building altars

"Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you."

Joshua 3:9-11

building altars stone by stone

7 When the word suicide is mentioned, you listen. Intently.

When we first talked about moving to the Czech Republic, Dan and I didn't agree on what to do about the girls' education. I thought they should go to the local Czech school for a while to learn Czech and Dan thought it would be too much of a shock for them and that I should homeschool them instead.

Once we arrived in CZ and settled in our town of Hluboká, we went to the local school (a 3 minute walk from our house) to see if the girls even had a chance to get in, being non-Czech-speaking foreigners. The director was excited about the prospect, assured me that everything would be OK and the school also offered me a job as an EFL teacher. I didn't think I should take the job at the time, but the dollar soon went south and I was glad that I had steady work, and that I was at the school with the girls.

Rebekah was never really happy at the school. She spoke Czech well, got excellent grades, but was always sad. There was always this dream of hers to go to the international school in our town, to escape the Czech school. The international school is wickedly expensive and so was never an option. But we prayed. As things got progressively worse at the Czech school, I saw a real issue growing regarding Rebekah at the Czech school. We were proud of her for sticking it out and not running away from problems, but I could see she was suffering.  Her third year at the school was the worst. She was bullied alot. And she was miserable and talked sometimes about taking her own life. And we prayed.

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
   I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
   I will be with him in trouble,
   I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
   and show him my salvation.”

Psalm 91:14-16

I knew that we could only stay here long enough to finish out the school year and then we would have to go back to America, because I couldn't imagine Rebekah spending one more year in the Czech school. It helped alot to tell her that this was her last year and that God would do a miracle to keep us here or that He would show us the way home. We prayed alot. I spent many an afternoon praying and crying out to God in the forest. I applied for jobs that didn't yet exist at the international school so that the girls could get free tuition. And we prayed.

I got a call from the international school telling me that there was an opening for a Kindergarten teacher (my specialty). I interviewed and waited. I didn't tell Bekah, I didn't want to get her hopes up. I knew something had to happen because I couldn't put her back in the Czech school. This was May of 2010. She had been in Czech school since 2007. July 19th 2010 I got the email offering me the teaching position at Townshend International School (TIS). We took the girls to Tesco that day saying we were just going for groceries. We lead them over to the clothing section and told them that we have to get uniform stuff. Rebekah asked why and I told them that they will be going to TIS. Rebekah started to weep...weep...and shake and hold me. Three years' worth of burdens and bullying dropped from her shoulders and it was replaced by joy. This 12 year old girl got to see first-hand the work of God, the miracle that He made possible, the loving way He heard our cries from the desert, the way He parted the waters, and we walked across on dry ground.

She carries this stone herself.