At the beginning of it all was the idea – the idea or organize a celebration of the 15th Birthday of the Bible School. Our desire was to celebrate in unity, at the same place and time and, together, thank our LORD.
The preparation started in February to enable us to celebrate at the beginning of July. In this way, everyone who has served all these years in Martin can come together to celebrate.
February 2013
The Bible School in Martin has a wonderful and extraordinary task (mission): To create and build something tangible and visible in this world – something that has importance for God’s Kingdom. The Bible School wants to give students the desire to learn about faith, the passion for knowledge and the yearning to build a true relationship with Christ. It is doing well but only with God’s grace. We realize it every day. We have realized God’s love and grace especially on the last Student Worship Service of this semester. Students left home for education and the Bible School staff started to pray more. We started to plan the 15th Anniversary of the Bible School.
March 2013
As one Slovak humorist once said sadly, “It is a pity that each does not think about his life’s journey as he much as he concentrates he concentrates on his hairstyle.”
I am not exactly sure which age this humorist meant, but I am learning one fact from this ironic idea… when a person is young, he/she must decide about his/her lifestyle.
Therefore, we are happy that many young couples are coming to the Bible School to study mission work with children and youth or religion. These young people are coming to the Bible School and are open for new ideas and incentives. They are also open for evangelism and want to learn how they can use it in the process of growing and character building. There are many personal stories about God’s creation of new people during the 15 years of the Bible School. God’s grace changes and His love transforms us “to see and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10). Therefore, we thanked God a lot during the month of March. We began to look forward to the upcoming celebrations.
April 2013
We call April The Month of Fools because the weather is very rapidly changing. You can see sun in the morning, rain around lunchtime and snowflakes in the evening. This year, April was a very crazy and very busy month for the Bible School, too. It was a month of many preparations but also about the first solutions. We knew how we wanted the invitation card to look; we knew the place we would choose to have the great celebration; but we also had on our minds all the possibilities of how we can celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Bible School.
May 2013
The fifth month of planning was a month of numbers. We sent many invitation cards; we ordered little gifts and printed brochures and maps. We discussed in our plans in staff meetings and underlined the items we were supposed to do. I’m pretty sure that every one of us realized one very important thing at that time: without God’s help and participation, this event would only be a human event. Our morning prayers became more centered on trusting God. We trusted Him to take care of His work.
June 2013
It is already only one month before the celebration. We are very excited and happy to hear many positive reactions from the other side of the ocean. Every hotel in Martin is reserved for friends from America, our guests of honor who will come to celebrate God’s work in Martin at our Bible School.
July 2013
Let us express seemingly plain and simple statement please: The Bible School in Martin has had its 15th Anniversary only by God’s grace. Everything was prepared. Perhaps it could be better but we prepared everything with love! Our spirit therefore will not fall. On the contrary, we look forward sincerely. We rely on the presence of God that is in the minds and hearts of us all. We are happy because we were able to celebrate and be thankful to God for sending us many friends and partners.
