We want to give our friends and family abroad a glimpse into our world in Brno, Czech Republic. It's nothing fancy, but it's surely different from life in the USA, as well as Okinawa, Japan. Each night for the next week I will post photos from our day so you can see where we normally go and what we normally do. "Oshmanovi," by the way, means Oshman family in Czech.
Enjoy this little window into our world. With love, from Oshmanovi...
Here we are on our way to church this morning. Our church, Betanie, doesn’t own its own building, so we rent a chapel from a Catholic hospital each Sunday morning. We are so thankful to be a part of an Evangelical church in Brno (Evangelical basically means Protestant, bible-believing and Jesus-centered, for my international and Czech friends and readers). Check out Betanie’s website here.
Every Sunday morning when we pass this Baby Box, I am so thankful that it is there, embedded in the exterior wall of the hospital. My limited research shows that about 12 babies are placed in the Czech Republic’s 50 boxes each year. About 50% of all pregnancies in the Czech Republic are aborted, so I whole-heartedly applaud this alternative. The directions read, “Press the green button, the door opens automatically. Insert the child into the box, fifteen seconds later the door will automatically close.”
Here Hannah waits for me next to the sign indicating that the “Bohuslužba” (worship service) is through these doors.
Here our friend Luděk reads the story of David a Goliáš from 1 Samuel 17.
Refreshments and coffee are always provided after the service. This is a great chance for us to get to know others in our church and confuse them, I mean practice our Czech with them.
Mark is chatting with two friends: our Pastor Petr and one of Betanie’s elders named Tomáš. We are thankful for these two men who love God and want to see Brno impacted by the love of Christ.
Here’s my three littles on our way out of church. They’ve done a great job adapting to a vastly different church culture than they are accustomed to.
I asked Mark to pause on his way out. This statue is like many religious statues that line every street in Brno. Though religious scenes dominate the landscape here, over 70% of Czechs are atheists.
Our commute home from church is about 15 minutes. Here we are entering our corner of Brno, called Bosonohy.
As we do every Sunday afternoon, we had Community Group at our house from 4pm to 6pm. The group is made up of five Czech and American families and we’re going through The Gospel Project. The group members have become absolutely precious to us. Each week we eat together, worship (in English!) together, study the Bible together, and pray for one another.
Hannah is finishing her portion of pumpkin soup, homemade hummus and focaccia bread, and paleo zucchini bread. I just love cooking for people and having them in my home. Nothing better.
I’ll close with something you don’t see everyday: a fire raging outside your window. It’s actually the second fire we’ve seen from our house in our 17 months here. It’s a tire service and that black smoke drifted right over our house. I do not think anyone was injured. This photo was taken by someone nearby named Olivie Mlčoušková and shared on the Brno Rádio Krokodýl Facebook page.
Thanks for tuning in to Day One with Oshmanovi. Dobrou noc!