It's All Grace

a journey with the Thomason family

Haircuts Again

Titus and I had another trip to the hairdresser today. Each time we go I have to ask our friend Mel to make the appointment for us since we don’t speak Czech, and our appointment today was at 9:30am. We got there on time and I told Titus I would go first. I kind of feel that when he watches me get a haircut before him it gives me a little more confidence. Earlier this week when I told Titus we would be going, he said to me, “Will you hold my hand?” There’s still a little fear there for sure.

But Titus did great! He stayed pretty still throughout his hair cut and I kept telling him he was getting his cut like daddy’s. Zuska kept talking to him in Czech and it was to watch Titus just smile. Below are two photos Bethany took of him today. He’s getting so big. The photo on the right is actually really accurate to how Titus was feeling today. He’s been kind of stuffed up for the last few days, but he definitely had a cough and was really stuffy today. Of course Avery is right behind him with lots of sneezes so I think we’re going to have a bit of a sick family for a few days here.

As I often do on Fridays, I worked from home today. Right now I’m working on getting our team in the States some materials for their upcoming recruiting tour. We have a few of our staff people who will be visiting various Christian colleges around the U.S. recruiting interns for next summer. I’m helping get them materials to pass out and hopefully aid them in getting more students to spend their summer over here serving the Lord.

We watched a little moving tonight as a family since aren’t feeling well. I made popcorn on the stove but had to run to the store for some canola oil. Never in my life have I see so many bottles of oil at a grocery store (regrettably, I didn’t get a photo). I don’t know exactly what they’re using it all for but you get that stuff basically by the drums! The popcorn turned out alright, but it wasn’t my best batch. The kids really enjoyed it and that usually makes it worth the effort.

The Dodgers are playing their first postseason game tonight and I really do wish I was in the States to watch it with friends. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to watch it over here or not, but we’re root, root, rooting for the Dodgers all the way from Czech!

October 3, 2014
Heaters and Envelopes

Our radiators (heaters) are working again! The funny part about it is when I’m trying to communicate with our landlord I usually just send an email that I use Google Translate to put in Czech for me. I have no clue how it sounds when she receives it, but apparently it worked because she brought Bethany a space heater today and said something about calling a repair man. When I got home this evening our landlord took me down to the basement and showed me all of the equipment. Here are the words I understood: “light,” “bad,” and “reset.” I think what she was trying to tell me was that when the red light is on, it’s bad, so you have to hit the reset button. Or maybe it’s “hit the red reset button and the light will come on?” Ahhh! Either way, the heaters are working right now. And as our landlord was leaving me tonight she pointed to the space heater in our house and said, “provizorní.” Immediately I thought, “She must mean temporary.” After checking online I was right! Whew… Let’s just hope this communication barrier is provizorní.

We put the kids to bed last night before opening our monthly envelope from our Bible study in the States so we waited until today. If you’ve been following along with us then you know these envelopes were sent with us when we moved and we get to open a new one each month. This month’s had an autumn theme and came packed with magazines, gum, a Hello Kitty blow up beach ball, coloring books, instant oatmeal, and some Airheads candy. Oh, and a $15 iTunes gift card…woohoo! The kids always love doing it and it’s been a fun monthly tradition since we’ve arrived. Here’s some photos:

In the photo at the top of this post you’ll see a second envelope (the brown one). I found it on our doorstep today and brought it inside. It was addressed to Bethany from our home church in California! We decided to open it tonight after we opened the other envelope. Inside was an update on the women’s ministry at our church along with the book they are currently reading. What a blessing to have our church care for us in that way by sending us the latest information along with a good, Biblical resource. Here’s Bethany opening the envelope:

Tonight we had a special treat. Bethany made BBQ chicken and mashed potatoes. But…she used Stubbs Spicy BBQ sauce. The other day I was doing some shopping at the local grocery store and on the end cap where they have the sale items I saw the Stubbs bottles. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had heard about Stubbs in the States because it’s made in Austin, Texas. The bottles were marked down over 50% so I bought them both for just a few bucks. I’m pretty sure they were way too spicy for the Czechs so that’s probably why they were on sale. Even though it was definitely spicy, I was so excited to eat something more familiar over here. It was a fun treat.

I had the joy of video chatting tonight with a good friend. It was encouraging and a blessing to chat with him and just share about what we’ve been doing and how God has been working in our lives over here. I’m reminded tonight that we need friends in our lives to challenge and encourage us in Christ. As we continue to lay down roots in Czech I’m hopeful for more friends here who can do the same. And while I’m on the topic of friendship, I picked up a highly recommended book tonight called Relationships: A Mess Worth Making that is FREE today on Amazon.com (for Kindle). The title alone makes me want to read it…and apply it.

October 2, 2014
C is for Caterpillar, K is for King

We were back in full swing today after taking a few days away as a family. I returned to the Josiah Venture office to begin working on new projects. With conference over, we’ve got a few projects that have backed up. But during conference we showed clips of young people from this year’s summer ministries. Since the conference was so focused on higher level leadership training, we wanted a way to bring people back to the “why” of ministry. One of those videos that was shown before one of the sessions is probably my personal favorite. It’s short, to the point, and I love how this young man talks about his faith in simple and plain English. This particular student is from Czech Republic, not far from where we live. Watch and enjoy this short, but clear testimony of a changed life.

Back at home Bethany treated today like Monday because we were on vacation so the kids did “school” in the house. They painted the the letter “C” and made little caterpillars. Bethany tries to have some organized time with them and do a craft which is great or days like today when it was pretty gray and rainy. Here are the kids working on their craft.

Here’s the final result. They are looking great!

Tonight, after dinner, we played a little flashlight tag in the house. Titus and I were a little better at hiding than the girls because every time we would get remotely close Avery would start to giggle, thus revealing her and mommy’s location. Still we had a lot of fun and I got this photo of Titus heading down the hall to find the girls.

We’ve had quite the battle today with getting our radiators working in the house. As the temperatures begin to drop outside, and we begin to prepare for colder days, I wanted to make sure we can get the heat working. I’ve never had to use radiators, and they are a lot different than central heating (like what most people have in the States). Today our landlord came over really early and it was kind of frustrating to communicate the problem. Eventually she got it working and it was great. However, tonight as I was writing about it, the radiators stopped working again and then one of the handles popped off the radiator in the living room. I’m pretty bummed at the moment because this is not an easy process with the language barrier. Please pray for us that the heat would work and we would get this issue resolved. I am trying to have patience, but being cold is not my thing!

One last thing that’s much better than being cold is that another spot opened up for Titus in the local preschool. We’re not holding our breath because of what happened last time, but Lord willing he’ll be starting on Oct. 13th and will go a few days a week. We’ll be sure and keep everyone posted on that as we get more info. Thank you for praying for this! Goodnight.

October 1, 2014
Vienna Day Two and Why Funerals are Better Than Festivals

Today was our last day in Vienna. We only spent about three hours touring the city and had to start heading home in the afternoon, shortly after lunch. Mostly we spent our time touring around the downtown area where the all the museums are. It’s fun just to park the car and walk around and just see what we can see. As we meandered around we found ourselves in a few new places, with lots of new things to see. It’s a bummer to be your own guide because you don’t always know what you’re seeing and have to hunt to figure it out. Bethany actually knew a few of the sites because she had seen them on Rick Steves’ Europe.

I think the highlight today was St. Stephen’s Cathedral. This amazing place was built from 1137 to 1160 and is definitely a wonder to behold. I realize I’m not Catholic, but you can’t help but want to worship God when you go inside. Those cathedrals were constructed so you would want to lift your eyes and that’s exactly what this one did to us today. You’re overwhelmed with awe as you look around. As I looked through my photos I realized that’s all I did was look up and snap photos. I couldn’t help it! Look at this place:

The more you stand and look at the cathedral, the more amazing it is. “How did they build it?,” “Look at all the detail,” and “This is unbelievable.” These are all the thoughts that were running through my mind as I’m standing in a building that’s over 800 years old. You can’t help but think about God and what He has done over the course of history and you start to think about what He’s doing today and how He’s working. I even found myself looking around at all the people near me, wondering about their spiritual states and the spiritual climate of which they find themselves in Austria or elsewhere.

It wasn’t just the building that was refocusing my mind, but also the email I had received early this morning from a friend and former coworker in the States. She was forwarding me news that another coworker of ours had died over the weekend. That man who died had the office just down the hall from mine, was very kind, and was very good at his job. I was told he had gone in to the E.R. just 5 weeks ago with a headache only to find out he had a brain tumor and even though he was in recovery he died this past Sunday.

Even though I was in a house of worship today I was thinking about death. I was reminded early this morning of Ecclesiastes 7:2 which reads, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” Or, as one of my friend’s has written in his commentary, “A funeral is better than a festival.” Why? Because the people at the funeral will think about their own lives and what happens when they die. I know that’s what I was thinking about today. I was, as Ecclesiastes says, “laying it to heart.”

It’s a reminder to my own soul that I need to continue to live my life for the cause of Christ no matter where I live. God has given me today and I have no guarantee for tomorrow. I loved being in Vienna the past few days and enjoying the life God has given me, but as much fun as we’ve had and as amazing as that city is, those things are not as important to be pondering as death is. It’s a sober reminder that I only get so many days to do the work Christ has called me to. May I do them with His strength and in His timing no matter how many days I have left to do them.

September 30, 2014
Taking in Vienna

Today was our first and only full day in Vienna. We’ll leave tomorrow to head back to Czech Republic, so we really tried to make today fun and special. One thing that Bethany really wanted to do was go and see the Schönbrunn Palace. I didn’t know much about it until I stayed up last night researching and mapping out our course to make sure I knew how to get there and what it would be like. The more I read online last night the more excited I got as I knew it would be a fun day for all of us.

It’s an amazing place. The size is almost overwhelming, and I don’t just mean the house itself, but the estate. It must be a quarter of a mile from the front gate to the house and then it’s completely surrounded by huge garden areas. The back yard has it’s own hill with an entire other structure that top. When you stand and look from top you can see all of Vienna. I joked that we think the White House is a big deal, but it might as well be a guest house compared to this palace. In one entire section of the grounds there is a zoo. Yes, a literal zoo that was honestly the highlight of the day for our kids. I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to so many exotic animals, and they were very active today so it there really wasn’t anything we didn’t see. Here’s a bunch of photos from the zoo.

Another part of the gardens include human size mazes. We spent the first few minutes in the maze worried we were going to lose our kids, but then Bethany ran after Titus and at one point he came flying by me from the other direction (apparently doing a circle) and I just started laughing. It was crazy in there and finally Titus ran all the way back to the entrance and we could hear him yelling “I found it! I found it!” We couldn’t convince them to try to do it again, so Bethany took the kids to the play area right next to the maze and I went back in. When you reach the end you go up the stairs to overlook the entire maze. It was actually a lot of fun. There’s a short exit to get out of there so I did that and joined them at the park.

When everyone was winding down we decided to go on the audio guided tour of the palace house. I thought for sure the kids were going to melt down as we had been walking all morning, but to my surprise the tour people gave our kids headsets and they thought it was great. People were staring at Avery because she was holding the headset to herself just like everyone else. “This is the ‘millions room’…” the guide would say, “…and everything in here is solid gold.” Imagine a two and four year old listening to that, but that’s what our kids were doing.

Thankfully it wasn’t a really long tour so when we finished we ended up leaving the entire facility. Avery fell asleep in the stroller on the way back to the car and they both were out by the time we drove back to the hotel. Bethany and I joined in the napping fun too and we all woke up again around 5pm. I did some hunting online for good food and we were amazed to find a Mexican restaurant called Fresco Grill! It’s owned by Americans, and they serve really great burritos (very similar to Chipotle). Honestly, I was so excited to have Mexican food and the cherry on top was that they had Dr. Pepper! Dr. Pepper in Vienna! Cheers!

After dinner we finished things off by going on a giant ferris wheel. When we bought our zoo tickets this afternoon they offered a discount to buy the tickets combined with the ferris wheel so we did it. It’s a really fun little 10-15 minute ride and you’re inside a giant box thing. Unfortunately, it was a little dark to really see, but I bet in the day time the view is spectacular. Here’s a few shots of and from the ferris wheel.

Although we had some time off right before we came to Czech, we haven’t really just vacationed as a family in a really long time. It was a lot of fun to just be together and enjoy a new place in this land they call Europe. It’s been a very relaxing and fun trip, and we’ve trie not to tie ourselves to too much of a schedule. We’re thankful for this time as a family and praise God for this little trip and some time of vacation, or as they say here, holiday.

Looking for more photos of our day today? Look no further than right here. Enjoy!

September 29, 2014