April 6th, 2011 by Zac

As you may know, in October 2011, we will have been serving here in Slovakia for 10 years. As we anticipate this anniversary, we have naturally been looking to God for his next steps for us – primarily whether we should stay in Slovakia or return to America.

Over the last several months we have been presenting this question to God, asking for his guidance. Through a series of strategic responses, we believe that it is God’s plan for us to remain here in ministry for another term. We can’t see exactly how long this will mean, but probably up to 5 more years.

We were already planning our regular visit (every second summer) to the States this summer. But in light of these new future plans, we see several other factors that must be considered.

First, we have a longing to have some extended time with our families after this long time away from home. So we look forward to spending extra time at home focusing on family.

Secondly, we believe we need to reestablish our financial base as we look to the future. This will necessarily mean raising a certain percentage of additional financial support in expectation of these next years ahead.

We are anticipating that this could take some additional months in the States, so we are planning to remain in America from June until December 2011. This will give us adequate time to do the necessary travel and retooling for this next phase ahead.

We have already bought our plane tickets and will arrive in Little Rock on Tuesday, June 7th.  We really look forward to being home again and to be with all of you.

We would appreciate your prayers as we make preparations for this plan in the next two months. This includes packing up our present house and putting it in storage, finishing the kids school early, renewing our visas early (they expire while we’re away), selling or storing our car, and our housing in Slovakia for when we return (we have the possibility of  building a house).

It will be a hectic couple of months, but we know God is with us and that he gives strength to those who rest in Him.

April 6th, 2011 by Zac

“DRŽ SA! Zubami-nechtami”  “Hang on to God’s Word – tooth and nail”  This was this year’s conference theme, communicating the extreme necessity of being skilled in handling God’s word. This was, yet again, our largest conference to date with over 700 youth workers attending. The four day conference was packed with great teaching from the scripture as well as with practical tools for handling the Word of God. And as always, there were inspiring worship sessions, practical seminars and challenging activities.

One unique part of the conference for this year, which I (Zac) was responsible for, was a special missions evening titled “taking God’s word to places it has not been before”. God seems to lead us to focus on 15 former Soviet Union countries with whom Slovakia has a common history, a similar experience under communism and a similar language influence (Slavic orientation). These countries represent some of the most unreached people groups in Central Asia. Here are some statistics. (taken from www.joshuaproject.net).

Uzbekistan – 26.4 million unreached

Kazakhstan – 9.6 million unreached

Azerbaijan – 8.4 million unreached

Turkmenistan – 4.9  million unreached

Kyrgyzstan – 4.6 million unreached

Tajikistan – 6.7 million unreached

Ukraine – 528,000 unreached

Russia – 12.5 million unreached

Over half the conference attendees made a visible declaration of willingness to used by God to reached these unreached! That’s at least 350 potential missionaries! From a collective evangelical, Slovak, church that can identify only a few international missionaries, this was a staggering response. Our planning team was thrilled to say the least. And the repercussions have only begun to be felt.

On other fronts, both Kim’s and my seminar were full and well received. I spoke to guys regarding sexual purity and Kim spoke to the girls on a similar topic but with more focus on ” identity in Christ” . God has given each of us a message that enables us to speak passionately on these topic.

So, we are very encouraged by another strong youth leader conference. God keeps expanding our influence each year.

Pray with us that God will multiply the fruitfulness of each youth leader who heard these strong challenges and received these powerful ministry tools.

April 6th, 2011 by Zac

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April 6th, 2011 by Zac

“We have an exchange student from Kazakhstan in our church”, one of my team members said. “She just came about 6 months ago”. Our team was meeting to plan the missions night at our upcoming youth leader’s conference. This was the beginning of a still unfolding story that has God marks all over it.

Later on facebook, I tracked down Darya Romanova from Astana, Kazakhstan. I soon learned  she was currently in our city attending university with hopes of finishing a degree here. What we didn’t realize, was that God had done a miracle in Darya’s life just a few months before.

Born and raised in Astana, her mother was a nominal Orthodox church goer and her

Darya as a child with her family

father was an atheist. Although baptized as a child in the Orthodox church, she never remembers hearing the message of Jesus. After 17 years, while sitting in her home in Kazakhstan, chatting online with a christian teenage boy in America, the boy suddenly asked her if she “knew Jesus”. This started a two month discussion about the gospel that resulted in Darya giving her life to Jesus.

At the time of her arrival in our city for university, she had never attended an evangelical church, because she wasn’t sure one existed in her city in Kazakhstan. Soon she was invited to a local Lutheran church led by wonderful believing pastor and she fell in love with the church family there. Read the rest of this entry »