30 January, 2005
Dear friends,
we have quite some snow in Prague even though
the Christmas were without snow. It feels good like during Christmas but we
hope that it will not take long for the winter to give place to Spring.
We had some good rest during
Christmas. As the whole family we enjoyed our time together and with other
friends. After having very busy November and December we enjoyed every moment
of some free time.
Pavel lectured at the conference
about the father where the main speakers were teachers from different
universities and organizations in the country. The lecture was well received
and there is more interest in doing more teaching about the father from
different organizations. It was a good opportunity to see what has been
happening in the professional community and it was another confirmation of the
importance of the father subject in our culture. Pavel also taught
the course about father at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in December.
There were ETS students and several other interested people. Some of them were
touched by the seminar. One person said to me after the seminar, "I came
thinking that I have no issues with my father but during the time I gradually
realized and experienced how much I have desired my father to love me and
appreciate me." It has been a privilege to lead people to God as
their real Father.
We held also a consultation for
the European Christian Counselors network in December in Prague. The need for
Christian counseling in churches in Europe has been obvious there. It became
though obvious to me that my role will be limited in the network because of my
limited capacity.
The classes at the seminary were
finished in January and we realized that we had a very good class in the Fall.
Some students in their papers and responses were so open and told us about
their lives. It has been touching our hearts that some of the young people go
through so much pain in their lives.
We were also touched by God's
faithfulness in our financial situation. We were in a serious crisis
during the Fall but till the end of an year we received all that has been
planned, mainly from the Czech people. It was a special expression of God's
mercy and a great encouragement.
We are praying for God's guidance
for Julka's future as she still considers the women's ministry. We plan to
start marriage seminars in Spring and we continue in ministry to pastors and
in lay counseling. We will also have several speaking opportunities including
one day marital seminar and program for young people about pastoral care.
Tomorrow Pavel is leaving for the pastor's conference where he is going to
provide counseling for interested pastors. We would appreciate your prayers
for all those opportunities.
Thank you very much for your prayers!
Yours
Pavel and Julia
23 March, 2005
Dear friends,
our weather here in Prague has been very cold
with unusually a lot of snow. The cold weather should continue until Easter.
No need to say that we are looking forward to the spring.
Our ministry continues in all the
areas where we have been involved. I continue to meet with pastors. I was at
the pastor's conference in January. That is part of the arrangement with our
denomination that I will be available at those conferences, which take place
twice a year, for pastors to talk with me. It was a good time and I had
several good conversations with pastors.
The lay counseling team continues
to meet and there is a good support among the members. We just had Friday and
Saturday a training conference which went well. God has been among us and it
seems that it has been a significant time for some of the participants.
We held a one day marriage
conference in Prague last weekend for abou 30 people. Some of them were not
Christians. There were two elderly couples, none of them believers. Especially
one couple were very touched there. The man shared his feeling of failure in
his marriage with tears in his eyes. The lady just called Julia last week and
wants to meet with her. Interestingly, all the non believers expressed their
gratitude just for the spiritual part of the conference where Gospel was
explained.
This Sunday we are starting the
five weeks marital seminar in one church. About 20 people signed for that. We
are looking forward to that. Our desire is to offer several times a year such
seminar like Bridge to Life is doing. There seems to be quite great need for
that.
Julia is still praying about her
future, potentially in women's ministry. The ladies with whom she has been
meeting offered to support her. Obviously, the need is there so we are waiting
for God is He opens the door. We would appreciate your prayers.
Thank you very much!
Yours
Pavel and Julia
24 April, 2005
Dear friends,
We had a few really exciting weeks. God showed us His goodness in many ways.
We finished a five-week marital seminar. There were about fifty
participants and that was quite surprising interest which showed the nees in
that area. Especially many young people desire very much to succeed in their
marriage but face to face the facts about failing marriages they are afraid.
We see a great interest on part of young people to learn as much as they can
to prevent marital difficulties, often faced by their parents. We want to
work on marital course which we desire to offer twice a year. It was also
great joy to have Don Smith, Parakletos' board member speaking at one seminar.
(Together with Don we had also another seminar for teenager's parents). The
response was very positive and good part of participants showed interest to
sign for other courses in future.
Pavel had an opportunity to speak last week at the Youth Leaders
Conference outside Prague. There were about 120 young leaders keen to learn
and Pavel had many personal conversations. Pavel had a bad flu a week prior to
that and was afraid he would have not been able to speak but God showed His
mercy and when he arrived to the conference the problems disappeared. They got
back though just after the conference.
You may remember that one problem we had was an office space.
Though we were able to use one room down town Prague one day a week it could
not serve as a real office because of an extreme humidity in the place. We
felt more and more the need for another place for the team to meet there and
work together. At the last board meeting that need was given a high priority.
But because our finances are very limited we only prayed to the Lord that He
would do something. Last week we met with one mission group and they offered
us to use their office in the time when they are not using it. They even ask
very small pay and take a greater financial burden on them. That was like
a miracle to us. God again showed how He cares. It is not a permanent solution
but for now it is what we need.
Julia continues to meet with several women and they
indicate very clearly their appreciation. They plan with the teenage girls
group a trip to Ireland where our church's partnering church invited them.
They hope that God will touch the girls during that trip.
As family we have had a classmate of Jana with us for last two
weeks. Her father beat her very badly so she came to our apartment. She is
love hungry and said that she never felt so loved like she does when staying
in our home. She is not Christian and when we pray her heart seems to be
touched deeply. We are now seeking the ways to help her. We also hope that God
may use current situation to show her how much she needs Him.
Thank you very much for your prayers!
Yours
Pavel and Julia
14 August, 2005
Dear friends,
I hope that you have a good summer. Our weather
here was changing within extremes. We had very hot days and cold and rainy as
well.
Last period was filled with
unexpected news. Julia's father has a stroke in the first part of July.
He was unconscious for another three weeks and died then. It was good that
Julia was able to spent there two weeks with her mother. She was able to visit
her father in the hospital and spoke to him even though he did not respond.
Julia has been praying for her parents for 25 years since she became
Christian. In the beginning they were extremely negative to her faith and her
father wanted her to leave their home. But God worked in him and he changed
very much, especially in the last three years. He used to be very tough but he
became soft and sensitive and compassionate. He also was going to the church
though we were never sure what did that mean for him. Julia has open debates
with him. And we prayed that God would speak to him if it was even in the last
minute. So we trust God that He heart those prayers and gave him a chance to
receive Christ. Julia even had an unusual vision just after her father passed
away when she prayed and saw her father in a white robe with a smile in
his face.
Because of that we had to change
our plans for summer completely. Julia will go for another two weeks now to be
with her mother who is doing reasonable well but needs help and support.
You may remember that we wrote you
about an office which we were offered by one mission organization to use with
them part time. They unexpectedly cancelled the contract so that we do not
have now a place to work together. We have to work from home again. It is
unpleasant but we trust God that He has something for us.
Also, the European Union grant
which we thought we may receive this month we will not receive now. It is now
very unclear if we would ever receive it. There was a problem on part of the
Czech local government and the whole process has been stopped. There is a good
suspicion that there was some corruption on part of the state beaurocracy. The
situation is very hard to predict. We may still receive the grant or things
may be cancelled and started again from beginning. We hoped that the funds
would bring us relief in our financial tensions but God has another way.
You may remember Linda, the girl
who was beaten by her father and who has been staying with us. We have now
provisional legal responsibility for her and the court needs to decide the
permanent solution. Very probably they will give her to us. So that we will
have permanently another member of our family. We have been learning a lot
with her. She has not been used to many things which we considered important.
But up until now she has been cooperative and we had also very heart touching
moments of closeness with her. Our apartment has been small but now is very
small for all of us. It is worse for the fact that both Julia and me need
to have our office here. We need to spend extra energy and rearrange things to
be able to function here. But it seems that we will be able somehow to prepare
things for the next school year.
We feel that in this summer we can
say with apostle Paul, "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not
crushed ..." ! Cor 4:8. Things seem to be complicated but God gives us
strength which is not from us. We wish to see more clearly to the future
but it is enough that He sees and we are His servants.
Thank you for your prayers and you
are also in our prayers!
Yours
Pavel and Julia Raus
For financial contributions there is an
address to send tax deductible checks:
Bridge to Life
POBox 5024
Muskegon, MI 49445
Would you, please, make the check out to Bridge To Life and designate the
gift for CCMCR (Christian Counseling Ministry Czech Republic). Thank you!
04 October, 2005
Dear friends,
we have several good news. The European Union
grant finally got through. It consists of funds for activities done together
with our church like lay counseling and support of leaders and some of the
work with pastors. Even though the funds are restricted to the churches in the
area of Prague it will help us to a more financial stability. There is a lot
of paper work in reporting so we have been designing some forms and documents.
We had several planning meetings with leaders of our church and others
involved. It is a new opportunity for the Church here. As far as I know that
is the first grant given to the Church in the Czech Republic.
There is also small hope that we
may have an office to use in our church's building. Our pastor offered us one
room which we may be able to use a few days a week. It is still not sure but
we pray that God would provide a place to work for us.
Two weeks ago we had with Julia a
seminar at the Catholic Pilgrimage. The seminar was about Raising Children
with Dignity. There were about 1,500 people at the pilgrimage and about 120
came to the seminar. People responded very well. We could see that that
subject is still touching them One young man approached us afterwards and was
crying after we tried to encourage him, probably something he has not known
all his life.
The week after that we planned to
have a holiday with Julia but because my mother was in the hospital going
through surgery, we decided to stay in her house and be with her. We still
were able to make short trips and that was very nice. My mother is now waiting
for the result of histology tests.
The school has started and Jana
and Linda (the girl which has been staying with us last six months) have been
working hard. We had to make some changes in our rather small apartment for
all of us to fit in. But all of us except me (Pavel) have a place to work. But
Pavel is used to a discrimination as the only male in the family.
We will have quite busy two months
ahead. Pavel is just leaving for the pastor's conference where he will have a
lecture on Healthy Sexuality and will be available for pastors and their wives
for counseling. Then he will be in the radio next Saturday and we will visit a
church in Brno. Julia and our assistant, Petra, are seriously considering a theological
study focused on pastoral care with one distant learning program. That would
equip them for the ministry to women.
We are very glad that after the
insecurity which we experienced during summer God showed His mercy and our
future is more clear. It has been our experience that whenever God leads us
through difficulty there is a blessing at the end of it so that we can see His
goodness in a new way.
Thank you for your prayers which have helped us to get through!
Yours
Pavel and Julia Raus
2005, 20 November
Dear
friends,
We
are glad that after the summer when things here did not look good for us God has
given us the time in the Fall when things moved
ahead. First, we finally received the European Union grant. It helps us to
develop more systematically the lay counseling program and dome of the care for
pastors. Unfortunately, those programs are limited exclusively to participants
from
Prague
and only for certain programs. There
is also a lot of paper work related to a single seminar. But we are glad that we
can use also those resources. Just this weekend we had a weekend seminar for lay
counselors which was supported by the grant.
Julia and our assistant
Petra
were in the States at the end of
October. They visited
Peoria
,
Milwaukee
and
Chicago
. They were very encouraged by the
openness to help and friendliness of all the people they met. It was so
encouraging to heare all the stories when they returned. They are very thankful
to everyone whom they met.
Jana and Kristyna were visiting in the States as well. Their grandma
helped them to pay for their trip. They were very excited because they visited
there for the first time since we have been back. Especially Jana said that it
helped her to go on here. She has been missing the States most of us all. We
value that she does not give up and continues in her struggles with the negative
parts of our culture. From November she has a friend in her school, a girl who
lived in States for a while and is even Christian. That has been a blessing for
Jana and they are becoming good friends.
Kristyna has been working several jobs. She prays for a mission trip to
Thai and to Philippians. She has an invitation to work there for a few months.
She though prays for the funds for the air tickets. She needs about $ 1,700. She
almost is not at home. When she does not work she is involved with a Christian
mission Project Antioch.
We have another news about Linda, the
classmate of Jana who was beaten by her father and who lived for about six
months with us, decided to return back to her father. We were encouraging her
from the beginning to keep in touch with her bigger family. She gradually met
with her father, initially together with others and then she visited her home as
well. The relationship with the father got better and we concluded that there is
no longer the danger of his violence any more. Mainly
because the rest of the family got involved. We gave Linda freedom to
make her decision and she decided to return home. Part of her decision was,
probably, our financial situation. We think that it was hard for her to live on
the level where we live because her family is much better off. We were glad that
we were able to help her when she needed and hope that God will use it for her
to meet Him one day.
We wish you happy Thanksgiving! We celebrate it as well. We just realize
how many reasons we have to be thankful to God for making things to move ahead.
Thank you for your prayers!
Pavel and Julia
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