May 31st, 2012 by Zac

This is a picture (right) of my grandfather and his family (including my dad – seated). My grandfather and his wife were happily married until they passed away. Fortunately for me, they passed down a legacy of good marriage and family to my father.

Now, over 100 years later, my family is still benefiting from their wise choices.

At the most recent Exit Tour (see also this article about Exit Tour) here in Slovakia, I presented a lecture on “The building blocks for a healthy family” to several hundred students in three public schools. This topic was one of a number of topics presented by 10 lecturers over the course of three days. From the moment I announced the topic in each class session, I had a very interested audience.

With Slovakia’s divorce rate in the mid 40% range, there is naturally some serious pain just below the surface, in the lives of these high school students. Read the rest of this entry »

May 30th, 2012 by Zac

In 2008, I wrote a web post (on our old web site) about a Slovak girl named Denisa. While she was a High School exchange student in America, she was led to Christ by her host family. When it was time for her to return to Slovakia, her host mother googled “church in Zilina” (our town in Slovakia) and saw our family, our church and our e-mail address. So, she contacted me in an effort to find a church home for her new spiritual child. To our surprise, Denisa was already enrolled in the school AND CLASS where I was teaching English conversation. Already one miracle! So we met and she joined us on a number of occasions for Bible study and church.

Denisa, now finished with High School, lives with her family and makes frequent trips back to America to visit the same host family and continues to grow in Christ.

On one of those subsequent trips to America, Denisa’s sister Andrea went along for the visit. And during that visit with the same host family, Andrea accepted Christ as her savior. Now, although they  live in another Slovak town about 2 hours from us, they are attending University by extension in our town. And frequently they visit us and attend our church.

Andrea is seriously considering Bible School somewhere. She strongly feels the desire to be trained and serve God somewhere in the world. Of course, finances are an issue, but if this is God’s plan, we know he will provide.

These sisters need our prayers for endurance, faith and knowledge of the riches of a life with God. If you would help us support them in this way, we know there will be great rewards.

May 29th, 2012 by Zac

Kim wrote about this briefly in her earlier blog entry (“Out the door to KPM – March 30 and First KPM report – April 10) but I (Zac) have not had a chance to tell my side. I was responsible for two main tasks. The first was a task that is mine almost every year and it lets me vent some of my creativity. The task is the creation of the main display for the conference center foyer. This year’s display consisted of a raised bike “trail” with some extra’s to make it look like it was outside. And of course, a bicycle. The set (pictured right) was not so complicated, but hopefully represented the central conference idea.

The second task was co-teaching, with my national training teammate, the second (of four) conference tracks. Our track theme was, “How to move a believer from being a follower of Christ to being a discipler of people”. We led the group of around 150 leaders into a range of ideas including: how to find a disciple, how to start a small group, 4 roots of healthy discipleship, when your disciple fails and more.

With almost 750 conference participants this year, we continue to push the limits of our facility capacity. But we also want to experience new limits in what God wants to do through local church youth ministries all over Slovakia.

May 25th, 2012 by Kim

It’s no secret that I love to cook. It brings me joy to feed my family well. How much better the food seems to taste when it is prepared in such a beautiful and well equipped kitchen.

And yet yesterday I experienced a different kind of feeding in my kitchen. One that brought more joy and satisfaction than I have yet to experience. It was a feeding from the Lord.

It was here, in this place that my friend and I spent the morning in the presence of our Lord. God met us here. He spoke to us. We found ourselves confessing generational sins and lies that we believe. Calling them by name. Rejecting each one. Confessing. Repenting. We made new vows. Vows from TRUTH, this time from the LORD. A new covenant. All made from beautiful images from the Lord.

When you experience something like this, God’s presence, in the way we have, you don’t want to leave. You don’t want to experience anything less.

Thank you Lord. You are so great and so mighty and yet you choose to show yourself to these children.

This is my place. The Lord has given it to me. I am so blessed.

May 21st, 2012 by Zac

If you would like to have a comprehensive overview of all the work here at Kompas Training Center, please take some time to read our Annual Report from the past year (2011).

Simply click HERE and scroll through the highlights of this past year- ONLINE. There are both English and Slovak versions.

We want God to have all the glory for the lives being changed here in Slovakia!

May 11th, 2012 by Kim

Last week in the Czech Republic, at our annual missionary family conference, we learned how our relationship with our earthly fathers make us into the people we are today. Good and bad. No father is perfect. Even the best are not without sin. All but one. Our heavenly Father. The conference was titled “Found by your Father”.

Now I’m back home, sitting in the bleachers watching my son play his first floorball competition. And I’m pondering the things we learned. I wonder about the influence his father has already had on him during his eight short years. What is we are doing (or not doing) that makes him (Sam) afraid to play in this competition. He has told me about his fears. He doesn’t want to disappoint his team. He doesn’t think he is a very good player.

I know I consciously praise him in floorball. I hear his father praising him as well. What on earth has shaped this young boy’s thinking and tricked him into believing such lies?

I ponder. I pray. And here he is today. Dressed in his uniform waiting his turn to go out in the court. Of course he is scared. Of course his heart is pounding. Of course his palms are sweating waiting for the coach to call his name.

And then I find myself being the mom that sits on the side yelling for her boy. Never mind I’m speaking English while everyone else stares at me. I am a mom. A proud mom. Full of joy as she witnesses her son fight his fears.

Thank you God for this boy of mine. Thank you for his kind heart. Thank you for his sensitive spirit. Give me and his father wisdom as we parent him and teach him in yours ways. Make him strong in his faith and strong in his dependence on you his heavenly father.

And if you see fit… maybe a goal here and there along the way! 🙂

May 2nd, 2012 by Kim

This morning I’m sitting in a room listening to Gwyneth warm up her voice for her competition this morning!

This time we drove so there would be no chance to miss the bus (like last time)! Gwyneth was however still nervous about making it on time, until we arrived!

I love that she wants me here with her. I wouldn’t want to miss this experience.

But today is also special for another reason. It is the first day of the long awaited Josiah Venture Spring missionary family conference. There are always good things in store at this conference for our whole family.

Our friends from Croatia were able to come a few days early to be with us before the conference starts, along with another 2 friends from Poland! We have a full house for sure. Everyone is content. Even the moms got a solid block of time together yesterday just for talking (and praying)! An additional 7 more people from Slovenia came for the afternoon to visit and dinner!
Everything was going quite smoothly up until I took the meat from oven that had been cooking for several hours (pulled pork). Despite the long hours of baking, it was still not done! At that moment my heart panicked ” what went wrong?. . .I’ve made this many times before”, and worse, “now what can possibly feed all these hungry people at a moments notice?” it was such a helpless feeling . Mentally i surveyed the pantry and knew, being the day before we left home for a week, groceries were low. However serving uncooked pork was not an option!
Thankfully the answer came quick! We chopped the meat (all 7 pounds) and sautéed it bit by bit until it was all done. Whew. That was a close one. One we laughed about later and all agreed what a good blog entry it would make!

BY THE WAY – AS AN ADDENDUM – GWYNETH WON FIRST PLACE (GOLD) AT THIS COMPETITION!!

WE ARE REALLY PROUD!