Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas full of peace and joy, and lot of succes in family and work in 2012! Thank you for your prayers till now and for prayers while we will be in Russia. All preparations went well.
I was encouraged when i visited planning meeting of Bardejov youth group week ago. I remmember when we were less than 10 people at youth group. Now there are more than forty just workers, responsible for clubs, camps, small groups...its a joy!
I was glad when they invited me to preach and lead worship at Christmas club at Dec.22th, we looked at prophetes and how little Jesus fulfiled all of that.
Rejoice, Son of God came to the Earth to made eternity available for us!

Russia again

Hi,
some of you might know that me and Katka are going to Russia for 2 weeks. We wanna help Julo Matta (slovak missionary) and his family with youth camp there. We are very excited about it!
Russia is the bigest country of the world. There was comunism for many years and if you are watching news you know that it doesnt seems perfect right now. Main religion is orthodox. Minority churches are considered cults. People often looking for spirituality wrong ways.
i had privilege to be there 2 times but for Katka it will be premiere. We will have days off so we decided that we wont eat christmas cakes and just watch TV whole season. We gonna taste some of adventure and help others. I often think about people in Russia since my first visit. I remember guy who was addicted before he gave his life to Jesus.
We manage to cover all expences for flight tickets, visa, accomodation...i want to thank all sponsors. Klub31 from Bratislava, ECAV church Bardejov, Gajdos family, Zuzka S and David S. You helped us a lot! If you wanna be part of good work in Russia, please, contact me. We covered our expences but we would like to help them as much as possible also in financial way. Also i wanna ask and dare you for prayer support while we will be there. Dec.27th-Jan.9th.
I used to watch documentaries when i was younger and hoped that one day i will have opportunity to visit all those places on our planet. God saw my desire and used it for His glory. Believe, there is nothing impossible for Him!

Youth group in Obišovce

Yesterday I had privilege to preach at Obisovce youth group. They are going through series of "colourful" topics. Every week they talk about some colour, which is conected with bible verse.
Yesterday was all YELLOW, cause we spoke about Treasure. Main verse was from Mathew 6 where we can read that where our treasure is, there is our heart.
God said he will provide all we need. Someone can get more, someone less, but we need to remember, that we are only administrators of His property at this world. We have everything that matters in Jesus already.

Disciples who make disciples

We believe in Training centre Kompas (JV), that local church is Christs bride. I know church doesnt have good resume in these days. Reason could be, that is it lead by unperfect people. Anything where people are in charge is unperfect. Fortunatelly, it isnt about us, but God. I know many people outside of church and many inside. Maybe some of them just pretend something. I am not here to judge. Many of my friends trust Jesus and giving Him driving wheel of their lives. Do they do mistakes? Sure.

We will meet to study more about God and how he is working in this world with boys from my hometown Bardejov, who are studying in Kosice or Presov. We got study material called Shift19, that is focused on changing believer to a disciple who makes disciples. We will look closer how Jesus did it and how we can apply that to our lives. After small groups we will play soccer, you can come join us to keep healthy not just soul but also body :) Thank you for prayers and support for Katka and me.

Miracle

Maybe you experience miracles regularly. Maybe they are happening around you all the time, but you don't realize it! Let me tell you about one. There was a miracle last week of october in Nitra and first week of november in Presov. 6 schools, over 3000 students, more than 250 lives started new life with Christ, 600 students at concerts and 300 Bibles given....i think we shook with both cities and woke up young generation. There is something more you can know, live and discover. Our lives are set for eternity and many during EXIT Tour turn to that direction.
Yes, preparation was hard, we didn't sleep much, packing and unpacking sound system couple times a day also wasn't very pleasant. BUT it was worthy! We had a lot of fun, great conversations with students and we shared about God who created them and desperately desire for them.
I wanna thank all churches in both cities, volunteers, lectors from ACET, Graumanns for sharing their story, Sindy - came from Germany to talk truth about pornography. Thanks to EXIT team, you are precious.
" I can't take some things back, but i can start new life." said one girl after program at school. "Man, I discovered purpose of life, i enjoy it, this has a pursope!" said youthleader after he saw people coming to Christ.
When i hear this, all this miracle makes total sence for me.

Nitra and Prešov

Awesome time! We enjoyed every minute in Nitra and Prešov. If you would met these young people, you would see passion for His things. They care for their city and people there; their classmates, coleagues, strangers in the bus or at office. Even the last days are really difficult we are looking forward for what Ogd has for us in cities prepared....please, pray for this ministry as we stepping into unknown areas with expectations for changes in thousands students lives.
We starting on Monday in Nitra and we will be in Presov in a week.
Off course i will bring you update and pictures.

EXIT Tour training Nitra

Dear friends, i know many of you are praying for us and our ministry. We really appreciate it. Tommorow we starting training for youth in Nitra and we will be in Presov in a week. EXIT Tour starting in 2 weeks!
I would like to ask you for prayers for training, we wanna share only Gods words so it will became movement among teenagers from church and will give them strength to speak about God to their fellows not only during EXIT Tour, but live out gospel as a lifestyle.
We had lot of troubles form begining of this project. We started later as we should. Schools were changing their decisions about doing EXIT Tour, we had hard time to find places for activities. Its still problem in Nitra so please pray for it! We had to call lectors from Czech to cover bigger schools needs.
We didnt stop. Our desire is to see church growing and bringing joy to Heavenly Father. I'll bring you more info and photos from trainings later. God bless.

JV Fall conference

Just 2 weeks ago all people from Kompas stuff and some youth leaders from all over Slovakia experienced amazing week in Malenovice, Czech rep. at Josiah Venture conference. It was very nice to meet 200 people from 11 countries, who are doing same kind of ministry in whole Eastern Europian region. Accept soccer tournament (which Slovakia won for 3rd time in row) we could share experiences from projects we are doing, we rested, we got inspired also in spiritual way. Main theme was Walk like Jesus - how to make dicpiples like He did?
I have to think over all thing i have heard, cause it was lot in couple days, but i already know He prepared opportunities for every day how to be His disciples and how to make other to follow Him. Take your chance in it!

Turbo trainng 2011

"It was amazing weekend! Thank you." "I wanna start small group with guys from school.""It encouraged me in evangelisation, now i know hot to explain gospel."...and many similar feedbacks we got after Turbo training we did last weekend in Prešov and Žilina for over 150 youth members. We saw how they were excited and equiped to speak about Jesus understandably for youth of 21st century.

Bibles and training

Couple days ago we went to Czech rep. to get new bibles. We had full trunk, about 400kg of Bibles. Can you image, that 20 years ago, they would put us in prison if police would catch us with them? Thanks God communism is over.
Bibles has ecumenical translation on left side and english version on right side. Its easy to read. We printed these bibles for mission pursposes. We will use it at EXIT Tour in fall and spring and also at trainings.

First of these trainings starting tonight! We wanna focus on small groups, evangelism and how to use TV show EXIT 316 to reach our classmates and share about Christ. Please, be praying for over 150 youth members, who will be encouraged and equiped this weekend to bring gospel to Slovakia. I will give you an update after the training.

CampFest 2011

We've been at the one of the biggest christian open air music festival in central Europe called Campfest. Main theme of this years Campfest was "Irresistible" and thats how Jesus is.
We were meeting friends, youth groups from whole country, but main reason was to promote and invite people for training for youth we are going to do in Sept. 9-10 in 2 locations. It will be focused on leading small groups, sharing gospel and using contemporary ways to do it.
Its always good to be among other christians, worshiping God with them and listening more from His word. Campfest was again irresistible.

Promo EXIT316 on YC

Most of you might ask "What is YC?" It is shorter version of Youth Conference that was in beautiful place called Trusalova near Martin. Of course, EXIT316 team was there. Even we had to woke up before 5am, it was great day in slovak nature spent with Godly people. We decided for summer to be everywhere where is bigger young christian fellowship so we can invite them for a training. It will be in Sept. 9-10 in Prešov and Žilina. This can teach them how to share gospel with classmates, how o lead Biblie study small group and how to use EXIT316 TV show, since it will be broadcasting for slovak public in the fall.
We had really good time at YC conference. People had fun, but they were also praying for each other and they got deeper into Bible. I already know that some of those people will be at training. Hope to see you there as well. Please pray for us so we can invite many youth groups and they will be bold in sharing about Jesus. You can always find more info online www.exit316.sk

EXIT316 ministry...

..came from Czech republic, where JV started broadcast in national television TV show called EXIT316. This show answered on relevant question that young people have. Themes were focused on relationships, drug issues, family, friendships. There were questionaries, celebrities and some christian youth leaders who shared what Bible tells about that topic. We took this TV show, change some parts so we can broadcast it in Slovakia in the fall.
Part of this ministry is also EXIT Tour, where we go to the city for one week. Each day we do AIDS and drug prevention for schools with american band Dizmas. We are inviting students to afternoon activities and big concert on friday. On saturday we have after party, where we saying good bye. During the week we are in touch with over 1500 students from city. Local youth group is involved in all activities so they have lot of opportunities to build relationships with them. In fact, about month before EXIT Tour we do EXIT Turbo training for them, so they know how to share gospel or how to interact with fellows.
Day D will come in october. We are doing all preparations, communicating with churches and schools, recording TV shows, preparing training details. I will let you know about details. You can pray as we go tomorrow to conference to invite youth for training. For more information you can visit www.exit.316.sk. God bless you my friends, stay tuned.

How can you help...

...if you are interested in what we are doing in this region of Europe. You can
1.read this blog where are news from our ministry,
2.you can pray for me, my wife Katka and all my colleagues in TC Kompas (Josiah Venture, Slovakia) so we can do all our projects that are bringing gospel to youth in our country,
3. you can visit website http://exit316.sk/ - its in slovak, but i will update all news here,
4. you can support us financially https://www.josiahventure.com/give/project/exit-316-tour-slovakia.
If you have more questions feel free to ask.

Kecy camp 2011

One year past very fast and we met again, Slovak & American team together. Even many of the students came, that shows they enjoyed camp last year.
Even it was raining a lot we didn't care much about it. We had lot of fun, competitions and every evening we had talks about more importatnt life issues. About essence of being.I know it sounds like philosophy classes. the truth is, that everybody should stop for a while and think, Why i am on this eatrh, who created me, where i am going and what's purpose of my life?
Main topic for this year KECY was Collision. We looked at some biblical persons and found out, that 21.century man has the same troubles/collisions. But Jesus brought diferent perspective into it. I hope student will be able to follow his path and they will do right decision. Some of them already did, when they invited Christ to be their Savior and Lord for ever. What about you?