Shelby Flowers first traveled to Czech in 2010 to serve at a Fusion camp with a short-term team. Very quickly she realized that her relationship with Czech would never be “short-term”.The way music works as a tool to build relationships and connect people to Christ is Shelby’s passion, and in that sense, Fusion is basically a dream come true. She served as a Fusion intern in the Czech Republic the summers of 2011 and 2012, and now that she’s graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor of music degree in piano and composition, she is working with Fusion full-time.
Shelby is using her passion for music to reach young people in Central and Eastern Europe with the love of Christ. She is part of the S-Team in Ostrava, Czech Republic and travels internationally to help launch and establish Fusion in other JV countries.
Milan grew up in a Christian family and became a Christian when he was 12 years old. He graduated from the Technical University of Ostrava and began his career in the investment department of a housing association. After the revolution in Czech republic, he worked in business. Then, he worked as a director in an advertising and printing agency, Ethics, and taught Strategic Management at a business school in Ostrava.
He later taught at KAM’s (Josiah Venture’s partner organization in Czech) internship program. In 2009, Milan founded the first Fusion (an outreach to unchurched youth through a network of evangelistic rock/gospel choirs and performing arts groups) in his church (ESK) in Havirov. During the development of the ministry, Milan experienced a calling to Fusion full-time and decided to leave his job. Milan is currently in the process of raising support for the further development of Fusion.
Milan and his family live in Havirov where he is one of the leaders of the church. He is involved in preaching, the mission’s team and youth group ministry.
Korban and Tanya first met the Josiah Venture team at the Fall Conference in 2003. They immediately connected with the hearts of the JV missionaries and leadership team, and they returned the following year to serve at a Czech English camp.
They loved the way JV served the local church by leading alongside them to engage their culture for Christ. Since autumn 2013, the Millers have been serving in Katowice, Poland. They’ve partnered with a church there to launch the first Fusion project in Poland. Fusion equips Polish believers with the tools to reach the next generation through high-energy rock bands and choirs.
For the Millers, leading Fusion at a local and national level allows them to serve in a way that maximizes their gifts and passions – mainly, their passion to see the next generation in Poland know the saving love of Christ.
Ever since high school, Josh and Kristen have been active in missions and felt they were meant to serve in Europe. They heard about Josiah Venture’s (JV’s) focus on relational ministry and heart for youth from JV missionaries visiting their church, and they knew they wanted to join in. They first visited Slovenia in the winter of 2016 and that summer helped at a Fusion camp. There, they got to participate first-hand in God’s movement happening throughout Slovenia. During that experience, their passion for Slovenia and its people grew; they knew that was where God wanted them.
The Morneau's moved to Ljubljana in November 2018 and are partnering with a local church there. Their time is spent serving in a variety of ways—meeting and discipling young people, helping to run local ministries in the church, and supporting Fusion ministries throughout Slovenia.
Nadiya first came in contact with Josiah Venture in 2008 through an English camp at Christ Fellowship Church in Lviv, Ukraine. Doing these camps several years in a row opened her heart to the youth in her city. While looking for new ideas for youth ministry, God led her to participate in a Fusion camp in the Czech Republic.
Excited about this opportunity in Ukraine, she became a leader for the Fusion ministry in 2014 in her local church there. In seeing how much Josiah Venture helped her church to grow in the area of youth ministry, Nadya desired to help other churches as well. In 2017, she was asked to help JV Ukraine launch the Exit Tour ministry. After a successful launch of three churches partnering with seven schools for the sake of reaching teens with the gospel, Nadya officially joined JV full-time, as part of the Exit Tour and schools teams.
Nadya, her husband Artem, and their two children live in Lviv and serve at Christ Fellowship church. Nadiya and Artem are involved in teenage and youth ministry in their church, and their home is always a place of youth ministry. Since the beginning of the war, Nadiya has been involved in sending medical assistance to people in the active war zone. With the help of their church, Josiah Venture, and church communities, she helps find and send medicine, hemostatic agents, and bandages to those in need. During the first months of the war, Artem transported humanitarian goods from their church to areas in Ukraine that were under fire. He continues to do this now, when it is needed.
Yoan and Nadia met for the first time at Sunday School. Yoan is a Pastor's child and is a 3rd generation Christian. At 18, he received his calling from God to minister to young people and dedicate himself to youth ministry. Nadia's family came to know God as Savior during the great revival of the 90ties. At 20, he married Nadia, continuing their ministry in the youth group as a family.
As a music-loving person, she dreamed of serving unbelievers with the music the Lord gives us and believed that one day they would be able to serve that way! They prayed that God would open the door to serve Him full time.
A few years ago, they attended the JV fall conference in the Czech Republic, where Yoan heard about Fusion and how this ministry is changing the lives of young people in Europe. That’s when Yoan decided “I want this in Bulgaria!”.
For three years now Yoan and Nadia have been serving and have been responsible for Fusion Sofia as volunteers, and they work and sustain their family with their business. Recently, they were asked to become full-time members of Istinski Horizonti’s team (JV’s partner organization in Bulgaria) and assume the national coordination of Fusion for Bulgaria. In addition, they are youth pastors and are heavily involved at Elim Sofia Church, leaders of the youth national ministry of their denomination, God's Church, in Bulgaria.
Kadri-Kristel was a Josiah Venture summer intern in 2021. She had been leading the youth ministry in her home church for two years by that time and the desire to serve more widely started to grow during the internship.
Sven and Kadri-Kristel met each other through youth group in 2013 and got married in 2017. Now they are expecting a baby and are excited to meet him/her in February 2023.
Kadri-Kristel is passionate about music and started a Fusion ministry in their home church in Tallinn, Nõmme in September 2022. She has a heart to reach more boys and girls through music and to equip young leaders using Fusion as a ministry tool to spread the gospel in Estonia.
Milan grew up in a Christian family and became a Christian when he was 12 years old. He graduated from the Technical University of Ostrava and began his career in the investment department of a housing association. After the revolution in Czech republic, he worked in business. Then, he worked as a director in an advertising and printing agency, Ethics, and taught Strategic Management at a business school in Ostrava.
He later taught at KAM’s (Josiah Venture’s partner organization in Czech) internship program. In 2009, Milan founded the first Fusion (an outreach to unchurched youth through a network of evangelistic rock/gospel choirs and performing arts groups) in his church (ESK) in Havirov. During the development of the ministry, Milan experienced a calling to Fusion full-time and decided to leave his job. Milan is currently in the process of raising support for the further development of Fusion.
Milan and his family live in Havirov where he is one of the leaders of the church. He is involved in preaching, the mission’s team and youth group ministry.
Dorin is living and serving in Galați; a city in South-East Romania, close to the Republic of Moldova, by the Danube River, a place with a great need for the good news and hope. After years teaching Romanian Literature and grammar in public schools of Galati, Dorin decided to invest his life in discipling young people in his local church called "Emanuel Christian Church" and through an organization that he has founded named ProVeritas—The Truth Will Set You Free.
His passion is to build bridges between non-Christian youth and his youth ministry, through music, debates, and prevention programs. In 2017, Dorin started a Fusion choir in his city and became part of the Josiah Venture team, leading Fusion Romania. He is married to Nicoleta and they have a son named Robert. Their prayer, work, and desire is to bring Jesus to the young people in the south-eastern part of the country, through evangelism and discipleship. They love to read about history and to start new projects.
Emīls grew up in a Catholic church in a small town of 3500 people in Latvia. His life changed when he started attending a local Josiah Venture Fusion group and eventually ended up joining the team to help out with teaching drums. Eventually on a team trip to help out a Fusion in Ukraine, Emīls experienced God’s love for the first time and was changed forever.
Eventually taking a leadership role in the local Fusion at 17, Emīls has participated and led Fusion ever since. In 2018, he moved to Riga, the capital of Latvia, for university to study theology. In Riga, he joined a Baptist church and helped with the Fusion ministry there. After the first year in Riga, Emīls did an internship with Fusion international and spent the whole summer serving in many different countries, seeing how Fusion changes the lives of teenagers everywhere. The following year, he took over the Fusion ministry in Riga and is leading the ministry there. He is helping with all of the Fusion groups in Latvia as well as leading a local Fusion in the capital—equipping leaders and discipling teenagers in a local church in Riga.