Dear brothers and sisters at HeartCry,
These past two months have been very busy for us.
In May, I had the privilege of traveling to the U.S. with my pastor, Lojza. We spent one week in Texas at the Countryside Bible Church led by Tom Pennington. They have been sending us short-term mission teams for some time now, and we wanted to get to know each other better. Brother Lojza got an opportunity to preach during the Sunday evening service. People were encouraged by his message. We were able to see the various ministries in their church, and we also got to sit in on their elders’ meetings.
On our second week, we went to Washington, D.C., and stayed with the Capitol Hill Baptist Church where Mark Dever preaches. We were part of an international intensive course that consisted of about 30 pastors from all over the world. The focus was church life. We got to learn many things about Ecclesiology, church life, and ministry in general. It was an amazing blessing to learn from other brothers. We came back refreshed and filled with new ideas, which we want to implement in our local congregation for the edification of the saints and for God’s glory.
After returning in May, my main focus became our annual Bible conference, which is one of my key responsibilities. The topic we chose for this year was titled “Faith in an Age of Uncertainty,” however due to covid travel restrictions, and war in Ukraine, we could not find a keynote speaker. The five brothers we approached to fill the role had to decline our invitation, therefore, we opted out of hosting a keynote speaker this year. Instead, we invited about eight faithful brothers, mostly pastors, that have served in our country for many years.
We feared that due to our lack of a main speaker, the participation would be quite low.
It was the opposite!
We had the second biggest gathering of attenders in the ten years of the Bible conference! We had over 320 attendees, which is huge for us, as the average used to be 150-180 people. The biggest ever was when brother Paul Washer came back in 2017, where we had over 600 people attend.
This was also the first year where I got the privilege to be one of the speakers. I preached a sermon called “Crisis as an Unwanted Servant,” where I pointed out seven ways how we can use times of crisis to serve our soul’s needs. It looks like the message encouraged many people, praise God!
These annual conferences have been instrumental in growing our church and ministry. Each year we meet new people that either end up studying at our Czech Bible Institute or who we get to partner up with in other ways. This year, we met people from Slovakia that asked us to help them to plant a healthy church in their country. Please, be praying for that.
Right after the conference, I left for Berlin where I attended an M.Div course, called Greek Exegesis II. By God’s grace, I was able to finish all the homework on time. I enjoy studying Greek very much, and I hope to be able to teach it one day to faithful brethren in our country.
June was also the last month of the first year of our preaching program. About eleven brothers have been faithfully studying with us for the whole year; learning how to prepare and preach a sermon. They will continue to do so for the following year as well, where I will teach them advanced hermeneutics. That will be a first for me. I will have to spend some time during the summer preparing for this course, but nonetheless, I am really looking forward to it – not only to teach, but mainly to see how God will use these faithful men in preaching the Word in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Last month I also finished meeting up with one man who came to our church out of the Jehovah’s witness cult. He was transparent enough with me to acknowledge that even though he shares our understanding of the Gospel and of the authority of the Scriptures, he still struggles with the doctrine of the Trinity. I kept meeting with him for several more weeks, and now, by God’s amazing grace, he has confessed the Athanasian creed, removing any doubts about his faith in the Holy Trinity. Thus, I encouraged him to approach the elders with his desire to be baptized. Please keep praying for these young brothers.
Beginning this week, my wife and I will start meeting with a young couple that has been attending our church for a while. In fact, the young man came to our church several years back with his parents, and I have tried to witness to him for many years. It seems that he now claims to be a Christian, as well as his wife, whom he married as an unbeliever. It is a great joy to disciple them. I hope and pray that they will deepen their faith, and will confess their allegiance to Christ in baptism. Please keep them in your prayers. Their names are Simon and Lenka.
On a more personal note, I just celebrated my 30th birthday. My wife, Kristy, and I decided to use this opportunity to strengthen our relationship; both in the family, and in our church. We organized a birthday party here in our town, and we also invited some unbelieving friends. Our neighbors (whom we have been trying to witness to for some time) came. My good friend of mine has developed a friendship with a former Muslim imam, and he came as well! I pray that God will use our meager attempts to witness to these people, and that their eyes would be opened to the truth of the Gospel.
For the summer, we plan to prepare for the next school year, where I will teach quite a few courses at the Czech Bible Institute. We also have another English camp for kids. Please pray for these things.
Besides that, I want to retake some of the M.Div courses that I could not finish. There is one more year to go until I receive that degree, and I would love to finish on time.
Thank you for your love, prayers, and support.
In Christ,
Mojmír & Kristy
