cultural challenges, there is every reason for hope. There's a three-minute blurb where he distills his message, check it out here.

Please pray as I begin Czech studies--tonight, actually! Each time I mention to someone (especially Czechs) that I'm going to be starting language school, they give me a sympathetic shake of the head and say, "Czech is hard." I want to learn to say the following: Přestaňte to říkat. Řekněte: „Dokážeš to!“ (Stop saying that. Say, "You can do it!") But that contains far too many ř sounds for my liking, which require speech therapy and possibly surgical intervention to master, but in my imagination is pronounced "". Besides, pollyannaish sentiments of encouragement go against the grain of most Czechs, who pride themselves in their cynicism!

But hey--there is yet cause for rejoicing--thank you for your prayers for my visa! I got word a couple days ago that my visa has been approved, and so the next step is to go into the immigration office to get my biometrics taken, which hopefully will happen in the next couple of weeks. So one more step!

Bůh vám žehnej!

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