Rícany, February 1996

Dear friends, partners, and all of you in the Christian family,

Someone said: Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. We have noticed that our move to Rícany happened a year ago. Whenever we think of that event, we don't understand how it happened. For months we shared with you our greatest need in our ministry. Now we are eager to share some exciting answers to your prayers.

The months of December and January were loaded with many deadlines. Fortunately, my mom was with us during the holidays. She took care of all our meals. It was great. I had hardly any time to set up Christmas decoration. Now it's almost the end of January and it's still displayed. Well, in America most people start to decorate early, in our house we are a little bit late. During the holidays we had several visitors, one of which was really special. One of our faithful readers is 101 year old lady. Her Christmas wish was to visit us! This wish was granted and we were blessed beyond any imagination. Her mind is sharp and love for God and lost world is nothing less than amazing. Just one little saying amused us as she was dividing time before and after the war. She lived through both World wars, outlived fall of Austro-Hungarian Empire, creation of Czechoslovak Republic, Hitler's domination of our country, rise and fall of communism as well as split of Czecho-Slovakia.

NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATION
in Prague looked like twilight zone or pyrotechnic days. People were throwing lighted fireworks of every size and kind at other peoples feet, backs, and at passing cars. Prague is more and more becoming a center of wild celebrations for groups of young people from all over Europe. Many visiting youths brought powerful fireworks. We have no laws or control on fireworks and vendors of all kinds (many Chinese) had a very profitable day. People were putting the explosives in champagne bottles and throwing them into the crowd. Many people were drunk. Seven people were hospitalized in one of the hospitals and many more treated. We tried to observe the coming of the New Year in the city, but gave up. Mayor of Prague said: "This year it took two days to clean up the city".

Not only New Year explosions rocked our base. Pavel's computer skills were tested to maximum. We were trying to sign up on E-mail. About a month later we are finally on. The phone lines and available service here is just unreal. During this time we got unexpected gift - a possible virus and Pavel computer's hard disc totally collapsed. Providentially, he had printed and recorded all programs for the radio. He lost about 10 days of work, most of which he was able to retrieve through the scanner and backups. Two weeks later it happened again! Till now we do not know if it was a mechanical failure or virus. If this was not enough, we had to go for three days to another town to solve "Christian war zone of two groups" as peace mediators. We are exhausted to say the least.

We met and spent some time with AMERICAN MISSIONARIES. They shared with us their goals and plans. We hope that we helped them to better understand the local plans. They are finding that it is harder and harder to cooperate with local authorities as well as local church. Those who came here to teach English are finding out that the schools don't want them as soon as they present their curriculum vitae and educational Christian credentials. The local church often hesitates to accept American training methods. In both cases, some people are suspicious and they feel threatened. Actually, we were told that the church here was doing better during the communism than now with all the American involvement. The above mentioned problem is partly related to this problem. Focus of mission work must respect local feelings. At least partial financial help to support local ministry workers can bring greater results than to try to plant churches of any new denomination coming from the US. Great opportunity does exist and is mentioned later. Again, we must repeat, anyone considering mission work in any country must learn the language. So far, only the Mormons are well trained.

WISHING YOU A GOOD LUCK:
People learning Czech often ask why one must say dobrou instead of dobrá in expressions such as dobrou chut’, "good appetite" and dobrou noc, "good night". And how come the adjective in the similar expression dobrý den, "good day" and dobrý vecer, "good evening" retains its basic, undeclined form?

The answer is straight forward. What you are really saying is Preji vám dobrou chut’/dobrou noc. "I wish you a good appetite/good night." When using the "wishing" verb prát with direct object like chut’, noc, den, vecer, Czech uses the ctvrtý pád the fourth, or accusative case. Even though all four nouns may look as if they have masculine gender, chut and noc are actually feminine and thus the adjective takes an -ou ending. Wishing you hodne stestí a good luck has neutral gender and none of the above rules applies. Instead of good we actually say lots of luck. Not even monkey can mimic all that.

IN THE MOOD or The Snowy Romance (Glenn Miller's melodies) is a musical we have recently enjoyed. Last year it was sold out. When we finally got the tickets, the performance was canceled. We almost forgot until we went recently to pick up some materials from Slovakia to the bus station. We found out that the bus will not arrive, but right next door, we got two canceled tickets for the front row. It was a great performance but not like the Broadway show. The audience and the atmosphere here is just different. The Snowy Romance in the winter is just too cold.

We praise the Lord for meeting our needs during the last year. As we closed the accounting, we can report to you that 1396 readers sent their contributions toward the printing costs. A year ago we had 946 local sponsors. It is 30% increase but the cost more than doubled. Our account shows no debt and best of all because of your prayers and LORD's providence we can share most recent praise and answer. BELIEVE IT OR NOT - we finally have an administrative help! PLUS - the local sponsor picked up the cost of her salary! In February we can stretch our minds and bodies again.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US:
In January we hosted the first public lecture concerning Creation vs. Evolution. There will be series of five lectures from January to May. We had a full house, about 600 people. Each time, one of the experts in the field (mostly scientists and published authors) will present the topic and a panel of several experts will answer all the questions. The program is professionally videotaped. We hope to fill the information gap addressing the Creation vs. Evolution topic.

OUR FRIEND VÁCLAV
In the middle, with whom we prepare the programs for Pilsen Radio, carries the ministry and a full time job as a train engineer. Many times he comes to the studio after several grave yard shifts totally exhausted. He carries the load of two full-time jobs without a telephone. Just recently he had his first health warning. Now he has an opportunity to host daily late night Christian program for lonely people. There is no budget available to pay his salary from radio sources. We will personally try to help also. The need and commitment is just a little bit bigger, about $850 a month. The opportunity is open to anyone. Václav literally speaks to hundreds of thousands people. The radio was for years the great tool to present Gospel to unsaved. Its importance may be even greater now than ever.

We know someone who can coordinate this production. He already proved the dedication and gift. This could be another step to raise up a team of people who can apply for the Christian broadcasting license one more time. Please, continue to pray for local Christian radio ministry.

Some years ago
we heard Thomas Schuman, leading expert on the communist misinformation process, sharing the communist methods how to change an open society - a democracy - into a closed society or a dictatorship. The attack is severe and methods proven. In the area of:

• Religion - instead of the Bible, Introduce social gospel, politics and Christian entertainment
• Education - undermine discipline, introduce permissiveness, relative thinking, teach humanism and evolution
• Media - monopolize, manipulate, discredit and pay attention to non-issues
• Culture - introduce false heroes and role models
• Law and order - concentrate on legal battles over moral issues
• Family and society - undermine and break the structure, family planning, women's rights; no loyalty to the state, promote alternative lifestyles
• Health - sport craze, junk food, new ways for better health
• Economy - destruction in the bargaining process, unions
• Foreign policy - disarmament, isolation.

Remember, there are no bad governments, there are only sinful and ignorant people who remain in the slavery of sin.