Josiah Venture Stories

This Fall, we are doing a special 5-part bonus series of the "Josiah Venture Stories" podcast featuring some original worship songs by Josiah Venture missionaries. These songs are connected to the theme we studied during our annual Spring Conference this past May. The theme was "Burden to Blessing: A Journey Through the Psalms." We learned about five soul paths highlighted in the book of Psalms: L...

Theresa Kerns has been a part of Josiah Venture basically since the beginning. In this episode, she shares all about her role as the Human Resource Director, her love for relationships, how she lost her husband to cancer, and how she keeps on growing and pursuing purpose.  Theresa's first involvement with Josiah Venture was in 1996 when she and her daughters came to visit the Patty family in the C...

This Fall, we are doing a special 5-part bonus series of the "Josiah Venture Stories" podcast featuring some original worship songs by Josiah Venture missionaries. These songs are connected to the theme we studied during our annual Spring Conference this past May. The theme was "Burden to Blessing: A Journey Through the Psalms." We learned about five soul paths highlighted in the book of Psalms: L...

Casey Yorman lives in the Czech Republic with his family. He is the Director of Edge Sports International and helps lead the entire International Team. In this episode, he shares about his journey to the field, his love for sports, and how God healed him from long Covid.  He and his wife Kristin first heard about Josiah Venture in 2002 when a group of high school students from their church in Cali...

This Fall, we are doing a special 5-part series of the podcast featuring some original worship songs written by Josiah Venture missionaries. These songs are connected to the theme we studied during our annual Spring Conference this past May. The theme was "Burden to Blessing: A Journey Through the Psalms." We learned about five soul paths highlighted in the book of Psalms: Lament, Sovereignty, Rep...

Kuba Vejmelka lives and serves in his hometown of Brno, Czech Republic. He grew up in a Christian home, but in high school, he went through a season of deconstructing his faith. "I came to a point where I needed to figure out if my faith was my own or my parent's." He began spending time with Monika, his now wife, and realized that she had something different. "I saw something in her that I didn't...

This year, TCKompas or Training Center Kompas, the Josiah Venture national organization in Slovakia, celebrated 30 years of operation. Alongside this momentous occasion, on June 3rd, a big leadership transition happened within Kompas. The baton of leadership was handed off from one national leader, Peter Hrubo, to another, Timo Mahrik. In this episode, the two of them share their personal testimon...

Ryan Palmer is originally from Seattle Washington and has been assisting with short-term teams for Josiah Venture since 2009.  In Seattle, Ryan is a high school teacher who teaches astronomy and biology. In this episode, Ryan explores the mission behind "short-term teams" and why they are so essential to Josiah Venture's ministry in Central and Eastern Europe. He shares the joys and challenges tha...

Damaris Iordache is an intern serving with the Communications team this summer as a videographer. Damaris is from Galati, Romania, and studies Marketing at the University of Bucharest. She is 21 years old and going into her final year. In this episode, Damaris shares her testimony, how she came to accept Jesus, and her experience as an intern for the C-team. At the end of the episode, she explains...

Josh Benning is an intern serving in Germany this summer. Josh is from Brookfield, Wisconsin, and is studying Elementary Education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He is the second youngest of five and is minoring in German and Spanish teaching at his university. In this episode, Josh shares how he first heard of Josiah Venture, why he decided to intern in Germany, and his time during th...

Darius and Bia Bocsa are missionaries in Romania. Darius, who is from Romania, met his wife Bia, who is from Brazil, at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Both have a desire and passion for serving the Lord and making the name of Jesus known. After they were married, they decided to move to Romania and work with young people. Darius and Bia's passion is to communicate the gospel to Romanian youth s...

Geri Fuehring and her husband Dave joined the Josiah Venture Czech Republic team full-time in 2015. There, they worked as local missionaries investing in students and leaders in their local church and community in the city of Olomouc. In the summer of 2019, they relocated to Chicago and are now serving with Josiah Venture as Directors of Ministry Partner Development. Their role is to help equip bo...

Tyler Patty and Sean Smith serve in the Czech Republic as facilitators and tutors with ForMission college on the Central and Eastern European campus. Tyler is the Campus Tutor and he leads the entire campus, facilitates classes, and takes care of all campus administration. Sean is the Formation Tutor and he facilitates classes, leads student support efforts, and leads a weekly cluster group. In th...

Gwynne Gardner is the Social Media Manager for Josiah Venture and is usually the podcast host! That's right, instead of asking the questions, Gwynne is the one to be interviewed this time. A big thank you to Rob Chestnut for being the host for this episode. After serving as an intern and then as a full-time missionary in Slovenia for 8.5 years and then Czech for a little over a year, Gwynne now se...

Eric and Lindsay Meland are doing amazing things in Hungary! Currently, along with language learning, local ministry, leading Summer interns, and directing Summer camps, they are supporting and mentoring 12 different youth pastors around Hungary, which is one of their favorite things to do. Their goal is to equip these pastors in making committed, passionate disciples of Jesus who will turn around...

Christy Owen has served in Lviv, Ukraine, for the last eight years. She has been a part of the Fusion ministry there and has been highly involved in discipling young women. Christy shares about her journey to Ukraine, but mostly we have a conversation about being single on the mission field. She talks about some of the common joys and struggles of serving as a single. We recorded this episode back...

Ben Williams is the Josiah Venture country leader for Ukraine and Dave Patty is the JV President. In this episode they share an important and timely update on what's happening in Ukraine with our team, what we are doing to aid and support our local church partners in there, and how we are getting refugees out. The update and words of encouragement they have to share during this dark time are power...

Many people around the world are asking how they can help the war in Ukraine. Here is how you can help! Pray, Give, & Share! Click here to Pray! Click here to Give to the Ukraine Crisis Fund! Listen and Share! Please join us in spreading awareness on how to help by sharing this short podcast on your own personal social media platforms. Every share, instagram story, and prayer helps and matters.  T...

Stojce Nikolov is the Josiah Venture country leader for Serbia and he is doing creative and innovative things with his ministry through social media. Shortly after coming to faith, Stojce began asking God to provide a way for him to deepen his understanding and relationship with his newfound Savior. Within a few months Stojce, who was living in Macedonia, received the opportunity to move to Serbia...

Marta Logins is a missionary, pastor's wife, and mom in her home country of Latvia. She and her husband, Raimonds, have been serving there, along with their three daughters, for seven years. Back in November some of the Josiah Venture women gathered over zoom and heard an encouraging message from Marta and we quickly realized that her story needed to be shared with a wider audience.  Marta shares...

This last episode of 2021 features 11 amazing missionaries (Shelby Flowers, Bara Filipová, Jacob Adent, Kseniya Dušek, Terry English, Mike Sullivan, Mel Ellenwood, Lauren Bozon, John Kloosterhuis, Martina, Pixová, Rob Chestnut) who serve with the Josiah Venture International Team in the Czech Republic. The International Team, or I-Team, as we like to call it, exists to serve, empower and equip all...

Juli Muhameti is a national from Albania, and he believes in the God who saves. He was just 14 years old when he became a Christian after he was challenged to read the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, at the same time. Somewhere in the middle of Exodus and John, God opened his eyes. Juli put his faith in Christ and received the gift of eternal life. Juli grew up in a culturally Muslim household...

Andrej Lovše is a missionary and pastor in his hometown of Maribor, Slovenia, and serves as the Josiah Venture country leader. In this episode, you will hear all about Andrej's love for his country, his family, and his three horses. He also shares his wild dreams and prayers he has for Slovenia. He met his wife, Nina, when they were teenagers. Nina was the first to accept Christ due to missionarie...

Eliza Kobin is originally from Latvia, but is currently living in Estonia with her husband, Vahur, who is serving as Country Leader for Koma, the national organization in Estonia. Eliza serves in Koma as the Media Team Leader. She first came to a JV Fusion camp as a Latvian student in 2009, putting her faith in Christ there. She then started serving in Latvian local ministries and as a JV summer i...

Olya Meland is a national missionary in her home country of Ukraine. She loves her husband, her country, making disciples, and being a new mom. She and her husband, Marc, met while both were serving in Josiah Venture. Marc had been in Hungary for four years, and Olya had been in Ukraine. Now, they serve together in the city of Lviv, Ukraine, with their son Enoch. Marc serves in the EDGE Sports Min...