Greetings from Praha (Prague)! As I write this we are on a train headed to Vienna (or “Weiner” as it said in the train station). This post is long over do so I will try to compensate by re-capping what our time here has been like so far.
the whole team together in Prague
Josh preaching on Wholeheartedness with a translator. He did sooo good!
Prague.
Random cool picture of my bag on a cool bench. No reason.
Our last meeting with our amazing hosts from IHOPP after the conference was over.
Over the past five days we have connected with an amazing group of believers in the city who make up the HOPP (House of Prayer Prague) and joined with them for a conference that covered two full days of teaching and worship. Our team did six sessions of teaching and I led worship with our band. I played guitar and sang, Josh was our fantastic drummer, Sarah played keys, Gary played bass, Richard and Jennifer sang and Timme (a young believer who lives here) played guitar. The people here love to worship so it was easy to enter in with them. We did a few IHOP songs with they loved as well as some other well-known songs that they already knew the English words to so they could sing along. I also snuck in one new English one just because I liked it.
Throughout the conference we taught with a translator and for many of us that was the first time…I enjoyed it! I taught on fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit and Josh taught on having wholehearted love. Others taught on Intercession, the Worthiness of Jesus, Drawing Near to God and Forgiveness. After each session people would come up for ministry and our team would pray for them. People were changed, set free and encouraged which is much needed for the believers here.
Prague is a dark place. Peter and Martina (two members of the HOPP) told us that there is less than 1% of born again believers in the Czech Republic; Martina said it is even as low as .02% (only about 20,000 people). They also told us that it is one of the most atheistic countries in Europe. Needless to say, Christians are rare finds here in Prague. However, when you do find them they are precious indeed.
After our experience with these men and women of God Josh pointed out that they are like flames burning brightly in the midst of a dark city. They are so valuable to the Lord as He looks down on them in this land. They truly are burning and shining lamps in the midst of a desperate place that seems to have overlooked God. But the Lord will not overlook the prayers of his saints here. He has a plan for the Czech nation and it will come to pass!
We had the pleasure of getting to walk around the city for a while and see the “sights” which included an amazing castle and Charles’ bridge. We also got to go into the great cathedral with its stunning stained glass windows and intricate statues. It is such a beautiful city, I only wish we would have been able to see a bit more of it but maybe some day we will get to come back (Lord? Maybe?).
Everyone has been so hospitable to us here. We were split up into three groups for host homes and I stayed with Tom and Debbie (the group leaders) and Sylvia. Our host, Lida, gave us coffee and breakfast every morning and helped us figure out where we needed to go and how to get there. She is a single woman in her sixties and she dearly loves the Lord. Though her English was not perfect we communicated well and got to hear a bit of her story. She truly is leaning into the Lord for everything and every time we would compliment something beautiful about her “flat” she would say, “It is a gift from God”. She was so grateful to the Lord and we were grateful for her hospitality.
As we move through across the countryside, I am struck by its beauty. It is covered with lush, green trees and the sky is full of white billowing clouds set against a clear blue sky. It’s hard to imagine that this is a place where the Lord is so greatly ignored. My prayer is that the believers here would continue to be strengthened and that a canopy of worship would arise over the land so that the Gospel can go forth with power and authority. Lord, make your name known in the Czech Republic!
Thank you all for your prayers; they are much needed as we continue our trip. We will post again very soon.
Melissa & Josh
greek to english 