Welcoming Jana



I picked up Jana Jurcova at the airport on Friday as she arrived from Slovakia. Joe Ann welcomed her by phone before we left the airport. As we came into Park Place Towers, where we live, Helen Roller was one of the first people she met. This September it will be twelve years since Helen began CWJC in Amarillo.

For the next two weeks Jana will be experiencing CWJC in Amarillo before she and Jozef Brenks, who arrives on the 18th, fly to Dallas for the National Certification Training. We want them to be immersed briefly in a working program before training in order to be able to put a picture in their new knowledge frame. 

After working with Jana for the better part of the 12 years we were in Slovakia, we know not only Jana but also the timely match between CWJC/CMJCand the ministry there. In fact, there are many similarities between the participants in our program here and those we worked with in Slovakia. There are also materials we currently teach in interpersonal skills and life recovery that we used in Slovakia. Consequently, they are already adapted and translated.

Jana is a home missionary of the Baptist Union in Slovakia who serves as a vital part of the ministry of a nonprofit Joe Ann and I were privileged to help establish in 2005. In Slovak it is called Zivot bez Zavislosti, which in English means Life without Addiction. Jana manages the office, works primarily with women and children, translates materials, and assists the director in every way she can.

The ministry, located in Poprad but reaching out to the whole country, operates with a Slovak staff and volunteers, has a Slovak Board of Directors, and is supported financially by Slovaks. Since we left Slovakia at the end of March 2009, the ministry has grown and developed under the leadership of Jozef Brenkus. (More about Jozef after he gets here.)

It gives us such joy to continue to work with Jana, Jozef, and others, share in the ministry there, and now see the potential birth and development of CWJC/CMJC in Slovakia.

What do you think a Slovak gal takes a picture of on her first day in Texas? Horses on the parking lot of the local Dairy Queen while their riders are inside.