Step by Step...the new church building starts to take shape

Remember the main hall of our new church building? (If not, click here and check out all the "before" photos!)
The new lights were put in and what a difference it makes! Danny and Annaliese Foote visiting from CC Kagarlyk, Ukraine get the tour during the installation of the lights.

Along with the new lights the Lord also provided chairs for the hall. That might seem like overspirit-ualizing to say "the Lord provided" but along with believing that "every good gift comes from above", when you hear that Jason just "stumbled upon" these chairs on close-out sale for just barely over $1 each...don't you agree that God really blessed us?!?


The chairs came in handy when we celebrated Cara's birthday at the church recently

Everyone on the team has been working at getting the building ready for services, but none more than Jason. Who knew they taught carpet laying at Bible School?

Petr also pitched in and helped assemble some of the furniture needed.

At the end of the day, they were tired, but this room was transformed and almost ready for Tomaš to move in! (Watch for that story in our next posting!)

Breaking bread together...Part Two

"Men at Work"

Ukrainians Vitaly, Sergei and Sasha man the grills.

(Click here to see the original post about this dinner that we had during the Ukrainian Drama Outreach.)

These Czech guys were all ears as Jason and Petr sat and chatted with them in Cara's kitchen.

The carried on their multi-lingual discussion into the "library".

Zarina and Aiya are becoming our new friends and they are a real blessing.

Sergei made good use of the "church guitar" and kept us in music.

Ukrainian Drama Outreach: More Photos

Here are just a few more shots of the street drama outreach with the team from CC Kyiv, Ukraine.









[Jason portraying Jesus being whipped.]




We had a great location - a square in between a metro entrance and the tram lines.





Lots of people stopped to watch, and almost became part of the skit themselves!

Even the police came by! Thankfully we had all our paperwork in order so everything was fine.

But more than just watching, many people took the Gospel tracts that we were handing out...

...and started to read them right there on the spot.

Quite a few of those folks were open to talking to us about God, the Bible and other spiritual things, too.

Jason and Milan talked to this family that we later ran into near our new church building...

It seems that we are neighbors! They live near the church and so we hope to see them when we start services soon.

Continue to pray that God would water the seeds that were planted this day through the skits, the tracts and the words that were spoken.

Breaking bread together...

There's nothing that draws people together more than sharing food. Jesus understood that and that's why we so often see him in the New Testament sharing a meal with people.

Jason has the gift for inviting people to dinner and thankfully Cara has the gift for cooking so half-way through the week of evangelism with the CC Kyiv drama team we had a dinner at Cara's with some of the people that we had met during our street evangelism.

Sergei (remember him from a previous post?) came and brought his friend Vitaly (also from Ukraine). The drama team had planned a traditional Ukrainian meal complete with "shashlik" (Ukrainian shish kebobs) and "Olivia" salad (a kind of Ukrainian potato salad). So naturally, as any good Ukrainian men would do, Sergei and Vitaly volunteered to man the grills.

Along with Sergei and Vitaly, five young Czech guys surprised us by responding to our invitation to join us for dinner. Three were brothers, and all were from areas just outside of Prague.

We have been repeatedly told that Czechs are very closed to the Gospel and that it takes a long time for them to feel comfortable coming to someone's home, etc. so we really felt blessed that God drew these guys to this evening of fellowship!

Along with all these guys, Zarina and her sister Aiya - from Kazikstan - came, too. Cara had met these two at the Russian language church here in Prague the week before. The girls are new Christians, having only a month before given their lives to Jesus! They are hungry for fellowship and although our group was an interesting mix for them, they enjoyed themselves.

Added into this inter-national mix were Cara's roommates Elizabeth and Ruthann, the drama team from Kyiv, Petr (our friend and a student from Slovakia), Jason, and Young (our friend from Korea)!

When Jason shared with everyone what we are about as Christians, gave an open invitation to the weekly Bible study and prayed for the meal - Zarina helped translate. But since she speaks Russian but not English, Cara translated into Russian from Jason's English, and then Zarina translated from Cara's Russian into Czech! It was an interesting, but great evening!

Please pray that God will continue to draw all these hearts to Himself.

Ukrainian Drama Outreach: Part 2

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

Romans 10:14-15 NKJV

[This guy stood watching the skits for awhile and then later stood for some time reading the Bible we had given him.]

We were so blessed during this outreach because all total there were five different fellowships that sent individuals to help us out. From CC Roudnice Pastor Milan came and used his gift for evangelism to speak to the crowds that gathered to see the skits. (Milan's son was there making sure Dad stayed on track!)

Petr and Hunza came from a fellowship outside of Prague to help translate, along with Igor who joined us from the Russian language fellowship here in the city.

In fact, we have been told that there are appr. 130, 000 Russian speaking people living in the city of Prague. 100,000 alone are from Ukraine.

Here Yanna, the leader of the drama team translates as Jason talks with Sergei, a Ukrainian now living and working in Prague. Pray that God would continue to speak to Sergei's heart!

Finally, there was the drama team themselves, a gift sent on loan from CC Kyiv, Ukraine. We are so thankful for not only those who came and served with us, but also those who stepped out in faith and sent them. Please pray that God will strengthen the team as they return to Ukraine after a draining week here and the long bus ride home.

Pray that God would bless the different fellowships that sent folks to help out, and that God would continue to build unity among the Body of Christ here in Prague. Also pray for the many Russian language speakers here in Prague and for what our part might be in ministering to them.

Ukrainian Drama Outreach Team: Part 1

We need Jesus!

CC Kyiv's drama team just left this morning after a week of street evangelism.

[CC Kyiv's drama team arrives to Prague quite tired after a 30 hour bus ride from Ukraine!]

God did SO much and we have a lot to tell. But first...

Days before they arrived from Ukraine we heard that half the team was denied visas for the Czech Republic (As a former Soviet Union country, Ukrainians need visas to enter most countries).

This was a big blow for many reasons, the worst part being that the guy who was to play the role of Jesus in all the skits was one of those that was refused his visa. So days before the team arrived we found ourselves in an interesting situation...desperately looking for Jesus!

The obvious irony of this was not lost on us, as this whole project had so many obstacles attached to it that we knew that the only way it could work was if Jesus showed up...and thankfully He did!

Jason was willing to let God stretch him far out of his comfort zone and he took on the role of Jesus. With very little practice (just an hour or so!) he hit the streets playing Jesus in the drama "Redeemer".


This skit is really powerful because it simply, but profoundly shows the story of God's love for us; from creation, to man's rejection of God's plan, to the crucifixion and resurrection that offers forgiveness and reconciliation for man to God.

After each skit we had the chance to talk to people about what they had seen, answer questions and invite people to our times of fellowship, etc.

[This mom and her son had a good time talking to Jason, especially when the boy heard that Jason played American football!]

Please pray for God to continue to water all the seeds that were planted during the outreach!

CC Prague Finds a Home!!!

We have been asking you all to join us in prayer that we would find a building to start meeting in and God (as always!) is faithful and has blessed us with a great location!

Just one day before the Ukrainian drama team came in for a week of street outreach, the papers were signed for the rental of this location.

So in the middle of doing drama and evangelism on the street we took a break and the whole team pitched in to clean our location and start getting it ready to be used.

Sergei did some of the worst work by climbing into a vent shaft where trash had been collecting and cleaning it all up....YUCK! THANKS, SERGEI!

We still have a little more time with the team before they return to Ukraine, so these are just some first shots of our new church location.

This room will be the church office.

This will be the main meeting hall. (Full-size wall murals like this are popular in Eastern and Central Europe.)

This is just one of the three full bathrooms in this location!

We'll keep you posted as the clean-up and fix-up continues!

Thank you for all your prayers and please continue to pray for wisdom and strength to continue to do all the work needed to get this place ready to start meeting here.

PRAYER NEED: Ukrainian Drama Team

"With man it is impossible,

but with God - ALL things are possible."

Matthew 19:25-26

Despite many obstacles, frustration and road blocks..tomorrow the drama team from CC Kyiv, Ukraine hits the road to come to Prague for a time of street evangelism! (Click here to see more pictures and previuos posting about this outreach.)

Although half of the team were denied visas to the Czech Republic, the remaining members are coming to Prague with high hopes to see God work!

Also, already we are encouraged because God blessed all of Jason's efforts of running from office to office and navigating his way through the paperwork bureaucractic maze and we were able to receive our public use permits in days, something that should normally take weeks or months! This allows the evangelstic drama presentations the team has prepared to be seen on the public square outside of the metro station, where potentially thousands will have the possibility to see God's love presented in mime and drama.

May we ask you to pray with us for this outreach? Please pray:

• for their time in Prague, Aug. 4 – 12th (Watch for updates here during these days!)
• that God’s Spirit would be poured out.
• that God would open the hearts of the Czech people to the Gospel
• against spiritual warfare and for unity

Please pray also for the final details that still need to fall into place:

• for someone to play Jesus! (The original team member was denied his visa.)
• for translators: more and that they would be filled with the Spirit
• for physical protection and strength for these long days during the outreach.

Thank you for your prayers, they are really appreciated! We will keep you posted!

PRAYER UPDATE: Homeless Ministry

Awhile back we started going out to do evangelism on Fridays and our primary focus has been reaching out to the homeless. (Click here to see some previous postings about homeless in Prague).

While giving out the bag lunches we prepared and just talking to homeless people about the Lord, Jason felt like God was really showing him something.

"I just stopped and started asking questions about the person I was talking to. And I started to really see this little old lady as I asked her what she liked to do, and what her favorite food was, and favorite flowers... it was great just to see her face light up because I don’t think that she was used to people just asking about her."

"To see her excitement as she talked about her childhood growing up on a farm, and having a garden, and even as she remembered about the Russians - how she ran from them as they were shooting their guns at the people..."

"You know sometimes I think I want to talk, but I am realizing it is just better to listen. There is just nothing like seeing this little old lady with no teeth smiling at you!"

We had met Ivanka before (see a previous post about her) but haven't seen her for awhile now.

There are 5 - 6, 000 homeless people in the city of Prague, There are many different homeless shelters that Jason is investigating and gathering information regarding. We are praying about the possibility for an opportunity to minister at one of those sites , praying about if there’s a chance to do a bible study or something.

Pray that God would lead us and open doors for whatever He has in mind!