He's the God of Košice and Presov

Wow, what a day! Where do I start?

Today was our first day preparing for the upcoming semester. We had some good time off to relax and rest up from all the craziness over the break. We all spent some time with the Lord this afternoon asking Him for vision.

Honestly, I wasn't really feeling it, but since it's my job (which, by the way, I LOVE my job) I decided to go for it. So I took off....

...and found myself out in the middle of the woods sitting on a pile of logs on the side of a dirt road. For a long time I was wondering what the Lord wanted to tell me because I wasn't hearing much from Him. Although, I was pretty convicted about sharing my faith more boldly on campus this semester. So many times I go on campus reluctant and powerless...not filled with the Spirit. I can think back to many times this year when God has shown Himself faithful and then I turn around and forget His goodness.

Na pri klad (for example): this weekend me and Aaron went hiking with a student named Lukas. It was an amazing trip filled with conversation about what it really means to have salvation, what repentace is, and I even got to explain a few things in Slovak, which is a pure miracle if you know me. By the way, PLEASE pray for Lukas. I think he is really close to accepting Christ!

Back to today, I was just sitting there doubting what He could do this semester and how He is ever going to show up in these students' lives. So when we meet back we talked about what we heard from the Lord and I was feeling pretty much at a loss for words....just trying to engage the team in conversation and find something constructive to work with (which often times happens to me). Then Kelly shared a song with us. It's called "God of this city" by Chris Tomlin. Can I just say it explains EXACTLY where we are at. Some of us have been looking to the past and wondering if God is still working here.

The song says:

You're the God of this city
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God...
There is no one like our God...

For greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city

YES! This is what we are believing God for. He CAN be the God of not just this city, but this nation of Slovakia. He can be hope to the hopeless and peace to the restless. We want the lives of students to be radically changed by the person of Jesus Christ.

Oh, wait. There's more and it gets better. Later we all went to eat at Pizza Hut. Then Dara suggested that we all get some ice cream, so we went to Aida...the big ice cream place here. While we are standing around two gypsy kids walk up to me asking for change and so I offer to buy them ice cream after Biba tells me, "Don't just stand there, give them something." I buy them ice cream and then realize I can give them a knowing God personally booklet. So I ask my team if someone has one and Carlyn pulls one out of her backpack. I hand it to them and they look it over one good time. Then Mirka steps in and starts talking to them about this booklet, which is in Slovak and describes how someone can begin a relationship with Christ. Mirka makes it all the way through the booklet with the boys and then she steps aside with one of them...

..."wait, is she doing what I think she is doing?" I'm thinking. I look over at Biba and she nods her head and says, "He just prayed the prayer." Then I proceed to yell, "WHAT?!" in the middle of Aida.

Mirka comes over and tells us, "We have a new brother in Christ." The sad part about all this is that we have no way of following up with him so all we can do is pray that what he just did will truly make sense to him and that God will bring about change in his life. But SERIOUSLY! How crazy is that?! Just like God to do that.

While we are walking back home we realize that we all played a role in sharing the gospel with that one boy, Eric. At this very moment I am still shocked at how God used us AS A TEAM to bring about His glory. That is something we want to work toward more this semester, really working as one unit to take this movement forward. Would you PRAY that we would seek that out?


praying for this city,
Matt