First, we would like to thank all of you who were involved in various ways with the summer youth events both within KAM and with your local youth communities. It is encouraging to hear your stories of specific young people who experienced God's touch during the summer. Below is a conversion story from the Třinec - Lyžbice Camp to illustrate, and also feedback from participants who attended the Frontline youth leadership retreat. We look forward to sharing more of your testimonies at the Fall KAM Conference. Using this overview, please let us know what summer youth events you attended by September 15th.

Camp Testimony

This year at our church’s English Summer Camp, God moved in wonderful ways. We saw many kids move closer to Christ and three kids accepted Jesus. One of the girls that accepted Christ, was a girl that came to camp for the first time last year. On the last night of camp last year, I felt God urging me to share the Gospel personally with her. As I shared about Christ’s love and the sacrifice he did for us, it was clear that she was emotionally ready, and yet, in the same moment, I felt that the Spirit was saying, “share the Gospel, but don’t let her respond.” What?!?! I had never experienced that before but I chose to obey.

For the past year, the girl continued to stay in contact with our youth group. She would come to youth group about once a month and always came for the bigger events. She was also one of the first people to sign up for camp this year.

On the first day of camp, she came running up to me and said, we need to finish our conversation from last year. What?!?! I was already getting excited but it wouldn’t be for another few days before we could have that talk.
As we talked, she shared that she had been thinking about what I had shared with her all year. In fact, after our conversation last year, she couldn’t stop thinking about Jesus. But she also shared that although she probably would have said yes to Jesus last year at camp, but it would have been for the wrong reasons. But she was ready now. And during the week at camp this year, she had prayed to accept Christ with two girls from our American team and now she wanted to pray with me!

Since then, she has gotten very close with a group of girls from our youth group and is regularly reading the Bible with them and can’t wait for youth group to start. In fact, her group’s excitement about Jesus has even gotten her brother (who is very intellectual) asking questions about Jesus. Just a few weeks ago, Daniela was able to give him the book “More than a Carpenter” and he’s begun reading it. My heart is full. And I know that this is just one of many stories of how God moved this year!!!

Kevin Dickson

  (Photo from camp Třinec-Lyžbice)

This is an overview of the KAM events we held or participated in during the summer:

• 11 camps with the Camps Team
  
• Frontline
  
• KřSb youth leadership school
  
• Škola pro Život
  • Restart - teachers' meeting
    
  • Summer school of character
    
• KAM at UNITED (workshops, Worship.ko, and more)
  
• Summer events in KC Malenovice
  
• JV Kids Camp

For more information, mini-testimonies, and memories from KAM's summer events, and an overview of our fall plans, check out our KAM News, which we regularly send to our fellow churches, donors, and friends of KAM.

Tréninky (Trainings) has been renamed to Vzdělávání
We would like to inform you about the name change for Trainings, which will now be called Vzdělávání, which better reflects the scope and breadth of services provided by this department of KAM.

Handing over the role of KAM Director

This school year will be a turning point for KAM, with KAM's Spring KAM Conference set to welcome Kuba Vejmělka into the role of KAM Director. Starting in September, there will be a gradual handover of responsibilities and information to Kuba to make the transition as smooth as possible. Dušan, who has been on the KAM leadership team for the past 20 years, will continue to be part of the international Josiah Venture team starting in April with a focus on supporting “national leaders” in other countries. In addition, he will continue to develop the EGCC (European Great Commission Collaboration), an organization mobilizing European donors to support Christian nonprofits focused on fulfilling the Great Commission.

We ask for your prayers that the generational transfer will take place in an empowering way. We look forward to new momentum for the development of youth work in our country!

Changes to the Finance Committee

We would also like to make you aware of the changes in the composition of the Finance Committee, which will consist of Dušan Drabina, Radka Šticová, Kuba Vejmělka, and Kevin Dickson from 1.9.2023. Míša Toušková will participate as a recorder.

KAM Strategic Plan

We are continuing to prepare the KAM Strategic Plan for the three-year period of 2024-2026, which we had the opportunity to work on at the June ExTeam retreat and subsequently discuss with KAM leaders.

The next step is to develop it into the Annual Activity Plan 2024 for individual KAM services. We want to present this long-term plan to you at the KAM Autumn Conference (24-25 October 2023). Its primary focus builds on our current efforts to increase the number of mission-minded youth. To that end, we also want to increase the number of youth with whom we have an intense relationship that will enable us to accompany and develop them in that direction.

Staff Leaving

• In June, Karel Hennhofer, Vítek Maňásek, and Barča Kilnarová said goodbye to us.
• Hanka Martináková ended her cooperation with KAM in July.

Thank you all so much for your cooperation and what you have contributed to the KAM ministry!

Changes

• Míša Toušková is the new manager of Filip Hradil.
• Helenka Ukropcová moved from the Education team to the Background team.
• Dan Blazek is preparing to take over the role of Fusion manager.

New Staff

• In September, Pavlína Tomiczková joined the Education team on a part-time basis.
• Pavel Pham went from being a part-time freelancer to a part-time Kamák. He will serve in outreach services.
• Petr Holý is considering transferring from freelancing to becoming a Kamák.

For more information about the team, please refer to the updated Organizational Structure 2023/09.

Care net

In the HR area, we continuously return to the topic of looking after you, the employees, because you are our most valuable resource, and we would like to create conditions in which you can work well. To give you a better overview, we have summarized the different types of care we provide for you at different levels and in other areas - you can find the document in this folder under the title Care net. Please contact Kacha Kabut (hr@kam.cz) if you have any additional questions.

Internal events 2023/24

In this school year, we will have the following internal KAM events:

•  3x all-KAM meetings in Malenovice
  
  • Autumn KAM Conference 2in1 (24.-25.10.2023),
    i.e., Lounge & Staff development.
    
  • Spring KAM Conference 4in1 (3.-5.4.2024),
    i.e., Lounge & Staff Development & Teambuilding & Annual Conference
    
  • Garden Party (18.6.2024).
    (The Fall Conference and Garden Party will be followed by a meeting of KAM leaders.)
    
• 5x Good Morning Info (via Zoom) - information meetings.
  
• 5x Good Morning Family (in regional groups) - community meetings with discussion on Discipleship.
  

We expect all KAM staff to attend these events except for lane 1 moms. Part-time staff will participate based on their agreement with their uplink. The Garden Party is voluntary, but your participation is greatly appreciated.

• 3x JV events:
  
  •  JV Fall Conference (25-29.9.2023), theme Mental Health
    (On the KAM intranet, in the News section, you can now find the First Aid Kit document prepared by our Education team for the conference and other use.)
    
  • JV Thanksgiving (22.-24.11.2023) - 2nd culture only.
    
  • JV Spring Conference (May 1-5.2024) - 2nd culture only.
    

KAM Internal Trainings 2023/24

As you know from previous emails, the internal training will now be divided into training levels (according to the length of involvement in KAM).

The Staff development we offer includes:

• 2x Staff Development Day (linked to the KAM Autumn and Spring Conferences) → joint meetings with a more complex topic.
• 4x Learning Communities (2x physically during Staff development day and 2x online) → shorter meetings on a topic that is based on learning levels and development.
  
• Field trip for Seniors and Veterans.

As part of Leadership development, we are preparing the following for KAM leaders:

• Autumn 2-day Leadership challenge training.
• Spring Leadership Development Meeting (before the Spring KAM conference).