[CAR-vee-nuh]

Karvina is a city of about 70,000 people. Of those, about 150 attend a few small churches. Karvina is right next door to Cesky Tesin. Last year, my church (CB Cesky Tesin) started a church plant there. One thing that they did was to start a non-profit community organization and began having kids' clubs and English classes and church services every other Sunday afternoon.

I resisted getting involved with Karvina for a few reasons. One reason was that I had never even been to Karvina, and it's hard to care too much about a place you can't even picture. Another reason was that they (Pastor and Standa) wanted me to teach English, and honestly...teaching English is not in itself necessarily strategic (could that be any more qualified?) My experience has been that I as an English teacher cannot be the only bridge from the world to the church. There has to be community involved. The Lord graciously provided Ika and Honza and Bea. Every Monday afternoon for two hours the four of us and Katka, Iva, Pavlina and David meet and speaka Englisha (kinda) since February. About a month ago, an English conversation group formed, this time with working people in their twenties (see the "Greek Federation" pic below). No one from church has been consistent in that group...yet.

It's hard, this church plant, and I don't know why. Not very many people from our church are committed to it, and even those that are seem a little half-hearted...maybe it's because of the way our denomination does church plants, or maybe it's the way it's been presented in church, or maybe...I dunno. But I do know that my attitude towards Karvina has changed completely, and I'm excited about the people I'm getting to know and what could be in the future.

Please pray for the city of Karvina!

For more information about Karvina, go to http://www.karvina.org