The Weekly News

The mid-November weekend was a significant one. We hosted Emerge 2009, a conference for women in leadership, here in Nitra. Historically, women have not held recognized positions in churches in Slovakia; and while this is slowly changing, we knew the weekend would be an important step towards empowering women into leadership responsibilities within and outside the church. The day before the event we saw an amazing breakthrough with our girls’ health issues. Asking a team of friends to pray through this season for us daily was definitely the right decision. It was overnight that we saw a visible change in the family, each one of us receiving a divine touch from our Father in our bodies, minds and spirit.

Emerge went exceptionally well; women were not only motivated and inspired but very personally touched by God and His power through individual time of prayer for each one, through teaching and workshops, through refreshing worship and even through times of strengthening relationships with each other. We had such positive feedback! I knew our effort was not futile when a wife of one of the small churches’ pastor told me that it has been a very long time since someone personally prayed for her (besides her husband!)  These are often people who are perhaps the only visible presence of the Living God in their towns; and they have NO ONE praying for them regularly!!

Already, next year’s dates are booked in. It was my privilege to share in a couple of responsibilities within the lead team: one was doing a workshop along with Amber Price (our missionary apprentice) and the other was oversight of prayer ministry during the weekend. It truly was a lovely weekend for Slovak women who serve God’s Kingdom so faithfully.

We have finally found and purchased a car! As you may know our car was stolen over 5 weeks ago, the day before Anna's grandfather died and just over 2 weeks before MMM. It was incredibly testing, frustrating and inconvenient for us and we were forced once again to examine our faith and put our full trust in God.

Well, after 5 weeks of fundraising, praying, searching and waiting we have finally found what we were looking for, a 2006 Volkswagen Touran. It is like a small min-van and has the capacity for 7 seats which is incredibly convenient for our family and the church. It is automatic (which we wanted but is not easy to find in Slovakia), in great condition and drives really nice. In fact it is more than we thought we could get with the money we raised but it is exactly what we needed. Throughout the whole frustrating process we really believed Jesus was telling us, "I know what you need AND I know when you need it."

Anna also believed Jesus told us to pray for the thieves, not just for them to get caught but that they would stop their life of crime and more importantly come to know Jesus as a result of this process. We've been praying for transformation in their lives and that somehow God would be glorified in the process. We have yet to see it happen but we are still believing that it can.

So a BIG BIG BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has stood with us in prayer and finances during this time. We have been able to replace the stolen car seats, stroller and other items because people gave generously to us. We have also received and have been promised almost all the money we needed to purchase the vehicle. Churches, families, individuals (some whom we have never even met) have surprised us by their incredible generosity. We know that we are co-laborers with you in Europe and you have assisted us with a great new vehicle that should last us a long time.

For extra safety and peace of mind we are installing a Zeder Lock (one of the highest forms of anti-theft devices here in Europe) and buying full comprehensive car insurance. Neither is cheap but they are worth the investment.

So, if you are planning a trip to Slovakia we have room for you in the car (not necessarily the apartment!) and would love to give you a lift!

From 20-26th June, both Anna and I had the privilege to travel to Spain with our friend and co-worker Ronnie Zerr. This was not a laid back, fun in the sun holiday but an action-packed, intense and inspiring tour of Spain to meet new and potential church planters in numerous different cities. It was well over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees F) when we arrived and just kept getting hotter. Luckily it is a dry heat in Madrid which made it somewhat bearable.

For the first four nights we stayed with our friends Andreas and Adriana in there beautiful apartment. They toured us around Madrid a bit before we met up with Ronnie at the great Salem church in Madrid. Salem is the national church movement that we have been partnering with in Spain for the last 4 years. I have been running our Organix Emerging Leaders Conference for the past 3 years and have been working with Ronnie to develop some new ways to identify and develop church planters as part of our joint venture with NLI and Salem.

After a great and very late (dinner is usually served at 10pm every night) it was time to go to work! Monday morning we were off to Toledo a beautiful and very historic Spanish city to visit Jose and Lara (though Jose was off to Mexico that morning so it was just Lara). They have been working in Toledo for more than a year, trying to establish a church and Kingdom presence in this heavily Catholic city. The people of Toledo consider themselves the true Spaniards, for the history of this city goes back centuries. They have seen Jews, Muslims and Christians all control or influence the city. The Spanish Inquisition was based in Toledo and there are reports that the streets ran with the blood of heretics during that time. Lara took us through the winding, medevial streets and told us about their dream to see Toledo reached, to have a place where people can meet Jesus through many different avenues including arts and music. She talked about their desire to see more churches planted throughout the area.

After this we traveled back to Madrid to meet with Joel and Sonia, a couple who have moved with their children to the city of Lacabrera. They are incredible people with amazing favour on their lives in the city. Sonia is a true evangelist with a heart to spread the message of Jesus. Joel is a teacher/pastor who wants to strengthen and pastor the people in their small group and those yet to meet Christ. They have a passion for families and marriages and are working to create new opportunities to connect with people in this way.

The next day we were off to Al Cala to visit with a small group that has been meeting in the city. We spent an hour interviewing the existing leadership team, finding out what their strengths were and listening to their dreams for the city. Later that evening we met with 2 of the couples again and talked more indepth about how the city could be impacted by a revelation of Jesus and what it would take for them to lead the church plant. There is loads of potential in Al Cala as it is a university city with hundreds of students and possibilities for new expressions of church.

On Wednesday we did the long drive to the north of Spain to Bilbao with our friend and national partner Jesus Giraldo. After nearly 4 hours in the car we arrived and rested for a little bit. In the evening I did a session with the Bilbao church leadership team, helping them to discover their positive core in their teams that they lead. It was a great evening with lots of interaction and discovery. The next day we were off to Aviles to visit Maxi and Angela, a church planting couple who are reaching their city with innovative ways. They have opened up a center for women and families that ministers to the community. Their small group meets in the building on Thursday evening and Anna had an opportunity to share during the service. It was a great night of connection.

The next day, Anna and I were on a six hour bus ride back to Madrid to fly home to see our daughters. It was a long ride and then a three hour flight but it was worth it. The week was full of inspirational stories, encouraging church planters to follow their dreams and assessing how we can best equip and release them to plant new and inspired churches that Jesus is calling them to plant in their cities.

During the middle of June (15-17th), Sheldon was off to Badenweiler, Germany for the PAOC's Eurasia Region Lead Team Meeting. While it's a bit of a mouthful, the Lead Team assists the Regional Director (David Boyd) in accountability, decisions and overall health and well being of missionaries in the Eurasia Region. This region stretches from Spain to Kyrgyzstan, Iceland to Israel...basically everything within Europe and Central Asia.

Sheldon has been on this team for a year now and has two meetings per year. This meeting was in the beautiful city of Badenweiler, on the border of France, Germany and Switzerland. In fact he stayed in Switzerland and drove every morning with other members of the lead team to Germany. It was a great few days of strategizing, sharing and planning for upcoming events, new missionary integration and how we can better support our team members around Eurasia. The team will meet again at our annual Eurasia Retreat in Tunisia in November.

It is a real privilege to serve on this team, especially as it fits within our vision of helping to serve and support others involved in mission. There are great representatives from around Eurasia on this team, each with a unique and seasoned contribution to make to the overall vision and mandate of the PAOC in this part of the world.

At the beginning of June Sheldon had the opportunity to travel to London to take a two-day course in Appreciative Inquiry. AI is a widely used and recognized facilitation process that helps people, organizations and companies discover their positive core and strengths in order to bring about new, successful initiatives and change. It is a great process because it focuses more on what is already working and not on what isn't working, thus creating positive momentum that will result in lasting change and innovation.

This course not only helped train Sheldoin in a new facilitation process but it also helped him accomplish one of his yearly goals which was to complete a training course in facilitation. He has already been able to use some of the things he learned in small group sessions, some NLI church planting interviews and working with a large group of young people. There are real opportunities both within the Church in Europe and outside the Church for Sheldon to use these and other facilitation skills to help people discover what God has designed them to be and do.

The highlight of the trip though was not the training course with other professionals, nor the EasyHotel room that Sheldon stayed in (a windowless box with just enough room for a bed!) but seeing two great friends (John Allard and Ronnie Zerr) who traveled 3 hours roundtrip from Bedworth to spend an evening with Sheldon. They went out for a nice meal, talked and of course laughed a lot. It was incredibly special and meaningful for them to come down to London to hangout with Sheldon. It is so important in life and mission to have friends like these who will make sacrfices and bless you. Thanks to both of these guys and other friends we have around the world who continue to bless and support us in the missional life Jesus has called us to!

There is a street on Vienna that is very famous. It goes right to the center of the old historic square and also stretches out to the limits of the city. It is intersected by another road near one of the main train stations, Westbahnhof and though you wouldn’t know it, this intersecting road divides this street into two very similar but tragically different realities.

One the side closest to the city the street is bright, festive and it attracts hundreds and thousands of visitors and tourists. It is lit with every logo, brand name and trade mark of all the major shops and companies from around the world. This is the main shopping street, where you can buy just about anything available on the global market. It is a great place to wander, browse at all the new and exciting products, have a cup of coffee and just enjoy your life in Vienna. Even in the evening, bathed in the glow of the neon lights, you feel safe and secure.

Once you cross the dividing line things change, though the purpose of the street stays the same. For on this street you can buy things from all over the world. Pretty things, that should not be for sale.

As you pass the train station and continue down the street you sense that this is the part of Vienna that only certain tourists come to shop. The streets are dimmer, the stores less inviting, but there is a lot for sale. Along the first couple of blocks you notice a few vendors lurking in the side streets. They are not allowed to come within 50 meters of the main street but they slowly creep closer and closer to the sidewalk, usually in pairs or by themselves. They loiter, clearly waiting for something, customers that they really don’t want.

Further down this dark and ominous street the scene changes from darkness to red. While the street lights are not red themselves, the street is washed in the redness of brake lights from dark cars that slowly slither along the pavement. The vendors are now allowed to be on the street and brazenly they stand, all dressed in a similar uniform, tall boots, short skirts, plunging neck-lines. They look as if they all work for the same sinister corporation but all of them are competing to stay in business and to stay alive.

They advertise themselves, using the most effective forms of marketing they know. A little wave, a little kiss, a little leg; all designed to get the attention of those who are shopping from their cars. We see one dark car from Germany pull over and a vendor goes to present her goods. We don’t see if the transaction is completed as we drive further down this street of fleshly goods.

Like it’s sister street, full of merchandise from around the world, there is a distinctly global feel about the goods sold here. Many are from Eastern Europe, lured or deceived or kidnapped away from the harsh realities of their homes in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and beyond. There is one African girl we see, most likely under the power of her pimp and superstition. Probably all of them have been abused and threatened. Almost all of them are paying back a debt they were tricked into receiving.

The story is similar, they are promised a new life with new work in the West. With very little promise of meaningful work or even little chance of survival in their home countries, they take the offer, expecting life to be different. What they fail to understand is how different it really will be. Their passports are stolen, their identities stripped, their families threatened and their dignity destroyed. Many of them are told that they owe their traffickers thousands of euros for their new life in the West. Some are even bought and sold along the way, by disgusting creatures who see neither humanity or individuality. They only see profits from their goods.

As we turn around to go back into the heart of Vienna and then to the comfort of our home, we once again see the black German car. He obviously did not buy from the first woman because he has stopped by another, negotiating the price or terms of the sale. This is the reality of the street, the vendors willing to make a deal to stay in business.

Our guide, who has worked for years with these ladies, tells us that these are the lucky ones. They have at least the freedom to move around on the streets and decide who their customers will be. He explains that the women we have seen probably represent only a percentage of the other women who are selling their bodies. The ones we don’t see are either in brothels, clubs or worse, slaves kept in secret locations forced to service clients the whole day. These are the ones who never leave their rooms, who know no life outside of a sexual prison. It is these ones that cannot be helped unless neighbours suspect something and call the police or one of the clients suspects that something is amiss and anonymously calls the police as well.

And so we leave the street and head for home, the juxtaposition of Vienna spinning in our heads. On the one side we have seen life, light and all that freedom has allowed us to have. It is the Vienna that most will know and want to visit, even the women we saw working as prostitutes. On the other side, in the shadows and in the headlights of drifting cars, we saw the darker side of Vienna. One controlled not by these women or their bodies but by invisible and evil shadows. Each of these girls represents a pimp, a boyfriend or a mafia connection that has forced, enslaved or trapped these women into selling themselves for the pleasure of others. These are the ones who profit from the transactions done in cars, alleyways and secret clubs. The women, we realize are only commodities, the real vendors are ones that never have to show their faces.