Sheppersons in Slovakia

• Decko- wow, it starts in 3 days! Please pray that God will greatly use this program to reach many families in Zilina. That He will speak in the hearts, and give a desire for people to come. That people will see and respond to our advertising. Most importantly that He will bind Satan from this project and not allow speculation that we belong to a sect (it is a real fear of many people here). Not sure, what is Decko?, click here
• For Emili at school- Things are much better with the girls/friends situation. We have really seen God’s work in changing these girls. However, it is a really is a daily, weekly struggle still. (more…)

Starting Sunday October 29 our church will begin a new Evangelistic children’s program: Decko. The purpose of Decko (secondary to telling the Gospel) is to create an atmosphere that kids want to come to and bring their parents, introducing them (many for the first time) to church.

It is patterned after our North American partnership church, Northpoint Community Church, Kids Stuf. They currently are running this program for kids, and honestly, it’s a little overwhelming the work God is doing there in the lives of kids and their parents. It’s tremendous.
So God has given our church this same vision and desire, to create a program for Children here in Slovakia, in our little church of 30 families! And it starts in 3 short weeks!

Please help us pray for all the areas and things that still need to be completed prior to our Grand Opening!: (more…)

Nineteen zealous, young, youth leaders from all around Slovakia! I was amazed every time I looked at the group. Amazed that God had blessed us here with the opportunity and challenge of training these young leaders to mobilize the next generation in the church of Slovakia. (more…)

I just wanted everyone to know that Zac will be preaching again this Sunday in our church, so please pray for him. That God will speak to him, and give him the message He has for our church. He will be speaking on the topic (from a continuating series) of “how relationships can complicate your life” , and what is God’s Word on that.

I’ll be sure and post the podcast when it’s on the church’s blog, so you all can hear how he did! Stay tuned and be sure to PRAY!

Our financial issues are on two fronts. First, over the past 3 months we have accumulated a $3000 debt with our sending organization Josiah Venture. Basically, this means that we have not had sufficient donations to cover our monthly need. In the past we have had our ups and downs from month to month, but never this severe. If all our donors were able to be 100% consistent each month, our support levels would be consistent. However, irregularities do occur and some donors are more sporadic in their giving.

Second, the US dollar keeps dropping on the world market. (more…)

I have an important prayer request to share for Emili. It it not a new one, but rather has been one of ours for the past 3 years now. It is all about friends, bad friends, mistreatment and persecution. This is a hard post to write, (as it would be for any mother, I believe). It causes so much pain, fear and frustration inside me. It is how God made me, how I feel the pain my child is going through and desperately want to go through instead of her. Although I don’t want to get into excessive detail, I do want you to understand fully the situation so you will know better how to pray for her. (more…)

After a short time being closed (due to finances), Kompas Cafe re-opened again this fall. This time, not as a cafe just for students, but a cafe for familes. The look is still the same with a few added touches to make it kid friendly. Plus the addition of an awesome espresso machine and beans from Italy. It is truly a coffee experience! Check out the link for some great photos.

After 15 years of being apart and after a lot of paper work, Kyalo (we called him Matthew here, because Kyalo is too hard to pronounce) made it to Slovakia last month (September 17). It was his first time to leave his home country of Kenya by plane, so he was a bit nervous but fully amused. (You can read part 1 of this story ealier in this “ministry” section.)
He was quite a spectacle here since there are almost no blacks in Slovakia. Everyone did a double take – especially the children! But anyone who took longer to actually meet and talk to him was quickly challenged by his passion for Christ and his dedication to his ministry at home.

The first few days of his visit were pure catching up. I had a million questions about the details of our 15 years apart. (more…)

About 6 months ago, I (Zac) was talking to a British guy at our church. He was asking me all sorts of questions about the Bible and the end times. That day God impressed on me the idea of having an English bible study. I thought, certainly the British guy could use it, and maybe there would be more Slovak English speakers who could benefit from it as well.

So, about 5 months ago, we started meeting and studying the New Testament book of Epheisians. So far we have had about 6 to 8 college age students. We have already met a number of times and God has really shown us rich truths. It has been so obvious that God planned to use his words from the Ephesian letter to help specifically those who are there.

The messages in Ephesians about grace and new birth is astounding. Week after week, our group marvels at the picture of God that Paul was trying to communicate.

One week, a peace corp. type student came to the study. His name is Serhat from Turkey, where Islam is the predominant religion. On this particular week we were in Ephesians chapter 2 , where it says so plainly that we are saved by grace and not by works. We were asking him about the beliefs of Islam compared to these of Ephesians. Throughout the evening, it became so evident that God wanted to show the clear difference between Him and the god of Islam. Please continue to pray for Serhat as we share with him more and more of God’s precious words from week to week.