Back

August 19, 2014

Latvia Then & Now

He is only 17. With a cowlick and great sense of humor, Valters seems like your average teenager living in the small town of Priekule, Latvia. He’s been a Christian for a few years now, has “Jesus always loves you!” written on his Facebook cover photo, and enjoys being involved in his local youth group.

Yet he is much more than your average teenager. Valters is a young Josiah, bright-eyed and smiling, with a passion, as the only Christian youth worker in his area, to lead his peers to Christ.

Kelly and Donna Hargan are Josiah Venture’s country leaders in Latvia.

“You could just tell that Jesus was in him,” Kelly says about Valters. “He had a vision for what he was doing. He left School of Leaders and was all gung-ho to apply to our discipleship conference. He comes to our conference in February, and he was busting his seams. His small youth group had just doubled in size in two weeks! He brought one guy with him who had only been a believer for a week.”

Donna captures JV’s feelings about this well, “It’s really cool to see that God has given that kind of light to these kids, even 17 year olds. And they’re the ones who are going to change things in their churches and in the country. Josiahs are out there, we just need to find them.”

Latvia Then

JV’s journey to find these young Josiahs in Latvia began back in 2003 when Scott and Lisa Runzo, along with their children, moved to Riga, the country’s capital, to help pioneer JV’s mission among the youth there.

Scott describes this time, “The spiritual climate was very dark, and they were still in the after effects of the cold war. There were no youth leaders to speak of and the youth were stuck trying to find a place in the church that was dead.”

For the next 5 years, they worked hard to form an interdenominational organization dedicated to the task of training Latvian youth leaders and encouraging them to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

In 2008, the Runzos left Latvia to pursue other ministry opportunities in the States, but Donna and Kelly Hargan had already joined the team the year prior.

Their church had been bringing short-term teams with JV for a number of years and in 2005, Kelly led a trip to Latvia for the first time. “It was on that trip that I really felt God saying that this was where we were supposed to be. I love developing young leaders, and when I came here I saw both the need for that and the opportunity to work with ministry team students. So I went home and told Donna.”

In 2007, the couple moved to Latvia to step into a support role on the team, then later took on the country leader position.

Despite a history under Swedish rule where 25% of Latvia’s 2 million people claimed loyalty to the Lutheran church, under 5% of Latvians actually had a personal relationship with Christ and building trusting relationships with teens takes time. Finding young Josiahs like Valters in small country like Latvia is not easy.

However, slowly, but surely, God has brought committed Christ followers to the JV Latvia team.

Latvia Now

Today, Kelly says proudly that God has brought JV Latvia “the cream of the crop in this culture.” The team has grown to 17 members with 11 of those being nationals with high character level. It is also expecting more growth in future months.

Donna says this is incredible because, “We feel like, and have felt like this for a few years, that things are just about ready to take off. People are open to the Gospel here. They want to hear, and they want to grow once they become believers. They want to have a solid faith, and they want to know what to do when they are working in ministry. It’s just a matter of having enough people on the ground to train them.”

Kelly explains that when the team leans into ministry, they are seeing fruit. “The fields are ripe for the harvest. I see God moving and really drawing young people to Himself.”

This summer the team partnered with eight churches to put on seven evangelistic camps, three of which were Fusion camps.

Fusion, JV’s music ministry, has been really effective in Latvia. Kelly says he’d love to see this expand. “Outside of Fusion, I can’t think of any ministry in the church in Latvia, that is actively reaching the unchurched. None. We have four Fusion choirs that are doing that very effectively, and I want a national team in place that can move that forward.”

Besides Fusion, this year the team is starting a second level of School of Leaders which meets four weekends a year. They also want to continue developing their annual conference that has taken place twice so far with between 70-100 youth leaders attending. Plus, they would also like to see sports ministry start soon.

Another way that the team is hoping to develop more leaders is through a new ministry starting this fall that Kelly is calling Josiah House. As Riga is the center of the country and holds much of the population as well as many of the educational opportunities, the youth ministries will gain momentum in other places but then the top leaders will leave and things fall apart.

Kelly says, “A lot of those leaders come to Riga and aren’t in Christian community and get sucked in by the world away from serving and studying together. Our vision is to create a place where some of those students who are going to school in Riga, that are involved in ministry and are serving somewhere, can come here and live in community, be discipled, disciple others, and be plugged in and serving in specific ministries.”
The hope would be that this fruit would spread as the students mature and go back to their communities and serve as adults.

As the team in Latvia continues to serve faithfully and gain more opportunities to train and encourage young leaders like Valters, pray with us that God would give them the people and resources they need to spread His kingdom.

Related Posts

Read Story

Discipleship, Internship, Stories

Trusting Outside the Box

This year, I had the privilege of going to two camps in Slovenia, one in Koper and one in Domžale. This is my second internship with Josiah Venture and my fourth year helping at camp, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. With English camps, there is a lot of planning involved, such as figuring out the evening, preparing themed parties, practicing the camp dance, organizing the games, and readying the overall camp program. What I did not expect was how my whole summer would be focused on trusting God outside the boxes I had put him in. Before the summer started, I prayed for the kids at camp to have open hearts and minds to think about Jesus in a different way. I wanted them to see Jesus the right way and not just because of what they had heard from others. What I didn’t realize is that the Lord was doing the same with my heart. Before I left for the summer, I really had a hard time trusting the Lord and his timing. Every rejection or “no” had felt like a slap in the face, not protection. I was trying to figure out what God was doing within the waiting. During camp, I realized God was calling me to step outside of the box and to trust him in the waiting, no matter the outcome or what my feelings told me. God’s character never changes, and none of the trials we go through are without purpose. One of the talks I heard this year at camp was about being willing to step outside of our box in faith. It takes faith to trust God when our situations or feelings tell us otherwise. Before, my feelings had told me that God was not kind because of all the rejection and the times I had felt left out in my life—that God did not see me. He forgot about me, because how is he kind by making me wait? That God must be mad, and now I’m struggling to wait and be patient for him. At camp, I realized that God doesn’t feel that way. God cares deeply about me, and there’s always a good reason that we have to wait. My mom always says that God is never early or late but always on time. We can trust that he knows what is good for us, but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way. Sometimes life hurts, and we can’t understand what God is doing within the hurt and chaos. Sometimes pain and hurt can give us a better perspective on a situation, or something we thought we wanted. This summer gave me a more realistic view of what ministry looks like in Slovenia: lonely, hard, discouraging at times, but so worth it. This internship showed me that sometimes thinking outside the box also means not being afraid to admit that missions aren’t for everyone, and it’s okay if that’s true for me. Not everyone is called to missions, and you don’t have to feel guilty that you aren’t. You just have to be faithful where God has placed you. Don’t let others make you feel guilty about your feelings or how you experience things; instead, take your feelings and experiences to God. One of my friends told me the most loving thing I could do for the church was to realize that God isn’t calling me to missions for longer than these four trips. Some opportunities are only for a season. There are people who keep serving in areas because they think they have to, but not because God has called them to, and they can hurt people. God has a purpose and a place for everyone. I’m so grateful I’ve had four summers to pour into students and to be used by God in Slovenia. I’m sad that this season has come to an end, but God has done so much not only in my heart but also in the hearts of Slovenes. So, how are you taking your experiences and feelings to God? Are you letting your feelings dictate God’s character, or are you telling your feelings who God is?
Read Story

Discipleship, Evangelism, Stories

A New Generation of Missionaries

Dear Friends, “I am sending you.” —Jesus At the end of January, I spent a week with 52 new Josiah Venture missionaries at our winter Academy. Talking with them at meals and in training sessions, I was overwhelmed with the quality and passion of this next generation of missionaries. Let me briefly tell you a few of their stories. Klemen (Slovenia) trusted Christ at 16 years of age when his best friend—the son of JV missionaries—shared the gospel with him on a napkin and challenged him to put his faith in Jesus. With so few evangelical believers in Slovenia, Klemen experienced rejection from his friends and is still the only believer in his extended family. Because of his heart for young people, Klemen studied physical science and became a PE teacher but was so outspoken about his faith that the principal didn’t extend his contract. At that point, our JV staff challenged him to join the team, and he experienced God’s call into full-time ministry. Now, he is helping local churches develop outreach programs to reach the lost. Klemen’s vision? That 30% of Slovenia would become followers of Jesus. Gabriel (Romania) grew up in a Christian home as the son of a pastor. At a youth camp when he was 16, Gabe put his faith in Christ. From that point on, he spent all of his free time serving in church. He experienced God’s call into ministry at 18 and spent the next four years in theological study. However, as is typical in Romania, his church was very traditional and inward-focused. When he began to lead the youth group, there were just five attending—all from Christian families. Then, some members of the JV Romania team began to train Gabe on how to reach the lost using the tool of Fusion, a rock/gospel choir that builds community through music. Soon, the entire culture of the youth group was transformed, and unbelievers were drawn in, inviting more of their friends and coming to faith in Christ. The youth group grew to 100 in a church with just 200 members, and the entire community was impacted. Now Gabe has joined the JV team to equip other churches like his to reach the lost. “I would love for all the churches in Romania to experience this,” he said, “that the church can have an impact on the outside and share the gospel in a relevant way. That would change our country.” Kendra (Ukraine) is a second-generation JV missionary, raised on the mission field. After her graduation from Wheaton college in Illinois, she responded to God’s call to serve in a very challenging location—near the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, in the midst of war. It is a dangerous assignment for a young woman, but Kendra feels privileged to bring the light of Jesus to young people in the midst of physical darkness and great uncertainty. She learned the Ukrainian language in just 6 months, and is now experiencing open doors for ministry across her entire city. God is using her bold faith to draw many to himself. I can’t wait to see what God will do through these committed young missionaries! They can be sent because you stand with them through your prayers and generous support. Thank you. Dave Patty President, Josiah Venture
Read Story

Events, Stories

The Right Learning for the Right Person at the Right Time

Stop and think about the times in your life when you grew the most. What were you doing? What were the circumstances? What did you feel? What were you excited about, and what were you worried about? When I look back on my own life, I notice a pattern. Growth usually happens when the challenge in front of us is outside of our comfort zone or outside of our skill level. It happens when we’re stretched. I remember learning this in a very tangible way in college. I took a class called Experiential Learning, and, throughout the semester, we worked through various team-building exercises. At the end of the course, we went to a ropes course, which culminated in a challenge known as the “Pamper Pole”—a towering 10-meter telephone pole. The challenge was to climb to the top, stand on a tiny platform, and then leap to grab a trapeze bar. My professor had seen me go through most of the challenges fairly easily. Just as I was about to climb the Pamper Pole, he quietly walked up behind me, put something in my back pocket, and said, “Just in case you want a little bit bigger challenge.” I reached inside and found a blindfold. And I decided to put it on. I climbed the pole blindfolded, made it to the top, and then jumped. My hands hit the bar, but I didn’t grab it. Of course, I was strapped in, so I didn’t hit the ground, but that moment has stayed with me. Even though I didn’t “succeed” in the way I had hoped, I chose a harder pathway up, and I learned something important: growth often requires stepping into something beyond what we currently know how to do. The missionary life is a lot like that. When Brooke and I first stepped onto the mission field, we were eager and ready to say yes to whatever God put in front of us. We had vision, enthusiasm, and a desire to serve. But looking back, we didn’t realize how steep the learning curve would be or how much God still needed to form in us. Those early years were full of trial and error. We made countless mistakes and learned by trying something, realizing it didn’t work, and trying again. Over time, the Lord shaped us and grew us, but the learning curve was long. Some of the lessons we needed most came through hard seasons, and they didn’t come quickly. The Josiah Venture Winter Academy was established to help provide the resources necessary to give our staff a foundation for healthy, effective ministry that lasts, grounded in Christ’s strategy, and strengthened by shared language, practical tools, and a community that helps them grow through every season. This year, we gathered 52 Josiah Venture staff at our training center in Malenovice, Czech Republic, for a week of discussion, connection, and spiritual encouragement. Every staff member has the opportunity to participate in Winter Academy within their first year on the team (Year 1 track) and again within their second year (Year 2 track). At its core, Winter Academy is about helping our staff build a foundation that will serve them for the long haul, so they can be steady and fruitful through the ups and downs of ministry. Ministry is full of seasons. There are times of blossoming, when the work feels joyful and full of momentum, and there are times of drought, when setbacks and discouragement threaten to parch the soul. Some seasons even hold those highs and lows at the same time. Jeremiah 17:7–8 reads: “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” These verses don’t deny hardship; they assume it. But it also points us to the keys to long-term fruitfulness: staying rooted and drawing consistently from the resources we have in Christ. Winter Academy was created to help staff establish those roots early. We wanted to shorten the learning curve so that new staff would be prepared for the obstacles they would inevitably face, and so they could respond with bold faith, with wisdom drawn from best practices across the team, and with perseverance, knowing they would have a team standing with them. Year 1 focuses on the path of a growing disciple. Our first-year staff get grounded in who we are as Josiah Venture and how Christ’s strategy shapes everything we do. They also learn the Five Challenges of Christ in a way that moves beyond theory into real life and real ministry. Year 2 is focused on ministry coaching through the Five Phases. Year 2 builds on that discipleship foundation and helps our staff grow in how they serve and multiply through others. Participants learn how to evaluate ministry health and direction as well as practice coaching conversations that help leaders take meaningful next steps. Once our staff complete Winter Academy (Years 1 and 2), we want them to know three things with certainty: I am not alone. I know who to turn to for help. I look to Jesus as my model for ministry. We’re grateful for what God has done through Winter Academy over the years, and we invite you to join us in praying that this event continues to deepen roots, strengthen faith, and produce fruit that lasts.