Czech Mate Ministries International

Ken and Linda Stapleton's news site. Send tax deductible contributions to; CMMI, PO Box 46068, Seattle, WA 98146

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Location: Liberec/Seattle, United States

are missionaries living in the Czech Republic since 1997. Their support comes from individuals and churches in the United States and the Czech Republic. Send tax deductible contributions to; CMMI, PO Box 46068, Seattle, WA 98146

Sunday, January 23, 2011

NOVA PAKA November 29, 2010 WE WERE HIPPIES

Believe it or not, we are often asked to do a presentation called We Were Hippies. Ken and I have done this over 20 times in about 16 different towns. We were hippies when we were in college and as a young married couple so many years ago. But this is a subject of great interest to both young and old here in Czech. In 1968 the Warsaw Pact re-invaded Czech as they were trying to get closer to the West and information about what happened in the hippie movement was no longer available. Many Czechs have never heard that thousands of hippies found what they were looking for (LOVE, PEACE AND BROTHERHOOD) in Christ. We talk about the hippie lifestyle and philosophy and then our personal conversion story. It is a powerful testimony.

On November 29th we were asked to do it in Nova Paka, a small town about 40 minutes from Liberec . It was a very cold (20F) evening and snow had been falling for the last few days. We were wondering if maybe we should cancel. But to our delight we arrived to a full room of both young and old. One of the unusual things we do on these evenings is introduce them to pseudo-hippie food - brownies laced with mint leaves and electric Kool Aid with fizzy vitamin C tablets as the replacement for harder drugs.

Sorry for the small pictues at the bottom. We didn't take any pictures ourselves and this is all we could get from another source.

THANKSGIVING 2010 IN CHRASTAVA AND RYCHNOV

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year.

On November 19th Pastor Simon Dvorak of the Church in Chrastava welcomed 30 guests to his church to enjoy a full turkey dinner. Ken cooked and presented the whole roasted turkey and Linda gave a slide show on the history and traditions of Thanksgiving in America. Many of the guests currently or formerly attend(ed) our English conversation groups that we hold weekly in the Chrastava church. Each table had a turkey craft in which each person wrote on turkey feathers what he/she was thankful for this year and then each table shared it with the group.

The following week we traveled to Rychnov for our second full turkey dinner with 30 members of the church there and their guests. We again did the turkey craft to share what we were thankful for and presented a slide show about Thanksgiving traditions in America. Thanksgiving is such a natural way to share about our faith and thankfulness to God for His many blessings.

Thanksgiving in Chrastava November 19, 2011



Thanksgiving in Rychnov nad Kneznou November 26th



FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS RE-ESTABLISHED IN SEMILY AND TURNOV Nov 5th and 6th

Some towns in the Czech Republic are re-introducing the celebration called Lampiony (festival of lights) in which the children can dress up in costumes and the community walks through town with lanterns. The Turnov church was asked by the City Hall of Semily if they would organize it for their town which they did. They held the lantern walk in Semily on November 5th and in Turnov on November 6th. Ken was asked to be the leader of the parade and he dressed up as Luther and carried a lantern high for all to follow. As you can see by the pictures, it was a family affair with many happy children. Over 300 participants walked in the parade in Semily and 200 in Turnov. The Turnov church is planning to plant a church in Semily and has been asked to start a youth center there similar to The Bouda in Turnov.



ROYAL RANGERS CAMP CZECH STYLE October 26-31st

Many may be familiar with Royal Rangers. There is a Royal Ranger Camp near Brno, Czech Republic. It is very primitive and spartan. But what it lacks in amenities, it makes up for in enthusiasm. We had not worked in Brno for many years and have few contacts in that city (it is about 5 hours from Liberec). Three churches with Royal Ranger outposts scheduled their third annual English Camp for October 26-31st. Then they discovered that their native speaker guests could not come. Through mutual Christian friends, we were asked to participate. It was a joy to meet a whole new set of Christians and minister together to a group of youth ranging in ages from 12 -25. In the pictures you can see an illustrated sermon on the armor of God including medieval and modern military examples and one of the many English classes where the kids were challenged to write as many body parts as they could think of in colorful letters. And as an added blessing, another Christian friend knew a Christian family who had a house in the small village where the camp was located who graciously allowed us to stay in their home. So we had a bed and a toilet at night instead of pillows on a cement floor and an outhouse. God is SO GOOD.



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