The Longs

A Call to Global Missions

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Fulfilling a Dream

In June of 2000 in a city park in the center of Sumperk, CZ I met Jana, Alena, Jakub, and Klara Hlavsa for the first time.  I met Lucie Kulichova then as well.  Already I'd met many students in the Czech Republic, but there was something special about these 5.  I felt an instant connection with them that I hadn't experienced elsewhere.  I can't put my finger exactly on what or why, but for some reason God gave me an instant love for the Hlavsa and Kulich families!  The kids, their parents, and their grandparents. :)

In 2000, 2001, and 2002 I traveled to many cities and visited many students and churches across Czech, but I always looked forward to getting back to Sumperk and staying with the Hlavsa family in their home.  I loved sitting at their kitchen table and chatting about friends, life, youth group, and the Bible. 

During those early years of getting to know them more and more, I began to catch their vision for the church and for the town of Sumperk.  They are movers and shakers.  They longed for their church in Sumperk to be about more than just self-preservation.  They wanted to show the community of Sumperk that Jesus is still just as real and relevant in the 21st century.  They dreamed of a church that was so relevant and authentic that is caused lost people to want to worship Jesus. They are pioneers / trailblazers and have taken many hits for it along the way.

I admired their passion, their resolve, and their commitment to bring change, and it was in large part because of the Hlavsa and Kulich families specifically that I chose Sumperk as our home in Czech.  God gave me a sense that the Hlavsa family was part of my destiny and that He had a special plan for us in the future as He intertwined our lives together.  During an English weekend in the fall of 2001, He gave me a specific dream of a long-term partnership with them.

As a young man, God gave Joseph a dream.  After many years of waiting through zigs and zags and ups and downs, God finally fufilled Joseph's dream in a way he never could have imagined.  In the same way, God developed and refined the dream He gave me over 8 years, and the fulfilling of this dream came in a way that is better than I could have imagined...

On September 6 I had the privilege of standing up next to my younger brother Ben as he married Klara Hlavsova.  (The youngest daughter in the Hlavsa family)  They met and got to know each other while serving together in Sumperk for 2 summers on an intern team with Cassie and I.

I'm pretty sure the wedding day was glorious for Ben and Klara, but it was a pretty amazing day for me too...

The whole weekend was really an incredible blending of my 2 worlds.  It was amazing to have the whole Hlavsa family and Lucie and her husband from Sumperk at Honey Rock camp.  It was amazing too, to see how many of my American friends and family have been to Sumperk to serve or to visit us over the years.  I think I counted 14 there who'd been in Czech with us...

8 years ago, I never would have imagined that the dream of long-term partnership would include the wedding of our 2 families, but God knew...

Ben and Klara are living in Minnesota now fairly close to us.  So it looks like our journey together will continue.

Isn't God cool!?! :)

Lifting up our eyes anew...

Dave Patty is a mentor/friend of ours as well as the president of Josiah Venture.  Over the last year he has been calling our JV team into John 4:3.  It's Jesus' call to "Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest."

For the last 10 years, my life has been consumed by the spiritual needs of young people living in Eastern Europe.  The statistics are staggering.  There are more than 30 million young people living in Eastern Europe... only 1% really know Jesus Christ in an intimate way...  For years this reality has deeply gripped my heart.  Every day I awoke thinking, praying, and longing to see God MOVE in the lives of the Czech young people I encountered.   

This summer, however, God's been doing a new thing in me.  He's been lifting my eyes to new places and new things.  I am seeing again that Eastern Europe is not the ONLY ripe harvest field.  God is doing AMAZING things everywhere!  Rochester, MN...  Pine Haven... Three Lakes, WI... Honey Rock... The Twin Cities...  And beyond...

Here are just a few ways this summer we've witnessed a demonstration of the power of the Gospel and the viral spread of the Kingdom of God.  It's been inspiring and exciting!

• I watched more than 100 campers and staff dancing and singing passionate praises to Jesus in the big top tent at Honey Rock camp...
• While visiting my Grandma at Lillian Kerr nursing home, I watched many empty eyes and tired faces light up as my mom entered.  She knew each person by name and spoke to them with empathy and dignity.  The impact that Jesus, living through both Mom and Grandma, made on that nursing home was beautiful.  Mom even got to lead one particularly gruff old woman named Francis in a prayer of salvation!
• We've talked several times with Jess Newell about her work as a chaplain with Arise ministries in multiple juvenile detention centers around the Twin Cities.  We've felt the depth of her heart for these broken young people who've found themselves on such a destructive path.
• We visited a new and innovative church-plant in Northeast Minneapolis that is seeking to raise up a new generation of young leaders who love Jesus and love His bride. 
• We had dinner with Rodney and Jenny Keaney.  Rodney works for Compassion International.  He shared with us how over the years Compassion has sponsored well over a million children worldwide...  He and Jenny were able to visit Guatemala and see first hand the difference that sponsorship was making on these young lives.
• We had lunch with former JV teammates Scott and Lisa Runzo.  Scott is now the director of CALM, a ministry in Rwanda.  We heard how CALM is distributing goats, mosquito netting, and health cards, while training church leaders and proclaiming the good news.
• At Mission Training International we met missionaries serving the Lord in China, Hong Kong, Norway, Japan, Brazil, Russia, Peru, Spain, Italy, Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, Thailand, and Ghana.  We listened to many stories of God's movement through community development and transformed lives in these far-off corners of the world.  

We're not exactly sure what is ahead of us, but it has been a rich summer of seeing and hearing about God working in many places.  It's been energizing, and truly He is lifting our eyes!