Fully Engaged but Needing Grace: Update 16 from Prague

Dear friends and family,

Upon our return from a wonderful visit to the US, we were swept into the start of school, after-school activities, teaching ballet, and university life. It seems that we are only now catching our breath. This year, so much was waiting for us in Prague: the Ukrainian refugee community, clubs and activities at our kids’ school, students and faculty at AAU, and our family rhythms in our apartment. Anna has gone from occasional teaching to teaching ballet 5 times a week and 6th grade Bible everyday. The kids have gone from a few activities to a full plate of football, volleyball, karate, ballet, piano, and boy scouts. Josh has been asked to present, research, and teach beyond his normal duties. We are enjoying the full schedule, but sensing all the more acutely a need to protect time to slow down and refocus on the grace-filled moments we inhabit everyday.

Anna spends every Friday with Ukrainian families, a time that includes teaching ballet to their kids, having dinner together, and Bible study. You can’t imagine how grateful these families are and how much a weekly ballet class brings to their children’s lives. Anna is struck by the warmth of this community. The mothers and grandmothers who gather every Friday are able to share with each other, find support and engage in what will be a long healing process from all their trauma. They often sew or craft as they share and have Bible study. Anna and her Ukrainian co-laborers are planning a Christmas party and small recital for these dancers and their families.

Anna also has a new role at the Christian International School of Prague (CISP), teaching Bible to 6th graders as well as 3 ballet classes per week. CISP is a unique community bringing families from all over the world and while it is a Christian school, many families are of different faiths or of no particular faith. In Anna’s Bible class there are Hindus, Muslims and kids for whom faith plays no role, in addition to kids raised in Christian homes. One recent lesson, in which she introduced them to Lectio Divina as part of a unit on Spiritual Disciplines, Anna was struck by how many of them enjoyed the slow, quiet, meditative way of engaging scripture. They stated that they all felt less anxious afterwards. It was a reminder that these young people in a tech-heavy nonstop world need these types of ways to engage.

We were recently energized because we have just had friends from our church in Nashville, Doug and Beth Heimburger, visit. Doug spoke in Josh’s Ethics and Leadership class and Josh was excited to have a speaker not only with impressive experiences, but someone who is thoughtful about how his faith integrates with his vocation in global heath education. The students in Josh’s class this semester hail from El Salvador, Peru, Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic, and US just to name a few. Many students have been in Josh’s classes before, and 2 students are taking their 4th class with him! Recently, after a class, some students told Josh how much they were looking forward to coming for dinner this semester. We are so happy that students now expect and look forward to this relationship-building hospitality.

Through Josh’s ministry with Global Scholars, he has been asked to do a webinar next week, October 20, about his work on Vaclav Havel. Josh asked a Czech friend and colleague named Monika, who was one of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution here and knew Havel, to do the webinar with him. They have talked many times about faith in Christ, and how so many who fought for their freedom in the Czech Republic were quietly driven by this faith.

Lastly, Anna has really enjoyed Habits of the Household, recommended to her by several people during our time in the US. While we are slowly adding in rhythms from the book, a few have been really meaningful:

• Lighting the candle at dinner and saying in unison, “Christ is the light of the world!”

• Attempting some amount of meaningful dinner conversation (you can imagine how imperfectly this goes!)

• Giving our kids a blessing right before they run into school (well, the kids who walk with Anna to school)

We could use your prayer to slow down and enjoy God’s everyday gifts, be present with people in our daily activities, trust the Lord for financial provision, for patience in parenting, and wisdom for the family decisions this year.

Giving our love to you all and hope to connect soon,

The Haydens

with Doug and Beth Heimberger

Anna was touched one of her Ukrainian student's birthday celebration