Our Home Church Away from Home

One of the biggest blessings God gave us before even arriving was our church--our very own Calvary Chapel right in Bratislava. Patrick, our pastor (pictured left), "randomly" found our blog last fall and extended an invitation to the church they host in their home each Sunday. We went just a week after arriving and fell in love with it. We meet every week at 3:30 p.m. and have a time of fellowship, prayer, music, teaching, and then dinner!

The church consists of a core group of believers that include a Japanese family, an American family I knew from last time I was here, and new Slovak friends as well. We all went to the park last Easter weekend and shared a lovely picnic. We also had Passover dinner together.

Mike is actually our worship leader! Patrick lets Mike keep his guitar during the week and it is such a blessing to see my husband lead our praise. We've always had a guitar in our home, and he used to pick at it every so often, but it wasn't until the first Sunday at church I heard my husband play a full song on the guitar! He plays excellently.

Below is an excerpt from our pastor's family prayer letter...

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.

Please also pray for [my wife] 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.

Be sure to check out our new church website! You can also visit our pastor's family's personal blog to see where we stole some of these great pictures from. : )