Caring for the global and the local: Update 32 from Prague

Josh Hayden
Nov 1
4 min read

Dear friends and family;

We are midway through the semester and have much to update you on! Josh just finished co-chairing a major international conference in Prague, which was incredibly time-consuming, but brought in a number of students and featured Josh’s research integrating his faith with leadership studies. We also just celebrated 20 years of marriage! It’s hard to believe it has been that long; we are so grateful for each other and our marriage.

Anna is choreographing away right now, both for her Ukrainian students and the Ballet Club at CISP. Both groups will have an Advent showcase. In her 6th grade Bible class, students are looking at the arc of God’s redemptive story through the covenants. The 9th graders are studying the divided kingdom and many of the not-so-good kings, anticipating a faithful king in Jesus. In English literature, what hath Romeo and Juliet to do with how we understand the effects of anger, hate, and violence? It turns out a lot! Class discussions have also revolved around wise vs. rash decision-making, a Biblical definition of love, and much more. Anna also spent 3 days at the

Eastern Archdeaconry Synod (a yearly meeting of all the chaplains and lay reps) of the Diocese of Europe as a lay church representative and the elected Synod secretary. It was a lot of work, but also good fellowship with Anglicans across Europe. Continue to pray for Anna as she goes through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as well.

At the University, Josh has been teaching a new course, Leadership and Conflict Resolution. His students enrolled in the class comprise 9 different nationalities (e.g., Czech, Vietnamese, French, German, and Dutch), which makes class discussions much more interesting. The class’s recent focus has been on doing the courageous work of listening, feeling our emotions, finding common ground, and confronting without blaming. Many students have shared their struggles with avoiding or suppressing conflict, or, on the other hand, escalating disagreements into destructive zero-sum battles. Another class, the Psychology of Human Cooperation just discussed forgiveness and reconciliation, and it was interesting to see students with no interest in faith talk about how inspiring this was to them. Students seem to enjoy the challenges Josh gives at the end of each class to practice new lessons in empathy, generosity, forgiveness, and relationship building. Very soon we’ll be having those students over to dinner in our flat, so pray for those connections to deepen.

Meanwhile, our children have been growing. Our teenagers have busy social schedules these days. Collier and Caleb are both into theatre and basketball and have older adults (teachers, youth ministry staff) that are making strong connections with them. Their performance of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens December 4th. Joseph is excelling at soccer/football with his team, the Prague Raptors. Abigail is continuing to enjoy ballet and gymnastics, and has a performance of Snow Queen coming up November 16th and 17th. Josh is currently reading and discussing the book of Romans at night with the boys. Our present on-going conversations are about making wise and faithful decisions, respecting authority, and supporting each other.

Two very encouraging opportunities for Josh in the past two months were organizing and co-leading the International Leadership Association (ILA) conference right here in town and being part of a men’s fellowship retreat in Germany. The ILA conference

Josh with two Czech leaders, Monika and Šimon

brought 800 attendees from all over the world (including Josh’s students), and Josh gave several presentations of his work on the ethics of hope, spiritual leadership, and lessons from Vaclav Havel’s absurdist plays. We had meaningful dinners with two people who have been mentors for Josh for over 25 years. Josh led two large walking tours on Vaclav Havel’s leadership as part of the conference and was interviewed by a Czech journalist about his studies on leadership here. Here is a video from the conference that includes Josh, if you are interested. The men’s retreat, Band of Brothers, was a small but impactful time of fellowship, sharing our lives, and meditating on the scriptures together. Josh was the only American among Germans, Czechs, Dutch, and Norwegians. Did you know that one of the fastest-growing movements of young people coming to faith in Christ is in Norway? One of the men explained: they are realizing that the secular project has nothing substantive to offer them. We hope for a similar insight and realization of abundant life here in Prague.

Our ministry with Global Scholars with AAU students and faculty continues to expand with prayer meetings, gatherings with students, and now discussions about the possibility of helping bring a campus ministry to AAU (a Czech branch of InterVarsity). There is some exciting momentum and interest among students for exploring what practicing the way of Jesus might look like. Please pray for continued expansion and openness to growing in faith on campus.

One note for our current and new monthly supporters: Global Scholars has switched giving platforms (to Zeffy) so that we can receive 100% of what we raise to support our ministry here (in the past it has been 10% administrative fee). Monthly support is crucial to us because Anna does not make a salary, and Josh’s pay is only enough for rent. And of course, our mission here goes far beyond teaching classes. You can set up monthly giving here: https://global-scholars.org/donate/hayden-josh-and-anna/