pivot point
I just wanted to take a second and write to let you know what has been going on here. We’ve been on campus now for a good four weeks. The first two weeks we concentrated heavily on passing out an evangelistic cd that bratislava developed with their own bare hands. We also were planning a party in the midst of this to announce the winner of the free housing contest. I can’t tell you really how much energy, time, and money went into this very thing. We even have billboards around town proclaiming the cd, the billboards read, “do you have it yet?” We ended up giving out about 1,400 of these bad boys, originally we were to have 2,500, but were thankful when we saw the difficulty that it was to get this cd into the hands of Slovak students. They are skeptical, they think we have an agenda. Cults and sects are something that these students are very sensitive to, we have to go out of our way to make sure we don’t appear to be one of them. The reality is the cd produced less of a response than we had hoped, out of the 1,400 cds, only 17 people responded to the housing contest, and out of those 17 only 2 of them showed up to our party that we had last Tuesday night. The girl who won the free housing contest is already involved with us. I think this just shows the reality of an effort, even a good effort here, isn’t really all it takes.
For me, I think it goes back to the wing of effectiveness that I tend to soar on. As an ESTJ, (meyers briggs) a part of my personality is that I look, observe, and think about systems, the way they are now and the way they could be. I recognize one of the hardest parts of ministry here is that we don’t really know what works. We’ve been assertive in getting on campus and handing out a cd, we collected contact cards from people and we have in turn gone back to campus and knocked on their doors to hand out articles they requested on their survey. We go into these dorms that are dark and difficult and knock on doors to often be rejected or to meet students that don’t speak a single word of english, except for “no.” We’ve tried holding a free english class on Monday nights in one of the dorms, however, no one wants to come because, as part of the European Union, they can travel to England during the summer, learn english, and make money doing it.
Nine years ago when Crusade started here, it was right after the fall of communism, Slovaks were eager to talk to Americans, now this is not the case. We are not novel, in fact we are either viewed as war-loving-imperialists or as rich Americans who take advantage of the culture. Slovaks then didn’t really travel in the summers, and so the idea of holding english camp (like the one I was a part of in 2002) was great! They loved it, there was a community that formed of “Speak Out” goers. The three Slovak national staff in Kosice came as a result of Speak Out english camps.
We’re at a pivot point. Knocking on doors isn’t working. Holding English class isn’t working. Speak Out camps won’t work. What else might there be? Would you join me in praying for us as we try to decode a culture that is constantly changing and forming into something drastically different than it was 9 years ago? We know for sure the ideas of “American ministry” doesn’t work here. We’ve gotta get inside of the way Slovaks think, what they see as suspiscious, what they see as inviting, what is attractive to them.
The ministry here is in a transitional stage. God has moved here and has raised up Slovak nationals who will lead this ministry far beyond my commitment here. Our goal is to pour into them and to build them up to lead this movement well. We need momentum, we need a break through. We desperately need God to work.
We’ll be trying new things. All in hopes of reaching Slovaks with the message of the gospel and forming friendships.
These things are difficult, they are difficult to be a part of. Humbling to see when a strategy fails. All to prove the necessity of dependence on God.
I’m asking God to redefine my definition of success, to redefine what I see as progress. To help me to supernaturally understand a culture that is not my own.