Halloween

Trick or Treat!  We had friends over for costuming and then headed to THE neighborhood in Prague that does trick or treating.  It's like seeing all your friends that you've just seen at school, only with crazy costumes.

LegoLand

We had a spontaneous trip to Munich to go visit LegoLand with the Pokludas, featuring lots of roller coasters and Halloween-themed attractions!

Pumpkin Time

Weather's getting colder, must be time for pumpkins and s'mores at the fire pit outside!

And featuring our 2 new Polish pottery pumpkins...

Dzień dobry!

After Dresden, Phil, Clark, and Piper met the girls and drove from there to Poland for a few days -we stayed at a real castle...!

Fine dining in the castle...

We saw a few sites including Schindler's Factory (below), Polish pottery factory (sounds boring, right?  It was incredible!), and (Phil's fav) the Salt mine!

Krakow was beautiful and it was a super fun family trip!

Girls' trip to Dresden

Shanna and Lucy headed to Dresden for a fun shopping excursion with the Falk ladies.  They had a great time shopping, being silly, and eating at Vapiano's!

The Rabe's

This weekend we said goodbye to the most special person in Prague that we have had the opportunity to love and be loved by. Nina has been apart of our family for many years. It all started with her coming over to babysit for us. Then our friendship grew..and grew and grew. She loves my children in a way that is always so comforting to my heart, especially with family so far away. She is a bright light, funny, delightful and a servant. Over the years she has become my sister. It has been fun to watch her get married, and become a mom herself. We adore the men in her life. And now she embarks on a new adventure. She is moving to Japan. It will definately be a loss in our day to day. But we are excited for them as they take this great step of faith. We are praying for them in all the details, and especially that God will bring them a "Nina" in their world. 

We LOVE you!!!!! 

Church Particularzation

 

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on the completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  Philippians 1:3-6

8 plus years ago we started on this journey called Prague and so did you. You each committed to seeing the Gospel go to this little city in the middle of Europe. We committed to go as the hands and feet and yet your prayers gave way to the strength we needed to stay.

You committed to pray that the Lord would breath life into this place. You prayed when we had our first Bible study in our house, our first Thanksgiving celebration, the many dinners. You prayed thru hard and difficult times, friends suffering thru cancer, a coma and loss. You prayed thru loneliness. You prayed for the lost.  You prayed that the Lord would push back the darkness. You prayed for my family. You prayed for me.

Some of you came. You brought your families to walk to the road we travel everyday. You brought laughter, encouragement, wisdom, and hope.

You rejoiced in the small and large. A new friend, good days, a great conversation, sunshine, another year, pushing thru a heart issue, seeing growth, friends coming to know Jesus.

You have prayed and the Lord has heard your prayer.

And now here in this place sits a church. Faith Community became its own church this weekend. We had sweet friends here and partners in ministry, to be here with us for this great occasion. 

          We get to bare witness to what the Lord has done, together thru us all.  Let us rejoice! 

Prague 50km

Michal and I took part in the Prague 50km mountain bike ride over the weekend.  It was a beautiful, but strenuous, way to see lots of the backroads and paths around Prague.  There was a ton of mud from lots of rain, and at one point (near the end!) we had to get off our bike and walk it over a log stretching across a creek that had become a small river.  Great fun!

Harvest Celebrations at school

Riverside has a Harvest Celebration where each class does something different to celebrate the Harvest season. Piper's class put on a little play and then we celebrated with their own harvest party. 

 Lucy's class had a harvest celebration as well. Yummy food and some poems about the harvest.

Clark's class had a pumpkin carving. Since most kids in his class have never carved pumpkins before this was a fun thing to share with them.

 The finished Jack-o-lanterns.

Happy Birthday Phil!

We celebrated this amazing man today. He is 40!! I love this man and all that he is. He loves Jesus, his family and me more then words can express. He has a great love for others, he serves many, and he encourages all. We are blessed to have him in our life.

Happy Birthday Phil!! 

Pumpkin Patch

We had the most beautiful day at the pumpkin patch. The pumpkin man always has a huge spread of yummy pumpkin treats to eat as well as pumpkins, corn maze, animals to pet and fun bikes to ride. Every year it is a pilgrimage out to the pumpkin farm.