April 2021

Hi!
This year we have not yet sent out a newsletter about what has been happening in our lives. The reason isn’t the fact that nothing much would be happening. Quite the opposite, actually. So much is happening, that even though I have been meaning to write to you since the beginning of March, it’s only now that I found the time to do so. And it’s not because I suddenly have more time than I had a month ago, but I really want you to know, how we are doing and what we are dealing with. You are a part of what we do and what is happening in our lives. Thank you for standing faithfully by our side at the front areas despite Covid.


Greetings from Aman:

After having grown so much in the first nine months that I no longer could fit where I was, I decided to go and have a look at the other world. I was looking forward to have a place for my personal growth and to check out all the voices that I heard during those nine months (I wasn’t so sure about the growling sounds with a calming effect that were taking place just next to my former place of residence). I started my adventure on a Thursday just before 5PM. During the transition from the old place into this new world I had my eyes closed. As I opened them, I saw a woman and I immediately understood that she was my mom. I am not sure if all the mothers do it, but with tears in her eyes she started to kiss me from the first moment. There was a man standing next to her in a blue coat whom I also somehow recognized. I think it was a guy who others called dad. I was taken away from these two for a moment while I had to put on some weird clothes. However, I was screaming so loud that they brought me back to my new mom and dad. My dad had to leave after a while. I think I overheard him talk to my mom about some other kids waiting for him at home. That must be the other people whose voices I heard during those nine months. I was very curious. Mom and dad gave me a name Aman which has a lot of meanings in Arabic and Hindu, like for example trust, safety, protection, peace. It also has a meaning in Hebrew “to be sure” and in the Bible it is translated as “to believe”. My parents usually give their children middle names too and mine is Saba, which among other things means seven in Arabic. First, I didn’t understand why, but later it all made sense. The first days were really cool, I was enjoying being alone with my mom. Then one day dad came and took us somewhere. When we arrived, there were six other people. Some of them were almost as big as my mom and dad, but there were also smaller ones almost like me.

From Aman's point of view

All of them wanted to hold me, hug me, kiss me, caress my head and so on. The only thing that helped was when I started to cry. All of them ran away and mom took me and held me close and it felt so nice. I sleep well at night, as all the Lachos do, but during the day I am giving my mom quite a hard time by not letting her leave me for long. I was told that I eat a little less than my siblings, but I am really enjoying the time with my mom. The less I drink, the longer she holds me in her arms. It is worth it. I got used to my dad quite quickly. He has always been taking me with him everywhere from the swimming to the playground outside. I am of course trying to keep my boundaries, and as soon as he is getting on my nerves, I start to cry, and he always makes sure to quickly take me back to my favorite mommy. Those other kids are also pretty nice. They show me their toys, make faces, carry me in their arms, jump around me, caress me, kiss me and the one that is almost as small as me is secretly trying to give me their real food. I have not really learned all their names yet, because there are so many of them, but I am sure I will learn them one day. I am two months old and in spite of some virus raging out in the world, I am doing really good. I am surrounded by people who like me, and I like them too. But as I said, I am keeping my boundaries.

World mission in Slovakia:

In the beginning of 2021, we managed to finalize our almost two-year-long efforts with Jozef and Danny to submit a request to get The Slovak Mission Society (SMS) registered as a non-profit organization.

SMS is an organization behind the network called Slovak Mission Network. We want to stand in the gap in the area of world mission in Slovakia. Our goal is not to multiply what other organizations already do but to create a network of connections and stand where no one is standing. That’s one of the reasons why the registration process of the non-profit organization took such a long time. We wanted to make sure that people from different organizations and denominations were involved in the process. We wanted it to be a common work, not just the work of the three of us.

If you want to know more about our activities within the Slovak Mission Society, please have a look at the below newsletter from earlier this year. Video is in Slovak, but you can read all of it in this PDF document.

All the information from the newsletter are translated HERE.

BIF

Towards the end of last year, we officially became members of BIF (Bratislava International Fellowship) which is a part of Bratislava City Church. We started to build a relationship with the leaders of the church - Gary and Joy - and have been learning so much from them. We are now more involved which requires more time. I normally preach once a month and sometimes I join the worship team also. We are also looking for a new place to rent for our church meetings, as the current contract has been terminated. I work every day at the office of Bratislava City Church where I have created a small mission related mobilization studio. This is where I record podcasts, lead our regular prayer meetings on Tuesdays and make calls to the rest of the world.

Sabbatical

This year marks three years since we came back to Slovakia and I personally believe that it will be a year of breakthrough for the course of our family. A year and a half ago I decided to take a sabbatical this year. We are celebrating our 10-years anniversary as full-time missionaries. In June 2011 we left Slovakia for Lower Brule for a period of six months. In June 2021 I will be taking a 30-day hike across the country together with two of my close friends. We will be walking the so-called Cesta hrdinov SNP (Journey of the heroes of the Slovak National Uprising). This will be a way for me to stop and take a break, while walking an average about 25 km a day. If all goes as planned, we will start the journey on June 6th and travel from Bratislava to Dukla in the northeastern part of Slovakia and then start the walking tour on the 7th towards Devín in Bratislava. I have been preparing for the journey both physically and mentally the last year and a half. I also consider it to be the culmination of a journey of discipline (with long-term fasting and prayers) which God has taken me through within the last few years since we came back to Slovakia. Please send your thoughts to our family during this time. I realize that I am leaving Barča behind with seven kids and I am very thankful that she gave me her blessing to go. But this is only the first part of my/our sabbatical. I will come back from the hike in the beginning of July and in August we would like to spend time together as a family, which will be the family part of my sabbatical. We are now searching for a place to stay. We are not looking for a huge touristic destination, but we would like to spend a month together as a family in a place that is bigger than our current home. As Sheldon put it, it should not be a big deal to find something bigger than our flat. We know it is very difficult to plan anything ahead of time these days, so we are praying for the right place for our family. May it be Slovakia or some of the neighboring countries, we don’t want it to be an expensive holiday. We just really want to spend time together as a family without my work, emails, and phone calls.

Testimony:

If you follow our communication channels, you might have heard the story about Barca who crashed our van on January 1, 2021 on her way to a prayer meeting. She hit a car in front of her that stopped at the connecting lane within a two-lane carriageway with no cars at all. According to the Slovak legislation, the car that hits from behind is the one to be blamed. Since we are leasing the van, we have two types of insurance. The van was too damaged to be used and it was taken to a workshop. We knew that it would probably cost a lot to repair it, but we were still shocked when we heard that the price to fix it was 18 183.37 EUR. We had to pay the amount of 3 030.56 EUR for the VAT part which we knew we would get back from the taxes, as the car was registered at my parents’ company. The part of our coinsurance was 1 515.28 EUR which was 300 EUR less than it originally should have been thanks to a friend who helped us get a discount at Toyota. By God’s grace, we were reorganizing our finances at the end of last year. We merged our debit and credit card into one loan in order to pay less fees. This allowed us to go into minus and pay for the repair. Had the same thing happened to us a year ago, we would have not been able to pay and would have needed to borrow money from someone. While the van was at the workshop, we were contacted by a person that said, they saved up some money which they wanted to give to God and were looking for a place and purpose to give it to. When they heard about Barča’s accident, they decided to give the money to God for this purpose. They warned us that they were not sure how much of the needed repair amount would be covered by the gift. We were thankful that God is taking care of us without knowing the exact amount we would be receiving as a blessing from this person. After I paid for everything and went into minus, I contacted the person and told them about all the expenses. I don’t think it was easy for the person, but they decided to obey God and give us the whole amount which was 1 500 EUR meaning that from the full amount of 18 183.37 EUR we only had to pay 15 EUR from our budget. That’s an absolute miracle for us. Honestly, I have a hard time writing this because in the last 10 years, Barča and I have been living out of what God has blessed us with. We don’t live off alms, nor are we beggars, nor are we dependent on the people that support us. We put our trust in God and try to live by a quote by John Wesley: “It’s not about the amount of money we decide to give to God, it’s about the amount of God’s money that we decide to keep”. We are thankful for all of you that are giving to God so that we can receive from God. God has never let us down and I believe that you will not lack anything either if you decide to obey God.

Our van is repaired and is ready for sale.

Needs:

Our son Aman is our new blessing; however, he also brought some challenges with him. Our 8-seat van is not big enough for us anymore, so we’ll have to sell it and buy a 9-seat van. Please pray for us that we can buy a good car that will not break at least until the second coming of Jesus.

Another long-term challenge we are facing is our living situation. Our whole family has been praying this past year for a new place to live. For those of you that don’t know, we are currently staying in a three-room apartment in the area of Kramáre in Bratislava under very good conditions. We are so thankful that the owners of the apartment let us stay there for the price of the actual utilities. When we first moved in, I thought we would stay there for a year, but in the fall, it will already be three years. It’s a great location for our kids as it’s close to their school but after Aman has arrived, we are now starting to realize that three rooms for 9 people is in fact too small an area. We don’t know when God will again call us to leave Slovakia or if he will relocate us into a different part of Slovakia within the upcoming years, but we somehow feel that he does not want us to settle down in Slovakia permanently. I believe that we still have work to do in Slovakia in the upcoming years, but those are just my thoughts and impressions. I don’t want to live according to my plans or our plans, but according to God’s will for our lives. Thank you for your prayers also for this area.


It wasn’t my intention to write so much, but I hope you have made it until this point because I would now like to bless you.


Father, thank you for all our supporters. Thank you that you called them so that we can stand side by side working in your vineyard. Thank you for blessing them financially and that they can bless us by sharing what you have given them. Thank you that your work is not dependent on our finances, our efforts, nor our prayers, but by your will we are your partners in the big salvation plan for humanity that you love so much. Father, bless each and every person that supports our arms with their prayers and everyone that helps us in any way. I am thankful that I don’t need to feel abandoned but I am surrounded by people that love and support us. Please let them all know how much they mean to us. And how much they mean to you. You, Father, could have finished all the work without us but you already invited Adam into partnership when you asked him to name all the animals and plants. You are also inviting all your sons and daughters to be involved in the works of your kingdom. Your kingdom is to make disciples in the whole world. Please help us do your will wherever we are called to be. Thank you for making so many people a part of our story that your own hand is writing. I bless you in the name of Jesus.

Amen


PS: If you have any questions about what you just read or if you feel like God is giving you a word for us or God is calling you into cooperation with us, please let us know. Do not keep it to yourselves. We are in this together and together with God.

Roman

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