rhythms of grace

Lincoln Burned himself

Lincoln burned himself today at a restaurant. As Elizabeth was putting him into the stroller he quickly reached out and pulled the steaming hot coffee pot from the table onto himself and Elizabeth. He was covered in coffee but primarily burned his right arm and places on his head and face while Elizabeth got it on her forearm. We, meaning everyone at the table, showered him with any cold water we could get our hands on for several minutes and called an ambulance. He lost the top layer of skin on his arm and in a small place on his cheek. He is fine now, recovering while watching the "big comfy couch video". We go back to the hospital in the morning for dressing changes. Please pray for little Linc when he comes to mind.

Halloween Party

Lydia's school had their annual Halloween party. It is an interesting party. They actually have a kid's costume party without candy or sugar altogether. So, the kids run on pure energy without the sugar buzz and the crash. Many of the families have never heard of the costume tradition on Halloween. So, that makes it more fun for them and me when I see some of the costumes they come up with. One poor little Romanian tike had the whole harvest tied to him. He literally had dried plastic corn tied to his waist and straw hat with other fruits and veggies strapped on. Lydia was a butterfly fairy and Lincoln went in a Chinese outfit given to him by his grandparents who are living in Taiwan at the moment. Lydia was proudly showing off Linc to everyone saying, "Look this is my boy, he's Chinese!"
Last night we had a good time catching up over dinner with our friend Joan who is in town from England.

Our Trip to Croatia

We landed back home from Crikvenice, Croatia around 8pm tonight. I say landed because Elizabeth was driving ; ) We have been in 5 countries today driving from there to here. The 10hr drive went amazingly well with the kids. Actually, the parents squirmed and whined more than the kids.
The meeting in Croaitia was a great time of catching up with people we have not seen in years and others we have not seen since the meeting last year. It was also an intense time of meeting as we were in the process of forming some kind of network for like-minded ministries in Europe.

Off to Croatia

We are driving down to the coast of Croatia tomorrow for our second annual European Regional Meeting. The group consists of representatives from six offices throughout Europe. Also, Scott, our leader from Atlanta will come along with Blake and Sandra from their office in Alabama, and Rob will come his office in Canada. This is a great time to catch up with all our friends from the other offices as well as exchange information and ideas. We will return to Prague on Sunday.

Our weekend

Today and yesterday our second counseling group officially started. They had orientation with the first group but met for the first time as a group last night. We met all day today as well.
The weather here is turning to the norm for this time of year; cloudy, rainy, and cold. In this lovely weather Elizabeth, Lydia, and Linc headed out today for the indoor playplace. They were turned away due to a birthday party taking over the whole place. With this disappointment, they went on to the next playplace only to receive another recreation rejection. All the moms in Prague seemed to have the same idea. So, I came to the rescue after my meeting by initiating a big wrestling match with Lydia and Linc. This took some of that unwanted bedtime kid energy and they went to bed peacefully.

Bulgaria and Visa

I (Artie) have just returned from Sofia, Bulgaria where I was teaching a conference for a group of church and mission leaders. The seminar was called Grace-filled Restoration. It was all about living in grace yourself and helping others be restored. It was hosted by the Bible League of Bulgaria. They have an incredible training center that overlooks all of Sofia. I had a great time leading the seminar and playing a lot of ping pong! I plan to return to Bulgaria in January to facilitate a counseling workshop and another seminar in two separate cities. In the picture with me is Spaska, the director of the Bible League and Peter, our ministry partner in Bulgaria.

On another subject...I turned in our visa paperwork this morning in record time!!! I waited before dawn for 1.5 hrs for the door to open, but I made in on the first stampede. I found that last year's application was updated...ugh...and my number was called in 10 minutes! So, i went in anyway, unprepared, with a huge risk of being shouted at and turned away. Thankfully, the officer receiving my papers was extremely graceful. He showed me which one was the new application and told me to come directly back to him when I finished refilling them out for each person in my family. This was great mercy because by the time I finished refilling out the papers, the office was complete madness. In all, the process took me a little over 3 hrs, a new record. In 40 days I will have the adventure of going back to retrieve the prepared visas...that is when the whole family must be present.

Book w/ a Catch

We were really excited today to receive copies of the book we have been working to get translated and published in Czech language. However, this good news comes with a small catch...the picture we used for the cover has not been totally approved yet. You might be thinking, "Then why did you go ahead with the printing?" Great question... it is a little complicated. First about the picture. About a year ago, I used a friends camera during a church service and took a picture of a massive amazing painting that hangs in the sanctuary of a Czech Methodist Church. When we were considering cover ideas for the book being published I remembered taking the picture and thought it would be great for the project. So, I asked the publisher if he thought there were legal ramifications since it was a picture of artwork. He did not seem to think so. I went ahead with sending him the picture and I contacted the pastor of the church. The pastor replied in very broken English via email that the church did not actually own the painting. The publisher took over the trail and found that the painter had died and willed it to two people. When asked for permission...one said yes and one said no. To further complicate the situation, by the time he got to this point with the new owners of the painting the books were printed. So, please pray with us that the objecting owner of the painting will change his mind. We hope he will see it as an honor to the painter and his work.

Weekend stories

It has been a busy weekend as we had our first group start the Training course. We had meetings Thursday and Friday evening and all day Saturday. Each group will kick off the course this way. The time is really intense emotionally as everyone is telling their life stories...mainly those things in the story that shaped their belief systems. We finished with 4 of the 7 stories from the first group and will pick up from there on our first weeknight meeting. Today has been slow as we have rested. The kids went to the playground this afternoon with mom as I had a sacred time of napping. Tomorrow we will be back on the paper trail for our visa renewal.

The DCTC begins!

Last night we held a long awaited meeting with the group pictured here. It was the orientation meeting for our first Czech Discipleship Counseling Training Course or DCTC. For the past four summers we have facilitated intensive spiritual formation courses in English but nothing yet in Czech language. And nothing yet purposely designed to teach others discipleship counseling. So, finally we embark on a new experiment....doing such a course with translation over a 8-9 month period. We will have two groups of seven meeting two seperate evenings during the week. So many people were interested we had to turn some away until the next course.
A big thanks to all of you who have supported us to be here working toward such a course and specific thanks to Midtown Church and Jim Lilly who gave specifically to this project for a translator, books for the course that are being published, and equipment needed for the course.