The vitality and energy of the church community astonished us. They couldn't believe that we would have churches without toilets, adequate meeting rooms, facilities for young people, and effective sound systems. These were all things that they had taken for granted for years, even under a communist regime when the actual building of churches was extremely difficult. The border between Poland and the Czech Republic has done little to divide the Church. Services in both languages are held either side of the border.
Every church needs a double set of service books and hymn books.
The Lutherans in what is today the Czech Republic have experienced a long suppression. In the Thirty Years War and its aftermath, this was at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. This experience did seem in some way to have prepared the Church to develop a spirit which enabled them to face the suppression imposed by the communist regime. Now there is some form of official recognition. Jan is one of the official chaplains to the prison in the town, and he took a significant part in the ending of the communist regime in the area.