March 10th, 2015 by Zac
This report will really encourage you!
At the end of 2014, Josiah Venture took a look back at the past year and also forward to see what lies ahead. This is a compilation of statistics from all of the 14 Josiah Venture countries in Central Europe. Click the picture below to open the readable version.
March 10th, 2015 by Zac
No, we weren’t sure it would work, or help or create some kind of a problem. We are not experts in this field of gypsy ministry. But we knew there was a need and we thought we could help.
In the end we gave Christmas gift boxes into the hands of 32 Roma kids. Stunned is probably the best word I can use to describe the responses. For me it’s a word that captures the surprise, confusion, reluctance and joy all at the same time. They were certainly surprised at our faces at their door the day before Christmas. They were confused about why we would be bringing them such a big gift. They (and their parents) were a bit reluctant to accept the gift, not knowing if it signaled some kind of commitment to our group. But for certain, there was joy at the beautiful coats, shoes, gloves, scarves and toys packed inside each box.
It’s hard to say what kind of lasting impact our efforts made. It’s especially hard to say for sure in these contexts. But one thing is for sure. It filled our hearts with joy to know that we gave our energy, money, time and love to someone else beside ourselves. And that we were obedient to God’s challenge to defend the cause of the poor and needy (Jer 22:16)
For all those of you who helped us buy the gifts with your special donations, we hope the pictures here fill your hearts with joy.
March 10th, 2015 by Zac
It’s like Emili has a second family sometimes. She spends a lot of time each week with her friends from the Lutheran youth group 
and their activities. We could not be more happy with her love for this youth ministry. Gwyneth has also started attending each week the Middle School group.
Lenka, Miska, Zlatka and Sona are Emili’s small group members. They meet each week to pray, study and encourage each other to walk with God in this broken world. Emili and Sona are the leaders of the group, so they are constantly organizing meeting times, sending text messages, preparing lessons and praying.
Please help us pray that their discipleship relationships will multiply and many would be inspired by their example.
March 10th, 2015 by Zac
It’s quite often that we get comments from visitors to our house like, “we never saw a family function like yours before”. Maybe it’s because a high percentage of young people come from dysfunctional homes, where there is only one parent, no parents, parents fight all the time, one parent works in another city or country, child lives with someone other than parents, parents are divorced. The complications are many.
Most recently, a group of High School girls visited us from another city, just to observe our family. Their small group leader planned the trip because she knows what they need. They want to see a man and woman that love and respect each other. They want to see children that have relationships with their parents. They want to see families that eat together. They want to see hugs and laughter. They want to see moms that cook and dads that wash dishes. They want to see order, purpose, unity and commitment.
All these notions just from a visit.
Our family is far from from all they needed, but we thank God that he’s using us to inspire others simply by living out the family values we work at every day.
March 10th, 2015 by Zac
I thought dancing was a simple matter of learning the steps and a little practice. Do I ever have an appreciation for dancers now! Kim and I have been taking a ballroom dancing course for several weeks now. Ballroom dancing is quite common here at weddings and formal occasions. Most High School students take a formal course at some point in school. Emili had her course this past semester. She basically learned all the things we are learning over the course of a school semester. She loved the course and had a wonderful dance event at the end of the semester. Even Kim’s mom (who was visiting at the time) was able to attend.
But as an American boy from the South, I rarely ever saw someone ballroom dance, much less take a course.
But now, we’ve launched ourselves into the whole program.
The problem with dancing isn’t so much the steps as it is trying to move at the same time as the other person. Most of the time we feel like two goats trying to run with their legs tied together.
Like most things that look easy, it’s not. But my hope is that if we learn the basics, we can practice from time to time. Or maybe ballroom dancing is best left to the Europeans.
March 10th, 2015 by Zac
Summer interns, new team members, summer camp teams, new financial supporters. All these were the objectives of Kim and several other Slovak nationals this past November in their visit to the USA. They visited numerous cities, colleges, churches and homes making connections. Kim is the favorite from our staff for this assignment because she is so personable, organized, proactive, resourceful, efficient, tech savvy and a travel expert. We a proud that she is able to take on such significant projects and in the end, make a significant contribution to the needed summer staff at Kompas. And please accept our special thanks to all who hosted Kim and her companions as they visited and traveled.
