Right now, the main youth leader in my local church is preparing for the birth of her third child in mid-late October. I've been working with her since June to try and identify a student (or a handful) that could take over leadership while she's out for a while with her newborn. For various reasons, this has been a challenge - older students moving to new towns for college, most of our group being quite young, etc. 

While I had hoped a student would be ready to step up and lead, unfortunately our youth group isn't quite at that point. On the other hand, with EXIT Tour in flux for the next few months while schools are (likely) mostly online, I have space in my life to fill in as leader and be around for our students. Because of this, I agreed to fill in and lead our youth group right up until my wedding/the Christmas season.

I see so many potential ways God could use me to invest in our teenagers, motivate them to buy in and take ownership of our youth group, and equip them to do outreach and evangelism in our city. At the same time, this will be a true test of my Polish language and cultural adjustment. 

As we roll into September, I'll begin transitioning in and meeting with some of our more involved students. I'm simply not capable of leading this entire ministry on my own (with Polish, my JV responsibilities, etc) - nor should I. My goal for the fall is to form a "group of leaders," where some of these students can take over leadership for things like worship, social media, games, etc. My desire is to take this group through the foundations of our ministry (what we do) and the mission of our youth group (why we do it), so we can create a shared vision together. I am incredibly excited to see where God will take our students this fall - please pray for us!

• LOCAL MINISTRY
  • With my church being open again after quarantine, I've been able to get back to small group meetings with my guys! Many of them were still off on vacations or on mission weeks this month, but we were still able to meet a few times for dinner, FIFA, prayer, and investment into each other's lives. I'm counting on each of them as I step into leadership for this semester!
• I FINALLY GOT MY VISA
  • After a solid 15-month wait, I was able to pick up my residency card and claim legal status here in Poland. There are lots of fun bureaucratic details with stuff like taxes around the corner for me, but it's refreshing to finally have that adventure finished for the time being.
• CHASING THE FUTURE
  • Turns out in a global pandemic, all that extra time and flexible scheduling can be helpful! Gabi and I have been flying at a terrific pace with our wedding planning, premarital counseling, and we've officially kicked off the processes of seeing where God has her in Josiah Venture. We're excited to explore what city and church God might be taking us to next as we serve together here in Poland.

What's coming around the corner:

- Back to school! The Polish school year kicks off at the start of September. With it (theoretically) come answers and clearer vision from both the federal and local governments for how EXIT Tour might be able to function in this time. Even if we don't have physical access to run our normal programming in schools, our team has a handful of exciting strategic ideas for how we can best carry out our mission - to equip Polish churches to make disciples in their cities! 

- Youth group kickoff! I'm excited to step into this new role in my local church for the next few months. I can't wait to see how God works both in me, our students, and our church to equip Polish teenagers to make disciples here in Bielsko-Biała.

Thank you as always for your continued prayer and support. Stay safe and healthy, and know that I'm praying for you and yours.

In Christ,

Elliott