slovenia - where nothing seems to happen

well, not NOTHING, but it was a real trial to find newsworthy stories and especially accounts of spiritual life in this allegedly lovely little country on the fault line between the balkans and western europe. a couple of tidbits...

it's the only ex-communist country to have held the presidency of the EU (in 2007).

shortly after being accepted INTO the EU (in 2004) the government decided to vote out of existence an anti-corruption initiative that had been set up in order to speed up accession into the EU. clever pragmatists, those Slovenes :)

on the church/religion level here is a sneak preview of what i wrote for OW:

A long history of Catholic tradition is under threat. The three main Christian groups (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran) are lacking in spiritual vitality and in rapid decline into irrelevance. Atheism and New Age beliefs are increasingly prevalent as is general spiritual apathy. Pray for an awakening in the mainline churches that will draw the many nominal Christians into personal faith in Christ.

Evangelicals are few, underfunded and divided. There is an evangelical presence in only 28 out of 210 municipalities, so church planting teams are clearly needed. The tiny evangelical population often reflects the divisive culture of the South Slavs – pray for unity and the formation of an Evangelical Alliance. Almost none of the few dozen fellowships are self-funding; the vast majority rely on external financial support. Pray for Slovene Christians to rise to the challenge of supporting their own pastors and even sending missionaries.