Some things I learned in the Czech Republic

This is the last post on the Czech Republic (unless I randomly decide to add another one). 

What did I learn in the Czech Republic? I was struck with how spiritually dead of the Czechs. There are hundreds of beautiful churches in Prague and Brno, all of which are empty. Many of which are barred.

Notice the barred gates across the doors and lower windows.

The churches of a country can reflect the spiritual state of the citizens of the country. This is especially true in the Czech Republic. The churches are dead and empty. They are completely devoid of the spirit of God. The real church isn't in the buildings, but in small gatherings of devout Christians, many of which are led by mission teams like Mr. and Mrs. Y. The beautiful countryside and rich cultural heritage also reflect the Czechs' infatuation with monetary wealth, their focus is entirely temporal and they seek temporal pleasure.

Which brings me to the second thing I noticed; in a culture where God isn't prevalent and being fought for by any significant portion of the population there will be depravity, beyond what I thought even existed in western society.

I learned to be flexible, while having a plan. I always either like to have a plan and stick to it, or fly by the seat of my pants. We did both a lot on this trip. Everything worked out for the best, even when we almost got on the wrong plane. 

We take for granted the blessing of being less than ten miles from a church in almost any town in America. In the Czech Republic, there were about two churches in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. 

If I could only share one thing from my trip I would point to Christ. The two things that struck me most were the lack of Christ in the churches, and the seeing, and hearing stories about, Christ come into the lives of the Czechs. Slowly, but with surety.

In Brno

So we stopped off first in Brno in the Czech Republic. We stayed there in between going to the English camp and everywhere else. These first few pictures are pretty common to the Czech landscape; big rolling hills and medium sized trees with little leaves.

This was in the car on the way from Prague to Brno.

We went up to a hill just away from Brno to get a look at it
from far away, this is an airfield a few minutes away from
where we stayed.

This is a district of Brno called Meleansky (don't quote me
on the spelling). Our rooms were in the middle right section
of the picture.

That is Mr. Y pointing out his dream for the city, each section
of town had a story, it was really cool to see how the church
was spread throughout the city.

Czechs like to hike, and there were hiking trails
everywhere.

This was a large church in Brno. A monument
to the Czech's lost Christian heritage. All the
churches in the Czech Republic are like the
spiritual lives of its citizens. Empty and dead,
though wonderful.

Just a street in downtown Brno where we did
a little souvenir shopping.

A little point two liter coke at a hotel where we had lunch.

This is a traditional Czech meal; Dumplings (this was a sampler
of dumplings, clockwise from top left; traditional, Viennese,
and potato), which are made by boiling dough, beef, a roast,
two types of sauerkraut and some sauce, usually goulash.

This bakery took up half of a schnucks type grocery store. 

A McDonald's in Brno

A cheese shop... oddly enough.

Apparently there are a lot of hedgehogs in the Czech
Republic, and they are pretty popular in the culture.
(No, I didn't see any)

Another church, this one was quite a bit bigger.

That's all I've got for now. The next post will be a rundown of the day or two before the English Camp, and how we had some last minute preparations.

All the Best,

The Tall One