Giving and Gaining

I have enjoyed doing the short series of four sermons on the life of Hannah, which I called Life with Hannah, based on 1 Samuel 1 & 2. There are many lessons to learn from her story and experience and I don’t want to repeat the sermon series here! The one lesson I would like to focus on is how Hannah gave up much, but gained so much more. Hannah was willing to give up her precious son, Samuel, but gained so much more from it, not least the fact that this son became a major instrument for change in God’s plan for Israel.

As I reflect on the more than five years of ministry in Bratislava at our church, I am full of gratitude to the Lord and his people for allowing me this privilege. Being involved in the lives of (mostly) internationals have some real benefits, such as rubbing shoulders with and learning from other cultures, discovering family I didn’t know I had! Our church is a true “family away from home”.

Most of us would feel that we have gained much from being in Bratislava, meeting different people, being exposed to a “world out there” we didn’t know before. All of the interactions, people from other parts of the world, different food tastes, opportunities to travel to parts of the world I have only heard of – all of these are wonderful “gains”, privileges and gifts received from the Lord and his people.

But it is also true to say that these “gains” have come at the cost of “giving” – giving up what is familiar to us. For most of us, even those who left home elsewhere in Slovakia, it is a big sacrifice leaving what is familiar to us (language, home, culture, food, family) in exchange for being enriched by a different country, world, culture and foreigners.

The great benefit of belonging to a church like ours is that we can continue to worship the Lord, seek fellowship with other Christians and belong to our “family away from home”. Thank you for being part of this family and for being our family!

Looking back

The year 2020 has arrived! A New Year is always an opportunity for us to reflect on what the Lord has done for us in the past year, but also to look at where He may be leading us in the future. As we look back on the year 2019 there is much that our church can be grateful for. I can think of at least the following highlight, and it’s not a complete list.

• Consistent Sunday attendance. Thank you to all who attend on a regular basis to make our Sunday worship times special. We even had a great first-time Easter Friday service.
• Worship team participants. It is quite amazing that, despite the transient nature of our church, there are always people to make music and lead our times of worship in song, including our first-ever Christmas music choir and band! Thank you to the worship team members.
• Leadership provided. The Church Council has again been helping, meeting, guiding and leading the church this past year. Over the past few years there has been great consistency regarding Council members. This is a good asset for a church like ours, providing much-needed stability in a changing environment. Thank you to leaders of different ministries.
• Regular times of fellowship around meals. Monthly potlucks, Bible study meals every week, and also the very special times of eating (too much!) at Thanksgiving and Christmas. These are wonderful opportunities of fellowship and binding us together, as well as reaching out to others in our city.
• Purchase of the church property. We are now a church that owns its own apartment to accommodate the pastor (current and future). This is truly a great blessing from the Lord, especially considering the fact that we had to rent apartments for many years, as well as receiving a major financial gift from the International Baptist Convention. The apartment will no doubt provide even more stability to our church as we go into the future. Once again, thank you to those who supported this decision, and especially to Pete and Vierka who spent many hours working on the legal side of things.

As we enter this New Year, may the Lord help us as we worship Him, fellowship with one another, being “family away from home” for many, and seek to reach more people for Him in our city and beyond. Let us attempt to do much more for the Lord in this year. May you have a blessed 2020!