It was such a joy to celebrate 30 years of Word of Life in Slovakia during our annual Faith Conference in Bratislava in November 2025. We have so much to be grateful for to the Lord over the years.
It all has started as a simple youth revival at the University campus in the beginning of 90-ties when the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia opened the way for spiritual awakening. Danube festival became a great milestone in our history as 150 fervent Christians, mostly from Scandinavia, sailed down the Danube river harboring at major cities alongside of the river as Vienna, Budapest, Beograd and Bratislava preaching the Gospel.
It was a great success as hundreds of people gathered on the main square in our capital to listen to evangelist Bengt Wedemalm boldly proclaiming the salvation in Jesus´ name. We also had packed indoor meetings with brother Bengt and Ulf Ekman with the prophetic word that God will pour out rain on our dry land. Many got touched and healed, one lady that was deaf and dumb was miraculously healed on the spot. I started to lead a small group of students that in one year span quickly grew up.
We were so young and unexperienced but our hearts were sold out to the Lord. What a grace and God´s timing it was when in September 1994 the Bible school in Brno was opened with all the teachers from Uppsala coming down to teach the Word of God. In the first year we were 260 students from 10 European countries many of which are pastors or missionaries today. It was led by beloved missionary Micael Lundin and very much appreciated dean Göran Granberg. In 1995 the church in Bratislava was officially proclaimed and registered.
Over the years God has been good to us. We have opened five new churches in Slovakia working side by side with them helping them grow in the Lord building the lighthouse for their cities.
In Bratislava we reconstructed a facility in 2012 where we gather our church until today with the main hall seating 280, cozy cafeteria, Publishing house and rooms for children ministry – we have now 60 children from 6 to 12 years of age and quite many toddlers in our church family too.
We are very grateful for our Youth work. Especially last 5 years the Youth camps for teenagers and young adults started to grow and became an amazing tool for the Lord to reach out to the very heart of hearts. Many received the baptism of the Holy Spirit there and many times we saw how the gifts of the Spirit opened them for the reality of Jesus. Wonderful lifetime friendships are born there too. After one week so many of them come home totally transformed. At the last Summer Camp, we had amazing 94 participants.
Another significant event that the Lord has raised up among us is the precious Evening for Her that draws many ladies together four times a year. It is a real celebration for the spirit and soul, and even for the body as we have a specialist providing eyebrow shaping or another one offering a neck massage. Our cafeteria looks like 5-star hotel and is totally packed. Usually 130-150 ladies gather together, the biggest one had 170 attendees and many times ladies bring their unsaved friends that so easily receive salvation in such an atmosphere of love and fellowship.
We are true to the vision of Word of Life publishing books full of God´s Word and faith distributing them to the whole Slovakia and partially Czechia too. We have printed 74 titles over the years, either books by renown authors or books that we wrote. For example, the book Biblical Foundation that we have authored has become a great tool for disciplining the new believers year after year in our church and churches in our network. The book Get Born Again that shares powerful Gospel and my conversion testimony is circulating in the nation in many thousand: copies today.
The 2025 Conference was just amazing. It was even more than we could have imagined. Our worship groups did so great as they were literary opening Heaven for us. We have had many precious guests form our nation, and wonderful speakers as pastor Joakim Lundquist that has travelled from USA just to celebrate with us and our dear Mission director Christian Akerhielm who has concluded the Conference on Sunday back in our church facility that was jammed packed as never before. There were many tears of joy and thankfulness for what the Lord has done. To see young people that the Lord is raising up with the middle and older generation supporting them and running side by side just fills my heart with much gratitude and joy.
At the Conference we also had Viera Liebe, a graduate from the Word of Life Bible school that our church held for two years for Central Europe in 2009-2010. God has been using her powerfully. She and her husband opened an orphanage in Uganda which cares for 400 children from the streets. They built a whole new village for them with houses, School and even a Hospital. They have named the charity Good Future and Hope according to Jeremiah 29:11 and so many of our people have been donating and praying for that ministry for years. When Viera preached on Saturday night in the bigger venue that we rented for our Conference, the next day a man that was 50% deaf testified that he could hear perfectly. A lady came up to me on Sunday morning radiating with joy telling me that after a prayer on Saturday she has slept 10 hours like a baby after 1,5 years when she could not sleep hardly at all. God is still in miracle business!
We are looking forward to what the Lord has for us for the future. The church is the most wonderful and the safest place to be at in this final hour. We want to continue in the vision of our movement, that is to equip people with the Word of Faith, showing them spiritual weapons that they have teaching them how to use them and send them for victorious battle for the Lord.
We are so excited over the growing Word of Life Europe Family. Every year we try to bring as many leaders as we can for the Summits just because they are so strong and edifying. Thank you so much that you have been unselfishly sowing into our lives and nation for so many years. Your work has not been in vain and is bearing much fruit. May the Lord give it back it to you abundantly. Our prayer is so that the work can grow year after year bearing lasting fruit.
As Carl Gustaf Severin that has become our mentor over the decades once said: “I do not come to nations to bear fruit but to plant trees that will bear much fruit.” May the Lord will be glorified in everything we do in the years to come.
Pastor Peter Curik
Main Pastor, Word of Life Bratislava
