The initial big announcement!

This is the letter sent to our church family announcing our intentions:

March 5, 2007

Beloved Students and Parents,

I am writing to you today, because I wanted to ask for your prayers and share first hand an exciting possibility for our church and for Donna and me.

Our church has been involved for many years with a ministry in Eastern Europe called Josiah Venture. We have sent short-term teams to work in evangelistic English camps and do construction work at Josiah Venture’s main training center in the Czech Republic. As a church we believe in the work and mission of Josiah Venture and have elected to create a strategic partnership with them and support them in a variety of ways.

Josiah Venture’s Mission - To equip young leaders throughout Eastern Europe to fulfill Christ’s commission through the local church

Donna and I have led multiple English camp teams to the Czech Republic and Latvia, and are in the throes of planning our church’s third trip to Latvia this coming July. Over the past year, we have been praying about an invitation from Josiah Venture to serve in Latvia for a five year term. Our main focus would be to come alongside a young missionary staff to provide encouragement, discipleship and mentoring. Additionally, we would be involved with Latvian nationals in a similar capacity and to help them develop evangelistic strategies for their ministries.

We have called Faith our home church for the past eighteen years, and I have been on staff now for the past five. To say the least, there has been a lot of prayer and deliberation in the Hargan house!

Here is where we are now…we feel God’s leading to answer and test his call on our life to His ministry in Latvia. That means we have decided to take steps to determine if we have correctly discerned God’s call. The first steps were to seek affirmation from our elder board, as well as their permission to walk this path of seeking God’s direction while continuing to serve in my current role as youth pastor. We received positive responses on both of these items on March 1.

Our next steps include exploratory and preparatory trips to Josiah Venture’s USA headquarters in Wheaton, Illinois and European headquarters in the Czech Republic, and beginning the process of raising support. If, in fact, we feel God’s affirmation on these trips and witness His hand in provision, then our goal is to be on site in Riga, Latvia in September of this year. Be assured that in the meantime, we remain committed to the ministry here at Faith and will continue to serve as youth pastor through this time of seeking God’s heart about our future. We also share an excitement with our church’s leadership about how this could strengthen our partnership with this ministry in Eastern Europe.

Donna and I love you and covet your prayers as we walk this path together with you.

In His Grip,


Pastor Kelly and Donna Hargan