2 to 13 June 2005
Reporting Back
I have to admit it. My first reaction to the
invitation to come and be part of a European Union-funded week of Christian
creativity in
And then, six months or so later, it happened. Teams
of young people with their leaders from eight European nations converged on the
small eastern Slovak town of
From Edinburgh came ten of us;
The journey there was good, despite the hiccough of a
lost boarding card in
We flew
into
Next morning, after some time as a team to pray and
worship, we were off east to our meeting place with the other teams, a little
village called Drienica (pron.
Dri-enitsa) , in the hills
above the town of
It was
amazing how the communication worked; with teams coming from Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Czech lands, Slovakia, Scotland, Romania and one person from Ukraine,
you’d think it would be Babel all over again ! But, Eastern European languages
being what they are, the Czechs, Slovaks, Poles and Ukrainian could understand
each other’s languages enough to get by. The Latvians and Lithuanians spoke a
combination of their own tongues plus English and some Polish, and the
Romanians were from Slovak-speaking communities, so we managed with a basic
mixture of English and Slovak. (We were particularly amused that the Lithuanian
word for ‘thank you’ is ‘atchoo’, which gave us no
end of fun .So when someone sneezed, the response came, ‘you’re welcome’!)
On the
Saturday, there was swimming in the covered pool opposite the hotel, or walking
in the forested hills. On Sunday, there was a meal together at a traditional
Slovak restaurant, Salaš u Franka (seen
left - those having been before will know this name!) Then a trip up to the
beautiful mountain lake at Štrbske Pleso (best not to try and say that without dental advice !) and an evening back at Podolěnec
for the First Sunday praise celebration at the monastery church.
This was a
wonderful evening; Ed and Chris opened up the meeting with a pipe and drum set,
which was a prayer for freedom to come. It was exciting to see people praising
in response. Beautiful flags were flying, with James, Becky and Rachel taking
part. Colin shared on the need for a new creativity for a new creation, to
counter the creativity of chaos of the fallen order, and the praise, led by the
River Fellowship was full of the awe of God.
We got back to the hotel on our ‘classic’ bus late,
but encouraged. The team leaders then
met to pray about a concerning development which was due next day.
On Monday morning, a representative of the European
Union from
The rest of the week, the days took a regular pattern,
with workshops during the daytime. The teams split up into four international
groups, moving around the four workshops each day. These were really
appreciated. The art workshop, led by Xeňa, was
painting T-shirts and a projection screen for the Saturday big praise. The
banners workshop, led by Rachel, helped folk to get used to using flags (flagy in Slovak!) in worship. Dance, led
by Monika and Kvaka, gave people the chance to move in praise. And music, led
by Colin, prepared four songs for the worship in mass each day, including one
completely original song put together by each group in turn for singing that
afternoon !
Working so closely together, we found our hearts warmed
to one another. Each morning, having done the five kilometres on our bus from
the hotel, we started with worship together, setting the scene for God to be
with us. Lunch was shared together in a school canteen, and then the day
finished with eucharist , for those who wanted to , in a little chapel in
the centre of the town.
We were in a place of battle though; the enemy
wasn’t happy with what we were doing. Colds and coughs were going around and
challenging our health; some voices were nearly lost, some felt physically low.
We were praying for strength.
The weather was also unseasonally cold and wet. On
Wednesday and Thursday we had a night and day of rain, which opened up
mountain streams behind the hotel, and swelled the rivers to bursting point. On
Friday, when we went to Prešov, the River Torysa
which flowed beside the city hall was alarmingly high, and carrying debris
downstream. The local fire-brigade were out on the bridge at one point,
monitoring the rise.
The
evenings in the week were very special. Each evening, two different nations
presented their songs and dances, food and traditions. We had a wonderful time
with Lithuanian polkas, (team left) the Slovak čardaš
(say, char-dash) , and Romanian disco! And of course, the Scots did their bit.
Our evening ended with a memorable Orcadian Strip- the- willow, to Ed’s
piping, with all of the sixty or seventy on the floor, just about !
After the
presentations, we prayed for both of the presenting nations. These times were
moving and powerful. We tried to sing a worship song in the nation’s own
language, which helped us to really sense God’s heart for the different
peoples. The worship was led on different evenings by Slovaks, Latvians,
Lithuanians and Scots. We formed a deep care for one another, and
individual prayer was going on around the place as well. One Polish guy was
really touched by the Holy Spirit, to the great concern of his friends,but we
were able to put their minds at rest that God was just being close up to Him.
Friday and
Saturday were preparation for and participation in the LAJF (Life) day in
Prešov. (You can see the website they set up at www.lajf2005.sk
) On Friday, some of us were helping to decorate the hall, others to chop salad
for team tea on Saturday, others were praying around the hall among the five thousand
seats in the place. Ed, Rachel and Chris stayed on late, to sound up, on the
Friday. While we were there, we heard that the road back up to our hotel had
been damaged by the flooding, and that it had dropped two feet, and was now
inaccessible ! However, our intrepid
coach driver managed to get us back up there, and home safe at the end of the
day.
On a personal note, I was really moved on the
Friday afternoon when Father Noro (a Cappuchin monk and drummer for River
Fellowship) and Father Rasťo (one of the singers) invited me to join them
at the end of mass to bless the teams and to pray with them. I love these
kind of wall-crumbling moments, and I know Jesus was glad , too.
Saturday was a very early start. Breakfast was at
six, and by half-seven, we were standing, bleary –eyed, in the hall in Prešov
again. But there was such a buzz about the place. Sound engineers and
cameramen moved around getting ready for the live 
recording;
dancers were warming up, a bank of computers was flashing up song words on big
screens. At the front of the hall were four large wooden statues, by Xeňa,
showing the four stances of worship which we all had on our T-shirts for the
day – standing, kneeling, running and bowing, with words from the song ‘Hungry‘
. (left is run)
We prayed together, then opened up with some kids‘ songs.
People were drifiting into the hall, and by the time we launched into the main
part of the day, around 2,500 were there. The opening call to worship was from
Ed and Chris on pipe and drums – it was amazing to see them doing their stuff
up on the podium in this great gathering!
During the day, numbers grew to around 3,000. Older
people were around, but predominantly, young people were praising God together.
The music was skilful and anointed. We were able to join in , as we had been
given all the songs in Slovak beforehand to prepare, and most of them were ones
we knew before, or had learned during the week.
At midday,
there was a beautiful mass. Dancers and banner-wavers flowed in and out of
the traditional liturgy, which was celebrated by a crowd of priests on the
platform. A guitar and a CD player were presented at the time of the
offering, as a sign of our worship and music given to God. The songs were
ones we are all familiar with, but in an ancient setting.
After lunch, there were testimonies of people’s lives
changed, then an amazing session called ‘Dancing Drum‘. Noro played the set,
with eastern pipes and Scottish bagpipes (Ed again, his fingers going like
lightning to keep up with the drumbeat!) and the banners and dancers weaving
and waving together powerfully. God was worshipped with joy.
Col‘ then
shared, reminding everyone that in Edinburgh this same afternoon, thousands of
young people were worshipping at Frenzy in Ingliston. He likened it to
a great rainbow across the continent, one end to the other, at a time
when the skies were dark with materialism and humanism. But rainbows are most
frequent against the blackest skies, when the sun breaks through.
He also went on to encourage all there to give themselves
to a New Creativity for a New Creation. As we are all renewed in
Christ, our art and music is an outpost of heaven, an advert for the new earth
to be, and we can be embassies of life in a time when the creativity of
death and chaos is so active. We ended by dedicating our gifts and talents
afresh to God.
At the end of the afternoon, a time of adoration and
worship. People were on their knees everywhere. Dancers moved with a white
veil around the communion table, as we sang `you are my Hiding Place‘.
It was hard to finish the day; people kept shouting ‚ešte, ešte!
, more, more ! One of the
most precious moments for me personally on the day was being able to stand,
hand in hand with Becky, my daughter, and sing, As for me and my house, we will serve You. And finally, we sang, I will dance, I will sing to be
mad for my King. A fitting finale to a great day of praise.
The teams after Saturday....
Sunday was our day of partings. In the morning, we had
a wonderful feedback time, when Jozef, the project’s visionary, and just
eighteen years old, shared how he had been praying for four years that this day
would come. Everyone had told he was crazy to expect the EU to support it, and
yet he believed God would allow Sabinov to be a well from which streams
would flow into the nations. He has pioneered something exciting in God, and no
doubt others will want to follow suit. As I translated for him into
English, I was so overwhelemed, looking out at this group from so many
nations, that I had to stop and compose myself as the tears filled my eyes
and choked my voice.
And right at the end, an older man, who had come in with
his wife to listen, came and shared in Polish that he had been nine years ago
at a weekend in Poland with some of us from Scotland, and had heard God’s
call to mission in the Russian Caucasus. Now he was at Drienica to pick up his
daughter, Marysia, who was one of the Polish team, the new generation that God
is speaking to.
We left the
hotel together on the old bus, dropping off the Poles on the way to get their
train, and then we said our goodbyes to everyone at the point where Bohuš was
waiting for us with the minibus to take us back to Podolínec for our last
night. We waved off the other teams as they made their way up
over the Polish border to begin their long rail journey home (for some of them
seven trains and twenty four hours!) , and then we wound back west through the
beautiful Slovak scenery, very tired, but very fulfilled.
Back at Podolínec, Peter offered to show us the work they have done
on the River Fellowship community house, which Community Church Edinburgh has
been sponsoring. The progress is impressive, especially considering that so
much of the work has been done by the small team from the Fellowship rather
than by professionals. The roof structure is in place, but requires slating.
Going upstairs, it was clear where the guest rooms would be, and on the top
(second) floor, it was inspiring to see where the meeting room was taking
shape. The hope is to get the slates on by the end of the summer, so that the
place can be made watertight.
Our last day
was uneventful and sunny. Having had so much wet, cold weather, it was
wonderful to feel the warmth again. When we got off the train in
Despite the health challenges and the
niggles, this has been a great experience for us all. We have had the
chance to worship and praise together with folks, not only from other nations,
but from another tradition of the church, and we’ve found in the process some
great new friends, and that there is more that unites us than divides us in
Jesus Christ. Thanks for all the prayers and back-up, and look out for future
teams, if you’d like to be part of the new creativity for a new creation !
Colin Symes
Eidnburgh 16 June 05