May 2004

THE EUROPEAN UNION became reality for the Czech Republic and nine other European countries on May 1st. The celebration and colorful display of fireworks was incredible. The joy on the faces of young people radiated hope. In some way the atmosphere resembled something like the celebration of liberation from the oppression of post WWII results i.e. division of Europe into East and West blocks. We are in perfect peace because:

It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.(Daniel 2:21)

This is truly the beginning of a new era with new challenges, regulations, some fears and speculations about the future. There will be many changes-some better than others. The border crossing with no customs procedures is going to be especially easy. What is happening is ideal and optimal for His ultimate plan that will sum up all in Christ:

That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth …(Ephesians 1:10)

EURO ENGLISH is the new way of communication among many nations. About 24% of the Czech population speaks English fluently. About 36% speak fluent German. Students are learning English beginning at the age of ten. Around 14 years ago students were starting to learn the Russian language at that age. A number of English teachers are former Russian teachers who took crash courses to teach another language.

Did you know that there are three English's to a foreigner's ear? The first English "everybody" understands is its mutant-when a Pole communicates with an Italian-that's the arising Euro English. The next level of English is American English-"some" people understand. The third level of English is the British English-"nobody" understands.

However, we Czenglish speakers (Pavel and Klara) discovered a New Zealand English years back. It was even more challenging than British English until we got used to different vowel pronunciation.

APRIL: We spent it neither in Prague nor in Paris, but in the USA. It was once again a marvelous time of fellowship, blessings, reunions and nostalgia. The first two weeks we spent on the West coast and the two following weeks on the East Coast. We flew via Paris and Newark to Los Angeles and started our Home Ministry tour in Long Beach, CA. We visited a church there and spent a wonderful evening with our supporters and HCJB World Radio mission friends. We are invited to the church for its September Mission budget meeting. Praise the Lord. From there we drove to Simi Valley, CA. We reunited there with our friends-a home schooling family. Klara played Monopoly with the kids. The next day we started our journey to Northern California to visit our supporting churches in Santa Rosa and Madera. Since this was a long drive, we decided to divide it. We made a few short nostalgic stops along the way. Santa Barbara is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, we did not meet our friend(s) whom we served together with in Quito 14 years ago. Our timing did not work with Marina's family. The next short stop was in Solvang-the "Dutch town" that we visited when our children were in grade school. While driving north we admired Californian agriculture. The next day we arrived at Santa Rosa. Klara was there only once in 1991. Our visit was long overdue. After Santa Rosa meetings and wonderful fellowship we spent a couple of days in the Bay Area visiting Pavel's cousin. Klara admired their custom kitchen business. We helped plan for cousin's family reunion during their upcoming June visit to Prague. We walked the Golden Gate and enjoyed the beauty of San Francisco. From there we drove to Salida. We spent a night with a dear missionary family we knew in Quito. The evening with them was lovely and a bridal shower in the church community was very interesting. California is an agricultural miracle. Endless areas of grapevines, fruit trees, nut trees, artichokes, strawberries, vegetables … Our next destination was Madera. We met the pastor right in the front of the church where he had a shovel in his hands and together with a few men from Rescue Missions were finishing the landscaping around the huge slab of new concrete for Easter Sunday service. As we were preparing for this short Home Ministry trip we were a bit concerned about the Easter weekend and church schedules. However it all worked great. We were greeted at a special Friday night reception and Saturday we were taken to Yosemite National Park where we have not visited for more than 20 years. There Pavel obtained a Golden Age pass to all National Parks. He was very happy. Easter Sunday service was lovely and two skits were so funny but true. In the afternoon we divided our time between two fellowship activities and were blessed by both. It was great to reunite with those who visited us in Prague. One of the couples became very dear to us. During their married life they have had in their care over 150 children through the Foster care program. The last two children they adopted. Their way of explaining the adoption to kids is wonderful. The children were told how very special they have been because they were chosen twice-first by God and then a second time by new parents.

EAST COAST: The next highlight was our East Coast family reunion at Filip's place in Manchester, NH. Our flight from Los Angeles to Newark was a little bumpy and very long due to weather delays and EWR airport congestion. The flight across the American continent took longer than the flight over the Atlantic. When we were circling again and again over the Great Lakes, an Italian passenger next to us was concerned about terrorist hijacking. We left sunny California and the weather in New Hampshire was more like what we are used to in Prague. However, our family reunion was outstanding. Our son Vit came from Denver for Easter and stayed for the whole week. Time spent with the kids and the grandkids was pure joy. A day in Boston was lovely. Saturday, April 17th, we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary together as a family. A dozen red roses and a lobster dinner at home were the highlight. Klara shot a video of the lobster's departure from water tank into the steam oven and to the table. Lenka, Filip's wife, made a great pecan cake.

Pavel and our son Filip drove to Pennsylvania for the John Bunyan Conference on Sunday. They were blessed. Filip was reunited with his college-time pastor from ASU in Tempe. Klara and Lenka entertained grandkids. Samuel called Klara grandpa all the time. This became a teasing game. Nathan is serious, very industrious and speaks in tongues.

This is not all! Filip and Lenka are expecting their third child. A boy or girl is on the way, due in the second part of November.

The last 3-day stop was in NJ and NYC. It was our finale. As much as Klara had wanted to walk The Golden Gate Bridge in SF, she also wanted to walk the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. Her wishes were fulfilled. Pavel was impressed most by the fact that the Brooklyn Bridge was built from 1869 to 1876. Its architect had to be a visionary since there are three car lanes in both directions and a pedestrian walkway on the top! What a structure in a pre-car era!

In New Jersey we had a wonderful time of fellowship and visited another church. For the grand finale we went to see The Passion. There were about 15 people in the large auditorium. We had read and heard about the movie's pros and cons for a long time. Now we wonder if unsaved people hear the good news while watching it. One of the comments we heard after the showing was: "Jesus died in vain, the world continues to be a bad place." No matter how much evidence we gather together or how much are our emotions stirred or ripped apart, the individual salvations are in His hands, since the passion of the Son was the Father's plan not man's. After all, no movie can portray Christ's spiritual torment that is immeasurably and infinitely more abysmal than any physical whipping and crucifixion. We, scant men, have no conception of it! Many ordinary men suffered physically to the same extent as our Lord did. However, Jesus Christ was forsaken by God-tormented in place of those who believe on Him. It was His real Passion-it was the time when He bore His cross! The final and shortest scene of the resurrection was the most powerful statement. HE LIVES! The task and privilege of His children is to teach and multiply His Word among many nations.

PERFECT TIMING: Each time we are leaving for Home Ministry Assignment or an out of town activity we are concerned about Klara's mother. Often we face some kind of emergency. One week before our departure to the USA, our mother could not get up because of hip pain. Klara went along as she was admitted to the hospital for rehabilitation and special care. Her X-rays look bad and there is nothing that can be done medically except administering painkillers. It looks like she may need full time assistance and we have a big task ahead of us.

Allergy season for Klara was passed over-there are no birch trees in California. In New Hampshire the spring had a slow start and vast number of birch trees had no pollen yet. Klara started using her allergy medication a week before returning to Prague. In New York City the spring was advanced and all the trees had leaves already. Back in Prague the birch pollen time was over and the last days of allergy season were very mild.

We returned into the most beautiful time of the year. Greenery and flowers are decorating Prague's charming atmosphere. Springtime is a perfect time for visiting. The city is full of tourists. They are here for numerous reasons. A number of low cost airliners are serving Prague and many visitors come here to spend a relatively inexpensive weekend. Another highlight is the Hockey World Cup.

Our first weekend back in Prague was the Eurounion celebration. We concluded the celebration with all of our employees and friends by attending two wonderful concerts of Czech Philharmonics Orchestra-100-year tribute to Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904). He spent some years in Chicago, New York City and Iowa. You surely know some of his tunes.

Now we are back and in full ministry swing and looking forward to more challenging opportunities, as they are developing.

PRAISES AND ANSWERS TO PRAYERS:
Big thanks to all who filled our trip with love and happy memories. We are grateful that Lord provides many good and hospitable friends wherever we go. We praise Him for your trustworthy partnership and for entrusting us with this ministry in CZ.

Our praise for increased ministry support from Grace Community Church in Madera.

SATELLITE broadcasting progress:
The funds needed for the project are in special HCJB Czech Projects account and will be distributed as soon as we conclude the necessary paper work.
On April 7, 2004 the Slovak Business Court registered the Slovak-Czech corporation TWRadio. Ahead is the last step-to obtain the satellite broadcasting license. The studio construction began in October 2003 and the technicians are fine-tuning technical connections. Basically it is all done. Thank you for your prayer partnership!
Another opportunity-our Slovak HCJB team sent to us and to HCJB World Radio in Elkhart following challenging message:
…Thanks to big boom in digital technology another possibility of local broadcasting has been opening. Slovakia, among many other European countries, has already signed the agreement of Digital Audio Broadcasting. They were allocated four frequencies in Band III and Band L. We here in Slovakia would like to pursue this opportunity and seek HCJB World Radio's involvement and support. We would appreciate a discussion on this subject. This technical opportunity will be presented at the conference of Fellowship of European Broadcasters (FEB) that will take place here in Slovakia in October of this year. Among the others, CBN from the USA will take part at the conference. One of the topics will be "Digital Audio and the New Technologies". We hope that someone from HCJB World Radio can take part in the conference as well. We look forward to hearing about your point of view.
In Christ, Sincerely yours
Milan Hudec

PTL, Klara's mother will move this month into full care retirement center. This is a brand new and lovely facility.

Praising together the LORD for HIS BLESSINGS AND PROTECTION.

While we were away we had several visiting parties staying over and Gabi was taking care of all of them. Here is one of the HCJB World Radio visitor's report:

Dearest Gabi,
The Lord truly does provide, and I will fondly remember His provision for me in Prague through a very dear sister named Gabi! Thank you so very much for everything. This was the perfect place of rest and refreshing-truly a five-star experience. Reduta (jazz place) was fabulous. I will send photos via e-mail, OK?
Again, THANK YOU! Keep in touch - God's very richest blessing to you!

PRAYER NEEDS:
We are overwhelmed by the ministry opportunities and challenges. Please pray for continuous wisdom and protection for the ministry and personnel.
We are counting days until Vladimir's return from Ireland. Our Internet is acting up and we need more complex care to make it efficient again.
Please, continue to pray for a satellite broadcasting license.

In His Sovereign Grace
pavel and klara steieger

You may mail your US. tax-deductible contributions to:
World Radio Missionary Fellowship
P.O. Box 39800
Colorado Springs CO 80949-9800
U.S.A.
Attach to your check the following note: FOR THE CZECH PROJECTS ACC # 577850

You may mail your Canadian tax-deductible contributions to:
World Radio missionary Fellowship
6981 Millcreek Dr. Unit 23
Mississauga ON L5N 6B8
CANADA
Attach to your check the following note: FOR THE CZECH PROJECTS ACC # 577850

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