It's All Grace

a journey with the Thomason family

Verbs, Czech, Love, and Optimus Prime

We spent a more extended time in our Czech language study today and it was a mix of grammar and speaking. This morning we had our normal language grammar lesson with Tamara and we were working on verbs. There are so many forms that verbs in Czech take, it’s amazing. After some serious drilling and writing, I was feeling much better about it. Tamara has been a huge blessing and I’m very thankful for our time with her.

Above is a photo I took of Bethany during our second round of study today. We were doing our normal speaking drills with Jenny and Landen Llamas and we were building simple sentences like “I picked up the book” or “I put the book on my head” and I just had to get a photo of Bethany because it made us all laugh. You’re not really thinking about what you’re physically doing, but mentally just trying to put sentences together and I realized I should probably get a photo of it.

As Jenny and Landen were leaving they found a package on our doorstep from America. Even though it took a little while to get here, we received our Valentine’s Day cards from Bethany’s parents which they have been sending to us for years now. There was an envelope for each of us and they threw in some of our mail that was delivered to them in the States. Bethany’s dad also included a handwritten note inside which was really nice. We don’t get much mail, so when anything comes it’s kind of special. Thank you, family, for thinking of us even on Valentine’s Day!

Tonight we took a short trip to the grocery store as a family just for something to do. We only picked up a few things, but as we were walking around and just browsing I turned around to find Titus with this mask on (shown above). He kept saying, “Dad! Take a picture of me!” I didn’t realize until tonight that it was a mask of Optimus Prime from Transformers. Titus has no clue what that is, but I just love that he’s enjoying being a boy. While driving to the store he told Bethany he wanted to go on a date with her tomorrow. They have been talking about it for a while now, but I think it’s going to happen tomorrow. I just hope Titus has more ideas on what to do on a date in Czech because I’m just plain out of them!

We had some plans to make a little trip to Prague tomorrow to see our friends, but we’re delaying them until maybe next week. The youth group at our church is having a big party tomorrow and we would really like to be part of it. But we also want to get out and explore Czech. We’ve never really had much opportunity to spend time in Prague so we’re hoping to do that soon. It’s so crazy that we live in Europe.

February 20, 2015
Why A 15 Second Instagram Video Made Me Cry

I would repeat tonight in a heartbeat. I had the privilege of speaking on social media in the ministry context and I seriously had so much fun. I’ve been sharing the last few days how I’ve been in and out of Josiah Venture’s “National Orientation” where 19 men and women from 8 countries are officially joining the JV family. They will finish up tomorrow and I was able to be part of their last night together.

As I spoke tonight on what God did with our family this past year, and how He used Facebook and Instagram to connect us to many individuals who are now on our support team, I was overcome with emotion. Even as I prepared my presentation earlier today, I began to cry and think about how many people are sacrificing and generously supporting the work we’re doing in Czech Republic. I’m truly and deeply thankful for each and every one of them. What’s absolutely incredible to me is that in a round about way, our supporters are supporting these nationals who heard me speak tonight. Hopefully I was able to impart to these nationals some help and encouragement and that is definitely in thanks to our supporters who allow me and my family to be here!

Above is a photo I took while I was speaking and I told them all it would be on the blog tonight. You can pray for all of them as they now turn their efforts towards raising support. This is a significant challenge for some of them. Many of their church cultures and countries are not accustomed to supporting missionaries and could very well be confused by their efforts. My hope and prayer is that these men and women will be part of a movement in their countries that sees the church rise and up send out workers in to the harvest! Being with them tonight reminded me that the work is not always easy, and I need to continue to pray that God would shower His grace on them.

Below is a video I posted to Instagram back in June when we finally reached 100% of our support. I showed this video tonight and that’s when I was overcome with emotion. Praise God for His faithfulness and for the many people (maybe even you!) who support our work here. We are truly thankful.

Thank you to all our incredible supporters. We're done! Buying our plane tickets today and planning to leave for Czech in a couple weeks. To God be the glory…Thank you! #the100club

A video posted by Shay Thomason (@shaycam) on Jun 10, 2014 at 9:26am PDT

February 19, 2015
Full Days This Week

I don’t like to talk about how tired I am, but at this moment I’m really feeling a little out of gas. The last few days have been longer than usual with different things going on at Josiah Venture, including the national orientation that I talked about yesterday. Above is a photo that I took this morning of the entire group and some of the leaders of the orientation. It hasn’t been snowing the last few days, but it was still pretty cold out and you can see just how much snow is still on the ground. I believe there are about eight different countries represented in that group and I was told by one of the leaders that they seem to be a really great group with lots of energy and interaction. Tomorrow I will be with them and sharing a bit about our story and how God used technology to help us connect with others during our support raising. I’m really looking forward to it!

We had our usual language talking time at home this afternoon and if you look on the far right (in the above photo) you can see we’ve added another member to the group. Our friend and teammate Daniel joined us today for some Czech language and we had a good time together. Mostly we’re making sentences like, “I took the bus to the store,” with really basic grammar and words. As has been true thus far, it’s amazing just what you can learn by repetition and listening.

I didn’t do a great job of being daddy tonight. Shortly after I took the photo above, Avery spilled that orange cup of dirty water all over the floor and me. I got pretty short with the kids and just in general didn’t have a good attitude. Bethany pointed it out to me and finally I realized I just needed to lay down, which I did for about 20 minutes. Tiredness is never an excuse for sin, but it definitely can influence it.

The night ended better and we enjoyed a good dinner, Bible time, and a new thing we’ve been doing with the kids which is there verse. Bethany has a little verse on the wall in their room and for the past week we have been reciting it with them. The kids and us say together,

When I am afraid,
I will trust in You!
In God I trust.
I will not be afraid.
Psalm 56:3-4

The kids have it completely memorized and they can recite it together and by themselves. It’s been fun to do and serves as a reminder to them that they don’t have to be afraid of the dark. I was blessed to hear them say it again tonight and am so glad we’re able to watch them memorize Scripture at such a young age.

Tomorrow we’re up early to head to the Foreign Police to receive our official two year visas. We won’t be going with a translator because we’re told it’s not hard to do, but you can definitely pray it goes well. Until then…

February 18, 2015
Pancake Day, Beautiful Weather, and National Orientation

Today was “Pancake Day” in the U.K., and since one of our teammates, Rachael, is a Northern Ireland native she brought pancakes for us to enjoy this morning at our team meeting. Traditionally you eat them with sugar and lemon juice which was new to me and surprisingly tasty! At one point I asked for a fork, but Rachael noted that she usually just rolls them up and eats them. So if you’re feeling international and hungry for some pancakes, don’t heat to IHOP. Make your own at home and grab the sugar and lemon juice!

It was bitter cold this morning (in the teens), but by the afternoon we were enjoying temperatures in the mid forties! You wouldn’t think that would merit opening the window and thinking it’s a Spring day, but that’s exactly what was happening. In the photo above that Bethany took you can see how the snow was melting in the sun, but anything in the shade is just solid ice. It’s such a dramatic change for us living here when it comes to weather, but we’re getting used to it.

Unrelated to weather, here’s a photo of Titus with pipe cleaners on him. Just for fun.

Finally, tonight I had the privilege of introducing my team at the Josiah Venture national orientation. No clue what that is? Let me explain. The mission of Josiah Venture is to “equip young leaders in Central and Eastern Europe to fulfill Christ’s commission through the local church.” One way that is accomplished is through a core value we call “indigenous empowerment.” Basically, we want to see the nationals (that is, anyone from the same country they serve in), we want to see them empowered to reach their own people with the gospel. Josiah Venture helps support those local ministries and today began a 3 day orientation where 19 nationals become part of the greater Josiah Venture family. This week they will learn about JV, our core values, history, etc. and will be introduced to raising support in their countries as supported missionaries. I will actually be teaching them on Thursday about how to use technology and social media to aid in their support raising efforts. I’m looking for to my time with them! Here’s one photo I got of the room tonight. Pray for these leaders!

February 17, 2015
Titus’ First Official School Photo
You remember that day a few weeks ago? You know, the one where there was a party at Titus’ school that we didn’t know about? Well, I’m proud to show you the photos from that historic day! Bethany was sold these photos today at Titus’ school and above is a photo of his entire class. That being said, there are a few things I would like to point out about this photo:

I love the kid with the beard in the back row, middle. He just looks awesome.

I love that pretty much the entire back row is not looking at the camera.

The kid rubbing his eye in the front towards the left is just classic.

My favorite: the smiling Darth Vader kid laying on the ground in the front is all kinds of strange and amazing. There is so much to love about this photo. I’m so glad it exists.

You may recall from that day that Titus had to go downstairs to get another photo taken, an individual shot (shown above). I wasn’t there for the group photo, but I was there for this individual and I’m actually really excited about how it turned out. There is just something joyous about the fact that Titus’ first, real, official school photo is of him wearing a Buzz Lightyear costume…and wearing it proudly. His smile is so genuine here, and thinking back on that day I’m so surprised we even got this face out of him. He had been crying and sad not long before we went downstairs so it’s quite a feat to see him happy as a clam. These are great memories and I can’t wait to show this one day in his wedding video montage.

As for other things from today, we were back at it this afternoon doing our Czech speaking with Jenny and Landen. I can’t say enough just how amazing it has been and how much I have learned in just a week. I really do love learning the grammar when we do our normal lessons, but the speaking and just listening to Czech has been unbelievably helpful. Bethany even said it’s shocking how this system works and how even when you think, “Oh, I didn’t study…” or “I don’t think I’ll do well today,” you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Bethany actually did the best speaking today out of all of us! We’re hoping to go five days straight this week with these extra speaking lessons. It’s a full week with lots to do, but I guess you’ll just have to come back tomorrow to find out what happens next…as the world turns.
February 16, 2015