Trino Jara, superintendent of the Ukraine District, was part of a group driving to a church event in Odessa. During the casual conversation, he and several others were discussing leadership. They noticed that the teenage girl in the back seat had pulled out a notebook and begun writing.

“Are you writing a letter to your boyfriend?” he teased her. The girl looked at him seriously and replied, “No, I’m taking notes on what you’re saying.”

“Why?” Jara asked, surprised.

“I’m planning to be a pastor,” she said.

Her earnest answer sparked an idea with Jara: It was time to host a special training or activity to develop young leaders in Ukraine.

The district’s NYI leaders planned a four-day leadership conference that was held in Bucha, Ukraine, July 11-15. This was not a typical teen rally full of energetic concerts, games and late-night party activities. The weekend was packed solid with seminars, workshops and worship services, with little time for recreation.  More than 40 people attended.

The Ukraine Youth Leadership Development Conference was built around the theme of “The Power of One,” which is the name of the missional church initiative launched across the Eurasia Region last October. The initiative is designed to help local churches be more effectively involved in God’s mission, and includes resources for church planting, discipleship and pastoral training.

The Power of One was presented to pastors across the CIS Field earlier this year. Having seen the resource materials to go along with the initiative, Andriy Takhtay, then NYI President for Ukraine, wanted to promote the initiative to lay people, including youth.

“We thought the youth conference was an appropriate place to do it,” he said. “We’re a young district, so we don’t have much experience or many materials in Russian.”

After a day of introduction and orientation, the second day of the conference was themed “One God,” followed by “One Church” on the third day, and closing with “One Mission” on the final day. These three themes are present in The Power of One initiative.

Dennis Mohn, youth pastor of the Zaanstad Church of the Nazarene in the Netherlands, was the keynote speaker, preaching on each of the conference themes. He brought an experienced perspective of ministering to and with youth in a postmodern culture.

In discussing the “One Mission” theme, the young people had many questions and challenged traditional thinking about evangelism, Takhtay said.

“People were asking questions… about the fears that they have, and some of the biases that they have toward evangelism – how the whole idea of evangelizing someone is not an effective idea in the young generation,” he said. “But we talked about living a life of Christlikeness: It’s not something you force yourself to do; it just flows out of you naturally.”

The youth were very conscious of the need to speak carefully and behave in ways that would not negatively impact their friends and relatives who don’t know Jesus personally, he said.

A string of follow-up gatherings are in the works to reinforce and expand on what the youth learned in July. On August 29 there will be a one-day youth leadership meeting with Jara for further education. And every three months the young leaders will come together for continuing development. Another youth conference will be held next summer, Takhtay said.

One youth pastor at the conference spent time with Mohn, who talked with him about how youth ministry is being done in Zaanstad. The Ukrainian youth pastor went back to his home church, where the average age of attendees is under 30 years old, and shared with them what Mohn described.

“That was interesting, to see… the leaders are able to take this information and go back to their local churches and use the information just to broaden the horizons of some of the people in the local churches,” Takhtay said.