Category: Blog (Page 3 of 13)

It seems that I will experience a busy summer. First, for 17 days my colleague, Draho, and I will be in Georgia, Texas and Florida. We will have a lot of meetings with both potential ministry donors in local churches, as well as with our current partners. Then, when I return to Slovakia, I will join our third KECY (English conversation camp for secondary school students), that has been organized with the local Baptist churches in Bratislava.

It seems that I will be less busy in August. I will take part in CampFest, an open-air Christian festival, as well as begin preparation for the next season of our School of Leaders. Hopefully, a family vacation in Slovakia will follow.
We started to give up the idea about moving into bigger flat, but we are not sad because of that for it is in His hands. Our children are looking forward to their school vacation and our church summer camps. I am little bit sad that I will be away on the trip for half of their vacation, but I believe that it will be a new experience for me and that it will bring glory to Him.
We wish you a great summer.

Sometimes we find excuses not to participate or think we are limited to do things, but after learning about the West Huntsville team (their team served at KECY Presov Camp and me, Danny and Draho prayed for their mission trip in their city), it can inspire us to experience that with Christ all things are possible.

Before the camp when we pray for them, I had no idea who are they until we saw them and their families we realized how many personal sacrifices these team members made to come to Slovakia.

Their leader, Ken, left his wife & five kids under the age of 6. Michael missed his sister’s wedding celebration. A single mom came to serve for the week. All missed the fourth of July celebrations with their friends & family. And then there was Emily, being five-month’s pregnant, flying over to live life with the students as her husband took care of their 1.5 year old son at home.

Thank you guys for your inspiring sacrifices & family members who gave up so much for you to be with our students & team. We have a lot of to learn from you through that. May the Lord bless you all.

I retuned from the local church camp for the youth and junior high and it was a great experience to me (my daughters were with me too and they enjoyed it very much as well). The camp with Dolny Kubin youth (over 70 students were there) was really very Slovak, I am not sure if I can describe it properly, but everything was very natural. For example we run almost all afternoon in the forest, or I played the worst bass guitar I’ve ever played, the accommodation was very plain too (as well as the food although it tasted very good), the games were very simple (for example the Skiing game – you and your opponents, need just to lean on the wall as a skier and to pretend that you are skiing (there are also the jumps, the curves…), the person who is able to “ski” the longest is the winner…

The fact that I practice (ice hockey) every week helped me to survive this game.

I had 3 talks, one was the evangelism workshop and two were evening talks about Indescribable God and the last one – the Gospel presentation, resp. sharing What does it mean to walk with God. The Lord was good and He enabled me to share openly and I felt like everything was pretty clear and He was in it. I was even more confident about it when my children (my the second biggest critics after my wife) assured me that it was touching and interesting enough even for them. After the very last talk I challenged the students to go to the one of four stations (our KECY –English Evangelism camp idea, Game station, Forgiveness station, a Pondering about God… station, Decision to follow the Lord station). I was at the last station (with one of the camp leader) and 6 girls came, it was pretty unusual to me (too many girls, although I have some at home too, it is still not easy for me to get used for that).

Through this experience I feel like the Lord honored me to understand better young people who were so open in many personal meetings with me. I am very thankful for that. I also realized that I stepped into the ministry of many Christians who were around of these young people and who have already presented the Gospel mainly through their life.

One thing that happened to me was pretty interesting. I am reading the Scripture daily and many times I feel like I know that passage…, but I do not know how can I use it or how to apply it, or I feel like it says nothing to me. I do not know if you have this kind of experience during your daily devotions. Simply, sometimes I feel like the word lost the power in my life.
The interesting thing happened to me during many personal meetings with the students during the camp. It was that God refreshed many verses and passages from the Scripture in the right time and I was surprise that He talked through me and the Scripture. After the meetings I was so surprise and so thankful to the Lord that He keeps his promise and that He led me very
personally in it. I feel like He is eager and able to use us and our faithfulness and our discipline in reading His word.

Well, now when I am back home I need to think a lot about the ministry in Dolny Kubin. I feel like the Lord is doing something significant in this town and I would love our (TCK) team to be more involved over there. Does the Lord want a TCK(JV) missionary to move there? Or what can we do to help them? (the youth leader asked me to serve at their winter and summer camp as well as during their weekend retreat again). There are some questions in my mind but I believe that He will answer and He will provide the solution according His will.

I wish you great day in His presence
Peter

July 2007 News
This year we have registered fifteen students (youth leaders) from eleven local churches and three denominations. One change this year is that I am teaching. I am teaching Christian character development. I like this subject because I have big challenges in my own character.

To me it is like learning to ride a bike… there is not too much theory, but a lot of hard practice. I am also involved in the mentoring aspect of the program.

Our biggest news is that we should move in March 2008 into a four bedroom apartment, which is much bigger than our present apartment and is pretty close to our children’s school. This is the miracle when we take into consideration the apartment situation and the growth of the housing prices in Zilina. The Lord was gracious to our family in this matter again.

Our children are growing fast. Michaela is the same height as me now. Danielka slowly follows her sister. Both enjoy school and their grades in school are a reflection of their effort. It is fun to observe their different personalities and temperaments. Evka is pretty busy now. Currently she works on her hand made calendars for 2008 and Christmas cards. I travel a lot and I feel immersed in the Kompas ministry which is very fulfilling and challenging.

Walking in the city, I noticed special kind of concert. The music was great, but the environment reminded me my room from my teenage age. Welcome to Slovak concert!

Who would say (few years ago) that we will not have to stop at the boarder to show our passports! Last month Slovakia became part of the European Border-Free Zone. No passports any more, what a change! After fall of the iron curtain it is another big change in our travelling “habit…”

To learn more, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7153490.stm

it happened, we moved to a new flat. The preparation process, the reconstruction of the flat as well as the moving was a great example of the fact that we belong to the big Christian family. More than 45 friends from six different churches contributed in the work and helped us to enjoy our new place. We need to travel a little bit more to get to our office, then before and we struggle to get use to live in the block of flats “jungle” (Vaclav Havel – former Czechoslovak president called the block of flats “kralikarny” – “cages for the rabits…), but the children have more room and can sleep a little bit longer, for we live in the neighborhood of their school.

We enjoy having more space, not just for us, but for our guests too. Well, if you need an accommodation in Zilina, just let us know, we would love to serve you this way. The moving was the miracle when we take into consideration the apartment situation and the growth of the housing prices in Zilina.

The Youth Leaders Training Conference– KPM 2008 was the biggest event for the youth leaders in the history of Slovakia. More than 650 youth leaders took part and it surprised us. I felt little bit like Gedeon before the battle with the Madians. Our team was too small (the team we had was the smallest in the 15 years history of KPM) to win the battle. But the Lord was in charge.

It is always a miracle when the youth leaders evaluate the event like this: “I experienced just few such moments when I felt that the Lord changes my life. I did not experience smth like this in the previous conferences. This one was totally different for me, marvelous, I left home totally broken and humble person… For me it was such an important event, God touched me…”.
But there is a big challenge for the next year: “Where we will organize it next year? How to keep the prices the way that the youth leaders could still come?”, for the capacity of the place we have is not big enough any more.

My involvement in the college student ministry is very energizing. It is still great place to serve the students from all Slovakia face to face to me. I served in the dorms few times as the speaker and I felt like I was enriched and encouraged by it.

The ministry is more difficult now for the cycle of changing the students in the leadership team is faster, but we still desire to see the newborn students in the college ministry.