Finding Some Stability: Update from Prague

Friend on a WhatsApp call: “Abigail, what do you do in Prague?”

Abigail: “We walk places”

This quote is a funny, but true snapshot of our children’s perspective. We do indeed walk all places we have to go!

As the regular schedule of school and work and meeting new friends has set in, our family has felt just a tiny bit more ‘normal’. The daily reminder of being a foreigner, the disorientation and frustration that comes with getting used to the way things work is still there, but our walk is a bit lighter and God’s provision is evident. The past month has been full of firsts: from school to a new university to friends and church.

Our three boys were very nervous for the first day of school. Even our very social kid, Caleb, was nervous about making friends and getting used to a new environment. They returned that first day and every day since loving the Christian International School of Prague. Their new friends are Italian, Czech, Polish, Japanese and American. The playdates involve trams, parks, walks and flats now, but all the other kid relational patterns are familiar. This has been a huge answer to prayer! Collier, our oldest, is still sad about missing his friends in Nashville. He had the most to lose of our kids (longest standing friendships, knowing your status and place in your world, etc.) and it has been hard. It’s safe to say that we worry about him most. Our challenge has been to experience the sadness with him without trying to fix it or “look on the bright side.”

The president and some board members of Global Scholars, of whom Josh is a Fellow, were just in Prague and they encouraged us over dinner in what the Lord is doing at Anglo-American University. As eager as we to make a difference in people’s lives in the university, there are faithful people like cultural studies professor Ted Turnau (also at the dinner) who have gone before us here. We are reminded that God always goes before us and that we join his on-going work in faith.

Josh’s administrative role in institutional research collaborates with an almost all Czech administration and his students in his three courses are from all over the world. So far the students have been very engaged in class and many are going through a culture shock process of their own. Some of his outside-of-class conversations have been about navigating that process which gives him a way to connect with his students that are experiencing similar things to us. We hope to have students over to our apartment soon for dinner and conversation. Being new has brought its share of loneliness, yet the university community has been welcoming and receptive.

Anna and Abigail have been reaching out to new friends, including a family from Iran they met at a nearby playground. Abigail has been quick to make friends but asks Anna whenever they pass a school if she can go to that school. You can pray for direction for us in finding a good pre-school. Anna has connected with several women here, two of whom are Americans married to Czechs and know the city really well, which has been a huge help to us. She started attending a “New to Prague” women’s group last week which has been great to share and hear very similar cultural experiences. We also found a church community that we’ve begun to really connect with—St. Clement's Anglican Church. The building we worship in is 1,000 years old!

St. Clement's

Overall, we are feeling more settled but still in the midst of cultural stress and transition. Our stories about clumsy interactions and getting yelled at in Czech continue to accumulate. We are learning that even in our darkest moments and doubts about our place here, the Lord is present (even the darkness is as light to him, as it says in the Psalms). We need his consolations to be new every morning because we feel like we are constantly facing a new set of challenges each day. But there has been peace thanks in large part to your prayers and encouragement. Obviously, there is much to catch up on and we hope to connect with you soon!

With peace and gratitude,

The Haydens

On the tram on the way to applying for Visas at the Czech Embassy in Berlin.

On the Metro

Our pallet finally arrived!

While in Berlin applying for Visas, we had a powerful experience at the Holocaust Memorial (or, as they call it "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" Go into the maze of blocks and suddenly the ground lowers and you are over your head in stone blocks, get separated from one another and are totally disoriented. The creators of this did not just want you to remember what happened, they wanted you to feel a little bit of what happened.