A Heart for Prague's Youth

Yesterday Prague's Old Town Square was invaded by thousands of high school students. They marched from throughout the city and converged below the famous tower in Prague's historic center, before ending up in front of the Ministry of Education office. Despite the many tourists, the students made their prescence known with banners, horns, whistles, drums and shouts of "No State Exam"!

In talking to the students they explained that they were protesting a new proficiency exam required for graduation. They cited two main reasons: 1) they claimed the test was inaccurate and actually had errors 2) they were not forewarned that they would need to pass this exam in order to graduate when they started the year and so they feel that they are not prepared. Much of the material in the exam, they claim, is not covered in every school (they have an interesting system of "grammar" or standard high schools, technical schools, etc. so not every student has a "grammar" or standard education including Czech language, history, etc. that this exam is said to cover).

It was obvious that many students were there just for the good excuse to ditch school But others were very sincere in their belief that the test was wrong and they had to stand up for what they felt was right.

It's interesting that this all happened on the day that Jason had already planned for us to go out in the city for evangelism. The plan was loose; meet, pray, trust God that when we would step out that He would meet us and open the opportunities to share His love with folks. We were not disappointed.

OPEN DOORS
We split up into two groups and it was great to see how God specifically engineered exactly who each group would talk to.

Cara and her friend Denise (visiting from Applegate Fellowship in OR) ended up talking to 3 Czech students (from Moravia) and 2 Finnish students, part of a special student cooperative for top technical students. All considered themselves atheists, citing hypocrisy in Christians as one of their main reasons. This was a sharp group of students and the discussion was challenging, and fast-paced, but respectful and enjoyable.The end result was two students (a Finnish girl and a Czech boy, the most active in the conversation, and the most ardent atheist!) accepted our challenge to read the Gospel of John and ask God to reveal himself. Pray for them!

Jason, Noelle and Denise's daughter Lauren met up with a group of students that started out as only 4 but grew to 15!

Using the fact that many Czech speak English, Jason asked them to translate the Gospel tract that we were handing out. This opened the door to share the Word, Noelle gave her testimony, questions of faith were discussed as well as the all-important question of the correct way to roast marshmallows! (Noelle finally ending up buying some and demonstrating with a lighter! Plans for a marshmellow roast are in the works!)

They were really excited when they found out Jason plays for the Prague Lions and agreed to come watch one of his football games and we agreed to come to a dance recital that they would be having soon. These students were younger than the other group and are all local Prague kids. God is opening doors!

Please pray for God to lead concerning further contact with these kids and to water the seeds planted in all the hearts that day.

**We will be going out to do evangelism every Friday. Please keep us in prayer!

"To the waiting soul, God will guide His waiting servant".
~ Mrs. Howard Taylor
(daughter-in-law of famed missionary to China - Hudson Taylor).