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Europe: Slovakia

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Present day Slovakia was under Moravian rule for a century, and under Hungarian control from the 10th century until early in the 20th century. In 1918 the Slovaks joined Bohemia, Moravia and part of Silesia to form the state of Czechoslovakia. Germany occupied Czechoslovakia from 1939 through the end of World War II when they were defeated by Russia. At that time Slovakia rejoined the new Czechoslovakian state.

When Communists took control of the country in 1948, they remained in power until 1989 when Vaclav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia and began democratic reform. Tensions between Slovak and Czech political leaders led to an agreement to separate the nation into two fully independent republics. The Republic of Slovakia became an independent nation on January 1, 1993.

Dubbed by ABWE missionaries in the region "the Switzerland of Eastern Europe" because of its beauty and the snowcapped High Tatra Mountains, Slovakia is spiritually a nation of neglected people. A 1994 study revealed that Slovakia has the fewest evangelical missionaries of any Eastern Europe nation. Possibly it was simply overlooked in the rush to meet enormous needs in the Soviet Union after the collapse of Communism. In addition, missionaries studying the Czech language typically studied in Prague, so when the country was divided, Slovakia was further separated from available missionary manpower.

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When ABWE began its official surveys of Slovakia in 1993, no church planting missionaries had located there. By 1995, only two missionaries who had a church planting focus could be found in the country. While 60% of the nation is nominally Roman Catholic, nearly 30% claim to be completely non-religious. With less than 60 evangelical churches and even fewer trained leaders, Slovakia is ripe for the vision of our team missionaries.

Building on the basic plan for Central and Eastern Europe, the strategy for reaching Slovakia with the gospel is founded upon the development of a national church planting movement. The missionary team seeks to evangelize and disciple new believers, while mentoring a number of church planters strategically located across the nation. The ultimate goal is to enable the Slovaks to evangelize their own country with the gospel, and sustain a growing church planting movement without missionary assistance. Experienced and well-trained church planters, pastors, theological educators, youth and children's workers, musicians, and dedicated evangelists are needed.