One Detour.
One Decision.
A Mission That Stayed.

The Dream

It seemed to be working out. He was not yet nineteen and orders were already coming in from all over the world and from the biggest Czech companies. He became lead designer at Kiwi.com — then the fastest-growing Czech startup — and assembled the entire design team from the start.

Remote work, international clients, a career that pointed in every direction he'd planned for. The future was open.

The Wrong Turn

Together with colleagues, he bought a house in Klenovec — a village in central Slovakia. The region had long stayed with him: severe unemployment, high divorce rates, drugs. They were young, they thought they could help.

One day, on the way to a tradesman, he took a shortcut — and turned into a dead-end lane at the edge of the village. Directly into a Roma settlement.

He is honest about the prejudice. Most people in Slovakia carry it. He is also honest that something shifted immediately — not despite it, but through the encounter itself. The reality was too specific, too human to fit the category.

Balloons, Broken Guitars, and Persistence

For several months he gathered courage and simply prayed. Then he took a handful of balloons, hoping to engage the children and start playing. It worked. But what followed required something more than enthusiasm.

Moving In

There are small sacrifices, and then there are larger ones. He understood that if he was serious about helping, he needed to live among them — to know them from the inside. That meant moving into a wooden cottage in the settlement.

Looking back, he says it was one of the happiest periods of his life. He was still working remotely — still at Kiwi — but his heart had already stayed in Klenovec. The two worlds were running in parallel, and the gap was becoming harder to ignore.

Michaela

Then something unexpected happened. While in prayer and reading Scripture, he felt led to leave the growing mission in Klenovec and return to Brno. He couldn't explain it logically.

In Brno he met Michaela — Michalka. A trained psychologist. When he told her what he was doing in Klenovec, she understood it in a way that mattered. They married on August 25, 2018, and she moved with him.

Michalka brought something the work had been missing: gentleness, a warm heart, and someone who could work with girls in the community. She didn't come to assist with his project. It became theirs.

“Michalka je vystudovaná psycholožka, ale teďka hlavně vzorná maminka a hospodyňka. Dala celé práci něhu a laskavé srdce, které jí před tím scházely. Také doplnila chybějící článek práce s děvčaty.”

Together they worked toward what they had come to believe mattered most: leading people toward diligence and honesty, teaching children to read and write properly, and forming them in Christian faith and morals.

In October 2019, their son Adam was born.

Formalized

In the summer of 2020, they formally established the Kresťanská rómska misia — the Christian Roma Mission. A registered nonprofit. This gave the work its official form: the ability to employ staff, launch vocational training programs, and be accountable beyond their own intentions.

In May 2021, their daughter Mária was born.

East, and Still Moving

Martin and Michaela now live in eastern Slovakia with their four children. The work has expanded — new communities, new parishes, new workers in training. What began with a handful of balloons in Klenovec is now a network of parishes reaching Roma communities across Slovakia.

What has not changed is the principle: you don't send help from a distance. You go. You stay. You let it cost you something real.

Czech Television · 30 min

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