Rícany, January 1999

DEAR FRIENDS AND PARTNERS, OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST

THE HOLIDAY RUSH

caught us mostly in ministry related deadlines. We had a white Thanksgiving, but muddy Christmas. Right now we have mild temperatures and no freezing colds.

December 6 started the Holiday season with St. Nicholas, angels and devils...

December 24 - Christmas Eve - is the main part of Christmas with gift opening. By the way, in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia gifts are brought under the tree by the baby Jesus. During the communist era, baby Jesus was replaced by the Russian Grandpa Frost. However, now the Western Santa Claus, "X-mass" advertisement and sh-o-o-o-p-ping craze is changing local traditions. Santa is indistinguishable from the Russian Grandpa Frost. People want to stay with the traditional manger and baby Jesus, but globalization or mundialization is an "irreversible" movement...

We packed all the traditional food Klara prepared at home and left for a couple of days to be with her mother. The three of us had a quiet family time thinking of our children and relatives far away. Traditional Christmas-eve dinner starts in our family by a cracker with honey and a clove of garlic for good health, followed by fish soup with croutons, breaded carp, potato salad and fruit salad. A variety of nuts, fresh and dried fruit and cookie nibbling makes the Christmas fare complete. Cookies are very important. A baker's pride is to make at least 12 different kinds. Klara decorated two kinds in different ways so it could pass for variety of four kinds. Christmas bread is braided from nine pieces of raised dough.

Pavel watched at least 12 hours of holiday TV specials and Klara slept for 12 hours. On Christmas day there was more food and more TV. Children and parents are usually glued to the screen watching fairy tales all day. Living abroad for so many years makes some of them a real treat, even for us. Especially the old Russian ones are refreshing. Klara's mother has a cable TV so we can watch CNN and a lot of German programs.

PRESENTS and GREETINGS

We thank you all for the Christmas greetings, E-mail and small gifts coming from far away. Each year we enjoy the family reports from different parts of the world. This year we received mostly post cards, a few family letters and only three pictures. On one of them was faithful friend Bud - the dog.

One of the letters touched our hearts:
Probably you already know that Betty's much-younger sister Lou and her husband Allen live next door to us. Both of them are educators; both of them are blind. Last March this courageous couple few to the borders of Siberia, where they adopted a beautiful little blind-Russian girl. Dasha has dark hair, blue eyes (when she opens them), and plump cheeks like peaches and cream. She just turned three in September, so she is still learning to talk - especially in a new language. At first we felt we were conversing with a parakeet Not only would she repeat what we said, but she would also sit there in her high chair and do her English vocabulary practice in random order, without knowing how to say the right thing at the right time.

Now Dasha is becoming more fluent every day. ... She is enrolled in a half-day pre-school program with loving professionals who can teach her all the things a toddler needs to know about, whether she can see them or not.

There is much more about this story, but to me, this is what Christmas is all about. Gift of new life. Thanks Betty and Mac for sharing.

SPECIAL FRIENDS

Our longtime friend and sister in Christ Junko, from Japan, always has the most original little gifts. How encouraging to know that her whole family and her parents in Japan are praying for us.

Women's ministries from Discovery Hills Evangelical Free Church in Rescue, California mailed to our church a Christmas crafts box. We had a great evening making Christmas ornaments. Also PaImcroft Baptist Women's ministries from Phoenix mailed us a lovely small gift. THANKS.

BOOKS

At least in our family are always the right choice. We received six books from International Evangelist PEF and from Dr. Ron Cline, president of HCJB, "Step Beyond." Our dear friend from Brno presented us her just published book. It is a beautiful true story about a family hiding a Jewish couple during the WWII. Speaking of holocaust, we have just read a fascinating book true story. It was first published in NY in 1964 as a document under the title "I cannot forgive" (Rudolf Vrba) and in 1989 under the title "44070 - The conspiracy of the Twentieth Century," in Washington. Czech readers had to wait till now, though the author is a former Czechoslovak citizen. Testimony like that should be the reminder to every generation, especially now.

Pavel, pastor Daniel and Jaromir

CHURCH in RICANY

We moved into a new place just before Christmas. It's nice to be in our "own" place. With help of the "mother" church in Prague, friends, and sister church in the U.S., the congregation in Ricany has its permanent new meeting place. We remodeled an older house, thus, our pastor has also a place where to stay. Next year, with the Lord's help, the whole building will get new stucco and landscaping.

The following Sunday we had the first communion and baptism. Veronika is a young girl and her testimony touched our hearts. Jaromir went to church with his grandma as a little boy. His grandma died when he was six. As a little boy he accepted the Lord, but the first decision did not change his heart. In first grade he learned to smoke and swear. He came to the church on and off, used to go to the youth group and when he was twenty, he left the church for good. For the next thirty years he lived in the world and only God's reins kept him from serious troubles. Several times he remembered his promise to the Lord, but he was too far from HIM and he did not need GOD. To make the story short, he read several Christian books. One of them was the book Pavel wrote. Jaromir wanted to meet Pavel and one day he drove to Ricany. On the main road he noticed a sign of our church services and the next Sunday he came and we met. That was more than a year ago. This time Jaromir's heart was changed. He is a faithful and vital member of the church body. His help and supervision during construction and remodeling of the house we all use now was essential. Quite often he prepares children messages. His testimony touched all of us. He spoke mainly to young people, sharing the price he has to pay for his foolishness. Taste of the fruit is bitter. He missed a unique opportunity to lead his family and children to know God. One of his sons died, the other is now married and says: "I know dad, but God is not for me". Jaromir's niece who was witnessing to him before, now dates an unbelieving boy. She left the church and when Jaromir talks to her, she tells him: "You lived as you wanted all your life, why can't I live like I want?"

Jaromir shared how he missed the opportunity to be an example. As he looked around our congregation, he said how special and important it is to see moms, dads and their children together in HIS house as part of the local fellowship.

TIDBITS of past and ongoing events:

When we attended theological training in London this past summer, we did not know how useful it can be. One of the major presentations was focused on ministry to Jehovah's Witnesses. The last time we mentioned that we were invited to the group of former JW's. Since that time we met several times and our love grows and trust is being built. Most of the men spent ten years underground as miners instead of two years of army service. Once again we experienced how the LORD prepares hearts and opens the opportunity for ministry. We have an invitation to meet with another group in another town.

INTERNET

We are happy to report that over 3,000 pages of our magazine "Battle for the Soul" are monthly downloaded from Internet. New authors are getting involved. Electronic ministry has great potential for the future. We are exploring the possibility to set a server in Denver. Our sons Filip and Vit are involved in the project.

CHANGING WORLD:

During the last year we visited three major European cities as we attended Christian conferences, theological education and special events. The Paris conference on "Mega Trends in Human Rights" focused on a number of issues, problems and challenges ahead of Christians and our countries. Klara stopped at an international church in Paris and picked up some reading materials in the lobby. One of the Q&A articles in Practical Paris caught her attention. It stated: Christianity is an alien concept to the vast majority of French people. A French judge might find it very strange, for instance, that one person would own several different Bibles, and could view it as a sign of belonging to a cult, or of mental illness. I hate to imagine how a French court would react to a public act of repentance and a request for forgiveness. Such a move would be an absolute disaster, you could lose just about everything if you were to take this kind of stance...

EURO

The common currency and the unification of the European continent is becoming a reality but future peaceful coexistence may be a remote possibility. No matter where you are - you see the urban melting pot of peoples, languages, races, cultures, religions, fashion, exotic foods, ethnic flavors ... the whole world is on its feet. Countries, cities and neighborhoods are changing.

PRAISES:

• We are thankful for another year of broadcasting snd publishing ministry.
• HONEY DO - was a sweet and original surprise support to our ministry. We were able to sell all donated honey and a nice contribution was added to this ministry.
• Filip and Lenka moved into their new home in Denver.
• Klara's mother is doing well after her surgery. She spent five weeks in a rehab spa and was extremely pleased. We went to see her during her therapy for a couple of days - but we came right at the time when the pool was closed to the public, even though we were guests of the hotel. That day the heat and warm water were turned off in order to connect piping to the next building.

PRAYER NEEDS:

• Vit - our younger son leaves January 13th for two weeks mission trip to Peru. They will spend some time in the jungle among Indians and do some construction work. They will be in remote area. He had to have lot of shots.
• Wisdom for ministry to JIM, how to become part of Christian fellowship and where.
• Moving: we moved the books, magazines and office supplies from the basement into the garage.
• Closing: to be on time that we can be in Colorado Springs by February 9, 1999 for the HCJB conference..
• Home ministry - we will keep in touch by Email. Next report should be from the USA.

Thank you for being involved in the ministry to Czech and Slovak people. Your prayers and support enabled us to share unchanging and universal Good News.

We thank the LORD and YOU ALL for the PRIVILEGE to serve, PRAY and PRAISE for all the blessings we have in our Savior. May the LORD richly bless you.

In HIS Sovereign Grace,

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