© Ivan Steiger MMI

To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: "I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God …"(Revelation 3:1-2)

January 2004

Thank you for all the Christmas letters, pictures and postcards. This year we spent the holidays with Klara's mother at home. The Christmas tree was lovely and it brought many memories of the days bygone. Klara collected many hand made ornaments from around the world and the display is always special treat for friends and visitors. Klara prepared delicious meals and baked a lot of traditional cookies. Exotic tropical fruit galore was really special this year.

On Christmas day we celebrated Klara's mother's 80th birthday. Telephone calls from our kids and the few words we could understand from the grandkids were especially sweet. Their excited voices sounded like plane, train, etc. Klara's video hobby brought back all the happy memories of this year. It was greatly appreciated as a family gift by the relatives. We preserved the best events with those who were not present at all of them. Among special guests was a young medical doctor from Algeria. He is working here and was attending doctor for Klara's mother during her hospitalization last year. She loves him and over time he became our Muslim friend. However, conversation about events in Iraq and US involvement, is like walking on eggshells. Fortunately the doctor is the same age as our sons and culturally Pavel has a kind of father/son authority. He had opportunity to share the Gospel with him during his medical (after varicose veins surgery) walk. The doctor befriended several Christians in the Internet café the church is operating in the city where he lives.

RADIO MINISTRY GIFTS:

• Let us share with you the greatest ministry event of the past year. During the time we shared with you ups and downs of the 24 hours broadcasting Satellite Project with Trans World Radio. Now comes the note of praise -
• A foundation has pledged $38,500.00 to the partnership with TWR. This money will probably not be here until January 2004, but the pledge is from one of our best foundations, so consider it done.
  - Dick -
  
  Please pray for the consequences - this means to provide one hour of daily broadcasting for the next 8 years!
• A year ago we shared with you the opportunity for broadcasting time in Slovakia. Praise the Lord, the ministry took off and is expanding to other secular cable radio systems. Of course, every ministry needs follow up. This is our great prayer need. We need 12 sponsors for each month of the broadcasting. We pray for encouragement for our volunteers who serve with great sacrifice. Among their concerns are the rising financial needs of the ministry - broadcasting cost, tapes, CDs, postage, etc. We met with key people January 5th and many ideas and goals were shared. We praise the Lord for excellent listeners response.
• Vladimir, our web master, came home for Christmas holidays from Ireland. Unfortunately he spent most time in bed with a high fever. He could not take care of our internet spam jungle. This was one of the reasons we did not send any internet greetings. Our web service was down for about two weeks. However, we heard from the people who missed the service. Vladimir has one more semester to go. We really miss his weekly upgrade help. On the other hand, Gabi is happy since she got a new sound-mixing table. It is half the size and does more than our dead one. The cost was very reasonable. It is amazing how the prices for equipment like this are going down. Our friends in TWR are happy that the cost of satellite receivers is a fraction of the cost of about two years ago.

LET US SHARE A FEW LISTENER'S LETTERS:

• Dear TWR,
  Cordial greetings to all … it is Saturday morning and just a minute ago ended your program with your host Pavel Steiger about old and new wine skins. I am writing right away to let you know how blessed I was. I am the old wine skin even though I am only 27 years old. I feel empty and as Pavel said, I am a "Christian". Thanks to your program I realized who I am and a number of issues clicked together and the light inside of me flickered stronger …
  - Saturday listener of Radio Proglas -
• Greetings, my dear ones,
  … this time I would like to thank for the courage to openly confront two different views on the scripture. This does not happen too often, but the last Saturday it was different. It is wonderful to cause a person to think and confront his believes, to challenge personal questions about His will, and pray for the gift of discernment and to see the issues in context. Yes, I am speaking about your program with Pavel Steiger. Much was said by both speakers (a prerecorded message was played during the program), much more could not be said, but opportunity to hear almost contradictory commentary of the same Bible text was a blessing. One speaker was talking about salvation, the other one about practical application. In this view both were correct. How wonderful is the wisdom and power of Jesus Christ. He exposes the truth in multilevel ideas. Thanks for surpassing certain "taboos."
  Your listener of Radio Proglas, Pilsen, medium wave and short waves broadcasts. How about satellite?
  - Jaroslav M. -

EUROPE LESS "CHRISTIANIZED"THAN MOST AMERICANS REALIZE
Mission leaders often face misconceptions by Americans as they work to reach Europe with the gospel. Greater Europe Mission's Ted Noble says many people believe that Europe is "Christianized" and has already been reached with the gospel, but true believers are few.

Of the 27 countries we work in, 14 are less than 1 percent Christian, and most of those are less than 0.5 percent evangelical. So when you think of Europe, think about the place that actually has less evangelicals than even most of the Islamic countries of the world.

Noble says while older adults have been negatively influenced by the state church, young people haven't.

They've had no contact with the church, so there's a new openness to spirituality as a whole. People think of Europe as a place that's burned over with the gospel. The last generation was, but this generation has never been touched. That's why we're finding a responsiveness that we've not seen since World War II.

The search for spiritual truth is also seen as teens turn to cults, Islam and other religions. Noble says English camps and Internet cafes have been effective in reaching young people for the Lord. - Mission Network News -

TWO BUSHES
During our last days in Arizona we came back to the home of our hosts with full bags of last minute shopping. Packing is always a big challenge and Klara said: "we will leave two bushes with you." The surprised look on the face of our hostess was a bit funny. Since we've known each other for long time, the peculiar statement was not questioned any further. A moment later we got a good laugh. Klara was talking about two speaking toys of President Bush she bought-one for Pavel's brother, a toy collector, and one for us. The boxes were big and at first we thought that we could leave them till our next visit. When a perfect box popped up, we packed them and mailed them. The box arrived by the end of November and Pavel's brother was very excited about the new toy.

Before Christmas he called with great urgency: "I need another Bush for Klaus." Ivan pressured Klara to surrender her talking toy. Czech President Klaus had a Christmas party for official guests and personal friends and Ivan needed a proper gift. During the party, the First Lady and President showed to Ivan and Eva a Christmas greeting from First Lady Laura Bush. At this moment Ivan said: "Well this is not all. I have for you another greeting from President Bush" and presented the toy. This was a great surprise. Now, we have two Bushes in the country. One is in the hands of toy collector King Ivan and Klara's President Bush is in the hands of President Klaus.

PRAISES AND ANSWERS TO PRAYERS

• During November and the first days of December, we had the joy of reuniting with our son Filip, his wife Lenka and stars of the show - Samuel and Nathan. Klara was saving their fingerprints on the coffee table glass for a few more days after they left. Family came in late November and the weather was unusually warm and pleasant. Together we caught the official opening of the Christmas season at The Old Town Square. The festive Christmas tree lighting and concert is usually the highlight of the season. A week later gusty wind tore the 100 ft tall tree down. One British tourist was badly hurt.
• We realized one more blessing. During their visit we all remained healthy in the midst of winter sneezes and runny noses.
• We enjoyed Christmas music galore - from classical to the Gospel concert.
• Pavel's second surgery for varicose veins went extremely well. The surgery took about 11 hours and he got over 400 mini shots. After the procedure, we walked home. His daily routine was at least four hours of walking for about one month. Pavel was a good patient and the doctor is very pleased. The ultrasound examination records show great improvement after the first surgery as well as this one. The surgery timing was perfect. During abundant Holiday eating Pavel did not gain extra pounds.

PRAYER NEEDS

• This almost perfect time of holiday love, peace and joy brought one unexpected event. The telephone call Monday morning December 29 was an unpleasant wake up call. Our son Vit told us that he just got out from emergency room after a six-hour procedure setting his arm. He was snowboarding and broke his wrist. As he was describing what happened, Klara nearly fainted. Daily reports from different doctors' visits were tense. We all were waiting for final decision about the surgery. He had a surgery following Wednesday. The arm and the wrist were mended by the rod, plates and screws. We did not see Vit for more than a year and because of the accident. Klara thought of flying to Denver. However the planes were full during the first week of January and later came bad weather, strikes, canceled flights, security reasons. Fortunately people in the church took care of all needed driving, food and laundry.
• Our ministry events calendar is filling fast. It looks like another busy year ahead. It will be hard to fit in all events. What a privilege to be His servants
• Please pray that Pavel and Klara will have time to resume new program writing and studio recording.
• Continuous progress during final steps in TWR Satellite Licensing procedure.
• Additional funding for Slovak broadcasting and good translators and editors.
• The dollar is very weak, 60% of what it used to be just two years ago. The combination with recently extended 22% Value Added Tax reduced our buying power by 50% …

We praise the Lord for giving us the gift of your love and friendship. We plow, you water and God gives the growth. We cherish your prayers and generosity.

Praising together the LORD for wonderful year - HIS BLESSINGS AND PROTECTION.
In His Sovereign Grace Pavel and Klara

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