TRANSCRIPT

NATHAN JONES

For the first time, we head to Slovakia to meet with Július Slovák. Július stewards a ministry called Godzone, a movement of God that is reaching the people of Slovakia at an alarming rate.

I'm your host, Nathan Jones, and I want to welcome you back to another episode of the Inspiring Stewards podcast.

Július, thank you for your time today. I've been looking forward to this. Give us a little bit of your background, where you're from, where you grew up. 

JÚLIUS SLOVÁK

Yes, I'm from Slovakia, a little village in the middle of Slovakia called Sliač. It's a spa town. And I grew up in a Catholic family with my sister and my parents here in this small town.

NATHAN

Tell me about how you came to know Jesus and what impact that had on your life.    

JÚLIUS

I actually grew up in a Catholic family, but I never had a personal relationship with God. It was only a religious educational thing when I was a kid. The very powerful thing in my life that changed the direction was when I was 9. My father left us from home, and he goes to work in abroad. But it goes further and that means, my parents got divorced years after this situation.

And so, that means I was a lot of time spending in the streets, skating, and things this – a lifestyle connected with skaters. When I was 14 years old, somebody invited me to some meeting. I actually doesn't know what was this about. But I wasn't going there because of people or young people, like, “Okay, I will just meet somebody new.” And it was a school of leaders, but I didn't know that.

I was 14 [years old] and I came there and it was such a different space. I didn't know nothing about it. But suddenly, at some prayer meetings in the evening, God touched my heart, and it changed everything that I was like, “Okay, if you are really alive, so here is my life.”

I have only one thing I want to pray. It’s some kind of condition. And this condition was like – I want to be a part of this life fully. Because I have a lot of friendships in the streets but it was always, you know, only half time or you know, not very powerful.

And God take these words very, very much, you know and just, I was born again at the time when I was 14. And I started to minister to Him actually full-time until now.

NATHAN

Wow. So, let's jump ahead to today. Tell us about what you're involved in, what ministry, what activities.

JÚLIUS

So, the story continues. When I came back to my parish in a Catholic church, it was like, "Okay, so I was touched at a worship meeting." And nobody, at the time, it was the year 2000 in Slovakia, there was just very, very little bit of worship kind of music or prayer.

So, I was feeling like, “Who is that God I met there?” I never know about it. So, I start to pray for my city, start to work with the young kids there, young people in the parish as a 14-year-old boy.

So, that means I have nothing. I don't know nothing, how to work with the people. But we start to pray, and I was praying for three years. And I was leading a lot of people, talking with them about God, the young people.

And after three years of prayers, one guy came to Christ. So, that means we can start a fellowship. We can start a small group, starting reading Bible together, sharing together, praying together.

And afterwards, we led a one small group in our parish of young people who was preparing for some kind of ministry in the church. And this group, like 10 people, was born again suddenly in one meeting. So, that means we started a small group. Our passion was like, “Okay, this was the girls and boys from the streets, not from the temple.”

So, that means like, “Okay, we have to spread this message of gospel in between our neighbors and our friends in the school.” So, we started doing the organization as we know with everything what we have.

Our prayers was like, “Here is our hands. Here is our feet, our talents. We want to give you everything we have. Just use us, God, somehow.” 

And it started to grow. And long story short, in 2009, we started a project called Godzone. It was such a powerful thing because we organized one organizational tour, seven cities in a row. Every day, another city. And about 5,500 people came there, and it started a movement called Godzone.

Nowadays, we have 30 people full-time in ministry in the countries Slovakia and Czech Republic. And we serve full-time in a plenty of things of Godzone project.

NATHAN

Tell me a little bit more about Godzone. Is that youth-focused or is it more broad?

JÚLIUS

It was youth-focused when we started because we were young but it's 15 years from that time. So, that means we grew up and we started a ministry called Godzone Youth already for the youth people.

We work with the young families. Last month, we started a new direction like Godzone Kids. So, that means, the group of people we work with, it's from kids to the adults to the grandparents.

But we are talking about the vision of generation who seek the kingdom. And this generation is not based on the year of birth, but on the perspective of living life from the kingdom's perspective.

NATHAN

That’s fantastic. Well, you know, this being the Inspiring Stewards podcast, tell us about the concept and philosophy of stewardship and how that has played a role in your life.

JÚLIUS

I think it's a very big thing in my life. Responsibility, it's some kind of part of my life. So, that means everything what I do, I see it from the perspective, “Okay, I'm responsible for this. I have to do it the best way.” And stewardship, I think, God gave us the responsibility for His resources, for His project.

So that means, Godzone project is not a goal. It's only something what we steward for God. And we can use it and we can just take care of it and God can use it for His glory.

So, this is my perspective of ministry and life. Everything what we have from our ministry to the family life. That means like, I have three kids. One is three, second one is seven, and eleven. The day will come when they’ll leave us from home and they just go and start their own families. And I have to be ready in the time, like these kids are not mine. I am only the father of them and I can steward them and take care of them and prepare them for life.

So that means, that it’s also the same with the Godzone project and ministry. I think it's very, very important to see like everything what we have, it's for the kingdom, it's not ours.

NATHAN

That’s great! You've already started to paint this picture of how you're seeing God at work, but anything else you would add about how you're seeing the move of His Spirit, maybe locally or regionally from your perspective? 

JÚLIUS

As I mentioned with the community, with small group, we started in 2003. We organized a festival firstly. And we was a little bit crazy, like 18 years old to some businessmen. We came there like, “Okay, here's the festival. We want to invite bands from abroad. We want to preach gospel and we need a half a million of Slovak crowns.”

It was so much money at the time. And we came there, like we did two papers of something, but we have a dream. And this guy said, “Okay, I will pay for that.”

So, it starts to grow, the festival. And afterwards in 2009, God told us, like, “Okay, the festival should finish itself.” It was the final year of the festival. 1,500 people was there. So, for us, at the time, it was so much people.

But after in November, we organized the first Godzone tour ever. It was nothing like we were preparing the project. We only want to do evangelizational tour once per week.

But in the same year, in June, we have 1,500 people at the festival. And in November, we have 5,500 people at the tour. So that means, we feel like, “Okay, God brings some kind of movement in this country, in the middle of youth people with the vision of a generation who seeks the kingdom. We want to be part of it.”

And last year, we have 25,000 people at the Godzone tour 2023. We did 8 years of leader school. We have like 500 leaders and we have hundreds of small prayer groups across the country in Slovakia. So that means, when we evangelize, we already has a number and database of communities where these young people can come and can be part of it.

So it is a massive movement in the country. And it grows also in other countries like Czech Republic. There is also a few more people working here in other movements. It's connected together because Slovakia, a small country. But I think this is something what we never expected before.

NATHAN

That's tremendous! Do you partner with other groups, other ministries?

JÚLIUS

Yes, that's also something specific about our country. Because we have regular meetings. One is inside of the Catholic Church, that means the Catholic leaders. But one is multidenominational, that means all denominations. Leaders from these denominations are connected together every month.

So, Slovakia is a small country. That means we know each other, everybody who is like ministering in the kingdom.

NATHAN

Boy, God is doing a good thing in you and through you. And so, we'll continue to pray. And I just want to say thank you, Julius, for your time today.

JÚLIUS

Thank you too. Thank you for the opportunity.