You are Invited!!!!

Recent EU statistics revealed that there are over 30 million students, ages 15-29 in Eastern Europe today. Less then 1% follow Jesus. More than ever these 30 million desperately need to know the love of Christ. God is calling us to step out in faith and ask Him for more fruit in the next three years.


This fall, Josiah Venture is hosting a 11-city vision tour in North America in the next two months. Josiah Venture has never done anything like this before. The ministry that has been going on for over 15 years (5 in Latvia) is at a pivital piont and we want to share with you in person all that has been possible and all that is to come, thanks to your support!!! This is to honor and thank my donors who have faithfully supported this ministry, and to share the vision God has entrusted to us. Two of these events will be in Scottsdale, AZ and Denver, CO where we can meet and share in this together!


I’d like to invite you to the evening program and dessert where you will meet me and some of the missionaries who I work with here in Latvia!!


To learn more and to register, click the link above
(JV 2x3 Capital Campaign).




One Percent from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

What is to come???

In the next few weeks to come I will be organizing all the camp stuff, reviewing the good, bad, and ugly of the summer so we can move forward into the next year in a progressive way. Spend a little time just resting, having a staff meeting to see what things are going to start looking like in the future with new leadership and a smaller team, and hopefully spending some quality time with my girls when they all get home from summer trips.

My schedule is quite full in the coming days, weeks and months!!!

August:

10th – the Interns leave for the States
11- 13th Team “combobulating” retreat!
20 – 26th – Coral , a dear friend from Sweden to visit
all other time – follow up, and small group training, with all the local church that were involved in summer camps.

September:

12th – 20th Family vacation
22nd – 27th JV Fall conference in Czech

October:

21st - BACK TO AZ for a few months!!!

We have finished our last camp!!!

This was the fourth and last camp of the summer. This camp was the biggest in number of campers, which is quite exciting seeing that this was the first ever camp for the Baptist Church in Jelgava!!!

All in all we had about 70 people at this last camp. It made for a great last camp. Red Mountain Community Church, from Mesa Arizona was there to connect and help with this camp, and that they did.

Many Kids made decisions to follow Christ for the first time and several have made commitments to follow him in deeper ways. It was an amazing, to say the least!

PICTURES!!!!

I was really excited about this camp from the beginning because Red Mountain is my home church and I knew many of the students coming over so it was like a double blessing being with all the campers and then some of my old youth that I love so dearly from Arizona!

RMCC YOUTH ROCKED KAZDANGAAAA!!!!
Thank you for EVERYTHING you guys did and all you are!!! You poured your GUTS into this and I love you for it!!!
I truly miss each of you!

Here is a link to the RMCC youth group blog of their trip.. it has tons of stories and video of there time in Latvia!! Check it out.. you wont regret it!

The inner struggle…

...I did not expect to be so broken when RMCC got here. My emotions were all over the place as I watched these dear youth that I have watched grow up serving the Lord in such amazing ways and watching them be stretched and grow in so many ways… it made me want to go back to Arizona with them!!!

I found myself for the first time ever questioning my “call” to Latvia! I was experiencing so many blessings being with youth from my own culture and language I kept asking God why he had me in Latvia where I feel so handicapped relationally and spiritually because of language and culture! Not only that, being with some of the girls that I have invested in the past years before I came to Latvia and being able to continue to speak into their lives again had me shook to the core… all I wanted is to be there for them. Yet I knew they were only here for a few short weeks and then return to AZ and I would be here in Latvia… what the heck was God doing to my heart!???

I am still hurting inside as I just said my goodbyes to the Arizona team and I am still shook for sure, yet there is this solid assurance deep inside my heart that I am right where I need to be. And I will continue to trust the Lord that he has me where I am for a reason. But I could defiantly use your prayers as I work through the pain of watching the dear students from Arizona leave and me stay behind and continue to serve here where God has me.

What happens when…

...Your home Church comes and tears your heart in two… wanting to be near to them and wanting to follow Christ and his call for me in Latvia. Then in the midst of that find out that even though you know that God has called you to Latvia to stay he is calling other away from Latvia.

Scott and Lisa just shared with us that it is evident that the time has come for them to return to the states. This has again shook the core of my world. Scott and Lisa Runzo ARE Latvia in so many ways to me. I cannot even start to think abut what Latvia will be for me without them here. I am in a deep inner struggle not wanting them to leave and sooo happy that the Lord has called them home for something he is doing in their life now!!!

Along with loosing the Runzo family we also are loosing another teammate… Mike Kelly has decided to return to the states also.

Please pray for me as I work on accepting this news, and truly trusting the Lord with ALL of me here in Latvia. And for our team to continue to move forward strong and unified.

Please also lift the Runzos and Mike up in prayer as they make the transition from Latvia back to the States and whatever God is calling them to.

Here is a letter from Scott Runzo to explain their decision a little more clearly:

Greetings, Dear Friends!

We have just finished our fourth and last camp for the summer (BIG SIGH!)!! The RMCC team from AZ is still here for a couple of days, so we will be hanging out with them and helping process through all that they experienced last week. It was such an incredible blessing to share our last camp with them! The students did great, the leaders were so supportive, the energy of the camp was high, several students accepted Christ in the end, and many young Christians were encouraged in their own faith as they saw all that happened. It felt just like "old times" in many ways! Thanks so much for your prayers! God was glorified, and we were very blessed to take part in it! (Blog update with pics should be coming shortly)

There's no good way to share this, so we'll just say it - it was a bittersweet camp for us as it seems this will be our last, at least for quite some time. Two very significant things have happened that I feel are the beginnings ofchange for us, and I believe are also directly from the hand of God.

This weekend I officially "passed the baton" as country leader to Kelly Hargan. Kelly is a former youth leader from Fort Collins, CO. He and his wife, Donna, joined our team last fall. Although I believe God sent me to Latvia strategically to begin the work of JV here in this country, I have felt for quite some time that I would not be the person to carry it the next leg of the race. It was a pioneering effort in the beginning that I felt called to, and now that JVA is firmly established as a leading youth training organization here, it's time for a new leader to step in and take it to the next level. I believe that is not my call nor within my giftedness and have been praying and fasting through this past spring and summer as to what God would have us do. I believe Kelly has been called and JV is in full support of this decision. We feel greatly blessed by God in His provision of a godly leader who shares our common vision of "seeing a movement of God among young people of Eastern Europe".

The second big decision we have made is to put our house here in Latvia on the market. Financially for us, this is the best decision we can make right now regarding that. We want you to know that our ministry partners (who feel much more like family to us!) have been so faithful and God has provided for our every need through their generosity!! The cost of living is just so high here right now and the dollar so low, it has been impossible to keep above the red in our ministry account. We are, in fact, currently negative $ 3,000 and have been maintaining that negative balance for several months now - NOT because people aren't giving, but because it's just so expensive to live here, we cannot achieve financial stability. We feel this is a clear sign from God, because we know He could change that situation if He willed it so.

With these two big changes happening right now, we feel moved by God to look towards new direction in our lives as a family. There are other indicators in our lives such as Andris’ special education needs, which make it clear we need to look towards a move back to the states and new ministry opportunities there.

This has been a very long, very painful, and very extensive process for both Lisa and me. Hearing God's call to leave the foreign mission field has been much, much, much more difficult than hearing His call to go. We have been forced time and time again to go to Him, to recognize that this has always been HIS Kingdom work and not ours, and to trust that His direction (Will) is good, pleasing, and perfect (Romans 12).

So, what does this all look like?

· We are still Josiah Venture missionaries working and living on support in Latvia currently

· Lisa and I will continue doing ministry during this transition time, discipling and mentoring youth leaders, as well as helping in the transition

· We are praying that the house sells and will be wrapping up ministry, delegating ministry responsibilities accordingly, and settling back in the states by Spring 2009

· I will continue working on my Bible degree through Moody Bible on-line, as well as seeking what direction God would have us go

· We will be actively seeking where the Lord is calling us in His Kingdom work, and we greatly appreciate your prayers for us during this time!

I cannot stress enough how difficult these decisions have been for us. We still need your prayers and support greatly! The enemy would love for us to begin the process of leaving with our heads hanging in defeat, forgetting the many lives that have been transformed by the love of Christ through the work here. This is NOT of God. It has been an incredible privilege to take part in HIS Kingdom work here in Latvia, and we are confident that the work will continue on far after we leave. Part of our souls has become Latvian, and we are different people because of it. We are grateful to God for this incredible chapter written by the author and perfecter of our faith, and we look forward with great anticipation for what He will write next! And we are so blessed and grateful to you for standing with us throughout this journey!

Please feel free to contact us, as we know you may have many questions. Life and ministry will certainly move forward here, and we will keep you clearly informed throughout this whole transition.

We thank you for your continued prayers and support in these crucial months ahead!

In Him,

Scott A. Runzo

Third round….

This third week of camps was amazing. We had a team from Texas here to help with Vilandes Church. It was a great week! Texas was full of love and ENERGY!!! They blessed us all with all they brought to our camp.
This camp did not start out like other in the past. We actually only had 5 kids registered and at camp when camp was suppose to start! We were freaking out! how the heck do you do a camp for 5 kids and 20 leaders!!!
Well, the Lord had His plan al along!
Because of the small numbers we decided to split up the leaders and half of them would be sent out into the small town community where we were having the camps, just to build relationships and hang out with the locals.
Something we should have been thinking about from the beginning! It was a great move and tons of locals started coming out and just hanging out and talking with us. We had some basketball games with the local guys and crafts with the kids, and just hung out with the girls and the community! It was great! I am looking forward to see what the Lord has planned for next week and the continuation of those relationships!
Not only that but by the end of the first night 17 campers had trickled in and we were ready for camp too!!!
Spirits were low that first day and Satan did a number on us when it came to uniting all the teams. But through the Lords Grace and love we were able to mend brokenness and move forward in unexplainable love for each other! After that first day, there was a major shift and you could feel the lord working on everyone, not just the campers!
I was blessed to see not just one but two leaders on from Texas and one form Latvia share their testimonies and share breakthroughs that had just happened over that week!
It is beautiful to see that these camps are not just to reach the campers for Christ, but he is truly doing a work in each one of us along the way!!!

I sat with one of my dear friends who volunteered for this camp and we came to the beautiful conclusion that if we as leaders are not being moved and changed daily by the lord we cannot move students anywhere. There is no walking alongside someone in there faith if you are not walking yourself!!!

This camp was a true blessing to see EVERYONE moving in their walk with the Lord!

2nd done... on to the 3rd!

We have just finished our 2nd camp! This Camp was a camp for Kuldiga Baptist Church. Kuldiga is a small town in Latvia that we have been working with for over two years now. Faith Church in Fort Collins Colorado came to partner for the second year in a row with Kuldiga and the outcome was straight from the Lord!!!

This camp was full of energy and building relationships, new and old! It was an amazing camp for everyone involved! I was so deeply blessed to watch as the Lord moved throughout this week. We had 20 students from Kuldiga at he camp, a fourth of those not really wanting to be there at the beginning and some that had returned from last years camp.

We played crazy games, danced, sang, prayed, laughed, cried, and grew closer to Jesus together through long days and nights, full of spending our energy building into these students.

One student in particular made me smile. He was a 13-year-old kid who was very clear at the beginning of camp that it was not his choice to be there and that his parents had forced him to come so he could learn English! Two nights in we played a night game and he unfortunately ran his teeth into the elbow of one of the leaders and knocked his front teeth out! He had to go home that night. We were all very sad to see him go because we all started to see him warm up to the camp and to us.
When he got home to his mom that night, the story that came back to us from one of the leaders from Kuldiga was this; they said that when he got home full of blood and missing teeth, he looked at his mom and begged her, “ Mamma, Please let me go back. I promise I wont bust anything else, just please let me go back!”
Less than 24 hours later he was back and welcomed by the whole camp!!! Needless to say he felt something at that camp that was real and he did not want to let go of it!!! Praise Jesus!

Thank you for your continued prayers as we move into week 3 and our 3rd camp of the summer.This one is with a Church in Riga, Vilandes Baptist Church with whom we have been working with for over three years. They will be partnered with Richardson Baptist Church from Texas. Richardson Baptist has been a sister church to Vilandes for many years and in the past two summers have brought a youth team to help with their Summer camp! It will be an excited week!

We are at CAMP!!!!

All the months of planning, all the promoting, all the training is now behind us and now it’s time to see the Lord work!
We have four camps planned this summer. Three of those camps are with three local churches in Latvia partnered with three churches in the states.

Faith EVC, Colorado is coming to partner with Kuldiga Baptist Church at the beginning of July.

Richardson First Baptist, Texas is partnering with Vilandes Baptist Church in Riga in the middle of July.

And Red Mountain Community Church (My home Church!), Arizona is partnering with Jelgava Baptist Church at the end of July. This camp will be the first for Jelgava!

Right now we are in our first camp and this one is very different than anything we have done in the past. We have felt a need to connect with students from around Latvia that have experienced camp in the past or have made a decision to follow the Lord and have maybe fallen away or just have had nowhere to go. So this week we are having what we are calling an “Open Camp” where any student from all over Latvia.

We have about 17 kids here and it is sooo exciting to see the kids that have come! This is a smaller camp than usual and we have no American Church team to assist, so it is quite a stretching week for our Interns and staff. I would have to say that I see the Lord moving in amazing ways already! Man I am sooo blessed to be apart of this!

Here are some photos!!!

Please continue to pray as we walk through this next month and connect with 100’s of students from all around Latvia and of course the states who are coming to serve! Thank you for being a part of this with me!

Also a personal prayer request:
I am in a whole new role this year. Last year as you may know I jumped right into leading camp ministry, and with that it has been a quite natural transition into continuing that role and adding more!
This summer I am in the main role of “Camp Director” which is very overwhelming most of the time!!! I am enjoying it, and I love watching the Lord use me and grow me. But again, I would love to be even more surrendered to the Lord and to what he has for me and for this summer ministry! Pray that I lead fully from the Lord’s power and love with the students, the American teams, the interns, and our full time staff.

Thanks for your prayers! Thanks for partnering with me!

Easter Fun!

This is just a fun Video that will not stop making me laugh at my girls and their silly ways. This was just a bored moment at our place when I had 5 of the orphanage girls together at my apartment for the Easter Holiday! This is Endija on the left and Sinitja on the right.
Have fun watching.. they are very creative! I was actually cooking dinner when i heard them playing this song and they made up this dace in less than 30 min! amazing talent, and goofballish to say the least ;) enjoy!

I LOVE THESE GIRLS!

Moving Forward

Hello there!
thing have been moving along since my update. I have visited many different organizations and places in Latvia helping he type of people my heart is longing to reach. It has been a great time of just getting to know people in Latvia with the same heart and passion. And let me tell you there are deep needs here!

I spent some time with the director of Buckners here in Latvia and she is in over head with helping the needy here in Latvia. the main thing that Buckners does here in Latvia is work with orphans and foster homes trying to get the kids into family units instead of the institutions. Every time i have met with her my eyes and heart are ripped open to what the true need of these kids are. I also visited a very poor community out in a town 3 hours from Riga with her and a couple social workers. this community is set in a old military base that was abandon after the occupation. and the towns near by sent all the poor people who were not able to pay bills and make it in regular society and sent them there. this community has old apartment building but with not much more than four walls. not a lot of chance of heat or hot water, or even running water in some cases, and i also saw many apartments with the windows knocked out! I can not image what it is like in the winter with no windows or heat!!! Buckners has started a day center there for kids to come after school so they are not out on the streets. They get a hot meal and there is a program to keep them entertained and safe. it is amazing to see how it all works, but there is also so much need that you can’t help but hurt for these kids and their families!

I see my self working along side Buckners out there in the future, but we will see what the Lord says in all of that too.

I also had a chance to meet with a young lady named PJ, in her mid 80’s working in Latvia as a missionary working with teens who are dealing with pregnancy and abortion prevention. This woman amazed me and would amaze you too!! she has such a heart for serving the Lord and being obedient to what he has put on her heart. they do every thing from counseling before the teens have the baby, to helping them understand the consequences both physically, mentally, and emotionally linked to abortion, to sex education, to post counseling for those who chose abortion, to helping teen orphans, and much more.
I also had an opportunity to go with PJ’s assistant to an orphanage in a town outside of Riga to talk about these things and just meet the kids and build relationships with them. when we arrived we had a class full of 9 teen boys, and it was an amazing time of just talking and sharing, and building relationships with them. My heat was so touched when i went there, i also see my self returning to this orphanage and hopefully continuing to grow in relationship with the teens there.

there are tons of other things in the works too....
I just see the Lord really working on my heart and showing me his heart in this area of ministry here in Latvia. I am excited to see what is next!

Please pray that I will be in-tune to His still small voice as i search to see what the next chapter here in Latvia will look like for me.

Link to my latest update...

Here is the link to the latest news from Latvia!
Check it out!

Prayer Update...prayer still needed!

From the word of Scott Runzo:

Well, like always there has been good news and some not-so-good/but not too bad-news. First, Kelly and Donna Hargan got the news today that they don't need residency to get their container out of port. This is big because when we arrived, we needed residency to get a container out of port. If that had been the case for them, after Saturday, it would have cost them 80$ a day, and with residency on hold that could really add up. So, this news is a huge positive for them. Praise God!

The situation with the residency for all the new missionaries is the same, only the time frames will look different, because of their different arrival dates.

We know now that the old system of getting Visas will no longer work, so we will be going through the Baptist Union. I think, although seemingly inconvenient right now, this is a real Godsend. It will bring the new missionaries and the local church closer together by needing each other. Already we have seen the local church that Mike Kelly has been working with really step up and want to help Mike get in the country. I think this will happen with all the missionaries, and it will cause an automatic tangible connection between each. We see that God is so good, and He is always mindful of the bigger picture!

The time frame is our biggest prayer request right now. As you may already know, you can only be in the country for 90 days without a visa. Otherwise, you are considered breaking the law and are forced to leave with a big, back stamp in your passport that forbids entrance back into the country for a year. As it stands, we know when they have to go, we're just not sure where yet! Before, we just went across the border only a couple of hours away and waited it out. But the EU and other European countries just signed an open border agreement (the "Shenga Treaty, if you want the terminology) which means there is no one at the borders to stamp your passport. We love this when it comes to traveling, but no one can tell us what it means to be out of the country. This is why we sent Mike to Ukraine, they are not part of the open border agreement.

As it looks right now all the missionaries will have to leave and head to a country outside of this area. It look like we will have additional places for them to go in Albania and Croatia. Lord-willing, they should only have to go for a week or so while their papers are being processed. Please keep this in your prayers. As you can imagine, for a new missionary who has already spent at least a year (sometimes more) preparing to go to his new country, to have to leave so soon, is very discouraging. Please pray that they will see (as we have already) the hand of God in all of it, and that, in the end, we will all be drawn to Him to a deeper trust and a strengthened faith for all He does in our lives and in the ministry. Also, please pray for Mike Kelly because he left the country on his 90th day, which leaves us a little confused as to how he will come back into the country to pick up his residency papers.

WOW! we will keep you up to date as we get more information.

Thanks for praying and keep on praying - it s so evident that many have lifted us up - we have felt such a peace which transcends all understanding - REALLY! We feel you lifting us up!! Thank you!!

Scott A. Runzo

Josiah Venture

Country Leader Latvia

Director JVLV Latvia

Urgent Prayer Request

I will just copy what Lisa Runzo has said concerning this. I really do not know what that means or me personally as i am one of the ones who looks as if i slipped by (at least for now) but please read this and pray!!!

We would like to ask that you pray this week very fervently, and possibly in the weeks to come for all of our new staff to receive their residency into the country of Latvia!!

Most of you know that we have only had one person not receive their residency in the past. And, in actuality have only heard of two cases (one of those being ours) where missionaries did not receive their residency in the past, out of literally hundreds who have come through Latvia to minister for some time.

Unfortunately, this pattern is about to change. The first of our five new missionaries was rejected on Friday. Mike Kelly left for the Ukraine (a non-EU country, as required) yesterday, and will have to reside there until this conflict is resolved. We fear that the other four will receive their bad news on Wednesday (although this is not for certain yet - prayer # 1!!!!!!!)

It seems that EU rules are changing things significantly. In fact, our family should have been rejected in October when we re-applied, as well as our other existing missionary, Jaycee Jensen, in November. How we "slipped through" we cannot say. We suspect that the five new people applying caused a red flag and further investigation. Apparently, the way we have been registered as a not-for-profit organization does not allow us to invite people into the country to live any longer. This is hugely significant because every other missions organization in the country is listed in the same way and goes through the same process to bring missionaries into the country.

Some people have suggested we pay for a lawyer, but, in fact, this would do no good (and, actually, we paid for a lawyer with our last missionary who was rejected, and he really couldn't help us). A lawyer cannot help us change the law, and they cannot change the minds of the people working in the government office. The EU is "cracking down" and making it more and more difficult for foreigners to receive residency, and in fact, they have to do this. With all the new Eastern block countries that have been accepted into the EU, they have to control it somehow if they do not want all of Russia and the Middle East to flood through their doors. The difficult part of all this is - we have very few other options.

Right now, we are praying that possibly not all of our new people have been rejected - Eastern Europe is still that way - it can change from day to day, depending who is working. We will know for sure on Wednesday whether or not they all have to leave. Mike will be applying for residency through the Baptist Union for a religious visa, and since he does have a certificate from a seminary, we don't see that he will be rejected again - but, again, nothing is ever for sure here. The down side of that kind of visa is that it is only given for one year, so every year you have to pay high fees and face the stress of being rejected. But, as said before, we don't have a lot of other options at this point.

Pray for Mike as he has to stay in Ukraine and wait - pray that the Lord will meet Him there and minister to him. Pray that he will receive welcome back into the country very soon.

Pray for our other missionaries - Kelly and Donna Hargon, Joe Brookes, and Nick Fletcher - as they wait until Wednesday. Pray that miraculously the news is good and they have been accepted!! Pray that if it is not good, we will find a good course of action for all of them - they can't all stay with the one couple who lives in Ukraine!

Pray that we find a solution to this very upsetting mess! As said before, this will affect every other mission agency in the country, and quite possibly all of the EU!! Pray for Scott, as country leader, that he would have wisdom and discernment. Pray for someone to come along side of us who can help us sort this out! Pray for the right people to be in the right offices as they make decisions regarding our people.

The bottom line of all this is - we are shocked and confused. The good news - God is not!!! He knew it all before any of it came to be. He is in control, and now we must petition Him to work His mighty hand in this! He can do this - we cannot! But we must come to Him and pray!!

Please commit to praying for this matter to be resolved, and for our faith to be strengthened as we see Him work!

Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God." - John 11:40

Thank you for standing with us in faith and belief!