Category: Blog (Page 7 of 13)

Last January we served youth leaders and their teams from eight local churches. About 40 youth leaders and their team members participated in the training.

The main topics (Life in the team, when we got stuck and our team as the family) were about team work. We feel like this year’s School of the Leaders (the team training was part of it’s program) has reached the highest level in the history of the school. The youth leaders are very teachable, eager to learn and serve in their youth groups. Recently we got an invitation to lecture with the School of leaders training program of the Lutheran church in East Slovakia. Please pray for us to know if it is wise to take this challenge. There is a lot to be done, but the workers are few.

The topic was “Purposeful Youth Ministry,” and were honored to serve the largest group of the youth workers ever. At the end of the training, I gave the final talk about the doubts in our life and the ministry (based on Luke 7:18-29). The “Adopt a SPM Student” project is fulfilling our expectations.

It is encouraging to see how the Slovaks are adopting, and supporting the students. It is a great investment for we have a great group of the students this year (21). They learn and serve hard in their youth ministries.

We opened new office in the Eastern side of Slovakia (Presov) in the beginning of the year.

Our colleagues Maruška, Peter and Jany (he joined our team last month) work there. This change is pretty joyful for us and spreads our TCK team from Zilina to East Slovakia. God has fulfilled our dream to open a TCK branch in this area. The change requires a new way of communication and offers new open doors for ministry possibilities in that region.

The Rumbolds moved to East Slovakia in January and we are celebrating the wonder of it all. This couple with five children, left their family, their country, their culture, their friends, their house and Ed’s job to begin the Slovak adventure. The miracle is to see so many of their friends, family and churches commit to support their ministry overseas in such a short period of time.

The local church in Bardejov welcomed them warmly, with typical Eastern Slovak hospitality. Their first Sunday, they experienced their first culture adjustment, attending their first church serves in a very cold and old church. After that, they began to wrestle with the Slovak language (it is considered to be the most difficult language to learn). We pray that they would get the endurance, wisdom and patience in the beginning of their ministry.

At the end of May, 21 students graduated from our school. These students were a great encouragement to us. The program brought a lot of good fruit in our lives as teachers and mentors,

as well as the students. A few of them started small groups in their churches. The philosophy of many youth ministries, has been positively influenced. One of the students started a family prayer time with her mom, father and the sister. She is great example of Christ’s care for the family.

The School of leaders will have a new direction next year called version 2.0. We would like to practically help four or five local youth ministries during the school year. It means less classroom theory and more of being on location with local church youth leaders. We would like to organize the original version of the school (version1.0) again in the 2011/12 school year.

Possibility of unusual investment for new supporters
This year TCK has received a special offer. A foundation decided to support TCK ministry and help spread the TCK financial team of supporters within Slovakia and abroad. The foundation will match $1 for every $1 received from a new TCK supporter. This matching grant goes up to $30,000. We feel like this is a rare opportunity, and it is a great way for us to encourage new supporters to join us in the ministry. The money TCK gains from this will be used for the Annual Youth leaders conference, for the School of the leaders and for the TCK administration.
Please consider this opportunity of investment into His kingdom in Slovakia. Thank you.

We would like to support the English camp follow ups by doing this project in two towns. It is a big, four day evangelism event in each town. We would love to connect the local churches and their public high schools by offering the students lectures about AIDS, drugs, sex, smoking, and relationships. In the afternoons the churches will offer an activity to build and strengthen relationships with the students.

At the end of the week, the churches will host a concert featuring an American band, like Dizmas. The Good news will be spread out from the stage as well as through the local churches youth members with the goal of sharing the Gospel to over 400 students in each town. These tours have already been organized in 17 towns in the Czech Republic. We are currently making contact with the local churches in the two towns we have selected. Please pray for this to all come together.

We would like to support the follow up of the summer English camps by the Exit Tour project in October 2010.

I wrote about this project more in the previous newsletter. It is a big evangelism project organized alongside seven Slovak local churches and six high schools in Zilina and Kosice. The project will last for four days in each city.

The Slovak Television representatives asked that before they will air the first 37 episodes of Exit, they will need the recommendations from the Catholic and Lutheran bishops. After three years of unsuccessful negotiations, we are not giving up our dream to start 150 evangelism small groups for high school students in Slovakia.

We received a promise that the first recommendation from the Catholic bishop should be submitted at the end of February. Please pray for the positive break through in this project.

We finally attained the required recommendations from both the Catholic and Lutheran bishops and submitted them to the Slovak Television company.

Originally, this was supposed to secure the airing of the first 37 parts of the Exit 316 program on this TV station. Unfortunately, it looks like it did not help too much. We are now preparing for national elections and the station is the state TV. So, nobody wants to risk his position with something unusual. But after three years of unsuccessful negotiations, we are not giving up our dream to start 150 evangelism small groups for high school students in Slovakia through this program. Please pray for the positive break through in this project.