Martina Valcharova is a project director at Promise CZ, a nonprofit in the Czech Republic.
When did you trust Christ?
I became a Christian in the UK before one strange experience during which Christ showed in my life. It led to me reading the Bible and accepting Christ as my Saviour. Then, in Cambridge, I met my spiritual mentor, Cecilia, who became very important to me and helped me grow towards spiritual maturity. I believe it is vital during our spiritual walk to have a spiritual mom who cares about you and wants the best for you. She knows that the most crucial thing in life is to have a personal relationship with Christ, so she encourages you to invest in this relationship. As a result, you can grow spiritually and become mature in your faith.
What have been the defining moments of your Christian walk?
One of the defining moments in my Christian walk was having the opportunity to fellowship with other Christians in Cambridge.
What do you hope to gain from participating?
I hope to get inspiration for projects I can take back and use in our nonprofit. Also, make new contacts to expand our ministry. After attending for multiple years, I have felt strengthened by the unity I experienced at the Forum. Building new relationships, absorbing teachings, and new inspiration for my ministry is priceless. Receiving mentoring also really helped me on a personal level.
In YRM, I expect to gain fellowship, new info, and support. I think it would be an effective means of progressing toward spiritual maturity. This is the model Jesus used with His disciples. He spent time with them. It was interactive, one-on-one, in small groups, and serving together in the field. He took them as they were, with no pre-qualification except that they wanted to follow Him. We can come as we are, wherever we are on the spiritual journey, and become what God has designed us to be, with nothing more required than a simple desire to follow Christ. In addition, there is tremendous value in belonging to a sisterhood of believers. The developed bonds reach beyond the time in your group and can last for years.
What is your ministry?
I have worked for three years as a project director for the Christianity Explored program, helping people explore the Christian faith through thought-provoking video resources and courses. The courses are flexible and can be used in various settings, including churches, one-to-one sessions, online, community groups, and prisons. I also volunteer for HledamBoha.cz, a website that connects Czech Republic people searching for God to Jesus Christ. I'm also a member of the Moravian Brethren and The National History Association, which preserves the legacy of Moravian Brethren missions and follows the strategy of being Christ-centred, Spirit-driven, and mission-Minded. I'm currently working on the Czech version of Discipleship for Prisoners.
What is your leadership role or what were your past leadership roles?
I have been the leader of Christianity Explored Projects. I oversee these three basic areas: motivation and preparation for sharing the Gospel, providing tools for sharing the Gospel, and support of the online mission.
Why should someone invest in your ministry?
We want to see the Czech Republic full of living and growing fellowships and churches, using all resources and means available to share the joyful news about salvation in Jesus with all who are searching. We want to see groups of believers praying together, studying God's Word, and trying to reach the non-believers around them in places where there are no churches, and then growing and becoming integrated as congregations of the existing Christian denominations. We also want to see the current churches as living and thriving communities. I always felt strengthened, ‘alive’, and inspired after ELF. Doing ministry in the Czech Republic, which is one of the most secular and atheistic countries in the world, often feels like an uphill grind, and the spiritual battle is real. ELF is like an oasis for me every year!
