About Slovakia
Slovakia is a beautiful country in central Europe. It was communist until 1989, as the slightly smaller half of the former Czechoslovakia. The Czech Republic and The Slovak Republic peacefully divided in January 1993, and both countries have joined the European Union. Slovakia is completely landlocked and is sandwiched between Czech, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and Austria. The geography in the country is quite varied, having beautiful mountains in parts as well as being almost completely flat in others. The buildings are even more varied; beautiful, historic structures mixed with some ugly, grey communist flats, and some more pleasant modern buildings.
Slovakia has a little over 5 million people, most of whom are Slovak, but also consisting of a considerable ten percent Hungarian population and an unknown number of Gypsies. Slovaks, when you get to know them, are a wonderfully kind and generous group of people. The economy is quickly improving but the average salary is still far behind that of Western European countries. The financial problems faced by many often contribute to the additional problems of homelessness, alcoholism, and domestic violence which effect many people. At the same time the growing economy has caused many to become increasingly materialistic.
The country is majority Catholic, but with a declining church attendance. Evangelical churches in the main are still fairly small. According to a 2003 survey, only a little over five percent of towns and villages in Slovakia have an evangelical church. The main evangelical church denominations, Pentecostal, Baptist and Methodist etc., have less than one hundred churches between them. There is however a church planting drive across the country. Many churches have mission stations in neighbouring villages. God is on the move in this wonderful country.