Back

August 26, 2014

Next Gen Leaders: Edgars’ Story

Edgars Deksnis comes from a Baptist family in Latvia. When he fully committed his life to following Christ at the age of 20, God began giving Edgars leadership opportunities at church and youth group. Today, he and his wife Anete, and their newborn baby, live in Riga where they serve with Fusion, JV’s music ministry, and have recently started a church plant.

Q: What was your relationship with God like growing up?

A: Honestly, I knew there was a God since my birth. My parents always took me to church. I come from a Baptist background. Of course, when I was a child it was easier. When I became a teenager I started saying, “No, thank you.”

But I saw that there were certain situations where I needed to go to church because my father believed it was the most important thing, at least on Sundays.

Still, I didn’t really get excited about going to church. It was more of a social club, but I didn’t really like the people there. It wasn’t for me.

I knew about God from childhood, but because I went to church I thought I was a Christian. I didn’t see any problem with me just living life and being a good person and then going to heaven.

Q: When did that relationship start to become more serious?

A: In 2005, when I was 20, there was an American team that came to do a summer Bible school program for people in my area. They needed help with translating so I became one of the team members. Every day I was hearing stories about God and Jesus, and it came to the point where I was thinking, “This is something new for me. I haven’t heard this.” Or maybe I had heard it before, but hadn’t really been listening.

Through talking with the leaders there, I realized I had a problem. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I liked to party and then on Sunday I needed to be this soft guy. It was a double-identity problem.

That was the crucial point. God showed me the way He could change my life. I saw that I didn’t need to be ashamed of what I was doing on Sunday and that I could live as a Christian the rest of the week too.

Q: How did you get connected with Josiah Venture and what role did JV play in your life?

A: After that decision, in 2006, my pastor asked me if I would consider being a youth leader in the church, and I said yes. Then after a while, Josiah Venture told me they were doing a school of leaders to train young leaders from churches, and they invited me to come. So, those were the first steps for building up youth ministry and the first time I got to meet people with JV in Latvia.

The most significant role JV played was that they encouraged me in leadership. At that time, I was ready to follow Jesus wherever He was going to lead me, but I honestly didn’t know how that would be. I saw that God was challenging me to be a leader, not just someone who loved Jesus, but someone who would lead others in different ways. I think that was how JV impacted me the most. There has been a lot of growth in my leadership because of the organization.

Q: How did you personally get involved with JV?

A: In 2008, I got to know Kelly Hargan, the Josiah Venture country leader in Latvia. We started meeting regularly to talk about youth in Latvia and my vision and JV’s vision for Latvia. It was a big blessing to meet with him and be able to talk about what I was doing in the church.

He got to know me and my ministry as a youth pastor in Riga. Then one day he said that a Fusion group, part of JV’s music ministry, was coming from the Czech Republic, and he asked if I would be willing to host them. I said okay. Afterwards, JV asked if I would consider Fusion to be a good tool to reach Latvian youth. I said for sure. And then they asked if I would be willing to do the first Fusion camp in 2009.

That fall, after camp, I officially joined JV.

Q: What is your role on the team now?

A: We started Fusion in 2009, and after that my main role was to lead the local Fusion. In 2010 we did two Fusion camps. In the same year, another Fusion project started, and Kelly asked me to lead the Fusion movement in all of Latvia.

We got to the point where there were more and more Fusion choirs in the country, and in 2011 we saw that in our local Fusion there were 10 or more people who had said they wanted to follow Jesus. We saw that our ministry needs to be about how to invest in these young people’s lives and then support and encourage them as they walk with Christ.

One of the key things for JV is that we want to see young people impact and change society through the local church. If young people don’t find their home in the local church then it doesn’t make sense. It goes against our vision.

We realized we needed to start something new so that the youth from Fusion would be more connected to the church. So in October 2011, we started a church plant. Now, I’m focused on building up this local church to be a healthy home for students.

My main role right now with JV is working with Advance in Latvia, to discover this unknown road of planting this church in Riga with the help of local young people, to equip and train them not only to make them believers in Jesus’ message, but to make them followers of Jesus Christ. Disciple-making is one of our key values and we can already see the fruit.

I’m also serving on the JV Latvia board.

Q: What excites you most about JV’s vision and what God is doing in Latvia?

A: I think the best thing is that JV focuses on young people. In Latvia, older people still remember the time of the Soviet Union and are maybe afraid to dream or take risks in certain ways. The young people, who were born into a free country, haven’t experienced the Soviet Union times and now youth have much more freedom than in the past to do whatever they want.

That gets me excited because I do believe that young people are not our future, but they are our today, our present. My heart is for the young people and seeing their lives changed and how they impact others.

As Edgars and the rest of the JV Latvia team work to raise up more next generation leaders in churches, please pray that God will give people the passion and willingness to dream big about His kingdom and take bold steps to follow Christ.

Edgars Deksnis

Related Posts

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.
Read Story

Stories

Christmas Traditions

Every culture has its own Christmas traditions. Many of us already have our Christmas trees up, have begun playing our favourite Christmas music, and are checking items off our shopping list. In most European cities, Christmas markets have taken over town squares and observe their own unique traditions for Christmas Day. For example, in Poland, families prepare an extra place at the table in case of an unexpected guest; in Bulgaria, the oldest person in the house breaks open homemade bread with a coin baked inside; and in Czechia, children hide a fish scale under their dinner plate for good luck. Traditions are a wonderful thing as long as we remind ourselves why we keep them. One tradition that has meant a lot to my family and me for many years is lighting an Advent wreath. We usually make ours out of fir branches and four white candles, sometimes adding extra decorations like dried orange slices or pinecones. Then on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, we read from the Bible, say prayers, sing songs, and light the candles in an increasing number: first one, then two, then three, and finally four. This tradition has its origins in the sixth century, and many European churches and Christians practice it. But after such a long time, it is easy to forget what it all means. Here is some of the significance. First of all, Advent derives from the Latin word for “coming, arrival.” It denotes the beginning of the year for Christians, who prepare our hearts for the arrival of God, by both remembering Jesus’ incarnation and anticipating his second coming. The circular shape of the wreath signifies the never-ending nature of God’s love for humanity. The fir branches remind us that, even in the dead of winter, God is at work to bring forth new life. And the successive lighting of the candles signals God’s determination to send his light into the world: the incarnation of his son. We love this tradition, but, to be honest, we don’t always keep it perfectly. This year, we had to dig out some old candles to use for our wreath, we have struggled to get through the Bible readings with our young children, and we often forget to light the right candle on the right day. But God is teaching me that this is alright. The season of Advent, along with its many traditions, is not made more or less meaningful by how faithfully I keep it. The season of Advent is made most meaningful because of how faithful God is at drawing near to us. The Apostle Paul summarised it well: “But when the right time finally came, God sent his own Son… so that we might become God’s children.” (Gal. 4:4-5, GNT). This Advent, may you find renewed meaning in your traditions. And may you remember and rely on God, who is most faithful to draw near to those who need his light.
Read Story

Discipleship, Evangelism, Stories

Home

Sajmir just wanted to belong. As the youngest son in a Muslim family of eight children, he was expected to serve everyone. Sajmir’s family was oppressed in Albania because they were dark skinned Gypsies. On top of that, during the difficult time after the revolution, his father began drinking and beating his mother. “My father never beat me,” Sajmir said, “but he never showed me love. He never hugged me or kissed me. I never saw a father figure. I was afraid of him. Also, outside in the city, people were not very close to me. I spent most of my time alone, playing soccer alone, or basketball alone.” There was only one soccer field in his village, and when Sajmir tried to join a game, the other kids would kick him out. One day, a group came toward the field and Sajmir began to back away, sure they would ask him to leave. “Will you play with us?” they asked. “You want to play with me?” Sajmir replied. For the first time in his life, someone invited him in. After the game, they invited him to church. “What is a church?” he said. Running home, he asked his parents if he could go. “Don’t go to church,” they answered sternly, “you will shame us.” But the next day was Sunday, and he snuck out when no one was looking. “When I stepped into the church, at the door, someone gave me a hug for the first time in my life,” Sajmir said. “They put me in the first row. I felt like a celebrity. Then I heard the story that someone loves you just as you are, that is, Jesus—as I was, dark skinned, rejected. But still, there is someone who died for me.” “I ran and told my family, but their response was: ’If you go one more time, we will tell your brother to beat you up.’ I went again. My brother beat me up. For three months, I was beaten every week. I was loved and accepted in church, while suffering and being beaten in my family. Then my mom said, ‘Let him go.’” Filled with joy, Sajmir fell on his knees and said, “God, I will serve you wherever you want me to.” That was 25 years ago, and today Sajmir and his family are part of our Josiah Venture team in Albania. Through youth ministry, he recently planted a church called “Mosaic,” which has grown to over 100 people. Every day, young people come after school and in the evening for tutoring, children’s meetings, youth meetings, small groups, discipleship groups, and a very lively Fusion choir. The church is open every day, from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm, and there is always something happening. “Our building is a daily home for everyone; it’s a family,” says Sajmir. “I always remember what God did for me in my youth. My heart is burning to see more young people come to Christ and find that they are loved and belong.” During this Advent season, we remember how Jesus left his home to make a home for us. He was sent to find us, where we play our games alone, and to invite us into his family. He found Sajmir, and you, and me. Thanks for helping us share this good news with young people who are still without a home. Dave Patty President, Josiah Venture