Josiah Venture Stories

This episode features three individuals who are bringing the gospel to today's public square of social media and powerful online platforms. Alex Ralevic is a 16-year-old Serbian with over 40k followers on TikTok. He made his first video on a broken phone, using an orange as a stand. Janči Máhrik is a pastor in Slovakia and has a podcast in Slovak called "Zabudnuté Cesty," which translates to "Forg...

Paul Williams serves as the Vice President of Finance and operations for Josiah Venture. In this capacity, he works alongside the President and other executive team members to provide leadership, support, and strategic thinking in JV's operations. Paul lives in the Czech Republic with his wife, Molli, and their daughter Mae. They have three additional young adult children (Tate, Claire, and Grant)...

Zuzi Džubakovska decided to follow Jesus when she was 10 years old at a camp organized by Child Evangelism Fellowship. Since then, her life has been one big adventure. During her management studies, she started working in business and continued in marketing and customer success for a few years. Meanwhile, she served in her home church—Bratislava City Church—where she became a member of the worship...

Liuda Rubtsova has served at her church in Lviv for 10 years and recently joined Epokha, JV's national organization in Ukraine. She currently coordinates the work of the Communication Team in Ukraine and strives to capture and tell the stories of God's amazing work, even amidst the war.  She is one of the key youth leaders at her church, serves on the worship team, and participates on the church c...

Ben Robertson and his family have lived and served in the Czech Republic for five years now. Ben met his wife, Sarah, in 2012 while they were both serving as Josiah Venture summer interns in the Czech Republic. During that experience, they developed a deep desire to serve full-time in Czech as they witnessed young people being deeply impacted by Jesus. Ben and Sarah now live in Ústí nad Labem with...

For the month of January, we invite you to listen to the main talks from our annual 2023 fall conference. The theme was "Lifeline: First Responders and the Anxious Generation." We brought in Dr. David Van Dyke, a marriage and family therapist, and professor at Wheaton College, to speak and train us all in what it looks like to be like Jesus for people in need. Our goal was to equip youth leaders a...

For the month of January, we invite you to listen to the main talks from our annual 2023 fall conference. The theme was "Lifeline: First Responders and the Anxious Generation." We brought in Dr. David Van Dyke, a marriage and family therapist, and professor at Wheaton College, to speak and train us all in what it looks like to be like Jesus for people in need. Our goal was to equip youth leaders a...

For the month of January, we invite you to listen to the main talks from our annual 2023 fall conference. The theme was "Lifeline: First Responders and the Anxious Generation." We brought in Dr. David Van Dyke, a marriage and family therapist, and professor at Wheaton College, to speak and train us all in what it looks like to be like Jesus for people in need. Our goal was to equip youth leaders a...

For the month of January, we invite you to listen to the main talks from our annual 2023 fall conference. The theme was "Lifeline: First Responders and the Anxious Generation." We brought in Dr. David Van Dyke, a marriage and family therapist, and professor at Wheaton College, to speak and train us all in what it looks like to be like Jesus for people in need. Our goal was to equip youth leaders a...

For the month of January, we invite you to listen to the main talks from our annual 2023 fall conference. The theme was "Lifeline: First Responders and the Anxious Generation." We brought in Dr. David Van Dyke, a marriage and family therapist, and professor at Wheaton College, to speak and train us all in what it looks like to be like Jesus for people in need. Our goal was to equip youth leaders a...

For the month of January, we invite you to listen to the main talks from our annual 2023 fall conference. The theme was "Lifeline: First Responders and the Anxious Generation." We brought in Dr. David Van Dyke, a marriage and family therapist, and professor at Wheaton College, to speak and train us all in what it looks like to be like Jesus for people in need. Our goal was to equip youth leaders a...

Happy New Year! For the month of January, we will be sharing the main talks from our annual 2023 fall conference. The theme was "Lifeline: First Responders and the Anxious Generation." Dave Patty kicked off the conference by talking about the anxious generation and ways we can respond.   Our goal for this conference was to equip youth leaders across the region with practical tools to respond to th...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and thank you for tuning in to this special Christmas end-of-year episode! This will be short and sweet as host Gwynne Gardner recaps the year, remembers God's faithfulness, and gives you all a few important announcements for the year ahead. Consider this your audio Christmas newsletter from Josiah Venture! Learn more about Josiah Venture  Website:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www....

Kilian Špiess grew up in Germany, and during his childhood, he attended an Evangelical Lutheran Church where he heard about God and faith. At the age of 12, he discovered the heart of the gospel and God's love at a camp, and since then, he has desired to follow Jesus. After years of serving at camps and being discipled, Kilian explored his heart for missions during internships in Manchester and Ch...

Happy Thanksgiving from the JV family! This episode features 12 of our missionaries serving across Central and Eastern Europe ( Diana "DU" Anton - Romania, Wendi Rumbold - Slovakia, Ermal Bimaj - Albania, Katie Humerian - Ukraine, Ross Nielsen - Bulgaria, Ellie Mouchet - Poland, David Kingdon - Latvia, Sarah Ward - Czech Republic, Indrek-Eliel Tambek - Estonia, Trisha Wynn - Slovenia, Kilian Spieß...

Dan and Laura Hash are founding members of Josiah Venture and have served in Poland for 30 years. They live in Mikołów, Poland, and are blessed with a son, Jacob, and his wife, Becca, and granddaughter, Clara, who also serve in Poland with JV. In this episode, you will hear their faith journeys, how they were first connected to Josiah Venture, what life was like in Poland during those early years...

Dr. David Van Dyke, or DVD, serves as Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program and Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Wheaton College. His areas of expertise are working with adolescents and their families and integration of Christian faith and systems thinking. He's a Fulbright Scholar in Hungary, and he's also started "With U Projects" with his wife Tara. It aims to...

This episode features one of the seven talks from our annual Spring Conference that happened back in May. The theme of this year's conference was "Missional Be-Attitudes." After three years of Covid and an ongoing war in Ukraine, you may feel a bit like a passenger on a plane that has flown through some turbulent air or a sailor on a ship that has sailed through a challenging storm.  After all the...

This episode features one of the seven talks from our annual Spring Conference that happened back in May.   The theme of this year's conference was "Missional Be-Attitudes." After three years of Covid and an ongoing war in Ukraine, you may feel a bit like a passenger on a plane that has flown through some turbulent air or a sailor on a ship that has sailed through a challenging storm.  After all t...

Jonathan Rosen began serving full-time with Josiah Venture in October 2012 after many summer internships in the Czech Republic. He and his wife, Veronika, and their daughter, Hailey, live and serve in the city of Ostrava, where they help lead their local church's high school and young adults' ministries. They also focus on encouraging and equipping youth ministry leaders throughout the city of Ost...

This episode features one of the seven talks from our annual Spring Conference that happened back in May. The theme of this year's conference was "Missional Be-Attitudes." After three years of Covid and an ongoing war in Ukraine, you may feel a bit like a passenger on a plane that has flown through some turbulent air or a sailor on a ship that has sailed through a challenging storm.  After all the...

This episode features one of the seven talks from our annual Spring Conference that happened back in May. The theme of this year's conference was "Missional Be-Attitudes." After three years of Covid and an ongoing war in Ukraine, you may feel a bit like a passenger on a plane that has flown through some turbulent air or a sailor on a ship that has sailed through a challenging storm.  After all the...

This episode features one of the seven talks from our annual Spring Conference that happened back in May. The theme of this year's conference was "Missional Be-Attitudes." After three years of Covid and an ongoing war in Ukraine, you may feel a bit like a passenger on a plane that has flown through some turbulent air or a sailor on a ship that has sailed through a challenging storm.  After all the...

This episode features one of the seven talks from our annual Spring Conference that happened back in May.   The theme of this year's conference was "Missional Be-Attitudes." After three years of Covid and an ongoing war in Ukraine, you may feel a bit like a passenger on a plane that has flown through some turbulent air or a sailor on a ship that has sailed through a challenging storm.  After all t...

This episode features one of the seven talks from our annual Spring Conference that happened back in May. The theme of this year's conference was "Missional Be-Attitudes." After three years of Covid and an ongoing war in Ukraine, you may feel a bit like a passenger on a plane that has flown through some turbulent air or a sailor on a ship that has sailed through a challenging storm.  After all the...