Bratislava, Slovakia

Surprised by the Lord

It’s not every day that we have baptisms at Bratislava Faith Community, Slovakia. Most people who arrive and look for a church are already members of a church somewhere. But, as we seek to reach the expat community in our city, the Lord is faithful in allowing our paths to cross with unbelievers with whom we can share the Good News of Christ.

Recently a young man from the Slovak minority in Serbia, Janko Krajci, gave his life to the Lord. Since we don’t have our own baptismal pool, we always had to use another church’s facilities. However, being summer, we decided to buy a small swimming pool and have the baptism outside as part of our morning service. It turned out to be a great occasion of joy and celebration. And then, to our surprise, the Lord was not finished with us yet!

A few weeks later a whole family from a Muslim background and a closed country visited our church, having experienced Jesus in a dream. Four adults committed their lives to the Lord and soon asked about baptism. What a joy to see them follow Jesus through the waters of baptism, making our swimming pool work very hard! Although the family soon afterwards moved to another European country as a result of persecution in our city, they are on a steep growing curve. Please pray for them to continue in the faith. (For safety reasons we can’t share their baptism photos with you, but thank the Lord with us for His faithfulness and wonderful surprises!)

Gerhard Venter