As you know our main ministry focus is to plant a church here in Bratislava. Since September 08’ God has opened the doors wide open to do just that and it has been amazing to simply watch God work (it is certainly not us!) The church plant is affiliated with Calvary Chapel (which is our model of ministry), but we have opted to call it CityLight. The name simply summarizes the vision - to be a light to the city of Bratislava. It's been a great encouragement to watch the Lord draw people to the church, to see a desire in the those who gather to serve and love one another, and watch people get excited about Jesus. Starting this week we will be launching a 5 week teaching series focused on God's plan for the Church and our part in it. It should be good, but please keep me in prayer as I prepare!
Please also pray for Ivetka as she leads the children's ministry which is a lot of work. There are sometimes as many kids as adults and they are of mixed age and limited space... so its quite a challenge! Pray that the fellowship will grow in the Word, His grace, prayer, and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit
We are launching the CityLight web/blog site. Please check it out and if you can link to us that would help our site get greater exposure. Feel free to drop in from time to time to see what is new at CityLight and refer it to friends. Simply CLICK.
In addition to teaching at CityLight God has opened up opportunities to give out the Word at other ministries here in the Bratislava area. Over Easter I had the chance to preach at Calvary Chapel Esztergom. This was great for me to give back a bit to a church that really introduced me to missions in Europe more then 14 years ago! At the end of May I will be leading the teaching for Calvary Chapel Vienna's church retreat. Pray that it would be a time of refreshment, building up, and filled with the Spirit.
In terms of being a light to those outside the church I believe that most of the opportunities present themselves in our everyday life - at work, in the park, the grocery aisle, wherever! It's been great to simply watch God bring people in our path who are seeking to know more about spiritual things. Just the other day we were at a party and almost every conversation we had was with people wanting to talk about God! Recently in my classroom there was an offhand comment made, "when Hell freezes over", which incited a good conversation about Heaven & Hell with my students! In short- God has a better way of orchestrating situations for His Message to be shared then we could ever do! Please pray that we would be a bright light to all the people we rub shoulders with daily & that they would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.
There are a few outreach events on the horizon that we would ask you to pray for. For most of the month of June we are planning to have an outreach team from World Race partner with us. Also, in June/July we will have another team from Calvary Chapel Tulsa coming over. Lord willing they will be involved in shining the light via children's ministry, University outreach, sports based ministry to youth, and just generally loving on the people of Bratislava. Pray for the teams and pray for us as we plan for the teams (it is a lot of work!) Currently we are partnering with Good Sports (a sports based ministry) to help them with their baseball program. Which means I am the new Tee Ball coach (which is a big joke!) and Gabie is one of the sluggers on the team (which he loves!) This is turning out to be a great opportunity to meet many kids & parents from the FOREL & QSI schools. Lord willing it will result in lives transformed for Him! Pray for us, the kids, and open doors to minister to them.
On the home front we are fully busy with the boys, work, and life. Gabe just celebrated his 6th Birthday - he is growing up so fast! Now that the weather is good he is trying to learn how to ride his new bike. Some small collisions, but nothing serious. David is as intense, active, and cute as ever. He is always up to "trouble", but his smile smoothes out everything from split milk, torn books, to toothpaste on the doors...to name a few. Ivetka has added Super-Teacher/Small Business woman to her list of other Super titles (such as Super Mom, Super Wife, and Super Sunday School teacher). Aide from the ministry I am having a blast teaching English at FOREL. 
It's a fun & interesting group of kids (one of my students is Prime Minster Fico's son) and the job allows me to be pretty creative in my approach to teaching. Pray for us as a family that we can effectively (and sanely) balance all our family, fun, work and ministry activities. There is so much you can cram into a life, but we don't want to push God out of it in the process Ok... thank for following us along in this journey. I hope that you too will rejoice in all the good things God is doing over here in Slovakia. Thank you for your part - prayers, encouragement, and financial support. We couldn't do it without you!
Much love in Jesus,
Patrick, Ivetka, Gabriel, and David
Online Donations: Account # 1175
Our Sending Agencies:
Go! Ministries: http://go.ccnorco.org/
Shepherd's Staff: http://www.shepsstaff.org/
