We have been more recently digging into our youth ministry classes learning everything from program design, to discipleship, to speaking.  This semester, our group enrolled in a class called Youth Ministry Practicum: Missions Endeavor.   This class will provide valuable lessons that many of us will apply when we are team leader for the youth someday.

           

For the class, we meet during class hour and plan the trip and all of the details as a class of eight students with our professor.  Then, as a class, we will go to Czech Republic during spring break and perform the missions trip that we so earnestly planned.  While we are there, we will be experiencing the leadership role of teen missions.  Our professor will debrief us daily with what did or did not go well that day regarding our planning, address the issues that were outside our control, and explain how these situations could have been handled better.

While in the Czech Republic, we will be teaming up with the organization Josiah Venture.  One of our main tasks will be going into the public schools and teaching English.  The teens in Czech are very curious to what a Christian is.  Because of the effects of Communism on the country, many of these students have not encountered a Christian who is their own age.  When they think of Christians, they imagine the faith of their grandparents that no one professes any longer.  The faith that we have sparks conversation.  We will also be training those who profess to be Christians how to share their faith with others. Less than half of a percent of the people are evangelical Christian; ninety percent of the nation is atheistic.  Based on these statistics, this country is an un-reached people group and forgotten.

We are asking for your prayers.  Prayer is the only thing that will make an impact on this lost country.  We would like prayer specifically for:

1.     Open hearts and minds of the teenagers we will be ministering too

2.     Boldness from the believers to bring their friends to the event we will be holding

3.     Wisdom for our professor as he trains us in this ministry

4.     Safety and patience for our team as we will be working with a nation who does not know English well

We thank you from our hearts for your prayers.  May God bless you in this New Year.