This past May saw the semi-annual joint course/conference of the Acadia/EBF Youth Leaders Institute held in the beautiful Moravian mountains of Malenovice in the Czech Republic. This event has been running for just over 12 years and has brought together Canadian, European and Middle Eastern youth workers to take part in an intensive course, fellowship and understanding of international youth ministry. Following the course, the Canadians have the opportunity for a visit with their new friends from the European context and experience life and ministry with them.

The course leader (and host) Dr Jeff Carter shared on the theme "Engaging Youth in a Rapidly Changing World." The participants came from Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, and Romania, and Canada.  Several participants shared how the event impacted their lives:

Evan Colford (Canada) shared: "The course content was awesome and really helped me better understand youth culture and how to engage youth culture and reminded me of the importance of youth ministry. Combining this with “on the ground” experience in a separate country with a youth leader (for me, Croatia) made for an excellent learning experience. Above all, what I found the most transformative was the people that I got to meet."

Ani Nicova (Bulgaria) also shared: “It has been a great blessing for me to attend the Acadia Youth ministry week. It was an opportunity to exchange experience with other young people how we serve in our town, country. To encourage each other and to pray for each other. I'm so grateful to God that he gave me the chance to be away from work for a week and totally to deep myself in the work with children and youth. I enjoyed the lectures and presentations very much. They were both so helpful for my work as a teacher teaching children and teens and also extremely helpful with my ministry work as a Sunday school teach and teenage leader. I needed so much this opportunity to meet other youth leaders. I've learned so much and got back fulfilled and with fresh energy to continue my ministry.”