© Ivan Steiger MMI

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, (1. Peter 2:21)

January 2005

DEAR FRIENDS AND PRAYER PARTNERS
Thanks, to all of you, for Christmas cards, letters, small presents (10) and kind words of encouragement. We hope your Holidays were full of blessings, peace and joy. Being separated by such a distance, it's time for us to remember our dear ones. How we long to be together with them and you! Well, maybe next year in Prague?

We live in a fast changing world. The new millennium's three zeroes has changed into "005." The last five years have just rolled by and so many things happened and changed. The greatest blessing in our personal lives, among others, was the birth of our two grandsons. On the ministry side, we marvel how the Lord keeps us active and motivated to serve Him with all heart and strength. As we look back at our 15-year service, we also look forward. We pray that the Lord will grant us at least five additional years of full-time ministry. The motto of our ministry—"The Battle for the Soul"—describes it all. Each year we admire His faithfulness and blessings in this part of the world.

UNEXPECTED GIFT
In December our neighbors came to us with the idea that it would be nice to catch the Christmas spirit in Vienna. The breadwinner works in a Czech bank in Vienna and his bank's apartment is usually not occupied on weekends. We gladly accepted the invitation and enjoyed every minute of the weekend stay. Vienna is about 200 miles from Prague. The apartment is located within walking distance of city center. We walked a lot.

The Christmas advent or symbolism was not too obvious. No carols, trees were decorated mostly with lights only, … not much different as during the whole year. The spirit of Christmas is changing into a parade of Christmas markets of decorated plywood houses full of sweets, candles, ornaments, small toys and other trinkets that are basically the same all over Europe. We were wondering if the Euro Union's respect to multicultural diversity makes no place for true Christmas with Christ. While in the city center, we admired fabulous pastry shops, cafe's with lovely torts, cookies, Sacher special, Christmas "stolen" (a pastry specialty), favored Grandma's cookies and marzipan creations. We noticed elegant ladies in fabulous furs. They kept the festive atmosphere of old world tradition alive. The highlight was visiting famous galleries. Seeing an endless number of paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Tizian, and many, others brings one necessarily into an art overdose. Most of the paintings related to Bible and religious events. Vienna is loaded with art treasures and abundance of famous names of artists who paid the last tribute to Christian heritage. People usually come to admire art, not the message.

CZECH PUBLIC RADIO II
Praise the Lord that Czech local secular Public FM Radio II is broadcasting traditional Christmas carols. It's utterly politically incorrect—the Gospel comes out crystal clear—Christ was born in Bethlehem to take upon Himself the sins of His people. This is the only place where the spiritual meaning of Christmas is remembered and shared. Other stations broadcast the latest Czech "Christmas" hit: "We all follow the star that shines over Hypermarket." Really, we are not kidding. Supermarket is called here Hypermarket. Hyper is from Greek over or above.

SPECIAL THANKS
The week before Christmas, Pavel was preaching in the Church of Kladno. There we met a man who reminded us of a time we met some ten years ago. He thanked us for our ministry and magazine. He shared that for seven years we were his only source of spiritual food and fellowship. Now he loves the church in Kladno. His public testimony and happiness blessed us all.

"ADOPTED SON"
While our younger son in Colorado had a year of numerous surgeries after his skiing accident, each time he had a family or friend who took care of him. We are happy that we can do the same for another "son" here. This young man comes twice a month for the weekend to attend his English language MBA studies in Prague. He needed a place to stay. Actually, both sons know each other well from the time they fell in love with the same girl. Neither of them married her. That was long time ago. Dan is very sincere and inquisitive about deep theological questions, and it is joy to have him.

HIS PROTECTIVE HAND
During one of the Pavel's outings in the town, he was in a two-tram accident. One of the trams derailed and, as it changed direction, it hit the oncoming tram, which Pavel was in, and derailed it too. One of the trams hit two others by pushing cars sideways. In one car was a pregnant woman. It was a TV news story. Providentially, no one was hurt, but it has been a strange experience.

Pavel had some allergic reaction to his blood pressure medication. Switching to another pill solved the problem. His annual checkup showed no problems-his vital signs are good.

FROM OUR MAIL BAG

Dear publishers,
I recently discovered your magazine and I have to say how surprised and pleased I am. You are courageous to approach and publish the topics I cannot find anywhere else. I would like to submit to you one of my contributions I wrote for German radio, where I tried to answer in a simple way difficult questions people ask all the time. It was broadcast in Germany several times. How you use the text is at your disposal.
With respect and best wishes for His leading,
– Daniel L., Germany –

Dear friends,
About three months ago I was searching on Internet to find out how Christianity is doing and I found your pages—www.hcjb.cz. I have to admit that it was a life changing moment. All the documents, books, articles led me to read more till I was convinced that all what is written is pure truth and I felt incredible thirst for God. I asked Him to show me more. I started to read the Bible, and I was reading some comments from Tony Uhlir (our dear friend and co-laborer who is with the Lord now). The next main source of information about God is your magazine in electronic format. I am reading daily some older issues, I downloaded numerous audio programs and I have been listening to them. I found many answers to my questions. It is great that you pay attention to many topics and present balanced view between spiritual and daily life. I want to thank you that you gave me the light that led me to my dear savior Jesus Christ. …
– Martin U. –

Dear Pavel,
Big thanks. I praise the Lord for your ministry and the magazine. Where others are failing, you are building. Where others are attacking Christian intellect with liberal theology, you stand firm on the Biblical foundations. God bless all what you do and those who benefit from your ministry. May you continue for many years. Greetings to Klara. May the Lord be with you,
– Standa P. –

Dear brother Steiger,
My name is Jan F. and I am a new pastor in Grace Baptist Church in Windsor, Canada. I used to read your magazine, "The Battle for the Soul," and would like to recommend it to my new congregation. Can you let me know what is the Slovak subscription cost for Canada. We would appreciate some older issues as well.
Greetings and blessings,
– Jan F., Canada –

Dear Steiger's,
Out of His mercy, we serve on numerous fronts. Among one of them is the radio. Sad to say, because of the raising cost for local broadcasting and loss of financial support, we had to substantially reduce our broadcasting ministry. At this time we are preparing an hour-long program for the local station and we repeat a half-hour program at three other stations. We appreciate your offer to share the Slovak programs with us. I think we can use them in the near future. As soon as we conclude expository teaching of Ephesians, we can schedule your program. Please mail us the CD's and written texts, since the listeners often ask for written programs as well.
Many thanks, God bless,
– Vlado M., Bacsky Petrovec, Yugoslavia –
(Fellow missionary) -

SPIRITUAL DARKNESS
"Czech coldness toward religion shows up in survey on beliefs" by Jabeen Bhatti ("The Wall Street Journal," December 11, 2004)

Katerina Zdarska is in the minority in the Czech Republic: She believes there is a God.

Religion leaders and scholars explain that a unique series of twists and turns in religious and political history over the past five centuries have combined to cast the church as a symbol of repression in the minds of many Czechs. That stands in sharp contrast to religion's image as a rallying point for national identity in many other European countries.

"From my research and experience, the Czechs are the most atheistic people in Europe," says Daniel Di Domizio, professor of theology at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wis. "In the Czech Republic, what accounts for non-religion is almost anti-religion."

The survey, which polled more than 16,000 Western and Central Europeans in September and October 2004, showed a wide range among countries in the degree of their residents' belief and their affiliation with a religion.

PRAYER CONSIDERATION
In a special letter to our supporting Churches, we shared the ministry situation. To fully describe our grim financial outlook there are three major factors to take in consideration:

• While in the 1990's our annual support averaged about $60,000; it has dropped during the last five years to about $50,000. (0.83 multiplier).
• The inflation and Value Added Tax from the 1990's to present is about 30% (0.70 multiplier).
• The Dollar is continuously dropping in its value. Just six years ago a Dollar bought 41.00 CZK now it buys only 22.70 CZK (0.55 multiplier).

Thus: $60,000 x 0.83 x 0.70 x 0.55 = $19,173.

The buying power support dwindled from each $100 income to $32 income, mostly in the course of the last six years. These are devastating calculations. The average US support we raised during past three years was about $50,000 annually. Salary, health insurance, and social security for two employees comes to about $20,000 per year. The magazine's printing and postage (circulation 5,000) alone comes to about $15,000. Broadcasting time and financial transfers to SK are about $4,500. A part of those expenses is covered from Czech contributions.

To meet the World Office budget, we, the Steiger's, give up the $26,000 from the Personal required support. Because of the above, we may not be able to sustain the Czech Office much longer if the matter will not be rectified. It looks like we will have to temporarily curb our ministry here and come Stateside for the first long-term home ministry after 15 years.

At an HCJB meeting in Germany it was said:

God owns it all
God moves hearts
God is the fund-raiser

It is amazing that our Lord already gave us 15 years of wonderful uninterrupted ministry. We understand that we are not alone in such a situation. We are looking forward to PRAISE HIM in light of opportunities we are challenged with. We are prepared to accept His guidance, whatever the outcome is. Please PRAY for us and help us if it is on your heart! Please PRAY that we will not be forced to write a letter similar to those we have recently received from our sister radio operations:

Dear HCJB people everywhere!
You may have heard about "changes to come" at HCJB World Radio in Sweden. This is to inform you that these changes have just recently taken place. Which means that the HCJB World Radio office in Mariestad has closed and will not open at another location. From now on, the office work will be done voluntarily. So our new address is not an "office address", but an official address, made available for us in the Stockholm area. So, please, make the changes needed in your files!
– Helen P. –

… our economic position was very difficult. In 2002/3 we cut our budget by 60%. Even as day-to-day operation has improved greatly the past debt was chasing us with a risk of getting bankrupted. People did not contribute for months… Just in a recent weeks this has been greatly improved, due to some donations we have received. Hallelujah!
From Polish Radio CCM Ministry
– Henryk Krol, Poland –

PRAISES
For almost a year we were agonizing over a new requirement for all organizations, namely more complex accounting methods—double-entry bookkeeping. This is so intricate to us that we would have to hire a professional accountant. PTL—the change was postponed for two years for organizations with less than $600,000 annual turnover. So we currently stay with our simple-entry bookkeeping.

We had another audit. This time we had to prove that for the past 12 years we have been contributing proper assessments for employee health insurance. Again we passed. We praise the Lord for our two employees and their dedication. Why there is so much ado with our organization that doesn't even have an annul turnover that would equal the salary of an American or German senior engineer?

THE LORD IS OPENING DOORS
Let us share few more important events of the last days of the year 2004. In November we attended the first HCJB World Offices Conference in Germany. As you know, Pavel attended the Annual European Conference in Germany in May with our Slovak/Czech radio personnel. Klara attended the Annual Membership Conference in Colorado Springs in September. The time when most of the activities were centered in Ecuador is gone by. HCJB World Radio is now represented on four continents. What started almost 75 years ago in the high Andes is now reaching down to the African, Asian and Australian continents. Out of necessity we had the first HCJB World Offices Conference. The directors of each of the World offices met with the HCJB World Radio President, finance person, special project person, and our Slovak personnel. Each World office director is facing different challenges for his specific country. There are some regions that are expanding so fast it is mind-boggling. The Australian project at Kanamura, especially, is nothing short of a miracle. The Asian broadcasting region is booming. There is so much more to share. To conclude, you can pray that the Czech Republic or Slovakia will become a Euro Union hub for furthering HCJB World Radio outreach. In January we will pursue more specific goals with Jason Vincent. Newson—director of Euro-Asia.

THANK YOU
FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT
pavel and klara steiger

You may mail your US tax-deductible contributions to:
HCJB WORLD RADIO
P.O. Box 39800
Colorado Springs CO 80949-9800
U.S.A.

You may mail your Canadian tax-deductible contributions to:
HCJB WORLD RADIO
2476 Argentia Rd. #201
Mississauga ON L5N 6M1
CANADA

Attach to your check
the following note:
FOR THE CZECH PROJECTS MINISTRY
ACC # 577850

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