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June 20, 2018

A Day With David - A Young Josiah in Slovakia

We work in Central and Eastern Europe, where the vast majority of young people don’t know Jesus. Yet across the region, there are the few, the bold, the faith-filled and God-honoring who are different. They are statistic-changers, like King Josiah in the Bible, taking a stand to pursue Christ in their countries and helping others to do the same. One of these young Josiahs is David, a high school student in Slovakia. This is what a day in his life looks like.

A Look Into David’s Life

The alarm clock goes off at 6:30 AM. Nights seem so short every morning. David needs to wake up quite early because he lives 15 miles from school and he needs to catch a bus. Next one will come in several hours, so there is no option B to get to school.

His parents are usually gone early in the morning, so David eats breakfast with his sister, Ivana. They are the only Christians in their family. Ivana was discipled by one of the youth group leaders several years ago and then she invited her brother for a JV summer camp. He became friends with others from youth group there and later on he trusted Christ.

Sometimes the bus is late and then the walk to school turns into an involuntary morning run.

School is usually from 8:00 to 3:00 PM. David likes English and history and does not enjoy chemistry or physics. Sometimes there is a need to use breaks between classes for additional studying before a test, in case there was not enough time last night.

Things got a little exciting at school today. David’s friends from English camp came to do a camp promo in his school and since David is on the preparation team, he joins them for one class to spread the news about English camp among his classmates. It is quite an exciting opportunity to share his life with them!

Afternoons are busy. After school, David needs to get back to his village early, because today is a youth group day. He leads the youth group meeting with his sister and they need to practice for worship. The group meets every week. There is usually 15 to 20 people coming. They play some icebreakers, sing worship songs, and have devotions together. This week they are talking about trials in life. David tries to stay afterwards to build relationships.

David is quite tired already, but the day is not over yet. He needs to get back home and study some more for tomorrow. When he has extra time, he cannot resist to try out his new ukulele. Sometimes he chats for quite a while with his sister before they go to bed. Sometimes he spends time with his parents. But not today. Today was a long day!

Please pray for David, his sister, and the other young Josiahs we work with across Central and Eastern Europe, as they choose to live for Christ and point others to him at school, youth group, and everywhere in between. 

Michal & Katarína Pončák

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