Church In Prague
The
high hopes for our
trip to Israel
led to profound disappointment over its
outcome, and we were again at a dead end.
Returning to southeast Asia felt premature as we were emotionally drained and needed rest before returning to its hustle and bustle, hot and humid climate, language barrier, visa issues, Buddhist culture, etc., and there was no one in southeast Asia waiting to help Kristin. We would only be returning there because we had nowhere else to go and had most of our luggage in a storage locker there.
So I again pulled up a map of the world and noticed how close we were to eastern Europe, which I had been to before I became a Christian and only on short visits. Since then, I had heard that there were revivals in parts of eastern Europe. Was there one now where Kristin could go and be helped? With autumn approaching, at least its air will be clean and cool, and Kristin's health had done much better in Israel's clean air.
A quick search on a travel site turned up $100 flights from Tel Aviv to Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic, so I asked Kristin if she would like to go there to breathe clean air and rest for a couple of weeks. She said yes, so we flew to Prague.
Prague did have clean air but no revival. We couldn't even find a conservative expat church to visit. Most of the locals seemed to understand English but stared at us blankly when hearing the Gospel and showed no interest in it. The city felt hedonistic, was very touristy and even in the non-touristy part of city where we stayed, the locals seemed interested only in our money after learning that we are Americans.
But since we were in Prague, which Kristin had never visited, I did take her around to some of its sights. We walked around the Prague Castle, had spaghetti ice cream at Wenceslas Square, took a boat ride down the Vltava River, etc., none of which seemed to please her. At one point, she said Prague is a romantic city but there is no romanticism between us because "You don't have a romantic bone in your body."
I reminded her that we came to Prague to rest and breathe clean air, not to be romantic, which would just make her think, wish and talk more about something that she had agreed not to even mention on this trip. Even though I no longer had a source of income and she had betrayed me, I was spending a large portion of the money I had left to treat her to a trip to Israel and now to eastern Europe to try to help her. It will make her feel better if she appreciated more of what she is receiving instead of constantly raising her expectations.
Instead of apologizing or expressing gratitude, Kristin said that she wants to start making her own money by teaching English online to Chinese children for three hours on weekdays. She liked being with children and the pay rate seemed fair, so I supported her, and she began teaching online.
As our two weeks in Prague drew to a close, she said she feels called to distribute her Gospel tracts in Poland, which is adjacent to Czech Republic and a relatively cheap bus ride from it, so we took a long bus ride from Prague to the city of Krakow in southern Poland.