On Friday, Nov. 15, Andrew Funka took us on a walking tour of several parts of Prague, including Old Town and the Jewish Quarter. We saw buildings that were over 800 years old. Then we went to one of his favorite coffee shops, Café Ebel. They have coffee beans from dozens of countries. The shop area was the size of some American bathrooms, but that didn't stop a dozen people from piling in to enjoy the coffee. After the amazing coffee experience, we had dinner with Andrew and Amy. That night we joined others in interceding for those caught up in human trafficking (see previous blog post).
Having attended a Sunday morning service at Prague Christian Fellowship the week before, it was time to start serving there! On Saturday, Nov. 16, Brent borrowed a bass guitar and headed off to worship practice with Andrew. It took roughly an hour to travel across town on public transportation and set up for rehearsal in the basement recording studio of a church. They practiced the worship set during their allotted time slot, then packed up their musical instruments and headed back home.
Later in the day, we needed to purchase a few items, so we went to Tesco. While this is a convenient store in that it has groceries, home items, electronics, clothing, etc. all in one store, there are 5 floors to this store, and items must be purchased on their corresponding floor. So, purchasing deodorant, batteries, and groceries involved 3 separate floors and 3 separate transactions.
After expending so much energy purchasing these items, I "needed" a latte. While many things are priced reasonably in Prague, my $6 Starbucks latte was not among them. We ordered entrees at several restaurants for about the same price. After this, I found myself on a quest to acquire affordable lattes from local establishments. In Prague, even vending machines serve up decent lattes, much to my joy.
As we were walking around town, we encountered a group of musicians from local churches who were playing worship music at Wenceslas Square. Despite the cold weather, the group played and sang worship songs in Czech and English for several hours.
That evening, we joined a home group that was hosting a Thanksgiving feast potluck. It was the best Thanksgiving dinner we've had outside of the United States!
Malostranska Beseda is a venue where Czech musicians play once they "have arrived." On Sunday, Nov. 17, Brent played bass guitar there after less than two weeks in Prague! Prague Christian Fellowship (PCF) meets at this historic venue. Brent was honored to play bass with the PCF worship team.
After the service, we met Scott Winters, an actor who was doing work on a mini-series in Prague. While in Prague, PCF is his home church. We had an interesting conversation with him, and were once again amazed at how small the world is. As it turns out, Scott takes classes at Alliance Theological Seminary, where Brent and I worked prior to moving to Alaska, and he was quite familiar with the small town where we lived in NY. We hope our paths cross again sometime. After our connection with Scott, Brent and I joined several church leaders for some pizza at a nearby restaurant. This was followed by a visit to an amazing cukrarna which deserves its own blog post :)!
On Sunday evening, we attended a service at International Christian Fellowship (ICF), a Czech church that seems to be doing a good job reaching Czechs. ICF meets on a renovated cargo ship. Due to its unique location on the river, it took us longer than expected to get to "the boat church." We arrived a bit late and missed out on the English translation headphones. Nonetheless, we could tell by the graphics and Scriptures on the screen that they were teaching a series on the life of Samson. It was clear that the teaching was connecting with its audience. The 100 or so Czechs in the congregation sat riveted, listening to the sermon. After the sermon, the bass drum started pounding out a rhythm, followed by electric guitars and keyboard. The worship featured Czech and English songs and was highlighted by elaborate lighting. Afterward we were greeted by several in the church, and as visitors were given coupons for free drinks at the bar in the back of the church. As we were leaving the church, we asked someone in the congregation where the closest metro station was. She said that it was quite a distance, but offered to take us there if we didn't mind squishing into the back of a small car. Grateful for the ride, five of us piled into the car and got back home much sooner than if we had walked to the station.
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