If you would like to help support us on our trip to the Czech, please visit HERE
Thank you to each and every one of you for your prayers and support for the trip.
It really means so much to us.
-Dizmas
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
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
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
Friday, October 10, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
A Day in the Life
Dear Friends and Family,
It's currently 11am here in the Czech Republic (5am in Pennsylvania) on Sunday morning and it's a much-needed day of rest! Our trip started last Thursday as we drove to the LAX airport from the Dizmas hometown of Lancaster, CA. We flew from LA to Frankfurt, Germany and from there to Prague, CZ. In Prague we took a bus to the subway and the subway to a train with a destination of Frydlant, a suburb of Ostrava, CZ. We arrived here safe and sound with a heavy dosage of jet-lag and spent the next few days preparing for the coming week of work. After countless meetings, meet and greets, and briefings, we were all ready to get into the schools where the kids were at.
The basic objective of each week is to go into high-schools and build relationships with the kids - also, inviting them to the end of the week concert and daily evening activities. The Josiah Venture has been allowed into high-schools to speak on things like, drugs, aids, sex, and American culture. Basically, the assemblies we do fulfill a requirement each school has to meet regarding a forum about morals and culture. So, the administration is happy they don't have to do it and we are using the opportunity to invite kids to events where the Gospel will be shared.
There is just so much to describe, I've decided to give you a basic schedule of our days this week so that you can get a better picture of what it is we are doing:
5:20am - Wake up, quiet time
5:40 - Nick and I walk to the vans (we are the default drivers because no one else can drive a manual transmission) parked somewhere in the city and drive them back to where we are staying.
6:00 - Everyone is at the van loading up the gear (there is a BUNCH of it...A full PA, lights, projecting equipment all in big road cases) - Due to a problem with theft in the Czech we have to unload the van every time we're not going to be in it, which usually means unloading and loading about 3 times a day. We're sore.
6:15 - Leave for the school.
6:30 - Arrive at the school and load everything into the gym. Set-up the PA and all of the amps, drums, instruments. Sound check. The assemblies start at 8, so we have a lot to do in a short amount of time!
8:00 - The assembly begins and we play 4 songs in between talking points and video clips. The concert at the end of the week is promoted. Kids can decide on a lecture to attend for the afternoon, one of which is a discussion of American style and culture with Dizmas.
9:00 - Assembly ends.
9:15 - The five Dizmas guys head to a classroom for about 3 hours worth of lectures with a translator and a slide show of pictures from home. The rest of the guys pack up unless we have an additional afternoon session, in which case they come with us to the classroom. The lectures were very intimidating at first...We had nothing to lecture on! Now, we have a formula that seems to be working. We start out with an ice-breaking game, which allows everyone to learn each other's names. This is great, because we're almost always able to remember the kids that we meet, call them by name when we see them, and even pray for them later on. From there, we break into smaller groups and talk about each other's cultures.
12:30pm - Possible 2nd session in the gym with some more music.
1:30 - Pack up and load out. (LOTS of stairs...Why are all of the gyms on the top floor??!)
2:00 - Arrive back at the headquarters and unload the van.
2:30 - Lunch and then maybe nap time. If it's the weekend, we head to the venue where to big concert is going to be and set-up up everything again for that.
4:00 - Head to evening activity. These vary and are lead by local small groups (youth groups). Usually they involve some type of game, like airsoft (basically shooting each other with BB guns), ping-pong, and fooseball, and an awkward "talk show" with the band :)
7:30 - 8:00 - Head back to the base.
9:30 - Prayer meeting and debriefing.
10:00 - Free time...Bed time.
The first week went great, I think. The concert on Friday was amazing! About 300 people showed up, which is really good for the town of Hradec Kralove. I've never seen kids have so much fun at a show. Everyone on the team did a great job and we all made some great relationships with kids. Last night we had one final event. Many of the kids from the concert came out and connected with the local church! In a country with only 2,000 Christians, that is so cool. Praise God!
One week down, 6 more to go (and 6 more cities). Please continue to pray over this!
Jon
It's currently 11am here in the Czech Republic (5am in Pennsylvania) on Sunday morning and it's a much-needed day of rest! Our trip started last Thursday as we drove to the LAX airport from the Dizmas hometown of Lancaster, CA. We flew from LA to Frankfurt, Germany and from there to Prague, CZ. In Prague we took a bus to the subway and the subway to a train with a destination of Frydlant, a suburb of Ostrava, CZ. We arrived here safe and sound with a heavy dosage of jet-lag and spent the next few days preparing for the coming week of work. After countless meetings, meet and greets, and briefings, we were all ready to get into the schools where the kids were at.
The basic objective of each week is to go into high-schools and build relationships with the kids - also, inviting them to the end of the week concert and daily evening activities. The Josiah Venture has been allowed into high-schools to speak on things like, drugs, aids, sex, and American culture. Basically, the assemblies we do fulfill a requirement each school has to meet regarding a forum about morals and culture. So, the administration is happy they don't have to do it and we are using the opportunity to invite kids to events where the Gospel will be shared.
There is just so much to describe, I've decided to give you a basic schedule of our days this week so that you can get a better picture of what it is we are doing:
5:20am - Wake up, quiet time
5:40 - Nick and I walk to the vans (we are the default drivers because no one else can drive a manual transmission) parked somewhere in the city and drive them back to where we are staying.
6:00 - Everyone is at the van loading up the gear (there is a BUNCH of it...A full PA, lights, projecting equipment all in big road cases) - Due to a problem with theft in the Czech we have to unload the van every time we're not going to be in it, which usually means unloading and loading about 3 times a day. We're sore.
6:15 - Leave for the school.
6:30 - Arrive at the school and load everything into the gym. Set-up the PA and all of the amps, drums, instruments. Sound check. The assemblies start at 8, so we have a lot to do in a short amount of time!
8:00 - The assembly begins and we play 4 songs in between talking points and video clips. The concert at the end of the week is promoted. Kids can decide on a lecture to attend for the afternoon, one of which is a discussion of American style and culture with Dizmas.
9:00 - Assembly ends.
9:15 - The five Dizmas guys head to a classroom for about 3 hours worth of lectures with a translator and a slide show of pictures from home. The rest of the guys pack up unless we have an additional afternoon session, in which case they come with us to the classroom. The lectures were very intimidating at first...We had nothing to lecture on! Now, we have a formula that seems to be working. We start out with an ice-breaking game, which allows everyone to learn each other's names. This is great, because we're almost always able to remember the kids that we meet, call them by name when we see them, and even pray for them later on. From there, we break into smaller groups and talk about each other's cultures.
12:30pm - Possible 2nd session in the gym with some more music.
1:30 - Pack up and load out. (LOTS of stairs...Why are all of the gyms on the top floor??!)
2:00 - Arrive back at the headquarters and unload the van.
2:30 - Lunch and then maybe nap time. If it's the weekend, we head to the venue where to big concert is going to be and set-up up everything again for that.
4:00 - Head to evening activity. These vary and are lead by local small groups (youth groups). Usually they involve some type of game, like airsoft (basically shooting each other with BB guns), ping-pong, and fooseball, and an awkward "talk show" with the band :)
7:30 - 8:00 - Head back to the base.
9:30 - Prayer meeting and debriefing.
10:00 - Free time...Bed time.
The first week went great, I think. The concert on Friday was amazing! About 300 people showed up, which is really good for the town of Hradec Kralove. I've never seen kids have so much fun at a show. Everyone on the team did a great job and we all made some great relationships with kids. Last night we had one final event. Many of the kids from the concert came out and connected with the local church! In a country with only 2,000 Christians, that is so cool. Praise God!
One week down, 6 more to go (and 6 more cities). Please continue to pray over this!
Jon
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
who doesn't love snow white???
So Dizmas is in the Czech Republic if you haven't caught onto that. :) And we have a new nickname, I guess?
It all starts with Daniela. Daniela is a girl that has been assigned to help us and assist us with most of our questions while we are here. She goes almost everywhere with us. Well today we found out a secret nickname that the rest of the team was calling us, and our new friend Daniela. They called us "Snow white, and the 8 dwarves." To which we informed them that in the States dwarf is kind of an offensive term. They asked what they should call us instead? To which we said the term "little people" is less offensive. The name soon became "Snow white and the 8 little people."
It gets worse! Then a Czech man, Milan, messed up and said Snow wife, which then led to our new dizmas Nick name!!! Snow wife and the 8 little husbands.
I have been apart of many nicknames in Dizmas, but i think this one takes the cake! Absolutely Brilliant!
- Josh
Monday, September 29, 2008
eat your vegetables....
So we are in the Czech republic. We are all still in tired mode after all of the traveling, been going to bed early, trying to get back to semi normal. Food's pretty good, people here speak good english, and good is good is good. Tommorow we head to our first city, and the first concert is in a couple days, so be praying for us as we start this adventure. Also, make sure to eat your fruits and vegetables, because no one eats them here, i never thought that eating brocolli would be so delicious.
clay
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
We're off to Europe!!
Hello everyone,
I hope this post finds you all happy and encouraged in the Lord. Real quick, I just wanted to take some time to let you know that this blog is one of the main ways we (dizmas) plan to communicate with you while we are on tour in Europe. So, please check in regularly as I will try to let you know of all the amazing things God is doing in our lives while we are over there.
For those of you who do not know, Dizmas will be leaving this Thursday to tour in the country of Czech Republic. We will tour the country for about seven weeks, playing in local high schools, educating teenagers, and working along side an organization known as Josiah Venture. Josiah Venture, with the help of the Czech government, has organized this tour and called it "The Exit Tour."
To give you a brief history, the Czech Republic is known to be a nation of musicians and poets. In it's history, the Czech Republic has produced many famous composers, thinkers, and innovators. Along side the many outstanding artists in it's history the Czech also has a rich spiritual heritage that includes Jan Hus, a reformer who inspired Martin Luther, and in a period of 20 years accomplished more missionary work than the entire Protestant church in the 200 years preceding.
I hope this post finds you all happy and encouraged in the Lord. Real quick, I just wanted to take some time to let you know that this blog is one of the main ways we (dizmas) plan to communicate with you while we are on tour in Europe. So, please check in regularly as I will try to let you know of all the amazing things God is doing in our lives while we are over there.
For those of you who do not know, Dizmas will be leaving this Thursday to tour in the country of Czech Republic. We will tour the country for about seven weeks, playing in local high schools, educating teenagers, and working along side an organization known as Josiah Venture. Josiah Venture, with the help of the Czech government, has organized this tour and called it "The Exit Tour."
To give you a brief history, the Czech Republic is known to be a nation of musicians and poets. In it's history, the Czech Republic has produced many famous composers, thinkers, and innovators. Along side the many outstanding artists in it's history the Czech also has a rich spiritual heritage that includes Jan Hus, a reformer who inspired Martin Luther, and in a period of 20 years accomplished more missionary work than the entire Protestant church in the 200 years preceding.
In spite of this heritage, the forced domination of the Catholic church during the 1800's and the powerful impact of communism during the 1900's have produced a nation that is profoundly secular and quite skeptical of religion. Some say it is the most atheistic nation on earth, with the highest percentage of people convinced that God and a spiritual world does not even exist.
As you might imagine, we have a huge opportunity to impact this country with the truth of the gospel. In fact, we have been told, that we are the first Christian band to be allowed to play in Czech schools in the last 50 years. We consider this opportunity an honor and would like to ask for your prayers as we begin this new adventure. For now, if you would like some specific things to pray for, please pray that we will travel safely and that once we arrive God will give us the energy, unity, and wisdom to minister the truth in love. Thank you.
Finally, if you would like to support our trip or learn more about Josiah Venture and it's vision please learn more at www.josiahventure.com. Thanks again and don't forget there are many more of these letters to come.
Be blessed,
Zach Zegan
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