ok everyone - here you go. on the left hand side of the page there are two boxes. click on them to see some of the initial pictures i was able to get up on here. i have more to come - but one step at a time. just didnt want anyone to think that it was an advertisement or anything. hope you like them...

so church today - very cool stuff. let me try to draw a picture for you. sitting in the auditorium of a really old church with this really really large painting of Christ and his disciples in the background. In front of that is a really small pulpit that our pastor doesn't ever even use. but scattered throughout this relatively large room are about 40 or so people from all over the world. literally. All over the world. Africa, America, Asia, Europe. Everywhere. The band starts up singing a Czech praise song that i am struggling to sing right. But being moved to tears because I am starting to see this huge picture. that God understands every language. Kind of amazing to think about. so the next song is in English, but the guy leading worship this week doesnt speak English. So a lady singing with him just translates. in my ears i hear several languages being sang at the same time along with the same song. all at the same freaking time. how cool is this? so prayer is taking place this whole time too. going in and out from prayer to praise. and we end up praying for half the service.. then the thing that astounded me the most. the preacher said that we should not be focusing on him. he said that the way we were intended to worship is not to sit there and listen and get spoon fed like a bunch of little babies. that isnt the point of coming to church. the point is to come together as a corporate body of believers and to learn from each other. not the preacher. he said that he wants to spend less time talking and more time doing. he said his goal was to learn from everyone else and to help everyone to grow in their relationships with christ and fellow believers. and for anyone to share whatever they needed to share. he essentially just is giving up his pulpit to the congregation. how many preachers do you know who are willing to do this? to tell about problems and pains, joy and happiness. see - he understands that he is not the rabbi. jesus is. we are not supposed to follow him and be like our preachers or pastors. jesus should be all we focus on. sometimes we focus way too much on the wrong thing and try and emulate the wrong people. why is this? the bible clearly tells us that no man is greater than another. the Jew is no better than the Gentile. do we really understand this? maybe we need to try to understand it. and maybe there should be class in seminary that teaches people in ministy that a church isnt a company therefore there is no CEO. things are changing and they can continue to do so. we just need people to see where jesus wanted to church to be and what he intended for it to be. just look in Acts. you can find it. by the way - i think i saw tonight a little glimpse of how heaven might be...

so here it is wednesday with 3 more teaching days left. yes i have class the other days - but only 3 more times to teach. going tonight to get my new apartment keys. pretty excited about that. teaching went well tuesday. got some good feedback. tomorrow hopefully will continue to improve. im just excited for another weekend. i am gonna try to find a restaurant that has a normal american breakfast this saturday or sunday morning.

i think the funniest thing that i have seen so far was today in class - British Rob started spitting out NWA lyrics... Yeah - if you have ever hear a brit spittin some of those old school lyrics - you would probably pee your pants about like i did. thought i was gonna have to leave class....

church sunday was really cool. it started at 430 - which was really good for me. i am not a morning person - as most of you well know. it was an english speaking church with probably 30 people. they had a praise band and we just worshipped for a while and heard some tesitmony. then we had communion. it was great. i think the pastor must be american - but i havent really had a chance to talk to him that much yet. after school is finished - i will be getting a lot more involved. not much longer left. this weekend again - i am going to get my flickr account set up so i can put all my pics on the net for you guys to see. so anyway - that is it for now. off to sign a lease and get some dinner with some mates.

today we had our midterm reviews with our instructors. interesting process - being evaluated constantly. but i must say that it wasnt as grim as i expected. came through with some passing marks and i guess i will be here at least a bit longer. good news.

today is my moms birthday - if any of you see her - be sure and give her a hug for me. she is an awesomely beautiful woman, and from what co-workers in St. Louis used to tell me - she must be a saint. but if i do say so myself - she raised at least one good kid... just wanted to tell you that i miss and love you moms. thanks for all you have ever done for me. you are my heart. hope you have a womderful day - wish i was there to share it with you.

well i have 2 weeks of school left and then the week and a half or 2 weeks off waiting to hear if we get hired. these should go by pretty quick - i only teach 2 days a week these two - but i have to kick some serious tail to be able to get a job and stay here. if not guess i will just bum around europe until i run out of money.. ok - off to enjoy the afternoon.

thursday we found an apartment. it is so very cool. we are living in a neighborhood called zizkov. praha 3 to be exact. 8 Blahnikova . It is exactly the kind of place that i thought i would be living in when i moved here. a really old building - about 50 yards from a tram stop. about 5 minutes from the city center. about 15 minutes from the school. so so nice. so so happy about this. it was an answered. prayer. inside are 2 bedrooms with a living room/kitchen and a bathroom with a real shower! 2 real bedrooms with a living room are really hard to find here. plus the building has been redone immaculately. we even have a lift. it is on the 2nd floor (the third in american terms - they count the 1st as the ground floor here). Cobblestone streets - yeah the whole works. i am excited. well - enough about that. so anyone who wants to come stay - we have plenty of room now. open invite...

tomorrow i will have been gone for 3 weeks. that is 3 weeks of a lot of different stuff too. 3 weeks without seeing the folks i love, 3 weeks that have actually gone by pretty quick. i am going to church here in a bit with chewy and a buddy from tennesse. should be cool.

went out with a student that is from slovakia last night - who was trying to teach matthew and another roommate of ours czech all night. fun stuff going out with a local who actually knows what the heck she is talking about when ordering and talking to the staff at places. so it was an intersting night getting an insiders perspective about life here. ok - im off to work on a paper. homework. i forgot how much fun it was...

so here it is. thursday morning. my afternoon off - well at least after 1:30. then i get to plan another lesson plan for tomorrow! so much fun. but it will be the 2nd week down. only 2 more weeks to go. at least of this school thing. then hopefully i will be working. we have a week off between class and starting work - so i think we are going to run off to budapest for 3 or 4 days. should be really cool. this weekend - i am not sure what we are going to get into. probably try and see more of the city. i have been constantly reading up on what i want to see - there is so much. just dont want to be running around blind - and miss some important historical place. everything has so much history. ok - well enough rambling for this morning. im off to class. more to follow.

here are just a few pictures to get you guys a good idea. more to come.

walked to school this morning in the rain to the bus stop. any of you who know me really well - know that the rain is one of my favorite things. right now i am starting to think it might not be anymore when i leave this place. it rains a whole lot. if this is any indicator of the winter - it is going to snow like crazy. now that is one thing i am not going to be looking forward to. but - oh well. im just going to enjoy where i am at. this week i have to student teach monday, wednesday and friday. kinda sucks - but at least the weeks are seeming to go by decently quick. anyway - that is about it for now.

ok heather - this is for you. ive been telling you for awhile now that i would post some of my poetry - so here is one i wrote. hope you like it. have you been reading the book i gave you at all? :)

my days

walking down
to slowly turn
this road leads
these dreams unfold
like the day
lights go down
thoughts consume
making the past
brought to life
stuggles my head
put back now
another time
this my place

first week back in school and getting into the swing of things. i have been really busy doing all kinds of school related junk - homework, etc. also i taught class 3 times this week. our class consisted of about 8-10 students who are anywhere from 16-50 in age. but it was really fun. i didnt have a problem teaching for the 45 minutes like i thought i would. but i guess if you ask anyone from the youth group at northcrest - they will probably tell you that i tend to be long winded anyway... so the first full week here has been good. i still dont really fell like i live here since i have not had much time to see a whole lot. but - soon enough the course will be over and i will be working. then i will have time to see some stuff and get involved with some other things. this weekend - i plan on seeing more things too. hopefully this will be better updated. trying to find an apartment so far has been pretty difficult. my knowledge of czech is slowly increasing and i am starting to be able to understand more and more. it is kind of fun - but this language is super hard.

just finished rob bell's book - velvet elvis'. it is really awesome. if you are looking for a good book to read and want to be challenged. check it out. i think i will post more about it when i get more time. right now i am reading the naked christian by craig borlaise. it is starting out kinda cool. gives me some new thoughts.

i have been overwhelmed by how many people are actually keeping in touch with me since i have been here. i get here at about 845 in the mornings and i usually have about 7 emails. granted - my two best friends Heater and Ashlyn are the main ones - but it is awesome. Thanks for the support and encouragement and prayers. I really appreciate it. I try to return all the ones i can. Hopefully I have returned them all. Anyway - pictures will get posted this weekend. I PROMISE!! And now - out to wander around the city.... Friday afternoon off is so very nice.

ok - for the record. we do have a "shower", but it is just one of those hoses that you can hold up and spray your self. no shower curtain, no shower stall. just a tub with a really short hose. supposedly this is how the czech people do things. so just wanted you guys to know.

class is today it is 9 here and starts at 945. im really not too excited about being in this class until like 5. my add is going to kick in for real i think.

getting more and more used to it here. taking the bus, to the metro and so on. the weather has been really rainy lately and getting colder. actually wore a jacket out saturday night. august. starting to kind of understand a little of what people are saying. communication gap - not quite as broad. but anyway - things are still good. will see about that after 7 hours of class today. tonight my plan is to post some pics. we shall see if it goes through...

started orientation today at the school. got to meet my classmates and folks who hopefully will be teaching with me. that is if we all pass the couse... there are some neat folks in class. about 5 guys from the south, one from LA, two from england and a couple from maine. today we all got overwhelmed with the class stuff - no playing around is gonna be going on for a bit - but it will be interesting. our flatmates are cool - from what i can tell. but i am still getting used to not haveing a real shower. sucks - but it seems to be the norm here. i just have to keep telling myself that this isnt home and i shouldnt act like it is. gonna try and live like they live. more on school later...

prague. so amazingly beautiful. old, majestic and easy to get around. today i figured out that our flat is really really close to the city centre. probably 15 - 20 minutes max. very cool. the castle and the charles bridge are really sweet to see. hopefully i will walk across it tomorrow. maybe go pray in one of the old churches. i hope to do that especially. i met a guy who knows some people who go to an english speaking church that we are gonna go to on sunday. cool how god works. just dont expect things to happen and they do anyway. out of the blue.

i know my posts have been short lately - but as the time goes by i will hopefully be able to share more stuff. longer entries and so on. until then - cheers! love you all...

so i am finally here. after a long day of waiting and delays we are here. things are interesting to say the least. first off - no one understands us at all- which is wierd in itself. no way to understand the menu at restaurants or anything. see - we are in the real praha. where the people actually live. even the keyboard is different. stuff is all switched around. but things are well. we have no shower - just a tub. but things are gonna be fun. we are only about a 10 minute walk to a bus stop and 3 stops from a huge shopping area. good stuff. tomorrow is orientation and a tour - then we have 2 days off. will write more tomorrow. thanks for all the emails that all of you have sent. it means the world.

wednesday morning and everything here is well. slept so good last night. not sure how long - but i slept a lot. we actually roomed with two guys from spain last night. they seemed really cool and were really friendly. will probably hang out with them more tonight. yesterday we saw tower bridge, buckingham palace, and a few other things. oh yeah - london tower. today i think we are gonna check out the tait - modern art museum - and houses of parliment. this is where big ben is too. after that - no clue. just bumming around. there is an internet cafe just about 200 yards from our hostel. so i have been able to come in here a good bit. thanks for all the emails yesterday - it was awesome to hear from so many folks at once. well - more updates later and maybe i can put some pics up. just have to see how it goes. that might have to wait until prague. time to go see some stuff - more later!

ok - yes we made it. and yes we have been riding the heck outta the tube. sorry mom - no other way to go about it. anyway - we got into lond this morning at about 9 in the morning. london time. it is now 7 and still havent slept since i was in meridian. oh well - we have had fun so far. just has been hectic and tiring. but london is beatiful and i love it. the people are friendly and their spirits seem to be never dampened by all the crap that has happened as of late. well - pics soon enough. right now it is off to feed my gut. miss you guys - and i will keep you posted. thanks for your prayers.... love you all...

hello my people. it is about 7:30 in the AM on monday morning and i am about to make the last attempt at getting my stuff ready to go. i think i am about 99% ready. not bad for me. i think i actually got a little bit of sleep last night - and i dont feel like someone hit me with a baseball bat this morning... good stuff. yesterday was so busy with trying to pack and everyone coming by to see me, but i am glad that everyone who came did. it was a great feeling. plus last wednesday when the youth at church threw me a suprise party. so cool. if any of you guys are reading this - you know i love you and miss you so much already! anyway - i am gonna try and get going - just wanted to say bye. this will be my last post from the states for a while. when i arrive - it should be about 3 or 4 in the morning your time. 9 or 10 in the morning in london. hopefully i can post something so you all will know i got there safely. thanks for your prayers everyone - i love you and miss you.