More than a month has passed since you received our last official newsletter and I can’t wait to write you another one. So many things have happened since and every day we have new stuff we would like to share with you.

During the last month Barca and I have attended three different mission conferences. The first one took place in the beginning of October in Nitra. It was a Slovak national conference of the so called Apostolic Church. One of the speakers was Peter Prothero and then several speakers from Slovakia. It was a conference where we could recharge and be refreshed, and I personally had to repent.

A few days before this conference I buried my desire for a new car and I returned to pray for any other random used car. Peter Prothero encouraged us as a church based on his own experience not to be afraid of asking God what we really want and get rid of the poverty mentality which has nothing to do with a humble heart. Having an old car doesn’t make me a better missionary in the eyes of other people. I had to repent of not having a mind of a child of God and worrying more about what others would think about it. On our way home, I shared these thoughts with my kids and I told them we are going to pray for a specific new car.

The following day, Monday after school we went to the Citroen store for faith-shopping. To explain what faith-shopping is, I would simply explain it as having enough faith to move the mountains even though you have no money on your bank account. Kids really enjoyed being at the Citroen store and while the sales man was answering my questions, Sinai tapped me on the leg and told me: “Daddy, I like this car, are we buying it? What are we waiting for?” I think that is why Jesus told his disciples to be like children. Sinai believed and believes 100% with no pinch of doubt. Eventually we asked for a test ride in one of the XL models which was around 14 inches longer than the model exposed. The sales man told us though that they couldn’t find the keys and we would therefore have to test the smaller version while still taking a look at the XL version in the carpark from the outside while he would arrange the plates for the test ride. We went to see the car and after while we suddenly heard a click. The car opened and we all jumped in thinking that the sales man found the keys and opened the car remotely. Shortly after one of the technician walked by asking us how we opened the car as the sales man couldn’t understand how we could open the car. Barca and I looked at each other in confusion and started to laugh together with the kids saying that God has opened the car for us and we now can leave in it. As we found out later, someone forgot the keys inside the car and one of our kids must have pressed the special button on the door handle to open the car. Those three minutes we felt as if God wanted us to try out the feelings we will have after he gives us the car for real. We went for a test drive and kids were asking from the back seat: “Dad, are we buying it?” The sales man probably thought we would buy it, but we thanked him politely and left. We told the kids that we would now pray for the car as a family and we would believe that God will give us the car for his glory. Some of you might think that this sounds like the prosperity gospel but the truth is that our Slovak mentality teaches us that we can only be real Christians if we have the worse possibly things, according to the scriptures that says that it is as difficult for rich man to get to heaven as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The rich people’s problem is not that they are wealthy but that they have a higher tendency to trust in themselves and they do not give God enough space in their lives. I think we do this a lot in Slovakia even though we are not rich. We think that we need to be independent and don’t bother other people or God. We tend to think that we all need to mind our own business and take care of one self. But the truth is that it is a cry of pride that is hiding under false humility. God wants to give us his best and he doesn’t want us to be independent but wants us to rely on him in every area of our lives.

The week after we moved into an apartment in the part of the city called Kramáre within 4 days. I spent two days getting rid of the old furniture and the next two days my friends helped me to transfer all we had in Malinovo, which was in fact not so much stuff. Due to our friends who knew we were moving and needed some new furniture, we were offered so many things, that we had to start declining, because we were moving into a three-room apartment and we also needed some space to live. Thursday night at eleven o’clock our kids already slept in their new bedrooms with a new carpet and I cut the last piece of the carpet in our new living-bedroom while my dad helped me to put the furniture in place. We went to bed extremely exhausted and happy to sleep at our new place. The day after I took the kids to school and it took me 15 minutes instead of one and a half hour. The kids slept an hour longer than when we were in Malinovo. The following days we taught them to take the tram and take off at the fourth bus stop to get to school at Palisády.

On Saturday we were invited to a mission conference in the town of Modra. It has been taking place the last 18 years. Before dinner we had a lecture on: “Has God forsaken you if you are not prospering?” In the evening we took part in a mission-themed prayer meeting and reports of missionaries who either left Slovakia and went into the mission field or others that were missionaries to Slovakia. On early morning Sunday Malakai and I drove to the town of Ruzomberok where I shared the word of God in the Baptist church and after the service I got the opportunity to further talk about what we were doing among the Native Americans. When we got back to Malinovo at about 6 in the evening, the whole family was gathered and couldn’t wait to see us since it was our Sinai’s 5th birthday party and they all came to celebrate it with her. The week after I had four meetings with men of God who have been raising awareness about missionary work in Slovakia for years and I got many good pieces of advice from them. On Saturday my family and I drove to Brno in Czech Republic to take part in a conference called NOW 2018 where the main speaker was Dick Broden from the organization Dead/Live. Dick has spent the last 22 years as a missionary in the Middle East. We left really encouraged due to what he has shared and due our Czech brothers and sisters who have a strong desire to send out missionaries to whole world. This year a family with two kids left to work with Kurds in the Middle East and another married couple with a daughter is planning to leave to a Muslim country in 2019. On Sunday I went to meet with the team of Good Sports founded by Tom Johnson in Devinska Nova Ves. Tom asked me to lead a Bible study in this leisure time club.

On Monday I took a train to Budapest and in Nove Zámky Jozef Brenkus junior joined me on the tour. We were going to take part in a course called Kairos. I didn’t know much about it, but I have heard other people recommend it strongly, as for example Leoš Cásek, who is the head of Nehemia and whom I met together with Mato and Jozef back in September. Jozef got a call a few days before from Finland where they were finalizing some details from his previous location and he was offered to attend the Kairos course. It is a mission course with the purpose of encouraging the local church to see the mission from God’s perspective. A few days before leaving for Budapest I found out that it will only be 9 participants in total. When Jozef first told me about it, he presented it as a conference and I imagined at least 300 hundred people gathered at the place and me getting lost in the crowd hoping to spend time with Jozef to plan the strategy for Slovakia and record podcasts about what it means to be in the mission field and would encourage people to become missionaries. I have been talking to Mato and Jozef for some time now and we have been praying together for some materials which we could distribute to people in Slovakia and offer them to the churches so that the culture of mission can be spread around Slovakia. Kairos course was an answer to our prayers and desires. If the three of us tried to come up with something and write it, it would take years. Kairos is a quality course for every Christian not only for those that long to be missionaries. I personally was very blessed, and I learned a lot about mission. You will hear more about Kairos soon, because we would like to have it translated and brought to Slovakia.

Last weekend we went to visit Canadian missionaries who came to Slovakia with their four small children to work with young people around the town of Trenčín. I am very thankful for every missionary who obeys the call of God and comes to Slovakia. I also believe that people in other countries are thankful for missionaries that come to their country from Slovakia and bless their nation. From Trenčín we continued on to Humenné in the east of Slovakia. In the evening we arrived at the pastor’s family in Humenné and were sharing testimonies until midnight. We had a great and blessed time in the church service the day after where God used us to share the word.

Yesterday I flew to Lower Brule for nine days with my brother in law Fredy. We need to move out from the house where my family and I lived for the last 6 years. Our kids have a lot of toys there and apart from clothes we also have a lot of things that we got from other people and that are precious to us. Please pray for us to use the time in Lower Brule wisely not only for packing. I would like to serve the people that God has broken my heart a long time ago.

Next Kairos course in Czech language:
https://nehemia.cz/?page_id=7882

Conference NOW 2018 with Dick Brogden:
https://www.acirkev.cz/zaznamy-ze-shromazdeni

Videos aired during the NOW 2018 conference in Brno:
https://www.acirkev.cz/videa.

Love,
Roman