Several BIC members gained a unique insight into our host country with Katerina, who is a Registered Guide in Slovakia.
The Road goes ever on and on...
Long drive to the North, but so beautiful!
Čičmany
We visited Čičmany, a gingerbread village in Žilina, Northern Slovakia.
The Slovak Bethlehem
The Nativity scene in this mechanical wooden model is surrounded by images of Slovak life. A must see!
Orava Castle
The most visited attraction of Slovakia!
This week (after coffee) we had our first walking tour of Bratislava. Jared King lead us through old town and taught us about some of the history of Bratislava.
The coolest part of this ministry was that we had new visitors with us. That's exactly the kind of hospitality that our congregation is good at: making visitors feel like part of the community. In reality, visitors become part of the community their first time with us.
So, we were able to strengthen existing connections and make new ones as well as learn a little bit about Bratislava and get some sun in the process.
Playing catch with the congregation, Pr Dominique illustrates that when we expect we might be part of what's going on around us, we're more alert.
Being in the international setting, Pentecost means a lot to us. We all come from different backgrounds and we all speak different languages.
On Pentecost were reminded that the Spirit is moving between us. Pastor Dominique reminded us that we should expect that we will be part of what the Spirit is doing in the world and she encouraged us that we will then notice ways that it is working.
When you see God working in the world, tell others about it. Be bold, like Peter and speak about the truth you think you're seeing — it invites others to experience and notice God working in the world through each of us!
We are a sending church. This week Richard and Gloria Lokken returned to the United States after visiting Bratislava and Central Europe for 11 weeks. We also prayed for Pr Dominique as she returned to California temporarily for Graduation. We are so blessed to have people come in and out of our congregation as they travel through Europe or spend years teaching or working here in Bratislava. Blessings!
BIC worked alongside other volunteers in feeding the Syrian migrants as they crossed from Hungary to Austria. This was a profound experience that will never be forgotten.
The Hungarian border soon closed, so BIC is now traveling monthly to Vienna to join in a “Let’s Play” NGO, playing and interacting with the migrants who are working to settle in Austria.
After many years of holding Sunday school in the sacristy, BIC was given the “green light” to transform the storage room into a Sunday school space!
While a little more work needs to be done on the walls and floor, we are excited about the transformation!
YAGMs lending their voices to the choir.
BIC hosted a retreat for the YAGM of Eastern Europe. Pastors Gail & Randy hosted the group in their apartment and presented a session on The Five Love Languages. Pastor Dominique walked the YAGM volunteers through a day of listening for God.
Coffee Hour is a big deal at BIC! Following worship, people head next door to The Next Apache, a coffee shop that has opened its doors to us.
Sharing a cup of free coffee or tea, people from many cultures, places and traditions have a safe place to relax, visit, and get to know one another.
Bratislava International Church began 22 years ago, soon after the re-opening of the Lutheran High School in Bratislava (Evanjelické Lýceum which began in 1606).
In 1991, The Lutheran Church of Slovakia contacted the ELCA and asked for English speaking teacher volunteers to come and work at the newly re-opened Lutheran High school.
Volunteers did come and began working at the high school. Worship was held at the school in English for those who spoke English.
And then there seemed to be a greater need, beyond offering worship services for just the teaching staff, for those whose first or second or third language was English.
Answering the calling of the Holy Spirit, and the need for a English worship service, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, helped to start BIC, an international, inter-denominational, inter-cultural church; which began as a worship service and has grown over the years into a ministry.
Some of our confirmation class making “Holy Week bracelets” to hand out to the congregation on Palm Sunday. They were to be worn to help remind us of the gravity of the week. The Confirmation service is coming up on May 8th.
Receiving “diplomas” stating that the teachers now know how to prepare Slovak soup and may do so in their home country. It's a blessing to work alongside such welcoming Slovak colleagues.
The pastor’s apartment is used frequently for Bible study, midweek soup suppers and worship, young adults’ monthly gatherings, confirmation, and council meetings.
They also host a young adults' gathering monthly. More and more people join us each time, searching for community while living abroad.
Thank you for all you do for our community of faith at BIC.
What interests you? Comment below and tell us what else you'd like to know about our ministry.
Bratislava is beautiful to visit. If you know anyone traveling in our area, we'd love to welcome them.
The Lutheran School is always looking for great teachers—we'd love to talk with anyone interested in the teaching program in Central Europe.
When else are you going to have an opportunity to live a year abroad and have a legitimate job too? This is not just basic English; you’ll be teaching students working towards fluency. You’ll learn the local customs and traditions first hand from your students and colleagues. And on vacations you’ll have time to travel Central Europe and beyond.
BIC has joined a group called Let's Play (they are on Facebook)! They are a group of volunteers doing wonderful work at two refugee camp locations in Austria: Hietzing-Pavilion 12 and the Ferry Dusika Stadion-Notunterkunft. The Let's Play group goes to refugee camps and provides games, face painting, and fun for the kids living there temporarily.
Sign up to volunteer at the camps! Our first trip will be Saturday February 20th, and then the 3rd Sunday of every month unless there are changes that are out of our control). Details to be announced each month).
The activities include spending time with the families and children, reading, painting, playing games, doing puzzles, and language practice (German primarily, and English).
The third Sunday of each month from 2:30-5:30 at the camp (leaving Bratislava by car, bus, or train around noon and returning in the evening).
If you're not able to come, you can still make a huge difference in these children's lives. They would love toys, puzzles (3-5cm pieces), art supplies, games, children's' books with very basic German or to practice language skills.
You are welcome to bring your donation to BIC worship on Sundays and they will be collected and brought with on the monthly outings.
We've needed a neew piano for a long time and after a long journey we've got it in the Malý Kostol sanctuary. We're blessed by everyone who donated and helped along the way.
It sounds great. Here's a short clip from one of the first services we were able to use the piano.
We've been in the process of buying a new piano for a long time now. We're so thankful to finally have it in the Malý Kostol sanctuary and thankful for everyone who donated. Also so much thanks to Ivana for all of her help!
Join us for our newly-in-tune worship or join the choir. During Lent we're practicing on Fridays but usually we meet every Wednesday at 6:00pm at Malý Kostol.
YAGMs (Young Adults in Global Mission of the ELCA) from Hungary were in Bratislava for a Lenten retreat. We hosted them on Saturday for a seminar on The Five Love Languages and then again on Sunday for a soup lunch with the confirmands and a discussion on their lives as children of God.
Feeling joyous from interacting with such awesome people!
Read the previous blog post about BIC's Listening Season.
Simply put, a One-to-One is a meeting between two people who are interested in getting to know one another. Half of the conversation is spent asking questions and listening to the other person, then the focus shifts and you share about your story.
because it is a conversation that takes place out of our own curiosity about one another’s stories,
because it has an objective that is bigger than ourselves and requires active listening.
A date or an expectation that a friendship will result. Friendships may develop naturally, but the initial conversation is two brothers and sisters in Christ that are interested in strengthening BIC’s identity and clarity about where God is calling us.
This is a PDF of the conversation starters that are (also) included below.
Use this sheet after a One-to-One to write down the main ideas that came out of the conversation.
These conversations are an opportunity to get to know each other beyond surface level conversation, to slow down and listen actively to one another’s stories.
Stories share much more than specific answers to questions, so start here, have fun, and let the conversation go where it leads. Ask for clarification in questions like Why? How? What was that like?, etc.
Our community is made up of wonderful, diverse, interesting, warm, loving people. This is hopefully an opportunity to enrich BIC and our individual lives.
Read more about One-to-One Conversations and how to participate.
Kathleen Parks, Aaron Silco, Larry Stone, Pr. Gail Mundt, and Intern Pastor Dominique Buchholz
Adopted from One-to-One Relational Meetings, prepared by Sue Engh, Program Director for Congregation-Based Organizing at the ELCA
Tonight is a night to remember because heaven meets earth. God is coming into the world as the Christ child. God is entering our messy, stressful world because of his abiding love for us.
The Christmas Story is the ultimate love story—“For God so loved the world He gave His only son.”
And we remember that this love story comes to us in the midst of a dark, depressing world. It was dark at Jesus’s birth and it’s dark today. But this is when God comes into the world. If you truly love someone, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are.
And God truly loves us.
Take a look, and share the updated site on your social media! Max Buchholz (Distilled Studio) designed the website; its goal is to be a clear and welcoming introduction to newcomers, to share our story, and to keep BIC up-to-date about upcoming events and worship.
December 17: Next Apache courtyard. Worship will begin with a 15 minute outdoor devotion, followed by dinner and discussion at a nearby restaurant.
December 24th at 5:00PM
We’ll celebrate Christmas Eve with a candle light worship service.
Join us the Sunday following Christmas to journey through the stories of Christ’s birth and life in Scripture and through song.
Remaining cost: 600 euros are needed to cover the piano, its move, and a stool. That will also be matched, and we will be ready to hear the new piano in use at the Maly Kostol. Piano offerings may go into the marked envelopes available in the back of the church.
The new piano has been reserved for the Maly Kostol in the Yamaha showroom in Bratislava. Your generosity has already raised 2,050 euros! Matched by the budget, that’s 4,100 Euros.
All confirmation-aged youth are welcome! We gather 2 Sundays per month an hour after worship. See Pr. Gail for more information.
Continue inviting one another and enjoy your time listening! For more info, see Intern Pr. Dominique.
Please sign up to share your gifts in worship either on the Give page or on the clipboard at worship. Your assistance as an usher, with Communion, reading, praying, and greeting are so much appreciated!
We gathered at the Christmas Markets for the 2nd week of Advent.
In this unseasonably warm winter weather, we enjoyed meeting outside at the Christmas Markets for our second Advent Outside service. We reflected on expecting to see God in the world and how that is portrayed in Luke.
Even when Zechariah WAS expecting to see God—he was in the most holy place of the temple, where they believed God lived—he was still terrified!
It was a lively discussion and the Christmas Market was a great place for it. We had a chance to look around and let it sink in that God is in everyone. Everyone we meet. How surprising would it be if we actually looked with God's eyes and did see God in everyone?
That school, whose history goes back to 1606, was closed during the communist era and re-opened in September of 1991 as a bilingual Slovak-English institution. The Lutheran Church in Slovakia asked the Lutheran Churches in the United States to provide volunteer English teachers to help with this new start.
Leadership: Schock, Swanson, Sorensen
At first informal worship services were held at the school primarily for the teachers and interested students. In 1994 Pastors Twila Schock and William Swanson and Associate in Ministry Lynnae Sorensen were called to further develop the religion department and to establish a regular worshiping congregation. There was an early desire to expand the concept of the congregation to include not just American teachers, but the larger English-language expatriate community in Bratislava. The Slovak Lutheran congregation in Bratislava offered the use of the historic Malý Kostol (Little Church) as a regular worship space. This Baroque style building was constructed in 1777 and is a truly international setting. Every Sunday morning, in addition to the English language worship, there is a German service, and a Hungarian service. At the same time a Slovak service is taking place at the Veľký Kostol (“Big Church") next door. Slovak, German, and Hungarian reflect the tri-lingual history of the city going back hundreds of years.
Leadership: Hanson, Sorum
Pastors Schock and Swanson served the newly developed English congregation until 1997, at which time they were called to serve the International Protestant Chaplaincy in Moscow. That same year Pastor Paul K. Hanson was called to the position of pastor of the congregation, and served Bratislava International Church until his retirement in 2004. During Pastor Hanson’s tenure Pastor Ann Sorum was called to serve the congregation as Associate Pastor. She served until July of 2006, when she returned to the United States.
Leadership: Schick, Auchenbach
Pastor David Schick served the congregation from October 2004 to July 2009. Pastor Schick also continued the tradition of pastors in this congregation’s past by working simultaneously as a professor of religion at the Evangelical Lýceum. One more change in pastoral leadership took place in September 2006, when Pastor Josh Auchenbach stepped into the position of Associate Pastor of the congregation.
Leadership: Haug
From 2009 to the beginning of 2012, Pastor Arden Haug, originally from Minnesota, served the congregation. Pastor Haug also served, and continues to serve now, as the ELCA's Regional Representative to Europe.
Leadership: Schmidt
In February 2012, Pastor Miriam Schmidt, originally from New York City, was installed as the congregation's new pastor. Pastor Schmidt came to Slovakia from western Montana, where she served as a congregational pastor in Plains. Here in Bratislava, Pastor Schmidt's additional role is to be the Coordinator of the ELCA's Young Adults in Global Mission Program in Central Europe, whose emphasis is ministry to the Roma communities living in Hungary and Slovakia.
Leadership: The Mundts
In October of 2015, Pastors Randy and Gail Mundt, from Colorado, were installed at BIC. They work at the Evangelical Lýceum as pastors in the past have also done. They have a love for international ministry and as recently as 6 years ago they served an international congregation in Vienna. 2015 brings new questions about what it means to live internationally while there is a refugee crisis. We continue to grow and evolve as a congregation and our story is just beginning.
He's a young leader who dedicated a year of his life to service with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary through ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission. Now back in the United States, he says he gained more from his Hungarian hosts than he ever imagined.
In the words of Pastor Miriam:
"One of our awesome and articulate YAGM reflects on his time in Hungary. (And I get a little face-time too.) This video helped me remember why we are doing what we are doing."
Download: http://bit.ly/1zbkJQk -- Meet Thad, a young leader who dedicated a year of his life to service with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary through ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission. Now back in the United States, he says he gained more from his Hungarian hosts than he ever imagined.
"YAGM" stands for the ELCA's Young Adults in Global Mission program through which young adults ages 21-29 serve internationally in the spirit of accompaniment. They're shaped and transformed by the people they meet and the witness of Christians all over the world.
There are YAGM locations in Argentina/Uruguay, Cambodia, Central Europe (Hungary), Jerusalem/West Bank, Madagascar, Mexico, Rwanda, Southern Africa and the United Kingdom. If you're interested in learning more about YAGM, check out the ELCA website.
Starting in 2015 the YAGM coordinator in our part of the world will be former Intern Pastor of BIC, Rachel Eskesen.
