Sheppersons in Slovakia

Where did the month of March go? It seems like I was just cleaning up all the Valentine’s decorations, reminding myself of the countdown before Emili’s 8th birthday on March 24. And then proof, it was here all of a sudden, then gone. And now I’m preparing for Easter!

Life has been very busy for us as a family. I (Kim) left for a Ladies retreat to Croatia in early March for one week. It was a great time of being together with other American missionary women. This conference is something we all look forward to each year. It was my first time to Croatia (the former Yugoslavia). It was beautiful. Our hotel had a wonderful view of the Adriatic sea, with it’s rocky beaches and mountains. Beautiful. And although it was still snowing back home in SK, the weather wasn’t all that different in Croatia. It was a bit warmer than SK, but not warm enough to enjoy the beach like I wanted to:) (more…)

This coming weekend (April, 8) we will host 5 youth ministry teams from various churches around the country. We plan about 5 such weekends during the year with different youth leaders and their teams. Our goal is to help these teams in some specific area of need in thier youth minstry.
This weekend our theme is “making your youth ministry a place where students want to come”. The weekend is filled with practical teaching, planning sessions, learning games and team building activities.

For more photos of this event just click here!

When our organization began work in Slovakia 10 years ago, a vision was born to develop an annual youth leader’s conference to mobilize, energize and inspire youth workers across the country. Each year since that time, KPM (Slovak abreviation for youth leader’s conference) has gotten bigger, better and more influential.

This year, another 500 youth leaders streamed into our city for four intensive days of seminars, worship, teaching, interacting with other youth leaders, quiet times with God and more.

Because of the situation with our local church, we feared that KPM might be just another indication that we were loosing our national influence. However, it was just the opposite! Many were saying that it was the best conference to date. At every turn, there were powerful indications of God’s presence and blessing.

This year’s theme centered on being proactive in what God has put in your hands and not focusing on what you cannot change. It is an espcially strong and meaningful message in this passive culture.

I was responsible for several things in the confernece. Of course I was promoting and selling our youth minstry resource - Davka. There are always those who have not heard of this tool and are eager to buy it for their ministry teams.
Also I coordinated a team that created two special thematic environments. One was called Sanctus Domus (Sacred Home) an interactive room set up like an apartment. In each room the participant was invited to interact with some questions about issues associated with life in that room. For example, in the kitchen, issues of anerexia, overeating, close (kitchen) relationships were addressed. Each room subsequently addressed different life issues.

I also was asked to teach two seminars. One seminar was on the first year in youth ministry. What to do and what to leave out. And the second seminar was about pornography and similar sexual sins.

You can view all the photos from this event if you click here.