Slovakia live - news from the heart of Europe

Here are a few pictures from the wedding of Peter and Zuzka. Just click on the picture below and the gallery will pop up. Enjoy!

Here are the results from the survey that we took in May and June among the University Students in Bratislava. (You can read more about the survey at this link.) This was an “open-questions” survey without answers to pick from. So the students had the opportunity to give multiple answers. For example: a person answered on the first question with three words: love, money and health. All of these answers were counted. We counted how many times each word was given by all of the students. Then we calculated what percentage it is from all of the students we talked to. Therefore, if you would add up all the percentages in the first question, you will not end up with 100%. So, here are some of the questions and results:

What does a man need in life in order to live it meaningfully?

47.17 % Love
43.40 % Friends
32.08 % Family, happy family, good family background, background
20.75 % Money, material things and values
16.98 % Health
13.21 % Boyfriend/girlfriend, partner, someone with whom I can share                   everything
11.32 % Happiness
09.43 % Faith
09.43 % Goal, purpose, passion for something

What is worrying/troubling you in life?

22.64 % School, studying, tests, not prospering in school
20.75 % Relationships among people, in the family
20.75 % Injustice, arrogance, indifference, individualism, selfishness,                       unwillingness to help, wars and cruelty
15.10 % Finances, money for an apartment to live in
07.55 % I don’t have a girlfriend/boyfriend

What gives you joy in life?

39.62 % Relationships, friends, people
18.87 % Success, everything that I achieve by my own strength, success               in school
15.10 % Nature, good weather, living in beautiful Slovakia
13.21 % Boyfriend, girlfriend
11.32 % Family
11.32 % Love, knowing that someone loves me
09.43 % Helping others, when I can help someone, when I can be useful
07.55 % Entertainment

Are you a believer?

58.49 % yes
32.08 % no
09.43 % sometimes or syncretic

Those who considered themselves believers, we also asked:

What do you like about a church?

16.13 % God, I found God there, faith in God
12.90 % I was raised there
09.68 % Fellowship, family atmosphere
09.68 % I found peace there
06.45 % I found meaning for life there

What do you dislike about a church?

19.35 % Too institutional, too far from people and their struggles
19.35 % Hypocrisy
12.90 % Too much talking about politics
09.68 % Preaching morality without preaching Christ
06.45 % Affairs, celibacy, paedophilia
06.45 % I didn’t feel welcomed, I didn’t create relationships there
03.10 % Not enough self-sacrifice

So, how are we going to use the results? How are they going to help us in our youth and University ministry? Well, there are at least a few things we can do:

First, the results serve us as a reminder that we really can be and need to be genuine, honest, loving, caring, forgiving and trustful friends to those who come to our assemblies, our classes and various activities.

Second, when we teach about Christ we can show Him especially through these subjects that are so crucial to these young people. We can talk about true love, genuine friendships and humanness according to God’s image (seen so beautifully in Jesus), etc. They need to see Christ in us, in all our actions.

Third, we can learn their “language.” Young people are not shallow and they are able to “name” some of the problems around us calling them with the right names. We can learn how to use their “language” (some specific expressions they use) to communicate the gospel to them.

We’ll be thinking and praying about other ways that we can use the knowledge about these young people. May our good Lord lead us in doing so. If you have any good idea, please let us know!

Great thanks goes to Miriam for being courageous enough to go with me and ask these students questions in our survey. And also the greatest thanks especially to our good Lord. “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

Oh, and by the way, what would be your answers in our survey?

We are used to seeing so much pain and suffering on the TV or on the Internet that we become somewhat desensitized to it. I guess we need to get more in touch with suffering. I am not speaking here about some masochism or self-afflicted pain. I am speaking here about being more sensitive to other people’s hurts.

I am speaking here about our realization and comprehension that other people might be hurting and suffering more that we are even able to imagine. Is it not our privilege as well as responsibility to bear each others burdens (Galatians 6:2)? Not just rejoice with those rejoicing, but also to weep with those that are weeping (Romans 12:15)?

Sometimes I think that we people of Western culture have become too comfortable and somewhat indolent - unwilling to go through much of self-sacrifice and self-denial anymore. We have everything that we want and that makes us sometimes not very attentive to those in need.

And there are literally thousands and thousands of hurting people around us: mistreated children who might be now grown adults, but are carrying their wounded and injured hearts deeply hidden in their souls; neglected orphans who never learned how to give nor to receive love; abandoned wives by their booze, gambling or porn addicted husbands; despondent ladies with low self-esteem who are driven by compulsion of overeating or anorexia; effeminate, timid young men whose passive and often absent fathers never had a word of encouragement nor acknowledgement for their sons; deserted and abandoned grandfathers and grandmothers whose children and grandchildren have no time nor mood to meet and cheer up their own relatives; all those that are struggling with their chronic illnesses in their homes or hospitals. And the list can go on. We just need to look more carefully around us. All of these people need to be embraced and healed.

Is it accidental that we see Jesus meeting so often with beggars, sinners, blind people, lepers, children, outcasts, widows, sick people, etc.? Is it accidental that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these words:

“For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

Or that James wrote these words:
“This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27)

One of my desires for the church in Bratislava is to be more attentive to people like this. We need to embrace their pain. We need to let Jesus touch them and heal them.

More on this next time. Till then let me know what you think.