Josiah Venture Stories

Amy Ellenwood and her husband, Mel, have been serving with Josiah Venture in the Czech Republic for 25 years. She shares how she never thought she would be an overseas missionary and about the ups and downs of ministry. She loves being with, serving, and investing in people. One of her passions is caring for and shepherding the women on the Josiah Venture team. She speaks about how it is vital tha...

Kuldar Kaljuste is a national missionary in Tallinn, Estonia. He and his wife Margaret joined Josiah Venture in September 2009. God gave Kuldar a vision to reach young people in his country, and then he responded to God's calling and moved to the university city of Tartu to reach the lost by training young leaders in a soccer ministry. As of fall 2014, God has called their family back to Tallinn t...

Dan Blazek is from Písek in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. In high school, he got involved in Fusion, came to faith, and accepted Jesus into his life in 2018. He shares his love for coffee, how Fusion was a vital part of his coming to Christ, and the upcoming International Fusiondary event happening at the end of April. He is thankful for the opportunity to be there for Czech teenagers and, with G...

It's time to celebrate! 🎉 🎙️ The "Josiah Venture Stories" podcast has been going strong for two years. Wow! In this episode, Gwynne Gardner, the host, reads some of the written reviews, gives some fun facts about the podcast, and shares some advice given to young people from past episodes. Thank you to everyone who has been a guest on the podcast and everyone who has listened, shared, and been a...

Kelly Lillpop and her husband Chris first experienced Josiah Venture when they served at an English camp during their high school years. They have now been serving as full-time staff since 2013. After almost eight years of living and serving in Poland on the JV Poland team, Kelly and Chris now serve in the US on the JV International team in the area of partner development. Kelly shares about the k...

Ema Kreko has served in the local church in Zagreb, Croatia as a youth leader for over a decade. She first heard of Josiah Venture at an English camp in 2006. She was captured by the vision for young people. She didn't know how God was going to work things out, but somehow God used her experience as a high school teacher and her passion for investing in a new generation of young believers and brou...

Olena Volovyk was born in Ternopil, Ukraine, and has lived there her whole life. She shares about growing up in Ukraine, how she came to know Jesus as her savior, five years of working with Josiah Venture and her passion for summer camps ministry, what life was like during the first few months of the war, and how because of the war she met her now fiance and is soon getting married.  When she was...

❤️Happy Valentine's Day!🥰⁠ ⁠Johnny and Brooke Stevens live and serve in the country of Slovenia, and they have an amazing story all about how the Lord brought them together. They share how they met, dated, got engaged, have been married for 15 years, and are now part of the JV marriage coaching team. Wow!⁠⁠ In the fall of 2004, shortly after Johnny first joined Josiah Venture in Slovenia, he met...

Josh Yates is a new addition to the Josiah Venture USA team. He serves with a new initiative called the Leadership Lab, which involves training and equipping ministry leaders in North America. In this episode, he shares how he met his wife, Katie, while they were both students at Moody Bible Institute. Upon graduating in 2000, Josh accepted his first youth ministry pastorate, and they have been se...

For the month of January, we have been changing things up a bit with the podcast. Instead of our regular interview-style episodes, we have been sharing the teaching from the main talks from our last Fall Conference. This is the last of this teaching series. We are kicking off the year with a big reminder that, as believers, we are Messengers of Hope. This past fall, around 400 youth ministry speci...

For the month of January, we are changing things up a bit with the podcast. Instead of our regular interview-style episodes, we will be sharing the teaching from the main talks from our last Fall Conference. This is the first time we are using the podcast platform to share teaching like this. We are kicking off the year with a big reminder that, as believers, we are Messengers of Hope. This past f...

For the month of January, we are changing things up a bit with the podcast. Instead of our regular interview-style episodes, we will be sharing the teaching from the main talks from our last Fall Conference. This is the first time we are using the podcast platform to share teaching like this. We are kicking off the year with a big reminder that, as believers, we are Messengers of Hope. This past f...

For the month of January, we are changing things up a bit with the podcast. Instead of our regular interview-style episodes, we will be sharing the teaching from the main talks from our last Fall Conference. This is the first time we are using the podcast platform to share teaching like this. We are kicking off the year with a big reminder that, as believers, we are Messengers of Hope. This past f...

Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄⭐️ This episode, the last of the year, is all about taking a look back at 2022, remembering God's faithfulness, and sharing a few announcements for the year ahead. Consider this your audio Christmas card from us to you.  Thank you for listening and making this podcast a part of your life. Truly, we are so thankful for each and every listener, and we would like to enco...

Here is the fifth and final installment of the 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...

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...

Happy Thanksgiving from the JV family! This episode features 11 JV missionaries serving across Central and Eastern Europe. ( Tiffany Short - Czech Republic, Elliott Phillps - Poland, Haley Patty - Albania, Liam Gaspar - Latvia, Juliana Law - Ukraine, Brittney Haas - Estonia, Zac Shepperson - Slovakia, Killyn Kanters - Romania, Marcus Mitchell - Hungary, Nadia Tsonchev - Bulgaria, & Jill Ellenwood...

Paul Bowman has been doing youth ministry in Ireland for 30 years. In this episode, he shares all about his love for youth ministry, how he came to know Jesus as a teenager, and some amazing advice about how to "live your dash." Recently, he became the JV United Kingdom Director, serves as a Trustee of the JV UK board, and has over 30 years of experience in full-time youth ministry in the local ch...

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...