Youth Work in Ukraine

Bartek and Zhanna in Ukraine had a wonderful year in 2015, knowing much blessing from the Lord on their work with youth – read about it here
Let’s pray for all those young people we can see in the photos as they embark on a new year in their young lives, and for the influence on them of Bartek and Zhanna in their commitment to God’s work with them.

 

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.

 

CEP Conference 2014

From 3-5 October, people from a wide area of East Europe gathered at the beautiful centre in Malenowice, Czech Republic – as well as a few from US and UK!
A few reflections from some of them :
– We had a great time catching up with everyone. Good time of fellowship, hearing from all the Partners, and quite a lot of new faces.
– The main sessions were based on Paul’s time at Ephesus. Paul and Relationships, Paul and Business, Paul and Education. Marek Marcus was really good with the talks. Everyone seems to have enjoyed and learnt from these.
– The panel discussion on Ukraine situation was really good with contributions from people from Ukraine as well as Russia. It was a very open discussion with quite a detailed feedback from Sergiy who is quite involved in supporting people who are affected in the area. Churches in the area are quite involved in support, and some money was donated at the conference and taken back to Ukraine – Slava writes ” I’m writing to tell you that I gave your money to the guy from the church who goes to the war zones with help gathered from churches, volunteers and NGOs. He is going there tonight. He bought thermal underpants to our soldiers to keep them warm in the coming cold weather on the money you kindly gave. Pray for his trip. He shared in church last Sunday how dangerous it is there but how much he grows in trust to God through that. He is only 20-something but very committed to help soldiers while our government is not.” They would welcome any support in this area and requested prayers mainly for Russians as the media in Russia is not really showing the truth.
– One significant outcome was that those Partners who are more involved in education decided to start a partnership to learn from and support each other; this was initially Nadya’s idea.

Some needs which the Partners expressed :

CS Lewis – Looking for Partnerships with UK schools, Sponsorship for students

YFC – The next main activity is New Year “The Beginning” conference. They have decided to invite Reinhard Hirtler to speak and need about £1800 for his travel and accommodation.

M2E – Two of the women from Poland really hope to visit Kazakhstan again soon, where the women are longing for their help and encouragement.

M2E – Slava – Next event is the Winter camp, and Slava will let us know what practical needs she has soon.

M2E – Bartek & Zhanna – Bartek said they are ready for their big change in few weeks time – with their baby due they really need a car for travels which probably will cost around £2500. Bartek would also like to raise funds to be able to take the young people to town every few months; each trip costs about £100.

SLOT – Andrzej said they will let us know the needs after their board meeting soon.

Parakletos – Pavel said they have about 7 conferences to lead this Autumn. A wireless headset would improve the quality of their recordings – costs about £300.

Daybreak – Adam not too well and couldn’t come to the conference. Wojtek said they are looking for general funds which will equip them to conduct more training.

All our Partners really value your prayers for them, and if you would like to help any of them financially, please get in touch!

 

Autumn Colours

Orzhiv Autumn 2013
Some lovely photos here from Bartek and Zhanna in Ukraine, with news of their work with young people there.