Greetings

Hello dear friends and family!

For about a month we’ve been back home in the Czech Republic after a great time in the U.S.

At first it feels strange to say “we’re back home,” but really that’s the truth. Our first home is Spokane, our current home is Lidice, CZ, and our final home is the New Heavens and New Earth with Christ.

That being said, as far as this earthly experience goes, there’s nothing quite like the joys you experience being at your first home. We’re thankful to say our time in the U.S. was especially refreshing in that regard, though (of course) joyfully exhausting.

In this update (admittedly longer than usual) you’ll get an overview of our time in the U.S., and a little bit of what coming back has been like. We also have a brief update/prayer need for Jared’s back/nerve problems.

Here’s the scoop.

First stop: Austin, Texas

Praise God that both to and from the U.S. our travels were quite smooth. The kids did amazingly, though nearly delirious by the end of each trip.

The church in Austin, TX (Grace Community Bible Church) did a wonderful job welcoming us, helping us get to know their church with several meaningful meetings, and also gave us a thoughtful amount of time to rest and just be a family.

Jared got to preach a day and a half after we arrived, as well as provide an update on our life and ministry… though he hardly remembers anything he said, being that he was extremely jet-lagged.

We spent a significant amount of time with our friends, Henry and Allie Anderson. We first got to know them during our time at The Master’s Seminary, and during the year that Jared worked at The Master’s Academy International. They’re in the same stage of life with kids who are all the same age as ours kids, so our time together felt very natural. Henry and Allie are deeply respected and appreciated by their church, and their impact on the young folks and families there is evident.

We were especially encouraged by the church’s thoughtfully arranged meetings so we could get to know their members more.

We visited their home, their church, a young adults meeting where we interacted with many eager-to-learn guys and gals. The church also rearranged an entire evening prayer meeting just so we could have more time to interact with church members.

We visited some iconic places like Magnolia Gardens, and of course Buc-ees. We tried seeing the famous millions of bats at the bridge on Congress Avenue in Austin, but… they were shy. But that evening ended with a brief opportunity to share the gospel with a street vendor from whom Jared bought a hat. Praise God!

We also got to visit our new friends, and some of our first supporters from TX, the Getterman’s. We’re inspired by their devotion to using their lives for the advancement of God’s kingdom, both in their families and their church.

We ended our time in TX with some good ol’ fashion TX barbecue.

Thank you, Grace Community Bible Church, for your great care for us.

Spokane, Faith Bible Church

After a whole week in Austin, we made our way to Spokane, WA.

We arrived July 31st in Spokane. The next day a massive fire decimated over 700 structures in residential areas, putting over 60,000 people out of their homes.

Several families in our supporting churches (or related churches) lost their homes. The impact of this tragedy is still felt today, and the recovery from it will take a long time. Pray for the Gospel to be made known through this hard time!

Such an incident was providential for Jared to get to preach on Ephesians 2:1-3 at Faith Bible Church. The reminder of how we are dead in sin apart from the resurrection power of Christ is always necessary, but perhaps especially potent during such a difficult time. Here’s a link to that sermon if you’d like to listen:

“A Deadly Condition” Ephesians 2:1-3

• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/rZZt65wBKa8?si=tOConlvwzMIrgHVs&t=2007
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Go5g00czeISoLXJpwvrA4?si=c19607c310ed40eb
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-deadly-condition/id888872108?i=1000782032496

We spent a total of almost 3 weeks in Spokane. Some highlights included: Getting to attend a friend’s wedding unexpectedly, staying in Claire’s parents’ house, visiting Jared’s parents’ house and relaxing at the pool with brothers, game nights with some of our closest friends, “Cous’ Camp” with cousins, daily visits from other friends/supporters/family, getting to catch up with another missionary family (the Grewe’s) who are dear friends ministering in Spain. They were also on their first furlough.

The socialisation was non-stop, and we wouldn’t have traded it! In fact it was a fun reminder of the pace of life we were living before our focus turned to language learning: People in our house almost every night of the week, more meetings per week than we could have expected, going to bed happily exhausted.

Somehow we found ourselves calmly unwinding in the familiar sense of happy chaos. We slept hard every night. It was great.

Another happy memory was made at the Oregon Coast. We got to spend about 4 days there with Jared’s side of the family.

Oregon Coast

(These family photos were all taken by Laura Millican, who lives in Northern, CA. You can see her website here: https://www.lauramillican.com )

Every three years or so, as a kid, Jared’s family would make its way to the Washington Coast for ocean camping. We praise God that all the brothers and their families were able to make it, even Corey and his family from Shingle Springs, CA.

One especially sweet memory will be of all the kids playing in the sand just like we used to, while we tried to relive our youthful energy chucking frisbees and Nerf footballs as far a we could.

Grandpa Bob (Bob-bob) built a fort from sand and driftwood with all the cousins, and Bennett finally got to fly a kite at the beach like he’s always wanted to.

The weather was perfect, the cousins played so well together, and – oh! – Jared’s brother, Keegan, asked his (now) fiancé to marry him! We’re very excited to welcome she and her daughter to the Milli-clan.

Jared and Corey also got the chance to minister together, having a very lengthy gospel conversation with a man at the beach who had a very troubled past. Pray for Craig.

Finally, we visited the famous Tillamook factory on the way back to Spokane for some souvenirs and lunch.

Spokane, Trinity Church

Back to Spokane!

Trinity Church of Spokane Valley is a church that was planted from Faith Bible Church in 2022.

We visited Trinity Church one Sunday and Jared got to preach there again. He preached from Psalm 90, a passage that has become very dear to us as we learn what it means to live for God, our eternal home/refuge, in this very brief life. Here are links to that sermon if you’d like to listen:

• Trinity Church: https://www.trinityspokanevalley.com/sermons/psalm-90-jared
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3qfv72B0pV4Vs4Jgf3iCDd?si=9ae1a5165ffc423e
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgmKdfX2NyQ&list=PLBdNk2mO_yag&index=4

After church that day we got to spend some time during the lunch hour with most of the church, and later on in the week they arranged a time at a park for us to get to know some more folks from Trinity.

This church has many young folks who attend Moody Aviation school. It was great to chat with a few of them about missions and, hopefully, keep them encouraged in their pursuit of this call.

(Unfortunately the busy-ness of fellowship on those days distracted us from getting any pics.)

Settling Back in to the Language

Thankfully, one thing has proven true: We needed the break from learning/speaking Czech – something all our experienced Czech-learning-friends and our teacher said was necessary.

We compare learning Czech to constantly shaking a snow globe, where all the grammatical rules, vocab, sentence structure (etc.) are the tiny white puff balls flying around in the globe. The puff balls only settle down only when the snow globe gets set down.

Our time in the U.S. was the ‘setting down’ and therefore the ‘settling down’ of the blizzard.

Coming back, we felt more ‘ready’ to speak. It doesn’t mean we’re lightyears beyond where we were when we left, but it means it feels a bit more comfortable.

Claire recently prayed in Czech, impromptu. It doesn’t get much more vulnerable than that.

Jared initiated and made car deals at a use-car dealership, trading our cars for ones that suit our family a bit better (though Marcus helped in the last few steps).

Other things like simple gospel conversation with a barber, and casual small talk at birthday parties and football games feels a little more natural.

This makes us excited to keep going.

Pray we’d continue growing in humility and bravery with this difficult language. Pray God would bring progress that is proportionate to our hard work. Which means… pray we’d work really hard.

Jared’s Back/Nerve Problems

You may remember us asking you to pray for Jared’s back before our travel. While this was regarding a major flare up he was having, it is actually something that’s been a progressing problem for about 16 years.

This past year and a half he has had several major flare ups which have been cause for concern and further investigation.

If we understand correctly, the medical language translates to this:

• A degenerating spinal disc, resulting in that disc being compressed and bulging, resulting in irritation of nerves.
• Additionally, the inflammation of joints in the pelvic region is very uncomfortable and is also irritating nerves.
• The vertebrae nearest the problematic disc have also slightly shifted laterally. This means more instability and vulnerability of that area.

This has progressed to a place where we have to be careful with Jared’s activity. The pain and weakness is nearly constant withy varying intensity in lower back, hips, and legs. You can imagine that being tricky with 4 kids and wanting to maintain an healthy lifestyle as well.

A response from one doctor here has confirmed Jared should go back to the neurologist he saw about 6 months ago, and/or a neurosurgeon, for consultation. Pray that this will be enlightening. Pray also that the few PT exercises and self-care we’ve been advised of so far would provide some level of relief.

Also, if you happen to be/know a doctor in the world of neurology, physical therapy, or orthopedic spine expertise, feel free to give your ‘2 cents.’

It’s possible that surgery will be necessary in the future. Please also pray that our current insurance would cover the treatment/tests he’s received so far, as well as what might be to come.

Reflections

Returning back to the Czech Republic started to sound nice around the time when we were about 4 days away from leaving. Don’t get me wrong, this is not because we weren’t enjoying our time in the states. Many tears were shed when saying bye to family and friends, and even since then.

It’s simply because we know this is where we belong right now.

We’ve made this our home.

We reflect on the 12 years of planning and praying and preparing, the providential affirmation from elders in our life, continued open doors, and we remain confident that this is where we should be.

Time with Americans, English-speakers, family, friends, and our dear churches was everything it was supposed to be. We’re so thankful for it!

But… Czech isn’t heaven… Spokane isn’t heaven… And we have a lot of work to do before we can officially say, “We’re really home.”

So we pray for you, and we ask that you’d pray for us, that we’d remember our eternal home, be thankful for our temporary home, and invest deeply with both in mind. Our temporary home needs to hear of the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our eternal home is where we’ll get to finally rest.

Please know that our time spent with you all in America served to remind us of this great hope, and we’ve come back with a joyful zeal to labor for Christ here.

Salutations

In the meantime, as we labor with eternity in mind, this is our prayer for you and for ourselves:

Psalm 90:16-17

Let your work be shown to your servants,

and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands upon us;

yes, establish the work of our hands!