Josiah Venture—Spring Conference Picture

Just before the conference ended yesterday, we headed outside for a group picture in the rock amphitheater. If you look hard, you can see Marlene and me on the very back row just left of center. JV missionaries serve from Estonia in the north (almost to Finland) to Serbia in the south (almost to Greece). Not many Christians realize how unreached this area of the world is. As Dave Patty said, Eastern Europe is hard soil for the gospel, and yet all week long we heard amazing stories of what God is doing. In Latvia some of the presidential advisers attend a JV women’s Bible study. The Czech branch sponsors a TV program called Exit 316 that reaches millions of viewers. In Romania they are seeing many college students come to Christ. In Slovenia (a very difficult region for gospel work), they have planted a thriving church amid ongoing spiritual opposition. The work in the Ukraine is just beginning–but the harvest is plentiful. In Estonia Peep Saar has started a youth ministry that reaches hundreds of teens with the gospel. The Poland team is building a camp called H2O. During the conference Dave Patty challenged the ministry to double its fruitfulness for God in the next three years. It is essential because, even with the most optimistic statistics, evangelical Christians make up only 1.1% of the population.

We have been so blessed to be here. Sometimes you go and give out. Here we have been encouraged and inspired by the faith of these missionaries. They know all about the reality of spiritual warfare every day.