Visit to Teen Challenge Georgia

Last month, we (Jan and Marja) spent a week at Teen Challenge in Georgia.

The last time we were there was in 2018, but luckily, we were able to meet our dear friends Kuanish and Mada Akkuzova, the directors of Teen Challenge, at conferences along the way. And of course we stayed in touch via email and WhatsApp.

The amazing team of Teen Challenge Georgia staff and volunteers runs a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for men and a women's home in Tbilisi.

Kuanish and Mada also pastor a vibrant church and Sunday school in Tbilisi. They oversee street work and are actively involved in children's ministry in refugee camps.

The couple is originally from Kazakhstan. Kuanish is of Muslim descent and overcame his addictions at a Teen Challenge center there. That's how he also came to know God!

We visited the women's home and saw the beautiful kitchen, which Traveling Light helped fund. We shared God's Word during the chapel services and spoke with the teenagers (refugees from various countries) about talents and gifts.

On Sunday morning, we preached during a packed church service about the importance of making choices. The service continued outside, as 14 people were baptized!

The international (rehab) center is a four-story building that the team has worked on for years to make it suitable for multi-purpose use. It looks so beautiful. It has apartments for staff members, rooms for visitors and students, mission teams, and it houses a church, a rehab, youth events, etc.).

We had the opportunity to pray for healing and deliverance with all the students in the rehabs, to prophesy over them, and minister to their individual needs.

Fortunately, there was also time to visit our friend Reza Nadirashvili (founder of CIC Mission) at the farm in Gardabani. We have also helped him in recent years with donations and earlier with visits.

The need for Christian recovery programs is growing!

It's truly beautiful to see and hear how God is reaching the nations and peoples in this region with His love and grace, despite political unrest, wars, a continuous stream of refugees, and so much more.

It was incredibly encouraging to see how the Lord is working among addicts, the homeless, teenagers, children, refugees, and the brokenhearted... well, among everyone, really. Lives are changing here, every day!

If you would like to contribute to the work of Teen Challenge in Georgia: you can do so in different ways:

• 💛Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention TC Georgia
• 💳 Give by card
• 💡You can also donate directly via our website!
• 👉When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention TC Georgia.

Project piglets for farm Teen Challenge Centar Duga, Serbia

Last year March, we donated money for the expansion of the farm at the Teen Challenge Centar Duga in Novi Sad, Serbia.

You can read that message HERE.

Pastor Dusan Beredji (known to us as Bera) regularly sends news updates about the drug and alcohol rehab center, where men and boys with life-threatening problems can go for a long-term rehabilitation program.

The rehab center is largely self-sufficient thanks to a moving service, a chicken farm, and vegetable greenhouses, but they also receive donations.

The farm has now been expanded with more greenhouses, a chicken coop, and a pigsty!

They raise ten pigs a year, sell five, and process five for their own use (dried and fresh meat). The center has room for 30 men, so a lot of food is needed! Bera writes:

"We are especially proud that the boys took excellent care of the pigs this year, and that we have developed a great responsibility towards animals. Caring for animals shows the state of the heart in an interesting way."

We would like to help them at this time with a donation to purchase ten new piglets. If you would also like to help...

You can send a gift in different ways, please take note:

• Send a donation to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention CENTAR DUGA.
• Give by card
• You can also donate directly through our website!
• When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention TC Serbia

Jan has visited the center and has seen with his own eyes how they run the center on a daily basis, and how lives are being changed there, every day.