Perfect strangers become close brothers under unique circumstances. Athletes, soldiers, mothers, or trauma survivors could be perfect strangers, yet intimately bonded by their shared purposes and experiences. The Church is like this, too. We are unified in our experiences of encountering the living God and being set in motion for one purpose.
I arrived in Prague, Czech Republic, in November 2025. With me were our missions pastor, our senior pastor and his wife. I had one goal: to introduce West Shore to the churches in the Czech Republic and establish a joint missional relationship. It’s crazy to think that twenty years ago, I was 19, confused and heartbroken, flying home from a mission trip to the very same place. The trip had not gone the way I had hoped, and I thought that I perhaps misunderstood God’s call for me to be a missionary. But in the car in 2025, it was abundantly clear that I have always been called… and God’s plan was so much better than mine.
Over our two-hour ride from Prague to Brno, I prayed that the church leaders sitting next to me would come home with a Czech-shaped splinter in their hearts, one that would fester in their prayer life and bring about miracles for the church in the Czech — and for our church in central Pennsylvania.
It didn’t take long.
We worshipped God shoulder-to-shoulder with the grandmas who couldn’t speak English and the teenagers who translated for us. We traveled to town after town and prayed, making our way up ancient cobble stone streets and down communist apartment-lined neighborhoods. Despite numerous cultural differences, we realized that the Church remains singular in purpose: to Follow Jesus and Make Him Known. In just one weekend, that purpose was evident. Our love for God produced love for each other and for the lost.
For a country the size of South Carolina with a population the size of Michigan, the Czech Republic boasts an impressive position as the most irreligious country in Europe, and third most atheist country in the world. While it may be home to the Moravian Brethren and world-famous reformer Jan Hus, communism left a deep scar in the religious heart of the people.
For 41 years, the country was under a strict communist regime that actively suppressed religion, resulting in a generational gap in spiritual knowledge. Today, many young Czechs have never stepped foot in a church or heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. In fact, there’s still deep mistrust for any organized religion, and most church plants actively fight against the notion that churches are cults. The absence of religion has produced high alcoholism, divorce, and suicide rates in today’s younger generations. They need a Savior, and they know it – they just don’t know Him.
Hungry to recover their culture and economy after the war, the Czechs pursued education, science, and western materialism. Their capital city, Prague, is one of the greatest cities in the world! Its miraculously untouched buildings, bridges, and art draw the world to its beautiful doorstep year after year. However, step into any of its grand cathedrals and you’ll find them eerily empty. There are chapels lined with gold, painted in Renaissance-era art and adorned with pianos once played by Mozart himself. But there are no Bibles being read; no worship being sung. You can feel the weight of evil making its best attempt to claim ownership in these hollow halls.
But as our team met in church buildings made of apartment living rooms, restaurant dining spaces and renovated storage sheds, it was clear that while Jesus may not be in the fabric of their culture or politics, He is very present in His churches. We witnessed 20-person churches relentlessly pursuing the people of the Czech Republic, anxious to introduce them to Jesus. It takes the entire body working together to proclaim the Gospel there. And they do it tirelessly.
When we asked one couple why a church in Pennsylvania should care about the church in Czech, their response was beautiful. They explained how it is an invitation to become part of the miraculous work God is doing here. It is not because they ‘need’ us, but because they want us to see the Lord at work and experience a front-row seat together with them.
It is most definitely a front-row seat! With a population with less than one percent of Bible-believing Christians, even the faintest of lights are cast far and wide. Our team from West Shore witnessed 15 kids accept Jesus as their Savior after helping at a summer camp there in 2024. In the five mission trips I’ve gone on in the Czech, I always witness at least one person give their life to Him. I have even witnessed many who went on to become missionaries, camp leaders and pastors right in their own country.
There’s one more reason why this country holds a special place in my heart — I personally met Jesus and gave my life to him here. I was 17, freshly wounded from a terrible church experience that had me doubting everything I was raised to believe. I hopped on an adventure to go on a mission trip with my new church. Here, in the Czech Republic, I witnessed what people working together on mission are capable of. Everything I had ever been told of Jesus, I experienced firsthand. The power of the Gospel was on full display, and my faith was made sight! I couldn’t help but follow Jesus after watching His light break through the darkness.
Now, 23 years later, I wonder how many of us could use the invitation to the front row, could use a stranger-made-brother, or need to experience the church from a different perspective. Maybe the cathedrals of our hearts are jealous for the holy ground of a house church.
The church in the Czech can certainly benefit from the resources the American church can provide. But what they need most in a dark country is a brother and sister. They need the encouragement of the Body, the refreshment of friendship, and the empowerment that comes from the stranger who is willing to give it all to make Jesus known. I believe the church in Pennsylvania would say the same.
That weekend in November, I heard pastors share how they, too, have spent years praying the prayer of my heart, begging God to help the people of their country know Jesus and find life in Him. I was deeply humbled to know that my call to missions in the Czech was not a misunderstanding — it was God bringing me to an understanding that the Church needs missions… and missions needs the Church.
This summer, our church is returning to Brno. The prayer is that we will go there, and they will come here, and we will be united in our mission. Thank God I ‘failed’ my mission at 19, because God was shaping me to return with an even greater heart for His Church. I cannot wait to hear and see all that God uses us to do in the Czech, and what he uses the Czech to do in us.
On mission,
Allison Griffiths
Learn more about missions at West Shore, including ways to serve, pray and support our current teams.
