* appeared in The News Reporter on January 24


From Slovakia with Love….

There’s a blue sky in Bratislava today, which is a bit unusual during winter in the Slovak Republic. Often, there are gray skies during this time of year. In addition, there’s a cold that seeps slowly into your bones as you walk to and from the bus stop, work, the grocery store, Bible Study, etc. Yet, I know that where I am this winter is exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Now, I won’t lie. If there was a way to “beam myself back to Columbus County” for a round of hugs from my loved ones – I’d do it. However, after some hugs, love and laughter from my family and friends, I would then “beam” myself back to my little attic apartment here in Slovakia.

I live underneath the slanted roof of a bright yellow house my neighbors and I have dubbed “the SonShine House” (SSH). It’s located about 25 minutes by bus from the historical center of this capital city in Eastern Europe. Like every house in this city seems have, the SSH comes complete with a fence and gate. As of yet, there are no tiles on the steps and mud is the only landscaping, but all that should change in the spring…we hope.

Last month (December 2004) played host to my first European Christmas. It was a memorable time. Now, that it’s 2005 (Happy New Year, Columbus County), let me share with you a few thoughts from the celebratory season just past.

“Požehnané vianočné sviatky” means “Blessed Christmas Holy Days” in the Slovak language. Several times in December, I visited the annual Christmas markets found in the Olde Towne of Bratislava. After church on the Sunday before Christmas, I walked through the underground area of the Presidential Palace toward the Historic District of the city.

Bratislava was known as Pressburg during the reign of the Hapsburg Dynasty (Austrian/Hungarian Empire). So as I walked beyond the palace toward the markets, I passed several boring Socialist-style buildings built during the Communist years. I also passed beautifully designed structures, which have stood for more years than America is old. Yet, from what I’ve learned of Slovakia’s history – and similar to human nature - the beautiful buildings have seen their share of suffering, and I’m sure the ugly buildings have held their share of joy.

On this particular Sunday, when I reached “Stare Mesto,” the central square of the downtown area, I began to soak in the ambience of the annual collection of food and craft stalls. There, in the cold air, I sought warmth in the people milling about and in a hot-off-the-grill chicken and onion sandwich. My meal was complemented by warm spiced wine and the melody of a language I still strive to learn.

“Dobry Den” (Good Day), I’d say, as I’d come up to a stall to look at the wares. Often, when I said I was still learning to speak Slovak, the craftsmen would smile and begin to speak to me in what they said was their “little bit” of English. I always have to laugh inside when those kinds of comments are followed by much better English than my Slovak has yet to become. That day and always, I am grateful for the Slovaks generous spirits and their welcoming ways.

The Christmas season here in Slovakia is different than it is in the States; yet, sadly to me, it is becoming more and more influenced by the commercialized ways of the West. No one likes fun Santa hats more than me…but when I see the focus of the Yuletide become more about “things” than about “truth,” I cringe. December 25 is not the day Jesus was born…yet it is the day we celebrate this wondrous gift from God. It makes my soul ache when I see an increasing number of people focusing more on what they get during the holidays rather than what was given to them two thousand years ago.

Where in America, I believe we get lost in materialism, here in Eastern Europe, it seems that people get lost in intellectualism…and faith gets pushed aside for facts and findings. I am a woman who often “thinks things to death” and can follow that with talking them into the ground. Too often, I find it dangerously seductive to discuss at great lengths the whys and wherefores of all that was, is and shall be. Yet this year - while I’m away from home and missing the sounds of the Southern accent and the taste of sweet potato casserole - I’m also finding a peace that passes all understanding.

For me, that peace is found in the fact that two millennium ago, give or take a few years, a little baby was born in Bethlehem. But he didn’t stay a baby; in fact he grew to be what I believe is the Saving Grace of our world. I could think about it. I could talk about it. I could even focus only on the fact that this baby’s Father gives me free will - so I can live however, and buy whatever I choose.

Instead, in these years away from the Tar Heel State – I choose to accept what cannot always be understood, but will be forever debated…Our Creator sent His Son to be born in feed trough so that I had the opportunity to drink of Living Water. Like any ol’ stubborn horse, though, I can be led to the Water and still refuse to drink.

Anyone can make the choice to create a personal version of truth – many of the people I now see every day have lived in an environment where truth was, and is, relative. As it’s said, I’ve “been there and done that.” And what I’ve discovered is this: even when the skies of our spirit are not blue, but gray, and the wind is icy cold in our souls - there’s an eternal Son that Shines into the darkness. That Truth is the same in every place on earth.

So, my prayer is that this Christmas season was indeed blessed and holy for you and yours, and that 2005 is a happy, healthy new year. If Christmas is not a season you celebrate, I encourage you to consider that the story of king leaving the halls of heaven for a stall in the Middle East may not be just fanciful folklore. I’m a firm believer in “if you seek, ye shall find….”

My personal experience has been that while I was seeking Truth, it found me.

May Grace, Peace and Joy be yours. With love from Bratislava, Wallyce Todd

*Wallyce Todd is a native of Columbus County, a 1989 graduate of Whiteville High School and a former English teacher at West Columbus High School. She has also been a writer for The News Reporter. She now lives in Bratislava, Slovakia, where she is serving as a journalist for Trans World Radio. She can be reached via her personal website at: www.wallyce.szm.com. Beginning this month, she will be writing a column entitled SpiritSong, which will connect her life in the U.S. with her life in Europe.