Esther Barnes
Toronto, Ont.
The first time Esther Barnes went to the Czech Republic she wasn’t looking for a long-term volunteer commitment. She just wanted to see Prague. Besides, having spent decades working as editor of the Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec’s magazine, she was still serving in communications roles with the North American and global Baptist women’s organizations, and writing books about their histories.
It was 2011 when a Baptist church in the Czech Republic first held an English camp as an outreach initiative in co-operation with Canadian Baptist Ministries. The Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec formed a team to lead it, she explains. Having wanted to see Prague for some time, joining the ten-day mission seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. “I thought, ‘Oh! I can go to Prague!’”
The camp exceeded her expectations. She had a little experience teaching English as a second language, fell in love with Litoměřice, and at the end, when the co-ordinator said they were looking for a long-term volunteer, she felt “God tapping” her on the shoulder.
“When I finished the book in 2013, I wrote to them and said, ‘Do you still need a volunteer?’ They said ‘Yes!’ ”
She has continued to teach and tutor English to Czech students ever since, preparing her own lessons and working hard to keep things interesting for them. Her work has “slowly evolved from doing classes of up to ten people down to mostly private lessons,” she says. During the pandemic her instruction moved online, but she has otherwise visited a couple of times each year for weeks at a stretch.
“My Czech friends and students have been a blessing far beyond what I could have asked or imagined,” she reflects.
She expects her October 2023 trip will be her last. Now in her late 70s, she risks higher travel costs, but there is only joy in her voice as she looks forward to what’s next. “You can never quite say that you’ve reached the final chapter,” she says. “At church last Sunday somebody invited me to serve on the board of a community service organization that I’ve known for years. And someone else asked me to sing in the choir.”