Niki´s small group

I am Niki Janek from the Czech-Slovak Union.

My friend Ester and I were group leaders in this last training program. 

In the group, we tried to establish a spiritual, open and friendly environment. Soon the attendees started to regard us as a second family. 

That was so rewarding to experience.

Since we wanted them to be spiritual, open, friendly - Ester and I had to first show them by example, just as Jesus led his disciples by example. 

So we spent a lot of time in prayer before meetings and tried to be transparent and authentic.

Members were very active, so we met outside of the group for many church events  - here are some pictures from an ASI meeting, youth events etc. 

In an accountability partnership, we managed to find times in which to meet personally with our partner(s). For example, when we were only 40 kilometers apart one week, we met in a Mexican restaurant in Ostrava. Here is a picture from the restaurant where I almost burned my mouth off because of the spicy Mexican sauce in my food. 

One of the most important principles that we learned when leading groups is that you start and end on time. This is in the training manual (outline) for leaders .

Even though it may not look like it, Ester and I were really tired as we approached the end of our training. Still, we had put all our hearts into it and spent a lot of time in prayer. But even though it was a hard job, we wanted to finish what we started.

So we were happy thinking that it would end soon.

The SGM training had its graduation at the end of 2022, 3 months ago. But our friends in the group told us: „We would like to continue".

Time spent in the group has been a spiritual blessing in our lives. We can be open without being judged. We don't want to lose that. Let's have a weekend at the cottage!"

Even though we were tired from the training we said: „Okay, that's a great plan!“

So this weekend, we met in the middle of nowhere, at the cottage surrounded by amazing snow-covered nature. We had a great program filled with friendship, spirituality and food.

It’s nice when our programs are not only for several weeks, months or years, but when it continues after a program "ends".

Now our plan is to be mentors and to support them in implementing what they learned here. We will have online meetings and will plan our next cottage retreat.

 

Thank God for this amazing Small Group Ministry Program. 

You can do the same - in your groups here in training, and much more and even better, together with God.