(Ephesians 6:10)

March 2001

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,

The above scripture best describes some past events. We will describe them to you backwards. We hardly unpacked our suitcases, and, once again, we are ready to give you our latest report.

Klara and Pavel at the NRB

The NRB convention was a fantastic experience of encouragement and learning. Pavel attended internet broadcasting sessions; Klara attended others, which she was interested in. There were over 5700 registered guests. Among them were about a dozen HCJB World Radio men with their spouses from Colorado Springs, Quito and Elkhart. What a joy it was to bump into them at the registration desk. Everyone was surprised that we were there. Frankly, we were surprised as well! Out of this small but great reunion, we had some unplanned but important meetings with the right people about Internet broadcast streaming from Quito. This exciting event may start March 1. We met many other people and out of this came two invitations -for Klara to speak in Jakarta in May and for Pavel to speak at the Southwest NRB in July in Dallas. Klara collected many books, as they were given free by publishers and signed by authors. For four days we drove downtown in the dark and returned to our friend's place late at night. At the end we were tired. After the conference we drove to Houston to be with another couple of dear friends from Jakarta. Both couples treated us royally. We regained some strength and enjoyed togetherness. Pavel drove with the family to Arkansas and back the next day as Klara did some shopping in Houston. Sunday we went to Grace Bible Church and were tremendously blessed by the message. We wish we had similar messages here in Prague. The next day we were treated to a lovely trip to Galveston and visited Moody attractions. On the way back to Dallas we stopped at Glen Rose Creation Museum and a dinosaur's tracks location. Both were a little bit disappointing. The tracks were under water and the museum is a rather small and simple place. We enjoyed a few moments at the river, and basking in the sun made us believe that spring is near. At the conclusion of our quick trip we had a lovely dinner with our hosts in Dallas.

The next day we arrived at cold and windy Prague. Later on it started snowing, and the next day Prague's airport was closed because of heavy snow. The whole country was under a heavy cap of snow; however, sunny and blue skies made our return bright again.

Looking back, it is hard to believe that we were in America. Everything was so sudden and unplanned. We talked to our children in Denver only on the phone. It was hard not to see our grandson, but they are coming to see us in three weeks. We came back home refreshed and encouraged, exactly what we needed since our situation before leaving was somewhat discouraging. We felt overloaded, but the following picture that we received gave us a good laugh. It described our situation so well.

The beginning of the new millennium was rather turbulent. We shared with you the new tasks ahead of us, but we had no idea what would happen soon after. First, our secretary broke her leg as we were ready to transfer Mrs. Kladensky's letter-answering ministry from Quito to Prague. It was long and hard work. This ministry needed financing, but those needs were not met. At this time we faced for the first time in ten years insufficient funds for the Slovak magazine. Last year contributions were less than half of the previous years'. Many of our readers are older and the economical situation in Slovakia is not the best.

John, our full time translator, did not start in January as we hoped. He had to complete his previous commitment. We had to wait till mid February. His salary remains a matter of prayer, as well.

In January we had to face, together with American MTW missionaries in Prague, some pleasant and unfair accusations. It all was triggered by Pavel's last message about sinfulness and the depravity of man. After his sermon three ladies and a man came to thank him, and then he was approached by an elder who told Pavel not to confuse the people with statements that man is sinful at the moment of his conception.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5)

He received a letter from the leader of the denomination stating that he is not welcome to preach any longer in three of their churches. We were also accused that we were planting a radical church. This was a totally fabricated statement-not a word of it is true. We are a media mission. Three pastors of that denomination wrote us within a few days quite badly orchestrated letters to discredit our magazine. We felt hit hard by this avalanche.

All this can be expressed as follows; our work is reaching people, and they do understand what we are saying or translating. Our foremost message is the Sovereignty and Glory of our Lord. We received this:

Dear friends in HCJB,
... yet I would like to mention the journal "Struggle for Soul." There are excellent observations I enjoy reading in it. . In every issue that I get I have been finding several articles that address me very much. Please continue in your meritorious work! The "Struggle" is an obvious proof that the fundamentals of real faith can be obviously presented at low-cost, without pictures and other embellishment. I wish you a lot of strength for the future years.
Letter No. 473, Alex Klassek, Strmilov

We get many similar letters. Lord is always perfect in His timing to assure us that His glory is always first in whatever we do. We cannot compromise with those who say that the Holy Script has two sides-the Word of God and the word of men - that it is not the Word of God in its entirety. Who is to judge then, which part is the Word of God and which part is word of men?

Let's share another interesting letter describing the spiritual situation of the Czech people:

I don't know you, but I could use some help. My Daughter (22 years old) is planning on marrying a young man she met here in the United States who is Czech. I have tried to witness to him about God's love and the plan of salvation, but he does not seem to understand. First, he claims to be an atheist. Second, his English language skills are somewhat poor He did not seem to even know the basics concerning Mary, Joseph, Wise men etc. Is this possible? I know all things are possible with God, but I must admit that it is difficult to know where to begin since I do not speak his language. He seems like a nice boy and I have met his parents who are very kind and loving - but confessing atheists. ... I have no fears of challenging their being atheists. My concern is the language problem (His parents do not speak English at all!) Your name came up as missionaries to Czech and I thought you might have some suggestions on both the culture and language problem.
In Christ, Len

This is a real life situation. To reach the Czech people is a tremendous challenge, and we love passionately what we do in spite of some difficulties we are facing. We know that our Lord can change hearts and disarm all opposition.

The start of the year was rather gloomy for another reason. Among the first lectures Klara attended in January and February was a presentation at the Academy of Science. The scientific outlook for our world sounds like a biblical end-time warning-the human race is doomed. Ahead of us is only overpopulation, global warming, lack of water, starvation, wars, uncontrollable people migration, terrorism, CO, increase and its effect on the planet, genetically modified food, plagues and, of course, the European fear of mad cow disease. It almost sounds like tribulation events. I was not as alarmed with what was said as with how it was presented. An anti-life and socialist control attitude is prevalent especially in regard to population control and euthanasia. Doctor Kevorkian is a hero to these local scientists. It is a matter of a short time before euthanasia will be legalized in more European countries, at a time when the population here is declining and the death rate exceeds the birth rate.

Whenever we think that we are at the end of our strength and cannot go further, we all have in us a reserve from which we can take for a while. Jirina Siklova This is written by a local feminist. It sounds almost good. However, we know that our reserves are not from within us but from HIM!

In January we found out that our dear friends, formerly "substitute parents" for our son in Arizona, are returning to the States. Clayton and Joyce were great friends and encouragers during the past two years. Because of them we met several great people whom we had the honor to have in our home. We will miss them.

• Klara finally found a ladies Bible study, a small group with an excellent blend of ages and backgrounds. The topic is Holiness very inspiring.
• Our secretary returned to the office after a month's absence as we were getting our first letters and reports from HCJB World Radio listeners.
• We had an excellent workday in Bites, packing the current magazines for shipping. Five of us worked for eight hours without a break.
• Lucie is a lovely Slovak young college student in Prague-she was directed to us via email by her host parents in Ohio. It looks like we gained a daughter and her family a powerful witness.
• Jan or John, our translator, started working a couple of days before we left for the NRB convention. We are connected by e-mail, and he works mostly from his home. We could show the web pages in Dallas to HCJB Quito people how the daily news is translated now.
• Filip, Lenka and Samuel will arrive for a two weeks' visit in mid March.
• We received many encouraging letters from our readers and HCJB World Radio listeners.
• A new governmental regulation on printed matter will benefit us-cost for mailing will go down, since we have a large circulation.

We treasure your prayers and words of encouragement to fight the good fight on behalf of God's work. The past two months were laborious but very rich in experiencing God's protection, love and opportunity to express our total dependence and trust in Him no matter how strong forces stood against us. We have a mighty God who delivers us.

BEST WISHES AND HIS BLESSING

In HIS Sovereign Grace Pavel and Klara

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