42nd day - August 19: Nesvady - Church inspector mediates

To beat the daily heat, I woke up early and left the campsite before 7:30. Therefore, I had a longer stay in the county town of Nove Zamky, to which Michaela said I could continue. I still rang the rectory to see if I could visit the church, but the intercom only responded with a triple no. Unfortunately, the city's synagogue was also not accessible. However, an interesting monument stood in front of it. Therefore, I continued straight to my destination for the day, the youngest town in Slovakia, Nesvady. I was supposed to be in front of the church at 4 p.m. and the inspector of the church community, Milan, would pick me up.

Since I arrived in the city before 3 p.m., I went to a small city park and looked for a shady spot. I sent a text message to the inspector and after 15 minutes, he caught up with me in the city park. However, since the pastor only returns at night, I was supposed to stay in a pension that had already been reserved. This made me visibly uncomfortable, so I preferred to sleep on the floor in the community room. We then visited the church, and the colorful altar window 'Jesus and the Children' immediately captivated me. When I asked about attending a worship service, he only said, 'Disaster.' The once strong church community has been experiencing a large migration to the local Advent and Baptist community for many years, which intentionally recruits families. His hope lies in the new pastor, who also holds the position of 'Senior.' This office is comparable to the superintendent at our church.

She and her musically talented husband have already brought fresh wind to the community. After the tour, we went to Milan's parents' house, which was actually vacant, and he had made it available to a Ukrainian couple for free. As a Christian, one must also help refugees, was his brief statement. We had dinner there. We hadn't even been with the couple for 5 minutes when the man showed me a current video of a Russian attack on his city, Zaporizhia, which has the largest nuclear power plant in the world. This has been reported in German media repeatedly, while his wife set the table. Tears welled up in his eyes. Because he is over 60 years old, he was allowed to leave Ukraine. So, I became a silent listener and showed my deep concern.

After a little over an hour, we left and Milan took me to the community room. He will be back at 8 a.m. in the morning and handed me the keys to the church and community. I did some research on the Protestant church in Hungary, my next country, and soon unrolled my sleeping mat and crawled into my sleeping bag.