Ashes, Mercies and Impact: Update 18 from Prague

Dear friends and family,

Warm greetings from Prague! Tomorrow, Friday the 24th will mark one year since the invasion of Ukraine. It is hard to believe we have been walking with Ukrainian students, families, and children in Prague for a year. The Lord has shown up and moved in so many ways, but we still feel the loss and hurt with them. The imposition of ashes this Wednesday should remind us not just of our own death, but the ongoing destruction wrought on humans by humans in many parts of the world—and yet hope can emerge even out of those ashes. Our desire is for our family to deepen and grow in God’s love, which compels us to serve others through this season to the cross and the empty tomb.

Abigail crafting with Ukrainian kids

All of our regular activities are in full swing: Anna teaching ballet to the Ukrainian community and at our kid’s school, Josh teaching and advising at AAU, having students for dinner, and serving the community in our church. We wanted to give you a few highlights below

In addition to many ballet classes, Anna has been teaching 6th grade Bible and 8th grade English. She has a Ukrainian student who recently wrote in a journal assignment:

“And finally, I will say that my only dream is to go back [to Ukraine]. Even for a few days. I want to see the place where I lived for so long. I'm sure I'll cry when I see all those places live. I just have to do it, talk in my native language with at least one of the passers-by…But my mom says it's dangerous there. I don't care how dangerous it is. There is the place where I lived…”

It was a reminder that even after a year, people displaced by the war still feel displaced and long to go home. The Ukrainian students, moms and grandmothers Anna sees weekly with her dance ministry have become a sweet community. While the kids are taking their ballet classes with Anna, the moms and grandmothers craft, share, and do Bible study, led by some other team members in this ministry. Then everyone has dinner and fellowship time together. Anna is excited to start choreographing year end performance pieces for these students, and is already planning another week long summer ballet camp for Ukrainian children like last year. It will be Ballet Vacation Bible Study 2.0!

Josh is currently advising a Ukrainian student’s senior thesis. The thesis topic is the impact of the practice of mindfulness on resilience in crisis , and focused on her fellow Ukrainians. Advising theses has brought Josh a wonderful way to impact the lives of students as they leave university and encounter the wider world. One advisee noted in her acknowledgements in her thesis she defended in January, “My special gratitude to Mr. Hayden for showing the importance of forgiving and reconciliation and for being able to raise hard but extremely important topics. The theme of this thesis is inspired by people like that.” This student is Russian and her theme was educational resistance leadership in Russia. Josh was encouraged that of the many topics they discussed, forgiveness and reconciliation topped the list for her.

Another advisee recently reached out updating Josh on her career in the arts. We give all Josh’s advisees the book, Let Your Life Speak, by Parker Palmer and it really impacted this student. She wrote, “I would also like to share that your mentorship as my professor and thesis advisor has had a sincerely lasting positive impact on my life. Even a few days ago, I was having a performance review at work and my boss was prompting me to reflect on what kind of manager I would like to be. The answer that is clearly in my mind is an authentic leader more than a manager- through relational transparency, balanced processing, self-awareness and an internalized moral perspective. I still have that memorized! Thank you for everything you did to support my growth as a student and thesis advisee.” Not all students we get to impact write to tell us, but when they do, it is such a gift.

The kids’ schedules are quite full of ballet, flag football, chess, karate, and scouts, in addition to school and friends. Josh has been asked to help coach the boys flag football team, which is mostly Czech boys. It has been a fun, ‘bilingual’ experience for them all. School is going well for everyone, but especially for Abigail, who we have noticed is much more expressive about her faith and interested in talking about it.

Recently, we have been walking through a tremendously tragic situation with a friend. Josh has spent a lot of time with our friend praying, crying, and walking and talking through a really tough situation. Though we can’t share details, we share it generally because our kids know this family friend, and they have been asking a lot of questions. It has given us an opportunity to pray together and practice compassion without any solid answers. We pray for God’s healing in this situation.

We hope this season of Lent meets you right where you are. May this time create more space for the Lord to fill and do his work in all our lives. There is always much work, but his yoke is light.

Much love and peace from our family to you and yours,

The Haydens

Ash Wednesday Service at St. Clement's Church, Prague (in Ukrainian and English)