Youth Group Collaboration
Over the last few months Petr and I have been discussing an opportunity to collaborate with another small youth group that meets about a half a mile away from us. This youth group usually has between 4-7 teens that attend the group on a weekly basis. A couple of weeks ago, after the CB elders approved the idea, Petr and I met with a couple that leads the other youth group to discuss what their group's needs are and how we might work together. We decided that we would have our groups come together and see how it would go. I was a little unsure about how our group would feel about it as some of them can be a little apprehensive when it comes to joining with other groups. But I was happy to hear that they were excited about the idea and so, two Fridays ago, our groups met for the first time. Only two of their teens were able to join us that evening but we had a great time. The other group handled the games and icebreaker activities and our group handled the worship, lesson, and food. It was great to see the two groups interacting so well with one another and by the end of the evening our group wanted to have them join us the following week and their group liked that idea as well.
This past Friday brought four new people to Youth Revolution. Three of them were teens from the other youth group from the previous week and one was a young man who has recently become a believer and Petr invited him to join our group. His name is Horymír, which is an older Czech name. He is a college student, studying at the technical university in Poruba. I felt like the teens from the other group handled the evening very well despite the fact that their leaders were not able to stay because one them was out of town for work and the other was sick and so she went home after bringing the teens to our church. Even though there is a bit of work that needs to be done so that it looks like one group instead of two coming together, everyone seemed to participate in the games and talk a bit with one another. One of the guys from the other group, named Michal, actually stayed for a long time even after the two other teens from his group left. He, Matouš and I talked about soccer and watched a couple of interesting YouTube videos together. I think that Michal really enjoys having the two groups together. Pray that the two groups would continue to grow closer together and get more and more comfortable with each other. Pray that I would be able to quickly build relationships with the teens from the other group. Many of them are not as skilled at speaking English as our teens are so I need to use my Czech and they need to use some English. Pray also for Horymír as he seeks to grow in his love and understanding of his newfound Savior Jesus Christ.
Below are photos from the first meeting of our two groups
Organizing School Visits
Over the last two years I have had the opportunity to visit many different schools and speak with different classes about many different topics. There has been one school however that has been very tough to get into. Although several of the teens from Youth Revolution attend this school I have only been able to visit three times over that period of time. But last year, several of the teachers expressed interest in me coming to their school more often next year because they found my presentations to be of high quality and well thought out. Last Thursday, I was invited to meet with the head of the English department at that school in order to schedule some time for me to come to the school. So this year I will be visiting that school every Thursday in order to meet with many different English classes. This is great because many of these students live near the church and may be interested in joining us on Friday nights for Youth Revolution. The school has also welcomed me to advertise the English conversation groups that are held at the church. This is not the only school that has asked me to regularly come and visit their school. So I will be a busy guy but I am so thankful to the Lord for opening up these opportunities so that I can build more and more relationships that could lead people to Christ. Pray that the Lord would use this opportunity for the advancement of His Kingdom.
Organizing Large Youth Meetings
Over the past two weekends I have spent time meeting with leaders of youth groups in Ostrava from different denominations and with CB youth leaders in this region of the country. We have been discussing and organizing two different large group meetings to encourage interactions and relationship building between young Christians in Ostrava and across the region. CB Poruba will be hosting the Ostrava youth group meeting in the middle of October. The last meeting, which was held at another church last winter, had about 60 youth attend. Please pray that we would be able to get everything we need to get done before the event occurs and that many young people would be able to come to this gathering. The second large group meeting that we have been organizing is an event for the CB youth groups in the region. This will be held at another church in November but, please pray that the hosting church would be able to prepare everything that they need to prepare and that our group would be well represented at this gathering. As I said before, some of our youth have a tough time when it comes to meeting with other youth that they don't know, especially when it comes to going to another church. So pray that they would be willing to attend and that they would not only enjoy these gatherings but that they would be drawn to Christ because of them.
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