Advent Greetings from Brandy’s n./Labem

Dear Alison, Barb and all the members of the Czech Committee,

We wish you happy and blessed new year 2009. We are glad to hear that the Czech Committee was established in your congregation. Many greetings to you from us, the American Committee !!! 

We send you our Advent and Christmas newsletters.

Motto of this Advent meditation was "The time runs and can´t stop itself." In the Advent newsletter there is a reflection on your visit with some pictures. There is also a report on the meeting of Youth of our region, which was held in our church. About 30 young people spent a weekend in our church, listening to some lectures, playing games, singing, doing sports etc.

There is also a report on the town collection of used clothes which was organized by Jana Faltova. The clothes will be aimed to refugees in our country.

In the beginning of our Christmas newsletter there is a short thought of our pilgrimage to Bethlehem which  needs humbleness, not only eye-catching media Christmas pictures and decoration.  There is an invitation to an Ecumenical prayer week, which will take place from 19th to 21st January. Three ministers of three different denominations ( Catholic, Hussite and our Czech brethren) will held their sermons in a hosting churches, for instant our pastor will be preaching in the little Catholic chapel in Stara Boleslav. There are also four photos of our preaching guests in the last year. There is an invitation for the new kind of congregation meetings once a month which start in January.

Now we would like to speak about our plans for this coming summer 2009. We were speaking together about possible visit of youth groups from your church with both working and recreation time for about 10 days.  We would like to start with the work on 1st July. This is also the beginning of our school vacation. We would like to include into our program work (in our church garden organized by Zdenek Adamek), sport (swimming, volleyball etc.) and spiritual program with Petr Slama. We plan that some young people from our town and from our region will take part, too. This young group would be accommodated at our manse. In the beginning or at the end of the stay in the Czech republic your group could spend several days sightseeing Prague or going on some trips  in the countryside. It will depend on you and on the weather, too. In this time your group could stay in our families or in the Church Pension in Prague which you already experienced. Please let us know about your ideas and suggestions.

We are looking forward to news from your church.

Your Lucie and Ivana