Saturday adventures & misadventures

Well, actually, to hear about the misadventure, check out James' website at www.jamesinczechrepublic.blogspot.com. ... oh my goodness - as I was making that entry Alma ran down and said we almost had a fire... and sure enough one of our number had fallen asleep and the book that person was reading fell against the lamp and was half-burned when it was discovered, thankfully before the sheet, the book or anything else actually burst into flame. We are feeling somewhat shaken, recognizing that God has been protecting us this day from serious injury or danger but these have been extremely close calls. And so, dear praying friends, please pray with us for God's protection constantly.
Now, one of the people I haven't introduced to you yet is our dear brother James. James is the only single guy in this group of two married couples, eight single women and himself. He does very well contending with some of the joys and challenges that face him simply being among us. He helps us with computer woes, takes care of details others miss, and truly loves children. Parnesh and Heather's son Reuben is a great fan of James. James is from Australia/NewZealand/England (see his blog for more details about that!) and is on his way to the Czech Republic. Not only is he very helpful in practical ways but is also quick to turn us all to the One who promises to be a Helper to those who cry out to Him. Tomorrow, James, Kim, Su'En and myself will be preparing our special Sunday evening dinner which is hosted by a different national group each week. So we will be the Dutch-Canadian-British contingent, preparing not only the evening meal but also the evening entertainment.
In spite of the challenges of this day, it was a tremendous sense of community as we all returned from our various outings and expeditions of the day. I had gone with our northern Irish friends, Victoria and Sally to spend the day in Budapest visiting the market and enjoying a more leisurely experience of the city than last week. (Also, last night most of us went on a wee boat cruise on the Danube to see Budapest by night - och, that was lovely!) Erika went to visit her Hungarian family members, Claudia spent the day with her uncle, and Micah took the train to Vienna to visit friends there. Some of us had some challenges finding our way on public transport but in each case, God graciously sent help in one form or another. In our case, it was an elderly gentleman who spoke enough English to help us find the bus we needed to transfer to because the trolley we were on was detoured due to road construction. As each of us arrived home this evening and shared the day's events, there was a real sense of family and gratitude to be back together again. And after the near-fire incident a few moments ago the five of us that were still awake all sat down and prayed together immediately.
Tomorrow morning in church our group will be singing a song and sharing a testimony. Probably the testimony we will share will be different than what we originally expected! But we will share that God is good and God is loving and we have experienced His faithfulness and His protection today.