It's All Grace

a journey with the Thomason family

Visa Registration and Potty Training

As early as we could get everyone out of the house today we loaded our van and headed to Ostrava to try a second time to register our short-term visas. I shared yesterday that we tried and failed because the office was closed, but today we made it to the “foreign police” office during business hours. Going to any kind of government office is difficult, but add to the that the newness and a language barrier and you’ll feel your heart rate go up just driving there. Admittedly, I was a bit anxious this morning. Yes, I know what Philippians 4:6 says and Bethany did a good job reminding me of that in the car on the way over. I have no excuse for my sin but I’ll admit that I was a bit on edge.

God graciously provided a nice clerk who helped us and the process went pretty smooth. The man behind the glass spoke a little English, I spoke Czech-lish, my translation app on my iPhone spoke Czech and together all three of us made it work. In the end we got the head nod of approval but honestly I don’t really know what exactly we did there. All we were told was that we needed go to the foreign police to “register our visas” and I guess that’s what we did? Only the Lord really knows that’s fine with me.

Check out this photo below. The clerk at the foreign police had a “Don’t mess with Texas” sticker on his coffee thermos. I laughed out loud (quietly, of course… you don’t want to make a scene in a government office). Even in the middle of Europe you can’t escape Texas pride.

I shared earlier this week that we have begun potty training Avery. Well tonight we had a bit of a celebration because Avery was able to make it all the way to the potty for the first time without having an accident (translation: she went “pee pee” on the potty)! I was on my computer working in another room when I heard Bethany screaming and clapping and then I heard Avery say, “I did it!” in her tiny little voice. We’re super encouraged by her progress and hope that life beyond the diaper is on the horizon.

Besides that we had another successful language lesson and we’re learning how to tell time. You feel like you’re in the first grade when our teacher has a clock out, shows you a time and you’re supposed to repeat it back in Czech. It’s so funny to listen to us butcher the language and try to say “9:00 o’clock” in our slow, broken Czech. Maybe I’ll just never tell anyone what time it is?

August 20, 2014
Making Assumptions and Going on Our Second Date

We broke our own rule today. Rule #1 in the Thomason Czech house is “don’t assume.” I believe I’ve written about it before, but basically it works like this: don’t assume you know how something in Czech works. Don’t assume you know how the microwave works, or how to drive a car, or that the store will have eggs in stock, and especially don’t assume government agencies work like they do in the States. This might sound easy, but in practice it’s very hard. You rely on what you know and what’s familiar and you start to make assumptions based on previous experiences. But that’s not always the right way to go and today and I did just that. I assumed. I assumed the “Foreign Police” office would be open until 5pm, but they closed at 2pm which was the time we had scheduled to leave our apartment for the office. Because of that we missed our day to register our visas and now we have to try tomorrow and pray they give us a little grace on missing our “three working day” window to get registered. I can’t believe I forgot my own rule.

On the bright side, we got to go on our second date tonight here in Czech. Our friend Claire graciously offered to babysit for us a while back and it just happened to line up with us trying to go to the foreign police. So we had her come over this afternoon and our plan was to go to the foreign police and then have dinner, but since missed the foreign police we went to IKEA and did some shopping and then headed out for dinner in Ostrava (a town about 40 or so minutes from where we live).

Date night didn’t start so great, honestly. We spent more time at IKEA than I thought we would and Claire had given us the name of a restaurant she likes but when I tried to GPS it we got lost and I didn’t take it so well. It’s not easy being a man and trying to take your wife on a date and then get lost…especially in Czech. We don’t know the language, we cant just find another place to go, and you have limited time as it is. After a 30 or more minute detour we made it to a really nice place and had burgers, pizza, and ended with coffee (photos below). The last photo is of a coal cart that was actually inside the Starbucks. I’m assuming coal mining is a big part of Ostrava’s history, but then again that would be breaking rule #1.

Claire was a champ with our kids and I could tell when we got home that they had a great time with her. She played Wii with Titus, read them books that she brought, took them outside to play, and after she left we realized she had even done our dishes! So nice. It’s too bad she’s heading back to the States this Friday to return to college because I think we would just hire her. Be sure to follow along with Claire on her blog.

We’re so thankful to have had another night out even though it didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. I know now that I will have to do a lot more planning in the future. These are some of the growing pains of living in a new country and just like physical growing pains they can hurt a little. By God’s grace we’ll continue to grow in our understanding of Czech and how to live and adapt here.

August 19, 2014
Eating Rabbit and Gospel Opportunities

Bethany: “So I had rabbit today.”
Me: “Really? Awesome!”

There’s a first time for everything and today it was Bethany having dumplings with rabbit cream sauce. How did this happen? I’m so glad you asked.

It all started yesterday. Bethany got a few texts from some other missionaries near us asking if she’d be interested in helping out at a local preschool here in town. The Czech and English preschool needed someone today and tomorrow to speak English to the little ones for the day. Normally they have a girl from Australia teach English, but she was sick. We talked it over yesterday and Bethany decided she was interested and since she could take our kids with her that made the decision a little easier. So early this morning, with the help of another missionary friend, Bethany and the kids left the house to be at the school by 8am.

Titus hasn’t started preschool here yet, but Bethany would say today was a really great little introduction to what it would be like. Schools in our town have been really full this year and normally they register kids in January but since we weren’t here until June we haven’t been able to get him in yet.

When you walk in the building there’s a place for all the kids’ shoes. Bethany shared the building is actually very large (like the size of a high school), but the preschool uses one classroom about the size of an apartment. She also said it’s a little eerie because the rest of the building is actually empty and not being used at all. It was the Czech teacher’s first day on the job as well and her only study of English was back in 6th grade and she’s a college student now. Bethany said they could communicate just fine so Bethany was instructed to teach the parts of the human body (in English). There were only four students today plus Titus and Avery (so a total of six). She would say “chin” and point and the kids were supposed to repeat it back. They did okay for the most part, but Sonja (the Czech teacher) said they need to make sure they can repeat it back tomorrow.

Outside of a few little lessons like that there was snack time, lunch, nap time and free play. For lunch they had to walk as a class to the cafeteria which was back behind the building. Bethany didn’t know she would have to pay for the kids lunch but thankfully she had just enough cash on her. (Her meal was paid for because she was teaching). Like all Czech meals, it started with soup and today it was some type of egg soup with veggies. Avery seems to really enjoy the soup here and has gotten pretty good at slurping it with a spoon. It’s still messy, but we’re glad they’re getting a little practice in. The main course was bread dumplings and a creamy meat sauce which turned out to be rabbit. Bethany said to me tonight, “I definitely felt sick after they told me I had eaten rabbit.” There’s a first she’ll never forget. However she admits that the meal wasn’t too bad and that for our kids it will probably be a normal meal in school.

During snack times they enjoyed rolls with cream cheese spread and in the afternoon cookies and apples. They always serve the snack with unsweetened hot tea which our kids didn’t enjoy. Once Sonja realized our kids weren’t enjoying the tea she offered some syrup fruit sweetener which Bethany really liked (she ended up drinking their tea).

One of the great blessings for Bethany today was that she was able to practice her Czech with the teacher and the preschoolers because essentially that’s the level of language we are at! It was really helpful to hear the little ones talk in Czech and have the teacher speak in simple sentences over and over.

During nap time Bethany got to spend time with Sonja getting to know her. Bethany shared that as she was talking with Sonja it really struck her that if she doesn’t talk about Christ with this young girl, who will? She’s a full time student with two jobs and has a boyfriend in our town even though she lives about twenty minutes from here. Bethany said she’s a very sweet girl but she still desperately needs to hear the gospel. Bethany really wants to invite her over to our house for a meal. Please pray for this!

As well, a mom named Eva was picking up her daughter and Bethany got to talking with her because she also spoke English. Apparently she worked in Krakow, Poland at an English-speaking business but she has a British accent because she has spent time studying English in England and New Zealand. Bethany told her we had just moved here and was complimenting Eva on her English. Surprisingly, Eva offered to go to coffee with Bethany and told her to get her phone number from the school! This feels like an open door for a relationship. Side note: We have been so impressed how hospitable the Czechs have been. Please pray for Bethany to be able to get Eva’s phone number and hopefully go grab coffee soon.

My wife is courageous. She’s brave. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about her leaving and going to an unknown school in an unknown place with our kids. But then I’m reminded why we moved here. We didn’t move our family across the globe to just enjoy Christ and keep Him to ourselves. We came here with the intention of diving in to a new culture and language with the goal of one day sharing the love of Jesus. By God’s grace, we may get that opportunity sooner than later and in may be even in English! Please pray with us that we would continue to move forward in bold faith and trust Christ with the results.

August 18, 2014
Swords, Salsa, and Something Special

The photo below is of Avery running towards the doors of our church. We were about four minutes late this morning so you don’t see anyone standing around outside, but often there are many people fellowshipping and talking on and around those steps. Right when we walked through those doors one of the pastors saw us and greeted us by saying “Dobré ráno” (“Good morning”) and immediately pointed to his ears. He was motioning to remind us to grab our English translations headsets. Every week someone will translate via a little microphone to our headsets so we really don’t have any issues understanding the flow of the service and the sermon. It’s a huge blessing and I’m thankful for the different people who serve us this way. Even though we’re trying to learn Czech, it’s really nice to be able to come to church and understand most of what’s happening.

Today’s sermon was on putting on the full of armor of God from Ephesians 6. That was actually the first passage of scripture I ever memorized. I still remember it to this day and I even remember reciting it in front of my 6th grade class. At one point during the sermon our pastor put up a photo of a Roman soldier and just started to describe the spiritual armor that correlated with the photo. It was a good visual reminder to me and I think very helpful to the body. He even discussed that the “sword of the Spirit” (the Bible) is one of the only things listed in the passage that is offensive in nature and the other pieces of spiritual armor are defensive. His point was that even though a sword is an offensive weapon, he believes that in the context of the passage it’s defensive. Super interesting thought and something I’m still thinking through this evening. It’s a joy to watch these Czech pastors work through the text, try to understand the original intent, and preach it to us. To be honest, it wasn’t what I had expected we would find when we moved here and from what I’ve heard it’s not the norm throughout the entire country. For all I know at this point our church may just be the exception.

The photos above are Avery and Bethany going in and out of the grocery story this afternoon after church. I had taken the first photo just because I thought they were cute, but then watching Avery cary a few bags of groceries on her way out with Bethany was the cherry on top. Bethany even said that the Czechs were stopping and looking at her and admiring Avery as she was leaving the store because she even had the bags around her shoulders at one point like a purse. Cute kid.

Tonight we had some friends over for dinner and enjoyed a little “American comfort food.” Those are the best words I can use to describe any kind of Mexican food that Bethany makes. In fact, we finished off our only container of Pace picante sauce…let’s just pause and take a moment of silence…it was good run for our salsa, but as my mom always says, “All good things must come to an end.” Some sacrifices in missions are hard…even salsa.

We ended up video chatting with Bethany’s parents late tonight and it was extra special. They kids got to stay up late and say hi but we talked for a while longer after the kids went to bed. For all of the junk that technology produces, one of the incredible blessings is to be able to video chat with family who are over 6,000 miles away. Towards the end of our conversation Bethany’s dad asked what things they could be praying for and he wrote them down and prayed with us. That was special. I guess it was just really practical. He prayed for the things we mentioned and as I listened and agreed I was blessed. God is so good to give us family who care for us and even when life is a little disjointed for us we know that we have family and many others praying for us. And even though miles separate us and time zones separate us, we are united in Christ. Now that’s special.

August 17, 2014
Working With Avery

One of the joys of finally being more settled here in Czech is that we’ve been able to really have focused time with our kids. It’s not that we didn’t focus on them, but when you’re traveling the U.S. in a van for nine months during support raising some things fall to the wayside. Bethany would often say, “When we get to Czech we’re gonna _____________ .” For example, we’ve wanted to reinstate “room time” for our kids where they can just spend time playing while Bethany and I work around the house. Our traveling just didn’t allow for that kind of time for them and now that we’re here we’ve gone back to that which has been really great. Another thing we had talked about was small chores that the kids could help with, like emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, or helping do the laundry. The goal is just to give them some different, practical activities they can do with us. It’s been fun to see some of those things come to fruition.

Avery (she’s 2) completely impressed me this morning. I think it’s a combination of us working with them more and just Avery’s sweet heart, but while Bethany was making breakfast Avery came into the kitchen and I said, “I help mommy?” Bethany was making Swedish pancakes from scratch and there’s a lot of stirring so Avery helped mix ingredients and then stir everything together (photo above). Once she was finished, Avery grabbed some clean plates from the dishwasher and said, “These are for me and Titus…” and went into the dining room and put their plates on the table. Then Bethany asked her to continue setting the table so Avery grabbed all the plates, silverware, syrup, jelly and set the entire table herself (photo below). Minus the sugar in the glass container, Avery carried out everything and set the table all by herself and she said to me, “Daddy…Titus is sitting by me.” That was right after she explained to me that she was taking bowls to the table for her and Titus to have yogurt (which she also took out to the table).

After breakfast we went outside and Bethany said, “I’m going to work on potty training with Avery.” This is just another one of those things that got set on the back burner as we were support raising and preparing to move. We just never felt we could on it and we were driving so much that we decided to wait. But today we began the slow and steady process of teaching Avery how to “go potty on the potty.” With Titus we made a little chart and reward system so Bethany did the same with Avery today. Even though she had a lot of accidents, we were much more prepared and Bethany really worked hard with her. Lord willing, Avery will adjust soon and we’ll have another potty trained child in the house…and a lot less diapers!

Tomorrow is Sunday and that means we’ll be at church. As I’ve written already, Sunday is yet another opportunity to work with our kids and teach and train them. Pray for us as we continue to get settled and spend more focused time with our kids.

August 16, 2014