gel?

Clark got another haircut and Phil is teaching him the fine art of product...

yoga and bible study

Two weeks ago I started a Tuesday morning women's Bible study. As most of you know this is not my gifting, nor do I really feel adequate in leading, but I have felt the Lord really lay it on my heart to do this. It is very challenging for me and yet it is a place where the Lord meets me and great growth occurs. There are about 10 ladies from all parts of my life here and they are graciously joining me in this journey. We are going through a book called "Lost Women of the Bible" by Carolyn Curtis James. Each chapter takes a look at different women of the Bible - this week we studied Eve and next week (which is why I chose this book) is Mrs. Noah. Dorothy has also agreed to lead some weeks, and I am excited to benefit from her insights. And as an added benefit some of us take a yoga class together before Bible study!

playdates

This week has been a week of playdates... our friends Abby and Levi came over on Monday and new friends from music class Sophia and Ally came over yesterday!

What's in a Name?

We need your help! We are getting ready to start our Sunday church services on April 15th - we're very excited. They'll be in the afternoon at a nearby cafe (the one which a Czech church uses in the mornings - click here for a recap). One of the first things we need to do is come up with a name for the church, so last night's ice-breaker activity at Bible study was to think of some good names or key words for the church. We had lots of good ideas that filled up my new white board.

Any thoughts? Feel free to comment or send an email.

Should we be wearing orange vests?

Ahhh, an Easter Egg Hunt. A beautiful spring day in the park, children running and laughing as they find their bright plastic eggs, all of it lasting about 10 minutes! Right? Apparently not if you're British. The emphasis here seems to be on the word "Hunt," because Lucy's school held an Easter Egg Hunt in the woods outside of the city. At one point I expected to bump into Mr. Tumnus, the faun from Narnia. We're talking intense egg hunting.

The chocolate eggs were actually being held by the school teachers, who had hidden all through the woods and the kids had to find them. When they did, they had to answer a question and then get their eggs. Once they got their eggs they could go to the end for a hot dog and drink. It ended up being lots of fun, even though it was REALLY muddy from all the rain we had yesterday. Lucy's pink pants ended up being half-brown by the end!

Hope

For the past few weeks our Bible study has sent some volunteers to help a ministry called Nadĕje (or "Hope"), which does lots of great things in Prague including a homeless feeding on Saturday mornings. Today was my turn to go, and it was a really good (and humbling) experience. We prepared over 80 bags of food, which included some bread with butter, a sausage, and a roll. Maybe it's the cold weather we've had lately, but it seemed that we had not prepared enough food and tea for the long line of people who waited, so we ran back to the kitchen and made about 30 more bags.

It was clear to me that Nadĕje (and specifically the 3 guys I worked with today) are really here to serve the city, and I hope that we can do more to work with them in the future.

Team growth

We are very excited that another couple was approved last week to join our team here in Prague! Jake and Melissa Hunt (the cute couple right there) got the thumbs-up from World Harvest in Philadelphia and are now in that awkward "in-between" phase of life, where they live in Charlotte but look forward to living here too. Pray for them, and pray that they will join us soon!

Jake is finishing up his seminary career at RTS-Charlotte while interning at Uptown Church, and Melissa is transitioning from working at a school to becoming a full-time mom, whenever their little one decides to arrive (May-ish)!

So with the further growth of our team (yay), I made a separate section for our team's blogs now.

good report

Lucy had her parent teacher conference today and we are happy to report that she really is as smart as we think she is! Mr. Chisholm had very positive things to say about her in the areas of letters and numbers, that she is a delight in class and that she has improved in the area of sharing with others. He also said that when testing her on how high she can count she only made it to 34 before she decided that she wanted to draw a picture for mommy and daddy... We are very excited at how much she loves and enjoys school and all of her sweet little friends! Riverside School has truly been a blessing for us. To check out Lucy's school click here.

breakfast with AL

One of Clark's favorite people in Prague is Anna Lee. They are the same size, same stamina, and have the same zeal for life! They could even pass as siamese twins here. We have the pleasure of seeing Anna Lee and her mommy Emily most Mondays and Fridays at music /art classes that we take together. They are good friends and whenever we are together the laughter (Clark) and the squeals (AL) are plentiful!

gaming

This post is for Linz and Gorden.... I think phil misses you both especially when it comes to X-box. He has some new recuits for the magic world of Project Gotham Racing.

glam

Living the life of the rich and famous is hard but somebody has to....

If you still like paper...

We send out a periodic update via snail-mail. We're getting ready to send one off, and if you'd like to get them, please email us your address. Thanks!

New Links

Just letting you know we've added a couple of links to some friends (on the right over there) - one is our new teammate Dorothy, who just moved into her new flat last week. Another is our friend Elizabeth, a regular at Bible study and TV nights, and she's a pop-culture whiz.

the boys

Horsey rides anyone?

Mothers day in March

This week Lucy brought home a special hand made invitation for a Mothers day celebration at school. I am not sure if it is a British, Scottish, or just a Riverside school tradition but it supposedly happens each year in March. Her class made yummy biscuits (cookies) and muffins, along with a wonderful rendition of "you are my sunshine". The morning was topped off with special flowers that each child gave to thier mum! It was a fun morning for us!

Good Bye to Good Friends

Unfortunately, a big part of life here is saying good-bye to lots of people, some of whom get to be your good friends while they're here. Jessamyn and Dave have been that for us the last year-and-a-half. Shanna and Jessamyn have spent lots of fun time together and have shared a LOT of laughter. We had a good-bye dinner for them last week as they get ready to head back to Seattle (Microsoft is beckoning again - the wow is now!).

We're hopeful that this isn't the last we'll see of them in Europe (at least for some visits) - in the meantime, we will definitely miss them!

Sunday Brunch

So how do you celebrate a victory in the school Quiz Bowl? You go to Sunday brunch with your kids! Several of the parents from the winning trivia team went to an amazing brunch at a nearby hotel. It was fun to see everyone again the next day, and the kids had a blast. It was a Harry Potter theme, complete with a magician, balloons, face-painting, and costumes. Lucy loved being there with her school friends, and we enjoyed the awesome food.

You Spin Me Right Round

Our first attempt in a while at a video post - Clark is showing Yaya how he spins on the floor. Maybe break-dancing will make a comeback.

Click To Play

Riverside Quiz Night

Last night was Riverside School's annual Pub Quiz night. Nothing like combining beer and trivia, right? We joined some of the other nursery class parents in a quest to show off our brains - and we won! Our team was the Nursery Ninnies, and we had great fun defeating the other teams, especially the Teachers' Team (whose team name was "Young Enough to be Your Children").

Shanna was especially brilliant in the "Faces" section, where all her People magazine reading finally paid off, and she was able to identify almost all the celebrities simply by their eyes, hair, or body shape. Phil actually got a couple of American sports-related questions right, but I think we were the only Americans there, so we had a slight advantage.

Lucy's teacher Mr. Chisholm was a little upset that we had beaten his team, but we gave him a moment with the trophy before we snatched it back.

Chez Davis

We had a busy week full of house guests, which was lots of fun. First was Mr. Bill, of course, who brought the Prague Tar Heel fan base up by about 25%. Thank God he left before the ACC tournament started.

Then we had a friend with World Harvest Mission stay with us - Meredith Elder. He used to live in this part of the world with his family and now works in the Philadelphia office. He'll probably visit us a couple times each year to pray for us and provide some oversight. This year's "oversight" included going with Chris to a hockey game and hanging out with our friends, but there was some real work that was done too. We definitely enjoyed our time with him.

And as a bonus, Jessica Red stayed over one of those nights too on the futon, to help us with babysitting the next morning. The house seems awfully empty and quiet now.

Teammates, old and new

Mr. Bill from Budapest is back in Prague, possibly for his last visit before he moves elsewhere. It's also his birthday, so a bunch of us went out to celebrate his arrival to his mid-30s.

Bill was here in Prague back when we first arrived almost 2 years ago, really as our first team member. And now we have Dorothy, our newest teammate as of last week. As Elton John would sing, it's the circle of life.

Duke lost...

Belly up to the bar and let's drown our sorrows together.

Big week for the Prague team

This was a great week that we just had for three reasons:
(1) Shanna's birthday!

(2) We have a new team member! Dorothy arrived on Wednesday with her awesome black lab Maysea. She's here for two years as part of the World Harvest team, and we are very excited she's here. Besides recovering from her trip, she'll be looking for a place to live starting next week.

(3) Speaking of places to live, Chris, Laura, and Owen have moved to a new flat! It's not too far from where they used to live, but it's got more space for them and a better layout. We all went over there last night after the movers almost finished and spent some great time praying for their new flat - that it truly would become a home for them, and a place that people would learn more about God.

Pictures to come soon...

Mommy, the Birthday Girl / Hero!

Today was Mommy's big birthday! It was a great day of celebrating the best Mommy ever. After she had a fun breakfast with some of her friends and the kids came back from school, Lucy and Daddy made her a Snickers Ice Cream cake. We let it freeze while Mommy and Lucy went shoe shopping. Then it was time for presents and a skit by Daddy, Lucy, and Clark. Mommy was our Higglytown Hero, just like the Disney show, and we sang a re-worked version of the theme song. We even had props.

Then it was off to a restaurant for a dinner party with lots of Mommy's friends. And it was topped off by good ol' Cream and Dream ice cream! It had been a while, but C&D definitely missed us.

Happy Birthday, Mommy! We love you - thanks for being our hero!