Dear Colleagues:

By now all of us will have celebrated Easter – those in the West on April 16, in the East on April 23 – and now we can, and we need to, live in the power of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is the glorious proof of our faith – we follow someone who said that He was God, and incidentally, that he could be killed and would be raised again – and was. If the second part was true, the first part must be also!

WELCOME
The new National Director of YFC Denmark took up his post on 1 April, and we give a warm welcome to Harm Jan Kjaer Feijer. If you wish to contact him, you can do so on harmjan@yfc.dk

WELCOME BACK
Although he never really left (as he is still heavily engaged in YFC through his work with The Alumni Association) we are delighted to have Jean-Jacques Weiler back working in the Area. He has accepted an offer from the Eastern Europe Region to become their chaplain, giving around 9 weeks a year to visiting the EE countries, spending time with the staff and bringing encouragement and the wisdom of his more than forty years’ experience with YFC.

LOOKING AHEAD
If you’re a soccer fan you’ll know that the biggest thing this year is the World Cup, starting in approximately 46 days, 3 hours and 40 minutes at the time of writing, according to the FIFA official site, http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/ YFC Germany, along with many other Christian organisations, is gearing up for a huge effort to reach the millions of spectators and fans who will be flocking to Germany. Today, 24th April, the state of Hessen will hold a gala for representatives of all 32 countries which will take part in the World Cup in Wiesbaden. Daniela Sudmeier, in charge of their preparations, says that around 400-500 people are expected, and that iThemba, the YFC dance and drama team from South Africa, (who will be the next hosts of the Cup in 2010) will do the final presentation of the evening with 3 dances, an introduction of their ministry and a personal testimony. What an excellent opportunity to have the Gospel right at the heart of this completely-secular competition!

In an additional blessing, the official who set up this engagement, who is in charge of all projects around the World Cup, was so impressed when he saw iThemba perform recently and heard what they did that he wants to introduce them to the Ministry of Education in the State of Hessen, as he believes their message of peace and reconciliation can play a vital role in the prevention of violence and in the strengthening of the self-image of students, especially immigrant students.

Pray that the Gala Evening tonight will go well, and that iThemba will give the performance of their lives, with no problems with the sound, backing-music, forgetting of lines or moves, or nervousness, and that people will be deeply moved.

OUTSIDE OUR AREA
In Asia-Pacific, the country of Nepal is teetering on the edge of what may be a cataclysmic social and political upheaval, as the king tries to hold onto his absolute power and the people demonstrate for democracy. Yesterday at least 35 people were hurt in clashes with police as an estimated 100,000 people demonstrated on the streets of Kathmandu, there is a daytime as well as night-time curfew in certain areas of the capital, and great uncertainty about the future. ABC Radio in Australia put out the following this morning on their AM programme: “King Gyanendra's offer of a partial return to democracy was soundly rejected by opposition groups at the weekend. The King had asked the Opposition to recommend a new Prime Minister; he said elections should be held as soon as possible, to return power to the people. But the Opposition leaders said the King's offer was inadequate - a view seemingly shared by many of the protestors on the streets of the capital. They are planning another coordinated march tomorrow, Tuesday. The King's statement was meant to be a chance to end the strike and protests that have crippled the capital over two weeks. International observers including the US, the UN, China and, importantly, India, had welcomed the King's statement as a step in the right direction. But others believe it may have come too late. Two weeks ago this was a political protest. But with each day that passes it is becoming a popular movement - one that may not be satisfied without significant change.”

Much prayer needed by Christians throughout the world - not least for our YFC workers there led by Nico T - that the needed changes will come peacefully and without further bloodshed and death.

PRAYER THIS WEEK
Monday - Turkey, and Iran
Tuesday - Slovakia, Albania, and Italy
Wednesday - Ukraine, Belarus, and Armenia
Thursday - Latvia, and Jordan
Friday - Tunisia, and Libya

In His grip and grace.

BOOK OF CONDOLENCES OPENED FOR GEORGE

YFC Netherlands has now opened a Book of Condolences, where those who wish may leave a message for Reina, the widow of George Brucks, and his family. Go to their web-site, www.yfc.nl then click on the link at the bottom and go into the book. You will see other posts there.

George's funeral will be at 2.30pm on Friday 21st April in the town of Zeist. I hope to be present representing YFC International, accompanied by M. Jean-Jacques Weiler, former World President. If you wish to go in person contact YFC Netherlands for directions - info@yfc.nl . If you cannot go you may wish to remember the proceedings in prayer, that God may be glorified by all that is said and done.

GEORGE BRUCKS TO HAVE BEEN HONOURED BY THE QUEEN NEXT WEEK

George, former European Area Director, who died yesterday, was to have been honoured on April 28th by Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. The Queen, who is also Princess of Orange-Nassau, was to award him with the title of "Ridder in de orde van Oranje Nassau", given to people "with a remarkable value for society". But as Edward de Kam, Dutch National Director of YFC remarked: "George would have been honored next week. But the Lord did it already I think!"

FORMER AREA DIRECTOR DIES

I was in the office briefly this morning and took a call from Edward de Kam, National Director of YFC Netherlands. It was to say that my predeccessor-but-one as European Area Director, George Brucks, had died at his home in Zeist last night, Monday. George was eighty, and yesterday had held court in a tent dedicated to him at the 60th anniversary celebrations of the founding of YFC Netherlands (of which he had also been National Director). About 1200 people were in attendance at Den Lindenhorst, the YFC Holland HQ in Driebergen, and George had given no sign of any illness.

George was the Area Director from around 1974-1989, and since his retirement from that position he continued to write, speak and maintain his interest in humanitarian work in Romania. When we began MANNAFEST in Belfast in 1987 he was one of the first speakers we had (perhaps March or April of that year) and he came back perhaps twice more - always to very appreciative audiences. He had a quirky, sideways way of looking at The Word and the world which appealed strongly to young people.

He held strong, forthright opinions on all matters, and liked nothing better than to shock people - always in his view for constructive reasons. I last saw him when I paid him a visit in his apartment in November 2004, but ironically, in my mailbox this morning was an e-mail from him sent yesterday morning at 8.19am.

The funeral will be on Friday in Zeist, but I don't yet know the time. I will post the arrangements as soon as I know them.

MEN WHO DO NOT PRAY

Read a great article yesterday from our International Prayer Co-ordinator written by A W Tozer entitled: MEN WHO DO NOT PRAY. Here it is:

“Let us watch that we do not slide imperceptibly to a state where the women do the praying and the men run the churches. Men who do not pray have no right to direct church affairs. We believe in the leadership of men within the spiritual community of the saints, but that leadership should be won by spiritual worth.

Leadership requires vision, and whence will vision come except from hours spent in the presence of God in humble and fervent prayer? All things else being equal, a praying woman will know the will of God for the church far better than a prayerless man.

We do not here advocate the turning of the churches over to the women, but we do advocate a recognition of proper spiritual qualifications for leadership among the men if they are to continue to decide the direction the churches shall take. The accident of being a man is not enough. Spiritual manhood alone qualifies.”

MONDAY LETTER, 10 April 2006

Dear Colleagues:

Greetings at the start of what for us in Western Europe is “Holy Week”, when we remember and focus on the last few days of Jesus’ ministry before His crucifixion. Amazing that someone who lived 2,000 years ago, only lived to the age of about 33, who spent most of his life in an obscure village in a small country in the Middle-East, and who was crucified as a criminal, should still be the object of worship of millions in the world of the 21st century. People still die for him in their thousands every year as totalitarian governments imprison, torture and kill His followers – the man of peace, who preached that we should love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. More books have been written about Him than about any other person in history (apparently Napoleon of France comes a distant second), and this Friday crosses will be carried through towns and villages to commemorate His death – before Sunday comes, and glorious and triumphant church services will celebrate the fact that, as He said He would, He rose from the dead – indisputably and without a doubt, with no other explanation for the empty tomb or His subsequent appearances to eye-witnesses ever having stood the test of forensic examination. This is my favourite week of the year!

LAST WEEK
Two major initiatives, both designed to improve the quality of our support to you in the field.

The first was that we sent out from this office probably the most important document to have come from here in my time as Area Director – a proposal for the radical re-structuring of the Area into six Regions, each with a Regional Director, and each RD looking after 5-6 nations. There’s a lot of detail behind that, but hopefully this will greatly and significantly improve the level of support and close-in care that we are able to offer to existing national programmes, as well as increase our capacity to pioneer into new nations. There are many opportunities to do this, and thus the proposal paper is entitled: “Through Open Doors”. If you are interested in seeing the proposals in detail, ask your National Director for a copy. (National Directors: if for any reason your copy has not come through, let me know right away. It was sent last Thursday.)

If you are reading this here, you will know that the second, more modest initiative was to set up our own blog-spot, to make our communication with the field much more immediate and current. Blogs have some advantages over websites, including, for the owner, very simple updating of news, and for the user, the ability to post comments very easily. Ours is at http://yfcemena.blogspot.com and I encourage you to check it out regularly. I will update it as often as there is anything newsworthy to report, or urgent stuff to pray about. We won’t be putting on there anything of a politically-or-geographically-sensitive nature, and people leaving comments should be similarly careful. We will also get around to putting on links to national YFC websites, so if you would prefer us not to do that for your nation, let me know.

NEW INTERNATIONAL BOARD MEMBER REPRESENTS OUR AREA

It was great to hear that at the meetings of our International Board in Rwanda the week before last, the nomination of Maarten van Helden from The Netherlands as our Lay Trustee was accepted. Maarten is one of the three Directors of the City of Zwolle, Chairman of the Council of his church, and he served on the National Board of YFC Netherlands for ten years. At the Board meeting he also agreed to head the newly-formed Audit Committee. Maarten came with strong recommendation from Marius Blom, Treasurer of the International Board, and Edward de Kam, YFC Netherlands National Director, both of whom have known him for many years. I too was highly-impressed when we met for a chat back in January. Pray for this man, and continue to remember also Alfons Hildebrandt, Field Representative, and Martin Homann, representing the newly-formed Alumni Association of YFC. Keeping these and other equally-talented and strong-minded characters in order is the job of Board Chairman Sam Wolgemuth, so make sure he also appears somewhere on your prayer-list.

PRAYER THIS WEEK
Monday - Cyprus, and Hungary
Tuesday - Arabian Gulf, and Finland
Wednesday - Northern Ireland, and the Area office
Thursday - Moldova, and France
Friday - Netherlands, and Germany

CONGRATULATIONS THIS WEEK

Eileen Bidwell (africanmom@aol.com) heavily involved in the YFC Africa Area for many years, celebrates her birthday on Wednesday. Her husband David, (dbidwell@yfc.net) Ministry Resources and Partnerships Director for the YFC Africa Area, celebrated his yesterday.

That’s all for the moment. Let us hear from you if you have news or special prayer requests, or anything else that you want to share with the whole Area family.

In the meantime, kindest regards, and let’s rejoice mightily in this special week.

In His grip and grace.

John Duncan
Area Director.

Just before I head home for a quiet weekend of engineering, wood-chopping, food with friends etc, anybody who needs a Bible or ten on their PC or PDA should check out a site where you can download them free. It's http://www.e-sword.net/ There are Bibles in loads of different languages, as well as Commentaries, Daily Devotionals, Bible maps, Bible dictionaries - all "on the house".

You can cut-and-paste, search by key words or phrases, set up a Bible-reading plan - the possibilities are nearly endless.

My daily reading verse for today was Psalm 119:11 - "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Crucial that we keep The Word always before us, beside us, around us, in us.

Happy down-loading!

After lots of consultation, refining, etc, yesterday I sent out to all our National Directors the document setting out my vision of a new structure for the Europe, Middle-East & North Africa Area of Youth For Christ, with a request for comments, and a time-scale for implementation once we agree on the exact look of the new structure.

Would appreciate prayer for the process. This is probably the single most important document I have ever sent from this office, with the potential to radically re-position YFC EMENA for ministry in the interesting, opportunity-filled, uncertain, scary times we expect to be living in for the foreseeable future. I have called the doc: "Through Open Doors" as it feels like we have wide-open doors all over the Area, just not the capacity to go through them as we are currently organised. The new proposals would give us more Regional Directors, each one looking after just a few nations, and thus able to give each one far more attention.

If they are accepted, we will be looking for some absolutely-exceptional people. Watch this space.

Attended a great meeting of the Eastern Europe Leadership Team this morning, reviewing the amazing EE Staff Conference held the week before last in Kyiv, Ukraine and looking ahead to further plans, particularly the establishment of Resource Centres in the Region to service the growing work.

One description of us that was fairly colourful, and pretty accurate whatever way you look at it, was: "Tubes for Christ." Jesus has the plans and the power; all we need to do is to be clean tubes through which His power can flow. Sounds easy, except that sometimes, instead of being nice clean water-pipes, we're more like sewers. Am I right? Any easy answers out there?

MONDAY LETTER for 3 April 2006

Dear Beloved Colleagues:

Praise God for the start of a new week, and for new opportunities to tell people about the greatest news ever given to mankind. What an awesome responsibility to stand between people and judgement and, just possibly, help to change their eternal destiny!

I am in or around the office all of this week, hoping to make good progress on our “Gift-aid” claim – the recovery of tax on certain gifts that our government allows to charities like us. This morning I have a meeting of that charity’s Trustees.
John S’s wife Nancy returns to Lebanon today after almost a week here with her son Jay, one of the participants on YFC Northern Ireland’s Y-One program

ADVANCE NOTICE TO NATIONAL DIRECTORS
As you know, I have been working on a revision of the whole way that our Area is structured, and after putting out a number of drafts of the documents to the Regional Leadership Teams I am about to send the final document to all the National Directors. This reorganisation will affect every country – hopefully for good. Look out for the documents later this week.

Thank you to those National Directors who have sent us their Ministry Report forms. So far three have been received, but “Bono on Bono”, the book, is still waiting for Returns number 4. Will it be your nation?? Deadline is 15 April, i.e. the end of next week….

YFC DENMARK
This nation is pleased to announce the appointment of HarmJan Feijer as their new National Director to replace Leif Johanson, who is stepping down this month. HarmJan has been involved in YFC school ministry for 3 years, and we welcome him into this new and demanding role.

YFC GENEVA
Executive Director Josh Case writes:
“We are recruiting full-time for interns for 2006-07 year. If there is anyone interested from the region, they can visit the web at: www.yfc.ch/altitude, or email me directly at: josh@interyouth.ch. We are truly hoping to diversify our team and are excited about the development opportunities we give to interns who come through our program.”

OTHER NEWS
A Canadian band, Sunday Night Cruise, who have done some work with YFC Denmark are keen to work with other YFC programmes in our Area. This is what they say:
“Hi John,

Great to hear back from you! Last year (2005) we toured with YFC Denmark for a month throughout the whole country. We were set up with a Danish road manager, a Volkswagen LT35 and Room/Board for the duration of the trip. We played at schools, churches, youth groups (Rocksolid) and other gatherings of youth during our stay. YFC Denmark runs a school tours program whereby foreign bands are invited to play their own material and speak about good life choices and, where permissible, the gospel.

As for us, we're a band based out of Thunder Bay (which you know already). In Canada, we tour primarily non-christian venues with an emphasis on reaching the unreached. We follow an altogether unreligious way of operating: Wherever God leads us, we'll go. Sometimes this means getting in a van and driving 4500 km (like we did in October) to tour public schools (or bars) on the east coast of Canada. Our show doesn't include altar calls or anything beyond testimonies of our personal faith, but those testimonies can go a long way. Some of us have struggled with drugs, alcoholism, etc and are quite willing to talk about it because we feel it helps to relate to students. Through this we are able to show how God has changed our lives, which is really our primary goal. I guess what I'm trying to communicate is that we are not a Christian Band, but a band of Christians.

It looks like we're going to be touring again in Europe (Denmark, Sweden, & the Faroe Islands) between September 15th - October 15th (thereabouts) with YFC Denmark and then heading to other parts of Europe for vacation from Nov 1 to Nov 15. This means that we'll likely be free to tour more European countries either in the last half of October or beginning in the second half of November.

We would really enjoy spending more time with the youth in other countries and with YFC in general! Travel expenses to the destination country would be minimal (i.e. train, RyanAir, easyJet) as we will likely already be in Europe. All we really need on the road is food (some of us are vegetarians) and housing. YFC Denmark has also provided us with an honourarium to perform. Schools in Denmark have funded this ministry primarily because they pay to have the concert come through and talk (or ROCK!) to students. I have to say we are quite impressed with the results of this program.

We look forward to heaing back from you and we can send you a presspack if you'd like.

Thanks so much for your time, John!

Blessings,

Dave Janzen (bass, screaming)
Sunday Night Cruise http://sundaynightcruise.com/
427 Norah Street S
Thunder Bay, ON
P7E 1P1 Canada

Their e-mail is sundaynightcruise@gmail.com

YFC/USA PROJECT SERVE TEAMS
This week is the absolute deadline for the very kind offer by David Schultz, Director of Project Serve, to fully sponsor two people to go on teams in this Area – accommodation, travel and food all included. To be eligible you need to be considering setting up some kind of Summer evangelism or work team in your own country. This is a great offer, which would give you tremendous experience. Contact me this week if you are interested.

WERNER BURKLIN
Werner was the European Area Director for YFC when I first joined the organisation back in 1972, and he had quite an influence on my life. He is still serving the Lord with all his energy, today as Founder and President-Emeritus of an organisation called China Partner, Inc, working out of Boca Raton, Florida, USA. He sends warm greetings to all of our YFC staff today and particularly to anyone who remembers him from his time in YFC.

PRAYER THIS WEEK
Monday - Britain
Tuesday - Oman, and Croatia
Wednesday - Lebanon, and Denmark
Thursday - Serbia, and Jordan
Friday - Israel & The Palestinian Territories

That’s all for today, as I want to get this to you before I leave the office. Be encouraged: we are around 400 full-time staff and several thousand volunteers working in almost 170 locations in 24 countries in our Area – between us all and with God’s All-mighty power we can make a significant difference!

In His grip and grace.
John
Area Director for Europe, the Middle-East & North Africa

Dear Beloved Colleagues:

Just returned from the Staff Conference of the Eastern Europe Region of YFC, and I am still basking in the glow of the blessed time that God, and good organisation, gave us. Almost 150 people came together in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday to Saturday, from Moldova, Slovakia, three regions of Russia (St Petersburg, Moscow and Volga), Northern Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Holland and Ukraine itself. Past World President of YFCI Jean-Jacques Weiler was the special guest, and Bob Tanner, ex-YFC and now with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, who was instrumental in starting YFC Slovakia, happened to be in town on BGEA business and came along on several occasions. Some people spent 48 hours on a train to get there, and 24 hours wasn’t at all uncommon. Bas Huibregtse from The Netherlands kindly came and gave two excellent seminars, and Jean-Jacques and Jozef Gabor, Chairman of the Board of YFC Slovakia, led the morning devotions. Each day started with prayer from 6.00-8.00am….

Praise band “Timothy” from Slovakia led the times of worship, which were very special, and each nation or region had time to report in detail on the progress of their work. Other seminars helped to equip people in specialised skills, and Regional Director Malcolm Johnston gave more details on the launch of the Resource Centres for Children At Risk (to be based in Moldova), Leadership Training (to be based in Ukraine) and Prayer (ditto). Andrey Kostishin was commissioned onto the Eastern Europe Regional Leadership Team, and was prayed for along with his wife Valya and their children.

The Russian translation of the “Three-story Evangelism” book was launched, published by YFC Ukraine. It looks great, seems to be very well done and should be a great addition to their list of resources.

Whether by accident or design, someone mentioned from the stage a phrase that has stuck with me since as a great description of who we are and the kind of young people we are seeking to produce: “People led by Jesus, who lead like Jesus and lead others to Jesus.” If we ever need a summary phrase for our Strategic Focus, we could do a lot worse. There were plenty of people there who answered that description, and it was humbling to listen to their stories.

THIS WEEK
One joy for us will be that Nancy Sagherian from Lebanon will be arriving in Northern Ireland tomorrow to visit her son Jay who is on the YFC NI Y-One programme.

National Director of YFC Ireland, Suzie Rowan, will be interviewing someone by phone on Wednesday who has applied to work with them for a year. Wisdom and discernment required.

YFC Spain has the second in their series of inter-church big events in Barcelona this Sunday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, God willing, I’ll be in Bristol, England, visiting our daughter Emma.

QUICK REMINDER
The deadline for the return of the Ministry report forms is fast approaching (15 April), and unusually, our Area is quite slow this year. To date only two lots of forms have made it through. We need to be professional and efficient in fulfilling what we agree to when we receive Charter status, so National Directors, please get moving. There is still a copy of U2-frontman Bono’s book, “Bono on Bono” waiting to go to the fourth nation to get their returns to this office.

PRAYER THIS WEEK
Monday - Spain
Tuesday - Tunisia, and Libya
Wednesday - Turkey, and Iran
Thursday - Albania, and Italy, and Sam Wolgemuth, Chairman of the International Board
Friday - Belarus, and Armenia

CONGRATULATIONS
Best wishes to Yana Mospanenko, YFC Ukraine’s Head of their Drama Department, who celebrates her birthday on Friday.

In view of the pile of paper sitting at my right hand, that has to be all for the moment. May God bless you and continue to challenge you, and let’s work, not because we know we ought to, but from devoted and loving hearts.

In His grip and grace.
John
Area Director
YFC Europe, Middle-East & North Africa