excited/burdened

i started a different entry the other day which i'll finish up later. but i wanted to share about some things i realized tonight.

my mom is an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Some of her students are members of a Ukrainian/Russian church here in Lancaster, and they were going to be singing and playing piano in a Christmas program tonight. so naturally, since i can't pass up anything european, i went with her.

oh i loved it. it reminded me of what i expect Czech to be like in nine months:

+talented, bilingual teenagers and children. i'm so jealous of them

+absolutely gorgeous women...cause of insecurity :)

+awesome Babickas (Czech word for Grandma) - these older ladies have lived through totalitarian governments, but some of them are really strong Christians. they all wear skirts and scarves and are the greatest cooks. go here to watch a video about one such Babicka: http://deidox.com/films/pastors/?f=LUDMILLAG

+i didn't understand hardly anything. especially because even words on the screen were in russian (totally different alphabet) which gives me even loss context than czech. but i'm at the point still where i love just listening and reading people. i'm sure that will fade after a while in czech once i get frustrated that i can't express myself, but for now i love it

+the people were so eager to serve us and talk to us. one guy came over and insisted that we have a translator and explained everything, and the father of one of my mom's students got us all coffee (though i didn't really want it)

sometimes i get so unbelievably excited that i'm going to czech. this week tessa and i got our prayer cards and started filling out the visa applications which made it all seem so much more real.

when we first decided to go we were so excited that i lost sight of WHY we were going. so i prayed that God would burden me for the czech people again, and then i saw a link to some statistics that an amazing mission's organization found in Czech. here's a summary:

+less than three percent of students in Pardubice are interested in learning more about Christ.

+78.7% of students in Pardubice claim no religious creed

+5.5% believe the church is credible.

+read the full report here: http://clarity-research.net/?page_id=174

these are rough statistics to work around. how do you make the other 95% believe that the church is credible, let alone attend church? how do we reach out to that 79% of students who don't see a need for religion?

let's be praying for these czech people.