Welcome to the Czechout Website

Welcome to this site! If you are a new or even casual visitor, a few details about us. Our purpose is  to inform and to promote prayer for our work.

Czechout, now 21 years old, exists to encourage and support the Church of Jesus in the Czech Republic. It is a voluntary organisation headed up by Dennis and Sue Bavister, who have worked as church planters in South Yorkshire for more years than they care to remember.

Please read on and as you do,  pray for our work in the nation which claims to have the lowest church attendance in Europe.

Springtime - new beginnings 14 April 09

Maybe I shouldn't begin with major personal references, but what a year it has been! With serious family illness and bereavement and uncertainty about the future direction of the ministry, sometimes we have wondered, 'Should we begin to wind down?' The came the surprises!

An invitation to a two week intensive pastoral training ministry in Kenya...my feelings were very mixed, but God confirmed it in a dramatic way. Since we would have to bear a large chunk of the cost I simply prayed for financial help - and didn't tell anyone. Within three days an envelope arrived with £100 in it - anonymously and a few days later one with £400. Now if we move in faith we should not be surprised. Let's just say we were excited and leave it at that. So I go tomorrow!

And things in the Czech Republic? The School of Worship and Leadership finishes in early June. Jakub Limr from Hradec Kralove and I are working on what we are calling 'Potential', a course designed to release and develop the gift and ministry that many an 'average believer in the pew' needs. We believe it will facilitate the emergence of many future leaders. Please pray for us!

Our first meeting, for leaders, those interested and a few sympathetic friends will be over the last weekend in May. It will be essentially to present the vision, see what leaders we have and start seriously planning the course with them. It is an unknown quantity, still very much developing but also confirmed by God's unexpected provision - a gift, again of several hundred pounds from an organisation in the Czech Republic that promotes leadership training in the Church.

It will have its own website (that you can already open, though there is no information on it yet!): www.potencial.estranky.cz

Keep praying for us. Many thanks and blessings in Jesus

Dennis

 

Posted on July 12 2007

• The last weekend in June was great. We had a leadership team from Hradec Kralove with us. Last Thursday they attended the Ground Level 'key leaders' meeting, where they introduced themselves and asked if they could be permitted to 'join up' as a Ground Level church! Obviously, we well thrilled to bits and praise God for this evidence of the close relationships that we enjoy. (More details on the Hradec Kralove page).
• On Friday, they were part of a Czechout presentation in Barnsley. It was something of a trip down memory lane. More details will be posted soon. We had a couple of powerpoint presentations and we want to get the best shots onto this website. It will take a couple of days! (I'm working on it!)
• We can now give you more information about the School of Worship and Leadership which appears under Angel Mountain Ministries. You can download the School of Worship and Leadership PDF Brochure to give you more of the aims and the background. We agreed that we could not run the course with less than 20 students and would like 35-40. Today we have 17 applicants and two more months before the closing date. It's looking good (but what a lot of preparation work - pray for us!!)
• Please pray for the visit to the Prague Central Congregation next week. This is a holiday conference (14-21 July) when Dennis and Sue will be the key speakers. Since last year (same holiday, same speakers!) the group has more than doubled in size as it has merged with another Prague Christian Fellowship congregation. We feel need need to bring the encouragement (challenge?) from Isaiah 52, 'Awake, Oh Zion'!
• Please pray for our preparation for the annual Angel Mountain Conference in the Czech Republic (4-11 August). It is fully booked (about 270 folk); Stuart and Irene Bell will be joining us on the ministry team and we just long for it to be a time of encouragement, envisioning and growing in faith. (This is where we would expect to receive most applications for the SWL course).
• You may like to consider sponsoring or helping to support a student on the course. Many will find it hard to cope financially. If so, contact Dennis for more information (dennisbavister@aol.com).

Thanks for all your prayer, encouragement and support in so many ways. Please keep it up in our 21st year of involvement with Czech believers.

God bless you!

Dennis and Sue Bavister

PS - did you notice how often the word 'encouragement' is used? - that's what it's all about!