Departing

As we get ready to head for the airport, we want to share a description of the Methodist church in Tachov where we will be staying, in the words of Pastor Milan Mrázek:


My name is Milan Mrázek and I have the privilege to be a pastor in Tachov, Czech Republic.
Tachov is a small old town near the German border with a population of 12 thousand people.
It is placed in a beautiful hilly area with lots of woods. In the history it was important because a king´s road to Germany led through the town. A first note about Tachov in historical annals is from 12th century.

The Methodist church was founded here in 1993 when some people became Christians during their studies in Plzen and wanted to share the gospel with the people in the town. At the begining, it was a mission station of the Maranatha Church in Plzen and later, when the Lord called more people, an independent church was established there in 2002. Nowadays the membership is 24, and there are about 65 people coming for different activities.  About 35 people meet on Sundays, mostly young families with children.
During the Communist time, Tachov was a place with a very strict regime because the border of Germany was near. It had a huge impact on the atmosphere and approach to the church. People are generally afraid and suspicious to come to a Christian service. There are Roman Catholics beside us in our town (they meet in the same numbers as we meet – 30 people) and also a small group at an Orthodox church (10 people on Sunday). So in the town with 12000 people, 75 people meet on Sunday. That is our mission target, and we know that it is a big challenge for us. We believe that Jesus died for every single person in Tachov and so we try to share the gospel with them. We understand that we need to work with children and young people and God has blessed this ministry a lot. We do a children´s club, Sunday School and club for mothers and children. Children like to come and mostly they come from non-Christian families. We are blessed to have a nice youth group with 12 active members.
Some of them attend the Bible study – Disciple.

We meet in rented rooms of the Town Hall. It  is located in the centre of the town at the main
square. Since January 2009, we have hosted Ali from England. She teaches English here as an outreach program. People in the Czech Republic like to study English, and we can use it for building relationships and then for inviting them to our services or other activities.
We have approximately 14 students, and they are non-church goers.

Two years ago we did our first Vacation Bible School in the summer with assistance of a team from our partner district Johnson City, and it has become very popular. This July, we are going to do VBS as well
and we are looking forward to it.                      
We hope that God will bless us and enable us to be the light and salt for our town despite the Communist influence in the past. We can see the spiritual thirst and hunger around us. Our responsibility is to show the way to the well.