He is forever... just think about that for a second.

So this week I think God said. "alright Aaron, you're settled in.. your adapting well... it's time to get to work on the reasons I brought you here." And procceded to unleash craziness on me. I feel like I am in a mental/spiritual boot camp. Everything that God is ready for me to get out of my life, the Spirit is convicting me in a huge way. It is unlike anything I have felt. It is this constant, every hour, having to choose to get out of habits I didnt even realize I had.
Basically the words I got were.

"Stop thinking that one day you will become who You want to be, Be it today. You arent pushing yourself to strive for me. To strive for holiness. It's time to grow up, because I have work to do through you."

So this week has been a little rough. But has been amazing. To think that we communicate directly with this being we call God. A being so unlike everything else that he has no beginning and no end. He is outside of time, outside of space, he has no limits on his power... NO LIMITS. And the kicker is.. this God knows us better than we even know ourselves, and loves us in a way no one ever can or ever will.
We hear these things. "God loves us" "He only wants what is best for us." But think about the very nature of God ... dwell on it for even a minute, and you realize how powerful that is. How it should change every action you have. Every thought.
The sad part is it doesn't. Sin has made it so difficult for us to pursue that. We get distracted and the scope of our lives often ends with us... So to any and all who read this... I give anyone full permission to at any point challenge me and ask me how I am changing. How I am everyday choosing righteousness over sin. And how it is only through Christ that I am capable of this. Submitting to the will of our Abba father.

Fall break is over... back to work.

So Fall break is over.. and it was pretty great. I was finished with classes on Friday by noon, and from then until the next Thursday, I spent it relaxing and hanging out with awesome people. Brady and Gabe, one of his friends from YWAM, as well as Cat and Mary, who came in from Budapest. So Saturday night was filled with most of the Praguers and our visitors hanging out and seeing some of the main places in Prague.

It was great to spend time with everyone. I got to talk with Brady about what God is doing in both of our lives, and how grateful we are to be able to serve him in our different ways and the opportunities to be doing what we are. Brady got to tell me about some exciting new possibilities of serving in Africa in some awesome things that God is doing there. It really is pretty amazing to see the two of us now and see how amazing God can transform people, and the great news is there is still so much transforming to be done.

Sadly enough, Brady and Gabe only got to stay for a day, so they left on Sunday.

But then I got to spend the rest of the week with Cat and Mary... and of course Frank, Britt, Gina, Ben, and Joseph, who all live in Prague. It was so great to have that community, even if it was only for a short time. To spend time and encourage and just have fun with each other. And it was so good to be able to spend time with two amazing girls like Cat and Mary... and get to hear about what all is going on in their life in Hungary.

But like all vacations are.. they must come to an end. But it was a definite shot in the arm getting to spend time with them.

A Picture I took of Brady in Old Town square... one of my favorites of him.
Cat and Mary very excited to be in Starbucks.. since they don't have one in Budapest.


Me and Brady outside of Prague Castle



Ok.. So I have to put this one up. Last night was Ashley Hunt's (one of my fellow teachers) Birthday. We decided, even though it was a day after Halloween, that we needed to have a costume party, so here is me and Joseph, I went as an emo-bear.. Joseph.... his costume must remain a mystery open to interpretation.

And lastly, this is the Kraml Family (along with Ondra who is their daughters friend, the guy on the far left). This family is the one that gave me the bike and who I asked all of you to keep in your prayers. They are pretty awesome.Thank you all for continuing to keep me in your prayers and what God is doing over here. Also, please be praying that God will guide me in my decision that will need to be made within the next few months of whether I should stay here for another year or not.
Aaron

A New Ride and Fall Break!

So, something awesome happened. Last Thursday I went and had my class with the Kraml family. They are an awesome family that I teach, and I have begun to get close to them. We have had some good conversations about what we value in life and they have asked me questions about my Christianity... They are great. But anyways we were talking about how they saw me walking on Tuesdays and Thursdays to go teach my class... Bottom line, they offered to let me use one of their bikes that they don't use anymore. IT'S AWESOME! A trip that used to take me 40 minutes to walk, now takes me 13 minutes to bike to!!!

So that has made my week really cool.

Also, starting tomorrow, we have our fall break. After I am done with my 11:00 class I dont have any work until next Thursday. Plans are as follows
Friday night go out with Joseph and some friends here in Kralupy.
Saturday Brady and some of his YWAM peeps are getting in.
The Budapest girls are getting here!!! which I am really excited about! I think Saturday, but Im not sure.
so the next few days I will be hanging out with people I love! and then Tuesday and Wednesday.. relax back here in Kralupy, play guitar, write...
Im excited.

Castles and Trains

So this weekend a few of us GPA-ers (Greater Prague Area, since Joseph and I dont actually live in Prague) made an adventure to Ostrava to visit the girls out there. Steph, Ashley, Frank, and Myself took the 4 hour train ride out there.

As I found out, the problem with Czech trains is, they sell more tickets than they have seats. So basically you have to either pay almost twice as much to "reserve" a seat, or pay a normal price and rush and pray that you get one before everyone else does. Sadly enough, We all didnt get seats. Frank found one, as did Ashley, but for Steph and I, the first 2 hours were spent in the part of the train right in front of the restroom. It wasnt too bad though. Just read and talked. After a few hours, a lot of the people had gotten off, and so we found seats all together.
When we arrived we were greeted by the Ostrava Ladies, Lydia, Bean, Jonna, and Laura. (We were also waiting on Sarah who was coming in from her town.)
But basically the night consited of dancing in an extremely crowded pub called Desperado to 90's music. a lot of fun.

But I will take a moment to tell you that over the past 72 hours I have had a terrible pain in my right shoulder/neck. It felt like a pinched nerve.. so the whole weekend, I was popping alieve and convincing the girls to give me back rubs, however, none of it helped.
On Saturday we took a train an hour out of Ostrava to see a Castle. Apparently It was one of the best kept and biggest castle complexes in Europe. Here are some pictures. If you want to see more you can go to my Flicker site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/31442658@N04/



All in all a good weekend. And I ended up going to a Thai massage place in Prague when I got back on Sunday and this Thai guy kicked my ass, but got the knot out.. So I'm better! Also, I figured out.. if you ever get really tired in a train and there isnt room to lay down.. move all of the bags to one side, and the bag rack makes a great bed... There are some perks to being small.:)

There Will Be Hair

So I decided a while back that when better to let your hair down and go crazy than when you move to Europe. You know... adopt the bohemia lifestyle... I mean.. I live in literal Bohemia... or just west of it. So as Sunday will tell you, I've always said... ok man I'm going to grow my hair out. And a little over a month later when it hits the awkward stage, I chicken out and cut it... But that was AMERICAN me... this is the new BOHEMIAN me. So here today. In front of all of you. I vow that my hair will not be cut (except for a slight trim so my thick hair wont fro) until the new year. I havent cut it since I have been here. So it has already been growing since the end of August.

Be prepared.... That is all. just my public declaration, so you all can hold me accountable, that THERE WILL BE HAIR!

Art

So for the past 2 years I havent really been inspired creatively. I have done a few projects for school and for fun, but not the kind of creativity I had before I moved to LA. So it is amazing how just a change of location stirs up all kinds of new thoughts and ideas. So since I have been here I have been so much more creative than I have been.. its amazing. First, I have had to resist taking my camera everywhere. There is something very cool and beautiful about this place, the mixture of modern capitalism against a background of old communist ideas. Throw in beautiful castles and buildings from 1000 years ago. I just want to capture it all. Here are some from the first few weeks of being here.
I have more pictures posted on my facebook you can check out.. I will also probably upload them to flickr soon... I will put the link on here soon.

So next, Ive been playing guitar. I just started teaching myself in about April or so, so I am not very good, but learning. I've learned a few death cab songs and a few nickel creek songs. I also borrowed a keyboard from the son of our boss. So I'm learning a few things. Maybe I'll start writing some of my own stuff soon.

Ive also been working on some film stuff. I'm so glad I brought my video camera, because I have a ton of new ideas. Even just short random, fun things.. like this. I got inspired one day during lunch because it was just a beautiful day, I had the window open, and was listening to music... and ready to make a grilled cheese.

I am working on some other videos too, so as soon as they are done, I will upload them. Ok, I have to actually get back to planning. And eat my homemade mac and cheese!

School

So it is October 8th, 2008. I have been in Czech Republic for only one month and 18 days. Not very long in the grand scheme of things, but extremely busy.
Like I said before It has been hard for me to catch up on writing because in the initial month of moving somewhere totally new, there is a wave of strange and new things that hit you. So I will try to break things down in different segments.

School:
School has been great so far. I teach at 4 different locations. The first and main one is Gymnazium, or the Czech equivalent of high school. I teach mainly the "juniors and seniors." I put it in quotes because the way they do the schooling here is different than the States. So they are for the most part upper level and pretty easy to handle. They don't always listen to me, but I quickly remind them that I control their grades! I'm a pretty laid back teacher with them. Right now we are doing a unit over art. We broke down many different aspects of art as a class and then broke up into groups of 2 and each group is doing a 12 minute presentation on their type of art. It should be pretty good.
The other school I teach at is called English Services. It is a private school owned and run by a couple, Anthony and Jitka Otahal. They are the greatest people. I teach around 13 hours a week with them. However, since they are a private school, companies hire them to come give English lessons to their employees. So 2 times a week, I travel 40 minutes (walking) to a giant chemical factory and teach English there. The rest of my classes are at their private school, groups of about 12 or so. Much more calm than Gymnazium students.
I also give a few private lessons, 2 different businessmen, and one family. They are great. A little stressful to have to sit and just talk for an hour to a person. Because there is a balance of teaching them certain topics, as well as just practicing conversation. They are the most challenging but best for really getting to know them.
So my schedule ... for any of you who want to know goes something like this
Monday: once a month I teach at a school out of town about 10 minutes away by car. I teach 5 lessons of beginner English. It is fun because I just get to teach about whatever and just have class discussions. They are very eager. So on that day I begin at 7:50 and teach until 1:00
And then all Mondays I teach at 1:45 my 4.A/8.g class (which are the seniors).
Tuesday:
8:00 Small group lesson at Synthos chemical company
2:25 my 7.G class, which are the juniors
5:00 small group at English services
6:00 small group at English services
Finish at 7:30

Wednesday: 8:00 4.A/8G 2 class
10:00 2.A class
2:25 3.A class
finish at 4:00

Thursday: 8:00 small group at Synthos company
9:00 Private lesson with a man named Pavel
10:15 Private lesson with a man named Penec
* both of these are pretty fun because both of them speak great English
3:00 small group at Synthos
4:00 private lesson at Synthos
6:00-8:00 Private lesson with Kramil Family

Friday: 9:00 2.G class

So that is the rundown of my schedule!