Nineteen Years

Nineteen years ago today, we moved our family to the Czech Republic and began Josiah Venture.

When I look at these old pictures, it brings back all the feelings I had that day: excitement, fear, anticipation, dread...yes, all those emotions and more were real as I woke up the morning we left.

After getting our container packed (that's Tyler, Dave and his brother, Josh, loading in the last boxes), Dave went ahead of us by a few days to get things unloaded.

Thus, on November 9 1993, it was the little boys and I, along with Dan and Laura Hash, who made the drive from St. Leon, Germany to Havirov, Czech Republic that memorable day.

We took one last photo at our friend's house, then loaded the boys into their car seats and headed off on a twelve hour drive to a new life, our new home (which I'd only seen one time!), and all that God had for us in the coming years.

We arrived late that cold November night, the smell of coal burning heavy in the air as we got out of our cars and walked up the steps of our new home.

Our first Czech friends greeted us with cakes and flowers, as well as a sign on our front door: "Welcome to the world where dreams come true!"

Little did we know then what dreams would unfold in the nineteen years that were ahead!

Honestly, about all I could think about in those early days was "What am I going to feed these guys tomorrow?!"

Those first days hold strong memories...washing dishes in the bathtub, being one of them! But other ones are sweeter: going to our new church in Havirov, worshiping in Czech for the first time, learning to speak Czech from a dear older woman who was a believer, meeting new friends, figuring out how and where to buy groceries, finding our way around.

It's actually hard to believe that these two little guys, who started this adventure with us, are already grown up and gone now.

How did 19 years go by so quickly?!!

Thankful for all that God has done in us, through us and around us these past nineteen years.