“We Are Family”

As I write the title, I can’t help but think of the 1979 song by Sister Sledge that sings, “We are family. Get up everybody and sing.” I don’t know about you, but I love musicals. I think if everyone got up and broke into song once in awhile, the world would be a better place. Okay, so maybe that’s not so realistic. However, Jesus does call us to be One as He and the Father are One. This is one of the final prayers He prays before going to the cross. He wants His kids to be united as one family.

Since I’ve been in Prague, I’ve been able to see this firsthand. Never before have I had so many people invite me into their homes and into their families. Many missionaries leave their countries, their loved ones, and all they know to face a world filled with many unknowns. It’s not always easy. They say that months 1-3 are the “Honeymoon Stages.” This is where you are in awe of your surroundings. Everything is new and exciting. It’s an adventure. But, by the time months 4-6 roll around, one can feel lonely, homesick, and alone. And while, I’ve had occasional moments of homesickness, I have never felt alone. Why? Because of this promise:

God places the lonely in families…

Psalm 68:6a

While I’ve been here, I’ve been invited to Thanksgiving dinners, Canadian Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas parties, movie parties, game nights, Sunday dinners, and more. My school along with all the other missionaries working there have become a family, a family Christ prayed for us to be. It’s not perfect by any means, but when it is working, it’s a beautiful image of the Church in Acts.

After Pentecost, the Gospel started spreading like never before. Christians came together, probably for the first time, and this is what happened:

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:44-47).

The believers were finding joy in the fellowship of one another. Unbelievers, so enthralled by what was going on, came to know Christ because of this.

Apart from a few community groups, it’s been along time since I’ve felt this kind of unity among the believers. Everyone just seems so busy. If I’m honest, living in South Florida made me somewhat jaded, untrusting, and guarded. I think I’d forgotten what Christian fellowship was like. Being in Prague has made me think more about this need for unity and fellowship. I can’t help but wonder about the millions of others who have never felt this kind of community. It’s something the world so desperately needs right now. I need to do better. Maybe you could do better, too.

I pray that the Church (me and you) will put away the busyness, the distractions, and the party lines. It’s time for us to open our homes again and invite in the lonely, the widow, the single, the outcast, the downtrodden, the lost. May they know Christ because of our love for one another.

May I leave you with the prayer Christ left for us all:

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

Worth It

For too long I’ve walked into my classroom with a negative narrative playing in my head: these kids don’t care, they don’t want to listen, they don’t like this subject, they definitely don’t like me. I became, in many ways, my own self-fulfilling prophecy. The students weren’t mean or anything, but by unconsciously keeping them at arm’s length, I kept them just far enough away that some of them lost interest. This wasn’t intentional, but when we stop seeing our worth, we stop realizing our usefulness, and in the end, we stop realizing the significant role we play in the lives of those around us.

Can I encourage you for a moment?

You are needed. You are needed in your family. You are needed in your church. You are needed at home with your kids. You are needed at work, at school, at the grocery store. Sometimes, we wrongly believe that we aren’t important in the lives of others, but this is a lie from the enemy to keep us from impacting the world around us. People need our shoulder to cry on, our words of encouragement, our prayers, our presence. Our lives have worth and meaning that far exceeds anything we can imagine. We are not products of random chance. We were purposely and divinely created to fulfill God’s purposes that have been planned in advance (Ephesians 2:10).

By failing to recognize my worth as a teacher, I missed countless opportunities to build connections and to impart wisdom with a greater number of students. It’s a mistake I never want to make again.

Keep in mind, it’s not about us trying to do more or striving to be better; it’s the work of Christ in us. He has equipped us for every good work (II Timothy 3:17). He sees us as worthwhile, so much so that He gave His life for us. Romans 5:6-8 reads:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God’s best is a life lived in community and fellowship with others. Don’t listen to the lies. You are needed. You are worthwhile. There are people in your life that only you have access to. Don’t miss another opportunity to use your gifts in making someone else know they are worthy too.

 

“A Longing Fulfilled Is a Tree of Life”

Letna Park

May 21, 2003

I was in this exact spot nineteen years ago. I was a crazy 20-something with not much going for me. Hopeless. Lost. Without God. I was invited to Prague by a missionary couple that had been staying at my parents’ house. At first I was like, Yeah, okay, in my snarky rebellious voice. But something wouldn’t let the idea go.

I had never been out of the US, and my passport had expired long ago. But the next thing I knew, I was expediting the documents I would need to venture across the ocean to a place I never heard of to stay with a couple I barely knew. Little did I know, God was taking drastic measures to bring me back to Himself.

I don’t think anyone knows this, but I cried the entire flight. For 10 hours, from New York to Prague, I cried. And it didn’t stop there. I cried even more while I was there. It’s embarrassing to think about now. There were so many emotions. So many things I had to face. Out of my normal environment, I was forced to face myself, my depravity, my “lostness” again and again. I was awkward, lonely, and uncomfortable. I was pulled between my old way of living and another one that had become foreign to me, one where Christ wanted first place.

In this very park, I was forced to rethink everything. I plugged in my headphones and wrote. I wrote poems and songs and prayers. I wrote about my struggles, my fears, my failings, my life. I wrote about past decisions. I made an “if I could do anything list.” And in one of the most Atheistic nations in the world, I found my Savior. Even then, in my messed up state, things became clearer. Even when I hadn’t been following the Lord, He placed a tiny seed in my heart that had me asking: Am I supposed to move to Prague?

I went back home. I applied to the college I had dropped out of six years before. After graduating, I found myself back in Prague in 2006. Again, I prayed and wondered if I should leave everything to move there. But the doors remained closed. Instead, I got a job teaching. That is where God began the pruning process. It was difficult and painful and I wanted to quit so many times. Prague seemed like a dream intent on fading.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick…”

Again in 2012, I went to Prague, and this time I was there to do ministry. For thirty days, I served and prayed and sought the Lord about moving there. Again, His answer was no. I got another teaching job this time in middle school. Once again, God shaped me and allowed me to grow in ways I never could have imagined.

Then finally, in 2018, He finally showed me that it was time to prepare for Prague. I wouldn’t leave for another three years, but God blessed me with extra time with family and more time growing in trust and faith in Him. In August 2021, the time had finally come. The dream had finally come to fruition.

but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

Proverbs 13:12

Just like the Word spoken over and over again during the year of preparation. God will do more than we can ask or imagine (from Ephesians 6:20). The last two years in Prague have been a testament to that. There’s nothing I’d change. There’s nothing I’d do over. I feel as if I have been obedient to God’s call, and I have been blessed with this amazing experience. The city, the school, the kids, the friends have been absolutely incredible. This beautiful adventure has God written all over it, and I hope that it has a lasting impression on what I am called to next. I’m looking forward to the new dream God is placing on my heart and the new seed He is cultivating inside. I wait patiently knowing:

…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 1:6

I love how God takes broken people, broken dreams, broken lives and breathes new life into them. I’m so thankful that He did not leave me where I was, but that He used everything for His glory.

Finally, I just want to say, “Thank You.”

Thank you to everyone and anyone who has played a part in my life. Thank you to those who have stood in the gap for me in prayer. Thank you to those who helped me financially. Thank you to those who encouraged me with letters, cards, and calls. Thank you for those who have challenged me over the years. Thank you to those who were honest with me. Thank you to those who used iron to sharpen iron. Thank you to every single person throughout my life who has had a part in bringing me to this chapter. I pray God’s special blessings over your life as well.

I leave you with this:

“…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” ~Ephesians 3:17b-19

May we all, together as brothers and sister in Christ, know this kind of love.

Jennifer Rosario