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May 20, 2022

Ideas for Summer Ministry with Ukrainians

1. Carnival Day

This is a one-day event you can host in cooperation with a church and city hall, a local school, or a refugee center, to meet the Ukrainian community in your area.
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2. Three-Day Amazing Race Competition

This is a small-group competition in the form of evangelistic outreach that lasts three days completing tasks around your city.
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3. Three-Day Sports Festival/Clinic

Three-day sports clinics are 3-hour morning practices with afternoons filled with small group activities to help churches build relationships with Ukrainians in their community.
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4. Three-Day Tourist Bus/Van Trips

This is a 3-day tourist integration program for Ukrainians to participate with the local youth group in three days of visiting tourist/cultural/fun locations in your region, selected to help Ukrainian youth adapt to their new surroundings.
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5. Camp: Day Camps for 10-13 year-olds

This is a fun summer evangelistic day camp for younger Ukrainian teenagers and kids from the local church specifically between the ages of 10 and 13.
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6. Camp: Invite Ukrainians Into What You Are Already Doing

Your local church is already doing youth ministry this summer. Why not invite a handful of Ukrainian youth into those programs?
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7. Hiking/Camping Trip

A hiking or camping trip offers a great way to get to know a smaller group of people while also experiencing God, nature, and teamwork.
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8. Ukrainian Camps for the Ukrainian Diaspora

These camps equip Ukrainian churches and Ukrainian communities to host summer evangelistic camps where 90-100% of the camp’s nationality is Ukrainian.
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A Family Matters

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Longer than WW1

How do you manage a somber milestone? On June 11, 2026, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine officially surpassed the duration of World War 1. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has now outlasted the Great War, which ended after 1,568 days. For our team of 30 full-time staff serving in Ukraine in the midst of aggression, nightly bombings and the sound of drones overhead have become a daily reality. Yet, most of their attention is focused on a different battle, the fight for the hearts and souls of young people. Vitalii has a special heart for reaching boys whose fathers are absent or conscripted into the military. These vulnerable young men are growing up without a strong male influence in their lives, at a time when they need one the most. Since most boys enjoy activity and challenge, Vitalii teaches men in the church to father groups of boys in Wise Carpenter clubs. They build projects together and learn from Jesus, the great wise carpenter. Despite the pressures of war and the difficulty of travel, Vitalii has launched 45 of these clubs in churches across Ukraine, reaching over 500 boys each week. One of the recent clubs they started was in a Baptist church that was targeted and destroyed in April by a Russian-guided missile. During the explosion, one man was killed, and several were hospitalized. There is no safe place in a war of missiles and drones, even for Wise Carpenter clubs. In June, Vitalii gathered many of the boys for a Wise Carpenter camp featuring creative projects, fun events, and a clear proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many put their faith in Christ and experienced an environment of love and personal care that was medicine to their souls. While the somber war milestone was being passed in June, Vitalii was taking young people past a different milestone, the dividing line from spiritual death to life. Lee and Katie are originally from California, yet they have chosen to remain in Ukraine with their two young children in the midst of war. Many nights are spent sleeping in the basement of their apartment building, which doubles as a bomb shelter. But rather than shrinking back, they are actively expanding the summer camps our JV team leads and will host 43 evangelistic camps in July and August. Each of these camps is in partnership with a local church and will make it possible to share the gospel with nearly 3,000 Ukrainian young people this summer. One battle front seems locked in place, but this battle is pressing forward rapidly into enemy territory, rescuing young lives from the power of sin and darkness. I’m so proud of the faith and courage of our Josiah Venture team. Thanks for making God’s milestones possible through your gifts and prayers. Dave Patty President, Josiah Venture
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Dare

Who holds the future? As Josiah Venture works with local churches to help them reach the next generation, one very effective tool we offer is a program called Fusion. Teenagers love music and the arts, yet schools in our region don’t generally offer choir, drama, band, or other programs you may have participated in when you were young. This creates an opportunity for the church to gather unbelieving young people together into a Fusion community, which is a contemporary rock/gospel choir. In the context of weekly meetings, teens are shepherded toward faith in God, but we also found that large gatherings can strengthen the local outreach. So last month, 20 Fusion choirs from 10 countries joined for a unique festival called Fusiondary, where the choirs perform for each other, grow in their skills, and are challenged with the gospel. Out of the 500 participants, at least half were unbelievers. Several months before the festival, students filled out a survey about their needs and interests. Normally, classic teen issues like relationships and identity come to the top, but this time, the number one concern was the future. Surrounded by uncertainty, this “anxious generation” is fearful as they look ahead. In response to this, our team chose the theme— “Dare.” “Dare to take a step of faith and trust in Jesus.” “Dare to believe there is a God who holds the future.” One of our newest Fusions is in the city of Lviv, Ukraine, a country still in the grip of relentless war with neighboring Russia. For many of the students, traveling to the Czech Republic for Fusiondary was their first time out of the war-torn country. Yura, a 16-year-old, joined Fusion because of his love for music, and became their key drummer. Although he had heard the gospel many times, he was hesitant to give his life to Christ. On Saturday evening, Jenny used an unusual passage for her talk—the story of the nation of Israel dying from poison and needing to look to a snake on a stick to be healed. “Jesus was lifted up in the same way,” Jenny shared, “and we need to ‘dare’ to look to him in faith for healing that we can find nowhere else.” After the message, Timothy, one of the Ukrainian leaders, found Yuri and asked if he wanted to talk. “Why don’t we come to Jesus right now?” he said. “You know he is real, and then you can have a life with God.” Yuri shared that he wanted to wait, but then said, “What if I don’t live until the next camp? Life is not forever. You don’t know what life brings, and you don’t know when your life ends.” That night, Yuri “dared” to put his trust in Jesus. The next Sunday, he was giving testimony to his faith at his local church in Lviv. Many others made the same step of faith and discovered that, “Even if everyone leaves me, God loves me like I am and will never leave.” Thank you for “daring” with us to give this next generation hope for the future. Dave Patty President, Josiah Venture