Job Description

     We know that you all have been praying for us and for the ministry at CISP, so I thought I would use this update to tell you more details about my specific classes, and how those classes are going. 

When we first arrived in Prague, I was told that my class would be 7^th-9^th grade English and 7^th grade Bible.  That changed very quickly to 8^th grade Bible as the decision was made to let another teacher take the 7^th grade class.  After about a week or so, I decided to swap the 8^th grade Bible class for 8^th grade Ancient Civilizations.  The four classes keep me quite busy as much of the material I am teaching is new.  I often feel like a first year teacher all over again with the planning and preparing of my classes.  But overall I am enjoying the subject matter and the students.

7^th Grade – There are 6 students in this class, which is probably the smallest class I have ever taught, but the students are lots of fun and they seem to enjoy learning.  In this class, there are 4 Americans, 1 Italian/Spanish, and 1 Greek/French.  The class is made up of 5 boys and 1 girl.  I spend a lot of time trying to vary the subject matter to include grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, and poetry.  Please pray for these students as 3 of them do not come from Christian homes.  Pray that God would be working in their lives to change them and bring them to Himself.  Also, there are 2 students who struggle with strong learning difficulties.  Pray that I (and the other teachers at CISP) would know how to best meet their specific needs.

8^th Grade – This class has 11 students – 4 girls and 7 boys – and is also quite international.  There are 6 Americans, 1 Ukrainian, 1 Czech, 1 Nigerian, 1 Italian/Spanish, and 1 Greek.  Much of the English class - like the 7^th grade – covers reading, vocabulary, writing, and grammar.  The Ancient Civilizations class has already gone through the beginnings of civilization, and Egypt.  This next semester the students will study Greece and Rome.  Pray for me as I spend a lot of time with these students that I will be able to model Christ to them, and that I will have a lot of patience with them, as they are a very high energy/high maintenance class.  Pray also for Christiana and me as we will be taking 6 of these students to Rome in April and there is still much planning to do for that.  Lastly pray for some of the boys in this class who have very little motivation and desire to study that God will change their hearts as well.

 

9^th Grade – This is the largest class at CISP.  There are 14 students – 5 girls and 8 boys – and their nationalities include 10 Americans, 1 Ukrainian, 1 Czech, and 1 Indian.  This class is also high energy, but also a lot of fun to interact with and to teach.  Most of them are well motivated and seem to enjoy learning.  Please pray for God to raise up Godly student leaders from this class that will lead others to Christ.  

 

40 Somethings

I read an article today entitled "40 things I can do at 40 that I couldn't do at 20."  It piqued my interest because I am turning 40 next week.  Some of the things on the list I could relate to and some I couldn't (since it was written by a woman.) So I decided to come up with my own list of 40 somethings.  I thought about using that title; I thought about "40 things God has taught me" or "40 ways I have been blessed" or "40 most influential people in my life." I even thought about a list of 40 lists that I could write.  In the end I decided on this: "40 things I know now that I didn't know or understand when I was 20." These may also be the first of many pieces of wisdom that I leave for my daughter. These are in no particular order, just listed as they came to mind.
So here we go:
1. It really is "a small world after all" and getting smaller.
2. The world is not completely black and white.  There are a lot more grays than I want to admit.
3. The Christian community/culture is far more unforgiving than it claims to be.
4. Coffee is amazing!
5. As much as I may plan, life never goes the way I expect.
6. Teaching is not merely about the content; it is as much about the contacts and the connections.
7. Middle-schoolers are not as scary as they appear.
8. 2nd graders are scarier because they are cuter.
9. Just because someone is a Christian doesn't mean they believe everything exactly as I do.
10. In light of eternity, "Denomination" is irrelevant.
11. Marriage is not as scary as people make it out to be.
12. Fear is never a reason not to do something (except maybe bungee jumping or snake wrangling).
13. Friendships are worth more than any amount of money in the world. Don't let them fall by the wayside.
14. The world we live in is a messed up, screwed up, evil place; and far too often good people get caught in the wake of that evil.
15. We cannot know true love without risk and vulnerability.
16. Trust must be an everyday choice.
17. Beauty doesn't always look the way I expect it to.
18. People won't always understand your humor, but it's still ok to be weird sometimes.
19. There are some dragons worth fighting and some that are not ours to slay.
20. Life is much better when you have someone to laugh with.
21. My body can and will adjust to temperatures below freezing.
22. You know it's cold when your nose hairs freeze.
23. Sometimes it's necessary to curse.
24. Drinking alcohol won't send you to hell.
25. America is not the greatest country in the world.
26. You can never have too many pillows.
27. The ministry that God gives us to do should never become more important than the ministry to our spouse and our children.
28. People are stupid. Love them anyway.
29. It's ok to cry at movies.
30. It's ok to ask for help.
31. Control is an illusion.
32. After the written word, music is the most powerful medium on the planet.
33. There is always something to be thankful for.
34. Grace must be fully accepted to be truly impacting.
35. There is nothing more valuable (and priceless) to God than we are.
36. Our parents made many mistakes, but they did the best job they could with what they were given.
37. The American church is not THE church that the rest of the world should be patterned after.
38. If your life has no adventure, you aren't really living.
39. Changing diapers really isn't that bad.
40. I write because it is the best way to express what is in me, not just because I want to tell a story.

And... 1 to grow on... Life really does imitate art.

Christmas...from a new father's perspective

     Christmas is definitely nothing new for me.  I've been celebrating it for 39 years now.  But this year everything seems new.  I guess having a baby will do that.  Mostly I've been thinking about the incarnation for the past couple weeks.  John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and Paul tells us in Philippians tells us that Jesus gave up everything to take the form of man.  Again these are not new Scriptures to me.  I've always known that Jesus was born as a baby and had to grow up in the normal human fashion. But now I am seeing this with new eyes...the eyes of a father.
     As I watch my daughter, I am so enthralled by everything she does (ok, maybe not the screaming). I can sit and stare at her for hours, watching every facial movement and hand movement.  And even when she isn't moving, I still marvel at the fact that she has been given to us to raise.  She is completely helpless. She can only sleep, poop, and cry on her own.  For everything else she is dependent on us.
     Now, I think about the fact that God -- the omniscient, all-powerful Creator of the universe -- came to us, not as a mighty king or a battle-ready warrior, but as a utterly helpless baby.  Jesus (the Word of God) couldn't even communicate with his parents other than crying and smiling.  He couldn't do anything but sleep, cry and poop on his own.  The Savior of the world was utterly dependent on his human parents to eat and live.  And being born as a baby meant that he had to learn everything, like walking and talking and reading and writing.  Mind. Blown!  Maybe I should just stop there and let you think about that for a while.  I should, but I won't because I have a few more thoughts.
    W
atching my daughter also brings lots of questions: Was Jesus really "the perfect child" that we sing about in our Christmas songs? Did he ever fight sleep? Did he get upset when Mary and Joseph left him in the donkey stroller too long? Did he ever get sick? Did he keep his parents up at all hours of the night? We feel overwhelmed with the responsibility of taking care of our human daughter. What must the pressure have been like for Mary and Joseph knowing they were raising the Son of God? I don't have the answers but I suspect that everything that we consider "normal" for babies, Jesus experienced.  If that doesn't amaze you, nothing will.  Especially those of you who are parents.

Merry Christmas from a new father.... And from all of the Brande family

Coming Home

Thursday morning around 10:30, I called Christiana to find out what the doctors had decided and was very excited to find out that she and Susanna had been given the "all-clear" to go home.  So I scrambled and in about an hour, wrote out lesson plans for all the classes that needed to be covered Thurs afternoon and Friday.  Around 12:30, some friends from school  -- who had offered their car -- picked me up at the apartment, and we drove to the hospital.  When I got there, I learned that all the paperwork was done and everyone was ready to come home.  So we packed Susanna in her snow suit that was 3 sizes too big, put her in the car seat and headed home.  We were all very thankful to be home, especially Christiana! After sleeping on a hard hospital bed for 4 nights, our bed was the perfect way to catch up on rest.  And praise the Lord, Susanna slept almost 5 hours her first night home.  What a joy to have our family together in our own apartment!

A Quick Break

This weekend is our school's fall break and a Czech Holiday (Independent Czechoslovak State Day to honor the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918). We have Monday and Tuesday off from school and had originally thought of going to Berlin. We realized, though, that with Baby coming, there is still much to do to get our apartment ready for her. So we decided to go explore a Czech castle instead. Some of our friends at school recommended Karlstein Castle built by and for Charles IV. http://www.hradkarlstejn.cz/home1/

Sat morning we got up early and took a 30 minute train ride out of the city.  The morning was foggy and grey but we went anyway, hoping the sun would show itself.  When we got to the town, we had to hike 2 km to the castle.  We took our time and enjoyed time together and the beauty of the morning.  We got there just in time for a tour of the main castle.  And when we came out, an hour later, the sun was shining and the fog was gone.  And we were able to get many pictures of the beautiful countryside.  (More pictures are available on our facebook pages)

We spent the afternoon walking back down the mountain, visiting a wax museum, and enjoying a lovely lunch.  At the bottom, we meandered around for a while until we found our little hotel situated on the river.  The hotel even came with a camel, a pig, donkeys, and ducks.  We only stayed one night and returned to Prague this morning.  It was a short get-away, but one that we needed.  Perhaps when Baby B is older, we will go exploring more castles.  Until then, we will finish getting everything ready for her arrival.  Please pray that she will come soon and that the delivery will be smooth and uneventful.

Delayed Updates

Yes, it has been a while since we have blogged or written a newsletter (there is one soon to come).  So let me give you an update on life here. It has been quite a busy 2 months since we arrived here, and it feels like we are just now getting settled in to life and work here -- settled in just in time for Baby B to arrive.  We received our shipment from the States on Sept 3 (the day before school started), and this past week unpacked the last box.  We are still working out where to put everything, but it's looking more and more like a home.  Baby's room is almost ready, and we are more than ready for her to be here.  Her expected due date is Nov 16th, but we are hoping that she comes early.  Christiana has been to the doctor a couple of times and has gotten the registration finalized at the hospital.  So now, we wait.

The first month and a half of school have been filled with lesson plans and crazy days and field trips and most recently the secondary retreat.  We took all the 7th-12 graders (about 35 students) to a camp 2 hrs outside the city for a weekend of spiritual growth and getting to know each other better.  This retreat was quite different than ones we have experienced in the past, as the high school leadership team planned and led most of the weekend, including all the chapel talks.  We were quite impressed with what they did.   It was a good weekend to get away, but we got very little sleep.  We were thankful to come home to our own bed.  Please pray for the students that they will not forget what they heard this weekend, and they will choose to apply it to their everyday lives.

Here are a few pictures:

Up, Up, and Away!!!

For many, many months now you all have been praying with us ...from the start of our making the decision to move to Prague, through all the craziness of visas, and on the winding roads (some literally) of support raising.

We are very happy to tell you that our support level has risen enough to the point of getting permission to buy tickets, and God blessed us with an incredible price through a "missionary fare."  Today we received our tickets to leave on August 15! We are excited and at the same time taking very deep breaths as we realize that we are leaving in less than 10 days.

This does not mean that you should stop praying.  Please continue to pray for:
1.) The last leg of travel -- We are in Minneapolis now and will be making our way back to DC this week, arriving Saturday evening.
2.) Continued support provision -- We are trusting that God is going to provide the rest of what we need to meet 100%.
3.) Physical strength and energy -- It's been a long month of travel and we are very tired!
4.) All the details on the other side -- Apartments, dr. appointments, shipment of our container, start of school.

We are so grateful that you have stayed with us on this journey, and we look forward to having you with us on the other side of the ocean as well.