A Meaningful Summer: Update 31 from Prague

Dear family and friends;

The summer has been filled with meaningful ‘finishes’ with students, times with family and friends, growth and new experiences for the kids, and preparing for new challenges coming our way in Prague. Some answers to prayer: Thank you for praying for Anna’s visa, she got it just in time to return to Prague when we had planned! 

AAU graduation in late June was filled with great conversations and times with graduates and their families, who had some kind things to say about Josh’s influence in their son’s/daughter’s lives. Our summer “refueling” consisted of a restful several weeks in the U.S. with family, including the annual time at the beach with Josh’s family and Camp Cugini with Anna’s family in AL. 

We returned to Prague and just a few days later Anna began the ‘Ballet Bible camp’ she’s done for the Ukrainian community for the last 4 summers!  This year, Anna’s Ukrainian partners included the pastor and several members of the Ukrainian Bible Church of Prague.  It was wonderful to work with old and new friends at the camp.  Her American partner in the Ukrainian outreach, Debby (with Greater Europe Mission), wrote to Anna, “Oh the joy of working with you as we serve our beloved Ukrainians…May God continue to grow the fruit that was growing this week inside the hearts of these young ladies.” 

“I’m not a person who cries, but whenever I see them dance up there I cry,”  one of the Ukrainian team members told Josh. Beauty is truly the presence of the Lord, it moves us and compels us. As C.S. Lewis said, we want to be united with beauty.  Anna is so grateful to be able to share the beauty of God’s love alongside the beauty of dance, within the beauty of the Ukrainian community in Prague.

The same week of the Ukrainian camp. all four of our kids got to experience their first sleepaway camp together. It is called Third Culture Kamp, and it was named that because it's a Christian camp specifically designed for kids who live outside their passport culture. There’s a lot of research on the challenges that kids face in the liminal space, a “third culture,” between their original culture and their ‘host’ culture. All of our kids had an absolute blast and our conversations after

the camp have been rich. Activities and seminars were optional at the camp and Collier and Caleb chose to attend apologetics every day. Caleb said, “It made me want to explore my faith more and not just blindly follow Jesus.” Kids come to TCK from all over Europe and our kids made many new friends, some of whom they got to meet up with after the camp. We attended the sponsoring church, International Church of Prague, following the camp and it was beautiful to watch our kids sit with their friends and worship together.  We are so thankful for all the leaders (40+ from several countries) who gave up a week of their time to love on our kids and kids like them. 

One summer teaching moment we want to highlight was with a student from the University of Nebraska who had never been out of the country before. Her time in Prague and Josh’s class was transformative, and aspects of the class strengthened her faith in Christ. It’s a good example of how Global Scholars also reaches students who just happen to study abroad in the same place. The class read Josh’s book chapter on Milada Horakova (who was highlighted in a previous update) and Kristine was particularly taken by Horakova’s faith in Christ as she faced execution. It was powerful to learn about Horakova’s rejection of hatred for her captors and executioners. Kristine kept coming back and asking Josh questions about Horakova and his own beliefs, drawn to the very human aspects of the leader’s lives

they studied. One of the class periods was attended by two dear Nashville friends, John and Kendra, whose visit was such an encouragement to us. They took some rare classroom pictures. 

Stay tuned for our next update about all that is happening this fall.  There is so much to write that we’ve got to split it in two!

Please pray:

1. That Jesus would go before us in our classrooms and campuses

2. For Josh’s prayer group he is starting at AAU

3. That the love of God and good news of the Gospel would draw all our students to Jesus

4. For Anna as she starts the Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises with her spiritual director.  She is doing a combination of the 18th and 19th annotations with a group over 7-8 months.

5. For our children as they start a new school year, that faith would continue to grow inside them, mold, and form them into who God has called them to be.

6. For a family that is dear to us now back in Ukraine whose husband/dad has now been activated.  We cannot use their names, but God knows who they are in your prayers.  Please pray for safety and for peace to reign inside them as they face even more stress.  

In His Love,

The Haydens