© Ivan Steiger MMI

(Joshua 1:9)

September, 2001

DEAR FRIENDS AND MINISTRY PARTNERS,
It's true that most of the church activities during the summer months are very limited. However, our schedule in the office remained in high gear until our departure. Our time to "relax" came July 25th, as we boarded the plane for Dallas. There is an excellent Prague-Zurich-Dallas connection. The perfect flight became a painful experience and consequent emergency dental work for Pavel. The first 24 hours in Dallas were really agonizing. After a partial root canal, codeine and antibiotics, he improved and could assume his function. We praise the Lord for being the first recipients of the annual Brandt Gustafson International Scholarship during the South West National Religious Broadcasters Convention. It was a great honor for Pavel to serve as the convention Chaplain. Coming from abroad we have a different perception of the US events. This was a challenging opportunity for mutual encouragement. Pavel's nine messages were taken by one of the radio managers as an outline for personnel training.

Brandt Gustafson, as the late president of National Religious Broadcasters, was a great friend and dedicated servant to many people in Christian broadcasting. We met with Brandt last time in February and no one expected that he would be called home in a few weeks. Establishing an international NRB scholarship was among his last wishes.

In Dallas we met our dear friends whom we know from Indonesia. What a joyful reunion it was.

We were whisked from Dallas to Houston by another couple we also know from Indonesia. We stayed with them for four days. They are right now in a transition period. They are retired from the business world and one step away from the mission field. Our prayers are that they may join HCJB World Radio. Thus, our close relationship can grow even deeper.

The third leg of our trip led us to Denver to be with our son's daughter-in-law and a grandson. Flying from Dallas to Denver we took an advantage of giving up our seats and received a $500 voucher for a future flight. Can you imagine how happy we were? First our trip to Dallas was paid by NRB scholarship and yet, we got another bonus which may pay almost a round trip airfare from Europe to the US.

Our family reunion in Denver was both happy and sad. As we mentioned our last letter, Filip and Lenka moved into a new house. Two weeks later Filip was laid off from his work. This is the first time in our lives we have experienced an unemployment in our family. Possibility of unemployment was always in the background of our minds, since Pavel survived layoffs from 1600 employees down to 300! However, it became very real this summer for our son. Our time together was not just fun and joy, but also prayerful time of searching, sharing and encouragement. We realized more than ever that prosperity and abundance may be a danger and threat. It is important to remember how close we are from a major life change. How important it is to know God and praise Him for His goodness. Our shopping was limited to bare necessities - no extra suitcase.

While in Denver, we visited HCJB World Radio headquarters in Colorado Springs. We had several meetings with different people and were introduced to new personnel we had not met before. We were blessed by warmth, friendship and great atmosphere. Once again, we admit that the most precious experiences in America are not found in abundance or natural beauty but in people.

While in Colorado Springs we fine tuned some plans for several HCJB World Radio tour groups coming to Prague in a few days. We love to get in touch with HCJB World Radio friends and meet new ones to share our ministry with them. We are honored to have a small part in the tour ministries.

In Denver we had an opportunity to visit several churches, meet with a mission committee, friends and supporters. We apologize to all of you who expected a phone call from us. We had a card for 500 minutes but we did not want to tie up the phone line for Filip's job search. Maybe next time.

As we presented our current situation, the most often asked question was: how is the evangelization going? A recent national census brought some interesting results:

Atheism on rise
The Czech Statistical Office (CSU) released preliminary results of the census taken last March-the first since 1991. Statisticians said the most unexpected finding in the survey was a significant increase in the number of atheists:

The number of people identifying themselves as atheists jumped from 4. 1 million 10 years ago to 5.4 million this year. And the number of Czechs claiming adherence to the Roman Catholic Church dropped from more than 4 million members to 2.7 million. A snapshot of Czech society (10 million) taken this year shows a nation that is abandoning religion, growing older and becoming more homogeneous. (Krystof Hilsky, The Prague Post)

This news left the public and many church leaders speechless. During the past ten years there were many evangelistic activities and concerts. A number of internationally known evangelists came as well as many short term teams. Much effort was put into training how to reach former communist countries for Christ. Most people planning evangelistic outreach from abroad were convinced that all that former communist countries need is freedom to present the Gospel publicly.

At first the local church outreach was mostly social work, starting rehab centers, retirement homes and services for elderly, prison ministries, etc. After the fall of communism many needs became urgent. The next step was for the local church to start filling the gap left by the cessation of communist collective care for youth and children. Some churches provided summer English camps for families, sports activities for youth and regular sport events (volleyball, basketball, soccer). Some provided a number of public lectures and discussion tables. Many new Christian programs were imported, evaluated and tried. Christians tried really hard to show that they are normal, fun people with special qualities. We can now see that freedom and planned activities to attract the world are not the answer. Christians are in some ways competing with the world to attract people. The world in many cases does a better job. People were coming, evaluating and leaving. Public interest about religion is on the decline. Only a few new churches were planted. Others dwindled in numbers and are struggling. Unless Jesus Christ is the center of our message, we cannot expect revival and growth.

How grateful we are for every opportunity to grow in His word and teach His word. How grateful we are that we may publish the digest, "Battle for the Soul", so that we may have dynamic web pages including real audio and live streaming of all HCJB programs. Our readers and listeners do appreciate our approach of deep Bible teachings. Since we have a full time translator, we can introduce many important and interesting Christian topics. Recently we met with a local publisher of Christian books and recommended several books we feel should be translated into Czech language. We had on our mind Strobel's books, "Case for Christ" and "Case for Faith." The publisher has already secured copyrights and we offered the services of our translator for the second title. How excited we were next day to read an e-mail with an offer for the special project and later to receive a gift of $2000 for the translation. It is not easy to be a publisher of Christian books, since we can count only about 20-25 thousand evangelicals in the whole country out of 10 million people. Not too many. We have only a few denominations with several hundred to a few thousand members. It is mind boggling that we published 10,000 copies. The ministry impact makes us humble and more aware of responsibility we have. Publishing and radio are great media to reach and equip saints for their ministry.

Recently we read a few books that were translated and published in the Czech Republic. One of the powerful books for our present situation is a book from Philip Yancey, "What's So Amazing About Grace?". We praise our Lord for His timing in publishing this book. We can hardly wait for his next book "Soul Survivor." It will be published in September in English. We have an advanced reading excerpt-it looks like a great book.

Philip Yancey touched the heart of the problem: Many Christians are a poor testimony to those who live among them. Let me quote from a Czech book "Ways of Faith" describing a spiritual journey of several well-known personalities. Jan Spata makes documentary films. He admits that he likes to listen to some Christians. His work brought him together with a number of Christians in high positions as well as with ordinary believers. He writes:

"My experience with religious people is also paradoxical-gluttony seems to be the only tolerated sin. Wherever I was shooting in a religious community, from clergy to common sheep-the cult of food was everywhere obvious. Religious order prescribes many various behavioral limitations in adherence to natural life-this is probably the reason why the attitude toward food consumption is incredibly liberal."

Surely, the secular author is completely missing God's Grace, however, his observation about Christian gluttony is right on the money. Many Christians worship together around the rich table, but rich spiritual food is seldom served. It may look like we live spiritually in dry and infertile land. There are so few opportunities to grow as Christians here in our native country. We believe that this spiritual malnutrition is the main reason for the decline of the local church as the census recently pointed out. As you can see, we are challenged to fill up the gap and serve people with good news and deeper theological understanding. We know that the Lord has His people ready in every city, even in the Czech Republic:

• And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city." (Acts 18:9, 10)

We might not see them yet, but we know about them. They write and E-mail us. They are sharing their spiritual journeys. We are receiving over 2500 letters and countless E-mails per year. We are constantly challenged to answer difficult questions. Most of the churches have no Bible study classes. People have questions but no one to ask. Many of our readers have no church fellowship. Our commitment is to build those given to us by solid biblical teachings:

Thank you for magazine no. 69. In this issue I enjoyed number of topics. In the article 'All Christians Rest' you explained very clearly teaching about Sabbath. It was very education al. Even though, I am not a believer in God, I believe in the existence of 'something'. Several years ago I read the Bible, and it was very interesting. I do not remember many details, but I can talk to those who claim to be Christians. They often only parrot what they heard somewhere, however, they do not have their own opinion. ... Once more I want to say thanks for your magazine. It opened my eyes and I am challenged to think about what I read. I think it was the best issue and I am looking forward to get the next one.
Lubos-internet

PRAISES AND PRAYERS:

• For our ministry opportunity in Texas and Colorado. Our friends and ministry partners are a great encouragement to us. We saw some of them for the first time after about 15 years. Except for some gray hair we did not see much of a change, especially in our relationship.
• For a special gift of $2,000 for book translation. Jan has already finished the first two chapters. Pray for our publishers of the Christian materials.
• For new contacts and instant bonds of friendship and new leads to more partner churches and individuals in the future. Our support dwindled by more than 25% during the past three years - not counting inflation.
• For the opportunity to communicate in a friendly and personal way with searching people.
• For the opportunity to be with our sons and enjoy our grandson. He is growing fast. It was hard to say good by and not know where or when we will see them again. Pray for a good job for Filip and for right decisions during this transition time. Their second baby is due in December. Lenka's pregnancy is going well.
• Pray for the hurting Christian parents of children who are not right with the Lord. A number of them are coming to us for words of encouragement.
• For an opportunity to be part of a week long theological conference in New Jersey in September. We received 'another scholarship. Two couples from Houston will join us.
• In October we will host another theological mini-seminar in Prague. Geoff Volker of Phoenix is going to Minsk via Prague and will share with us.

In HIS Sovereign Grace Pavel and Klara

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