These online gatherings have been a lifeline to us through the months where we couldn't see each other in person.
As restrictions are lifting in this region of the world now, it was so wonderful to hear today from various staff members, what God's been doing during these months, and what He has in store for the summer months ahead of us.
Our sister-in-law, Kristi, who lives and serves in Slovenia with her family, shared about two opportunities they had to lead people to Christ during the quarantine. One was a woman their son Luke has been praying for for ten years! She was a former neighbors of the Patty's, and Luke has had her and her family on his heart all these years because her son was his friend. They're still praying for his friend and dad, but the mom is saved and growing these days in her new faith!
Noah in Montenegro talked about buying ice cream for a whole group of friends who had come to an outdoor basketball court where he was playing. He stepped into the middle of a fight that was just about to take place, and told them he'd buy ice cream for all of them if they stopped the fight.
What a bold move! They did stop, and they all met for ice cream the next day. Noah and Jill are praying that God saves some of these kids they are now getting to know.
Indrek, in Estonia, told a story about youth in their city who have come to Christ during this coronavirus season, and how he and his wife are now discipling them.
Daniel in Slovakia talked about the new training they're implementing for youth leaders, to better equip them to disciple young people. The idea came out of this season of quarantine.
Ermal, who is Albanian and serves on the JV team there, talked about new ideas they have for reaching young people. They are planning on fishing trips this summer to literally teach them to fish for fish, but will use them as fishing trips to fish for souls!
Ema serves on the Croatia team, and she'll be taking road trips with her youth this summer to expose them to other youth ministries across the region, in order to give them vision for what could happen in Croatia as they pray for a vibrant model of how to reach young people with the Gospel there.
Rachael is our Camps Director, and would normally have just finished summer intern training with the group that was planning to serve with us this summer.
While we had to cancel all of our North American, Canadian and UK summer interns, there are still national interns who will be serving with us this summer.
Not only that, but she and her team are doing online intern training in the next few days, to challenge all of those who would have been interns to live "on mission" wherever they are this summer.
Earlier in the webinar Dave taught from 1 Kings 17, talking about how we can be faith-filled servants in uncertain times. As he finished in prayer, I had such thankfulness in my heart for how God is leading our team to be those faith-filled servants.
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