Josiah Venture's 2x3 Campaign

You are invited to JV's vision night! My Czech gang and I will be at the party in Peoria, IL on November 8th and on November 13th we'll be at the Oak Brook party. To RSVP, go here!

Packing up Staz...

David explaining his final project, Five Reasons Why Students Leave the Church. As the Staz interns each presented the papers, I wanted to cry. All the students showed how the Lord has individually transformed each life.


The culmination of it all was the graduation ceremony and celebration.


The Staz interns clean up great! I already miss these guys, but I's so proud of each one and have full confidence that they'll keep serving the Lord.

dear Ukraine

April 10-18

Sweet little kids at the temporary (90 day) orphanage. The little boy in the bottom middle was especially cute.


The home for mentally challenged women. They totally got into the songs (with motions) and duck duck goose (even though we had to shut down this surprisingly dangerous game)...


At the home for mentally challenged girls...I think this was my favorite place, we didn't spend a of of time there, maybe because of the tb quarantine, but I got to hug a lot of cute pumpkins.


Sunday night the pastor and his wife, Michal and Halia, invited us to come to there house to use the sauna and they surprised us with piles of great food: cream cheese crepes and cream puffs and chocolate and kvas and tea and....


Our team in Ben and Kristy's van. Our team loved the Williamses, the people at New Life and everyone we got to meet. This trip was my first little mission trip and *siiiiiiigh* it was one of the top experiences of my life.

Ukraine, baby!

Ben and Kristy and young Ukrainian leaders at a training conference they held this month.

This Thursday our team makes the journey east to Ukraine. We'll be there for about a week, returning next Thursday or Friday. In the mornings and afternoons we'll be helping to remodel their church building, in the evenings we'll do things like visit a hospital and a youth prison and help kick off an outreach club. JV missionaries Ben and Kristy Williams are hosting us and we're stoked. The whole point of the Internship program is transformation, and what better way to practice Romans 12:1-2 than to leave our comfort zones to serve. Yaaaaayyyyy....

Please pray for:
* our trip there and back, safety and no breakdowns and no border problems :)
* our team, for unity and growth and guidance
* that we'd be an encouragement to the church, New Life
* that Jesus Christ would be proclaimed, in word and deed!

Also, we haven't yet raised *all* the money for the trip, so there's till time to give--you can send a check to: Josiah Venture, P.O.Box 4317, Wheaton, IL 60189 and make a note in the memo line: Internship Account # 4016170.

Thank you for joining us in this!

Mission Trip to Ukraine!

Lovely Denca just created this prayer card for our team...enjoy!

From April 10-April 18 we will be serving in youth prisons, building and remodeling churches, visiting orphans, helping share the gospel and encouraging and being encouraged!

The cost per person will be around $380, which includes travel, food, board, ministry expenses as well as support of the local ministry. If you would interested in supporting our team (I personally don't need any support, but some of my teammates do) you can send a check to: Josiah Venture, P.O.Box 4317, Wheaton, IL 60189 and make a note in the memo line: Internship Account # 4016170. Thank you!

What About Staz?

Breta, Tomas, Marketa and Jura during a seminar at Malenovice. Each month both cell groups (Strakonice and Vsetin) get together for the whole week at Malenovice for seminars. Former Staz students, Kam members and the public are also invited. This coming month will be seminars about the reaching today's youth and the pastoral epistles.


David, Kikina and David at our Staz cell group in Strakonice--in my apartment. We spend all day Tuesday at my place, and after dinner go down 2 floors to Alca and Martin's for Systematic Theology where we're joined by the core members of our Strak group: Eva, Kakushe, Jana and Jozef. Girls sleep at Alca's the boys take over my flat, and then on Wednesday we have classes again until lunch.


Me, Kikina, Alca, Marta...our Staz small group! All of the Staz students are part of small groups with their own coach. Part of the coach's (my!) responsibilty is to keep them accountable with their assignments, encourage them in their ministries and care for them personally. I love our group! Marta and Alca and I are all Strakonice girls (Alca and her husband Martin live in the same building as I), so we get to spend a lot of time together. Marta is active in children's ministry as well as serving the youth of Strak, and Alca is active all over the place. She works part time for our church, part time as a financial consultant and is involved in ministry in Strak. Kikina is from Ceske Budjeovice and is rad. She and some of her friends are starting a theatre company in Prague, and this occupies a lot of time and energy. She's also studying art therapy as well as serving in her youth group. More on these women to come!

Stáž /staaazhz/ explained

This word will pop up a lot in my blog this year, so I wanted to give you all a definition of what Staz is and what it means. This is loosely translated from Ken Pitcher's description on the Kam website.

Staz is a 9 month program designed for young leaders who have a heart for evangelism and discipleship. All of these young leaders are sent by their local chuches and must be involved in ministry. Many of the Staz students are a part of leading youth groups, worship, women's ministry or children's ministry.

Staz has three main goals.

1. Deepening Biblcal knowledge: Students will take part in biblical seminars once a month in Malenovice and will have year long teaching in their cell groups. The two cells this year are Vsetin (eastside) and Pisek (westside). Apart from that, they will have regular quiet times and memorize two verses a week.

2. Developing important ministry skills: Each student is involved in ministry in his or her home church and community. Students can also develop their skills in local evangelism, in regional Kam conferences and also in strategic ministries here and abroad.

3. Transforming character: Each student is part of a small group led by one of the Staz coaches, who holds him/her accountable in different areas. The Staz program is led by a committed team of leaders who lovingly challenge students in how they see themselves, how they communicate and anything relating to their lives.

Staz Graduation 2006/07

Congratulations Jitka on your successful completion of Staz!

Staz is a one-year internship program that Kam (JV Czech) provides for young leaders and youth leaders. The students have classes Tuesdays and Wednesdays and week long seminars each month. The classes are systematic theology, hermeneutics, strategy of Christ's ministry, etc. The seminars are on topics like Ephesians or worship or counselling, etc. Each group of 3-4 students has a ministry coach who encourages them in their responsibilities (memorizing verses, having a contact ministry, finishing papers, etc), helps guide them in their ministries in their churches and cares for them personally.

Staz is a great program. I was part of the 2002/03 Staz year (as half student, half coach) and it inspired me to go to Moody to take some of the same classes in English. But the best part about Staz is the emphasis on ministry in the local church: the reason that classes are less than half the week is so that the rest of the week can be spent fleshing out what they've been learning and experiencing teachable moments. They also took a mission trip to Romania, hosted a weekend training conference, and learned to live in community.

Jitka is Nate and Lucka's intern for the summer and will be joining the camp office team in the fall, as well as doing college long distance. She's also taking my place in the apartment and is a joy to have around. :)