With my dear friend Amy at last!!!!

They put me in a cute little apartment on the top floor of their house. They usually have someone living here...single or young married couples that have just come onto the mission field or often interns that are here temporarily.

It's common to just have a mattress with a fitted sheet on it and a big poofy down comforter you throw over yourself. Aaaaahhh.

This is the hotel where we stayed for the week. It was previously an old communist hotel...it was renovated and is now used for missionary training, conferences and retreats, English camps and rental by other private groups.

It snowed all week, over 2 feet. I LOVE THE SNOW. The women were really bothered that it was snowing yet again (it snows Nov-April here), but I was quite pleased.

It was a beautiful week in Narnia.

The view from my room...

At certain times during the week cars couldn't make it up to the hotel so people had to park down at the lower lot and walk back and forth.

This is the room where we met for teaching and worship...the Maly Sal (small meeting room)

The first night we had a cafe type gathering...

There were these amazing desserts we could order, along with special coffee/tea drinks.

I was glad to get to know some of the women since Amy was the only person I knew before I arrived.

Each woman had put together and brought a Real Simple magazine type "article"...we put them all together in a notebook to bring home. What a cool idea! They were all so creative (except mine).

Our room at the hotel...more poofy down comforters.

All the bathrooms are really clean and very European looking...I guess that's because it's Europe.

The hotel is beautiful.

Our speakers are from Colorado...this is Joyce.

And this is Jerry.

This is a visual aid that was used throughout the week...the old closet is full of the "clothes" we have either taken off or need to take off and replace with "clothes" from the new closet when we are made new in Christ.

Worship...

This is Alice--she ran PowerPoint for me all week. She is a missionary to Poland.

On Wednesday, Connie (one of our leaders) gave each woman a card from her husband, Dave (JV President).

Each card had a special note inside along with crowns to spend at the mall...with specific instructions to only spend it on ourselves.

When the women opened the cards and saw the money, they were really excited and emotional...that is really a special gift to these women who often don't have anything extra to spend on themselves.

Then Connie gave each of us a cool shopping bag and asked us to follow her down to the lower floor where there were piles of items for us to fill our bags with.

These cool key chains were made by a women's ministry at a church back in the states...each chain had a special note with it that one of the women had written.

At the Avion mall in Ostravawe. When we all got together to take this picture, a Paul Blart mall cop guy came by and told us it was against the rules to take a picture in the mall. But Katka sort of sweet talked him and he let us take one :-).

This picture was taken at the food court... 

In the picture, L to R: Jerry, Laura, Connie and Joyce

Lunch at the food court. There aren't many smoking restrictions in Czech, so the smoke was almost unbearable in restaurants and public places. But the food and company was great :-).

I have no idea what this receipt says, but it means that I got a really cute pair of Czech jeans.

When we returned from the mall and after we had dinner, we went to the Velkay Sal (big meeting room) for a game night. This was the entertaining opener...Amy, Connie and Laura did a rendition of one of the songs from Mama Mia. It was so great.

We played this FUNNY team game that was a mix of several TV show games like Survivor and Are You Smarter than a (Eastern European) 5th Grader, along with Charades, Persuasion, etc. Each team chose their category and the questions or task would pop up on the interactive screen.

This is Lauree Austin--she hosted the evening. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Katka was our scorekeeper...

Each team could choose which game they wanted to do. This was survivor.

I chose survivor...Lauree was explaining what we had to do.

With Lauree...she is one of the funniest girls I've met in a long time.

Throughout the week the women were given 10 minutes on the stool to share what had been happening in their world over the past year...the joys and challenges and how we could pray for them. I was so impressed with their depth and sacrifice to serve the Lord so far from home. This is Brooke.

Katka...

Lauren (from Czech Republic)

Telling a story during worship time...

Brooke (from Slovenia) and Brittany (from Ukraine).

Kim and her husband have only been in Czech for four months--they are from my church at home!

Becca has been living in Czech for 8 years--she serves all 11 countries that are part of Josiah Venture ministry. She will be leaving the mission field in June to return to school in the States.

Brooke, Laura (from Slovakia) and Lauree.

Lauren and Katka (she is is a Czech National missionary and also serves the entire Josiah Venture across all 11 countries).

The receptionist at the hotel...I don't know her name, but she was so helpful with music copying, etc. during the week.

Hanging out in the sitting area--you can't see the view, but it's amazing.

Me and Katka...

Polish pottery is a big deal here...it's like the really pretty, colorful, patterned dishes you can find at import places, but way less expensive. The Boleslawiec Polish pottery people came up to the hotel (I guess they do every year) and we all got to shop for pieces of pottery to take home with us.

Here's the polish pottery I brought home with me...

Our last morning at Malenovice...

I met some amazing women this week (l to r)...Kristy (Ukraine), Sarah (Croatia), Kristi (Slovenia), Amy (Slovenia), Brooke (Slovenia).

Becca (Czech) and Andrea (Czech).

There was so much snow on the day we left, we had to walk down to the parking area where our cars waited. Amy made a great fashion statement wearing her shopping bag over her head.

On the way home from the conference we stopped at the Josiah Venture Headquarters in Frydlant, Czech Republic. It was previously an abandoned, dilapidated building that had completely fallen apart. They bought the building and property and renovated it...they stripped it down to the original brick walls and kept the bannisters and beams and anything else they could re-use.

This is Amy's husband, Mel. He is the Executive Vice President of Josiah Venture.

Amy and Mel...

Lauree works out of the Josiah Venture Headquarters. She used to be the tour manager for So You Think You Can Dance.

Mel bought both Amy and I beautiful flowers--they were waiting for us when we got home from the retreat. Mine were on my nightstand right next to the poofy comforter.

Leaving for Prague. Goodbye Cesky Tesin!

On our way to catch the train to Prague

The train station in Cesky Tesin.

Amy & Mel

Waiting for the train to Prague.

We sort of got a little lost on our way there...Amy was given wrong directions and we ended up in the wrong area of the city...we pulled all my luggage for blocks of cobblestone, looking for the right bus to get us to our hotel. I was so glad the wheels on my suitcases held up. It was beautiful, though, and I love an adventure.

Our room at the Belvedere in Prague...more poofy comforters under the duvet :-).

Party in Room 509...

We set out our first evening to see what we could see and have dinner...

All the streets are cobblestone. Wear comfortable shoes.

There are cool carvings, buildings and sculptures everywhere.

Prague City Square.

Looking for the perfect restaurant...

This is one of Amy's favorite restaurants...there was a band and really good, inexpensive food.

I figured I should have a picture of myself in front of some cool building.

Prague is full of the most beautiful winding cobblestone streets. It's really magical.

A picture from the Charles Bridge (where one of the Mission Impossibles was filmed).

We took the train, the metro and trams everywhere...this is us waiting again. We had a lot of catching up to do, so I didn't mind the waiting.

Heading out on our second day. We're going to the prague castle today.

The architecture is breathtaking...

The palace...

The palace guard taking his job seriously.

The remains of a priest are behind the glass.

There are beautiful stained-glass windows everywhere you turn...

Another important person buried here...

The Golden Lane. These used to be homes under the castle walls. Now they are little shops.

This is a medieval museum...just up the stairs and down the hallway is a really creepy torture chamber.

Not sure what this is. It's just outside the entrance to the prison.

This is the entrance to the prison...the little opening to the left is the narrow stairway down to another creepy torture chamber. There must've been a lot of people needing to be tortured back then.

A view of the city from the castle.

There are really steep escalators leading to and from the metro (subway). It was a bit disorienting and made me dizzy.

Waiting for the metro. This was a nice one...four years ago there was a big flood in Prague and many of the metro stations had to be rebuilt because of the damage.

I bought some earrings and a necklace from this nice woman.

Czech money is really pretty.

On our way back to have dinner. This is the astronomical clock in the city square. It was built in 1410 by the clockmaker Mikulas of Kadan along with Jan Ondrejuv (called Sindel), professor of mathematics and astronomy of Prague Charles University...

According to legend, the king had the artists' eyes gauged out after he built it so he could never build another one for someone else. Hey, thanks for the clock. Hope you don't mind not having any eyes.

We found a Starbucks, which Amy was quite excited about. This guy was really amazed that we wanted a picture with him.

Aaaahhhh...new bag and scarf, 1000 crowns...white berry blossom soy tea misto from Starbucks, 50 crowns...Prague, cobblestone and Amy Ellenwood, priceless.