Missionary of Jesus’ Resurrection in Turkmenistan

A dear friend of ChristLife’s, Hana Simcikova – a young woman from Slovakia – wrote us an update on her missionary work in Turkmenistan. Her work is very inspiring. She first came across ChristLife during training Dave Nodar was doing in Eastern Europe during the 1990s. We met up with her in 2007 in Slovakia – and Pete also had the chance to interview her for a podcast on her missionary work.

Here is her letter:

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"'There is no need for you to be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
He is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would. Come and see the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples, "He has risen from the dead and now he is going ahead of you to Galilee; that is where you will see him." Look! I have told you.'
Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples." (Mt 28)

Dear friends!

Almost a year ago I was writing to ask for your help with the Turkmenistan mission.

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU! Thanks so much to every one of you for your prayers, thoughts, financial support, emails, greetings, and every kind of support that helped us to serve in Turkmenistan last year. You have a special place in all that is going on in that country, and in the small Catholic community there.

The Catholic Church in Turkmenistan still lives underground.
During this mission we were able to meet many more native Turkmen people then during our first mission. We were blessed through those simple, mostly Islamic, people who were open to talking about God; they are so thirsty for His love and presence. We prayed together with them and they were touched by the Father's love through our Lord Jesus! Hope and peace changed their desperation. Their simple and joyful testimonies about Gods miracles strengthened our faith.

In two years, since our last mission, many things are still the same in Turkmenistan. There are still just two catholic priests for the whole country. However, there are many changes – much more people are coming every day, coming to hear about Jesus, seeking His love and help, ready to give Him their all. Mostly they are poor people who suffered a lot in their lives. When they come to Jesus they are blessed by His forgiveness, deep healing and new life in Him! We prayed over them almost every day and we led all the meetings for catechumens, youth and kids, which was so helpful for the priests. We also prepared simple evangelization training, where we taught them how to proclaim the Good News. We saw how the first small prayer group was born--just a few people who want to worship Jesus, and serve others by intercessory prayer.

The Priests also sent us to other places in Turkmenistan, where we spent some time with people sharing Gods love with them. More and more people were coming every day, hungry for His word which many of them heard for the first time in their lives. Their desire for more priests and missionaries in their towns didn't surprise us.

We could see the big gift of God that we have at home– daily Mass and Holy Communion especially.



I personally was especially touched by the warm-heartedness, kindness and hospitality of the poorest people in the village called Arzuw. They told us things like: "If I didn't meet you two years ago, today I would be addicted to heroine and I would also sell it as the rest of my family does." "We know, God has sent you to us – just for me!" – told with thankful heart.

I also met a woman at the market place, whom I had promised two years ago that I would come back. Her first reaction when she saw me at the same place was: "Ooooo – she came!" and invitation she invited us to visit her house. I could write a book about that meeting. Their clear eyes spoke about clear hearts, which we could also visit. In the family, everyone works from the sunrise to the late night. Love, respect and care are given to each other in all small situations, where members of that Islamic family speak so nice about each other, pray together and have God among them – it is a small (or big?) miracle in that nation.
We had a very nice time with the youth during retreats we prepared for them. Their testimonies among their friends and schoolmates bears fruit, and more and more youth came later to the meetings, to pray together, to hear Gods word, or just to play together.

We wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you!

When I was on the plane going into Turkmenistan, I saw a desert named Kara-Kum from above. It looked like a lot of small rivers, or water sources but they were empty and dry. I was thinking about the land, which is ready, rivers which are waiting for water, water which will bring the life to that land. And a prayer grew up in my heart – giving thanks to God and asking Him for living waters of His presence and love to flood this country.

I apologize I haven't updated you about our mission in Turkmenistan earlier. Thank God for these last months. They were full of challenges. I was working on my dissertation, our mission in Turkmenistan was very intense, coming back home I defended my PhD, and started my new job, so I can make some money, pay my loans, and go back to Turkmenistan as soon as possible.

Please, pray for Turkmenistan, pray for the priests. Pray for those, who are going to be baptized tonight; pray for more missionaries in that country; pray for us to be ready to give our time, money and all lives to that mission when Jesus calls us again. I hope that time will come soon!
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the free given gift of being a part of that mission, for every miracle of healing, deliverance and conversion. Thank You for your faithfulness, for your favor, and that we can come personally closer to You!

I wish you a blessed Easter. May your Easter season be filled with the grace and love of Our Risen Savior!

Hana Simcikova (in the black shirt in the above picture)
Slovakia

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Isn’t that an awesome testimony of how our Risen Lord is still using his Church to accomplish his great mission to save souls! If you would like to donate to Hana’s work or get on her update email list – please contact us

Ministering to Young Adults

“Fewer than one out of ten young adults mention faith as their top priority” (UnChristian, 23).

A shocking statistic - yet one that should challenge Christian young adults and youth leaders to evangelize! As a resource for my own Christian discipleship and for leading others I found some interesting statistics as well as great ideas in the books UnChristian and Googling God:

• Ministers too often give a quick fix approach to God and introduce the “born again” mentality rather then consistent truth. (Googling God)

• Our generation often follows teachings of the Church without even understanding why we believe those things, thus not having true conviction. (Googling God)

• Web site resources for Ministering to young adults: www.bustedhalo.com; www.sacredspace.ie; and www.rejesus.com (Googling God)
  

• We must provide venues for all the Catholics we are dealing with: adoration/ sacraments, volunteer opportunities, videos, Q & A, Theology on Tap, etc. (Googling God)

• There needs to be young adult events where they can unite with the Church, bishops and Pope/ young adults need to know that the Church cares about them. (A young adult, Googling God)

• “Jesus didn’t put a sign on a palm tree and say, ‘All those willing to be disciples, please meet here at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday; refreshments will be served.’ He personally invited people!" Ministers must: “be in the world but not of the world” so as to understand where young adults are coming from, use technology but not as an only means rather to draw them into the richness of the Church, also invite personally. (Googling God)

• "84 percent of young people say they know at least one Christian personally, and only 15 percent see a lifestyle difference in that Christian." (UnChristian)
  

• Living with integrity starts with being transparent. Doing what you say you are going to is the number one quality young people admire. (UnChristian)

• “We have experienced the presence of a living God, but outsiders are wary of feeling brainwashed or manipulated." (UnChristian)

• Many people do not associate with Christianity as something new but as something old and commonplace, they have “been there, done that”. Many young people have been involved in a church and then left, so evangelizers must keep that in mind and not try to portray Christianity as something that they have never heard of before. (UnChristian)

• Nearly one third of Americans believe that there are some crimes and sins that God cannot forgive. (UnChristian)

• “It is more important than ever to think about and respond to political issues in light of a biblical worldview.” (UnChristian)

• Be creative – Jesus was, He attracted people who were unaccustomed to His style, ability, message, etc. (UnChristian)

• 2 Corinthians 7: 11-12 – Christians should respond well to correction. (UnChristian)

My point in these statistics and ideas is not to discourage Christians, but rather to challenge them - and myself - to be able to respond well to correction and be more faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ. These books really opened my eyes to new ways of approaching people with understanding and respect, but without watering down the truth. I think it is helpful for anyone working with or ministering to young people to be aware of these things.

There are so many stereotypes of Christianity that sometimes repel people from it. “Jesus said Christians would be known by their love” (UnChristian), let us make that our stereotype!

Pink Flamingoes and the Pearl of Great Price

When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. St. Paul - I Corinthians 2:1-5

When I was a young boy my family traveled down the east coast of the U.S., from Maryland to Florida, to go on vacation. Back in those days we didn't have the interstate highways we now have and there were places where you had to travel along two lane roads that ran through small towns. I can remember in some of those areas you would see homes where the owners had decorated the yards with all kinds of things. Mirror balls, pin wheels, antique (abandoned) cars, statues of all kinds of things, dwarfs, deer, people and pink flamingo's. Now some of those lawns were so filled with 'decorative items' that it was hard to figure out how to get from the road to the house! Some home owners had gone even farther in their extravagant decorating and had affixed all kinds of things to the front porch walls. Flags, hubcaps, beware of dog signs, and other creative wall mountings! Kind a like the yard, some homes had so much stuff on the wall that you couldn't even see where the front door was!


Sometimes we as Catholic Christians feel compelled to immediately share with friends who, perhaps do not know the Lord or are not church goers, about the treasures of the Church,- Mass, the sacraments, Mary and the saints, Apostolic succession, etc. We feel the need to get it all out in front of them immediately. Sort of like the yards with the pink flamingos. By attempting to get it all out there immediately we run the risk of not establishing first things first. We can easily put the horse before the cart. We certainly want people to know all about the treasures of the Church, but we want them to know first and foremost about the Pearl of Great Price, who is the person that our faith is all about. We want them to know the reason for all of the wonders of the Church, His Body! When we share with others about the joy of knowing Jesus Christ personally as our Lord, as the center of our lives and of all creation, it puts first things first. We want them to know the way into house of God, and Jesus is that way! We want them to know the meaning of life which is found in union with the Trinity through what our Lord has done for all by his life, death and resurrection! If in fact our friends come to know the love of God in Jesus our Lord, the forgiveness of sins and, power of the Spirit given in baptism, then they will hunger to learn more and, live in the truths of the Church!

Let's growing in learning to share about the Lord Jesus, and look for opportunities to tell others why He is the pearl of great price and the joy of our lives!

“This is the principal proclamation of the Church, which remains unchanged down the ages. The Christian faith, therefore, is not an ideology but a personal encounter with the Crucified and Risen Christ. From this experience, both individual and communitarian, flows a new way of thinking and acting: an existence marked by love is born, as the saints testify.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Parish of God the Merciful Father, Rome, March 26, 2006

Evangelization from a Muslim Convert

Daniel Ali is a muslim convert to the Catholic faith and very passonate about evangelization. We were able to interview him and hear his story plus practical ways to evangelize muslims from his perspective. One thing he said that really struck me was that one of the things that drew him to Christianity was when a Christian asked if he could pray with him. He said that his intiation reaction of being asked to be prayed with was not of anger or resentment but he "welcomed it!" I hope that Christians will see the power of prayer and not be afraid to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit because it changes lives!

You may remember Daniel Ali from our last podcast along with the March for Life news. He had so many amazing insights that we just came out with a second podcast with his view on scripture and practical ways to evangelize! You can listen to this new podcast here, or click play below:

You can also check out ChristLife's Sharing Christ and other Resources for Evangelization.

Know and Confess that Jesus is Lord!

"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11)

As Christians we are called to know and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! The first step to evangelization is knowing who Jesus is as the Lord of the world, but also personally as the Lord of our hearts. This means having a personal relationship with Him and getting to know Him better every day.

During training for a nine month evangelization ministry I was a part of, the leader told us that we "can't give what we don't have". Basically, If we plan on telling people about Christ, we better know who He is first! This really struck me and it has helped me remember that the foundation of any evangelization ministry is my own relationship with my Lord Jesus.Fr. Francis Martin discusses this basic and crucial truth in ChristLife's most recent podcast. He has been a priest for many years, and is now a part of Mother of God Community. He speaks with great wisdom and his insights really challenged me in my own relationship with Christ.

You can listen in to ChristLife's most recent podcast here, or press play below:

And Action!

I don't know about you but I don't get the opportunity to be in movies very often, so when I had the chance to go to Philly to be an extra in a new movie called Our Lady of Victory I was pretty excited. Although doing "extra" work was not everything I ever hoped and dreamed of, it was a pretty good time. In addition to spending hours waiting to go on set and then hours on set being really quiet and doing the same thing over and over, I had the opportunity to talk about Jesus! Now, it wasn't anything amazing – no mass conversions or anything - but just talking about faith a couple times reminded me of how simple sharing Christ can be.
The first opportunity I had was while on a bus on the way to the set. It was about a 10 min. ride but I had to sit with a stranger. Of course we went through the normal introductions listing who, what, where, ect. and eventually we got into where we work. She is married and does "extra" work a good amount and I introduced myself as a summer intern at ChristLife: a Catholic ministry of Evangelization. From then we continued on, chatting about faith here and there and discussing the importance of knowing Christ as your personal Savior and then sharing your faith. This little chat got me excited for the rest of the day as I looked for more opportunities to share Christ's love.
To my surprise and joy the scene we were shooting was in a Catholic Church. So, sitting quietly for 4 hours on hard wooden pews was a task my body was all too well trained for and of course the setting lent itself to an easy discussion of faith. During the scene the "priest" read from 1 Peter making sure to emphasize the verse “wives submit to your husbands” and that women are the weaker sex and then, according to the script, the priest was to go on giving a very sexist homily. During a short scene break I turned to a girl near me and we discussed the verse from 1 Peter. We shook our heads sadly at the movie's misuse of the verse, recognizing important parts that were dropped and I summarized Ephesians 5:25, 28 which says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” The other women near us overheard our conversation and began chatting on their own about the movie’s misrepresentation of the Catholic Church and the Mass in various ways.
After a few similar conversations I inwardly rejoiced in the Lord for having the chance to talk about faith in an easy casual way. Hopefully I’ll continue to take advantage of the little ways I can share Christ’s love daily on set and off.