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The Future

Hello Everyone! I want to thank every one of you that supported me this year whether it was through prayer or financial support. This summer was amazing whether it was young people coming to Christ or young leaders growing in their leadership and relationship with Christ. For those of you that follow my blog, you know that God really worked this summer in Slovakia and in my own life. One of the biggest things God was working in this summer was affirming my future. This summer I applied to move to Slovakia and to work for Josiah Venture. I was accepted! This is so amazing and I am overwhelmed with the fact that God continues to affirm His calling in my life. Many of you know that I have been thinking about this for awhile and are probably excited that I have finally made the decision! Well of course this means that there are a lot of things that I need to start doing to prepare for this! One of the main things is support raising! I will in the next couple weeks be sending out information about this in the mail and beginning to contact people about this. If you are interested in hearing more about this you can email me at: Joshuadanielhoward@gmail.com

or you can call me at: (260)446-9929

Levice Camp, Last but not least

Well I finished my last camp for the summer in Slovakia. It was in the town of Levice, The second town I worked in last year. This camp was really great, because I could really see growth in the guy leaders from last years camp. Two of the guys Rasto (bottom Left) and Tomas (bottom Right) were there again. Last year they were pretty uninvolved in building relationships with the guy students at camp because of fear. During the fall last year I spent a lot of time with these guys discipling and encouraging them. This year at camp they decided to pray for a specific guy that they wanted to begin building a relationship with at camp. They did build these relationships and did such an amazing job. I am so grateful for what God has done in their lives this last year. One of the boys they were focusing on was a boy named Patrik (first picture) who came to camp hanging his head from a family where the Father is a drunk and the mother gives him stuff to get him to leave her alone. He left camp with a different demeanor. He came to Christ at camp! He came into my room one night and said "I am different Josh." He is now home and dealing with parents that don't love him and a girl friend who thinks he is stupid for believing in God. Please pray for him and for Tomas (on left) who is discipling him. I am now preparing to come home with all that entails. Please pray for me as I adjust to being home again and preparing for the future. I have more to share with you in the future and would love to talk with you in person. I will be sending out letters soon.

Mosquitos and Horseflies

Mosquitos and Horseflies were numerous at Rožňava camp, but it did not dull the mood of camp. As many of you know Rožňava was the town that I worked most in last year. I have a real close bond with this team and this camp. The camp we just finished was probably the best camp that I have been to. I have never seen God moving as much as he did in camp this year. The whole camp was almost the difference between black and white from last year. The Slovak team did such a great job serving and connecting with the students. The students came to camp this year with a total different perspective than they did last year. Last year many of them were atheists and did not want to talk about God. This year everyone of them was interested in talking about God. We had at least 6 come to Christ and many others say they were about 90% of the way to believing, they just needed to think more about it. I built some relationships with four boys: Marek, Miso, Martin, and Laco. (This picture is of me and these guys at a dance retro party night at camp, I will put up a better picture later). These guys were so neat! They always wanted to talk about something deep. I absolutely loved this! As many of you know I love having deep conversations about God. For example, one of the boys came to me and asked me, "you know in the Bible it says the man is the boss of the woman what does that mean?" It was such a great opportunity to share about the Biblical Family and marriage. He really loved this conversation and eventually got the other three guys into the conversation. After camp I went out with them and the youth leader Rudo (my good friend). As we talked they said they would be interested in meeting more often and talking about God and the things they were learning in the Bible. I am not sure exactly where they are in their relationship with Christ. They all claim that they are believers. Please keep these guys and this team in your prayers! Also please be in prayer for our last camp in Levice (the other town I was working in last year). Thank you everyone! God Bless!

Bratislava Camp

Well I just finished my first camp for the summer in Bratislava (The capitol of Slovakia). It was a very interesting camp. It was really tough at first because I had a lot of organizing to do. Both the American and Slovak teams seemed rather disorganized at first, but after a while and some prompting things that needed to be done were being done. The camp turned into a really neat camp. By the end of the camp there was a lot of openness among the leaders and students, something I have never seen in a camp here in Slovakia before. Groups grew close and students began to think seriously about God. I want to talk about two boys specifically. One of the boys is named Jan. He and I had a some really good conversations during camp, I found out that his dad had Parkinson's desease just like my Father. Unfortunately his father died and it had really affected his life. He was having trouble trusting God. We began to talk through this and I tried to encourage him. I was thinking about which Slovak leader to connect him to for further Discipling. As I was thinking of this he wrote to me and told me that he was really looking forward to learning to trust God in is life more and was going to meet with one of the leaders Kubo (who I admire a lot). This was such a blessing. The second story I would like to write about is about a guy named Jay. He is a young Slovak guy who was brought to camp by one of the Josiah venture staff who has been discipling him. Throughout the week we had conversations about what God thought of us, seeing that we are not perfect, how can we serve him if we are not like Paul or the other disciples. After talking about this he decided that he wanted to really work at leading and loving others. He began talking to one of the students who came from the same background of Catholicism and he had. By the end of the week the boy Martin was asking all sorts of questions and Jay had the opportunity to lead him to Christ. This was so great to see. To see how God was faithful in bringing the lost to Him and to showing a young man that he is important to God and can make a difference without being a "Paul". There were a couple of other guys that I saw really come to understand the idea of discipling through this camp and it really excited me! I also learned a lot at this camp. God really reveled a lot to me about how I lead and what my future looks like, in what ways and how he wants me to grow as a leader. I am excited to learn more about this through the next Camp. Please be praying for the next camp that God will protect it. That he will open the hearts of the 33 students coming and that he will Guide the American and Slovak Teams! Thanks Everyone!

Auschwitz

Today we went to Krakow Poland and also had the opportunity to go visit Auschwitz (the Nazi concentration camp). This was a very interesting experience. Like many people I know about the holocaust and what happened, but I have never seen it like this. As I went through the tour and walked on the ground and in the barracks of people who were tortured and died for no reason, I am reminded of the depravity of men. We can so often think of events like this and say, the people that could do something like this must be so evil. I am reminded of the words of Moses in Genesis 6:5, "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." I am reminded of the fact that we are all evil all the time. This led me to the thought of Christ and his sacrifice! It is so amazing that though we are a evil group as humans, a group that can cause such atrocities as the Holocaust, that God could still forgive us through Christ. To think that this Grace is so complete that it could even cover a Nazi, who repented and confessed Christ as Lord! Praise be to our God that He is so merciful and gracious to us, a broken and evil people!

Last Host City Visit

The last Host City visit is now over and we are beginning to prepare for camps. The city we visited was Levice. This was the one of the cities that I did camp in last year and also spent time in the fall discipling some of the guy leaders in the group. I am really excited to work again with this group and see how they have grown over the last couple of months! We spent a lot of time going into classes in the local schools to tell about camp and to promote. We also went to their KECY club. For those of you who do not know these clubs are done by the group throughout the year to connect students from camp with the youth group and the church. They usually consist of games, music, and a talk. It is similar to a youth group, but has a slant towards non-believers. During this group we were able to share about ourselves and have the opportunity to share about God with some students. We had one special thing happen while we were at the club. The local tv station decided to do a news piece on the KECY club. Afterwards they interviewed us and we had the opportunity to share about why we were there and about Christ on television!!! This was really amazing and great promotion for the camp and the church! Please continue to pray for my team and myself as we prepare for camp! That we will have energy and strength from God. Also pray for the Slovak and American teams involved! Thank you all!

Second Host City Visit (Back in Rožňava!)

Well I just finished my second Host City Visit to one of the cities that I worked in last year, Rožňava. It was really exciting to be back and to see all the students and team members that I was working with last year. I went with one other guy named Seth. He is an intern here this summer and will be an intern into the fall like I was last year. During this visit we went into the schools to promote camp to the students. This was a real neat experience for me. There were a lot more students interested this year in camp than last year, which was a real blessing! We also spent a lot of time with the team encouraging them and helping them prepare for camp in July. I am really excited about doing camp again with this team. While I was there I had the opportunity to spend some time every evening with my good friend Rudo the leader of the group. He is having a really hard time right now. For a little background on Slovakia, most youth leaders here do it in their free time. Many have full time jobs and families along with leading the youth group. Rudo is one of these youth leaders. The place where he works is making a lot of changes and because he is a manager he is having to work a whole lot more. This is creating a lot of pressure. As I finish writing I would like to ask you if you would be willing to pray for Rudo, that God will give him supernatural strength and that the things going on in his work would be resolved. Thank you for your prayers!

The Flood

Hey I thought I would update you all and tell you that The Flood at Ed's house that I wrote about before has gone down and they only had some damage to their basement. Things are much better now! Thanks for your prayers!

First Host City Visit

My team and I just finished our first Host City visit. The Host City visit is where we go and meet the team we will be working with and get to know them. We also go to schools to promote camps to the students. We were in Bratislava the capital city of Slovakia. This was a very interesting visit for me and different than the ones I have done before. The students and schools there are not as interested in doing English camps. I think that we still had a good number of students that will be interested in coming to camp. The team there was fun to work with and get to know. In all it was a great visit and I am sure God is moving a lot in that group. After this, on the way to our rest city I was driving with three other Americans and one Slovak. We had been driving about one hour when the Car started to act up. The car ended up staling and would not start up. Thanks to God we finally stopped right in front of a repair place! The Slovak girl Baka and I went in, to talk to the repair guy. He came out and ran some tests on the car. It seems the piece that allows gas into the engine from the gas tank had broken. We spent the next hour trying to get it to an Opel dealership and move all of the luggage we had in the car to the next train station. It was quite an ordeal for a group of tired college students who were headed to rest, but I was quite proud of all of them and their attitudes! Please continue to pray for the team and for our attitudes to remain positive!

Urgent prayer

I know I just wrote but I have two prayer requests for our team. Seth one of the interns got really sick and threw up a number of times last night. I would like to ask if you would pray for his health and the health of the whole team! Also I would like to ask you to pray for my co-leader Ed, who is a missionary here with his wife and 5 children. Last night while he was with us on the opposite side of Slovakia from his family, we had a horrible rain storm. The Dam near their town broke and his family had to evacuate because their house is flooding. Please pray that this problem can be resolved and repaired and that Satan will not use it to hinder our ministry this summer. Also pray for Ed's wife Wendi as she is dealing with this and with their five children. Thank You!

Training Week

Well training week has ended and we are finally in Slovakia and ready to begin the ministry. We will leave tomorrow morning to the first cities that we are working in. The training was really encouraging. It was a great opportunity to meet with interns going to the other countries that Josiah Venture is in. There were so many new interns this year. It was fun for me to get to know them and find out what made them want to come for the summer. I am excited about the summer and about our team, I think it will be a great Summer and that God is really going to use us in some mighty ways! Please continue to pray for my team. If you would like to pray for specific names these are the names of the group: Stano, Barika, Holly, Baka, Seth, Kari, Cory, Mike, Ed, and myself. Thank you everyone! I will keep posting!

The Amazing Race

Well it has been a great week! The rest of the interns, for the summer, arrived at the airport in Vienna, Austria on Wednesday. From there we began The Amazing Race (this is like the show Amazing Race, if you have seen it). There were intern teams from all of the countries of the organization Josiah Venture. These were the groups we competed against. The goal of this time was to work as a team, get to know one another, and learn to work through conflict before getting into the ministry. This was a great learning experience. Our team finished the race in third place! We have now begun training for the summer at Josiah Venture's training facility in Czech Republic. This will be a great week of learning for the interns. Please pray that God will use this time to grow all of the interns and to prepare us for His work this summer!

Three days

Well I have been here three days already and it feels like a while. I went to Presov today (the town I lived in last year) because I will not be there for camp this year. While I was here I was able to connect with my old neighbor kids Milan and Lydka and spent most of the day with them. Later I spent time with Maťo one of the boys I was discipling last year. He is doing really well he is involved in the youth group and is going to be a leader at the camp this year. If you do not know who these kids are please look back in my blog posts to September and October of last year. I would like to ask you to please pray for Milan and Lydka as they still do not know Jesus as their personal savior. Also pray for the other Interns as they prepare to fly over here on Monday! God Bless you all!

In Slovakia

Well thank you all for your support! I am here in Slovakia I arrived safely. Unfortunately I was driving a friend to the train station and turned down the wrong street, got pulled over by the police and fined $75. WOW! what a start to the summer and I have only been here 3 hours! As result I am already kind of discouraged. I could really use your prayer this summer! I will begin to try and write weekly from here on out about how the summer is going.

Almost There!

Well my departure date is just around the corner to leave for Slovakia. I am excited but going through the leaving jitters! I Almost have the amount I need for the summer. I found out that I am only about $200 short. This is Great! Thank you to all of you who supported me, you are such a Blessing. Thank you even more those of you who are praying! It is so important and such a blessing to know that you all have my Back! As I am thinking about the summer I ask that you pray for me as I lead others, that I will do it in a gracious and loving way. I also ask if you would be willing to pray for the young people that will be impacted this summer that their hearts would be open to God and his word! Pray for the teams that will be in charge of the camps that God will protect them and guide them! I will begin to post more as the summer gets underway! Thank you all! God Bless!

Update 2

Well my departure date is approaching quickly. I am leaving on May 19th. As of right now I am still about $1,140 short of the money I need, but I have faith that God will provide. Please pray for this and also for the summer. There are some changes that are happening in terms of how the summer and intern teams are run. This is really exciting and will hopefully work out well. Please pray that God will continue to be in this process of change and that he will guide it in the way that he desires. Please also pray for me as I am being attacked daily now in approach to the summer; that God will protect me and that I will be able to make a stand against the enemies attacks! Thank you all for your support and prayer for me in this ministry! God bless you all for your generosity of time and money!

Update

I am at this moment at about 2.700 dollars. Only 2,ooo more to go! Keep praying :)

Update

It is about month now until I return to Slovakia. I am getting excited about going back for the summer! I received an update today about my finances. I have $1017 of the $4500 I need for the summer. This is exciting because I am always eager to see how God provides for his ministry in my life. As the summer approaches please pray for the camps this summer and for the students that will be coming and hearing God's word. Also pray for the leadership team as they prepare and solve problems in preparation for the summer. Please pray for me as I prepare to go over again. Pray that God will continue to grow me in love and humility so that I can better serve Him. Pray that I will be obedient in everything to Him. I also want to ask you to pray for the young guys that I have discipled here in the States for over 5 years in my small group. Many of them are graduating this year from High school. Pray that they will grow in their love for God and others, and that they will be examples to others around them. Grace and peace to all of you! Thank you for your prayer and support!

Preparation to return

Well as many of you know I recently sent out letters again. I am going over to Slovakia again this summer to lead a team of Interns there. As I have been thinking about this summer I have been trying to prepare myself for the ways God would like to use me this summer. In my church group I have been learning more about God's love for us in 1 John. It is always encouraging and refreshing to me to be remind of how much God loves me despite my effort. I have been meeting with some of the guys that I have been mentoring for years and have been trying to help them process graduation coming up and what life will be like in college and how they will have to be even more disciplined in their faith in the ever changing world around them. I also have the opportunity to go on vacation with my family. My brother is bringing one friend from school with him. I am hoping that this can be a great opportunity with them. Many young people go on spring break and get in trouble. I hope that this spring break for my brother and his friend will be a time of growth and fun spiritually. As I go into the next couple weeks in preparation please pray for my protection. The enemy is always stronger in his attacks the closer I get to God and the more I serve Him. Also remember to pray for all the young believers going on Spring Break this next week that God will protect them and they will cling to God and not their desire to "have fun".