Sheppersons in Slovakia

KPM Youth Leaders Conference Report

Posted by Zac on March 31st, 2007

img_5928.jpg

If numbers say anything, then it’s a good sign. We had the largest conference in it’s 14 year history. Over 600 participants! Every session was packed out, with people sitting in overflow rooms and in the isles of the auditorium. God strongly influenced the whole current of the conference and guided everyone’s hearts and minds into the theme, the hands of the speaker, the seminars, the worship and the other activities. It was an amazing process to witness.

The theme of the week was “Christ in you - not from ourselves”. Sessions included, being rooted in Christ through four roots – Word, prayer, Holy Spirit and Body (church). Then there were sessions on the four branches of growth or pathways to fruitfulness which were; obedience, love in action, worship, and evangelism. There was also a session on the poisons that harm our growth and fruit bearing, which were; hypocrisy, hard hearts, secularizing the sacred and broken relationships.

Here are a few translated comments from participants. (more…)

Website launched!

Posted by Zac on March 31st, 2007

logo.jpgWe are so excited about the life of our new youth ministry resource website! We’ve been waiting for years for this big step forward. This makes our youth ministry resources more accessible, plus it enables us to have live contact with the youth workers community across the country.

If you have a chance, go to the site at www.davkaonline.sk. It’s all in Slovak, but you can browse around and see all the resources that are available to youth workers here now (you may not be able to see all the the materials unless you register). The colored four categories (tabs) at the top of the page are; ideas (napady), themes (temy), personal growth (osobny rast) and leaders (veduci).

We officially launched the new site, fully functional, this week. There are hundreds of articles about youth work, music, videos, devotionals, pictures, games and more. (By the way, the guys that created our site can be contacted at www.elementalmedia.info if you would like to have them create a site for you or your ministry.

We are still in need of $1500 to finish payment on the project. Please consider helping us to complete this strategic project. As of this month (March) contributing to project like this became much easier. Our organizational website now provides a way for you to make contributions online. To view this great feature click here. (more…)

Annual Ladies Conference

Posted by Kim on March 31st, 2007

jv-ladies-rome-slovakia-group.jpg

It was time again at the end of February to attend our mission’s annual ladies conference, this time in Rome! One of the great things about living in Europe is all the wonderful places we can go that are relatively close (relative to the US)! For us, Rome was less than 2 hours by plane.

The theme this year was, “tending your vineyard“. As always it was a great time of teaching and application-and a lot of free time for sight-seeing. God really spoke to me through our speaker, Andrea Pitcher. She is a truly gifted woman God is using in many lives both in Europe (she is a missionary in Czech Republic) and in the States (she often goes back for speaking engagements).

She led us through an evaluation of how we are spending our time (right now) “tending our vineyard”? What does it look like? What does it mean to “tend your vineyard”? What sort of things are filling up our days? (more…)

Upcoming KPM conference

Posted by Kim on March 14th, 2007

bird02.gif

Please help us pray for our annual conference for youth leaders, KPM. It begins this Thursday March 15 in the evening. I just posted an article from the Keynote Speaker and JV President, Dave Patty under the Ministry Section. There you will find the details of the conference including this year’s theme, “Christ in You – Making Disciples”.

In this post, I want you to know specifically how Zac is involved, so you will know better how to pray for him:

  • Teaching: he will lead one of the seminars and teach on obedience.
  • Managing the launching of the new Davka website. He and his team are working around the clock to get it completed (information uploaded), ready (that it works like it should) and for the launching (people trained to know how to demo it)
  • Organizing/overseeing thematic environment- “Decorating” just isn’t the right word to use here, since there is more involved to incorporating the theme in every aspect of the environment there at the conference. He has a great team working with him and it will no doubt be over the top. They too are working hard to get all their plans finished and in place for Thursday evening.

So far there are 590 attendees and workers registered to come! Please pray that in these final days, the Lord will bring exactly the people who need to be here to receive this blessing (whether it be 59 or 590)! And that most of all His Spirit will be there, giving Voice to all these speakers- to inspire, encourage and ignite a fire on the youth workers of Slovakia!

“KPM was and will continue to be my spark plug.”

Posted by Kim on March 14th, 2007

Here is a copy of the letter our JV president (Dave Patty) wrote about the upcoming KPM conference. He will be the keynote speaker.

Dear Friends,

Every now and then an event takes on a life of its own, becoming the defining experience and rallying point for an entire generation of leaders. That is what has happened in Slovakia with a yearly training conference for youth workers called KPM.

KPM (Conference for Youth Workers) is organized by Kompas, JV’s partner organization in Slovakia, and draws over 500 youth workers to Zilina each year. This is their 14th conference! Through innovative teaching and creative seminars the team seeks to minister to specific needs facing youth workers - as well as encourage and motivate volunteer student leaders to continue touching the lives of their peers.

Many of these youth workers have little or no encouragement from their home churches. Each year they travel to the event by train and car from over 180 places throughout Slovakia. KPM introduces them to others who are “crazy” enough to give of their life, gifts, energy, and free time to reach the next generation for Christ. This strategic conference also involves over 100 volunteers who serve the participants both practically and spiritually. (more…)

Housing Need Answered!

Posted by Kim on March 14th, 2007

With great joy and excitement, I am happy to report on our housing need. Once again God has really proven Himself a Big God, who hears and answers our prayers. And although it didn’t come (the answer) like we anticipated, it came so big and powerful, it was one of those “God Things”. (more…)

Zac’s Preaching at Novy Zaciatok

Posted by Kim on March 14th, 2007

For those of you who are into “podcasts” here is a link for the podcast of when Zac last preached at our church, on “What are we sowing”?
http://www.novyzaciatok.sk/media/

He is on the Preaching Team of our church and that rotates once every 2 months (with Decko being every other week in place of preaching). Unfortunately his last sermon had technical problems and was not able to be uploaded to the web. But you can listen to his most recent (from this month). It’s in English, so you don’t have to worry about your Slovak!

Enjoy!

Mandatory Banner of MissionMax, the webhost of this website.