My story

Promoter and co-founder of CAMPFEST
and of Mládež pre Krista. (Youth for Christ)
Singer in the Timothy. band
Timothy.

Until the age of 17 I was an active sportsman. I was in a special sport class and my main activity was track and field. I had quite good results. During the Slovak track and field championships I ranked second in 100-m hurdles and third in high jump. I took it really seriously. I used to train twice or even three times per day. It was my life. My mother took me to regular prayer meetings in the city of Prešov. Here I met guys who played music. It was quite good music. Through a sort of miracle I joined their party and I learned to play bass guitar. The special thing was that, when we were training, they often talked about their personal and living relation with the Lord Jesus. For me it was like discovering a new planet.

Their life inspired me. So one night, by my own initiative, I knelt down and I said: “God, I don’t know what happened; but I know that You exists and I want to live for You.” This personal and sincere prayer set up completely new co-ordinates in my life.

Nevertheless, in the following months after this event I started to experience something like grief. A fight began within me. A fight between the way I want to live and the way I actually lived. For example, some sports events began with wild discotheque and ended with various kinds of night parties… I remember the night before a third-place final within the Czechoslovak national championships for high schools. We drank so much that we were hardly able to play in the next day.

I shot at my team’s own basket and one of our teammates after a knock-on jumped over the border line and fell asleep on the mat with the ball in his hands… The referee and our trainer were shocked.

I was very disappointed because of my behaviour. My losses against sins were a big burden for my mind. God didn’t give up and started to purify my life. The more I called Him and read His Word, the more He gave me the courage to leave my old way of living. One day He gave me a great chance to feel how much He loves me the way I am (with my wins and losses). I was conscious of the fact that I didn’t want to step back anymore.

The purification process continued. One First-of-May afternoon we went on a trip. An old Christian was in our group. When we prayed together, the Lord showed Him that amongst us there were two people who love something else in their life more than the Lord Jesus. At first I thought that it cannot concern me.

The reality sounded like this: whenever I was, my thoughts were focused on running, high-jumping, counting step rhythm between hurdles, etc… I knew all world records by heart. My mind was full of these data.

When we came back from the trip, one of the girls asked me whether I was the person concerned. I replied I certainly wasn’t. Then I went home and I saw my sleeping room full of medals and certificates. I immediately understood. My pride and the sense of my life were hanged and exposed in this room. I learned a new lesson. Sports are nothing wrong, but we cannot love it more than the Lord Jesus. It would be a sin. I removed all that stuff from walls and from shelves and I said to myself it was time to live for Jesus. I prayed: “Lord Jesus, ALL my life belongs to You”. It was a big liberation. It is always liberation when God has first place in our lives. Later on, I completely stopped practicing professional sports; on the one hand it was because of a knee injury, but on the other hand it was also because of other desires that He put into my heart.

A couple of years after this experience, in collaboration with the Timothy music band, we took a hall for rent in Prešov and began to organise the so-called “Club of the Book of Life”. It was a simple music programme. We played our best songs and we had several personal testimonies of young Christians as well as easy and practical preaching. We appealed and supported evangelisation and we encouraged young people to give all their heart to Jesus.

Meetings were taking place every other week. Several small groups were created for new Christians. We met every third Saturday with group leaders and we had breakfast altogether in my house. During these breakfasts we shared witnessed stories from the various groups. Besides this ministry we also started up a prayer chain for the city of Prešov and for the whole Slovakia. It lasted about 5 years. Almost every hour somebody was praying for the government, the mayor, police, priests and preachers, school principals, etc. We managed to found groups also in various high schools. We founded the so-called Rock Solid clubs for teenagers, the Timothy school for young Christians, and the Daniel Generation course for young leaders. Through our music band (Timothy) we started to ministry throughout the whole country. We had plenty of activities and we needed some organ that would manage our complete ministry. That’s why, in 1995, we founded the organisation called Mládež pre Krista (Youth for Christ).

„When we had no money for toothpaste.“

Since the very beginning Youth for Christ depended only on God. We didn’t have any regular financial support. We just had fervent prayer. God, our Lord, was faithful to us and took care of us. Practically we learned that all we ordered had to be paid. Many times we were afraid we won’t be able to find money and we had no idea how to cope with our next event or how to pay bills and wages. The ministry was growing more and more. At the beginning there were two employees. Then, ten more employees were gradually added. Sometimes our fears were bigger than our confidence in God’s faithfulness. In more than one occasion we received our wages after 3 months; but we went on. Then, seven months passed without receiving any wage - the situation was getting quite complicated. We had to use our pocket money even for buying toilette paper and toothpaste .

It looked like everything was over. We started to think about searching a civil employment and doing our ministry only as volunteers. Then we had some visitors from Northern Ireland. They told us they just came to pay out our debts (something like seven monthly wages for ten employees!!!); and they intended to stay with us as long as they'll afford. You can guess how surprised I was. Until then I had only read about this kind of things in American books

„The girl that stayed in my mind“.

During a conference in Central Slovakia I noticed a good-looking girl. She was sitting next to me and was loudly singing and praising God. She didn’t even noticed me :( Later on I met her during a youth event in the city of Košice; I felt something unusual. I immediately noticed her, because when the band started to play worship songs, her hands were the first to be lifted up. So I started to participate to their meetings more and more frequently. I wanted to know more about her. The leader of that youth group was a good friend of mine. So I shared all my thoughts with him. I didn’t know he told her about everything. After some nine months of prayer meetings I finally dared to invite her for a walk. I revealed to her all I felt for her. She told me she already knew everything. I understood my friend (her "boss") was the culprit . Then she held a never-ending one-hour speech; it looked like a positive speech and she concluded by stating that it was nice to know each other more and more deeply. I was so happy that I thought I was dreaming. After six months together we became fiancés; and after nine months we got married. Everything was simple and clear.

Ľudka is a great gift for me! If she were not with me, I wouldn’t know how to go on with my ministry. She stands by me and amends my weak sides. God is certainly happy for what she does. As for me, I don’t even tell how happy I am with her

Great vision and scared beginners

In 1999 we opened a youth coffee-bar in the city of Prešov. During that same week the first edition of CampFest began. We had two new big events at once. It was quite a tough childbirth, but we survived. As far as CampFest is concerned, since the very beginning we understood that God's will was not a music festival, but a tool aiming at evangelization and motivation for young generations in Slovakia. We made it in cooperation with other leaders who love to work with the youth.

Our vision was summed up in three words: Awakening, Mobilisation, and Cooperation.

The firs edition also started with the first miracle. We started preparation in January 1999 and at the end of June the CampFest took place. Today, I don’t think we would manage to organise it in such a short time interval.

We were inexperienced; we were absolutely beginners. We were scared, because we did not know what will be the results. Three days before the CampFest we had terrible weather and heavy rain; we were completely wet and frozen. We were afraid that nobody will come to see it and we will not be able to pay our debts. It was a good school of humility and dependence on God our Lord. We just had to rely on God and to call Him. He called us to organise this event and He has the power to save and protect us.

Eventually, more than two thousand people came in. Several young people had an occasion to make their first steps towards our Lord Jesus. It was quite a good beginning. When the CampFest was over, we still had to pay relatively big debts. Then we received a phone call from a man of God, who decided to pay out everything! Thanks God!

God confirmed that He approved this initiative. Indeed, after eight festivals, we were forced to find a different place for the CampFest. Together with our leading team we went to see a Ranch located in Kráľová Lehota. We were amazed because of the beautiful nature, wide meadow, and a real Ranch just close to this place. Then we also apprehended that the Ranch was for sale! God had already written this plan for us. A friend of ours, an entrepreneur, borrowed money and bought it for our ministry. It looks like an American movie, but it is actually the reality. The Lord, our God, is faithful and good.

Ranč Kráľová Lehota is suitable not only for the pre Campfest, but we can have camps, seminars, week-end events, and conferences for Christians from the whole country all the year round. At the same time it is a place where people can rest immersed in beautiful nature. They can get new strengths for their families, communities, youth groups, etc. We pray our God, because we want Kráľová Lehota to be a place where people can encounter Jesus. Here everything belongs to him.

In conclusion I just want to say what are my feelings, and perhaps also the feelings of many other people. I think that the older we are, the more we are afraid of making new steps ahead in our faith. We are sometimes not able to expect new “miracles” from God. We were so many times let down by our experiences. We became too careful and we don’t want to be deceived again. Some of us are disappointed, because they feel that there was no real awakening in the community, in the Church or among youth.

Somebody believes that the word “awakening” means that suddenly something dramatic will happen. Of course, God also makes miracle like that. I would be pleased if He made it in our nation. But for me, the word “awakening” also means that God’s Word and His Kingdom are spread through God’s children. It is like yeast that works all through the dough.

I am sure that in Slovakia our awakening has already commenced and it goes on. Now we see the burgeoning of plants. God’s Word is announced and the Lord forms people who worship and praise Him... In many places we can already see and taste His fruit.

In our ministry, in Youth for Christ, we share this vision and want to keep making our drawing together with you. May God, our Lord, touch our young generation, through all denomination and people all round Slovakia.

PS: http://www.mpks.sk/