On Sunday I went to International Baptist Church of Prague. I went with a friend from Albania and an acquaintance of his who is living in Prague for several months working for Radio Free Europe. International Baptist Church is a large, multi-faceted ministry with services in Czech, English, Spanish, and Chinese. The main auditorium at IBCP (pictured above) is devoted to the Czech service, so the English-speaking congregation meets in a smaller auditorium on the second floor. The compact meeting space gave the service an intimate feeling.
It was obvious that people came to the service intending to spend a while. Each guest introduced himself, prayer requests and praises were taken, and time was spent in singing, reading Scripture, meditation, and public prayer before the pastor came to preach.
The pastor and his wife are missionaries from Wales. Several people I met are missionaries from the U.S. who work with a baptist mission board whose headquarters for Eastern Europe is in Prague. I met a woman whose in-laws live in Taylors, SC. Everyone was very welcoming, and it was an enjoyable Lord’s Day.
POSTSCRIPT
This week TFAS is running the European Journalism Institute (EJI) in the same facilities we use. When I went down to breakfast Sunday morning I was surprised to see someone I know eating in the cafeteria. Sarah VanBerkum, the program assistant from my TFAS program in 2004, is here for EJI. She finished her masters and now works in the governor’s office in South Dakota.
Fred and me at church