Day 2

Today started at what felt like much too early  (not sure if it is the jet lag or just my perennial inability to get up in the morning) with a 10 AM worship service.  The service - all in Czech - was beautiful.  They even threw in one English worship song (sung perfectly by the congregation), which we appreciated.  Pastor Milan's sermon was directed mainly to the children, of which there were about 10 all sitting in the front row, as it is their last week of school this week.   Milan preached passionately with stories and illustrations about not allowing sin to creep into our lives and make a home there.  We only know this because of God's provision of a wonderful lady who sat behind us and translated the service for us.  It became abundantly clear how little Czech we actually know.

The service was held in a small rented room on the main town square.  The room (about the size of room 106 at Sterling UMC) was filled with a sellout crowd of 40+ people.  In addition the facility has 2 small classrooms, a tiny kitchen, bath and chancery.  They are in the process of looking for a larger space that is affordable. 

We were introduced to the congregation, and had the opportunity to greet them all after the service at the potluck lunch.  There are several good English speakers among them, allowing us some nice conversation.  Novelties at lunch included wild mushrooms (picked in the forest) baked with egg, soup (which appears to be a staple for the Czechs), a pasta dish and a goulash stew.

After lunch we had the afternoon to ourselves, so we took our car (a cute red Fiat delivery van that was loaned to us for our entire stay by a friend of pastor Milan's) and we drove to the countryside outside of Tachov.  We took a short walk in the forest called Czesky Les, which is a region near the German border.  While the communists were not known for their ecological stewardship, this region was ironically preserved from commercial interests during the communist times as a buffer zone between the east and west, so it is now home to many endangered plants and animals.

Tomorrow we will attempt our first shopping trip at the grocery market.   Tonight we are translating our shopping list into Czech.

Some photos from the past few days (we'll probably be a few days behind with photos as we won't have time to upload them each day):

 Our airplane:

 Purple wildflowers at Reykjavik, Iceland airport:

 Tachov old city wall and watchtowers (700+ years old):

 John Huss and Hussite War memorial:  (Note the image of the cup at the top, which was the symbol of the Hussites.  The Catholic church forbade taking the cup as part of communion at the time, and the Hussites desired to have communion as Jesus had instituted it.)