Day 37 - August 14th: Surprises at the church service and a small country parish

Today on Sunday it was necessary to get up early because the first church service started at 8:30 am in the small town of Zlate Moravce, which is about 35 km away and part of Iwan's pastoral responsibility. The town itself does not have its own Protestant church, only a worship house. He asked me to speak a greeting and share my travel and experience, which I gladly did. The first thing I noticed was that Iwan knelt down in front of the altar during the liturgy of the church service. In addition, the congregation stands up much more frequently during the service compared to us. Although there were only about 16 churchgoers present, the singing was surprisingly strong. An organist who came from Nitra played the keyboard and led the singing. Similar to us, the pastor said goodbye to the visitors at the church door. Afterwards, we had to drive back immediately because the church service in the modern church in Nitra started at 10 am. An estimated 100 churchgoers attended. There, too, the pastor knelt down in front of the altar during the liturgy, and after the sermon, I spoke a greeting to the congregation. Unfortunately, I did not understand much of the relatively short sermon. A lector read the Gospel.

Shortly after the church service, we had to say goodbye as Iwan had to leave right away to pick up his family in Eastern Slovakia and continue on vacation. Before that, he arranged for me to make contact with his older colleague from the rural community of Kalna nad Hron - a roundabout 40 km away by bike. The country road there was pleasantly sparsely populated with cars, which made cycling a lot of fun, even though it was very hot - or rather, scorching - in the afternoon and there were steep uphill sections. I arrived there shortly before 5 pm. The gate to the rectory grounds was wide open, but after ringing the bell, there was no response. An older couple that I met and who wanted to help me tried unsuccessfully to reach the pastor by phone. Therefore, I decided to find a nice campsite along the Hron river, then have a drink at a restaurant because it was still very hot and my throat was craving something cool. Then, according to my plan, I would pass by the rectory again and rode to the nearby river.

Many riverbanks along the Hron were occupied by anglers, but I found a nice small meadow. After cycling 2 km back, I went to the restaurant near the rectory to have something to drink. From a distance, I saw that the gate to the rectory was now locked. I saw a car and rang the bell again. Jan, the pastor of Kalna nad Hron, actually appeared. Unfortunately, he did not receive the SMS and was surprised by the visit. He briefly spoke with Iwan on the phone, and then I was kindly invited into the rectory. The pastor's wife immediately served goulash soup, and we quickly started a conversation. He reported that for 18 years, he has been responsible for about 450 church members in several places and has almost three church services every Sunday. Almost like us, I thought. In Kalna, the main village of his area of service, an average of 40-50 visitors come to the Sunday service. For a village with about 2100 inhabitants, that is quite a lot. He further reported that he was a superintendent for a while, currently the president of the synod, and organizes 1-2 community trips to Israel every year.

We also visited the simple church, which was extensively renovated for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and received a large wooden cross on the roof. A room for children and teenagers and a second room are located next door. He does not have any more rooms available. A typical small country parish. After the short tour, of course, I showed some photos and videos of my work. We continued to talk for a while about the various challenges in his ministry. A little after 10 pm, we agreed on breakfast time for 7:30 am and wished each other a good night. I wanted to write something on my blog, but I was already too tired for that and went to bed - satisfied with the day.