Robert & Audrey Chestnut

Robert & Audrey Chestnut will be serving as missionaries to college students in the Czech Republic with the Josiah Venture.
you can visit them on the web at http://www.robandaudrey.com/

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The Chestnuts in Czech
March 2012

Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days.
This past week marked our one-year anniversary of living in the Czech Republic! Ironically, we spent our “anniversary” evening eating sushi at a mall in Poland…oh, the things that have now become common-place!

This past month has been packed full of really great times with a lot of different people:

I spent two and a half days in Millstatt, Austria at a prayer and worship women’s retreat with about 40 other JV missionary women from around Eastern Europe. It was a time of great refreshment and renewal as we were given a great deal of time each day to just be with our Father God. I was also able to spend some time getting to know some of the other JV women more deeply and I feel so blessed to be a part of this greater missionary family.

A team of 15 students from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago spent two weeks in Czech with 3 different youth groups who are new to doing English camps. The college students got to see first-hand what ministry in Czech looks like as well as help to support and encourage youth groups and students here. Rob was with them for various part of their time here, including going with them to some public high school visits to promote camps and he also acted as their tour guide during their day in Prague. We had them all over to our apartment for dinner and Rob’s dad was able to do a Q&A session on his ministry in Czech through short-term trips over the last 21 years.

Rob’s dad, John, was here in Czech for two weeks (I think it was around his 22nd trip since 1991!), and he was wonderful enough to take time away from his normal time of ministry with a church in Prague to be with us. He spent a few days in Cesky Tesin and at the offices in Frydlant seeing a bit of our lives here. It was so great to have him here!

Reflections from Chynov.
Probably the most special times with Rob’s dad was going with him to visit some people in a village called Chynov. This little town is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, but it has such great significance in Rob’s life. During Rob’s first trip to Czech when he was just twelve years old, he went to a little church in Chynov with his dad…and although Dad has been back numerous times, this was the first time Rob had been back or seen these people in 19 years. During our day trip to Chynov (which we dubbed the “memorial” visit), we got spend time with some of the most godly people I’ve ever met. We were brought to tears by the simple beauty of sitting at a table, listening to an 87-year-old man share stories about being in Prague when the Nazis were defeated and the Russians liberated the city in 1945, as he then seamlessly moved into a time of prayer and scripture reading from his well-worn Bible. An elderly women, her body bent nearly in half from osteoporosis and arthritis, served us tea in her simple farmhouse as her son-in-law told us of the hours she spends each day in prayer and studying the Word, despite the fact that her eyesight has nearly faded. We ate homemade crepes and cake with a widow who remembered Robert as a 12-year old when he stayed in her house for the first time all those years ago; and couldn’t have been more excited to see Dad (who they all called “Johnny” in the most endearing accent!). I can hardly describe how wonderful it felt to be able to see the place where, in some ways, it all started!

Prayer & Praise.

- English Camp trainings with Czech youth groups: Please pray for youth group teams to be fully equipped and feel prepared for camps and for Rob to develop stronger relationships specifically with the Bohemia youth groups.
- General preparation for summer: We’d love prayer not only for the final pieces to prepare for interns and camps, but also for some time of emotional and physical rest before the busy summer. We’re taking a short trip to Venice & Verona this month (it’s only an 8 hour drive!), so pray that this will be a time of rest before the non-stop activity begins. Please pray that we’ll also be spiritually filled and ready to feed into a lot of people in the coming months.
- Audrey’s tutor & dear friend, Petra, is moving: You got to meet Petra in our last video update, and she’ll be moving to Northern Ireland in the next few weeks. Audrey will miss her greatly, so please pray for the adjustment to not getting to spend lots of time with her on a weekly basis. But thanks to Skype, Petra will continue to be Audrey’s language tutor, so please pray that this will work out well.

Upcoming schedule. 
- Trip to Italy: April 14-18
- Camp trainings for Czech youth groups: April 21 & 28
 - JV Spring Conference: May 2-6

Grace & love-
(Rob &) Audrey