Czech Republic – Serving The Vision

Radim Čapla works as mission coordinator and administrator for the NLI Church Planting project in Czech Republic. We’ve just completed the first full year of this project, so what better opportunity for Radim to reflect back on his first year…

Radim Capla

NLI has been in relationship with a group of Pentecostal churches in the Ostrava area since 2005. In 2009, six new churches were launched in target cities that are mostly without any evangelical church at the moment. I joined NLI in January 2009 and have already learnt a lot. My scope of responsibility is to assist the church planters in communication with NLI, with the overseas partner churches and to help with organisational matters.

The idea of planting new churches as a way of a church growth is excellent. There are so many lost people, maybe even looking for ‘something’, but no church is available in their neighbourhood. I’ve been humbled by the church planters’ attitude. Their way of serving the Lord is amazing. The sacrifices they bring as families are sometimes enormous – small babies, full time jobs, serving in their mother church and on the top of that, starting a new church in another community! For some of them it is a real sacrifice for the Kingdom. I love these people.

Church Planting…

The NLI commitment to actively support the church planters works very well: really a good vision. It would be much more demanding without such a support: for some planters perhaps even impossible. Now you can see how visions and dreams, which some church planters have had for a long time, are becoming real! Isn’t it awesome? The permanent NLI involvement also creates the feeling that the church planter is not left alone somewhere in space! It is very encouraging. The church planters can see that there are many people supporting them – their mother church, NLI, and brothers and sisters from the partner churches.

I can see how demanding the task is to start a new church. Without God’s blessing it is impossible. However, the importance of other people’s support, faithful brothers and sisters, is to be emphasized too. Church planters need another people to support their hands. What is great about this project is that there is real teamwork. NLI creates a bridge between overseas partner churches willing to support the missions here, and the Czech church planters who are called to do the job. It is really nice to see this kind of cooperation and commitment. The partner churches are doing a great job in faithfully supporting the planters with prayers, finances and mission teams. I applaud it! It is a strong help for the project!

Mission Teams…

The mission teams did a great job here this first year. I realised how vital the short term mission teams can be. They can make a real impact on the community or on a group of people, especially when the mission is well prepared in advance. It was encouraging to see the effort of teams helping the church planters to impact their community. Contacts and friendships were made and I am really looking forward the next few years, as I believe we will see fruit from the mission. I was nicely surprised that all the teams came with a humble attitude – “What do you want us to do here? We came to serve you. Tell us what you want.” They even came with a willingness to do manual (practical) work to bless the local community.

The soil in Czech is not that soft, but we can see how things are moving forward. We read testimonies from the field of how God is opening doors and how people are responding. It is a long race and we rejoice in every small success. We cannot see multitudes coming yet, but each soul given by God is a miracle. I think that at the end of the project we should have a big celebration of what the Lord has done! Please continue to pray for us, as the opposition is often strong.

Thank you all who support the church in our country in any way. May the Lord reward you in abundance! God bless you real good!

Thanks Radim. You’re doing a great job!!

Please pray for Radim and his family. He does a great job in helping us support the church planters and in organising the mission teams in Czech Republic. I know from personal experience that the job can have its frustrations, so pray particularly for smooth and effective communication with the church planters, partner churches and project staff.

To find out more about Leadership development, church planting and mission teams in Europe, check out the ‘mandate’ and ‘mobilize’ pages on this website… then get in touch with NLI.

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Mission Impact

“I’m passionate about sharing the Gospel and reaching the unreached! One of my passions is seeing God work in the darkest places: seeing him use people to impact the world in which we live. God has given us all talents and abilities to shine in a dark world! He looks for people who will stand in the gap for their friends and families. He wants us to be willing to go to the ends of the earth to share His love. I’m privileged to have God as my Saviour and feel it is my responsibility to bring the love of God to those who don’t get it and to share it with anyone and everyone.”

These are not the words of some seasoned evangelist or famous preacher, they come from an 18yr old lad from England…Chris Budhi is from Yorkshire, (UK) a county not known for its passionate men, but as you can see, Chris is clearly bucking the trend. He’s passionate about mission and about serving God. This Summer Chris took a 6-week break to invest his life into mission in Ukraine. Here’s his story.

Chris Budhi

“I learned Russian at school for 3yrs. Why? Because I believed God was going to call me to a nation where they speak Russian. I actually felt called to Ukraine at the age of 14 when I went on my first mission there (NLI mission to Poltava). I fell in love with the country and the people. At the beginning of 2009 I had an opportunity to get involved with a church in Kiev during the summer break. I prayed about it and God told me as clear as anything that this was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down and that I was to go and serve the church. On 27th June 2009 I went to Ukraine for 6-weeks, to the ‘Light of the World’ church in Kiev, where Igor Stepchuk is the pastor. During my 6-week stay I was involved in loads of different church activities.

With some of the kids on mission

I went on mission to Nikopol with a team from Kiev. We spent time with the young people in the church, including some relationship seminars. We also held evangelistic events, including a concert with a Christian rapper! We played games, had water fights, and held competitions with the children on the streets.

After a week back in Kiev, I helped out at a camp with about 100 children. One of the things I helped with was the Bible study group – I had 6 lads aged 14-18… and an interpreter of course! We prayed together in our groups and did crafts and fun games with the kids. Every evening we met together and had a camp fire. On the final morning in my Bible group I had an opportunity to preach the gospel to 4 of the groups (about 45 youth). At the end I gave an appeal and 15-20 people asked God to be their Saviour! This was the highlight of the whole time I was in the Ukraine.

Finally we went to a church in Pitihatki. We did a lot of practical work – cleaning, gardening, chopping wood, and decorating various buildings on the church site. It was hard work! We had some fun too – competitions with the kids, relationship seminars for the youth, youth meetings, visited local families, and held a tennis tournament at the church. We also held an evangelistic event and took the Sunday school. I had the under 5s. They were great.

Doing crafts with kids

What impacted me most was the camp. Some of the kids were from backgrounds where their parents beat them or shout at them all the time. Others have been brought up to believe they are a mistake, because their parents tell them that all the time. They were lovely kids. They were so happy to be part of the camp. Because I’m from England a lot of the children were happy that I was there and wanted to spend lots of time with me. This was cool in itself, but the best thing was seeing these kids come out of their shell and start to join in the fun.

We noticed that some of the kids wouldn’t join in the fun because of their backgrounds. It was like their past was holding them back, so it was great to see them start to open up and allow us to pray with them. And then on the last day when those youth responded to the gospel and accepted Christ into their lives, you could see that the camp had affected their lives so much that they didn’t want to go back home without God. It’s an awesome experience to see how the Word of God has such an impact and changes the lives of young people!

Sharing the gospel

I love to see God at work in people’s situations and see their lives change when they let God take control. I believe it’s our job as Christians to share what we have (God) with everyone: to love unconditionally so that people will see this God we preach about!! God is an awesome God. He always has been and always will be. In John 10:10, Jesus says He has come to give us a life of abundance. This starts when we start to share this life with others, giving people a glimpse of the awesomeness of God, showing people that God is in control and that when we ask God to be our Saviour He gives us this totally amazing life – giving us stuff we never thought we would have or doing stuff we never thought we would do. It’s our responsibility to share this life with others. Freely we have received, freely we must give!!!”

Maybe one day Chris will be a famous preacher. He certainly has the heart and passion of an evangelist! Chris is back serving in his local church, working at McDonalds and raising finance for future mission ventures. He plans to go back to Ukraine in 2010 and then attend the Planet Shakers College (Australia) in 2011.

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Looking Beyond 2009

Next Level International (NLI) has been built on a solid foundation of partnership.  In the past eighteen years we have seen over 7000 leaders trained, over 130 churches planted directly and hundreds more indirectly, and thousands of individuals mobilized into frontline evangelism. Europe is an ever-changing landscape, particularly evident in this last decade. We have seen the European Union (EU) continue to stretch its borders, as they include more post communist nations.  The often volatile Balkan region is now being welcomed into the EU family and the first Muslim nation is being considered for candidacy.

For NLI, what this all means is that we need to change and challenge our thinking and actions. In a post-Christian Europe where many countries number the evangelical witness at less than 1% there is much more to be done.  We know that the post-communist hunger that existed for many years is waning, but we continue to see the deep spiritual need for the power of the Gospel. We are called to see the creation of movements. Addition will not get the job done . It will take exponential multiplication.

With this in mind, and a strong desire to build on the past, NLI has developed a regional focus. We are currently training leaders in 5 of the 6 regions of Europe.  As well there are church planting and short term mission initiatives in 4 of the 6 regions. Our aim is to expand our ministry initiatives in every region over the next two years while adapting our training/projects/teams more specifically to each culture. We believe this will enable us to move closer to the goal of a ministry relationship in every nation of Europe by 2020.  The nations currently being targeted for new ministry initiatives include France, Italy, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Hungary and Albania. (Doug Watson: Nov 2009)

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Want something good to read?

Got a few spare moments? Want something good to read? Well click on the newsletter link below and download the latest Faith Partners news…

If you’re not bothered, then click on it anyway and just look at the pictures!

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News Update

A pensive moment!

The other prayer request was for a 3rd trainer at the forthcoming ALTC in Crimea. The great news is that we have secured both trainer and sponsorship. The sponsorship has come from one of our awesome partner churches and the trainers are… me and Greg! When we looked at the remaining two subjects for the module, we felt that we could cover them between us. So, Greg will be teaching about ‘balancing ministry and family’ and I will be teaching about ‘problem solving’. This is ideal, because it means I can pilot some of the new DNA curriculum on solutions-oriented leadership.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for us over the next few weeks. As you can see from the newsletter, we do have some busy weeks coming up. We’ve also had some recent challenges in Crimea, so our time out there in October is going to be very crucial.

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Get A Revelation

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of preaching at Calvary Pentecostal Church, Dudley (UK). It’s a great church and I had a really blessed time with the folks. As well as updating them on current NLI initiatives and showing a couple of DVD, I brought a message about how revelation leads to passion and response. I would highly recommend you listen to the message as it’s been a bit of a ‘revelation’ in my thinking and I believe it will challenge you too.

Click on ‘Get A Revelation’ and you should be able to listen directly to the message.

(You can also subscribe to Calvary Church podcasts through iTunes)

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Hot off the press – Summer Newsletter

You can now download the latest Faith Partnership newsletter by clicking on the link below. Sit back and enjoy!

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Never Too Early!

Passion for prayer

I’ve been ‘driving’ the NLI Prayer Teams for 3 years now and have been privileged to be involved with some great missions. Over the last few years we have seen an upsurge in people wanting to be involved in the prayer teams and I believe that this trend will continue if we provide the right opportunities. Now that NLI is operating on a regional basis, I’m able to be more focused and really set some strategic vision for prayer mission within particular nations.

Prayer ministry in Romania

One of my goals has been to raise up new team leaders. Over the last couple of years we have seen Ian and Jan Henley, a fantastic couple from Dudley (UK),  really step up to the plate in terms of leading teams. My passion is to see others like them, mentored by experienced NLI leaders, beginning to fulfil their God-given potential in this area. Of course, more leaders mean more options as NLI begins to press on into unchartered territory. Don’t forget there are 47 nations in Europe and our goal is to have ministry impact in all of these by 2020.

Praying over a new church building!

So, before I give you the dates for 2010, what exactly do prayer teams do? Well, the main purpose is to support church planting initiatives in Europe. Teams spend time with church planters and staff, encouraging and praying for them, as well as engaging in spiritual warfare and intercession for their towns and cities. The teams also spend time prayer-walking in key locations and meet up with other local believers to encourage them. Of course, going on any mission also means you get to explore some beautiful parts of Europe, meet new people and have some great adventures together. Take it from me, you can make some incredible friendships on mission!

Always time for fun on mission!

Opportunities for 2010

Czech Republic - Saturday 15th – Saturday 22nd May 2010

As described above, the team will be ministering within the church planting initiative. The nucleus of the team will be from partner churches already engaged in this project, but application is open to anyone. John and Marty Smith will be leading this team. Approx costs £350 (TBC)

Slovakia - Saturday 10th – Saturday 17th April 2010

The nucleus of this team will be from Nitra’s partner church in Portland, Oregon. The  team will be serving the church in Nitra as well as ministering in local church planting locations. Ian and Jan Henley will be co-leading this team and application is open to anyone. Approx costs £350 (TBC)

I’m too young! I’m too old! I’ve never been on mission before! I’m not experienced in prayer ministry! These are all typical excuses for not going on mission, but none are valid! Anyone can apply to join a prayer team. You just need a willingness to serve people and a passion to see the spiritual climate change in Europe.

Please contact me if you would like further information about either of these mission trips.

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What Happens When you Pray For Burglars!

This is an amazing story of how God worked in a situation that the enemy intended for evil. The story comes from Steph Lambert, who used to work for NLI and is now back home in New Zealand studying law.

Steph Lambert

Steph writes…

It was just another week facing yet another law exam. I left my house around midday and got a call on my way home around 7.30pm to say we had been burgled. Instantly my heart dropped. I had been rushing to leave the house in the morning and been less vigilant than usual. I had left my Macbook and hard drive on the shelf in my room. Unless the robbers were blind, these were taken. The hard drive contained all my graphic art work from 2004, as well as my image library, music library and personal documentation. I instantly prayed, quite boldly, that God would make my stuff like a curse to the people who had them, that they would have no rest. I had no idea where that prayer came from and thought, “man Steph that was a bit mean”. I carried on praying mostly for the right perspective. I got home and my suspicions were confirmed. Not only did they take my Mac and hard drive but they took $120 book vouchers, my iPod and headphones. After praying with some friends I felt the peace of God and went to bed and slept.

During Tuesday I was blessed as by the end of the day, a close friend had promised to underwrite the cost of the computer and hard drive replacement. I had no contents insurance. But in my spirit I really didn’t want the purchase of a new computer to be the answer. Sometimes when things happen we find ways in the natural to fix the situation. But it seemed that this is what needed to take place. After my exam on Wednesday I went and got quotes for a new Macbook and hard drives and got really excited. My model of Macbook had undergone quite substantial improvements so by the end of the day I was ready to get a brand new Mac.

Around 5pm I was at home baking bread where timing is everything. I got a call on my cell from a private number. I answered the phone and a male voice said, “I want to meet with you about a laptop and an iPod”. I was thinking that I didn’t have time to meet him there and then because my bread would be ruined. I wanted to meet him the next day, but when I suggested this he said “No, I’ve had your stuff for two days and God has been hounding me to get it back to you! I have to meet you tonight!”. So forty minutes later I’m sitting in Starbucks waiting for a man that I’ve not met, who had bought my stuff from the burglars and I was unsure whether he would be aggressive, but I knew that God was knocking on the door of his heart and so I prayed that God would give me the wisdom and the words to speak.

He arrived and we began to talk about faith and God. I had an opportunity to pray for him and also offer some help and I gave him my iPod so he could continue to listen to the preaching and the Bible on there. It was a God-appointed opportunity but one that could easily have been missed out of fear or anger. He returned my computer to me at the end of our conversation along with someone else’s charger. A week later the hard drive is still missing but I have my laptop back and more importantly I had an opportunity to speak and pray into a man’s life that I would not have had but for the burglary. I have learnt to look for God-opportunities in the good, the bad and the ugly. God answers prayer especially bold prayers and I have felt the hand of the most generous Father, a Father who loves those in their sin and those in relationship with him equally.

This week the words of Plato reverberate in my heart “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”.

In chatting to the guy, Steph discovered that he is a gang leader from Wellington. He told Steph he had also listened to the music and preaching on her iPod and had understood the preaching. It turns out that many years ago he had been a Christian and someone had spoken a prophetic word over his life – he would either be a leader for evil or for good.  The guys girlfriend was fairly suicidal and so Steph has also been trying to find a Christian counsellor to help her.  They are going to meet again to see what God’s redemptive purpose is in this incredible miracle.

Just goes to show what can happen when we pray bold prayers!!

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Artem’s Diary

Artem Kurdov is a young man living in Armiansk (Crimea). He’s been involved in coordinating American mission teams in the Odessa area. We’ve invited him to be the NLI missions coordinator in Crimea as we believe he has the skills, experience and personality to fulfil this role effectively. Artem travelled with us to Kerch as our driver, interpreter and guide, but by the end of the weekend he had become our friend! Here’s his story of our time in Kerch.

The port of Kerch

I spent last weekend with three great people from England – Judith, Greg and Mathew. We took 4 hours drive down to Kerch city where we spent 2 days serving the churches and people there.

On Saturday evening we had church meeting and Greg and Judith shared God’s word about faith. It was interesting to see how God gave that word to each of them and it matched together. What touched me is that our faith should be visible. Therefore, people who are watching me can see my faith.

Saturday evening service in Kerch

Sunday morning we went to a church that was planted by the Kerch church in the village of Liebknechtovka. The church of 12-15 people may not be the biggest one, but I can tell for sure these people love God with all their heart and souls! Most of them are elderly people and each of them is facing their own struggles and problems. Still that does not stop them worshiping and praising God, taking care of each other, encouraging each other, praying for each other and helping each other.

Matthew prays for Maria who is virtually blind

After a nice Ukrainian lunch, we went to see two more villages where new churches are planned. They have already started to send teams of leaders to share the Gospel and there is already a small home group meeting. Therefore, we are looking to great changes there for God!

Church plant in Liebknechtovka

In the afternoon, me, Greg and Judith had a great meeting on where we discussed the possibility for me to partner with Next Level International as a Mission Coordinator for the church planting project in Crimea.

So, thank God for new opportunities for the ministry! Please pray God will give wisdom in this new ministry.

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