Pete and Michelle Foster – Pardubice, Czechia

We had led Cirkev u Dubu (Oaks Church) for five years. It was essentially a small family church of expats from around the globe – people who had arrived in our small city of Pardubice, in the heart of Europe, for study or work. We felt a clear call from God to formally gather as a church, but during 2022 and the first part of 2023 it was becoming clear to us that the role was becoming too much. Pete was having health problems due to a blood condition and we were both beginning to feel burnt out after years of serving in this way. Also, due to the transient nature of study and work for expats in our city, we saw nearly fifty people come and go! People who were becoming a part of our fellowship were moving on and so we were constantly experiencing change.

In early 2023, the pastor and wife from another church in our city mentioned that if we ever needed a rest we would be welcome in their church as long as we needed. At the same time we had wise counsel from Kevin and Emma in Poland and Jon Beardon in the UK that we should lay down the church and take a rest. At the beginning, this was hard news for us to hear, as we both felt a very strong sense of loss and grief in laying down something that we had started and been a part of for so long; but at the beginning of July last summer Jon Beardon visited and helped us to lay down our responsibilities and so we have returned to Archa church (The Ark).

From the start, we were able to see the difference that this significant change was making in our lives. Our responsibilities had been reduced and so we were able to enjoy worship and teaching (all in Czech – Michelle’s native language) which has also been great for improving Pete’s Czech. It’s also a church where we have a lot of friends, many of whom have helped us in the past and who have played a part in the Oaks Church journey.

We have experienced some very personal blessings from God during this time too. Pete decided to search online for a new electric guitar and was immediately bombarded online with adverts for this guitar. The following weekend we were visited by friends and it turned out that one of the friends was looking to sell the exact model of guitar and the next morning said that he felt simply to give Pete the guitar – amazing! For the past few months Pete has been playing that guitar in one of the church worship groups and it has felt a significant step to be playing worship songs sung only in the Czech language.

Another blessing has been the development of the school band which we started in the primary and secondary school where we both work. We mostly play worship songs for the school assemblies but recently Michelle entered us into a regional schools and colleges competition for singing and reciting in English. We sang ‘My Lighthouse’ by Rend Collective. To our surprise we came third in the finals even though we were up against college students, but what felt even more significant was that we were singing a worship song in the City Hall.

Change is rarely simple and this year has come with its challenges; but in it all, we are both able to see God’s hand upon us and we are very thankful for what he is doing.