"Fasten
your seat belts please, we are going to land in a moment in Newark
Airport in New Jersey." We realized, with this
announcement, that all our preparations and plans were becoming a
reality. After an eight-hour flight from Prague, which was
for me, a student of theology, and my wife,
our very first one in our lives, we were completing the first step
of a new adventure. We touched the continent that we knew at
that time just from movies or stories that we heard from our
friends. Our Christian brothers and sisters of our partner
church in First UMC Birmingham, Michigan invited us to come and
spend two weeks with them. The main purpose of this trip was
to deepen the relationship between both Churches and also to bring
greetings of Rev. Josef Cervenak, the General Superintendent of
UMC in Prague the capitol of Czech Republic, who visited Birmingham
in May 2000. At
Newark airport, we were welcomed by Rev. Carletta Aston who works
for GBGM, whom we had met in Prague several months earlier.
This meeting gave us encouragement for our next step - a flight to
Detroit. We brought with us presentation materials about our
church [can be found at www.volny.cz/ecm.praha2]
and also about the UMC in Czech Republic. The church in
Birmingham, which is situated in the northern suburbs of Detroit,
is the biggest one in Michigan and has about 3000 members.
We were struck by the fact that this is more members than all the
United Methodist churches in the Czech and Slovak Republics
combined! While
preparing for our visit, we were wondering what it would be
like? And what about our English skills? We didn't
know whether we would be able to understand American English
properly. met
many more new UMC friends. He has also been At
the Detroit airport, Rev. Dr. |
Bill Ritter and his wife Kris warmly
welcomed us. During the whole time of our stay, we were
accommodated in the house of Mr. and Mrs. Valade, and it was
really like a piece of heaven for us. We needed to get some
rest during a very busy program that our brothers and sisters
prepared for us. We were looking forward to seeing the
building of the church and were really astonished when we visited
the main chapel and other spaces that belonged to it.
This
was very different when we compared it to our prayer room.
In fact it reminded us of the cathedrals of Roman Catholic
churches in Prague, but this one was much more cozy and
approachable. We enjoyed a warm invitation for lunch where
we could share our experiences with each other. The next day
started according to the plan that was prepared by a special team
of people. All activities of the church were introduced to
us, of which there were many. I was impressed with their
extensive work with children of all age categories, and was
fascinated by the rehearsal of their choir. I would wish to
someday sing in a similar one in Prague. We noticed that
everything was perfectly organized and we realized how important
the invisible work of many volunteers was.
When it was Thanksgiving
time, we also visited an interfaith meeting in a Jewish Temple and
then we went to several primary schools where I could tell the
pupils about the situation in the Czech Republic. Our nice
friends took us also to other parts of Detroit including the poor
district where their church provides some help.
We spent two days in the
northern part of Michigan and we saw wonderful lakes and the
beauty of the local nature. We were also taken to see a
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NHL
hockey game and watching the Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit was a
great experience for us. We visited the Museum of Cars and
Art. There was so much to see during our visit, and it is
really difficult to describe in a
short article, all the experiences we had. We visited many
households and gained new friends, and that is what we were
blessed with most of all.
We know that this church
is very busy, especially in Detroit, and its neighborhood.
That is why we are so grateful for any kind of support that our
church in Czech Republic obtains. We would like to thank
everybody who enabled us to visit First UMC in Birmingham.
It was a great experience for us. We admired those who had
patience with our "English". We are grateful that
we could feel quite at home in Birmingham. We go exclusive
care.
When we were on our way
back home, we realized that our work in Czech Republic is just at
the beginning. But we were encouraged that we are not alone
and can get support from our brothers and sisters from UMC in
USA. We are very pleased that we can know the situation of
each other and stay joined in prayers. It was wonderful in
Birmingham but we know the place of our ministry to the Lord is in
our home church. We brought back with us, a big
encouragement and inspiration for this ministry. We are
looking forward to meeting again some of our friends in Prague in
spring 2001.
Written by Filip and
Hana Gartner, Prague, April 2001, about their visit to their IN
MISSION TOGETHER partner church in Birmingham, MI in November
2000.
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