Jan Newsletter

Veselé Vánoce a šťastný Nový rok (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!)

I can’t believe that it’s the New Year already. 2009 has sure flown by! So has my time in the Czech Republic. It’s been four months since I moved to Ostrava, Czech Republic and life has never slowed down. Since I’ve reached the halfway point of my stay here I thought it high time I updated everyone on my life in Central Europe. So here it goes…..

Life in the Czech
Oh goodness, (insert sigh) how do I begin to describe life here in Central Europe? Different, challenging, hard, adventuresome, stretching, wonderful…these are only a few of the words that I can think of. In many ways life is not that much different from how I would live in the US. I buy my groceries at a local supermarket, work in an office building, hang out with friends, travel around the country, go to church, and spend time with my teammates. But there are little differences in my weekly routines…I walk to the grocery store instead of driving my car, I take public transportation to hang out with friends or my teammates, I travel the country by trains and not planes, and my church is in Czech and not English. Everything is increasingly becoming more familiar as the months go by. The language is still one of my biggest challenges. It’s been four months and I still feel like I understand nothing. Every once and a while I give the ladies at the grocery store weird looks when they rattle off numbers in Czech and look at me expectantly while I’m just trying to figure out how much I owe them. But the more I listen and study the more I pick up. I also receive Czech lessons at the school I teach at, which helps me to pick up the language.

There is much I love about living in Central Europe, but I have narrowed it down to three. 1) Riding public transportation. While taking the bus or the tram all the time can become a drag, I’ve found that generally I love riding public transit. And while I do miss jamming out to tunes while driving my car I don’t miss driving my car…too much. 2) All the cool people I meet from other areas of the world. I am very blessed to be living in a city with a substantial English speaking community. Not only do the other teachers at Fishnet all speak English (of course because they teach it!) but I have also met various Young Life workers from America and another choir ministry leader from England. These people, as well as my four teammates, are fast becoming my community over here in Ostrava. And I’m also blessed to know the other ESI (Teach Overseas) teachers in Central Europe. I view them as my extended community. It is comforting to know that there are many people to turn to for help, or to just listen when I have a particularly challenging day. 3) Traveling! Everyone knows that I LOVE to travel. And so far in these past couple months I have been able to go to four new countries: Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Austria. Although I haven’t spent too much time in any of these countries I have enjoyed all the places I have gotten to see and the people I have gotten to visit. My highlights have been spending five days in October in Prague (what a beautiful city!), Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, Christmas in Budapest, Hungary, and Salzburg, Austria. If you want to know more about some of my crazy adventures in these countries (i.e. driving over a sidewalk in Krakow or visiting the spas in Budapest) please ask. I’d love to tell you!

Teaching and Ministry
Any experienced teacher will tell you that your first year teaching is always your worst. I didn’t really understand that statement until I began teaching. Throughout my life I’ve always had high expectations of myself, and I didn’t realize that I had high expectations of my teaching ability until I did not meet those expectations. I never thought teaching would be easy, but I never thought it would be that hard either. I’ve always been good at what I do and I expected to be good at teaching too. Well…let’s just say that I fully believe that statement now. It’s not that teaching is going horribly, it’s not. I truly love my students and enjoy the time I spend with them. The hard part is not really knowing what I’m doing sometimes. I’ve never been a teacher before and I’ve never taken classes on how to be a teacher, so I’m slowly learning how to actually teach. It’s confusing and frustrating and at times I want to pull my hair out. But then I have a day where my lessons go well and I have a great time with my students and it makes all the pain and frustration worth it.
As most of you know, I teach for a Christian language school called Fishnet. I have 10 different classes with students ranging from high schoolers to adults to business men and women. While the constant change and variety in my students is overwhelmingly challenging at times, I love them all and enjoy the time I spend with them.

I came to Ostrava knowing that God wants me here for a purpose. I’m still not sure what that purpose is and what God has in store for me here, but I am learning to be comfortable in the unknown, to trust that God has it all under control. Ostrava is blessed to have many avenues of ministry available for ESI teachers to get involved in: Young Life, choir ministry, English clubs, etc. And while I believe all of them are great I feel led to concentrate on teaching and building relationships with my students. While it has been hard to get to know them really well since we only meet once a week I am excited to see what will happen in this New Year.

Prayer Requests
I truly thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for praying for me. I could not be here without all your support. Please continue to pray for me as I follow God’s guidance in my life. Here are some of my prayer requests:
-That I will teach in such a way that my students will learn
-That my students will see God’s light in my life
-That God will use me to bless my students, my teammates, my community, and my co-workers
-That I will continue growing in my relationship with God and continue to trust Him
-That I will follow God’s guidance and plans for me next year


Thank you again for all your love, prayer, and support. Feel free to write! I’d love to tell you even more about my time over here!
Blessings and peace be upon you,
Heidi Michelle