The fire station

For the past several years we have been able to attend Sarasota County Fire Department's annual open house.  It's a great time to be outside, see lots of very cool things - new and old fire trucks, a helicopter, ambulances, horses, and even Smokey the Bear made an appearance.  It was too another reminder (hopefully!) of last times and a fun day to build memories. 

Evan with our good friends the Nouris - Daron and Alice

Driving a newer fire engine.  Did you know that fire trucks don't have keys?!

An older fire truck

Poppop, Evan, and Smokey

Smokey, Evan, and Momma

Kindergarten

Evan is now officially a kindergartener and is starting to learn how to read.  It is so much fun to see him really begin to put letter, sounds, and words together.  The world is opening up to him.  The Lord has provided a fantastic Christian school for us during this time of transition.

This fall I've been reflecting on how completely and totally different his life is now than it was two or three years ago, and how different his life will be than it would have been.  God in His amazing grace and mercy has seen fit to pluck him out of a life of sadness, grief, despondency, and drugs.  He has given Evan a new life, a new name, a hope, and a future.  And there are so many parallels between this earthly adoption and as Christians our heavenly adoption. 

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.  Galatians 4:4-7

 

VERY excited for his first day of kindergarten!

He LOVES to talk -- all the time. Right now his favorite topic is frogs!

The zoo in Zlin

On Saturday, we got to go to the zoo!  It was very exciting to go and see all the animals (some of them VERY up close).  BUT as exciting as it was to see the animals and spend the day at the zoo, it was even more exciting to see the Zitnanski family!!  Jano, Mata, David, Noemka, and Karinka (who live in Trnava, Slovakia) and are very, very dear friends decided to join us at the zoo as well.  

It was a joy to see my "sister" and my godchildren and for Evan to hang out with his "cousins".  





















We did get to see lots of other cool stuff too:)

More pictures after the jump!

LOTS of pictures!!!!

Well, I was trying to upload a lot of pictures as a slideshow or link them somehow, but I couldn't quite figure out how best to do that.  So, rather than spending another 20 minutes -- here are lots of pictures!  I'll put captions on them to give you some idea as to what they are!!

Typical housing

Evan with Pat and Mat (very famous Czechoslovak characters - you can see them here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTWGa6JnPZo)

At a bounce house in downtown Zlin

 More after the jump.....

Our first week in Zlin!

We made it!  We have now officially been in Zlin for a week, and it has been a wonderful whirlwind. 

Saying good-bye to Mimi and Poppop at the Ft. Myers airport

We're READY!  

Our flight to from Ft. Myers to Atlanta was late leaving due to some kind of problems in Atlanta.  So, we just made our connecting flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam.  Although, that flight was late leaving too!  The flight itself was fine.  Thankfully, Evan slept for several hours, and I dozed a little bit.  However, we missed our flight from Amsterdam to Vienna and "got to" spend about six hours in the airport.  If you have to get stuck in an airport, Amsterdam is a great one.  There were things to do - even a little inside playground!

Johnny and Annette Johnson were waiting for us in Vienna!!  The only thing that didn't make it was Evan carseat:)  And then after about a three hour drive, we arrived in various states of sleep in Zlin. 

Jetlag overall has been pretty minor.  The second night Evan and I were both restless for a while, but we didn't get up and have been fine ever since!

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Love,
Miriam and Evan

PS.  There are more blog posts (and importantly pictures) to come:)

Exciting News

Dear Friends,

It is always exciting to see God at work in our lives and in the lives of the people around us.  As you know Evan and I are preparing to share the love of Christ in Czech Republic as missionaries. While we are still raising support and cannot yet go long-term, God has opened the doors for us to go for several weeks this summer.  We will be leaving on July 10 and return August 13.  We're very excited! 

We will spend about a week in Zlin visiting with people, seeing some apartments, and visiting some schools.  All of it will help both of us (and especially Evan) get an even better picture of life for us.  We will also spend a week at English Camp.  I will be teaching an intermediate English class, and Evan will also attend a children's English class.  We will also be able to visit friends in Slovakia, as well as the church plant in Trnava.  

The following is a short slide show that I put together for my home church.   It has pictures of previous English Camps,  our new co-workers, and the faces of Zlin.  Enjoy and try to guess what song it is.  

As I was thinking about how best to talk about the great need of the gospel in Czech Republic.   It's not an "attractively poor" country as one of my friends would say.   The standard of living is not low.  But is a a country that is spiritually impoverished.  The definition of the word pagan is a good description.  Merriam Webster defines a pagan as, "one who has little or no religion who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods; an irreligious or hedonistic person."  It is an apt description. (By the way the song is Shout to the Lord.)

The people of Czech Republic desperately need to know, hear, see, and experience the love of Christ lived out before them.

Please pray for us!  Pray for us as we travel - almost 15 hours of airport time (not counting the five hours of time in the car), for English Camp, and for our time in Slovakia.  The church in Trnava, Slovakia is the midst of deciding how best to use their limited financial resources - pray for wisdom and discernment.

Thank you SO MUCH for your love, care, financial support, and prayer support!

In His love,
Miriam and Evan

PS. If you don't yet partner with us and would like to - please click on the following link:  Mission to the World - Miriam Grady.

Visiting in Chattanooga!

My brother Ben entertaining the young cousins- 9 kids and the oldest is 6!  Dale (the oldest at 13) found something other than playing ball and Ring around the Rosy to do - eat cake:)

One of the many joys we have is having the opportunity to meet with so many of you!

Evan and I spent the first week of May in Chattanooga, TN celebrating my cousin Brian Hess' graduation from Covenant College.   Brian's whole immediate family was able to go to Chattanooga too.  We had a wonderful time getting to hang out.

We got to spend time with an old college friend, who is now a professor at Covenant!  And then go to a baseball game with sister Karen's family.

Johnny and Annette Johnson (the couple that I have the honor of working with in Zlin) and their daughter Erin were also able to come out to the cabin and meet and visit with much of the family.  They were treated to the very fancy meal of hobo dinners.  If you don't know what that is, it's when you take aluminum foil and put ground beef, potatoes, carrots, etc. in the foil and then wrap it all up and cook it over the fire.  Very fancy:)  It was so much fun!

Two of the great delights of being at my parents' cabin is being outside and getting to catch bugs, frogs, turtles, and even snakes.  (I'm trying to teach Evan that even though I think they are all pretty gross -- they are still cool:) )  The other delight is the joy of fire!  Since it was still chilly while we were there, we took every opportunity to have a fire!

Proudly holding a snake that my Dad killed with a shovel

 More photos after the jump....