Slovakia live - news from the heart of Europe

Six wonderful days lived in the atmosphere of love, searching for more intimacy with God and others. Such was our Summer camp 2008 in a nutshell. Here are a few pictures that could describe the camp atmosphere the best. Just click on the picture below.

If you’d like to know and read more about the camp, just visit the blog written and maintained by the organizers from Kosice. You’ll find there a detailed daily journal of our activities in the camp: http://tabor.cirkevkristova.sk/en Enjoy!

Many people in Slovakia just love hiking. Age is not important. Only the desire to walk with a group of friends, share some talk with loads of good laughs.

Some from our group love hiking as well, so we try to use our leisure time for this meaningful activity as much as we can in the Summer time.

Here are a few pictures from a one half-day trip that we took a week or so ago. You may recognize some faces. Enjoy!

Since last December a few from our group have been playing weekly this great sport called Volleyball!

Our volleyball nights have been a good fellowship-building activity as well as a great opportunity to get to know our non-church friends better.

It’s great that we had also quite a few opportunities not only to share our lives and friendship, but our faith in Jesus as well. We are very thankful for all these uplifting opportunities!

Click on the picture bellow and a gallery with some cool pictures will pop up.

Last Friday we finished our 6 week series on “Love I didn’t know before.” We talked with our youth about love and it’s many expressions and various ways of demonstration to others.

We all agree that there are many ways of expressing our love and appreciation to others. So we have spoken and discussed together all of these: speaking and using the words of affirmation and encouragement; spending a lot of quality time together; serving others in meaningful ways; giving gifts and physical symbols of love; showing love through physical contact like touching, holding and hugging, etc.) To great extent we were inspired by Gary Chapman’s book, The 5 Love Languages, for which we are very grateful.

While we agree that there are various forms of showing love, we don’t always realize that some of the forms and expressions of love are more important for some people than for others. To say it in another way: some acts of love speak louder to some than to others.

For example: Joe can feel more loved and appreciated by hearing many words of encouragement and appreciation, while somebody else, let’s call her Jane, can feel more loved when people do something for her; when they serve her in some meaningful way.

When we understand what their primary ways of expressing and receiving love is, we will do accordingly. That is, we will try to show our love to them in the way that they receive as most loving.

The problem with us is, we don’t do so often. We try to love others sometimes genuinely as much as we can and it still doesn’t seem to be enough. Maybe the problem is that we are expressing love to them in our way not in theirs.

Imagine this: Joe and Jane from our example are husband and wife. She loves him genuinely and he loves her just the same. But they both don’t feel much loved by the other. Why is that? Maybe Jane tries hard and always does something for Joe. She goes shopping, she cooks, cleans the house, etc. But Joe doesn’t seem to feel loved much by it. You know why that is! He maybe needs to hear more warm and loving words than to have a warm meal every night for dinner. He maybe needs to hear more words of affirmation than to see the house always perfectly clean.

On the other hand, Joe does his best in trying to love his wife, Jane. But she doesn’t feel much loved by him either. Why is that? Because, in the words of Jane: “he is only a big mouth with sweet words, who never helps…” Joe tells her always how much he loves her, he showers her daily with the words of appreciation, he always encourages her when she returns disappointed from her work, etc. All that is nice and good. But she would appreciate it more if he sometimes did something at home. Or, if he surprised her sometimes with a dinner (doesn’t need to be anything fancy, you see). That would show her the love that she needs so much.

Both try to love the other as much as they can, but ineffectively. When they learn what the other partner needs the most they can be more loving the next time. Joe can learn to do more things for Jane and serve her more and Jane can learn to speak more lovingly using words of appreciation and encouragement when talking to Joe. Both will feel more loved in the end.

So, does this mean that we stop communicating our love in all the various ways God created it? Not at all. It only means that sometimes we can learn to be more “tuned” to peoples needs and to ways in which we can show our love to them more effectively. We can learn to love them the way that is important for them, not for us.

This simple principle can help us to express more love in our friendships, marriages, churches, working places and communities. It only requires from us some desire to learn more about others. When do the people around us feel most loved? How can they be shown love in the best possible way?

If we learn that we won’t need to endlessly try to show our appreciation and love to someone in a way that doesn’t “speak” or communicate love to them. Instead, we can learn what makes the other person feel loved and we can apply it the next time!

In the end, isn’t that what we all are after? More love!

So, do you know when the people you are close to feel loved the most? Do you show them your love their way? Just start today!

We are thankful to Miriam, who designed and created this poster advertising our new series.

OK. This post fits into a new category that I am just creating: national matters. From time to time, when there will be something truly worth mentioning, I’ll put it into this category. And since joining the “Euro club” is going to influence every single person in our small country (except the little kids maybe), here are a few lines about it:

Ten years after The European Union leaders made their historic decision to launch the single European currency (EURO), The European Commission said “yes” for Slovakia to become the 16th EU member of the eurozone.

On May 7, the European Commission, after releasing its regular Convergence Report on Euro Readiness, said that Slovakia meets the criteria for adopting the euro and made a proposal to the EU Council to this effect, according to an official media release. The report found that nine other countries aspiring to adopt the euro were making progress but said they did not yet meet all the conditions for euro adoption.

EU Council finance ministers will make the final decision on Slovakia’s adoption of the euro in July, after the European Parliament has given its opinion and EU leaders have discussed the country’s accession to the eurozone at their June summit, the EC wrote.

“Slovakia has achieved a high degree of sustainable economic convergence and is ready to adopt the euro on 1 January 2009,” said Joaquín Almunia, the EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, on May 7. “However, to ensure that the adoption of the euro is a success, Slovakia must pursue its efforts to maintain a low-inflation environment, be more ambitious with regard to budgetary consolidation and strengthen its competitiveness position.” (www.slovakspectator.sk, 12 May 2008)

So, what does this decision about the EURO mean practically for the Slovak people?. It means that from January 2009 they will not be using Slovak Crowns as their national currency, but EUROs instead. That is, they will be using the same currency as people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. While traveling across Europe they won’t need to exchange their currency in a Bank because the currency will be the same. The Businesses will not be influenced by the Euro/Crowns exchange rate fluctuation, because all their business with most European countries will be in the same currency (that is the EURO).

There are debates being held whether it will have more advantages or disadvantages for Slovakia’s Economy. There are many of those who doubt the advantages, but only the future will show whether our country’s decision was right.

Until then let’s use whatever we received from God in a Godly way, whether it is Crowns or Euros, showing generosity and concern for those who are in need, so that God’s love can be revealed across all the countries in the World!

Great time of fellowship, insightful lessons, very many good discussions, walks in nature and good games in the afternoon - this is how our Easter family retreat can be described in a few words.

Three wonderful days with brothers and sisters from Slovakia, Czech republic and few other nations (we had also some visitors from Austria, Holland, Switzerland and USA).

We are very thankful to our heavenly Father that He blessed us with another good opportunity to share, to love and to grow! May the Father’s name be glorified as we live in His presence every day, transformed by His Holy Spirit into the image of His beloved Son Jesus Christ!

If you want to see for yourself and breathe some of the retreat atmosphere, just click on the picture bellow. Enjoy!

If you would like to know what the nature looked like in the area where our retreat takes place every year, just click on the picture bellow. Enjoy as well!

For many of the pictures in the first gallery I am thankful to Bob and for most of the pictures of the beautiful nature of Male Karpaty I am thankful to Roman K.

Our annual Czecho – Slovak family retreat is approaching and we are all excited about it! We are expecting about 60 people to attend this year! This is the 11th year that the church in Bratislava is organizing this wonderful event. It’s been always a great time of fellowship, education and worship.

Our speaker this year is going to be Ken Wilson and we are all excited that we can have him this year with us. He’ll be speaking on the topic „The Christian Home“. Ken will talk about and discuss things like: God’s plan for marriage; healthy boundaries in marriages; Caring communication; Building strong families, etc.

We all look forward to this event!

Mainly for the teachers and church workers was the annual retreat that takes place in Central Germany (close to Frankfurt), in a village called Gemunden. This year was organized by Doyle Kee from Geneva and Scott Raab from Belgium. Our brothers have prepared a well balanced diet of good spiritual food. We have enjoyed classes taught by Phil Slate (Murfreesboro, TN) on „The Transmission of the Christian Faith“, Jim Krumrei (Haarlem, Netherlands) on „The Holy Spirit – Then and Now“, Craig Young (Marseille, France) on „Galatians – I do not set aside the grace of God“ and Bob Eckman (Nottingham, UK) on „The Church on Mars“.

I was very thankful that I had the opportunity to attend again this year. It’s always not only spiritually uplifting but also a great time of fellowship and sharing with other co-workers in Christ in Europe. To talk to others who share the gospel, hear their stories, struggles as well as victories is always encouraging!

If you want to see few pictures from the retreat, click on the picture below:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

We are thankful for:

The manifold ways in which our good Lord has worked in our lives through the year 2007

The many opportunities we had to serve Him

The closer bond that is being created among the members of the church in Bratislava

The good friendship that is nurtured and growing among the brothers and sisters in Nitra and their student-friends

The spiritual growth and desire to do more for the Lord among the youth in Bratislava and the Christians in Nitra

Please pray for the following things:

That we will recognize what our individual strengths in the church are and that we will help every member to be equipped with some good serving opportunity for Christ, so that our collective strength will be multiplied and Christ’s name glorified!

That our soccer and volleyball games will be good opportunities to get to know our friends. That we will have good opportunities to share our lives as well as our faith with them. That our mutual friendships will be strengthened overall through this activity.

That there will be more opportunities for for those in the Monday Bible class (that is taught in English by Bob) to create relationships with other Christians. Also that their primary interest for English will lead through their deepened knowledge of God’s word to faith in Christ!

That our Friday youth group will be more effective in its outreach. Please pray that we will find better ways to make our Friday meetings more visitor-oriented. Also that we’ll be able to plan some interesting themes and activities for the group so that it will be more Christ centered. May our friends be more effectively touched through these meetings.

For our Nitra meetings and the students there. The group is regularly meeting every Tuesday. For many of the students there this is the final year. May that not be a hindrance in learning more about Christ and His ways in the future. May the friendships and desire to know God last beyond the school year!

That God will lead us to some effective and useful serving opportunities in the capital city. We are reconsidering some other places and opportunities besides the nursing home, where some from our group went a couple of times last year.

That we will find a better location for our Sunday worship services. The one where we have been for many years (YMCA) is owned by a private company that has no interest in putting it in a better shape. The room where we meet for worship is not very “visitors welcoming” (visitors friendly).

That our coming Family Retreat will be a good opportunity for people to get closer to each other. Also that with the Lord’s help we will invite all those to whom it might be the most beneficial…

When we were thinking last year about what kind of activity we can do as young Christians that would be attractive to our non-Christian friends, that would be also fun and a relationship-building activity at the same time, we came up with the word “Soccer”! Soccer is very popular in Slovakia, so we thought that naturally many of our friends would be interested in joining us.

So since December, some from our youth group have been playing soccer every Sunday night. And as we all quickly realized, it fulfilled our desired goals:

1.) We are spending more time together as brothers and sisters and friends in the church, who have some interests in common. It’s not only a good time of sport, but also a good time of many laughs, smiles and heartfelt situations that are spontaneously generated among brothers and sisters.

2.) We started to invite our friends that don’t come to the church yet. And they started to come! Through this enjoyable activity we are gradually getting to know them better in very informal manner.

Also, most of us stay after the game for a cup of kofola and a good talk. If you don’t have any experience with kofola, one of these days you may try it! (It is a very traditional Czecho-Slovak soft drink that comes from the era of Communism. The taste of the soft drink can lightly remind you of Coca-Cola.) The additional talk after the game can give us more opportunities to share our lives with our friends as well as our faith.

Interestingly, after playing a few matches of soccer in December we switched to volleyball in January and the number of our visitors grew rapidly! Who would have thought that in a country so “addicted” to Soccer, Volleyball would be more popular?! We are happy about the new friendships and new opportunities to share our lives and faith!

Please keep this new relationship-building (and also to some extent evangelistic) activity in your prayers!