the czech smile

it’s been an interesting week. i think i’ve learned a lot about myself. the title of this is the Czech smile because I think I finally understand the Czech smile…it’s a smile that doesn’t bare teeth and doesn’t look happy. I used to be so annoyed with the Czech smile – being in pictures with people who didn’t look happy. I used to think it was a symbol of their reserve and quietness. but I’ve realized that’s not it at all…
on friday we traveled to Bohumin – a small town with an apostolic church that we’re working with. i was slightly nervous at first for several reasons. first, we’re working with another intern team who i don’t know well but who the rest of my teammates do; secondly, i’ve never worked with another czech church that isn’t pardubice; third, i was going to have to meet new people again, and kind of have to go through the new English Camp experience again.
the weekend planned was to go to a cottage (what Czechs refer to as a big house in the countryside) and have an english camp weekend where we would basically have a typical day of english camp.
so we got to bohumin and hung out with the youth group where I had to introduce myself to a bunch of new people who barely spoke English.
pause…i’ve never felt such a language barrier before – i’ve never really had the opportunity to. but when i’m sitting on a train, I would love to talk to the person I’m sitting beside. at the bohumin youth group, I can’t genuinely get to know the girls because we can’t communicate well. it’s frustrating! I find myself actually becoming jealous of my team leader, Melissa, who can speak very broken Czech because at least she can communicate with people I can only smile at. I can’t ask for directions – I can’t even communicate in a grocery store to ask where the salt is. I have finally realized how awful the curse of babel is. it’s been a bigger setback for me than I expected.
so. we traveled to the cottage – keep in mind there are thirty people there and one bathroom. I have never felt so dirty in my life. I didn’t change my clothes or shower in three days, and my jeans have dead bugs on them where I slapped bugs, and my hoodie smells like campfire and sweat.
yet even through all of my grossness, smelliness, and frustration, I feel extremely refreshed. all my nerves at the beginning were just nerves, and God answered my prayer to really connect with some girls. God has shown me how he works through the language barrier.

this is Misa. she’s a girl in the youth group (mladez), 13 years old, and we connected through simple, slow English sentences, hugs, playing frisbee when everyone else is playing football, and picking flowers for each other. the bohumin mladez was wonderful, and I felt welcomed and loved.
I also got to talk to my parents on father’s day :-)
pause…I have also never felt such a huge cultural barrier. we’ve been warned again and again to be quiet in public. I never felt like this was an issue for us since all we would be doing is talking with each other…no harm there, right? but in pardubice, a city of 100,000 people, we were walking along and traffic stopped, and it was silent. literally silent. the people were not talking, except for the five americans. hmm. I also have felt like we’ve been judged a lot in our traveling through public transportation. since we all have a big hiking backpack and a smaller backpack, we move pretty awkwardly and annoyingly, and I always feel like the Czech people on trains hate us for it. this isn’t always the case, but I’ve felt a lot of cold, annoyed stares.
so. following the weekend with the bohumin mladez, we traveled to the hillsong/matt redman concert. THIS was refreshing, and here I felt like I broke through part of the cultural barrier. I saw old Czech ladies dancing, and I saw a quiet, reserved nation jumping up and down and screaming. there were 4000 people there, about half of the Czech Christian population (and yet still half the size of my church). there’s so much to be said about this night and I don’t know where to start. most of the audience were youth, which was extremely exciting to see, knowing that the youth are the next generation. on the train on the way there I also met a guy who was definitely not a Christian but really likes hillsong – what a great opportunity!

two bohumin girls were there (ana and dana), and they pulled me to the front where we were jumping, invading people’s personal spaces, and raising our hands in praise to God as a united body. how beautiful.
pause…at one point, matt redman began singing “how great is our God” in Czech, and then stopped singing, and I was able to hear 4000 Czech voices singing praise to God. wouldn’t it be beautiful to one day see a Czech worship team on the stage leading the Czech people in worship in a language they can understand?
refreshing. my team is now in Val Mezirici and I’m realizing how much opposition there is to the gospel here. no one has signed up for English camp yet, and no schools would allow us to go in. but of the very few people I’ve met here, I’m already in love with them. yesterday we hung around outside schools and handed out fliers for English camp. today we’re heading out as the students leave school to hand them out again. pray for this opposition, and for the people. honestly, i hate handing out these fliers - it's hard to be straight up rejected, and then laughed at as you walk away! but let me tell you about the lady we’ve met here who’s in charge of the place we’re staying. she’s been able to communicate with Melissa a little bit, and yesterday when the washing machine downstairs didn’t work, she did all of our laundry for us. I think it’s so amazing to see love from people, and yet so hard knowing that they don’t know Jesus.
so this is the Czech smile. look at these pictures I’ve put on here, and look at their smiles…I now see beauty in it. my friend Kamil explained to me as we were imitating the Czech smile that Americans don’t do it right…we frown when we imitate the smile, but it’s not a frown, it’s an actual smile. I used to believe there was something wrong with the smile because it didn’t seem happy, but I realize now in spending more time with Czechs that it is not that at all: it is content, it is eagerness, it is screaming at a concert, and it is Czech. and it’s different, but it’s a smile.

let me end with a couple prayer requests and something I just read in the Bible.
-pray for sign ups for camps in Val Mez
-pray for me to be better able to submit to my team leaders – I love being active in decision making, but it’s not my place right now.
-our first camp starts in just over a week! pray that we’re prepared and everything goes smoothly.

this passage is from the story of Jesus healing the lame man. there were waters being stirred by angels that allowed people to be healed, and this man who was lame for 38 years was trying to be healed in the water – John 5:7 “Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” I saw my selfish personality in this verse, and I began to wonder how many times I’ve stepped ahead of that man. I’m praying that I would be less concerned with myself and be concerned about healing that man.