Challenges and Opportunities in the New Year

A lot of things were happening in Wroclaw over the Christmas and New Year period. The YFC-organised New Year conference “The Beginning” saw 700 young people see the New Year in in worship and dedication to the Lord for the year ahead. Let’s pray for them all as they now face the daily challenges of life in the world.

The whole Christian community was shocked by the murder of a young family whom many had known closely and ministered with. This, and other more personal tragedies and concerns, have led to a huge need for counselling and help – pray particularly for Adam and Mira, for Marek and Ania, for Andrzej and others, as people seek their help and support.

Praise God for a very useful and timely visit to Central Asia by “B” in December, where many Christians are feeling confused by the proliferation of occult practices in the whole of society and there is a very apparent spiritual battle going on.

Janusz and Asia from Mission2East attended a New Year Missions conference in Germany where they shared a stand with Interserve and met Swiss, German, Dutch and Hungarian Interserve staff. Pray for this collaboration as it develops during the year ahead, that it may lead to Poles being called to the Mission Field.

 

New Partnership for Mission2East

Andrzej and Basia worked as missionaries in a Central Asian country for several years, but had to return to Poland for financial reasons. They now, together with Ania, support the groups of believers there from home, thanks to modern means of communication, and with occasional visits – they hope to make one or two in the coming months. They now concentrate on raising the profile of mission to other countries among churches in Poland and are praying for a new generation of Polish missionaries to be called and sent out, supported by Christians in Poland. They are encouraged in this by becoming the “Polish arm” of Interserve. Ania is doing a lot of travelling and publicity for this, and this coming weekend she will be manning a stand at a missions conference/exhibition.

 

Growing in different ways

News from another part of Ukraine – Orzhiv, where Bartek and Zhanna work with youth :

GROWING…

Dear all !!

Great things God is doing in Orziv. Our little youth group begins to grow. Our group now consists of 15 people who regularly attend our meetings every Friday. We are very pleased with the appearance of Dasha and Romanka, girls who are just 14, and slightly older than them, Diana and Bogdana. The beginning of the new season brought us many new visitors. To Orziv came two groups from Polish cities both Żory and Wroclaw and one from the US. We are happy to see how the Lord Jesus cares for us and gives us new opportunities.

A week ago, we began to discuss and study the Book of Esther, we will learn how God in a wonderful way took care of the Jewish nation, as we look at the attitude of Esther and Mordochai

We were also able to restart football training for boys aged 11-13. We are pleased by this fact, because in 1 or 2 years, they will join our youth group.

Slowly approaching the big changes in our lives – Zhanna is already in her 36th week of pregnancy and our little princess will soon be with us!

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

* Our youth group, for the Lord to move the hearts of these young people so they can live with Jesus every day, and for their families, that the Lord God could change them.
* For the Lord to stir up the heart of new leaders for youth ministry in Orziv, mostly older girls who need to be able to help us,
* Zhanna’s pregnancy and the birth, for the health of her and her baby, strength and courage during childbirth,
* About our ministry and work in Ukraine,
* The peace and security of Ukraine.

If you would like to join us in building God’s kingdom among youth in Ukraine, we would be so grateful. You can send your financial support to the account given below. Any amount of support is greatly appreciated. Regardless of whether you decide to support financially or in prayer, we want to thank you in advance for your interest and obedience to God’s calling wherever He has led you.

SUPPORT

Account name: Central Eurasian Partners
Sort Code: 40-52-40, Account no: 00016282
Zhanna & Bartosz Szymczyk – Mission to the East

CONTACT

zhannabartosz@mail.ru
bart218@poczta.onet.pl

 

A Community of Commitment

Returning to solid foundations, and building leaders for the future :

I write this from central Slovakia, where Caulene and I are gathered for a week on top of a hill with around 100 friends.

For the past 25 years, each summer we have retreated with more or less the same group of people (and their children who have grown).

We pray together, learn from one another, listen to the scriptures together and seek to hold one another accountable to serve God, each in our own spheres.

We are deeply grateful for this community of commitment we can be part of. Our mission work in Slovakia and Eastern Europe, through this group, has a centre and a foundation. We are only a small part, and after we leave, this community will continue, of that I have no doubt.

Please pray that as a new generation of leaders emerges, engaged and committed to the advance of God’s kingdom in Eastern Europe, we will be faithful to pass on what God has taught us.

Blessings,

Allan and Caulene

 

Revolution in Ukraine?

With political unrest and upheaval in Ukraine in the news right now, a young couple are seeking to bring revolution to the hearts and lives of individual young people; here’s a letter from Bartosz and Zhanna :

Dear Friend

Would you like to become a part of the work and ministry that God is doing in Ukraine among youth? God has blessed us with the desire and vision to help and serve youth in Ukraine. Our dream is to be able to effectively influence the development of young people in Rivne and Orzhiv. We want to tell them about Jesus and inspire them to change and grow in their spiritual life. We believe that God has a special plan for the youth in Ukraine, and we dream about who these young people could become in the future: God’s servants who will spread His Word to their friends and will influence their families and communities.
However, in order to do this work we need your help and support. Please consider praying for us. We are very aware that prayer is the most effective weapon in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are in great need of it.
We also need regular financial support to be able to work with youth and to see the vision that God has given us come to a reality in Ukraine. We praise God greatly for those who support us already, but we are seeking to find the monthly support we are lacking.

If you would like to join us in building God’s kingdom among youth in Ukraine, we would be so grateful. You can send your financial support to the account given below. Any amount of support is greatly appreciated. Regardless of whether you decide to support financially or in prayer, we want to thank you in advance for your interest and obedience to God’s calling wherever He has led you.

Bartosz & Zhanna Szymczyk

SUPPORT
Account name: Central Eurasian Partners
Sort Code: 40-52-40, Account no: 00016282
Zhanna & Bartosz Szymczyk – Mission to the East
Please email contactus@cepartners.org.uk to tell us of your support!

 

Thanks from Ukraine

Thanks to donations from some people here in Britain, we have been able to send enough money to Bartek & Zhanna in Ukraine for them to purchase a projector, which will greatly help them in the youth work they are doing.  They are delighted with this provision, which would have been totally impossible without your help; Bartek writes:

We would like to say a big thank you for your support and involvement in our lives and ministry. God used you to motivate us and once again confirm that we are on the right path. You have done us a great surprise, if we can call it. We dreamed about this projector, and thanks to your support we will now be able to buy it and organize the meetings. We will also be able to organize for our young people a day trip to Lviv in the spring. God fulfills our dreams thanks to you, God hears our prayers, this is great, I do not know the words to define my gratitude and joy.  With such news one more thing: 2 weeks ago we started to study the letter of Paul to the Ephesians in meetings, we began a wonderful journey with Paul, and we are very grateful to God for having taught us and inspired this letter.

We ask you to pray for:

– our service in Orzhiv and Rivne (for wisdom, patience, joy of service) that God will open the hearts of the young for Christ

– about my knee surgery in March ( I tore meniscus in my right knee a few weeks ago )

– for Zhanna to be able to get a visa to the UK to visit in April to do some training to help her in her new sewing business

 

To read of the encouraging news from the youth work in Orziv click on this link  Orziv-Feb-2013

 

New Year Support

As a new year gets underway, here’s a reminder of all our Partners, so that we can give them our support in prayer this year :

Parakletos: Pavel and Julia working in Counselling in the Czech Republic

Daybreak: Adam and Mira, and Wojtek and Agnieszka, counselling pastors and leaders in Poland

SLOT: Andrzej and Marzena, and Krzysiek and others, working with young people in Poland throughout the year; the emphasis on the annual festival in July, but many other smaller events and training courses run at various times and in various cities.

ARKA Foundation: Many evangelistic opportunities through the schools, language school, other classes and courses, the Summer camps – pray for all the staff and everyone involved!

Youth for Christ: Bartek and Agnieszka, Wiola, Marcela, Ewa and others working in many ways with children, many of them from deprived backgrounds.

Mission 2 East: Andrzej and Basia supporting believers in Central Asia from home in Poland, and with visits as funds allow. Bartek and Zhanna and others in Ukraine, working with youth, and in the process of setting up language schools as evangelistic platforms.

D3 Generations: Saskia and Laurentiu and Carmen working with students in Romania, helping them through a volunteering programme.

PR Slaveikov School: Unique Christian school in Bulgaria with many needs; how to attract more students, training teachers to teach children with disabilities. Pray for Nadya, Vania, Evelina and all others involved.

CS Lewis and Narnia Schools: Christian school in Bratislava with many staff and students and a great sphere of influence; pray for all the staff and students.

Integra Slovakia: Allan and Caulene, teaching Slovaks to become active in compassionate mission in Africa through child-sponsorship and fair-trade initiatives.

 

They can seem very far removed from us, but in prayer we can truly be a part of their work. If you would like to know more detail about any of them, please get in touch.

 

Minor breakthrough in Ukraine

Ukrainian Central Eurasian Partners Trip –December 2012

Anyone seen the news on the Ukraine recently? They have a lot of snow and it’s cold!

Please remember them in your prayers….life is not easy there right now…

Here’s a short report on our recent trip there for your interest and prayers…

A team of 4 of us – a Ukrainian, a Pole, an Englishman and an American, all of whom live in Poland. travelled to two cities in western Ukraine, Lutsk and Rivne. We left late in the evening and drove through the night (with two litres of Pepsi to keep me, the driver awake!) so as to hit the border early in the morning with hopefully fewer cars (the truck lane on the border each way is currently about 7-10 kilometres long, the car lane from a few dozen cars to many hundreds depending on the time.)… Jesus and People were the main reasons for the journey: meeting new people, encouraging others, catching up with old friends, looking to initiate and develop Kingdom projects to reach out for Christ… The journey there went rather quickly and we made it in 12 hours, only 1 1/2 hours at the border! The way back was much longer…snow and ice, and hundreds of cars in a jumble at the border…but God got us through the border in less than 4 hours which was something akin to the parting of the Red Sea…but that’s another story!

Every day there were seminars where I spoke on topics and tried to answer questions church leaders raised. The first seminar was on parenting, the second was a holistic approach to ministry, which crystallized into a discussion on starting two Christian English language schools. The next day a meeting was held for all those interested in starting schools in Lutsk and Rivne. On Sunday I spoke at the Church of God’s Design on finances in the Bible. Many personal meetings took place to talk more about starting the language schools. The leader of the Baptists in Western Ukraine agreed to get involved in our projects as well as a number of pastors…

We already have a building business and a sewing business which are progressing slowly, giving a number of Christians work and a natural platform to minister to others in a holistic way. We discussed how to develop these further after the winter.

Please pray for those taking a leading role in starting the schools and for the new initiatives…there are many obstacles to overcome…

*enterprise-stifling bureaucracy & corruption

*limited ability of many pastors to see beyond church walls and traditional ways of doing things and a desire of some to control people (especially women) and their ministries

*unwillingness of people from different churches to work together in a common outreach project

*a paradigm which splits the spiritual/eternal from the material/temporal, not understanding schools or businesses as self sustaining and income producing ministry platforms, nor understanding how best to use them as such…

We are starting small …we have little start-up capital…praying for a minimum of 12 students to start in each city in February…hopefully many more…in both cities we are gathering a team together of competent and qualified people…please pray for Bartek & Zhanna, Angelika, Slawik, Slava and Volodya as they head up these projects.

Thanks so much for partnering with us to bring His marvelous light to countries like Ukraine…

 

Mission to the East

This past Sunday missionaries met together in Poland to discuss what God is doing in each of their lives and organizations. One of the main topics of discussion was Kazakhstan, following the recent visit there by the Polish couple who lived and worked there for seven years. Often the believers in Kazakhstan feel disconnected from the west because of distance and lack of regular communication. They are in need of teachers  and encouragers. Future trips to Kazakhstan in the springtime were also discussed. The men in the group are discussing ways to reach out to the men of Kazakhstan, and develop a men’s ministry. Please continue to pray for the work being done in Kazakhstan and for our mission team at work in the country. Pray that God will provide wisdom for these missionaries.

 

Winter in Ukraine

Bartek and Zhanna, still only a few months into their married life, have sent some news, which you can read here , about their early efforts at establishing a work for the Lord in their new situation in Rovno, Ukraine.