Stroll Around the Grounds Until You Feel At Home!

A most amazing day is coming to an end in Central Europe!

After a wonderful night's sleep we had a delicious breakfast (chleb, or Czech brown bread topped with slices of cheese, salami, cucumber and tomato was certainly my favorite!). Marek Susta arrived and took us to visit his workplace, the Prague Psychiatric Center where he does research. This center is a part of Charles University, where I studied the Czech language in 1993. We had a very engaging conversation with Marek and his colleague Petr on the inter-relatedness of psychology and theology. They gave us a "mini-tour" of the grounds, prefaced by the warning from Marek S ... "I'm gonna show you around a little, stay close if you want to get out!" I as able to snap a picture of the 2 Mareks and Peter "strolling around the grounds" ... hence the title of the blog ... and they did let us out!! We then joined a former colleague of mine, Ritch Trca, for coffee and more conversation about what God is doing in and through our lives. I think it was a very encouraging morning for all of us ... but, there was more to come!

During our time with Ritch, Marek Susta received a phone call from one of my dearest Czech pastor friends, Jiří (George) Hofman. Jiří was the pastor of the Liberec church in Northern Czech Republic; which hosted many construction teams from 1993-1996. This picture of the "tower ceiling" and the cross are projects which God allowed me to work on. Actually, my Dad, Al, and I built the cross! Ask me to tell you the story of installing the ceiling in the tower!


Pastor Hofman and I became very close, and since I had seen him last, his wife had died of cancer. It was a joy to reconnect, and he invited us to come to his apartment just a short ways from Prague and join him for a bowl of soup and more conversation. My Czech was beginning to show signs of hope after a very long lay-off!

Reminiscing and praying with Pastor Hofman was, once again, very encouraging for all of us, but especially for Jiří and I. Bless Markie J's heart for putting up with hours of Czech conversation. If you ask him, he'll probably say that his brain is ready to explode!!

I believe that those of you who are praying that we would be a "Barnabas Team" are having your prayers answered as we move through these days. It seems like the opportunities to encourage are popping up everywhere and we're able to engage in some very worthwhile conversations! Tomorrow we will spend a little more time with Marek, and then take the train to Český Těšín, where we will meet up with Mel Ellenwood and his family. Keep watching for updates, and you can click on the link on the right for more pictures!!

Thanks and blessings,

Dave & Mark

Familiar Faces and Places

Greetings Blog-Land friends!

Mark Jensen and I arrived safely in Europe on Thursday morning!

Wednesday was a great day of getting hauled around, prayed for and traveling through the night (albeit, very short!!). The Cedarbrook Church staff sent Mark and I off with wonderful prayers of blessings for God's protection and leading for us, and for our families! It means a lot to us to have so many people holding us up in prayer. After the prayer send-off, my good friend and New Orleans Outreach Team Leader, Steve Jensen, took us to the airport in Minneapolis. We arrived in Amsterdam at 6:00 (Europe time) ... having very little sleep, but excited to be on this side of the pond!

With lots of time to spare, we took the train to the center of Amsterdam to hook-up with some folks that I met last year at the YWAM base. Click on the link and see how this committed group of people is having a huge impact on this notorious city. Unfortunately, the people I had hoped to see weren't around, but instead, Mark and I met a new brother in Christ, Franz, who we were able to encourage in prayer for his ministry to Muslims. This is one of the purposes of our trip, simply to be an encouragement to the body of Christ wherever we go!!


From there, it was on to Prague where Markie J was introduced to my closest Czech brother, Marek Susta. Friendships were forged even stronger as we relished the flavor of some home made venison jerky as we drove from the airport!! We checked into our hotel and then, Mark J got Marek S's 45 minute whirlwind tour of all the important tourist places in Prague. The quote of the day came from Marek "Well, that's about it for the tour. Anything else will cost you!" (sorry for the blurry picture, the camera phone had fingerprints on! We'll have some crisper one's tomorrow!

We are now settling in to our hotel in Prague, resting after an amazing day and seeing God's hand in a variety of ways.

Please pray for these items as you finish your day!

- Pray that we rest well tonight.
- Pray that Mark J's foot doesn't hinder him getting around (he has a torn ligament)
- Pray that we will continue to encourage those we meet!

Stay tuned for more adventures!! ... and keep in touch, we love hearing back from you on the blog!

Dave Johnson & Mark Jensen

Familiar Journeys

Hello to all my faithful (I think there are at least 3 or 4 of you!) readers of my blog! Please try to restrain yourself, but a few "whoopees!!" and high-fives might be in order as I return to the blogosphere!

On Wednesday, January 30, my close friend Mark Jensen and I will embark on a 17-day "project development and encouragement" trip to Central Europe. We will land in Prague, Czech Republic on Thursday, spend a couple days there with a very dear Czech "comrade," and then "train on" to Eastern Czech. There we will spend 5 days with Mel Ellenwood of Josiah Venture, looking at some projects, and dialogging with him about what kinds of things he could use help with.

On Wednesday, February 6, we're on the train again (click the link to hear Willie sing! ... I'm gonna re-write the lyrics and publish them in tomorrow's blog!) to Eastern Slovakia to visit some very special people we've known for over 8 years ... and encourage them in their work!

On Friday, February 8, we'll jump one more train and make our way from Slovakia to Budapest, Hungary. There we will rendezvous with a work team from Northern Wisconsin, which will included Mark's wife Cathy! While in Budapest, we will work on a variety of projects on the Olimpia Mozi, the ministry center where we've worked in the past and where Mark and Cathy lived for 3 months in 2004!

Our main goal for this trip is to "look and listen" for service opportunities for people to become involved in as we dialog with a number of leaders in Central Europe! If God would open up a door for our organization (NEXT International) to partner with some of these groups to help advance their vision and mission, we'd be delighted!

So, keep posted, we'll be sure to update as often as we can!