(Romans 8:39)

July 2000

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners Greetings from Prague and HCJB World Office - it may sound as a formal salute, but we have just returned from The HCJB European Conference

The HCJB European Conference
From Prague to Männedorf, near Zurich, Switzerland, it is about 470 miles. We took the scenic route via Germany and Austria. Actually we only had to fill up our car with diesel twice, since our new Skoda gets 40 miles to a gallon. The weather was picture-perfect and if you have e-mail access, we invite you to enjoy the beautiful scenery with us.

To see Switzerland is like a fairy tale story. Everything is clean, neat, manicured ... planned, maintained ... orderly, and disciplined. The train and boat rides feel like you are floating as the ship engine quietly purrs. Watching the picturesque countryside and life from the beautiful Bibelheim property above the lake, people, trains, ships, church steeples and bell chimes reminded us of a train model display of a perfect countryside. It is a great place to spend a restful vacation.

As each European office presented their ministries ... blessings, plans, visions and problems, we could see much further than behind our own horizons. The conference was a time of sharing new ideas and technology trends, encouraging reports and new challenges. The program was well prepared and organized. Vladimir, our webmaster came with us. We considered the possibilities of Internet broadcasting. He enjoyed meeting people from around the Euro-Asia region. Our hearts were touched by the work and hardships experienced by those working in closed countries. Missionaries serving the Muslim world do not have liberty to share their needs and prayers. The average time served in those areas is only one term. Very often the health problems and harsh conditions interrupt the work. Please REMEMBER those serving our Lord in a spiritually hostile world. We hardly realize what they are going through. How fortunate we are now, that we have the freedom to share with you in detail about all the activities we are involved in, as well as praises and prayer requests.

We can say that one of the most frequent concern voiced from the HCJB World Offices was who will replace us? Each office is short of personnel. With many new openings in ministry around the world a real question is how to raise a new generation of mission minded people. It is an urgent need, please PRAY. Before we leave Switzerland, I have one question for all the young at heart: Do you know why Swiss cows have bells around their necks? Because their horns do not work...

Let's move on and visit another part of the world where the cows do not wear bells but are holy...

Family vacation
As we mentioned in our last report, Vit our son who lives in Denver came to visit us under the condition that we would spend an exotic vacation together. Sometimes we wonder why we make a decision that goes totally against our common sense. This is exactly what happened this time. One day while walking in Prague we saw an ad for a 10-day trip to India. The time was right, the sightseeing sounded good, and the all-including price (airfare, four-star hotels, meals and air-conditioned bus) was hard to pass up. At that time Klara was quite uneasy since she had spring allergy attacks and did not feel too well. Her immune system was acting up. Among other symptoms she had back pain and felt very tired. She did not want to ditch vacation and went along with the boys, hoping that two gentlemen could take care of her. The Lord was good. Even though the conditions in India were very demanding and hot, she felt better there then in Prague.

Our group comprised of nineteen Czech and five Slovak speakers including a fantastic Czech guide. Because of her, we had an opportunity to get close to the Indian people. We visited major cities, tiny villages, different forts, former palaces, museums, local markets, met a maharaja, as well as the farmers, and teachers with their pupils. We visited their homes, small gardens, and saw their small private marihuana plantations. We saw many hard working people, especially women and children. We enjoyed a safari where twenty-seven tigers live and saw some hardened tiger footprints in a concrete path around the swimming pool just a few yards from the rooms we stayed in. We rode camels, elephants, and jeeps. We also slept in good hotels, a fort and a maharaja place. At Kuchaman Fort we even enjoyed some fireworks in our honor. We were entertained by various groups of puppeteers, musicians and gypsy dancers. We had truly a great time.

Our guide expressed genuine love and respect for Indian people without religious overtones. She knew a number of them and they greeted her everywhere as if she were an old friend. That encouraged us to open up as well. The rest of the people in our group lost the natural fear of crowds, the unknown and followed us everywhere. We were considered "experts" having lived for four years in Indonesia. You should have seen us when we hired six Bajajs (three wheeled motorized vehicles). The first driver said to Pavel: "You chacha I chacha" and it was clear--chacha meant leader. The rest followed. Our Indian guide was sometimes nervous of our independence. His job abridged to counting heads on the bus.

Living conditions in India seemed to be much better than eleven years ago when we visited the country the first time. We did not see any vultures, starving or dying people, communist or socialist slogans, and no "holy" men sitting in the dust. We saw very few policemen. There are new roads, water wells, busy traffic, many more trucks and cars, less camels and bulls on the road. We saw a lot of poor people, but outside of the large cities they had their dignity. The traditional religious presence was much less dominant than during our first trip. We observed some daily religious rituals in small shrines, where they worship a god with the head of an elephant, Ganesha, and fertility symbol--lingam, being washed with milk. No wonder the Indian birth rate is so high... While we were there Miss Universe (from India) was crowned and the billionth citizen was born. The need for the true GOD is incredible and the battle for the souls is fierce:

HCJB - CDN: National chief, Dr. Surendra Jain, declared what he termed a second "Quit India Movement" to "drive away" Christian missionaries who were "defaming" Hinduism and carrying out large-scale conversions of Hindus. According to the publication The Hindu, Jain expressed serious concern about the alleged activities of Christian missionaries which he believes divide the country.

We can pray for India in more specific terms now that we have experienced it first hand. Seeing a different religion system gave us a number of opportunities to share with our Czech and Slovak fellow travelers some consequences of the Indian religion. The difference is like day and night. Personal observation said more than a thousand words. We spent a lot of time on the bus and Pavel enjoyed this opportunity to be a traveling evangelist. Half of our fellow travelers now receive our Christian Journal by mail. We hope that some seeds were planted, but only God can bring salvation to them.

Our thoughts return back to what we saw. We were touched so much that we would love to join a short term ministry tour to India sometime in the future. It takes more than one visit to become truly involved on a personal level with local people.

Writing about Switzerland and India is like comparing the most extensive contrasts you can imagine. A small clean country versus one of largest, highly populated and far from clean. The highest standard of living versus innumerous humanity and poverty. Green forest, high snowcapped mountains, waterfalls, beautiful houses and a lot of flowers versus desert-like bareness, heat, water pumps, simple shelters made up from a few sticks, a plastic roof, and cow manure that is used for cooking. In Switzerland you hardly see any people on the streets, versus multitude of people everywhere, mostly living on the street. In India people worship millions of gods and in Switzerland people worshipped ONE GOD and Reformation shaped the country. In spite of all contrasts, we must add, we saw many faces with broad smile in India in spite of material and spiritual poverty. There is a hope.

Back in Prague

The Steigers in Prague

More visitors came and are coming throughout the summer. Among recent highlights Klara attended "Taste of Prague Christian Women's" lunch. It was a special fellowship of English speaking ladies living and working in Prague. Do you know how to tell that the roots in the country are planted? As soon as you plant the flower box.

Cuckoo clock mystery. Recently the cracks in our wall were being repaired. For a while it looked like we had just moved in. The repairs took three days and it looked like we were recovering from an earthquake. Next we painted our apartment. As we moved everything back Klara discovered an unfamiliar box. Inside she found a cuckoo clock. We could not figure out what the clock was doing in our apartment. We e-mailed the parents of two young American men who stayed in our apartment while we were in India, thinking that they may have left the clock with us, while they continued their tour through Europe. The parent's were not able to help us solve this mystery. Later on we found out that one of the men received the cuckoo clock as a present and since he already had two cuckoo clocks at home, he left this anonymous gift for us.

Exciting letters:

* Dear Pavel,

Today I checked the Czech HCJB Internet pages again. What else can I say than THANKS for the great reading. The www pages are good, and there is something about everything. Unfortunately I can only share them with my wife and a few close friends that I know. I am glad that the Lord is using you and the Internet too help spread the Gospel.

I would like to ask for permission to publish some articles and topics in our magazine (Evangelical Fellowship in Brno). I wanted to ask for your permission personally when you spoke in Brno, but we missed each other. I hope we will have another chance. I do express my appreciation for your permission.

Once more I am grateful for a good job you do for the Lord, and I wish to you more readers, www friends and listeners of HCJB Radio.

- P.U. Brno -

* I am forwarding the HCJB news to my professor, doctor J. Schindler, who reads all of and often comments on them before I have a chance to translate them.

From Marek, HCJB news translator

* Dear Steigers,

Last spring my husband and I completed a theological study at evangelism training with EMF (European Missionary Fellowship) Welwyn, UK. We gained a solid Bible based theological foundation for our faith to serve our Lord. We heard clear Biblical doctrines and good teachings. We were able to get many books from different authors like Spurgeon, Hendrickson, Lloyd-Jones, Stott, Ollyot, Sheehen, Ryle, Blanchard etc. We learned about your Christian Journal from our friends who studied at the same place before us. It is a great encouragement to us. We would like to be part of your translating team, if you are still searching for someone and, of course, if our translation will meet your standard. We are members of CB church in Usti.

With hope to serve along with you,

Jan and Iva S. (We already met this first couple)

* Dear publishers,

My wife and I want to express our gratefulness for the ministry you have provided for us. We are believers from Decin and are members of CB. Several years ago I had the opportunity to study reformed theology in Great Britain. At the present time I serve as a youth pastor. After my return from England I strove to explain and teach God's word with love and without ceasing. I face Charismatic trends in our congregation. It is a difficult and exhausting ministry, especially if I want to stay loyal to the Scripture and not to cause schism in the Church.

I was full of joy at the time I discovered your Christian Journal "The Battle for the Soul." I am not alone any longer. In the Christian Journal I am finding what is missing in Sunday preaching services - exposition of God's word, this makes me think about my own life and offers sound reflections of present world.

I would like to ask you to mail us the advertised audio series that deals with the Sovereignty of God. We would love to listen to the tapes during our home group Bible study. I have one more request dealing with the Christian Journal content; to be more specific it is a topic for future issues. I think that simplistic gospel content and lack of Biblical preaching is the greatest weakness in our churches. Very few pastors preach true exposition and exegesis of the Scriptures. Most of the time I hear only a random collection of Christian stories, ideas, experiences and events, that are mostly rooted in today's existential context which our congregations are immersed in. In the long run, these messages spell disaster for the future of our churches. Can you please address this issue? Thank you once again, we are grateful for your work and pray for many blessings in your ministry.

Yours in Christ, Jan and Lucy H.

(We already met this second couple)

Praises
Recording of New Testament in Czech progress. As usual, everything can change and that is exactly what happened. When Sergei arrived to do the recording, we had to iron out only a few minor issues about the totally new recording arrangements. We are glad that the LORD brings people together.

Helping hands. Once again we have summer help. Robert was with us last year, he is now working on texts for web pages. We are establishing children and youth pages.

Hospitality: It is vacation time and people are coming from different parts of world. We are happy to be the hub for passing travelers.

Prayer needs:
Klara's body aches are much better, however they are not cured yet. She would like to stay on the conservative side, to avoid the possibility of another allergic reaction.

Lenka and Filip are expecting once again. They are in their 15th week.

Cooperation with both couples that we introduced to you via their letters to us.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT

In HIS Sovereign Grace Pavel and Klara

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