By God’s grace, we have been partnering in ministry with the church in the city of Ostrava since 2000. It has been a tremendous joy watching this church grow through the years because it was planted at roughly the same time as Lighthouse. Christian Church of Ostrava (or "KSOP" as it is abbreviated in Czech) has had Meinolf Mellwig, a missionary from Germany, as their pastor and he is assisted by Aleš Novotny. The church is experiencing steady growth year after year as it reaches out to the surrounding community.
Though the country is rich with religious history, the Czech Republic is predominantly an atheistic nation and still shows the effects of having been under the ideologies of communism. Many today still openly criticize Christianity as a religion for the weak, and a crutch for those unable to face reality. However, for the past several years, as we have been sending teams to the region, God has blessed us in being able to witness spiritual fruit and changed lives.
Usually our short term mission trips have been predominantly centered around a week-long English camp in which the gospel is presented through a series of evening programs. Through both fun and informative acts, the campers are able to see that Christians have fun but are serious thinkers too. We have seen many people respond positively as they are challenged in their spiritual lives.
For the past several years, we have had the joy of sending a team to the area of Tucuman in Argentina. Working alongside Pastor Jorge Ahualli of Bible Missionary Church, we have been able to run week-long evangelistic campaigns each summer in the surrounding barrios. The teams spend each day preaching the gospel door to door and following up with individuals or families that express interest in hearing more about Jesus Christ. Weekends during the trip are spent worshipping together with the church and helping lead several training seminars to equip the church leaders and members.
The people in Argentina are generally very warm and friendly. The members of the church are incredible hosts taking good care of the team during our stay in Tucuman. Their hospitality and kindness is overwhelming and their Christian love is infectious. Many team members in the past have commented on how quickly they were able to engage in warm fellowship with the members of the church in Argentina. Especially when compared to San Diego, Tucuman is economically a poor neighborhood. The people do not have much which makes their generosity and hospitality that much more incredible.
Unlike the Czech Republic, Argentina has an overwhelmingly Catholic population. Many people in Argentina have a general belief in God, sin, heaven, and hell, but most believe that good deeds are necessary in order to merit salvation from God. The benefit of going to such a religious country is that many people are open to discuss issues concerning the Bible, salvation, and church. They will occasionally even invite our team members into their homes to discuss the gospel around their dinner tables. One of the challenges is that because they are so familiar with religion, the people will often nod their heads in agreement about what we share concerning the gospel without fully comprehending the seriousness of sin, the need for repentance, and other necessary components of the gospel message.