Finally, after almost a week, I’m back to “normal”. For the last 3 weeks we have been taking Neal & Yvonne Pirolo from Emmaus Road International all over the country (plus Hungary & the Czech Republic). It was for sure an intense, impacting, exhausting, and yet very fruitful time of ministering to the local Slovak churches. (see blog for pics) The meetings ranged from private meetings with multiple denominational leaders, to local groups of pastors, Para-church organizations, to local churches, to informal garden meetings, to a huge youth event. It think we meet and impacted practically every flavor, style, and age of believers here in Slovakia. It was intense. Most of the meetings revolved around two general topics - Missions & Spiritual warfare. 
Out of the many ‘big ideas’ that were spoken about, the biggest one didn’t come from Neal. It was actually a phrase echoed over and over again from local leaders and lay people almost every where we went. It went something like this - “We are now ready not only to receive missionaries, but to send then out!” This was such an encouragement to me. Finally, the Slovak churches are waking up to their role in impacting the world around them. And by God’s help I believe they will do so. Many of the meetings with key leadership across the country (ranging from Assemblies of God, Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed, EV Free, Brethren, non-Denominational, etc) were aimed at forming strategies on how to get their movements involved in missions and sending out Slovak missionaries. It was amazing to see so many influential leaders on the same page and moving in a global direction with passion.During the 3 weeks of ministry we had so many interesting encounters that it is hard to pin down which one was the most rewarding. However, I particularly enjoyed the two meetings with EXIT, a large youth ministry in downtown Bratislava lead by pastor Valdo Z. It was a huge blessing for me to see young Slovaks interesting in giving their lives to God’s service across the globe. In Nitra Neal taught two seminars on Spiritual warfare, this was also a good set of meetings. It was great to once again see young people packing out the room and feverishly taking notes. It’s such a thrill for me to see the next generation of church leaders excited for the Lord and wanting to get ready for the task before them!
All in all it was a good trip. When Neal & I reviewed the trip we both agreed that we will know if this was a GREAT! trip if in 6 months time those we ministered to will begin to put into practice the teachings that were given. Last Sunday at church I saw a bit of the coming fruit as one of the sisters in the fellowship told me she has already secured two weeks of vacation time to be able to take a short term-missions trip to China later this year! Amazing! It’s so very cool to see God’s people responding to His Word and Spirit!
It’s funny that even though I didn’t teach, doing all of the logistics work was a lot of work. Neal has asked me to do some other projects with him in the future... we will keep you posted. Aside for all the ‘work’, we did have a bit of fun with the Pirolos. They are really cool people and Ivetka & I hope to have as much life, passion, and drive as they do when we are 70!
