My story

Ing. arch. Augustín Ugróczy. Married, 4 children. Leader of the “Pajta” regular meetings.

Augustín Ugróczy works in the field of building projection by using not only standard materials, but also and above all organic materials (notably wood, straw, clay, and sheep wool). His aim is offering buildings that are capable of fulfilling people’s real desires and needs. Together with a friend he founded atelierarcha.sk

Hi everybody, whoever you are and wherever you are – YOU ARE DISCIPLES. That’s the way I call my boys and invite them at our regular PAJTA meetings.

 

This is our team. This is me. Fifteen years went by since the dark night, when I was walking through a dark park and fighting against depression and anxiety.

I was afraid of death – just like that, spontaneously. I was afraid that a blackout would come again and I wouldn’t wake up. My body was cadaverous. I had anorexia (if you can use this word for guys as well&hellip. I was wearing shabby black clothes. I was just hanging around with the Armageddon inside me. I sat down on a bench. I was in my town: Prievidza. I was looking at the lights out of the windows and I saw myself as a child. I was 6 years old. People used to call me Gustík. I knew all dinosaurs and had only one dream: becoming a palaeontologist. I saw back all those big expectations and then many wounds, one after another.

When I was 12 everybody used to call me: "scoundler, idler, scamp..." I heard sentences like: “you have got some talents, but you are lazy. You are a dreamer. You’re just wasting your time..."

At school I had average results. People don’t like “average” too much. Do you know what average students do?

Average people just hang around, make graffiti, and tease girls. I’d made my peace with the fact that I was not able to learn things and that I had to forget about my dinosaurs. I tried to select alternative paths – the streets. Tension was growing. It was quite a painful tension, without any hope. I wanted to be valuable, but I was destroying values.

I started to practice occultism and listen to satanic music… Actually I didn’t want it, but I did it. Yes, this is the same thing my “Pajta” boys are experiencing today. They are all “little” guys who lost their real dreams and tried to replace them with new and imperfect material – and eventually they lost control…

Until Somebody came into our life.

I still have tears of joy when I utter his name. My Jesus. Our Jesus. I was sitting on a bench and I was looking at the lights of the windows of the buildings. A song was continuously playing in my head. It was one of those “boring” songs my mum used to listen to: “Jesus loves you, la-la-la…” What is it? I don’t know. Suddenly, everything changed inside me. I didn’t cry. I didn’t fall on my knees. I just knew that it was the end of the old man. The old man died.

I stood up and I started to live. I started to go to church and read the Bible every day. All depression and blackouts disappeared. Today, I have a wife and four children. Eventually, I completed my university studies: not palaeontology, but architecture. Together with a friend of mine we founded  Archa. We dig deep in the past in search of prehistoric building techniques. We innovate and design houses made of wood, straw, and clay.

We have regular meetings under the name of “Pajta”. Participants are my boys, as I have already mentioned. They were also sitting “somewhere on the benches” and Jesus stopped and talked to them. Yes, Jesus entered their life and they were born again. In our meeting we arrange spaces where there are no expectations, pressure, fear of being reproached or considered as a rascal.

All sorts of people join us: miners, lumberjacks, entrepreneurs, teachers, musicians, IT programmers, doctors, preachers, priests… Men come here with their Jesus and they learn from him. We all learn from each other how to teach, pray, prophesy, laugh, joke, fight, and win.

Jesus, thank you, because you saved me. You didn’t let me die. I didn’t see the depth of the abysses. You saved me with your own blood and freed me from death.

So, my dear brothers, guys, dreamers… disciples… it’s time to switch on the engines of your Harley Davidsons, Mustangs, Škoda Felícia, Fiat Multipla or whatever... There are wounded brothers waiting outside – says the King.