(2 Corinthians 4:6)

September 1999

Dearest friends and prayer partners

Greetings to all of you. We hope you had a marvelous summer. We had an excellent time with some turbulent events. Our days were mostly filled with ministry activities and blessed by a number of visitors. Some were expected; others came as a nice surprise. We missed only one team, because we were "car-less."

The first get-together was with an Evangelical Free Church team from Tucson that we met during our home ministry assignment. They were leading a Czech-English language camp. During our dinner one of them asked if we know any real communists. We chuckled when Sid Anderson replied, "Half of the people at the camp were former communists."

Most joyful was the summer help of two students - Vladimir and Robert. They spent most of the time building web pages, translating articles and editing programs that are to be installed on the computer. Klara did a lot of cooking on two burners for the five of us. Since we moved, the kitchen is partly functional. Our guest room was in use before we had a chance to install light fixtures in the bedroom and bathroom.

Summer events:
In July we attended a family reunion in Bratislava. More than one 'hundred family members joined in. This time we had a new addition from Chicago. Descendants of grandparents' siblings found their roots in Slovakia. It was exciting to see them discovering new information about their parents or grandparents. Now we have new second cousins in America. They found a few dozen direct relatives in Slovakia. We met other Americans and a bus tour from America on a root-searching trip. Since people have not moved much, it is relatively easy to search. Some old-timers can fill missing links. We met a 92-year-old man who could name all eleven siblings of maternal grandparents as they were born.

Turbulent times
started on July 26 at 4:30 a.m. After a sleepless night, Klara went to have a drink of water and fainted, while Pavel slept. When she regained consciousness and called for help, Pavel took her to the emergency room. Klara spent the next four days in a hospital. She apparently had an allergic reaction to medication her doctor prescribed for lower back pain.

Brno: HCJB and BTM - print mission

This was the last ride for Klara in our car. The car lost fluid from its automatic transmission at the same time. The ambulance took her to the hospital, and Pavel took the vehicle to sell it at the car bazaar.

While Klara was in the hospital, Pavel researched what kind of car to buy. After some consultation he decided to purchase a new Czech SKODA Octavia, with German VW diesel engine and chassis. This decision had a small hitch. Because of the German parts the delivery time was about 10 weeks. We had a string of visitors coming; there was no other choice but to rent a car. It was trouble from the beginning. The first trip to the airport was rather scary. The rental car developed a horrible metal on metal sound. We brought our guests home and Pavel drove it back. The owner found out that the previous client had stolen its brake shoes. It is not unusual that people replace original parts with old ones or the car comes back with missing parts. According to the dealer, about half of the used cars sold at the car bazaar are stolen. We did not want to risk buying and losing the car at the border.

How do you buy a new car
or at least take a test ride? We walked to the SKODA show room near our home. It took a while to warm up the sales people Ladies in the showroom were like Barbie dolls-for decoration only. Finally a very low-key salesman agreed to take us for a ride. First he had to locate a car with some fuel in it. In about twenty minutes we took off. Klara had a seat belt on and after a few minutes she asked the driver to stop and walked home because we were going almost 100 miles an hour in a residential area. Pavel continued the ride among trams and pedestrians, skidding and sliding around the turns and corners. It was like in the movies or on the racetrack in Monaco. He came home startled, and Klara was a little concerned about what we were about to buy. The ride on cobblestones was anything but comfortable. The low-key man had no nerves.

On August 3, HCJB World Radio representatives - Georgina Gonzales, founder of the Czech broadcasting in Quito, and Dub Page-arrived. Together we had an extremely busy time with several important meetings and two radio interviews. We were able to fill their schedule to the maximum. We met with HCJB listeners, several churches, mission organizations and Georgina's relatives. They spent three days in Poland meeting HCJB World Radio partners.

Velka Bites: Dub and Georgin with Vlcek's, Distributors of the magazine - Wrestling for the Soul

Meeting with the local TWR-CZ
The most important time was our meeting with the director of Trans World Radio in Brno. It was significant to have an HCJB World Radio representative like Dub in person who explained the partnership procedures. We discussed the possibility of HCJB World Radio and TWR coordinating applications for broadcasting licenses in several different areas.

During Dub and Georgina's visit we had a short morning missionary visit of four adults, four children and a dog. We missed them on our Brno trip. They parked their car and luggage in our underground garage. They picked up their parents arriving from the U.S. at the airport. The father went to the U.S. embassy to get a new passport (the third one.) The rest of the family had a short stroll through the historical part of Prague.

On August 11th at noon we observed the eclipse; we had about 95% black out. We saw only the first half of the show. Then a big cloud, strong wind and rain spoiled the spectacular phenomenon.

On August 14th we had an overlap of company-six more visitors from Grace Community Church in Madera. They spent three weeks in Moldavia on a mission trip. It was exciting to hear their report. We were happy to see them and fellowship together since we could not make it to central California during our home ministry. All this time we used a small rental car, and you should see the mountain of luggage we put in it. Pavel drove the luggage, and Klara rode with them on the bus and subway.

The new car
was available much sooner than we expected. After the interview at the state radio with Georgina and Dub, we passed a SKODA showroom in downtown Prague. On the sidewalk we saw the same car we had ordered. Klara asked the salesman (owner), "Why does it take so long to get one?" She spoke to the right person. We had the car the next day. It took two more weeks to take care of paper work, finances and insurance policy. We got the new car just a few days after our visitors left.

Pilsen: Before live broadcast. Later on we were tuning up HCJB and TWR partnership

Klara's back
pain continued and nothing the doctors did brought relief. But the Lord sent help, not from heaven but from Phoenix. Clayton and Joy were great friends and kind of substitute parents to our son Filip while he lived in Arizona. Clayton is an experienced sport medicine/massage man. They live just a few minutes away. After the first treatment, some manipulation and no medication, Klara was feeling much better the next morning. There is a great improvement, and the doctor asked how it was achieved. We are happy to see firsthand how fearfully and wonderfully we are made. We can learn how to touch and treat our aching bodies and souls. During Klara's hospitalization she had a fantastic opportunity to share her faith with 27-year-old Teresa who has a tumor on the stomach plus a long list of other problems. Her 31-year-old brother died just a few months ago. Klara asked Teresa if she is scared and how she feels about herself-as a soul or as matter? Teresa answered, "More like matter since I am treated as a piece of meat." Please pray for Teresa - she is a kind person hiding behind a tough surface. She is very open to build a friendship based on spiritual values.

The last days of August we spent negotiating a dedicated line to manage our Real Audio programs on Internet. The Lord had provided some interesting contacts right in our apartment house.

Move in progress:
A part of our turbulent times is the construction fervor. A number of repairs are done. The noise begins at seven o'clock in the morning and continues till six in the evening. We hear drilling, banging, hammering. From time to time we add to the noise. So far we have installed some light fixtures, upper kitchen cabinets, a bathroom vanity and closet doors. The number of banana boxes is slowly decreasing. Since we had a busy summer and no car, we did not have a chance to do anything about office furniture. This week Klara plans to take some action at a manufacturers trade show in Prague. We love our new location, new church, and the new atmosphere in our office. Our greatest prayer need at this time is to begin producing radio programs once again and to add one more full-time worker to our staff.

Spiritual "primitivism"
During the summer we received a number of letters expressing thanks and appreciation especially for the topical challenge and theological value of the magazine ministry. One of the local ,missionaries expressed his view of local spirituality. He spent 12 years in Africa and explained: in Africa people live in primitive conditions, but spiritual response was great. Here, people are well educated, live a sophisticated life, but the spiritual "primitivism" is hard to compare to any other country.

Bearing burdens of one another:
To all of you who prayed and expressed concern, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We know that the LORD keeps us on the minds of many dear and faithful friends that pray in spite of our temporary silence. It is difficult to be more personal than this way. Klara keeps your letters and notes. They are not forgotten or discarded. Keep writing and praying. We are looking forward to September and October ministries.

In HIS Sovereign Grace,

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