Letter from Marian

We have the opportunity to let you hear about the ministries in Slovakia first hand from the national director of YFC Slovakia.

A man of God,

the man of YFC Slovakia,

and the man of this entry,

without further ado, we present to you Marian Lipovsky….

Dear Friends of Micah and Anastasia,
The Lord has been so good to YFC Slovakia and we’re very privileged that He uses us as His tools. We can see how the Lord saves and renews the lives of many people.
YFC Slovakia currently has 28 employees and many more volunteers who stand with us in ministry. God has given us a ranch and our vision is to create a place there where people can come to meet God and spend time with Him.
The place where the Ranch is situated has a beautiful history. The king gave this land to his servants for their loyalty in the 16th century and raised them up to noble status. The area where the ranch is situated is called “Kings land.” When we read this history we were very happy that we are the children of the King. We believe that it’s the King of kings who wants to use Youth for Christ Slovakia as well as Micah and Anastasia.
This place is also used for CampFest. CampFest is a musical festival where, just last year for instance, over 60 people gave their life to Jesus and about 120 people responded to the challenge to renew their life with God. Another 500 received spiritual counseling. Approximately 4,500 people came to CampFest.
We also hold four additional conferences at the ranch. The first one is for new believers, the second for spiritual counselors, the third one is for musicians, speakers and dancers and the last one is for the volunteers who work with us. I really believe that it’s the place from the Lord.
The Ranch is a place where we need such people as Micah and Anastasia. They would have a place there to serve the Lord.
I’d like to ask you very much for your prayers and financial support for Micah and Anastasia to come to Slovakia.
Many Blessings,
Marian Lipovsky
National director of YFC Slovakia

We have been encouraged this month, as we have now reached 100% of our start up budget, and have over 70% of our monthly pledges. Praise God that He is supplying the needed funds, and thank you for believing with us that God is the provider of all our needs. 

Due to a number of changes of circumstance, we have revised our budget and our fundraising goals and plan to leave at the end of May to be at the ranch for the summer when things are the busiest. In order for us to leave as planned, we need to have all of our monthly support pledged by April.

We would like to agree with Marian and ask you “very much” for your prayers and support, as we get closer to having everything in order so that we can serve where God has called us. We are excited about the chance to serve God so early in our life together and we are looking for the people God has called to share in this ministry with us. 

Please pray for us, and if you feel that God wants to use you as a part of this ministry please contact us for more information. Or you can give online by going to www.yfc.org/give and typing Henry into the search field. 

Ups & Downs

The process of raising support and getting to the field is like riding a roller coaster. There are really high times and then, like my sister Amanda said on the plane ride home from Disney, "Now comes the big drop!" Thankfully she was wrong about the plane. She was only 4 but she understood rollercoasters.
The past week we had a few issues with our budget and plans for our housing and our ministry in Slovakia. The complications mean that our leave date has been pushed to the end of May. That was hard news to hear.
The good news is that we are back on the upswing :)

I just got news that we have 100% of our launch funds. And we have over 50% of our monthly pledges.Whheee!!! It's exciting to be able to say that.

About Slovakia

People have a lot of questions when they hear that we're going to Slovakia. Questions that range from the most basic "Where is Slovakia?" to more complex questions about politics and culture.

This document from the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs is called, “Slovakia-The Country Where We Live”, a 50-page PDF to introduce someone to Slovakia. It’s very well done, with lots of beautiful pictures and easy to read text. Even though it's geared towards children, it will answer a lot of the basic questions and gives insight into some of the more complex ones.


Click on the title page to see the whole presentation

Announcement & Invitation

Since Slovakia is "The Heart of Europe," Dave and Anne Dayton are holding a 

Benefit Soup Supper at the Slovak Folk Crafts Store 

on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, at 6:00. 

There will be six kinds of soup, bread and crackers, relishes, beverages, and dessert. 

Stasi will present a gorgeous travelogue of Slovakia from her hundreds of photographs taken for Youth for Christ. Stasi and Micah will also share their ministry vision and financial needs for your prayerful consideration. 

There is no charge for supper: 

all funds contributed will help send these newly-weds to Slovakia to serve the Lord. 

Please make reservations by calling Dave and Anne Dayton's home number 724-458-9215 or e-mail to anne(at)daytons(dot)org by Feb. 12.

In 2006, God provided Youth for Christ a glorious property in central Slovakia (called "The King's Ranch") to host Christian camps and retreats. Thousands of young people and adults, churches and other Christian ministries use this camp year round, but their best known festival is Camp Fest each August with lots of music; last summer about 4500 young people attended!
Stasi and Micah love Slovakia. YFC wants Stasi back on their media staff, working in video production and event photography, and they badly need a ranch caretaker/manager with Micah's gifts and talents. However, they can't go to Slovakia until they raise start-up expenses, plus pledges for a monthly budget.


Micah and I hope that you can come if you are in the area. If you have any questions or need directions, please feel free to e-mail me.
Stasi

Pray for Us

Introducing Us

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant peace shall not be removed”
(Isaiah 54:10)

As Stasi and I sit down to write this letter, we are thankful for God’s promise in Isaiah that His peace will remain with us regardless of our circumstances. So much has changed in our lives and we know that if God were not in control, it would be impossible to have any real peace or confidence. We thank God for working in all things and seeing us through these hectic and often uncertain times. We are writing you this letter to briefly update you on what is new with us, and to share the exciting things that God has called us to.

Since our June wedding, we have been living in a small apartment in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Along with adjusting to being married, we have been keeping busy with work, all kinds of everyday life, and fundraising—but that’s getting too far ahead. Allow us to back up for a minute.

We believe that God has called us both to serve in a support role for the ministries of Youth for Christ in Slovakia, working in areas where He has given us talents and passions. We will be living and working at a ranch that YFC has recently acquired and plans to use as a resource for many ministries. Micah will be filling the need for a full-time caretaker and will be working on the continuing construction and renovations that are needed for the ranch to reach its full potential. Stasi will be serving in the area of media—she will be editing videos, doing event photography, and a myriad of related projects to enable YFC Slovakia’s ministry to be more effective.

The ranch is located in central Slovakia at the base of the Low Tatras Mountains. The history of this land draws a parallel with YFC’s acquisition of the ranch: In the 13th century servants of the king settled this area to maintain it for a royal hunting getaway. In the 14th century, as a reward for generations of faithful service, a later king gave the servants ownership of this land. We believe that The King of Kings has provided this land for YFC Slovakia, and it will be available year round for church groups, retreats, seminars, and other events.

The land also serves as a home for the music festival CampFest. CampFest 2007 was held there in August, and over 4,500 people from Slovakia and the surrounding countries came to the festival to camp out and listen to Christian musicians from around the world. More then 500 people met with trained spiritual counselors during that one weekend, and about 50 of them made the decision to follow Christ. The potential for God to work in this place is immense.

There is simply no way we would even dream of doing this on our own—but thankfully, we know that God never asks us to do anything in our own strength. We believe that He will raise up people to support us in prayer and financially. Would you please ask God to show you what part He has for you in this ministry?

May the Lord bless and keep you in every way in this New Year. We praise God for the wonderful opportunities that a new year brings, and for His promise to remain with us and see us through.

"If I could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: 'God with us.'

~John F. MacArthur, Jr.

Have you ever let your mind wander and imagined what it meant for Jesus to become “Emmanuel, God with us”? He left the vastness of heaven to come to our little planet. He left His home, His Father, His power, His divinity all to come and be with us. He gave up all that even though He knew that being with us would be costly. The kind of love would make you consider that is mind-boggling.

The Bible talks about God being with us through the Old and New testaments. “God with us” bookends the gospel story. It begins with proof in a manger that God is serious about being with us. The gospel continues full of stories about Jesus’ time with the people he meets. And the story ends with the Great commission to “go make disciples of all nations” and with Jesus’ promise “be sure of this: I am with you always”

We are holding on to His promise to never leave us as we continue to raise funds so that we can serve with YFC in Slovakia. We believe that God has created unique places at YFC’s ranch in Slovakia for both of us to serve and we are anxious be serving together in the place He has for us. God has blessed us by providing work for Micah the past 5 months, but that is coming to a close soon. During the early days of 2008 we will both be dedicating ourselves to full-time support raising efforts in an effort to make it to Slovakia as soon as we can. It is our hearts desire to make it to Slovakia early in 2008.

But we cannot do this all on our own. Will you prayerfully consider the part that God has for you to play in the ministry of YFC in Slovakia? Currently we have 32% of our support pledged. We need to have all of our support pledged before we can set a date to leave. If 20 people pledge to give $100 a month, or 40 people give $50 a month, all our needs would be met and we could leave for the field. Would you please pray about how God might use you to meet these needs through a pledge or one time gift.

If you plan to make a pledge or continue a pledge through 2008, would you please take the time now to fill out the form at the bottom of this letter with your intentions and send it back to YFC? We would love to have you join us in the work that God will do in Slovakia.

Trusting Him,

Stasi & Micah

P.S. All gifts through YFC are tax-deductible.

CampFest 2007!!

More than 4500 young people from Slovakia, Czech republic, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, USA, Poland and Romania visited the festival. They created a "tent city" where they lived for the weekend.There were 160 total volunteers, and there was a group of volunteers from Holland who came helped us a lot with manual work and publicity. A miracle for us was the group of Americans from Italy who came with willingness to do some of the less pleasant work. The rest of the volunteers were Slovaks who worked very hard before, during and after the festival. There were also about 80 spiritual counselors, a thirty member team dedicated to prayer in addition to the technical and organization teams.
The program was very rich and each person could choose something according to the style they liked - All styles of music bands, pantomimes, dramas, talks, seminars, childrens programs, movies with christian themes, soccer, beach volleyball, a jump house for the kids, and an inflatable water football game. There were bands from Great Brittan, Poland, and Germany in addition to bands from Slovakia. All that helped to create good time for the visitors of CampFest 2007.

What was happening behind the stage was not always visible to the participants...but it was no less important. The Lord was at work, He touched hearts and changed lives. We got some feedback from counselors who had discussions in special tent that was set aside just for that purpose. Altogether there were about 550 discussions and from those about 50 the people decided to accept Jesus into their lives. About 150 discussions were about going deeper in relationship with God and confessing their sins. About 100 people searched for help with problems in relationships- family, friends.

For more info & Pictures check out WWW.CAMPFEST.SK

October Update

I promise that soon this blog will be upated weekly on Mondays with relevant information and photos. hang with us.
~Stasi & Micah

--

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him 1 Cor 7:17a

When you think of missions work, what images come to your mind? Maybe you picture mud huts, jungles, and people burning at the stake. Ok, so you probably know that those stereotypes are just that, Stereotypes, and that God uses all sorts of people, in all sorts of places, doing all sorts of things. But if we had to guess, we would bet that there is still a tendency to think of missionaries strictly as those people who are out on the front lines proclaiming the Gospel. The heart of a Missionary, however, is living out the call that God has placed in our lives, as this verse from Corinthians illustrates. We have been blessed, through this process, to see how God uses people in different places and ways to fulfill his plans. It is truly an amazing thing.

We feel that God has called us to work in a support role behind the scenes for the ministries of Youth For Christ in Slovakia, working in the areas where He has given us talents and passions. We will be living and working at the ranch they have in Slovakia. Micah will be filling the need for a full time caretaker and will be working on the continuing construction and renovations that are needed for the ranch to reach it’s full potential. Stasi will edit videos for different purposes and do event photography along with some other projects for YFC Slovakia.

It might seem like we will have two very different ministries, or even appear that what we will be doing is not ministry at all. But it is what God has called us to, and we see our different roles as a single ministry, which will facilitate the amazing things that God wants to do through YFC in Slovakia. We are excited to see God do this in our ministry at the ranch.

The ranch is located in central Slovakia at the base of the Low Tatras Mountains. It’s in the beautiful area of Kralova Lehota. The history of this land draws a parallel with YFC’s acquisition of the ranch: In the 13th century servants of the king settled this area to maintain it for a royal hunting getaway. In the 14th century, because of their generations of faithful service, the king rewarded them by giving them this land. We believe that The King of Kings provided this land for YFC Slovakia, and it will be available year round for church groups, retreats, seminars, and other events.

The land also serves as a home for CampFest. CampFest 2007 was held there in August, and over 4,500 people from Slovakia and the surrounding countries came to the Music festival. More then 500 people met with trained Spiritual counselors during that one weekend, and about 50 of them made the decision to follow Christ. The potential for God to work in this place is immense.

We have finished three weeks of training at Mission Training International, in Colorado. This marks the last of the training that we need to complete, so we will be able to begin our ministry as soon as we raise our need financial support. We are currently close to 30 percent of the monthly and upfront pledges that we will need to leave for the field. If you have been planning to support us, now would be a great time to fill out the response slip and send it to indicate your support. If you have been giving monthly but have not filled out a pledge card recently, would you please do so, in order for YFC to keep track of our pledges? Because we are required to have 100% of our support raised before we can leave for the field, it is important that YFC has a record of your support or intentions of support.

Thank you for being part of this ministry that God has set before us. We are excited, as we are getting close to being able to leave for the field, and continually amazed to see how God is providing for all of our needs. It is both a privilege and a blessing to see God at work as we seek to raise our needed support. Would you please prayerfully consider how God might want to use you in this ministry? As always, we covet and thank you for your prayers.

First Update Letter

“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant peace shall not be removed”

As I am sitting down to write this letter, I am thankful of this promise in Isaiah that God’s peace will remain with us regardless of any other circumstances in our lives. Things have been so busy and hectic recently that I know that were it not for the promise that God is in control, it would be impossible to have any real peace and confidence. So before I go any farther, I need to stop and thank God for working in all things. I am writing you this letter to very briefly update you on what is new with me, and most importantly to share with you the exciting things that God has laid on my heart to do.

As of today, my wife and I celebrated our two week wedding anniversary (ok, so we didn’t actually celebrate anything, but it sounded better to say it that way). Hard to believe that I am married, and to many of you, who celebrated with us at our wedding, this is old news. Going back a little farther, I graduated from Grove City College last May, with a BA in English. Since then I have been working as a technical writer, a mechanic, and a few other unrelated fields along the way. And now, Stasi and I are settling in to our apartment in Grove City, Pa.

For the last few years God has impressed on my heart that He has a plan to use the talents and skills that He has given me for His glory. I feel like God has called me to work and use my hands to share His love by meeting the needs of his people. I mostly shrugged this off, however, as something that would never come to fruition. The vision that God had placed in my heart was not one of great evangelistic work, and so I never thought that I would pursue full time missions work.

But praise God, He had other plans. This is where Youth for Christ comes into the picture. As you may or may not know, Stasi recently spent a year in Slovakia, where she had been serving with YFC, working as a photographer and a video editor. It was during this time that God began broadening my limited view of how he calls and uses people for His service. I could no longer avoid pursuing God’s call just because it would not fit into a classical view of full time missions work. I began praying that God would show me how He wanted to use me, and that if God wanted Stasi and me to be married, that He would show us a place where we both could serve Him. Neither of us thought that this would end up being in Slovakia, but after seeing the need at the ranch, the role that it will play in realizing Youth for Christ’s vision for change and revival in Slovakia, and how God could uses us both here as part of His master plan, we both know that this is where we are supposed to be.

I don’t think that I can fully relate to you just how unqualified I feel to be undertaking this. But I do know that our God is able to do above and beyond all that we can think or imagine possible. And since God goes before us, I know that we have nothing to worry about.

I wrote this letter to update you on what has been going on, but Stasi and I would also like to invite you to be a part of the ministry we will have in Slovakia. I don’t believe that God is asking us to do this on our own. And so, we would like you to consider becoming a part of the exciting things that God is doing in Slovakia. If you would prefer not to continue receiving our newsletters, please let us know and we’ll take you off our mailing list. But, we believe that God will raise up a team of people who will join with us in ministry through prayer and financial support, and we hope that you will be a part of that team. Would you please keep us in your prayers, and ask God how He might use you in this ministry?