Vision Slovakia
CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Since opening in 1998, the Center for Christian Education (CCE) has grown from a small weekend Bible school into a preschool through high school, including a higher education program and outreach facility. We are gradually transitioning towards self-sufficiency, from being 100% dependent on foreign aid two decades ago, to 15% now. Visit their website: www.cce.sk
The people of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church have a warm relationship with the people of Martin, Slovakia. St. Andrew’s first became involved in Martin by helping build a church in nearby Prievidza that was dedicated in 1995. Pastor Roger Eigenfeld and Bohdan Hrobon met about that time while Bohdan was beginning plans for the Bible School in Martin. Since then, St. Andrew’s choirs, youth and adult groups have traveled to Slovakia, and the congregation here has helped both financially and by donating time for renovations.
This is a partnership. St. Andrew’s is helping them spread the word of Christ, and they are coming here to share with us. It is about working together to spread Christ’s word.
Our ongoing Peer Ministry is a key component of St. Andrew’s joint vision with the CCE to bring Slovak students into a Christ-centered youth ministry program. The students in the school’s Peer Ministry program are trained to care for one another, recognize when a classmate may be struggling, and help connect them with support and guidance.
VISION SLOVAKIA BACKGROUND
St. Andrew’s has been involved in the former Eastern bloc nation of Slovakia for over 20 years.
In this ministry we have received far more from our Slovak partners than we have given. They have given us a vision of their commitment to teach and proclaim the gospel for this new time of freedom. They have lived through times when it has not only been difficult, but even impossible to worship.
Self-worth and initiative were virtually destroyed following WWII and prior to the reign of terror and holocaust under the Third Reich with the daily threat of imprisonment and death. Records were secretly kept on persons and innocent people who were identified as enemies of the state. This so-called information was used to incarcerate and martyr Slovak citizens for any outward expression of their faith in God. Jan Bohdan Hrobon was a Lutheran pastor who dared to carry out his ministry under all these dangers and still live faithfully to his call to proclaim and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. His vision was to reestablish Christian education schools for children, youth, and adults. Hrobon’s vision lives on with his son, Bohdan Hrobon, as he continues to serve as the director of the Center for Christian Education in Martin, Slovakia.
THE HISTORY
The story of the Center for Christian Education began in 1998 with the creation of a Bible School, offering a weekend study program in the Bible and Christian elementary teaching. Its primary purpose was to provide nurturing Christian education for those who sensed the inadequacy of their knowledge of their Christian roots. The theme verse of the school is inscribed in several languages on the central floor-to-ceiling window of the Bible School building, expressing Jesus’ words of promise: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
The Bible School’s offerings soon expanded to include basic education in social work and pastoral care. With a number of partner congregations in the USA, the Bible School continues to annually educate leaders for missions in Eastern Europe. In 2004 the Bible School established the Lutheran Elementary School. They realized that to reach the current generation of children and parents a program of education for elementary age children needed to be established.
Since then, they began adding one classroom each year to grow wth the current students while bringing in new students. In 2018, they celebrated their first graduating class from their Lutheran Bilingual High School. Today, the Lutheran Academy (the K–12 school that’s part of the CCE) is committed not only to providing a strong academic education but also to nurturing the spiritual and emotional well-being of its students.
