Josef Odvárka

“Dad and one more gentleman, or brother, actually – we call ourselves brothers among the believers – went to Trutnov to ask the state official for church affairs whether they would allow us to continue with our fellowship, because we were not doing anything against the state. But he told us: ‘You cannot meet alone, you need to have some leader whom we assign to you, somebody, a priest, for instance, who would monitor whether you abide by the regulations.’ But when the brothers thought about it, they concluded that this was not possible. We have our regulations in the Word of God, and we gather in accordance with the Bible. For it is written: we ought to obey God rather than men, and God is the one who teaches us how to have fellowship. Do not neglect to meet together. We need to have some gatherings, but it is also written that there should not be any leaders, or fathers, or ministers – some churches have them, but it is not right, because Jesus said that all brothers are to be equal.”

“They were probably after the property above all, but they also wanted to eliminate our faith and to make us weaker in faith, because they knew that our parents were raising us as Christians and teaching us from the Bible, and they did not like it. I remember the prosecuting attorney yelling: ‘How did you actually intend to raise these children?’ Our parents raised us well, and this question was out of place, because my mom had even received an award as an exemplary mother some six months before my father was arrested; the municipal administration sent an award to mom, certifying that she was an exemplary mother – she has raised six children. She already had the three of us at that time. And then something like that happened!”