New Life - Ministry Update 3/08

Spring in Slovakia is beautiful - drab grays melting into fresh greens, once bare branches blossoming, birds singing, new life exploding out everywhere, and the sun coming out after 3 months of hiding. All of it brings a freshness that one of my students called being 'Born Again.' Similarly, a new spiritual birth is taking place here in Slovakia. It's been exciting to see some very talented Slovak pastors and believers stepping out into new, fresh works of the Lord. Some of them are very dynamic like a spring-melt river crashing down the Tatra mountains, other works are quiet and slow like new grass breaking out of the once icy ground. Yet, all of them shout out one thing - God is Good! We would like to share with you a bit of this goodness...

At the moment we are living and ministering here in Nitra. It's good to be back and now in a different role. For many years we were leading the ministry here, but now it's been a time of simply supporting the Slovaks who are doing the work. This support has involved mentoring, lots of practical planning, and teaching the Word. One big lesson I learned last year in Bratislava was 1) that being a pastor is hard work, and 2) it's even harder when you don't have a good support team. Right now a lot of exciting things are happening in many Slovak churches as the Holy Spirit is doing a work here. Yet, one common cry from almost every pastor is - "we need help!" So, when people here ask what is our "vision", it's simply - support you guys! For me it's been a real blessing to not be the 'main leader', but just someone to help stir up the gifts in some very gifted people to step out further into what God is preparing for them in their own communities.

The Nitra home group is just getting better and better - and growing in size and new faces! Additionally, in "spiritual depth" it’s gone miles in my estimation. We have restructured the leadership into a ministry team that is in reality a pastoral team - Rado S., Jaro M., and myself. I takes a bit of faith to co-lead, but we have all earned each other’s trust over the years. It all hinges on a common relationship with Jesus which has produced a real joy when serving together (a bit like 1 John 1:1-4). The roles are loosely divided as such- Rado is the lead pastor/teaching, Jaro is a teaching pastor and hosts the fellowship, and I am just supporting Rado and teaching. The rotation in teaching is great as each of us brings to the table something fresh and different from the others. It’s the beauty of the Body of Christ actually acting like a body. And even though we all have different personalities and styles we all seek to bring others into worshiping Jesus in both Spirit & Truth! Pray for us as we move forward into an exciting new path. Currently we are going through the book of Daniel.

One of my biggest blessings these last few months is finally seeing the "blossoms on the trees" growing into even more spiritual, lasting fruit (John 15:8). It's so great to see guys and gals we have sowed into stepping out into their own ministries and walking closer to Him. One example of this is Betka B. On March 31st she will be launching an after school seekers outreach club called Potichu Nahlas (Quietly Outspoken). This ministry will be connected to a new & exciting church plant here in Nitra lead by Pastor Miro Toth. We are a part of the Potichu Nahlas team, but trying our best to just support it and not get suckered into leading it. That's been the big thing lately - to lovingly let the believers here know that we are no longer the 'main leaders', but simply a supporting cast who desire to back up what God is doing in their lives. It's been a bit of a transition for many people, but it's starting to pay off. Our last task is just to encourage and stir up those gifts a bit before considering our next steps.


So, what are the next steps? We haven't come to a final decision, but it's fairly clear that we will be moving on from Nitra in the future. We love everyone here, we love the city, and there are great opportunities to serve... but it really feels like our role in God's big plan here is complete (at least changing dramatically). Right now it looks like there are so many ministry opportunities here in Slovakia, plus offers to serve in the Czech Republic, USA, and beyond... Yet, we strongly believe that God has a special place prepared for us. That is the only place we want to be in. Would you pray along with us as we seek to hear His quiet but clear voice?

So far I didn't mention anything about us as a family. That was intentional - there is simply too much to say! If you want to get a glimpse into daily life in the Higgins home check out our blog: http://patrickivetka.blogspot.com/ There you will find lots of pictures, videos, amusing stories, and random musings. It's updated regularly... so stop by often!




Ok... before we let you go we do want to let you in on one thing: we appreciate you being a part of our life and ministry. Without your encouragement, prayers, and generous support we couldn't do this work. So, lets rejoice together in what God is doing!

Much love in Jesus,

Patrick, Ivetka, Gabriel & David


Our Sending Agencies:
Shepherd's Staff: http://www.shepsstaff.org/
Go! Ministries: http://go.ccnorco.org/

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Dinner Date








Pregnant with expectation?

Itchy & Scratchy

It has arrived. Chicken Pox’s have descended upon our home like fleas on a dog. Gabie got it from school we suspect. So, if your kid hasn’t had it yet come on over! :) Although Gabe has done alot of screaming over it, he is doing relatively well. He is resisting the urge to scratch. We have been applying a zinc ointment on him which is now covers about every other inch of his little body. At first he didn’t like it, but I convinced him that it was Indian war paint. We Googled some pics of Australian Aborigines with all their white decorative dots. YouTube has got some pretty cool videos of them dancing and others playing the didgeridoo. Anyways, it made the whole experience a bit more calm.

Kosovo

As most people with TV know - two weeks ago Kosovo declared independence from Serbia after a long struggle for autonomy. The rush of images that I scrolled through online all had two things in common - lots of emotions and flags. Last week in Vienna we saw the same thing, and yes it was concerning Kosovo. Yet the flags were Serbian, the emotions volatile, and few were in favor of an independent Kosovo. Fortunately for us we passed by the protests before it got violent... which it did later in the evening.

Although we haven't seem such protests against Kosovo in Slovakia, the feelings are here (at least amongst politicians). Slovakia and a score of other nations are refusing to recognize Kosovo. This snubbing of Statehood has more to do with internal struggles with minorities seeking political autonomy. Accepting Kosovo is to accept an international precedent. Each rejecting nation (Spain, Slovakia, Russia, etc) has their own specific issues, so it's hard to make any generalizations. For Slovaks it's an issue with the southern region (Nitra county) which has a high % of ethnic Hungarians. My understanding is that most from this group are not seeking autonomy from Slovakia, but there are some very zealous Hungarian minority politicians in the Slovak government who do have this agenda. In my opinion it's not an issue of a marginalized group being denied basic democratic rights, but yet weapon for nationalist extremist to open old wounds. Historian Stefan Sutaj recently was quoted in Tyzden concerning Slovak-Hungarian relations, that the two nations should focus on their shared culture/experiences instead of "inflaming passions by arguing over who hit the other more often, and harder." I agree.

Unfortunately, Kosovo (and it's immediate neighbors) have a history of bringing out the worst in most of us. Hopefully history does not repeat itself this time around.

Vienna, Sunday Feb.24th: