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For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:it is the gift of God: Not of works,lest any man should boast.For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath beforeordained that we shouldwalk in them.
(Ephesians 2:8-10)

September 2005

DEAR FRIENDS AND PRAYER PARTNERS

The picture above was drawn in the late 1990's by Bara Malik. She was then about 8 years old. It portrays Pavel as he teaches a Bible class. In the bubble going out of his mouth is written in Czech language: For by grace are ye saved through faith; as it is underlined in the Bible quotation Eph. 2:8.

We are sending greetings to all of you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, we want to give you a big THANK for all your prayers and faithfulness. In our last E-mail Prayer & Praise Report (E-PPR) we asked for personal prayers:

Safe delivery of Emma
Emma arrived August 19th, three days after the due date. She is a perfect addition to the family. To our amazement, Lenka and Emma went home from the hospital in less than 48 hours. Three days later she was back in the Hospital with jaundice. Mentioning a less-than-48-hour stay in maternity hospital causes near disbelief here in CZ. Grandma Klara will fly to Manchester, NH on September 1 to enjoy Emma and the whole family for ten days..

Our readers and listeners
During our rainy summer we attended part of a Christian youth conference in Eastern Bohemia called "Living Faith in the midst of our days". We loved the opportunity and challenge to share a deeper understanding of "Christian unity in Christ despite denominational diversity." Nothing can replace communication on a one-to-one basis. Several strained relationships were restored to full understanding in Christ. Also we had an opportunity to record several topics for radio broadcasting. As we were checking the names of conference speakers, we realized with amazement that those familiar surnames already belong to the next generation of leaders who are now in their mid or late 30's. It was great to see the generation of our children, now with their families, teaching teenagers. To mention the last impression from the conference—we endured a video special (musical noise abuse to our ears) of wonderful testimony of Steve Saint and his "Auca father". Hardly anyone understood enough sung English to get what the lyrics said. The world and technology grip hearts of young people. It takes lots of our imagination to assume that Jesus is glorified by incomprehensible noise like that. Perhaps we grow old…

On the way back we made a short side trip to Poland that took just about four hours altogether. This is an interesting part of lost Bohemian territory. At the local market we bought some blueberries and mushrooms. As we were crossing border back to CZ, the Czech immigration officer looked at our passports and then into our car and said: "Oh, Mr. Suchomel, you come to Zamberk quite often." Then he opened the second passport and said: "Oh, Mr. Steiger—Zápas o duši (that's the name of the magazine we publish)." We replied: "you must be a Christian." He added: "I am and I am your reader." We shook hands and left Czechbound since there were cars behind us.

Day-to-day ministry
As we mentioned above, we had very rainy summer. This was a perfect time to work on editing, translating and radio program writing. Klara started preparations for Dworak's arrival (hopefully next spring) and painted two bedrooms in our apartment. Projects like that are an opportunity to sort and reduce a few things (stuff) accumulated over the years. Most of the summer we dedicated our attention to friends and family affairs.

On the other hand, Gabi had an exciting time with East European English Summer Camp. One of the teachers lost her balance on a moving sidewalk at the airport and, instead of boarding the plane to London, had an emergency hip surgery in Prague. Once again Gabi's organizational skills were a big help in this emergency..

BOOKS
  1. In our last E-PPR we mentioned a book titled "Christian Jihad." Authors examine the impact of Christian atrocities on modern personal, cultural, and even international relations, question popular views of just war, and challenge each of us to face our past and redeem our future. The Comparison of the Speeches of Pope Urban II (1095) and Usama Bin Ladin (1998) points out astonishing resemblance. It is a true eye opener.
  2. Lee Strobel, in his book "The Case for Faith," reminds readers of the reality of Church abuses through the centuries. Distinction between things done in the name of Christ and those things really represented by Jesus' is a crucial issue. The Crusades and Jihad are tragic reminders of past and present events. No wonder that people in Europe, especially Czechs, after more than a thousand-year history of religious bloodshed, have been distrustful of anything Christian or religious. We should pay more attention to the Church history. Recent tragic terrorist events in London and Egypt made all of us once again very aware of the difficult times we live in.
  3. Readers Digest conducted research in 14 countries of Europe. About half of the Czech people think that religion has a positive influence in the world; about one third are convinced that religion can help to recognize what is good and what is bad. The survey showed less favorable scores on questions about God and life after death. A well known evangelical and accomplished author said:

The reason why about half of the Czechs see the role of the church positively is mainly a result of how people view the Czech Catholic Charity and Adventist organization ADRA during humanitarian crises.

DARWIN and DESIGN
There is going to be a conference in Prague on October 22. It will be in Congress Center. Its auditorium seats about a thousand people. The speakers are really well-known names: M. J. Behe—Darwin's Black Box; J. Wells— Icons of Evolution; C. B. Thaxton—The Mystery of Life Origin; J. C. Lennox—The Theory of Infinite Soluble Groups; S.C. Mayer—Darwin, Design, and Public Education. We were really skeptical and feared a fiasco because we have experienced a lot of actions here when the number of performers exceeded the number of spectators. We were asked to help, so we e-mailed about 700 people we have on our e-list. Now we see it will be, most likely, an Event! Our Lord can open doors in most miraculous ways.

VISITORS and TRAVEL:
Our expectations for the month of August were, for us, quite tranquil. However, during month of September we will have a busy schedule. Klara leaves on the 1st of September. On the 6th, Klara's brother and his wife will arrive to CZ from Colorado. They are planning to spend most of their time with Klara's mother. Klara comes back on 9/11. On the 17th our son Vit will come to spend his 10-day vacation with us. The irony is that our vacation destination (coach trip through historical landmarks of Spain and Portugal) is extremely hot, dry and afire while our part of Europe is cold, rainy and flooding.

PRAYER and PRAISE:

HELP:
We are afraid that we lost some of the e-mail addresses after our last E-PPR mailing. We checked all "undelivered mail returned" but did not realize that from time to time it takes more than one attempt to get through. People make constant changes in their e-mail addresses and it is difficult to keep track of them. If you do not get our "E-mail Prayer & Praise Report i.e. (E-PPR)" ahead of this News Release, we probably canceled your address.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE, PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!
In His Grace and Service
pavel and klara


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