© Ivan Steiger MMI

If anyone hears My sayings anddoes not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judgethe world, but to save the world.
(John 12:47)

January, 2003

DEAR FRIENDS, PRAYER AND MINISTRY PARTNERS

First of all we want to tell you how much we enjoyed your cards, messages and letters. At the time like this, we miss our family and many friends. Let us share how we survived all the holiday rush. This was the first time Klara greatly reduced Christmas decorations in our apartment and did not bake her customary selection of cookies. Actually, we appreciated all baked goodies much more at other people's places … we have no left-overs to store, either. Who needs those extra calories anyway? We certainly don't. For several months we have been watching the way we eat and now should we ruin these scattered healthier habits of ours because of the holiday? It would be foolish. Despite all that, our Christmas was not an uneventful time.

CHRISTMAS EVENTS
Traditionally we spent happy moments with our friends at our place in spite of very icy roads. In December we greatly enjoyed a few special Christmas concerts. There was a lady artist who draw visitors' pictures during intermissions. She draw both of us! It was better than picture-taking since our age is less and less complimentary. The artist was very kind to both of us. Enjoy our better looks on the following pages …

We have about ten U.S. missionary couples and their families attending our home church regularly. To hear English on any given Sunday is nothing uncommon. More and more children are learning English and it is not unusual to sing some worship songs both in Czech and English. Many visitors and relatives of missionaries join us for the service and the church provides translation from Czech to English regularly.

During the church's Christmas program we had a special skit called "A Czech Student in America" pointing to some cultural differences. It was directed by American missionaries. The Czech student in America was quite amazed that in the U.S. schools students are not stimulated to talk about Christmas. Instead, they mention only the Holiday season—to respect other customs and religions. For most of the adults in congregation it was unbelievable and many questions were asked. We live in mostly atheistic environment here but Christmas is about baby Jesus and gifts. It would be great if people knew why Jesus was born, but at least His name is in a way being mentioned. Not even communists could uproot the name of baby Jesus. People rejected Russian Grandpa Frost for decades and now they reject substitution of baby Jesus with Western Santa Claus. Actually, there is a great resentment in the Czech Republic against globalized Christmas. This is a great paradox. In America, a country with the strongest Christian roots in the entire world, the name of Jesus can and actually has been officially offensive to many. On the other hand, here in a country with a 41-year long communist history, most of the people "love" baby Jesus and the manger for the sake of traditions and national identity. But don't be mistaken, we informed you earlier—not too many people are born again and truly love the Lord and King here. Commercial devaluation of Christmas is sad on the both sides of the Atlantic. Christmas is reduced to food and gift aberration. People spend money for things they do not need to impress people who care less.

We have been attending our church for four years. The first time within the four years a special Christmas Sunday luncheon activity was scheduled for seniors. The previous Sunday we had a cookie and pastry bazaar to raise some money for this event. What a surprise we faced the following Sunday when we found out that the activities were only for invited members on a prepared list. One of the qualifications was to be 65 or older. Since our congregation is made up mostly from college students, we have only a handful of "seniors" over 50. Pavel asked the pastor about the lower age limit and he was told "65" a bit later "60." Klara was translating to English that Sunday and from the elevated glassed-in booth she counted all the gray heads in the auditorium. She came up with a number that did not exceed 20 including those under 45. This unexpected outcome caused a touch of pain and disappointment in the hearts of some, especially new people, who were counting on attending. Thus, instead of taking part in the church holiday fellowship, Klara invited a few of these disenchanted people to our place for a simple lunch and together we had a lovely and educational afternoon. We never even mentioned what just happened. We often ask where the brotherly Love and Joy is? Not only cathedrals are cold, but some local churches do not know how to warm up hearts of those few searching souls. Often they come and leave with empty hearts and hurt feelings. Once again we are reminded how important it is to "Love Thy Neighbor" and proclaim "His Kingdom" wherever we are.

DON'T GET TIRED BY OUR STATISTICS
Recently we received results of a Church growth study in the Czech republic:
There are only 0.17 % Evangelical Christians in the Czech Republic. We estimated in one of our previous Newsletters 0.20 %. Membership of evangelical churches has dropped to about 18 thousand people out of 10 million. Do you remember—we estimated the membership to be about 20 thousand. In the entire population there has been one (1) independent church per 36 thousand people; if mission stations are included there has been one fellowship per 19 thousand people. In comparison, the Czech Republic has one public library per approximately 1700 people. Libraries are 20 times more common than evangelical independent churches. In the year 2000, the Czech Republic had 545 congregations. During the past five years only twenty-three (23) new evangelical churches have been planted! What a challenge!

SHALL WE BROADCAST AGAIN SOON?
In our last prayer letter we mentioned that Czech and Slovak short wave broadcasting from Quito was suddenly suspended after more than 25 years of broadcasting. Our Czech and Slovak broadcasting was phased out for budgetary reasons. We received letters telling how much some of our listeners miss the programs. A number of them were disappointed. To make their days brighter we provided them with some radio programs on audio tapes. After we convert them into digital format we do not need the tapes any more.

We also mentioned the development of the Trans World Radio satellite project for Czech and Slovak broadcasting from Slovakia. There are many encouraging signs as well as some concerns. We were asked by TWR-CZ for a specific help in exchange for 60-minute broadcasting time a day. Each HCJB World Office, like ours in Czech Republic, is for many practical reasons independent. However, when it comes to an actual commitment on a larger scale we need support. So, in turn we asked our HCJB headquartes for assistance.

SW broadcasting from Quito was a team work. It ministered two countries during the years. We would enjoy being involved in Czech radio broadcasting again, but we are unable to run the broadcasting schedule as it was done before. Georgina Gonzales coordinated other programmers living in the U.S. In Quito, 3 programs out of 7 were covered by Slovaks. This cannot be done here, since we may have a use only for Czech speakers. Our most productive Czech speaker Meda Charvat from Florida who covered 2 programs a week has retired because of health reasons. So, we don't have the local authors/speakers to produce 7 30-minute programs a week. We can continue to produce maximum of 4 programs a week, considering our occupation with publishing, internet and preaching ministry.

We hear positive and encouraging comments from our headquarters, but we do not know whether we get the help we need. All is in the Lord's hands. Please pray for it.

TWR-CZ and TWR-SK 24-hour satellite broadcasting should start in October of 2003. The negotiation was not easy. The satellite project, as it stands now, is much less expensive using Slovak rather than Czech or even West European facilities. The Western European uplink costs about $250,000 annually. It has been financially out of question for all of us. The Slovak uplink is about $50,000 annually for 24-hour broadcasting via satellite, thus serving the Czech Republic with 12 hours and Slovakia with 12 hours of broadcast daily. Each country would be responsible for half of the link cost. That reduces it to about $2,100 per month. We think, it is a very reasonable cost for 12-hour daily satellite broadcast. So far we had a great ministry relationship and cooperation with TWR-CZ. At this time we all need prayer and wisdom concerning how to proceed and how to secure needed finances for the start up and production budget. This is a matter of vision and urgent prayer. But this is not all …

FM BROADCAST IN SLOVAKIA
Recently we were approached by our HCJB Slovak branch office and another Christian who joined us recently, to enter into contract with a private FM radio station in Slovakia. At this time, the contract for one year broadcasting is almost signed. We, the Steiger's will provide the text of the programs (The Sermon on the Mount), which will be translated into the Slovak language and recorded by a Slovak speaker. We are talking about a 15-minute broadcast weekly. Unfortunately most of the projects in Central and Eastern European countries depend heavily on U.S. funding. Please pray that we can find churches or individuals willing to sponsor this $240-a-month project in Slovakia. We currently have our first sponsor to cover the first four weeks.

Sometimes the opportunities God gives are a bit overwhelming, don't you think? We are so busy already, even without all that. If we did not have 12 years of experience serving with HCJB and seeing many miracles how the Lord provides, we would chicken out or at least take a less bumpy road. But, do we have that option?

A SMALL REFLECTION
In September 2002, while standing during a dedication service at the Loreto Hydroelectric Project in Ecuador, we saw the power being generated by water that came from a few clouds, rain drops, streams, lakes, and dams. The water energy rushing through the penstocks into turbines was transformed into electrical power. The power has been transformed into radio signal, radio signal has been formed by Christians into Gospel, God uses Gospel for creating new hearts and changed lives … what can we say? Those who were praying for, building and pushing the Project forward, shared with us the hardship and the joy of completion. All that we can do is to rely on our Lord as the HCJB founding missionaries did:

Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)

We know that we have among you faithful prayer and ministry partners and we know that we are here because of that.

THANKS to all of you, who mailed us Christmas cards, greetings, e-mails! Our apology if we overlooked some of you. Our e-mail in-box constantly has over two hundred messages and we sometimes lose track of a few. Sorry!

God bless and keep you through the New Year of 2003.

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