Week 2 Update...

Hello everyone!
We had another great week in the Czech Republic. This time, we were stationed in the city of Český Těšín, which is right on the eastern edge of the Czech and borders Poland. The language spoken was sometimes Czech, sometimes Polish, and sometimes a mixture of both. But, that's ok because we can't really understand any of it! :) We are trying to learn, though Here are some facts from Wikipedia about Cesky (always right, always accurate):

In 1938 there was a sizeable Jewish minority in the town, about 1,500 in Cieszyn and 1,300 in Český Těšín.[9] Nearly all of them were killed by Nazi Germany in concentration camps.[10] Most of the synagogues were destroyed. Today the only synagogue still stands in the town, used as a Polish cultural centre. The Jewish cemetery in Český Těšín is abandoned. The sizeable German community fled or were expelled to Germany after the war. There are no Jewish, nor German communities in the town today.

The diversity of the town is not only ethnic, but also religious. Many Christian denominations are present in the town. In the past a large Jewish community lived there. According to the 2001 census there are 14,860 believers in the town (56.2% of the population), out of whom 8,916 (60%) are Roman Catholics, 737 (5%) Czech Brethren, 356 (2.4%) Jehova's Witnesses and 1,709 (11.5%) others, mainly Lutherans.[11]

There is also a great gallery of the city on the Wikipedia page, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Český_Těšín

Český Těšín is known as the most "Christian" place in the Czech Republic. We spent a good bit of time with believers (That's what born-again Christians are referred to as here). The main focus during this city was the evening activities for the students away from school. We played at 3 different high schools, which went really well. Unfortunately, we were only able to lecture in one of them so our time with the students during the day was brief. Each evening 2 or 3 of the local churches would convert a small room in their church to a "tea room" - A middle-eastern influenced type coffee-shop at which light music is played, shoes are not allowed, and everyone sits on the floor to chat and/or play games. The eight of us divided up each evening and spent about 4 hours talking and building relationships with the kids. It was great! The team refers to us as "magnets," because we attract teenagers who are interested in American culture or just meeting a band. We weren't sure if our relationships made in Cesky Tesin would be as deep as those made in Hratec Kralove, but they certainly were. By the end of the week we had begun hundreds of friendships!

On Saturday night, about 400 of our "friends" packed into a little theatre in town for a really energetic concert. When Zach spoke about God, the whole crowd cheered and the believers in the town were very moved by that response. We hung out with most of those kids for quite some time after the show. I conducted an impromptu "guitar seminar" for a handful of guitarists who wanted to know about all of my gear and pose for pictures with my guitar. It's the moments like those that really make me happy...We run the risk of just being "rock stars" to these kids unless we make ourselves accessible. The next morning, we played a couple acoustic songs at a local church service. When it was time for communion, a couple of the guys were really freaked out to see a single cup of wine being passed around! Josh, AJ, and I, had to sit in the back of the room because of space issues and we were DEAD LAST to receive the cup. I'm pretty sure I saw some floaters in there, but it was still great to take communion with those people! :)
We were challenged last night at dinner by Dave Patty, the JV man-in-charge to share the gospel more boldly and more often. He reminded us that it's easy to talk about God and religion, but if we don't tell people about the sacrifice of Christ and the redemption we have through that, then the true gospel has not been told. Please pray for boldness and that God will use our words to open the eyes of those He chooses as we head into this next week.

Also, AJ is a little sick with some sinus stuff and Josh is starting to feel it a little bit too.

Again, thank you for all of your support and prayer...Also, thank you for the responses to last weeks email. I have read them all and will attempt to respond, but internet is somewhat scarce here as well as time. Feel free to keep responding because it is very encouraging!

jon