09. Sep 2025

Brandys nad Labem - Praha

Photos 1+2: Since leaving the Baltic coast two months ago and crossing the Neisse River to Görlitz on Monday last week, the daily walking stretches are not so much shorter or easier, but much more interesting.

Photo 3: View of Prague from Park Vrch Vitkov

Photo 4: The Czech and EU flags in the city center from Prague. The white and red colors of the Czech flag originate from the historical coat of arms of the Kingdom of Bohemia, while the blue triangle was added in 1920 to represent the Slovak people when the flag was created for the first independent Czechoslovak state.

Photo 5: Old Town Square in Prague. I am holding the front page of the Moosburg Newspaper from the day before I left home for Snail-Trail 3.0. In just two more weeks I will arrive back home in Germany.

At the hostel where I stayed, a young mother was working there at the reception and had her seven month old daughter there with her. One or two years ago she had a Jesus experience. She had had a negative reaction from a psychedelic drug that she had taken for "healing purposes". In that moment she saw a picture of Jesus and cried out for help. Immediately whatever was going on, stopped. She then had a little fish tattooed to her forearm. I responded that Jesus calls us to follow him and that perhaps he was encouring her to take the next step to better get to know him by reading his words from the first four books of the New Testament. I then asked her if her daughter had ever been blessed and dedicated to the Lord. This was not so. I told her that I was a pastor and offered to pray a prayer of blessing for her and her child. She accepted my offer and was so happy to have the blessing. She could not wait to tell her boy friend about it when she got home. May God continue his work of grace in Dominika's life and in that of her daughter.

I then went to a grocery store to get food supplies. I saw a mother and daughter standing in front of the cooler that had drinks. They were frustrated and trying to talk in English to someone to ask where they can find water without carbination. Every thing said "Voda" on it. I explained to them that "Voda" means water and not soda. I handed them a bottle and promised them, that if it had gas in it, I would buy it back from them. The two were visiting Prague from Israel. I told them that I was very sorry for what was happening in their country and said that Israel holds a special place in my heart. They wanted to know why. I explained that I was a follower of Jesus and that he came to the world through Israel. I then said that I knew the Hebrew names for God and blessed them with the words from Psalm 23 using the name Jahwe-Rah, the Lord my Sheperd. They were very thankful for the meaningful and encouraging thoughts.

Back at the hostel I met two young Germans while I was making my dinner. We talked about what it means to follow Jesus. That had done two Caminos to Santiago de Compostela and were searching for a deeper spiritual reality with Jesus than they were getting from their Christian tradition. They had recently moved to Hamburg. I gave them an address of a church there that think might be able to help them and prayed with them for their journey through life.