We arrived here in the Czech Republic at the end of April, last spring.  Since then we have seen God's abundant, tender grace providing for all of our needs, both physical and spiritual.  We have transistioned from pension to house, from new-arrivals, to pastor of our church, and we are now, while still beginners in a language-learning process, learning, and beginning to understand Czech language.  Even with the language, (while we won't be fluent for some time-like years), God has provided the PERFECT teacher.  She is a Czech language teacher in the highschool, she is HIGHLY motivated in her role as a teacher.  She doesn't treat us like foreigners who can get by with a low standard of language ability, but passionately wants us to learn the language correctly, knowing that we want to reach lost people here, (ironically, she isn't even a believer!).  Lastly, she charges a fraction of what we would pay if we were to pursue language lessons in Prague.  In Prague, we would pay about 500 US dollars for about 3 weeks of lessons per-person, and Krystina charges about 12 dollars/hour!  Because she works close to the office where we have our church, she meets me there for lessons, (and Marcus in the Cafe around the corner).  In such a small town as Kladno, we thought it perhaps near-impossible to find such a situation, but nothing is impossible for our great Lord, and Father.

     With all the transition I was beginning to find my mind a bit stale when it came to meditating on things of God.  We were simply living in a whirl-wind, but now, as the dust has settled I have begun reading books again, (in addition to the Bible).  When I asked Marcus what book he thought I should read, I didn't want to read a super-practical book, but a book that is chewy, one that challenges me to think more deeply about God, prayer, and faith.  Marcus suggested that I read, "A Call to Spiritual Reformation", by DA Carson.  It has been a great source of encouragement, and a great challenge to my prayer life, refreshing my dependence on the Lord through prayer and challenging me to pray with ferver, expectantly.  I need this as my prayerlife can tend to be rather faithless, and "safe", perhaps a bit lazy.  The book is really perfect when applied to the church-planting because it studies the apostle Paul's prayers from the epistiles in the New Testament.  From these prayers Carson evaluates the content relating to Paul's ministry, and his motivation in praying for the churches, and most-importantly, Paul's understanding and faith in God and God's character.  Carson also applies many situations from his life, which really serve as great illustrations.  One such example was to demonstrate the perfect union of God's sovereignty, and man's responsibility as taken from the passage in Acts 18:9-10, where God is instructing Paul to stay in Corinth, after Paul arrives a bit discouraged after he received some rough treatment in his travels.

     "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.  For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."

      Carson goes on to explain:

     "The prospect of the conversion of many people, a prospect ensured by God's purposes in election, is what gives Paul stamina and perseverance as he settles down in Corinth for extended ministry...  First, I understood something of that arguement when I was growing up....My father ws a church-planter in Quebec.  At the time, there saw very little fruit.  An exceedingly prosperous French-speaking evangelical church in Quebec during that period might have had 20-30 core people.  Many is the time my father preached to a crowd of 20.  At one point, several Americans who had proved remarkably effective in ministry in French West Africa came to Quebec to look the situation over.  One or two managed to covey the subtle message, ..... 'Shove over, you guys, and we'll show you how it's done.'

     Not one of those missionaries stayed.  All left within months.  I was old enough to ask my father why none of them remained to help.  He quietly explained that they had served in areas where they had known great blessing, and it was hard for them to envisage working in an area where there seemed to be such dearth.  I pressed my father further: why then did he stay?  Why shouldn't he go some place where the power of the Lord was abundant?  Why commit yourself to working where there is so much to discourage, and so little fruit?  He gently rounded on me: 'I stay, because I believe with all my heart that God has many people in this place.'....in the Lord's mercy, the harvest, (did happen), in 1972.  From a base of fewer than fifty evangelical churches, many hundrends sprang up....This is merely another illustration of what Paul understood in Acts 18:9-10: God's sovereignty in election, far from discouraging eveangelism, becomes an incentive to get on with the task."

Such a challenge to my heart, as learn to rightly, and practically understand God's sovereignty and our responsibility.  My heart is challenged to pray, and to pray big prayers....not to be safely content with what I see.  Sometimes I think that I don't pray dangerously as a measure to protect my heart from disappointment.  What sin it is and what small faith I have.  Jesus spoke in regards to the parable of the persistant widow and the unrighteous judge, "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"  I pray I would expect great things from our great God, and not loose heart, but all the more persevere in faith, as we seek to put our hands to the plow here in the Czech Republic

Lidice is beautiful in the autumn... This is the view from our home. 

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The only tree in our yard.  It just happens to be one of the most colorful in Lidice now!

I have my Czech lesson late in the afternoon on Monday's and Thursday's.  Last week I came home to this creative mark, (the carved pumpkin), left by my husband and the girls...

Blue eyed girl...

I think that it is interresting how our God designed us- the inner man, not just the outer.  Our inner persons need rest, encouragment, challenge, love, sanctification, etc.....  For me, one of the greatest sources of  nourishment for the inner man is Christ's church.  It is there where I am most often prunned through relationships with brothers and sisters, and there where my heart is fed by God's Word.  It is also there where I am encouraged, strengthened and built up.  This past week was a truly encouraging week for my heart with some of the believers here in the Kladno church.  First of all, last Thursday and Friday another mother from the church and I got all 6 of our kids packed in the big, white van, and we headed over to the local swimming pool for some fun.  God truly blessed my heart as we were both able to share our testimonies, our hearts for our families, and the desires we have to raise our children in the fear of the Lord.  What a dear sister in Christ! 

Sunday was another very blessed day, as we heard from John 12:32, (many of you remember from Marcus' old sermons).  It was such a blessing to be reminded why Christ died and that we are not only commanded to worship but we are free to worship...free from a works mentality, free from the chastisement of which He took for us.  Because of His great work it is a joy for us to evangelize, a joy to lead and shepherd our families, a joy to love and serve the church, because the motivation is truly to worship our great Lord and Savior.  We hope that for those who don't yet believe, they were encouraged to hear of the amazing grace of Christ.  A man, Pavel, (he and his wife have 3 kiddos), and a nice girl, Lenka, (both attended the camp), both were there.  We hope to spend more time with Pavel and his family, perhaps when Daniel comes back as this couple's english and, (obviously), our Czech are quite limited.

After church I enjoyed a sweet time with the ladies of BSKK.  They are really eager to start our woman's meeting.  They also have expressed desire to go through, "The Excellent Wife" by Martha Peace.  Donna V translated the book into Czech and it was recently published.  They also expressed a desire to cover some Biblical Counseling issues.  The bessing to me is their desire to meet- every week!  (Last year they met every other week).  As you all well know, it is quite a sacrifice for mom's with husbands, multiple kids, jobs, school etc... to prioritize fellowshiping together.  Please pray for our meetings that we could arrange a time that would work for everyone.  Please, also pray that all of our hearts would be tender to God's Word and tender to one another.

Marcus has also been immensely blessed as he has spent time with the men here.  We continue to pray, and faithfully serve, knowing that it is God who does the growth.  Thanks for your faithfulness to pray.  We hope that our lives here can be a source of encouragment for some of you.  Please feel free to write and tell us how we can be praying on your behalf!

Lydia wanted to share a picture of her and Sophia's Build-a-Bears ,(or in Sophia's case, monkey).   These were sweet gifts from their Grandma and Grandpa Denny.

Our church on a typical Sunday morning...... For the past month, "Joseph", a Czech man who we met in Vancouver, (he was staying with his daughters on a visit), has been commuting from Prague to our church. 
We continue to pray that the Holy Spirit would work in bringing him to salvation.

All the little rascals!

Last week we had the opportunity to visit a castle.  One of MANY in the Czech Republic.

The girls with sweet Katherine Smith

Here's the view of the Czech landscape from the castle wall..

In regards to the pictures in my previous entry, I promised a little snippet about Lidice, our new village.  On the 10th of June, 1942, Nazi Germany made an example of it's cruelty, and power by completely destroying the previous village of Lidice.  Soldiers marched into the village, gathering all the people.  They brought all of the men into a farmhouse and shot them all.  Their bodies were taken  to the village church and the whole building was set ablaze.  All of the women and children were then gathered, separated from one another and sent to concentration camps, although some of the fairer children were brought to Germany to be taken into a German foster system, and therefore were Germanized.  After the war, as part of the restitution to the families who suffered so much, the village was turned into a national monument and park.  Just above the park, (where the village formerly existed), are the homes that were built for members of the families who suffered such hardships.  One of these such homes is where we will live in 3 weeks. 

This past Sunday we had a block party to meet some of our new neighbors.  The idea of such a gathering is a bit odd in this post-communist, social context.  Many of our neighbors cam and, many of the people, (most were of retirement age), were daughter's/son's, or neice's/nephew's of the original owners.  Marcus was able to share the gospel, and Daniel Adamovsky shared his testimony.  God blessed the evening with such grace.   We continue to hope that God will grow our relationships with many here, and that we would have opportunity to share His grace with them all in a more intimate way as they get to know our family.

Lastly, I beg of you all to please be praying for the english camp which starts next Friday night.  Satan would love to block the truth of salvation, but we know that all we have to do is stand firm on the truth of the gospel.  I thank you all in advance for your prayers.  None of this would be possible without you!

One of the monuments in Lidice....an artist found photos of each, individual child of Lidice, and then made this bronze statue, note their sad faces...

This is a photo from the perspective of the previous village to where the new village now stands...

Well, it's been a whole month since our family stepped off the airplane here in CZ.  We have settled in rather easily, as far as family life goes.  As I have written previously, our temporary accommodations have been great- very central in Klado.  I am able to cook, clean, and spend time with the children, much like I did in the States.  Marcus finished his first, intensive language course.  This week he has had off.  His new course begins next week.  By God's grace, I was able to find a local, language tutor in Klado.  We meet twice in a week, I believe that progress is being made, and she is a fraction of the price of the language lessons in Prague.  God has not given us the miraculous gift of tongues, but He has provided many graces.  We have many friends who speak english, as well as many key church members.  Marcus especially, but perhaps I, (to some degree), have fairly good "ears" for hearing certain sounds, and Marcus has had 9 months here in the past where He memorized many key phrases.  The czech grammar is very different compared to english grammar.  We rely on sentance structure to convey meaning.  Czech is a "case-language".  Meaning is conveyed by changing the endings of words.   Here's an easy example:  Sophia's name is also Sophia here, and yet, if someone is calling her name, the case is then "vocative", thus changing her name to "Sofinku".  Lydia's changes to "Lydio".  Marcus' to "Markusi".  My name is foreign enough that there is no change.  There are 6 cases in the language, and each have their own distinctions... you also have to take into account the gender of the word, tenses, whether it's singular/plural, and so forth.    I have no idea if my mind will wrap around the language very easily- or if it will will be an uphill battle, and yet, God is sovereign over it all!  Our primary focus is to keep the Lord always before us, to work hard in His strength and trust Him for the results.

Family life is great.  We have settled, more or less into our own rythem.  Marcus is taking on more responsibilities at church, and he joined the Lidice soccer, (fotbal) team.  This may allow him contacts, and opportunities to speak Czech during the week.  Lydia is going to start ballet this fall in Bustehrad, a neighboring village.  There is a beautiful, little children's art schook there.  In addition to classical ballet, they teach art, classical guitar, and other artsy things!  She is quite excited!  We are still looking into schools for Lydia come fall.  Odly enough, many of the Czech skolka's are already full.  We are praying that God opens just the right door for our Lydia.  Sophia and Chloe will stay home with me this next year.  Perhaps we can look into a playgroup for Sophia, here in Lidice.  I am looking forward to meeting more with the women at church, and am praying for the most profitable way to get to know them better, and build strong Christian relationships with them.

Our van arrives in Germany next week.  It's a long story, but we did decide to bring it, (the US economy, and a new Nissan dealership here in Kladno also helped us make this decision).  It could be quite a headache to get it here in Czech Republic.  Please pray that God will grant much wisdom and grace to Marcus as he negotiates all the paperwork.  Please also pray for Marcus and Daniel Adamovsky, (sweet chruch member, and new belier), as they drive together to get the van, that they would have sweet fellowship together. 

Lastly, we do covet those intercessions made on our behalf.  We cannot do this work without you all praying for us! 

Please pray that we would acquire the language.  We, in many ways are so limited without the ability to speak in the Czech language.

Please pray for our family, that we would continue to set the Lord always before us, walking in His joy and strength.

Please pray for the church.  That we, and they will be ready to grow together, and toward Christ as we remain here in a shepherding role.

Please pray for the Smith's as they transition back to the States.  That God would grace their move with His manifold goodness.  Much love and grace to you all!

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It hardly seems real, but we are here in Kladno!  It's been a great week, and as you can imagine, we hit the ground running!  Last Thursday we arrived in Prague around half past 5pm.  It was a long trip, but by God's grace the children all did so well.  It took, roughly, 4 days for their schedule to adjust to the 9 hour time difference, (ahead).  Marcus and I have also transitioned, although with language studies, and other weekly events, we are feeling a bit tired.  Daily life takes much more concentration when one is new in a foreign country!  We have seen God's grace in so many small areas this past week.  For example, the pension we are staying in DOES have a washing machine- it works just fine.  I line dry the clothes- and it really works great.  Trips to the store for me have been interresting.  I'm learning names, prices, and store lay-outs.  The girls have all been very obedient and understanding as these trips can take some time.  I'm so thankful for these little-ones.  They have all done well with so many changes.   

     We are living in a pension in Sitna, (for those of you who know the area).   It's been really great.  We have 3 rooms, livingroom, kitchen, etc...  There is a large yard, and the whole home overlooks a new, large park in the middle of Kladno- it used to be a gully.  There are beautiful walkways, a lovely, new children's park and some spots for sports.  It's truly lovely, and a huge blessing during the day, when the girls and I can venture out for a walk and some playtime.  In July we will move to Lidice, to the Smith's home.

     Marcus is taking an intense language course.  It is 5 days/week for 3 weeks.  It has been a blessing, but we are finding that accquiring Czech language will be a HUGE undertaking.  It is in the Lord's hands and we trust our efforts in His hands, and still we appreciate prayers for language.  I will also be taking classes in the evenings eventually.  We are looking into different courses.

     A rough outline of our week's obligations....Sunday is church.  9:30 is the "Foundation's" class.  10:30 is corporate worship.  When church ends we all remain for fellowship for an hour or so.  Wednesday is the english class, (evangelistic).  Friday evenings the Smith's host and evangelistic Bible study.  It's been great to see many new faces- even Eva Fejerova's mother, (she has been so opposed to her daughter's faith).   She was truly suprised to meet the people her daughter has been associating with.  So typical as these Czech unbelievers see the outworkings of Christ's love, genuine, sweet, joyful.  We pray that her curiosity to test our credibility brings her back.  She even offered to help me learn to make the Czech sweet dumplings!   The ladies in the church meet every other Friday morning.  This past Friday was a blessed time.  Wednesday morning, 5am, the men of the church meet.

    We are so blessed to be here!  Most importantly, we are blessed to be part of God's plan, to trust Him for every step of this venture, from the spritual to the practical.  It is a test of faith- the Smith's shoes are large indeed.  Only God can fill them with His grace.  We only hope to be faithful, abiding in Him- His love, grace, faithfulness.  As the scripture says,

     "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment.  For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love."  Romans 5:3-5

     Thanks for standing with us, we love and miss you all, dearly!

(please forgive the typos....I have limited time on the internet.  We will have full access when we move into the Smith's home!)

Our temporary accomodations:  Pension Villa Sitna

The view of the park and play area from our room....

We finally received some feedback from the Czech Consulate.....  Turns out, our visas are STILL in the Czech Republic undergoing the approval process...(sighhhhhh).  So, like any other governmental process it all is burocratic and takes more time than perhaps it should...or should we say, "it's taking the perfect amount of time because our perfect God is completely in control of this process and will not let a moment of waiting go by outside of His perfect plan!"- AMEN!

So, we wait, but not on Czech men and women to process our paperwork asap, but we wait on God.  His timing for our transition is perfect and He will grant us the visas in that perfect timing.  This perspective allows us to rest in Him without any impatience or angst. 

This comming Thursday we will fly to Sedona, Arizona as I wrote earlier.  As usual, we covet your prayers that we would be an encouragement to the body at the Master's Church.  We also are praying that perhaps the Lord would allow some rest, or a mini vacation as we are a bit tired, (here in Spokane we were back to the 5:30 am meetings- 3 days this past week).

When we return from Arizona we will spend the remainder of the week along with Easter Sunday in Vancouver with Marcus' folks.  Afterwards we will return to Spokane while my parents fly over to Czech for their Spring trip.  We can resume housesitting for them, (intercepting our visas from the mail if they should happen to arrive!). 

There are no plans after this, but we will keep you all informed as we learn more!  Thanks again for your love and support!

We had a wonderful, and eventful trip to the great lakes.  I suppose I should start by informing you all of our crazy adventures in traveling.  We left Portland International Airport last Thursday around 8:30am.  The flight was to be about 2+ hours in length to Minneapolis Minnesota.  We were to have a 1hour layover, aircraft switch before we finished up our trip with a 1.5 hour flight to Detroit, Michigan.  All of this seemed pretty reasonable to me, pretty easy, (we even had a packed lunch for the layover to make things go smoothly).  Our arrival in Detroit was to be around 4:30pm EST.  Not too shabby in my book.   INSTEAD.....Minnesota was experiencing record snowfall for this time of year, and with extremely high winds.  Yup, it was a blizzard in March, soooooo....as our plane arrived above Minneapolis our pilot informed us of this extreme weather.  He said that we "had plenty of fuel", (always a disconcerning statement in my book), so we would remain in a holding pattern above the city until the weather improved. Circle, we did, many times, and the hour came and went with no change in weather.  Plan B took effect and our plane was diverted to Nebraska- another state I have never been to before.  Turns out, all I could see of the state was it's runway!  We landed, but were told that we would remain in the plane until the weather cleared in Minneapolis.  Two addition hours went by inside the airplane, and finally we were cleared to head back to Minneapolis, but not before our plane received more fuel!  I praise God for Marcus' packed lunches!!!  As we approached Minneapolis we were told that we could land this time, but I have to admit that my hands clentched the armrests with white knuckles during our decent and landing.  The blizzard was unbelievable!  We taxied and stopped at the airport, de-planeing to packed gates, as many of their flights had been delayed or canceled.  Unfortunately we had missed our connecting flight, but by God's grace, we did find an open flight to Detroit and it was to leave within the hour.   We ran as fast as a family 5 could, and just made the plane before the gate closed.  Once inside we all buckled in, peering out at the amazing, side-ways blowing snow.   We could see myriads of snowblowers, (there were too many to count), continuously clearing off miles of runway, and busy, bundled airport crews, braving the torturous weather.  It was a sight that I will never forget!  Another couple of hours went by as the crew tried to back our airplane out, (the front tire had been snowed in).   They rocked the plane back and forth with their little car, and finally resorted to chains.   The chains did the trick and our plane was finally release to drive to the "de-icing area".  Another half hour of de-icing, and we were finally off...again, another white-knuckled take off!  Two hours later we did arrive, safely in Detroit, and I believe that it was about 1am EST with missing bags, and missing carseats.  God's grace in all of this?  Marcus and I did walk in the Spirit and we were able to keep quiet hearts, trusting God's providence, thank you so much for your prayers!  The kids did amazingly well.  They really had fun, taking all this as an exciting, adventure!  The airline put us up in a nice, and close hotel, even though the weather and delays was not their fault.  They also gave us food vauchers.  Our bags arrived early in the morning and were immediately sent to our hotel room.  Last, and most definately least, God provided a free coffee bar the next moring, courtesy of our hotel.  Isn't God so good?

More important than the events mentioned above, I should mention that the time with the Hawkins was truly sweet.  Their home was run efficiently but with grace, a great feat with 8 kids!  Marcus and I enjoyed time with Annette, and Jeff, and felt that we learned so much from them, and our girls loved their hospitable children, who exercised love toward our kids despite their age differences.  A truly loving family.  Evangel church is very small, but also very encouraging.  We enjoyed the leadership, and fellowship with the saints, and were so humbled to hear that they had been praying for us, and for the Czech Republic.  I am ever-amazed at how God orchestrates His will, always so gracious, and perfect.  His ways are truly so good.

Well, thank you all for your prayers!  We are safely returned back to the NW, still awaiting our visas.  I need to trust God for His timing here as well.

Much love, and grace to you all!

Two, little stinkers on the plane!

Sweet, little Chloe!

Sophia, posing with her two favorite things..."blankie, and bear"

Chloe sleeping, a constant reminder of God's grace...such a mellow baby!

View of Minneapolis snowstorm from my plane's window- at this time they are trying to "un-stuck" our airplane!

The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit- lots of cool stuff, pretty fun!

This is the car JFK was shot in....a Ford

Not really sure why this is in the Henry Ford Museum, but it reminds me of Downey...

The exact chair Abraham Lincoln was assasinated in, while in the Ford theater, (no relation to Henry Ford).  Neat artifact, but, again, I'm not sure why it's in the Henry Ford Museum!

Hawkin's and Denny's, minus the front row where Chloe was seated.  They have a 15 passenger van!

All the kids:  Hannah, Elizabeth, James, Abigail, John, Peter, Mark, and Matthew Hawkins

                    Lydia, Sophia, and Chloe Denny, (new perspective: 3 kids.... pretty easy- comparatively!)

     Well, a short entry to let you all know that while we had a very busy and bustling week planned here in Spokane, God had another test for us...  Every person in our family contracted the RSV virus.  ( If you hadn't heard of it before RSV stands for respiratory syncytial virus- a very bad cold that is extremely contageous.)  We were still going strong last week when only Sophia came down with the virus, but this week when Chloe contracted it, (it effects babies with much stronger symptoms than older children), our plans took a sudden change in course, "Man makes his plans...", right?   Her virus, a late trip to the ER for breathing issues, multiple times of waking through the night, and two 5am elder's meetings for Marcus left us all thoroughly exhausted by the end of the week.  Unfortunately, we, as a family were unable to meet up with some of the small groups, (like I said, the virus is extremely contageous), but we were able to truly see our need for the Lord.  By God's grace, her virus is really clearing up.  Just today Chloe's fussyness transformed into the laughs and smiles that we are used to.  Another blessing is that one of the elder's at FBC is a pulmonologist.  It just so happens that he is on their mission's board, and that my parents had them over for dinner tonight to get to know us more.  He was so gracious to bring his stethescope and take a listen to our little girl.  He said that she looks great, only a little fluid in her lung's left lower lobe.  Other ways God has shown us grace?  Another elder on the mission's board at FBC is a lawyer who helped us get some of our paperwork in order...ie power of attourney's, (for my parents to handle our affairs while we are overseas), advance directives, and our wills.  He donated all of his work for the glory of God and spent some time with Marcus and I fellowshipping about God's glory overseas, and sharing testimonies.  We were so encouraged.  Lastly, God has shown tremendous grace to us by providing a missions agency to handle all of our finances.  It's pretty crazy but of there own accord my parents have decided to start a missions agency with a deacon mindset to handle only the monies, taxes, etc... (all of which can be quite complicated), for the missionaries overseas.  My stepfather was an accountant before he retired so all of this comes very naturally for him!  As we have recently found out, it is very difficult to find an agency that has this mindset as most desire to have some kind of shepherding role- we believe that our shepherding is to come from the church.  So much to praise God for!

Thank you again for your prayers!  Please continue to pray for us....I really feel the temptation to walk in the flesh as I'm so tired.  I'm so ashamed and yet to think that I'm any better is really foolish.  God is showing me that I can do nothing without Him.  I need this dependence if I'm going to live in a foreign country to proclaim the gospel.

We miss you all- or will, for those of you in Spokane! 

Well, about a week ago we had just finished our long drive north to my hometown of Spokane, Washington.  Thanks all for the much needed prayers- the kids did great- even little Chloe!  God was also so gracious to give us a very dry, and temperate drive through all of the mountain passes.  We arrived very safe, but tired, not just from the drive but also from all the packing, cleaning, and farewelling from our previous home in southern California. 

So here we are.  We have, so far, been graced by sweet times with our family and encouraging fellowship with new and old friends here in Spokane.  Christ Our Hope Bible Church was a blessing to attend this past Sunday as we enjoyed a sweet time of edification from the book of James, and fellowship with the saints.  We have also been blessed to fellowship with our friends from Faith Bible Church as Marcus attended their elder's meeting and we all participated in a mission's prayer meeting. 

Our itinerary so far is: 

-Two more weeks here in Spokane, where we will attend some small groups and fellowship more with the members of COHBC and FBC. 

-Afterwards we will drive 5 hours south-west to visit Marcus' family. 

-On the 19th of Feburary Marcus, Chloe, and I will fly back down to LA-(with much excitement!), to attend Dave and Karean, (soon to be), Sigler's wedding.  Marcus will be presiding, and I will have the joy of standing as a bride's maid. 

-The next weekend our entire family will have the priveledge of flying out to Michigan to visit Emmanuel Bible Church, (I hope that I got the name right!).  This church is also very supportive of Peter and Sonya's ministry in Kladno.  They have expressed desire in getting to know us, so off we will go.  Marcus will preach a message during their Sunday service, and our family will enjoy staying with Peter's sister, and brother -in- law, and their 8 children!  Lydia and Sophia will have a blast! 

-After that we will return back to the Portland/Vancouver area where we will enjoy another 2 weeks with Marcus' family.  

-Our desire is to be off to the Czech Republic around the middle, to the end of March.

Yup, it's a crazy time for the Denny's, but a blessed time as well.   We certainly feel the stress of being homeless, and busy, but we have seen this as an opportunity to practice dependence.  It's the only way to manage this time without walking in the flesh.  Our Lord has been so faithful to grant us the grace we so desperately need, but we want to remain on our knees as we see how weak we are!

Prayers for us our simple...Please pray that we would walk dependently in the Spirit, not carrying out the desires of the flesh.  Pray for our times of fellowship with all our friends, family, and supporting churches.  Please pray that we would seek to love and serve them- washing feet.  Lastly, please pray for the expediting of our Czech visas.  We have heard that they are in process, but there has been no word as of yet regarding when we will be receiving them. 

We praise the Lord for all of you and would love to hear from you as well.  Please feel free to email us your prayer requests.  We would be so priveledged to pray for you!

-The Denny's

Lydia's first snowman, (she's giving it a hug!)

Marcus, proud of his snowball- giving me a hug!

Well the Denny's are "all a bustle" this year as we prepare for our departure to Prague in a couple of months.  We have been busy organizing and classifying all of our earthly good into "store", "take", or "toss".  Despite all of our busyness we did manage to celebrate the holidays this year- a type of  "goodbye" to our home here in Los Angeles.

Christmas has become a bit less nostalgic for me, as I grow older.  My focus has shifted as the season has become an excellent excuse to reflect on the value of Christ.  To really rethink, and celebrate His fantastic worthiness in light of my immense un-worthiness.  This year has been a notably sweet time of prayer for Marcus and I as we contemplate the future.  It also has been a stretching time- as life becomes more complicated, I see my inclination to live life in my own strength, independent from His grace.  He has faithfully drawn me back time and time again- as I recognize that I truly can do NOTHING apart from Him.  A prayer that He may always keep us, to His Praise and Glory!  Amen!