Picturesque Prague

Picturesque Prague! I had heard this was a pretty city, but wow! The architecture is stunning. And the food is really terrific. The second type of food (besides Czech) that there is a lot of here is Vietnamese. Who knew? Apparently when this was still a communist country, Vietnamese immigration was really encouraged.

Here are just a few of the photos taken. The weather has been an unexpected blessing. It was forecast to be rainy and chilly the whole time we were here, but we saw lots of blue skies and had plenty of opportunity to take off our jackets!

And yes, we are here to help out with the refugee situation. I will share more about that in my next post!

Statue of Jan Hus - burned at the stake by the Catholics, but now revered as a hero of the Bohemian reformation

Charles Bridge

Wenceslas Square

This clock has worked for over 500 years

View from the tower near the castle

St. Ludmilla church - our front yard

Jewish quarter

The dancing building

The river at night

Refugees in Prague

What happens if you’re a refugee and you arrive in Prague? First it depends on what kind of refugee you are. The Czech Republic is still open to Ukrainian refugees, but as of August the city of Prague is closed. While Poland has the most Ukrainian refugees, the Czech Republic has taken the most per capita of any European country. Many Czechs are now protesting against the refugees.

If a Ukrainian arrives in Prague, he/she may stay in the city for 3 days while they figure out somewhere else to register (there must be room for your kids in school). You will most likely spend those three days at KDM (Krestansky Domov Mladeze, if you most know). This is actually where my team is staying as well. It’s a nunnery that was slated to be renovated and has been rented to Dignity (the refugee ministry we are working for) at a nominal charge.

There are actually a few exceptions to the “can’t stay in Prague” rule, and one showed up yesterday. A young mother and her baby will be allowed to stay in Prague and I helped transport her to a safe house. And I got to hold a very cute baby!

Other families are at various locations around Prague, and we are spending our days playing with the children at those spots. If you can imagine what is was like to have your lives disrupted. by Covid and then a war, you can imagine that these kids need something to do other than stare at screens. Most were very eager to play and were well-behaved. We had a great time!

The Czech Republic has NEVER been open to Syrian refugees. They pay a yearly fine to the EU rather than accept any. If Syrians arrive, they are put in detention facilities where they are not allowed to leave. Those detention facilities are now full, so the police are simply turning a blind eye and hoping Syrians will move on through to other countries. Any that do arrive here on the train have paid traffickers to get them here only to find out that their journey is not over and they are NOT welcome. In the evenings, our team is serving hot tea and coffee to the Syrian refugees at the train station.

the view from our "dorm room" at KDM

Glad this little fella will not have to spend another night sleeping at the train station

Jill and Laura were both whizzes at yarn finger puzzles

This kid was sooo good at the limbo!

We called this "the pug of Prague"

Getting ready to serve chai and cafe

Morning in Paris

Our missions team had an unexpected blessing when they asked for volunteers to check their carry-ons for no extra charge (our other bags were $75 each, and we were heavily loaded down with teaching and craft supplies). Being light on our feet enabled us to take advantage of our six hour layover to go see the sites in Paris including a delicious brunch at a sidewalk cafe. Got back and through security with 30 min to spare. Praise God for a beautiful morning!

The iconic Eiffel Tower.  

The Arch de Triumphe.  Obviously. 

The Seine

Strolling through Luxembourg Gardens

Loved watching the kids sail their boats

A great little breakfast spot.  

Breakfast in Paris - oui!

South Holston 2022

In July we took out annual trip to S. Holston Lake, the scene of so many summer memories!  Our only kids that made it this time were Rebecca (and family) and Noah.  Nathan was going to join us for just one day, but his car stalled going through floodwaters in Knoxville.  Caleb and Meredith couldn't get away from Florida.  

This was our first trip in our new Sprinter camper van!  We celebrated with a steak and salad dinner the first night.  Rebecca and Joseph also have a pop-up camper now!

We had fun staging these photos at the very same picnic table that showed how Rebecca and Joseph have changed in five years!

Goodbye for another year!

Family Reunion

My sisters and I had a six-day family reunion this summer with all our kids and grandkids! Well, we did have one missing out of 37 people! The reunion was here in East Tennessee, but we had family driving from as far away as Waco and Oklahoma City.

I cannot thank my sister-in-law enough for letting our enormous gang gather at her beautiful property on the lake! What a blessing!

We had a very full week of boating, swimming, skiing, tubing, parasailing, rock climbing, epic board games, talking, and eating! Many thanks to our family photographer, Rebecca, for taking and editing hundreds of great photos and putting together this video that will help us treasure this memory for years to come!

Bryce Canyon

This was the last stop on our trip.  We had thought that we would boondock near the park since we couldn't make reservations, but we drove up at the perfect time and got a spot (the only one) that had just been vacated.  We took a short hike on Bristlecone Loop the first night we arrived, and the next day we did a Figure 8 combo through Queen's Garden/Peekaboo/Wall Street.  This was a pretty tough hike, but we made it!  Lots of interesting stuff to look at, for sure.

We realized we were very close to hiking 100 miles on this trip, so we took one little hike at the end to Inspiration Point to put us over 100!  We also calculated 13,592 feet of elevation gain on this trip (that's 2.57 miles!).