Last night was a country wide scavenger hunt called “Night of the Churches” that most large cities in Slovakia have taken part in for a few years now.
It was promoted in our city by our city with hopes to expose our citizens to the history and architecture of the old majestic buildings that have been around for centuries.
Our church meets in the space adjacent to this courtyard inside the old city walls right on the cobblestone path that leads to the city’s most prominent Catholic church which is referred to simply as The Castle.
From 6pm to 11pm, people curiously stopped their planned pilgrimage up to or down from the majestic castle to check out the curious group of partying people that seemed to be compensating for their lack of ancient steeples and crypts with excellent barbecue (google ‘špekačky’), music, and storytelling.
Many stayed for hours and even sat in on a short overview of what exactly happened 500 years ago with Martin Luther and the reformation. (In the U.S., when someone asked me about the history of our church, I often began, “Well, 15 years ago our church was planted by…” In a very Catholic city, like Nitra, to answer that question you might need to begin: “Well, in 1517, a guy named Martin Luther…”
The organizers of the event from the city came to visit us as we were getting the party going. They were intrigued by the party. They left to make their rounds to the other churches, but came back about a couple hours later and stayed for a long time. Before they left they said: “Wow, this is incredible. You can tell that you are a group of people that really love each other. We’ve been all over the city the last couple of hours, but this is the place to be tonight. It’s obvious that your church is much more than this place that you meet in.”
Love being part of this church family.
And I love our city.
Jesus, redeem Nitra from it’s lofty, Godless, religion.
DAWSON AND LAUREL JONES 