It's A LIE, Santa DOES NOT live in the North Pole.

I'm afraid I have some news. It maybe good or bad, take it as you will.

Ladies and Gentelmen, I would like to announce that you have been lied to: Sant does not live in the North Pole; Santa actually lives in Prague. I have come up with four reasons Santa actually lives in Prague:

If you haven't seen the classic "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" movie you might be confused...stay with me here....if you must, go watch the film first

1) There is a Christmas Tree forest in every square
There are Christmas trees EVERYWHERE! INSIDE AND OUTSIDE! If you ask me, they're trying to disguise the Christmas tree forest.

2) Ther are Elf workshops a plenty
So...In the Christmas markets there are many booths. In most of the booths they sell toys and or homemade things, most of which are similar....looks like the work of elves to me.

3) Christmas Music coming out of everywhere
Some of the Christmas trees SING! YES THEY DO! I was walking through Jiriho z Podebrad and I heard music...I THOUGHT it was coming from an open flat window....nope....it was coming out of the tree.

4) Santa's Castle is at the top of the city
If you have seen the movie, you will notice that Santa's castle is the first on the left...up above the city. If you are coming into oldtown you will notice that the Prague Castle is the first castle on the left. Also, you can't go inside all of the rooms inside the castle, why? Because that is where Santa and the Elves live.

Now you know. I'm sorry if this has spoiled your Chrismtas. :-)

October/November Update

Dobrý Den, z Česká Republika!
Translation: Hello from the Czech Republic!

Thanks for becoming part of my support team! It’s time for another update!

My Schools:
Things at both GMH and GR continue to go well. The longer I am at both schools, the more I am coming to enjoy my job at both schools. I’m getting to know the other teachers at both places much more. I no longer feel like the “new person” at school, I’m just one of the staff! On the same note, I feel that I am starting to build genuine friendships with some of my students. I am not longer “the weird American teacher,” according to my students, I am the “real person” teacher …whatever that means.

My Ministry:
After speaking to my students and praying, I have joined forces with some of the other ESI teachers in Prague. We are now running two types of English clubs: an English conversation club (called Café Coze) and an English movie club (called Kava/Kino). Only two of my students have visited sofar, but I have a feeling it will take some time.

Regarding the two groups that God has presented me with, I have chosen to work with Youth Praha for a few reasons. The first being that the two Christian girls at Radotin go there and the second being that I feel like God has in a way, dropped Youth Praha in my lap through my church needing more help. It was like God was screaming “THIS IS IT!”

Youth Praha is a youth group is majorly focused on investing in missionary kids in Prague, but has brought in a fair number of Czechs. My vision working with Youth Praha is to invest in the kids that are there as well as invest in and invite students that would be interested in practicing their English with an entire room of English speakers. They can come and play games, sing songs and engage in dialogues about what they believe…and maybe even meet Jesus!!

My Spiritual Life:
Things at the International Church of Prague (ICP) are continuing to go well. I am also continuing to love the bible study through my church.

On another note, there is one thing that I have really been struggling with:
One night when I was taking the tram home from Youth Praha and a man slowly stepped onto the tram COVERED in blood. He had four HUGE gashes in his head, like he had been beaten with a pipe, bottle or something else. I started to cry instantly and since I don’t speak Czech, I didn’t know what to do nor could I really do anything. It seemed as if nobody had noticed because nobody reacted or tried to help him.
After seeing this I was quite upset for about a week, constantly thinking: “Why does God let things happen?” “Why wasn’t anyone helping him?” “How angry would someone to be do do that to another person.” The only conclusion that I have been able to come to in all of this is the realization of how much evil truly exists in the city I live in. Please pray against the evil one’s efforts here.

My Support:
A HUGE thank you to everyone who have been praying for me, to those of you who have signed up for monthly deductions and given special one-time gifts. As of right now, God has raised $7495.50!!! AWESOME!!! However, I still need to raise $4504.50 in order to reach my full budget of $12,000 before the end of February.
As you can see, I still need your help. To join my support team or add to my support please visit the TeachOverseas website: www.teachoverseas.org and click on the contribute link under the “about us” section. You can give using a credit card, paypal or sign up for monthly contributions. In the “contribute” section choose “teacher or staff member” and enter my name.

My Prayer Requests:

- Praise God that I am feeling at home in Prague and also at ICP.
- Praise God that I am building deeper relationships with the women in my bible
study
- Praise God that things at Youth Praha are going well
- Please pray that I will receive guidance in continuing to serve my students well
- Please pray that I can continue to build relationships with my students both at
school and English Club
- Please pray that God will provide me with more support both in prayer and funding
- Please pray that I will build deep relationships with the kids at Youth Praha
- Please pray for the man on the tram and the other evils in Prague


Thank you so much for all of your support!!

September Update

Dobry den!

Czeching Things Out:
So, I’ve officially lived in the Czech Republic for about eight weeks and I can honestly say Prague is beginning to feel like a place I can call home. I feel so blessed to be able to share with you how God is using me in the Czech Republic! Thank you so much for becoming part of my support team!!

My Schools:
As you know, I am splitting my commitment time between two schools: Gymnazium Milady Horakove and Gymnazium Radotin. Sofar things are going very well at both of my schools and I have been able to get to know some of my students.
Something that has been very challenging is that I have a student with autism at each of my schools and have been having a hard time making my lessons “student’s name” friendly. The things that I have tried so far seem to be working, but I am never truly sure if those students understand because I have not yet earned their trust. Please pray that he and my students with autism will become more comfortable with me so I can serve them more.

I also have a student in my beginner class at Milady Horakove that from a bi-lingual family. He and his parents are fluent in both Czech and English. In result, his fluency has placed him at a MUCH higher level than the rest of the class. Sometimes I find it very difficult to keep his attention in my lessons. Please ask for guidance as to how to what to do in this situation.


My Ministry:

First of all, God is pretty much amazing!! I’ve been praying about what my ministry should be with my students. He has answered my prayers!! A couple weeks ago at Milady Horakove, four of my students came up to me after class and asked if I would be able to give them private English lessons to help them prepare for an English exam required to study in the US next year. HELLO SIGN FROM GOD!! I GET IT!!! I’LL START AN ENGLISH CLUB!!!

On another note, I have also been praying about other types of ministry and do not feel the He is calling me to volunteer with IFES at this time. Rather He has used the IFES volunteers from the UK as part of my spiritual support system.
Right now, I feel that God is asking me to specifically invest in the younger girls, especially the students around me. In helping me do so, He has presented me with two student groups: Young Life and Youth Praha. Both groups have very different dynamics, please pray for His guidance.

My Spiritual Life:

Another prayer that has been answered is the prayer to find a church and or a really good bible study to make me feel at home: I have found both! I have been attending the International Church of Prague (ICP) and I have also been attending a women’s bible study through the church.

Most of the time I have been here, ICP has been taking a close look at Paul and his story. In result we’ve had “homework” (okay, its self afflicted homework) taking an even deeper look at the the life of Paul and God has been “smacking me” in the face with new angles to share the Gospel!! I’m SO EXCITED!

My Support:

First, a BIG thank you to everyone who have been praying for me, to those of you who have signed up for monthly deductions and given special one-time gifts. As of right now, God has raised $7395.50!!! AWESOME!!! However, I still need to raise $4604.50 in order to reach my full budget of $12,000 before the end of February.
As you can see, I still need your help. To join my support team or add to my support please visit the TeachOverseas website: www.teachoverseas.org and click on the contribute link under the “about us” section. From there you can give credit card or a paypal account or sign up for monthly contributions. In the “contribute” section choose “teacher or staff member” and enter my name.

My Prayer Requests:
- Praise God that I have been adjusting well to live abroad
- Praise God that I have found a church, bible study and Christian friends here
- Praise God for the ministry opportunities He has recently revealed to me
- Pray that I will receive guidance as to how to better serve my students with Autism
- Pray that I can find a way to feed my “beginner” level fluent English speaker
- Please pray that I can continue to build relationships with my students both at school and English Club
- Pray that God will make it clear as to which youth ministry I should be involved with (or both)
- Please pray that God will provide more support both in prayer and funding


Thank you so much for all of your support!!

With His Love,

Sierra

Another Milk Adventure!!

So, yesterday I went to the market again to get some things to make dinner. Since I was ALMOST out of milk, I decieded to get some more.

For those of you who don't know, the Czech word for milk is mleko. In Europe, you can get milk both in the cooler, but also on the shelf. The milk on the shelf can be left at room temperature until it's opened. The milk in the cooler and the milk on the shelf had different names printed on them followed by the word "mleko."

In the cooler there are many different types of milk. Since Meijer has multiple brands of milk, I assumed the Czech Republic is the same way. Since I learned from a friend of mine that the "clever" brand is the store brand I decided to buy the clever brand, which had "Kefirove mleko" printed on it, since at Meijer they're all the same thing....just different packaging.

The next morning, I found out that Kefirove mleko is NOT regular milk....its similar to buttermilk/liquid sour cream grossness. It RUINED my cereal AND my morning!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!!

I made it!

Newsflash! I'm here and I"m alive!!!

After an eleven hour flight, another half an hour flight and a car ride yesterday I finally arrived at my flat in Prague!

Sofar the two days I’ve been living in Prague have gone pretty well. The head english teacher at Milady Horakove and his best friend (who just so happens to be the principal) came to collect me from the airport and drove me back to my flat. (photos to come!!)

About an hour after arriving in my flat I had my first cross-cultural adventure...the great hunt for milk. There is a small supermarket (Postraviny) across the street from my flat so, out of convenience and also because I haven’t figured out public transportation yet, I decided to go there. While I was at the market I decided that I wanted some cereal to go with my milk, so I asked the cashier to help me find it. Since she had no idea what I was talking about so we played a little game of charades. Thanks to the charades, I now have cereal. Woot woot!

The next day (Saturday) the head English teacher from Milady Horakove brought one of the students from our school and her friend to show me around the city. At first the girl who will be in my class was afraid of me because I’m the first native English speaker she has ever spent a significant amount of time talking to, but as we walked and talked together she felt alot more comfortable. Her friend attends a private English Gymnazium, so her english skills are really good. I think my student felt more comfortable because her friend was there to help her.

On our tour we took public transit to Wenceslas square, through Old Town Square and through the Pragye castle gardens. Last year I had wanted to see the gardens but didn't have time....I was not impressed. Apparantly they are only beautiful in the springtime.

After the tour one of the girls had to stop at the market for some groceries to make her dinner. Some of the boarding schools let the students make their own meals in a community kitchen. While in the market the girls were very nice and helped me find everything I needed. It was very cute how excited they were to help me find everything.

For some reason, I was expecting the students to be sort of stand offish toward me, but they were both very sweet and very excited to get to know me. After today, I’m even more excited for school to start so that I can meet the rest of my students at both of my schools!

July Update

Dobry den!

I hope all of you have been having a really great summer so-far!

My Training:
As some of you know I’ve been at TeachOverseas (aka ESI: Educational Services International) training in Pasadena, California for about two and a half weeks now. I must admit that the first couple weeks at training have been pretty stressful for me but, all still going very well. Every day I learn something new and feel more inspired to be a better teacher. I have also been building some very strong relationships with both the new teachers and the returning teachers in my region. I feel like God has hand pieced our regional team together perfectly and I feel like I have been able to personally connect with almost everyone. As far as “training” for the field goes, I’ve been learning a lot about the spiritual climate of the Czech Republic. I have also been feeling much more comfortable with teaching and my lesson planning has dramatically improved. There are about two more weeks until we fly out. We will be flying out on August 19th.

My Schools:
On Tuesday, I had a meeting with one of the directors and was able to finally learn more about my two schools! This fall I will be at two different schools: Gymnazium Milandy Horakove (in my emails I will call it Milandy Horakove) and Gymnazium Ody Pavla Rodatin (I will call this one Rodatin). (Gymnazium is basically a fancy, Czech word for high school/prep school) At Milandy Horakove I will be teaching both junior high (7th-8th grade) and high school students (grades 1 and 2). At Rodatin I will be teaching only high school students (grades 1-4).

My Ministry:
Things at the practice teaching site (practicum) are still going well. For those who are new to the update list, we practice teaching English lessons a few nights a week at a local, Christian-run community center. On Wednesday night, my lesson went really well and I almost started crying….not because my lesson went well…but because I was completely WOWED by God’s calling and how he is using the English teaching site for his glory. After our lesson one of the new students that evening asked to borrow my cell phone to call for a ride home. After the phone call he said that he could tell that this was a Christian ministry because “the Americans and the Mexicans do not exist, we are the same. This is the only place where people don’t treat me differently. I can see that here we are all brothers and sisters like Jesus say. It makes me sad that the world is not like this, when Jesus say it should be.” This was the students FIRST TIME at English lessons and he could see Christ in all of us. The fact that Christ was shining so brightly out of all of us already as a team was overwhelming, it took quite literally all of the energy I had to not burst into tears. Why does God have to be so cool? Haha

As for my ministry for this upcoming school year, I have been praying for guidance as to where my time should be spent. I have recently learned that the previous teacher at Rodatin was able to bring Young Life volunteers into the school by means of an English club. I have been praying about carrying on the ministry that the previous teacher has started. As of right now, I feel that He is asking me to continue this ministry in some way, but I am not sure how.

As of right now, I am not yet sure of what my ministry focus should be at Milandy Horakove. Milandy Horakove is a new school to ESI this year, so there have not been any teachers before me to pass on ministry ideas. I am thinking of either inviting my Milandy Horakove students to English club with my Rodatin students, or perhaps starting a separate English club or some other type of student club in which I can build relationships with my students.

Some of you also know that I have been praying about volunteering with IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) this coming school year. According to the IFES coordinator at InterVarsity chapter camp, the chapter in Prague is in desperate need of staff-workers, and I have been praying about volunteering with the chapter second semester. As if now I have not heard a definite “yes” or “no” from God on this matter, but I do feel that He is asking me to befriend the Czech staff members in this region for spiritual support. Please pray that I will hear clearly whether or not I should volunteer with IFES this year.

My Support:
First of all I want to thank everyone who has been praying for me regularly. Also thank you so much to those who have signed up for monthly deductions, and given special one-time gifts. As of right now, God has raised $5890.50!!! AWESOME!!! However, I do need to be at $7000 before I leave on 19 August, and would like to raise my full budget of $12000 before the end of February. If you would like to join my support team please visit the TeachOverseas website: www.teachoverseas.org and click on the contribute link under the “about us” section. From there you can give credit card or a paypal account or sign up for monthly contributions. In the “contribute” section choose “teacher or staff member” and enter my name: Sierra Athena Tyran.

My Prayer Requests:
- Praise God that team bonding and building trust has been a success!
- Please pray that the Lord will help to sustain me through the rest of training.
- Please pray that the Lord will continue to prepare my heart for my ministry in the Czech Republic.
- Pray that I will receive guidance as to how I fit into Young Life’s ministry at Rodatin
- Pray that the Lord will give me guidance as to what my ministry should be at Milandy Horakove
- Please pray that I will hear clearly whether or not I should volunteer with IFES this year.

Thank you so much for all of your support!!

The Czech Republic Is A Nemo Net.

This summer some of my friends and I have decided to have a bible study at my apartment. This past evening we studied Luke 5:1-11. I probably won't blog much about my spiritual life....well...I might.....I'm not sure, but I had some interesting thoughts during the discussion. I'm not sure if its my new obsession with scripture or my current mindset, but I feel like since accepting this position, but I feel like every time I read scripture I feel like God has something special to say that is completely relevant.

Luke 5:1-15 is the story where Jesus is by the lake and as the men are cleaning their nets Jesus asks them to let them down again and they return full of fish.

During the discussion the leader had us talk about the conversations that must have been going on between the fisherman and the people that were watching at the scene. That morning it was probably cold....okay, maybe not, but work with me here! It was probably cold, and the fishermen were tired and probably grumpy that this guy came up to them and asked them to get their nets dirty again when there haven't been any fish all night and there are most likely no fish right now. My reaction would be "Who does this guy think he is and what makes him think he can tell me to do something other than what I want to do?"

I thought about that, and that's kind of the place I was in before I realized that God was calling me to ministry. When I first came to college, I had a plan for myself. I was going to go to Michigan State, and earn both my MRS degree and nursing degree by the time I graduated. Then my husband and I were going to move to South Africa....or somewhere in Africa and cure HIV. When I first heard God knocking at my life, I basically thought "God, you're crazy. I have a plan, you're just going to have to use my plan"......if only things work that way. One theme in the passage that really stuck out to me was the fact that God came to Simon and met him where he was at. Simon liked fish, I like people....so God used people to show me his will for my life. No matter where you are or where you THINK you're going God ALWAYS meets you in a way where you personally connect with him. In a way, God did KINDA take my "advice" because he is still using me to care for people, but in a different way. Now I can't imagine myself doing anything except following him. God ALWAYS meets you where you're at, and if you follow where he is leading you, you will be so much happier.

Another thing we talked about during bible study was the verse where Simon says "Master, we've worked all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." I've read this passage multiple times, but for some reason I thought Simon might have been using sort of a sarcastic tone. I mean, think about it....if we were tired, cold and hungry we'd probably be in a bad mood and say something like that. Was Simon really being sarcastic? Who knows, but its believable, and something to think about.

During the discussion we also talked about what our reaction would be and what our conversations would be like after we saw the nets go down and the boats returning filled with fish. While we were talking about it someone compared the nearly sinking boats to the net of fish near the end of the movie Finding Nemo. They were so heavy and all the fish were working together to swim down. This is one of my weird analogies coming out, but since you're reading my Blog, you probably know me....so you probably knew this was coming....but the Czech Republic is the sinking Nemo net.

I mentioned this in my letter, but in the Czech Republic...well the European education system in general, there is something called institutionalized Atheism which basically "breeds" the people to be Atheist. This system is a Nemo net because in a way, the system works together, just like the fish work together to pull away from the boat...ie God. Yes, I just called God a boat....you'll understand why in a second....I hope.

Moving on....in the passage God asks Simon to do something that Simon and everyone else around them thinks is impossible. But the beauty of the situation is that God is God and God can perform miracles. Even though Simon thought Jesus was crazy, he still did what God asked him to. In this situation, alot of people have said that it is crazy to try to try doing ministry in the Czech Republic....for awhile.....okay deep down part of me still does....I thought it was crazy. But the thing is, God asks us to do things that most people....specifically non-christian people think are crazy, but because God says to do it, we do it anyway and God does amazing awesome things.

As Christians, God has made us fishermen for people. The Czech Republic is a Nemo net but through God I am a fisherman for people, because says so, I will let down the nets.

Yes.....I just said fisherman......it's my blog....if I want to be a fisherman....I can be a fisherman.....haha