Checking Out Czech: Tales from Brno, Czech Republic
AHOJ PRETELS! (G’day mates!) And greetings from Brno, Czech Republic.
So for those of you we may not have met, Jem and I - two third year ECU'ers -are currently on a semesters exchange to Brno as part of UOW’s exchange program, and are having (as the trendy young Czechs put it) a ‘super’ time!
A little bit about Czech just to put things into context: it’s a 78 864 square km country in Eastern Europe (just east of Germany) with a population of 10.2 million, a background in Catholicism and a recent history of Communism (previously called Czechoslovakia). The country is famous for its beer (which sadly we can’t recommend), its ice hockey, and its picturesque capital, Prague. Czech Republic is also known as being the most atheistic country in Europe with 39.8% officially declaring themselves atheist. It’s a long (and at times daunting) way from Wednesday afternoons on the McKinnon lawn …
One of the first challenges when we arrived was finding a church here. Like all good European cities, Brno has an abundance of old and ornate church buildings, but it seems that many have resigned themselves to being tourist attractions these days. On our second day, however, we were incredibly blessed to meet a (rare) Czech Christian at our college. This girl, Tereza, became a Christian just two years ago after a trip to America, and actually got baptised last night! Tereza took us along to her church the first two weeks that we were here, and despite language barriers (we had to have someone sit between us and translate) it was amazing to feel so welcomed and at home among other believers; we really got a sense of our unity in Christ. As encouraging as that was, I have to tell you that we were pretty excited when we discovered that there was also an English speaking church in Brno, and resolved to check it out too. The following week, we left our college with an hour to spare, braced the snow and cold, and sought out our church-to-be. Unfortunately, the directions we had were a little on the rough side. Three trams and one bus later we found ourselves traipsing through snow in fading light at the very edge of the city, seriously doubting this allusive church’s existence. When finally we found it, it was definitely worth the effort though, and ‘Lighthouse Brno International Fellowship’ (made up predominantly of American missionary families) is now our regular church here.
The other thing that’s been both challenging and exciting for us has been the college Bible Study we hold in our room on Tuesday nights. Given that this country is so irreligious, inviting people along has been an interesting experience in itself. We put up posters, door dropped leaflets and asked friends if they’d like to come, and the response has been mixed. Some people are outspokenly against the very concept of a God, and are more than willing to express this perspective; many are surprised and curious that a Bible study group would even exist; the majority are politely disinterested; but others are keen to come and see what we do. Beyond our core of four or five Christians, we’ve had a range of people visiting from week to week, including people from Czech, Germany, Slovakia, Holland and England. We even had some Muslim guys come along for two weeks, which made for some really deep conversations. We’ve been working through ‘Just For Starters’ (a Bible study that essentially introduces the fundamentals of Christianity), and have also spent some time chatting, praying and eating each week.
I guess that these are fairly easy things to write about without touching on how we’re actually coping as a couple of relatively naive Aussie Christians on the other side of the world though, so let me get a bit closer to home. Naturally we’ve experienced hard days as well as moments of discouragement. Sometimes the absence of close friends and support networks can make small troubles a lot harder to negotiate too. But God has been more than a little bit nice to us, and it has been the most profound thing to realise afresh that God can use us even in the midst of our brokenness and struggles. I personally have been struck by the fact that even when I seem to be most inadequate and furthest from the perfect and together people I too often think that I need to be, God can work through and in me. It is a humbling and beautiful thing to experience. The encouragement, emails and prayers that we receive from friends and family are wonderful and make a huge difference to our stay here as well. In the same way, being able to download Bible talks from the Internet and read sermons has been great.
Well I think that I’m fast approaching the word limit, so will bid you ‘Ahoj’ (this very useful word means both hello and goodbye). Nonetheless, know that we miss everything that is ECU Wollongong a lot and are looking forward to returning to you soon.
[Jemma Leigh and Michelle Peterie]
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