1 Week, 13 Bible Studies

No, don’t worry. That’s not the norm. I’m not a pastor yet after all.

Back to blogging after a long hiatus, and you would think that I might begin by recounting some crazy travel adventure or zany cross-cultural confusion. Well, for good or for bad, I’ve decided that my heart and my mind have lately been trained upon the ever-more mundane yet equally-ever-more significant reality of the community that Alison and I have found here in Prague and at IBTS.

This was brought home to us throughout the last week, as Alison and I sat through 12 bible studies led by the 12 “CAT” students (Certificate of Applied Theology) that we teach in the areas of ‘communication’ and ‘practice of ministry.’ For me, tack on the normal Tuesday night study we attend, and that’s a whopping 13 bible studies in the course of 4 days!

“Why subject yourse…er…privilege yourself to that many holy huddles?” you may ask. That’s a good question.

For the 4 weeks prior, Alison and I had been teaching a unit for communications called ‘Leading Small Group Bible Studies’ to these up-and-coming lay leaders, and we determined that an appropriate final project would be to have these students lead the two of us (and two of their peers) in a short bible study so that we could assess how they handle preparation and group dynamics. All in all, this was their third such exercise with a small group in the 5-week period, thus over the last 5 weeks there were a total of 42 bible studies held on campus among this little group. We’re tough instructors, what can I say?

“What on God’s green earth does this have to do with community?” you may now ask. That’s another good question.

We are SO proud of the progress we have seen in the work of these students; I mean, they hit it out of the park. I had some of the most rewarding discussions about little passages that I’ve had in years with these students, some of whom have never engaged in such an enterprise.  In general, this reflects a theme throughout the last 7 months as a whole – growth. Many of these students came here in September barely speaking English. Now they are some of our closest friends here in Prague, people whose perspectives and faith challenges us on a daily basis. We have witnessed students grow in their abilities, grow in their confidence, grow in their character. It’s truly a blessing for us to see.

Furthermore, we really feel like we have been allowed to be a small part of that growth. That’s a humbling thing. What’s even more humbling, however, is that I realize just how much these students are helping me to grow in my faith, to experience my calling and my passions in new ways. And that’s really what community is all about, after all. Reciprocal relationships, supporting presences, and a love that always challenges us to keep growing into the people we never realized we could be.

If I leave Prague in 2 months wondering what God did with this year, and whether I’m any stronger of a preacher/leader/pastor/etc. when I get back, I can remember 4 days and 13 bible studies, and I can rest in that.

 

2,000!

You beautiful, beautiful people. Over the last week or so, our all-time readership hit the 2,000 mark. I for one am somewhat proud. I imagine this is something like the feeling that parents have watching their children grow up. Don’t quote me on that or anything though…

As a reward you are getting a post on Poland! It might even be a multi-parter! Whoa. Enjoy!

 

A Little More International?

Around here, it hardly seems possible. However, we had an amazing opportunity this weekend to worship with a group of Burmese Refugees who have recently been moved to the Czech Republic. This group, displaced by the oppressive military regime in Burma (now Myanmar), will be acclimating to Czech culture and learning the Czech language as they try to start new lives here. I can only imagine the hardship these people have experienced in their lives.

Our good friend Nancy wrote about the experience (and then some), which you can read here. I would also encourage you to learn more about the situation in Burma/Myanmar, and keep the people in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Veselé Vánoce a Šťastný Nový Rok

Translation: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As our faithful readers (probably only indicative of my parents at the moment) may have realized, we have been on something of an update hiatus for a brief season – though much has happened, we hit the blog wall and haven’t been keeping atop of our regular posts.  I doubt this has much discouraged anyone, but nonetheless, here is a wonderfully merry greeting to all of you stumbling across a new word from the Raskins this holiday season.

Our last few weeks have been a perfectly pleasing mixture of business and relaxation, solitude and community.  The paradox  of an expat Christmas is difficult to put into words, but overall I think it’s been a great experience for us.  Though we miss our families and friends dearly all the more around the holidays, we are also blessed by good friends here in Prague and visits from those at home.  Similarly, we have been loving the cultural exchanges happening around the dinner tables, Christmas trees, and train cabins over the last few weeks as Alison and I explore the different ways people across Europe celebrate Christmas.

I really do hope to explore some of these differences in writing soon; we have a lot to catch up on. I have realized that this is as much for Alison and I as it is for those of you reading our blog. Not updating for a month or so, I have felt somewhat lacking in reflection – not so much because our readership is down or because we rarely hear from people back in the States, but because these updates help me to process our experiences and stories.  I am writing memories as well as updates for loved ones. That being said, here are some things I hope to write about in the upcoming days and weeks:

-Christmas Traditions across Europe, from Carp to Father Frost!

-Christmas Markets, and why Prague breaks my heart!

-Our ventures to Dresden, Olomouc, Karlštejn, and Poland!!

-New opportunities in the New Year for work and play!!

-Other fascinating things!!!

Excited? I would be too. In the meantime, leave a comment. It would be nice to know people are reading (and enjoying) this thing. As  for the title, I beg your apologies because I know we’re a bit past Christmas and I probably should have thrown up a Czech Christmas greeting a week ago.  However, it’s not January yet, so the combined greeting still fits. Ha. Tonight we’ll be ringing in the new year with our good friends Matt and Marta, visiting from the states, as well as Dee and Andrew of course, and probably some slivovice to help fight off the bitter cold. See you again in 2011!

 

Cinema Magic

Last night we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie, our first venture to the Czech cinema ever! The movie was excellent, but there was one little surprise worth mentioning. At a really random moment (luckily not an action-packed one) the screen went suddenly black, the lights came up, and a Czech voice began speaking over the loudspeakers…

“Broken projector or film problem?”, you ask. Oh no my friends – 15 minute intermission! That’s a first for me in a non-double feature. Now, I don’t have any problem with this in theory, but in a movie as engrossing and intense as HP7 (which is incredible dark and tension-filled), the intermission was a bit of a shock – especially as it cut right in the middle of a scene!

These crazy Czechs and their theater intermissions – but then again, when else is one supposed to leave to fetch their cheese and bacon flavored popcorn?

 

Czech out the Weather

Winter is most certainly approaching (or here…). It’s been getting dark earlier and earlier – it’s completely dark come 5pm, and the sun begins to appear as though it’s setting as early as 3:30.It’s also getting cold quickly…very quickly. It seems that there has been a steady and rapid decrease in Prague warmth and sun appearances over the last week or so.  This morning, we even had our first snow! Check out my blurry ipod weather report from this morning!

It’s been rainy and wet, so thus far the snow doesn’t appear like it will lie. That, and it was snowing for all of 15 minutes. But hey, it was still snowing! Those who know me know that this is the first time I can say that I live somewhere where it is snowing – I think I’m going to have a lot of adjusting to do over the next few months. Now, to find some boots…

 

Finally

Well we made it back to our home in Praha after a very long day of traveling through Slovenia and Austria. Check this schedule out:

9:27 – train -> bus -> train -> train -> train (which we had to run to catch last second) -> bus -> train -> metro -> metro -> bus -> HOME at 21:40

Finally back in Prague, we realized that our power chord for our one computer is still most likely somewhere in Slovenia. And our laptop is dead. AND we need the laptop to charge our almost dead ipod which is our only other means of home-based connection with the outside world.

Needless to say, our internet time will be limited to the opening hours of the school library for some time. We’ll do our best to be in communication, and to get Slovenia updates up as soon as we can. Trust me, they’ll be well worth the wait

Blessings for now (and potentially for later – depending on how popular Dell is with the Czechs).

 

1,000!

In Czech it’s tisic, but in English it’s 1,000 – which is just about how many views this blog has had in a few short months! Looks like we crossed the 4 digit marker on Friday – proof that somewhere in the world there are people interested in our adventures!  Thanks for the contstant support and helping us pass a blogging milestone.

We are having a wonderful time in Slovenia, and are looking forward to sharing some pictures and experiences upon our return later this week. Blessings until then, and hvala! (“Thanks” in Slovene)

 

American Spaghetti

Many thanks to my fellow Facebook junkies who attempted to help me decide what to cook this Tuesday for the 25 students who attend Bible study. It was a difficult choice since the request was that I prepare something that represented my culture or family. If you think about it there are not many true American dishes, and since I was serving a bunch of Europeans I knew they would instantly sniff out a fraud if I attempted to Americanize a dish. In light of this, I decided to go with the second request and prepare a family based dish: spaghetti. If you are reading this and have ever dined at the Kilgore house, at some point you have probably been served spaghetti; if you are reading this and have ever eaten at “my” house (over the past five or so years) at some point you have probably been served spaghetti. Needless to say it is a staple in my diet so I figured- Eastern European students, I know it’s Italian but here it comes!

Things began smoothly. It was probably the largest crowd I’ve ever cooked for so I gave myself plenty of time and hauled all the needed ingredients (which thankfully had not been too hard to find) from our apartment down to the community building that the students share. Since their kitchen far exceeds our own. I began my work sautéing and mixing and doing quite well, appreciating that I had chosen something I’ve cooked many times before. The students who live in the building trickled in and out of the kitchen, and many offered to help. They are very kind and no matter how old they are (ranges from19-35yrs) I think each of them could feed an entire army- and clean up the mess in under an hour; very helpful and very efficient people but I declined their offers. I think, based on three separate conversations, that they must have all had an English lesson that day which included, “Do you like the city, Prague?” So while chopping apples (decided on apple crisp for dessert) I did a lot of explaining about my opinion of Prague.:)

Josh came and helped peel those apples and the clock kept ticking. The apple crisp came out perfectly, the sauce was simmering flawlessly, and the garlic bread was sitting waiting to be warmed…the final task being to cook the pasta noodles. A simple task right? Right… except there was only one huge pot.  Assuming this would be ok I set the water boiling and added five containers of pasta. Just as people started to arrive the pasta started acting up. Apparently the water to pasta ratio was not nearly enough so when Josh went to stir the noodles there was No water left and some, no tons, of very slimy–about-to-be-congealed-beyond-belief-noodles. I was so frantic at this point that I just kept repeatedly asking josh – why did this happen? There was pasta flying everywhere – literally. I thought, maybe we should just forego the pasta and pretend the sauce was some kind of American soup. ! I could hear more people gathering in the dining area and we frantically (thanks to Josh’s fast thinking suggestion) began scooping out huge portions of the spaghetti and rinsing it in the sink with strainers. I kept trying to stifle Josh’s loud exclamations about how gross this was for the sake of the nerves of our dining friends hungrily waiting in the next room. We used all of their pots in our ridiculous dilemma but rinsing our slimy spaghetti strands seemed to work – and by 18:30 (the appointed time for dinner) we had it all squared away.

Thankfully, it all turned out fine. The students clapped and shouted a positive remark in Russian (something to the effect of thank you, bon appetite, or yum) at the revealing of their dinner. Many asked for recipes and I think it is safe to say that in the end it was a culinary success!

PS. Here is a link to the salad I made, I highly recommend it. The avocados represented sunny CA and Spengler I just had to work in the blue cheese somewhere;-) Harvest Salad

PPS. Our fellow CA–>CZ friends, Dee and Andrew said they have had similar problems with this Czech Pasta. We are not alone in such disasters!

 

Thoughts on Getting Comfortable

“Very deep, very deep is the well of the past. Should we not call it bottomless?” – Thomas Mann

Alison and I are beginning to feel a little more comfortable, a little bit more like this new and exciting and mysterious amalgamation of culture and history and tourism might soon take on a new classification for us: home.  Not that we are unaware of the temporary nature of our stay here, but aside from the “ticking clock” of our visas and finances, we are hoping to carve out a niche in this place.  What that will look like involves several elements; community, worship, study, growth in our faith, growth in our marriage, and communication with those we love around the globe.  As we are starting to wander the seemingly endless alleyways of Prague, staring up and down into the constant stream of beauty, we are becoming more comfortable with the process of finding that home in this place…for now, anyways.

There is a great blend of new and old – and I’m not just talking about Nove Mesto and Stare Mesto (new and old town).  We have met wonderful people from around Europe at our school; students from Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Belgium, and beyond have greeted us with smiles and warm welcomes, and we are excited to build community with this new international crowd.  We have also been able to spend precious time with old friends, Dee and Andrew Franz, who are here studying and who (I realized the other night) I have known for more than half of my life.  They are a wonderful reminder of home, of friendships, and of long-lasting community that we value so much (and it doesn’t hurt that Dee speaks fluent Czech either!).

The other side of the “new/old” coin is the way we, in our infinitely finite selves, are presented with a “very deep” well of history all around us.  Coming from America, I think anyone would be struck by the depth of historical significance a place like Prague has to offer.  We are almost tripping over historical sites and facts everywhere we go.  It is truly amazing to see the blend of new and old, culture and history, at work in the city.  For example, the massive crowds in the Old Town Square of Prague clamoring to see the Astronomical Clock ring in the hour, or the art-nouveau and baroque styles of the buildings intermixed with churches and monasteries and streets dating back almost 1000 years.

We will try to update you on some specific sights and experiences as we go, stories and fun facts – tonight I’m just feeling a bit more reflective I guess. Probably because it’s so late…Anyway, please send us your thoughts, your stories, your own updates.  All of you who read this are so much a part of our lives, and we long to maintain that community with YOU as well

Oh, and to everyone who recommended that we try “smazeny syr” when we get to Prague – God bless you. It’s a Czech dish which is basically fried cheese with tartar sauce for dipping. It sounds nasty and greasy, but seriously…a-maz-ing!  I’ll try to throw in an occasional cuisine update as well! That’s all for now…Dobrou Noc!