JV Fall Conference 2016 Begins

Put three hundred and fifty young leaders and missionaries in a room together and you get a Spirit filled electricity that is just AMAZING!

Our Josiah Venture fall conference opened this evening at the cultural house in Frydlant nad Ostravici, the town we live in.

Since we're loud (worship is absolutely fantastic with this group!) and we don't want to disturb the neighbors in the area, plus we don't have a room big enough at Malenovice to fit everyone, we have our evening programs down here.

Our theme this year is "Inspire". We're studying the movement of the early church in the book of Acts, the Moravian missionary movement, and talking about God's movement in Central and Eastern Europe.

Dave spoke with power and passion tonight, giving the overview of all three of these movements.

He set the stage for tomorrow when all 350 people here for the conference will get on seven tour buses and head out to four locations in this area to study about the Moravian Missionary Movement, which began just a half hour away from where we are right now.

Their fervor, sacrifice, dedication and passion for spreading the Gospel throughout the world is absolutely inspiring, and we have much to learn from them.

For twenty three years now, we've been praying for a movement of God in this region of the world, praying that God would raise up young "Josiahs", men and women with a passion to see their countries transformed by the power of Christ.

This is one of those young Josiahs!

I've known of Klemen for nearly fifteen years, as he was a schoolmate of my nephew, Blake, in Slovenia. Klemen spent many hours in the Patty home in Ljubljana throughout his young years.

Then, when he was in high school, he trusted Christ in their basement with Blake. And has been walking with God ever since.

Last year at fall conference we spent some time together and we now say I'm his adopted aunt and he's my adopted nephew! Loved getting to catch up with him after the evening program.

But you know what? I have some other family at home this evening!

It's been FIVE YEARS since these men have sat together in our living room!

That's Dave, Tyler and Caleb, getting some time together tonight. What a very special gift to have both the boys and their wives here for fall conference this year.

I can already tell, this is going to be an awesome week!