Every year in June our congregation has a special service where we accept new members into our congregation and baptize new believers. This year we accepted five new members, baptized three (including one student from Narnia and one from the music ministry Fusion), and confirmed the infant baptism of two.
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Baptisms
This year, a total of 22 kids attended the three weekend retreats to prepare for baptism. Seven of the kids were baptized last year and 15 are new. In the end, only five kids decided they were ready for baptism (or confirmed their infant baptism) but it looks like all of the kids want to continue meeting together to grow in their faith.
You might remember that Elisabeth was also going to be baptized this year but she ended up missing two of the three retreats and we decided to wait until next year to make sure she’s ready.
A Side Note on a New Youth Group
When we arrived in Slovakia three years ago I took on responsibility for our youth group. I quickly discovered that only two or three students in the group were from our fellowship and everyone else was a student at the university. In the end, the student leaders decided it would be wise to convert the group to an InterVarsity (IFES/VBH) chapter at the University.
That’s left our church without a youth group for the last three years.
In the meantime, Fusion, which uses music to reach out to youth, became the focus of our work with junior high and high school aged kids.
Things seem to be changing. We now have these 22 kids from our fellowship, from Narnia, and from Fusion that are growing in their faith and are interested in meeting together to grow. After three years we may have a great foundation for a solid new youth group.
New Members
It’s always great to receive new members into the congregation but it’s even more special when those new members are active in building God’s kingdom. This year we received the Temers who work with Child Evangelism Fellowship in Slovakia, Golians who are both teachers at Narnia, and Zdeno David who has a thriving outreach ministry to people in the community.
It’s wonderful to see how God is gifting our congregation
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