Congrats Tamara

A little over a week ago Bryan’s sister became a graduate. She graduated from Northwest University with a degree in Business. We are so proud of her and so grateful that we were able to be there on her big day. Here are some pictures from Tamara’s graduation:

We love you, Tam, and we are so proud of you!!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

Baby Shower

My mom and sister and mother-in-law are just so sweet! When we first got to the states they graciously threw me a beautiful baby shower. It was a great time to catch up with people and be surrounded by friends and family. It was wonderful to celebrate this new little life with so many people who have celebrated and supported me throughout the years. Thank you to all of you who were there and who made it possible. Here are a few pictures from the shower that my mother-in-law took:

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

Spring is Here!

Well Spring has officially arrived in Prague. I’m just praying that it lasts and we don’t get another cold front or snow – April can be unpredictable like that. But, for now I’m enjoying the fact that the weather has been warm and beautiful for the past week now and we are starting to get a lot of greenery and flowers popping up everywhere. Here’s a little taste of what it’s been like:

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

Busy with Adventures

My parents and grandparents came to visit last week and we had a wonderful time with them. We ran all over the city seeing the sights and eat some very yummy meals as well. Then about midway through their time here we all got adventurous and decided to take a last minute trip to London and Brussels. It was CRAZY! We flew out of Prague early Thursday morning and flew into London, ran around seeing the sights, had fish and chips for lunch and then took the train to Brussels for dinner (mussels) and more sightseeing. The next day we toured the chocolate shops in Brussels (AMAZING!) and then had lunch and a little beer tasting before hopping back on the train in time to make it back to London for tea and a show at the theatre. The next day we did a quick tour of the Brittish Museum and then got back on a flight for Prague. It was a whirlwind trip, but so fun! J

Then we had another adventure in that we landed in Prague just a few minutes before President Obama did. For security reasons they kept us all in the plane so we got to watch Air Force One land out our windows as we sat on the tarmac. The next day Bryan got up early to go here the President’s only public address while he was in Europe. He said it was packed full of people, but he was able to get a decent spot and see a President in person - definitely an experience.

So, after all that you’d think that this week would be calm and a recovering time for us, but there’s still a lot going on this week. Tonight we will go to Bethlehem Chapel (where Jan Hus preached) for a party to celebrate the release of the new Czech translation of the Bible that our friend Sasha and his small team have been working on for about 17 years now. It will be a big event with readings from the Bible and much to celebrate. Starting tomorrow 70 cities around Prague will be hosting 24 hour public readings of the new translation, starting in Genesis and working straight through the whole Bible. It’s a beautiful thing to see a God-given vision coming to completion and to witness the resurrection of the Bible for a new generation of Czech’s.

On Sunday our church community will also gather together for a brunch to eat and decorate eggs and celebrate the resurrection together. It should be an enjoyable and relaxing time of being together as a church body.

Well, that’s the latest update J

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

Sometimes I desire an easier path…

Sometimes I desire an easier path… but then I remember that although easier paths look prettier they don’t build as much muscle or shape you as much as the difficult climbs.

There are days when I really question if living in Prague is worth all the work… I mean it’s always hard to move overseas, but some day’s it seems like we face more problems than most expats and it gets harder and harder to fight through barrier after barrier. Today was one of those days.

We had to apply to extend our visa today. We did all the research, we had everything we needed, and we’d done it before. I expected things to go wrong – they always do here. But, I thought it would at least be easier than last time. I was wrong. Turns out they just changed a law as of January 1^st and because of the type of visa we have we can no longer just extend our visa – we have to go through the whole process again and get brand new visas. That means having to go to an embassy out of the country and have more paper work and documents then we would have needed to just extend it. Lucky us.

I’m trying to be calm about it – I mean we’ve done it before, we know what to expect now. We’re adults living in a foreign country and as such there are certain things that we just have to deal with and responsibly work through. But, lately I’m feeling tired of being responsible. I’m feeling tired of always living in survival mood. In fact I realized today that I haven’t really felt secure and like I wasn’t in survival mood since high school – I mean, sure there have been little reprieves here and there and it’s not to say that there haven’t been some really great times in the last 7 years, but there hasn’t been any extended period of time when I’ve felt secure, stable, settled or really calm. I’m tired.

But, then I think about all I would have missed out on if I’d pursued a steady, secure, settled life style… and generally I think it’s worth the turmoil… but there are days when I wonder…

Pray for us.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

The Holidays in Review

Alright so now that the holidays are over and we are solidly into January with a bit more time on our hands, I thought I’d take a second to update you all on our holidays here in Prague.

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Eve is the big Christmas holiday here in Prague – it’s when people get together with their families and have a traditional Christmas dinner (carp and potato salad) and open presents. All the stores close down and the trams run on a different schedule – it’s kind of strange how quiet the city gets on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Anyway, this Christmas Eve we spent the evening at Sir Toby’s Hostel. Our friends Carrie and Mathias own this hostel and every Christmas Eve they host a big free dinner for all the guests. This year we helped them cook and get things ready and then hung out with them during the party and helped do dishes towards the end. It was a great experience and a lot of fun. I am always so impressed with Carrie and Mathias and this made me even more so. I think it’s so thoughtful that they would host a holiday dinner for their guests who are away from their family and friends on the holiday – truly a special thing.

Christmas Day:

Bryan and I didn’t give any presents this year so Christmas morning was a bit different for us, but really enjoyable none the less. We got up and made pancakes together – but not just normal pancakes, we put star fruit and pear in our pancakes for a delightfully yummy treat. We also read together and just enjoyed each other’s company for a while.

In the afternoon we went with a few other friends to our friend’s, Craig and Sarah’s, house and we all made homemade Mexican food for a non-traditional Christmas dinner. It was delicious and colorful and very fun.

After dinner The Lord of the Rings was put on and Bryan and I left early to come home and called our parents to wish them a merry Christmas. After that we cuddled up with some hot chocolate and watched The Grinch (the original) and Santa Claus is Coming to Town – both very enjoyable.

New Years Eve:

My parents were here for New Years Eve and it also happens to be my dad’s birthday, so we spent most of the day with them. We had a lovely lunch at a little Czech restaurant and then we went to dinner with them and another couple at a vegetarian restaurant that I really like here. We had our own private room at the restaurant and enjoyed a few different courses of yummy food before walking to the river at midnight to watch the fireworks. There were tons of people out at the river and lots of fireworks going off so we had fun being a part of the crowd wishing in the New Year.

New Years Day:

On New Year’s day Bryan and I had a nice relaxing morning to ourselves and spent a good deal of time talking about the New Year and dreaming about some goals and hopes we have for 2009. In the late afternoon we went over to Craig and Sarah’s house again and enjoyed hanging out there with a few other friends for a little while.
A little before 6pm we all left Craig and Sarah’s and walked to the park down the block were there was a great view of the national fireworks display (in Prague the fireworks on New Year’s eve are just put on by whoever wants to put them on and the one’s at 6pm on New Year’s day are put on by the city). The fireworks were beautiful and we enjoyed watching with friends. It was Isaiah’s (Craig and Sarah’s son’s) first time to see fireworks so it was really fun to see his reaction.

After the fireworks we met my parents for a special birthday dinner at my dad’s favorite restaurant in Prague, La Degustation. It’s an amazing restaurant where you order one of three menu’s (that change every night) and you get a number of different courses paired with different wines and with little tastes of things in between the courses – seriously delicious!

Hope you enjoyed this little peak into our holidays here in Prague. We hope your holidays were beautiful for you and that this year is filled with hope and joy for each of you!!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

Merry Christmas from Prague

May your Holidays be filled with LIGHT and HOPE.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bryan and Bethany

The first few weeks of December

Well, we’ve been back in Prague for two weeks now and honestly the time has flown by. The trip to the states went really quickly, but this past two weeks since we’ve gotten home has just disappeared instantaneously it seems. Needless to say we’ve been really busy.

At the beginning of each month I have an intensive weekend of yoga teacher training, so our time back in Prague started with that and just kept going from there. The teacher training was pretty difficult for me this time around – I guess jet lag and intensive training don’t go well together.

After the weekend was over we rushed into getting everything ready for the art exhibit, which opened on Thursday night. We had a great opening night. We put out food and drinks and had probably around 45 people there I think (it was hard to tell because we never ended up collecting tickets and people came and went throughout the evening). Everyone seemed to have a really good time and a lot of people commented on how impressed they were with all of the artists and the art work. Everyone felt it was a success and it was exciting to see people experiencing the light of Christmas through art work.

This past few days since we opened on Thursday have been a bit rough for me personally, but God has been very faithful. We had some trouble staffing the exhibit since this is such a busy week for everyone so we ended up changing the opening hours a little bit, but it seems like it’s working out now and I’m glad that different people are having an opportunity to go to and experience this art event.

It feels like the exhibit has been a success over all, but there are definitely quite a few things that we will do differently next time to make things better and less stressful.

If you are interested in seeing the art exhibit a little bit for yourself I posted pictures HERE. So, enjoy!

I’ll leave you with this Advent Prayer by Henri Nouwen:

Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.
To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!”
Amen.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

We’ve got a ticket to ride…

After a lot of back and forth, we finally have a decision.  We are coming to the States … in 4 days.  This last minute decision will have us in Seattle on Monday and Phoenix shortly after.  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone.  As most of you know, Bethany was recently accepted to join the Christian Associates team here in Prague.  We are really excited about this new season and we both feel like this is a great fit for Bethany.  This will mean, however, that much of what we will be doing this trip is support raising. Neither Bethany nor I have any experience with this so it is sure to be a new and stretching experience. We know that this is where God has called her and that he will provide, but please pray with us that fund raising with go well as well as for Bethany’s (and my) work here in Prague.

See you soon!

-Bryan

New Site and New Discoveries

Welcome to the new blog look for bstedman.com. Bryan and I are excited about the new look and feeling motivated to write here more often. We know that we haven’t been the best at updating this blog, but we really do want you all to feel like you are connected to what is going on in our lives here in Prague, so we plan on getting better at updating.

So, here’s a little update on The Stedman’s:

As many of you know, the last few months have been a transitional time for us. I (Bethany) was just recently accepted into Christian Associates International and will be joining their church planting team here in Prague. See our “What we are doing in Prague” page for more information on this. Bryan is also transitioning to a consulting role and is currently working on a number of different projects with that. We are excited for this next phase in our lives and looking forward to what God does in us and through us here in Prague.

It feels like Prague is becoming more and more like home. I think I finally have the family room set up how I want it (I moved the book shelf that was in the office into the family room and love it). We have some very close wonderful friends here. We have vocational endeavors that are interesting and exciting to each of us. We continue to be very involved at our church and have started going to a weekly bible study that we are enjoying as well. We know our way around really well and we have finally figured out how to shop here. We have also started to explore the areas around Prague, which strangely also makes it feel more like home.

A few weekends ago we piled into a friend’s car with our good friends the Bakers and some sack lunches and headed out to explore Cesky Raj (Czech Paradise). Cesky Raj is a national park area about an hour away. I don’t know if I would call it Paradise, but it is definitely beautiful. We explored lots of windy roads and got reasonably lost a few times. We picked apples and pears up that had fallen from heavily laden trees by the side of the road. We hiked up some paths where they have these giant rocks they call the “jumping rocks” – people come from all over the world to jump from rock pillar to rock pillar here. And of course we took a ton of pictures; here is one of my personal favorites from the outing:

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman