On the Road Again

Our new family picture

The CEE Summit takes place in Sherwood, AR next week. Preston is there now preparing to present the needs of CEE to churches and pastors who are interested in partnering with us. It's a great opportunity. Please pray for a good response and many volunteers to catch a vision for winning the lost!

While in Arkansas Preston will be preaching at Fellowship Baptist Church in Batesville. This was the first church where we served. He's excited about the opportunity to see friends again. Sunday night he will be with more friends--these served with us in Romania--at their church. After the meetings he will spend a few days with his mom. Please pray for him during his travels.

My English class continues to go well. God is giving me one-on-one time with my students right now. Last week was Gabriela. To read about my time with her, click here.

I also wanted to share one more article with you about what God is doing in the Czech Republic. Your prayers are accomplishing much.

Czechs Begin to Show Interest in the Gospel

Steve boarded the train expecting an uneventful ride to the capital city of Prague, but soon after departure a man in his cabin took out a bible and began reading. When Steve asked him what he was reading and why, he told Steve that he wanted to know about Jesus. “Holy Cow,” Steve said. “We had a 20-minute conversation about who Jesus is.”

This sort of thing just doesn’t happen in the Czech Republic—called the secular capital of Eastern Europe by some. However, as droves of teams have prayer walked and missionaries have fasted and prayed for breakthrough, God has begun doing something amazing.

Jiri Bohacek is a native church planter in Prague who is trying to reach people with the Gospel through adult English classes. Karen, leader of the advanced conversation group, shared that the women in her class are initiating discussions on spiritual matters and asking a lot of questions.

“I was explaining about Jesus’ resurrection but had to stop half-way through because we ran out of time—and it was an hour-and-a-half class.” Karen said. “When we started talking about Jesus being the only way to God, the discussion really got lively.”

Jiri is excited about this new openness to spiritual matters among his people.

“A few years ago when we were trying to reach people through a bible discussion group, they were totally uninterested in spiritual things, and I was so discouraged,” Jiri said. “But now, God is doing big things in peoples’ hearts. It is so fantastic. I am sure our prayers are being answered.”

Harold Johnson, a missionary in Eastern Czech Republic, gave out flyers around Christmas offering a New Testament CD and a pocket-size New Testament. Over 130 Czechs responded asking for Bibles and CD’s, and many even wrote letters of thanks. Steve Warren, Strategy Coordinator for the city of Prague launched a new evangelistic website and received over 1000 hits in January alone with multiple downloads.

Larry and Melissa Lewis, new missionaries to the Czech Republic, shared the meaning of Easter with their language teacher, Michaela, through Resurrection Eggs*. She was overwhelmed. “I’ve never heard this before,” she said. Michaela took the eggs home to share them with her 10-year-old son, who immediately took them to school to share them with his teacher, who had told the class that there is no God. “I have to tell my teacher,” the boy said, “she must not know about Jesus.”

Radka, a Czech believer, says that Czechs were infatuated with freedom after the fall of communism, but it has failed to satisfy them, so they are now looking for something to fill their emptiness.

“I think this is a new time for the Czech people,” she said. “I feel it. God is doing something.”

Steve and April met a girl in the park last year and invited her to house church. She refused. They saw her recently and again, she feigned disinterest in God. This time, Steve challenged her. “I think you are,” he said. Sheepishly she admitted that the week before, she had purchased her first Bible.

Please continue to pray for Czech hearts to be open and discerning. There are many false religions being proclaimed as well as the Gospel. With their new interest in spiritual things some people are being misled. For more information on joining the ministry in the Czech Republic visit hope4cee.org/Czech Republic.