Totzke Prayer Communique

From: syltotzke@wideopenwest.com

Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 12:46 PM

Dear Praying Friends,

Ahoj! That’s the informal Czech greeting for hello and

goodbye. Just think of the Beatles song, “You say hello

and I say goodbye.” It’s all ahoj to the Czechs.

Sylvia got here last Wednesday trouble free. It took a bus

ride and two metro changes to get to our pension where we

stay that is owned and operated by a Czech widow named

Yarka. She is very helpful and speaks English. The pension

has a beautiful garden with many varieties of shrubs and

flowers. That’s where we eat breakfast and just relax

after the day is over. All of the team members will stay in

this pension when they arrive beginning in a few weeks. It

will be very convenient for us to be involved with them

because of this arrangement.

We are settled into a routine that we will have until the

teams arrive. After breakfast at the pension we walk the

mile to George and Cindy Swain’s home for a morning

meeting. At that time we do some administrative stuff, pray,

learn some Czech words and phrases, and plan the ministry

activity of the day. Last Friday we went with George to

Beroun, a village that is a 30 minute train ride southwest

of Prague where we distributed 700 Jesus film flyers. George

states that within the first two weeks of a flyer

distribution, they get a 2.5% return which is higher than

the normal return for a similar distributions. George has

10,000 flyers to distribute, so we’ll be busy seeing the

countryside surrounding Prague distributing these flyers all

the while praying for the recipients’ response. The

Ashland team will be helping with this project when they

come, too. Yesterday, Monday, we went to a village a short

bus ride away and visited people who responded to the flyer

awhile ago, got the Jesus film and viewed it. One woman was

a young mother who was interested in Bible studies; another

older couple was very hospitable and invited us back for

another visit but didn’t have any interest in spiritual

things. They do know some of the Czech people in the work

here, so that it an opening.

We’ve been learning our way around Prague. On Saturday we

were on our own and found our way to the castle, old town

and many other attractions. It’s an easy city to navigate

since it’s quite compact and visitor friendly. You can

hear many languages spoken wherever you go. We still have

lots more downtown time in the future so that we can become

comfortable knowing where the important things are located

– bank, post office, restaurants, major sightseeing

venues. We do walk a lot and when we go to bed at night,

we’re tired.

Thanks for your partnership with us and thanks for praying

for Sylvia’s sister Lin. She went home from the hospital

on Thursday and is feeling stronger each day. After having

only an IV drip for almost 10 days, she’s being careful as

to what she decides to eat. She has four cats and has found

that bending over to feed them and then to change their

litter pans is something that she won’t be able to do for

a awhile. She wants to thank all of you for praying for her

while she was in the hospital. Please continue to pray for

her full recovery.

Larry and Sylvia