Testimony of Lubica Hovorkova, Bratislava, Slovakia

Attending the Sunday morning service in the Baptist Church in Bratislava, where the EBWU-committee was gath-ering in October 2013 for the very first time with the newly elected members, our attention was drawn to the beautiful sculptured wooden cross in that church.

Instead of asking the artist, Juraj Hovorka himself , we were thinking it would be nice to hear the story of the wife of the artist. She answered very openly the questions our President Aniko Ujvari presented to her. Read her emotional life story!

_

1 - How did you become Christian?
I grew up in a family, where the Holy Bible wasn´t only a decoration, it was read daily and in this way my young Christian character was formed. When I was 15, I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. To prove my faith, I was immersed into water and was bap-tized. My childhood was formed and influenced by my Christian family and by the religious community, which we attended regularly. My adolescence was not pain-less. My younger brother suffered from an incurable disease and was bedridden for many years. Shortly after he had gone to his heavenly home, my healthy 13 year old sister died after becoming ill with Asian flu. At that time my fellowship community supported and strengthened my faith very much.

Lubica and Juraj Hovorka

2 - What is your profession?
I am a retired teacher. It was not only my job, but my love as well. I loved going to work. I was happy to see children coming to the 1st class and knowing practically nothing; and then, ending their first school year I admired their knowledge, which enabled them with their further education. I could bring love, truth, and understand-ing into their pure souls. I loved my job, however I retired when I had to take care of my seriously ill mother. Also at that time I gave up my leadership of the women’s work in our church, as well as being involved in the Committee of the Evangelical Alliance of the Slovak Republic.

3 - What was your relationship with the arts before meeting your husband?
Thanks to my professors at the Pedagogical School, art – especially music and poet-ry –influenced my poetic spirit very much and thanks to the contact with my future husband I started to appreciate fine arts. I admired his ability to present beauty. I thought originally, that figuration represented the sense of art. Later, when married, I observed his struggle for idea and shape and I started to understand the essence of art. Concerning his work, I was sometimes allowed to express my own opinion. The relation with the sculptor opened new horizons to me. Thanks to him I got an opportunity to learn more about the environment of fine arts, of music and literature. Due to these contacts my aesthetic feeling deepened very much.

4 - How did you meet your husband?
When my future husband came to Bratislava to study at the College of Fine Arts, he also worked in our church with the youth group. I was very young then and at first I did not pay much attention to him. Later, after I had been invited to work with the juniors, (teenagers), we worked together and we learned more about each other. The juniors were educated in smaller groups during the week and in summer we orga-nized camps in open countryside for them. I and my future husband, we used to meet relatively often and we had common interests. Our friendship and affections for each other became stronger. However, the age difference between us was bigger and thus our relationship was becoming deeper only very slowly. To be honest, I have to say I appreciated him very much but I sometimes refused to accept his pre-sents, as for example, wrought jewellery with a portrait of me. This made him sad, and of course later I was sorry about it. By the way, today this piece is my most treasured of all.

5 - Can you tell us some stories from your married life?
We married on the day of his graduation. Till that day I had known him only as a college student wearing a white coat and with a spatula in his hand. He looked like a doctor, not only from the visual aspect, but by his mindset too. He was clever, at-tentive, helpful, resolute and decisive. Entry into the common, everyday life was hard for both of us. We lived in one basement room furnished only with a sofa, table and wardrobe. We did not have any finances. The first Christmas together my hus-band gave his blood at transfusion point to get some money for my Christmas pre-sent. We lived in very difficult conditions, however we were happy because we were in love.

After finishing his studies at the University, Juraj got the possibility to spend one more “honorary year’’ in his Alma Mater. Even although he had an academic de-gree, he was not famous enough to get an appropriate job. He needed his own atel-ier, tools and money to be able to buy some material. So this time at University was a perfect opportunity for him to co-work with famous sculptors on their monumental projects. He got more experience, contacts, and salary as well.

After one year, our first child was born. Later two more children came into our fami-ly. My husband was working very hard from early morning till late evening, the housekeeping was mostly on me. This period of time was a difficult test for both of us; I had not much experience, I felt helpless, and during that time I cried a lot. I be-came accustomed to the position of sculptor´s wife which I found very hard. Later Juraj obtained his atelier, and we were able to get our flat very close to it, so we could spend more time together. It was interesting for me to observe him working, to learn more about the process of sculpting, and about art in general. I understood that creating comes about by very hard and precise work. At the beginning of every project there exists only the idea. This idea is then changed into something tangible. The artist adds more mass, then he takes something off. The final realization of the idea is transformed into permanent material like stone or bronze. I remember well how our nerves were on the edge when he was setting the large-sized fountain on the Square of Freedom/Námestie Slobody in Bratislava. I noticed how his appearance was changing. Setting up of a master piece of art into its space is difficult not only from the safety point of view, but also whether its size will fit into the space. Each work is different, each needs special skills, new tools, new approach, new experi-ence. This was difficult for me and it took me some time to understand that Juraj needed calm and a still environment around him, he needed home as a place to relax. It wasn´t easy for me to realize this. I sometimes could not understand, why he did not help me at home. Thankfully, my parents helped me from time to time.

I am very thankful to our God that He has given us power and health, that our chil-dren and our grand children are true believers and that they are valuable members of our Christian community, and their faith is very strong!

6 - Is it true that artists have a special sensitivity for “what is going on” around them?
General opinion is that artists have unconventional lives, they are alcohol abusers, extroverts or the opposite. Some of them perhaps are like this. But my husband, as a true believer, beside his artistic activities was fully involved in the work for our Church. For many years he was in the management of the community as an elder, he was also a choir member and a leader of the youth group. Our household was al-ways open for guests, for spiritual discussions. We prayed a lot, we supported eve-ryone who needed help. Our children grew up in such an environment.

7 - What was most challenging in your marriage?
When one is married, there exist many opinions on how to face different problems. Even some of our problems were petty, but we had to solve them. Understanding is the most essential for everyday life. If you are in love, you are always able to for-give.

8 - Write something of what you have been thankful for in your life.
Firstly, I am thankful for my believing parents who brought me up in a Christian way. My faith had always been strengthened in our Church fel-lowship. Sisterhood and brotherhood – those are the relations that have been preserving up till now. Thank God for people with whom I can share pleasure and grief.

Secondly, my daughter became widowed very young with two little children. After eight years she remarried and moved to Canada. However, her life there was not without problems. My daughter fell into unconsciousness, she had a brain tumor. This was a horrible message for us and for our Christian community. We met togeth-er in an unusual time to pray. We pleaded with God very sincerely in prayer during her operation. What do you think, could there exist something more powerful than a common prayer to the Lord for her healing?

Thirdly, thank God for my husband. He didn´t fail during the years of communism. We both worked with young people and we were persecuted. During that time every official artistic piece had to be authorized ideologically by the supreme political au-thorities. It happened sometimes, his work was not authorized or stopped, or in me-dia another artist was mentioned as the author of my husband´s work. That was the price we paid for public profession of our faith. In those difficult years Juraj made many pieces with biblical themes: Lot´s wife, Goliath´s skull, Golgotha /the Skull, Archangel Gabriel, Angel with the broken wing, and many crosses. The cross “Pure victim” decorates the face of our chapel. These were hard years, however our fami-ly became closer, we were together; we supported and encouraged one another. And I am thankful for some special people who appeared in my life at the right time.

9 - Have you any experiences you would rather have avoided?
Horrors of World War II were permanently etched in my childlike soul – plane attacks, bombs, evacuation, killing, torture in P.O.W. camps. I was worried about my own life and about the lives of my beloved.
We organized the summer camps without any approval of the communist authorities and I was always worried that the police would find us, as we did not have any per-mission for such camps (that time it was necessary).

Camping in free countryside with young people was sometimes limited by bad weather, injuries, lack of responsibility. One day we went to the forest to pick up mushrooms and two girls, including our daughter, did not return to the camp. My husband as chief of the camp, went looking for them at night. I was worried about both of them. We all were praying all through the night. Finally, Juraj found them and brought them back miraculously to the camp in the morning.

But there were many ordinary situations. Once, my husband was abroad so I decid-ed to tidy up his atelier. Doing it, I mistakenly threw away a large amount of money designed for the reconstruction of our chapel. After coming back home, Juraj could not find the money, of course not, – it was somewhere on the rubbish tip! He didn´t say a word, but he was desperate. Seeing him was, for me, more painful than the duty to pay our own money for the reconstruction, when, at that time, our financial situation was not very good.

10 - What message would you like to send to women in Europe?
Well, it is difficult to say what to do more, what to recommend. To be Christian on-ly to have some advantages – God´s protection and blessing, seeking for prosperity, is not a real trust in God. On the other hand, showing Christians as good people without any problems is also a modified reality and not the truth.

We had hard time in the years of communism. We were suffering. To be able to ex-ist, we had to adapt to the system, even though we hated it. I believe, this would not be repeated. I am very glad that many changes have been done concerning this. On the other hand it looks like we have become too satisfied with the situation. We do not pay much attention to consumer lifestyle, which is becoming more and more dangerous and we can be trapped, also there are other things which can ensnare us.

Many theological streams have entered into our lives and they are leading us away from the real essence of life. Young people leave Christian communities and are searching for new ways. Any limits are considered not valid. Freedom and individ-uality have become the overwhelming issues. Appreciation of older people is dimin-ished. These all are the facts I am afraid of and which I would take care to avoid. How to change it? To make the rules and principles more strict? The gospel is nei-ther science, nor institution. Christianity is belief, mercy, and love. It is a guiding and leading by the Holy Spirit, it is a voluntary community – seeking and finding. Upbringing and education are very important, but they are not the power of salva-tion. Even when we are trying to do our best in our Christian fellowship, we cannot substitute God´s love and mercy.

Everyone can read about the Lord, and can learn much about Jesus Christ, however not everyone meets God and comes to faith. I wish all the sisters all over the world to have the opportunity to meet the Lord and to feel His never ending healing love.

Translation by Ludmila Englerova.