I stood outside the tall, gray building ringing the doorbell, (writes Encompass staff member George Swain from Prague, Czech Republic). Eventually an older couple in their early 60's came to the door. "Yeah, who are you and what do you want?" they asked. "I am looking for Mr. Novak. He ordered the Jesus video that I have with me," I said. "I am Mr. Novak but I certainly did not order any Jesus video" he replied. "You must have the wrong house."No, I have the order form right here, look for yourself," I said. "Well. There is another Mr. Novak that lives at our home, my son. Mr. Novak Jr. But certainly he did not order anything like that. Wait a minute we will ask him."
In a few minutes, a red-faced, totally aghast Mr. Novak Sr. returned and said, "Come with me. My son ordered the film." He led me into their apartment and introduced me to his twenty-something son. He sat in a chair in his pajamas. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. He had no hair. The smell of death was in the room. "I am so glad and surprised that you have come," the younger Mr. Novak said. "I ordered the film. I want to see it. You see, I have been very sick."
"I am glad that I found you," I said with a sigh of relief. "The film is taken from the Gospel of Luke. It tells the story of Jesus. It tells a person how the can have their sins forgiven and how they can have eternal life. It is free to anyone who wants to watch it." Mr. Novak Jr. listened and said, "Thank you very much. I will watch the film."
While leaving I asked Mr. Novak Sr. if he had any interest in spiritual things. "Vypadni - get out", he said as he slammed the door behind me.
We have discovered that it is almost impossible to personally deliver Jesus videos to homes due to verbal and physical threats from family members. Many times the wife ordered the film but her husband didn't want her to have it. Or children ordered it and their parents wouldn't allow them to get it. We could see the fear on their faces when we spoke to them.
Now, we send the videos registered mail to be sure that only the person who ordered the film gets it. People also were hostile anytime we tried to follow up after a person ordered a film. A couple people brought it back to our home and threw it at us or called us on the phone at night and threatened us.
A small number of people have come into Czech churches and remained in church since the revolution in 1989. Some of those people were family members of people already in a church. Usually under communism a church was composed of three or four related families. Others from the "outside" have mainly been led to Christ and remained in Christ due to watching the Jesus video.
Please pray for the Spirit to draw people to God in the Czech Republic
Pray for God to raise up more harvesters