• July 9-16, TEAM NORTHEAST POLAND and 2 U.S. families will host a discipleship camp for families of new believers and seekers.  They will be working with the families to share Jesus with them and give them instructions in some life skills.  Intercede for travel safety and ask that all of the families involved will be receptive to the teaching they receive.
• The EASTERN HUNGARY TEAM is partnering with the Grain Game Foundation this week to provide a Bible camp in Slovakia for Roma and in Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary the week of July 18.  Please petition for a mighty moving of the Spirit in the lives of the young people.
• The CENTRAL CZECH TEAM shares that a Youth Camp will be held July 8-15 in the Eagle Mountains of the Czech Republic with a partnering church from Illinois.  Intercede that many will surrender their lives to the Son as their Savior and Lord.

• TEAM NAPLES (WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN CLUSTER) will be hosting about 50 World Changers students, who will work alongside of them and a couple of their partner churches.  Intercede for those folks with whom they will come into contact and ask for clear communication.

• From July 2- 9, a volunteer team is assisting with a youth Sports/English Camp for the XXI Century Church in Prague.  Personnel working with the DIASPORA CLUSTER in the CZECH REPUBLIC will be helping also.  Intercede that salvation will come to a number of the young people.
• Members of the BLACK SEA ORTHODOX CLUSTER in UKRAINE will host a team from Alabama, who will be working with them in the Sechiv region of Lviv.  Intercede for the volunteers and Ukrainian believers, as they minister through a day camp.  Petition the Father to grant them many new contacts with people in this region.
• Intercede for several groups of Americans that will be coming to work among the ROMA (ROMA CLUSTER) in Macedonia, Romania, Italy, and Czech Republic.  Petition for their safety and health.  Ask that the Father will be glorified in all that they do and that many Roma will come to faith.

Lubos (left) trains the Olympic silver medalist and 2010 World Champion rower at Bridge.

Three nights every week, Lubos Dosek goes to the “gym” to teach boxing. One of his students is the current world champion rower and several others are from the Czech Olympic rowing team. These athletes consider Lubos their friend as they trained with him under his father who was the rowing coach for the national Olympic team.

The exciting news is that Lubos is a strong believer and his gym is located at Bridge Community, a ministry center begun by IMB missionaries Steve and April Brown.

“I am teaching boxing because I want to share Jesus with my friends,” Lubos said, “and my dad.”

Lubos moved to Florida seven years ago and while there, became a believer. He met Steve and April, who were visiting his church during a state-side assignment. When his papers expired he moved back to Prague with a desire to see his family come to know Christ. The Browns soon transferred to Prague and and they have been working together ever since. During that time, Lubos has seen his mom become a believer and helped baptize her. He is still praying for his father.

Lubos has been looking for a way to share Christ and realized that his boxing experience and friendships in the athletic community could be used to bring glory to God.

“I’m not boxing just for fun, but for people to be saved,” he said. “If someone with a lot of influence in the sports world got saved…that would be great.”

Steve has encouraged Lubos to use his gifts and talents to spread the Gospel and has supported his efforts whole-heartedly. He gave Lubos a room to use at Bridge, collected offerings to buy equipment, helped hand out flyers along with hot chocolate during Christmas time, and even supported a local artist painting bible verses on the walls of the boxing room.

1 Corinthians 9:26-27 is one such verse.

“Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

The verses have been a point of interest for the boxing students and are good conversation starters. “They ask me about them,” Lubos said. “They are very surprised they are from the Bible.”

Czechs, typically, don’t know anything about the Bible. These independent people pride themselves on their reputation as atheists. Their reference point for Christianity is the Catholic Church, which is largely historic and oppressive. Evangelicals are virtually unheard of. Lubos and Steve have to counteract their stigma of being part of a cult. That is the reason for approaching evangelism through a community like Bridge.

“Living in Prague, people are very skeptical and afraid of religion,” Steve said. “By having a community center like Bridge, where we have worship services but also do other things to reach out, it makes it okay to enter the ‘church.’”

In this vein, Bridge is also hosting cooking classes and a coffee house. They have held holiday events, shoveled snow for the neighborhood, picked up trash and fed the homeless. All of these activities are designed to create community and give a platform on which to share the Gospel.

Redemptive relationships is the goal of Bridge Community and the goal of Lubos’ boxing classes. “Please pray that the Lord will touch the hearts of everyone who comes,” Lubos said.

For more information on how you can help with Lubos’ ministry or with Bridge Community, contact Steve Brown.