Friends at Frýda

I remember when the very first mall opened in Ostrava, the big city near us, nearly fifteen years ago; it was a big deal! Since then, two other large malls opened in our area which felt quite extravagant, and I was completely satisfied with them.

So when we started noticing another mall being built a couple years ago, it felt like overkill. Why did we need another mall?

I've since come to "eat my own words" as it's now the one that I frequent the most! Just fifteen minutes from home, it's much easier and more convenient to get to than the ones that are 30-40 minutes away.

Never was it sweeter to go to this mall than yesterday when I stopped by for a quick errand and ran into these dear ones.

Lukaš and Lucka were high schoolers many years ago when we led Koinonia, our Havířov church youth group! We watched them trust Christ, grow up, fall in love and get married.

And now they have a family and Lukaš is an elder in the church! How sweet it was to run into them at our little mall, a place he said they hardly ever come since they live 30 minutes away. But on this day, God led us to be in the same spot at the same time. Oh how good it was to see them and catch up on our lives with each other.

Today I was on my way back home from an appointment when I remembered that I needed a gift to take over to someone's house this evening. So once again I stopped in at the mall I didn't think I needed and this time was in the right spot at the right time once again!

Amy Evans, to the right of me in the photo, and her husband just moved here to Czech a month ago to join our iTeam in Frydlant.

Three weeks later, they had a baby (Logan, who is down in the bottom corner...sorry my arm wouldn't reach far enough to get his sweet face into the photo!)

Yes, they are amazingly adventurous, faith-filled people to move to a new country weeks before having a baby! They moved from our JV team in Slovenia, so at least it wasn't across the ocean...but STILL, very courageous of them! We are so happy they're here to serve with us.

Amy's mom is here to help for a few weeks, and since they were out at a doctor's appointment with Amy Ellenwood along to help with language, they stopped into Frýda Mall for a bite to eat. And I happened to run into them there.

So, for a mall that I didn't think I needed, it's proving over and over to be a blessing to me in a myriad of ways. I'm glad someone thought we needed another mall in the area!