Slovenia

Country
The area of today’s Slovenia was in ancient times inhabited by Illyrian and Celtic tribes, followed by Greeks and Romans. Slavs, including Slovenes, began settlings the Balkans in the sixth century A.D. The Slovenes were independent from 620 till 745 and founded the state of Carantania. The Carantanian constitution was one model referenced by the authors of the U.S. constitution. Throughout the following centuries Slovenia was dominated by Bavaria, suffered terribly under Turkish raids, was under French rule and later part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But the national consciousness of Slovenes was never ruled out and Slovene language and literature continued to be developed. After WW I Slovenia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; and after WW II part of the communist republic of Yugoslavia. In 1991 Slovenia proclaimed independence and started on a course of political and economic reform. It became part of the EU in 2004.

People/Society
Slovenes have a reputation of being very industrious and hardworking. They spend a lot of time tending their gardens and homes. They object to character traits like being late, untruthful, rude, boastful, unreliable, aggressive, fearful of change, or pessimistic. In general, at first Slovenes seem to be reserved, but they are warm in relationships with family and friends.

Religion
Slovenes began to accept Christianity when they were under Bavarian dominion, but embraced it more fully when early priests Cyril and Methodius taught the faith in Slavic languages. Of Slovenia’s total population of 2 million people, 57.8 percent are Roman Catholic, 2.3 percent belong to the Orthodox Church. A large percentage (10 percent) considers themselves atheist; and a large portion of the population is completely indifferent toward religion .

History
In May 2000, Nazarene missionary, Daniel Psaute, moved to Ljubljana to begin the ministry of the Church of the Nazarene in Slovenia. From the start the strategy had focused on friendship/initiative evangelism, home churches, and church planting. A home church was soon started and is meeting in one of the homes of the believers on Wednesday evenings. From the beginning Nazarene volunteers have helped with children’s ministry, music ministry and preaching.

The Church Today
Despite Slovenia’s very dark spiritual climate, a number of Slovenes have made commitments to Christ. Believers attend weekly “home church” meetings as well as prayer and Bible study meetings. Presently, between 30 and 55 believers worship together.

On the field, the Church of the Nazarene is ministering in the following countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania.