Time flies. We’re back on our every-other-year schedule and are looking forward to reconnecting with you during an extended home assignment from July to December.
Why Six Months? Isn’t it Usually Just Two?
For this home assignment we plan on being in the US from the beginning of July to the beginning of January, 2024.
Because our ministries are tied up with the academic calendar, our home assignments are usually confined to summer break in July and August. This year will be different. We’re due for a stay of six months for what’s called “totalization.”
The United States have social security agreements with most European countries. These are designed to help expats avoid double taxation with regard to social security and Medicare. In Slovakia the agreement allows for US based employees (missionaries) to work up to five years before they have to leave Slovakia for at least six months. That resets the agreement and repeats again in five years. Our last “totalization” stay was in 2016 so we’re past due.
What Will You Do for Six Months?
Home assignment, naturally, is all about reconnecting with supporters and letting you know how we’ve seen the Lord working in Slovakia over the past two years. We have lots to share! We look forward to visiting our supporting churches in northern Illinois and western Pennsylvania. I hope that means not just opportunities to share about ministry but also preach or even teach in different settings. As we travel around, we also look forward to meeting with individual supporters as well.
Promoting Missions
Along with sharing about ministry, this is also a time to plug missions for God’s kingdom. Ironically, as the world becomes more global, the church seems to be less interested in missions. We think missions is central to God’s heart for taking the gospel to the ends of the earth so it’s important to challenge people to pray and go.
Teaching Online
In a post-Covid age teaching online is a lot better than it was when I taught my Old Testament classes in Slovakia while working on my PhD at Trinity. It will be no problem teaching my usual fall classes while we’re in the States.
Research and Writing
Part of my job at the seminary is to do research and publish. This has been hard to do over the past few years because of local church challenges. This stint in the States, near libraries(!) should help me restart that aspect of ministry.
Quick Fact:
Our seminary is part of Matej Bel University and is mostly state-funded. According to current metrics, funding is based 40% on teaching load and 60% on research output.
Family!
It’s always been important for us to maintain contact with our Stateside family. I think our every-other-year schedule helped mitigate the effects of “third culture kid” on Elisabeth and Max. That stage of life is about done, and now we’re facing the cold reality of becoming empty nesters. This year we’ll fly to the States with Max and in January it will be just Jana and I returning to Slovakia. From now on it looks like home assignments will be about reconnecting with our own kids as well as parents and siblings.
Is It Hard to Make Arrangements?
It can be pretty difficult to set up a home assignment. There are lots of logistics to figure out and I’m not a logistics person.
What will we do for car and housing while we’re in the States? How will we take care of our house and garden in Slovakia? What should we do with our car in Slovakia?
What about Bona?
Poor Bona!
And then of course there’s all the scheduling for travel and ministry while we’re in the States. How do we schedule everything to make best use of time, not leave anyone out and hit times to fit into others’ schedules? Too many variables, not enough equations!
Finally, how do we pay for it all? There is a lot of extra ministry expense but also personal expense associated with home assignment and when you add it to everything else it can all be a little stressful.
We do appreciate your prayers for all of these matters and especially that the Lord will give us wisdom and help us communicate effectively.
Excited To See You!
We don’t have tickets yet but will soon and then we’ll start communicating with churches and making travel plans. Most of the time we’ll be in the Rockford-Chicago area. If you’d like to meet up it will help a lot to send us an email so we can start making plans.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
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