Inspiring
Stories
The Word Does Not Return Void
It’s the classic underdog story. The David and Goliath. The kids who have every privilege versus the kids who have nothing but determination.
The two teams met over a Bible competition. The favored team, the church kids, had been going to church their whole lives. They’d been reading the Bible, studying it, hearing it for years. The underdogs were a ragtag collection of junior-highers from mixed backgrounds and ethnicities. Their parents—some believers, some not—let them roam free. These kids had zero knowledge of the Bible. That is, until Zhenya arrived.
Zhenya came to Central Asia from Ukraine to further develop a fledgling children’s ministry. The ministry had started in 2006 when a short-term team came to help the community refurbish their sad, gray playground. When the playground was finished, they held a Bible camp which led to a regular children’s Bible club.
When Zhenya arrived in 2008, she noticed that the Bible club was attracting a slightly older crowd. Several junior high students came, longing for the love and acceptance they found there. They needed more than the children’s program could offer so Zhenya started a ministry just for them. Her main focus with this eclectic group was to get them into the Word. She used crossword puzzles, games and challenges. And the students devoured it all.
The day of the competition arrived. Zhenya had taken her crew to the local church. The kids were out of their element and struggled to sit through the traditional service. Afterward, they met the church youth and someone proposed a Bible quiz. It was on. And just like every good underdog story, these underdogs won.
But the story isn’t over. The challenge doesn’t end with a Bible quiz. The ultimate goal is changed lives and it’s happening. Just as Isaiah 55:11 tells us, God’s Word is accomplishing its purpose. Several of the boys have become Christians. One of the girls, who had been raised in a Christian home and had rejected Christ, changed her mind and became a believer. Many of the students, even the unbelievers, are looking for ways to serve in the church.
In a place where it is so hard to grow strong, male leaders, these boys are developing the knowledge and the grit they need to lead the church someday. Pray that the Word would change these boys’ lives completely.
TOP OF PAGE
Mr. Shyu
It wasn’t the debate that compelled him—it was the 20 plus years of love shown by a faithful church. Yes, the debate was important, especially for an intellectual like Mr. Shyu. He often related things he heard about Christianity to Confucianism and was always hungry for more. He was particularly interested in proof of the resurrection and why God allows Christians to suffer.
But behind the debates were the many people who shared God’s truth and love with him. There was the missionary, Phil Lam, who helped found Peitun Church in Mr. Shyu’s neighborhood. Through a major tract distribution in the early ‘80’s, they met and became friends. There were Pastor Lee and his wife who continued to visit Mr. Shyu even when the church moved out of his neighborhood. There were Mr. Shyu’s daughter and son-in-law who were believers and lovingly shared the truth with their father. There was the evangelism team-in-training, led by missionaries Mark and Ruth Harbour, who visited Mr. Shyu several times in 2008. And there were the members of Peitun Church who welcomed Mr. Shyu with all of his questions.
It took many years, many people, many visits, and many debates but it was worth it to see Mr. Shyu finally give his life to Christ. Pray that Mr. Shyu’s wife would do the same.
TOP OF PAGE
Growing in So Many Ways
They say it’s not just about the numbers, it’s about spiritual growth. Christian Church in Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic is experiencing both.
Take Jirka for example. Jirka is a quiet, shy, college student. A few years ago he started attending the youth ministry at Poruba Christian Church and it changed his life. Although he’s still shy, he has taken on some leadership roles at the church—helping with the home Bible study, leading some of the church’s communion services and helping to lead the English Camp outreach. Jirka is maturing at an astounding pace and bringing people into the church.
SEND International missionaries planted the church in 1999 and it has since grown from 12 people to 60. Just in the last two years, the church has grown 50%! Every Sunday it’s a challenge to squeeze everyone into the building.
Such growth is nothing less than miraculous. Christians in the Czech Republic account for only .5% of the population. Many Czechs (70%) consider themselves atheists and in general Christianity is seen as a superstition. Few churches are growing at all, let alone growing at such a rapid pace.
The youth ministry Jirka attended provided much of the initial church growth. While they continued to serve the youth, the missionaries prayed for more men to take the leadership of the church. God has been answering those prayers: four or five new families have started coming in the last two years and many of the youth are growing up and starting families of their own.
Šarka is another example of how the church is not just growing in size; it’s growing in maturity. She has been a Christian for years and actively reaches out to others. She even opened up her home to a young lady she met while doing street outreach. Šarka is very involved in the church as a finance officer and as part of the leadership team. She recently contacted OM about going on a short-term trip. Šarka is trusting God for her future.
God is doing amazing things in Poruba Christian Church. He’s not just bringing in the numbers, He’s developing believers who desire to grow, serve and reach out.
TOP OF PAGE
Lenka
Lenka, an English student of one of our missionaries, is a 48 year-old psychologist who teaches at the university in her city in the Czech Republic. She had been educated and trained to believe in the power of humanity to change itself. Very convinced in the goodness of man, Lenka also readily bought into eastern religious thought.
Lenka, though, came face to face with the inadequacy of her belief system within the context of her own family. During one of the English classes, she broke down crying and later revealed the painful details of her life. She lives separated from her husband because of his repeated infidelity and alcohol dependence. Despite several stays in treatment centers, he struggled to find freedom from alcoholism.
Lenka’s 21 year old daughter, who is currently studying comparative religions, is a psychological mess. She never speaks above a whisper and often says nothing at all. Frequently she cannot sleep at night. Rarely will she venture outside of her flat without her mom.
Our missionary, Jill, prayed for Lenka that day and continued to love her and spend time with her outside of class. Confronted with the struggle of sin and the inability of secular psychology to help her family members find help, Lenka finally became more open to the truth of Christ, the one who can set people free.
She began attending an Evangelistic Bible study at our church and agreed to meet with Jill and Brian to discuss the Bible and pray for her family. Several months ago, during one of those meetings, Lenka acknowledged her sin and cried out to Jesus for forgiveness and freedom. Her text message the next day to Jill read, “Jesus is my True Love and the sunshine of my life. He is the Only True Savior and I will follow Him alone.”
While there is still going to be a lengthy process of “putting off the old,” she is growing in Christ. Our hope and prayer is that she will be able to lead not only her husband and daughter to Christ, but that she will be influential in the university in helping people to realize that Christ alone is the one who can set captives free.
Brian and Jill Dagen
TOP OF PAGE
Food Packets Lead to Reconciliation
Around the world, people are feeling the effects of a declining economy. In Central Asia, even people who have jobs struggle to make ends meet. Recently the missionaries, seeking a temporary solution to the poverty around them, started a benevolence fund to take food packets to the neediest families. God powerfully supplied.
One packet went to Aisha, a woman who had attended the fellowship in the past but had since stopped coming. When the national couple delivered the food packet, Aisha welcomed them in and began telling them about her estranged relationship with her brother. This culture places a high value on family relationships and Aisha was devastated with this separation. The couple encouraged Aisha to come with them to her brother’s house. They all went together, bringing a food packet, and Aisha and her brother were reconciled after many years of bitterness.
That Sunday, Aisha returned to the fellowship bringing along her brother who had never been to church before. And that day, Aisha was reconciled to God. Pray that her brother will someday do the same.
TOP OF PAGE |
