It's late. I'm working on putting songs together to play at the BMA weekend retreat starting in two days. We have band practice tomorrow...hence the preparation! Preparation pays off.

Also, our band needs a name! hmmm...

Anyway, this is my name in Japanese! In Japanese they don't have the "L" sound, and the "R" is like a mix between an "L" and an "R"...it's pretty cool. So you would pronounce this "Tairaa." How fun!


I wish I could sleep during the day and stay up all night! I'm much more a night person. I'll stay up later just because I feel guilty wasting a perfectly peaceful evening! I really should try and get more than 6 hours of sleep at night. It's something to think about! Haha...

With exactly a month till maturita, our big end-of-high-school-oral-exam, you'd think I'd have lots of time alloted for studying. And I really should! Yet God has been putting so much responsibility on me in these past few weeks. And with that responsibility has come amazing blessing!

My weekends have been especially full, and especially encouraging!

This last weekend started with dinner with friends. After the great time we had together at the mall in Ostrava (mentioned a couple posts back), we decided we had to spend more time together before some of us have to leave BMA and Frýdlant! So we all got together, made dinner and had a great time laughing, sharing stories, and enjoying the friendships God has given us. It was truly an unforgettable evening!



The next day, on Saturday, Adam Hlávka, a friend from the second year class, came over to our house! Adam is one of the most mature and Godly young men I know. It's truly a blessing to be with him! We grilled shish kebabs for dinner, then walked over to the Till house for an evening of Civilization - a very fun and complex strategy board game.




The next morning Caleb, Adam and I met up with Robert to lead worship at a chuch planting conference in Frenštát, a town 15 minutes away from Frýdlant. Mark Krupa was kind enough to drive us there with all our sound equipment, and ended up staying with us for the whole time! While there weren't many people there, God definitely blessed the time there, and we were so happy to serve them by using the gifts God has given us!


Then our weekend took a very unexpected turn. More acurately, Mark took a very unexpected turn on our way back to Frýdlant!

We suddenly found ourselves on top of a wonderful little hill, surrounded by the beautiful Beskydy mountains. It was amazing. Then one of us had the idea: "We should get out the camera and take pictures!" So we did!



Then we thought to ourselves: "We should set up our music equipment!" So we did!






We had so much fun. Mark did a great job of taking pictures! I came home that day very refreshed and encouraged. Though it was a packed weekend, it wasn't at all draining. I can't even name all the blessings I've received in these past couple weeks. God is amazing!

I'm quite curious about these next three weekends though! All three are heavily packed once again. This first weekend I'm helping lead a weekend retreat for the students at BMA. We're expecting 25 students, a third non-christians. I can't wait to see what God does there!

In two weeks we have JV Spring conference. I'll be leading worship for the kids along with Hannah! I can't wait.

And in three weeks the worship band I've been apart of starting in our youth group has its debut! We had practice yesterday, and I must say I'm ecstatic!! We've been stretched so much in these past months, and we're seeing the fruit of the hard labour now. I'm so excited to be able to serve at PDT (a team-building conference) along with Caleb, Honza, Klára, Kača and Pavel.

Then I'll have one weekend before maturita! It's a lot. But I know God's got a purpose in this, and I know this is where he wants me. It's all for His glory!

Yesterday morning I walked to school.



I love Czech!!

What a day! I feel so blessed.

In the past year I've really broken out of my shell and learned to love people more (sounds weird, but I was quite the loner)! God's really provided for me with some really Godly friends at my school, and I had a great day with those people today!


BMA is just an amazing school for bringing very different people together. Because BMA is so small (about 80 students), we're all one big family! And the truly amazing part is the 20 brothers and sisters in Christ. A highlight of the week is a 15 minute prayer time, led by students! I am so blessed by a community where I not only have strong Spiritual siblings, but also have the opportunity to openly share my faith with the rest of my BMA family.


One of the Christian teachers at BMA told me: "This sort of ministry is one of the hardest. The kids you're ministring to see you 5 days a week for four years. They see everything you do, and everything is a testimony. They even see when you screw up. Only by Jesus being a the center of your life every single day can you be effective in sharing the Gospel with these students."

It's a challenge. At an English Camp, you can get pumped up for God for 10 days, give it your all, share your faith and make a big impression on everyone, and then mellow out and no one will notice. At BMA if your faith isn't real, it's visible. Your whole life is a testimony.


So back to the beginning! It is so encouraging to have other brothers and sisters in Christ with you on the battlefield every day, going through exactly the same things as you. And it's great to sometimes just get away and have some fun! We're at war, and it's important to know your fellow soldiers well!

So today our whole school took a trip to Ostrava to go see a play! Afterwards 9 of us, among which were some of my closest friends, went to the mall and saw a movie together! I also got a haircut. It wasn't so much about what we were doing, but about what was happening between us. I'm so thankful that God opened up my heart and gave me friends that I can trust, cherish and admire. It will be a very sad goodbye in a couple months!

As many of you know, I've always been by far the healthiest of us Patty kids over the years! I have had no surgery, and the first time I even broke a bone was last winter snowboarding!

Yet there is one thing that comes every spring like clockwork - strep.

But this year it didn't just come once and then leave...it came back for an encore! So even though I fought off a very high fever and sore throat a month ago, I woke up last tuesday with strep (or as we call it in Czech, angína).

While the first round went to sickness and I spent three weeks in bed, the sunny weather of the second round was enough to give me hope that I didn't have to be beat so easily this time! Obviously it's not good to play around with strep, and if not rested out properly could do bigger and longer-lasting damage, but this time I had hope!

A couple weeks before I got sick a second time Hannah Ellenwood asked me to play with her at her voice recital. She's been taking voice lessons for a couple years, and singing even longer! One thing I'm really going to miss is singing with her!


As it happened, her recital was on the Tuesday I woke up with an infected throat. So I went to the doctor, and then took a train to Český Těšín to play and sing in front of 50+ people! It was awesome! God really pulled through and I think we both did a great job.


The two songs we sang were I'll Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie and Broken Strings by James Morisson and Nelly Furtado. We rocked! (well, Hannah rocked, I helped rock!)

And, so you can stop worrying, after the recital was over I took a train home and have rested ever since. A week and a half later, I'm happy to say I'm feelig much better! I'm super thankful God healed me before Easter so I can fully enjoy the days in remembrance to what He did for us all!

In ten minutes I'm actually going up to the Malenovice training facility to lead worship with Caleb for the Easter Friday service. Christians from all over the Czech Republic will be there, I'm really excited!

And it's gorgeous outside. Just the way I like it...not too hot, not too cold! God's creation is so inspiring!! This is what it looks like outside my window, right at this moment!