Momentum of the Spirit: Update 34 from Prague

Dear family and friends;

This Lent finds us paying attention to all the little ways that God shows up in relationships and community here. A recent dinner with students from Josh’s Decision Making class turned into music-in-the-round with ukelele, guitar, banjo and piano. After Joseph played a piano piece he’s been learning, a student remarked, “this is so beautiful I want to cry.” Then she clarified, “I mean this whole evening is so beautiful.” In our dinners we often adapt to the ways that students want to express themselves and engage with us. Hospitality has taught us the beauty in opening ourselves to them and walking through the open doors into their lives reverently. In this way these dinners become sacred ground. These days our kids tell us they look forward to them. And the students don’t want to leave. 

The beginning of 2026 has been a fast start for us, with Anna teaching ballet, Bible, and English; ministry with Ukrainians; Josh teaching his winter term class, Psychology of Decision Making; and the kids' soccer, swing dance, basketball, ballet, and theatre starting up again. Josh had just enough time between Winter and Spring semesters to oversee several students he is close to finish their thesis defense and comprehensive exam. One of the students wrote to Josh,

“I realized more and more how blessed I’ve been to have professors who were like extended parents to me. The way you make students feel: heard, challenged, and cared for, is not something you come across every day. So, thank you for granting me that experience, thank you for your amazing service, and thank you for your friendship.” 

Collier and Caleb have both been planning a Bible study group with their friends, and it’s been wonderful to see them maturing in their faith. All three boys are going through the Confirmation process in our church and will publicly affirm their faith on Holy Saturday. We want this to be something that they chose and we are fortunate that they have such a good relationship with our priest Nathanial. Of course, there is the normal teenage drama and indiscretion–and who is prepared to manage this world of screens and distractions?–but we savor the open and honest conversations and times of connection. As they get closer in age to the students we are in ministry with, we realize how precious this time is for our relationship.

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Anna recently initiated choreographing a worship piece for a church here. Sunday the 22nd Anna and two others will be dancing at the International Church of Prague. She is excited to get this form of worship going at a church here, as she had done for many years at St. Bartholomew’s in Nashville. Anna and Abigail just performed a ballet piece at the school talent show, and it was beautiful to see mother and daughter dance together. When the two took the stage, Collier yelled out from the audience, “That’s my family!”  

The university magazine, called the Lennon Wall, recently published an article featuring Josh rated as one of the top professors at AAU and his class as the top rated overall from course evaluations in the Fall. That momentum with students continued in his Winter term class. This is always a class that raises deeper issues because Josh gets his students to explore what they really want from their lives and how they might seek

wisdom. This time his discussion on St. Ignatius' method of discernment resonated with students, many wanting to explore the role their emotions play in their decisions and spiritual meaning. Josh teaches two other leadership courses this semester: Leadership and the Self and Ethics and Leadership. Both are at capacity, so there will be many students coming our way for dinner. In one of these classes, for the first time, Josh has a student who is the daughter of a friend of his from college. That will make you feel older!

Anna’s Bible classes at CISP are focused this quarter on the Gospel of Matthew.  She has just started teaching her favorite unit, which is on Jesus’ parables.  Please pray her students have ears to hear the message of Jesus and the Kingdom of God, and receive it with open hearts. Our chaplain Nathanial came to her classes and shared his testimony a few weeks ago.  Nathanial is from India, and Anna has many Indian students who are Hindu or Muslim.  We pray that hearing from Nathanial about why he follows Jesus impacts them.  It has been four years since the war in Ukraine started, and Anna continues to find great joy in loving and serving our dear Ukrainian community.  

We’ve had several good snows in Prague this Winter and have enjoyed the outside family time and some sledding with friends and neighbors. Winter has its moments here, but there is nothing like Spring. It comes slowly through the next two months, but when it's here, the city comes alive with people and activity. We have several dear friends from the U.S. coming to visit in the next month and we are looking forward to hosting them and being encouraged by having them with us. 

Finally, you can join us in prayer for the university. Josh has a bi-weekly prayer meeting with a couple of other faculty members and here are some prayer requests from this past week: Bible studies going on with curious students, student dinners at our apartment, for broken relationships among students we know and reconciliation, morale of faculty unhappy with recent administrative decisions, and a “prayer for peace in the world” event that a few of us are coordinating on campus. 

Thank you for supporting us in this ministry here. We are 75% of the way to our goal and you can see our progress here, see what we have left, and help us close the gap! Go to: https://www.faithfulpresenceprague.com/general-8 

Blessings in your journey to the cross and the open tomb,

The Haydens