MAKING GOD KNOWN IN FAMILIES
Family Ministries
We believe that strong families are the foundation of a healthy society. Our desire is that Slovak families have good relationships filled with love and understanding for one another. We help build strong families through our camps, training weekends, preschool, and raising awareness.
PREMARITAL WEEKENDS
Premarital Weekends
If you are a couple that plans to build a future together and wants to lay a firm foundation for your marriage, this weekend is a perfect opportunity. Our course is based on Christian principles that will offer you practical advice on how to prepare for life together and how to nurture and protect your relationship for the long haul.
During these weekend you will participate in 5 thematic blocks:
- importance, benefits and consequences of mutual commitment
- effective communication, getting to know your differences and understanding each other
- how to solve conflicts and heal wounds
- building friendship and expressing love so it lasts a lifetime
- identifying and establishing common goals and values
After each of the blocks there is time for you to talk as a couple about what you have heard, what you would like to apply, what you fear or expect,… and also just enjoy being together.
This course is taught by Vlado and Renata Sochor, who have been enjoying their marriage since 1991.
STRATEGIC WEEKEND FOR COUPLES
Strategic weekend for couples
Life in the 21st century is too fast; time is too short and people are too busy… so it can easily happen that there is simply no time left for the most important things.
In order for important things to happen, we need time to look for answers to the question: “Where are we going and how are we going to get there?”.
We also need the strength to sort out the unimportant; wisdom to devise a plan and courage to step forward. And in the case of marriages, also the willingness to unite.
A strategic weekend for couples is a great opportunity to set aside such time to think about what is important to us in life and how to achieve it. It is also an opportunity to give space to God to speak into our marriage and together with Him to create a plan for the next season in life.
NATIONAL MARRIAGE WEEK
National Marriage Week
We believe marriage is the best foundation for a long-term, loving relationship between a man and a woman, built upon a mutual lifelong commitment. Marriage contributes significantly towards the level of trust in society and, for many married people, it is a source of deep personal happiness. Marriage also provides our society with a stable and loving environment for raising children.
National Marriage Week (NTM) encourages local initiatives to promote marriage in creative & original ways – privately or publically – during the week of St. Valentine’s Day. NTM creates a space to remember that a happy marriage is not to be taken for granted, but is a relationship we should be investing in.
NTM is an umbrella campaign aimed at practically helping marriages throughout Slovakia. It is a platform for cooperation between a wide range of organizations, whose goals are to develop the quality of marriage relationships. Anyone sharing similar values and goals can take part in this initiative.
ADVENTURE WITH DAD
ADVENTURE WITH DAD
An unforgettable weekend outdoors, intended for a father and his son/daughter, focused on deepening their mutual relationship at this challenging season of entering adolescence.
It’s a weekend full of adventures, facing challenges and experiencing suspense and fun working together.
KNOWING GOD FROM THE VERY BEGINNING
Knowing God from the Very Beginning
The program is suitable for parents, groups of mothers with children, childcare centers, Sunday schools… Through it children aged 1-3 years recognize God as the Creator of all living things, as their loving and caring Father, they get to know the Bible and learn to love it as a book about God and from God. Simple, understandable language, lots of songs and visual aids, active involvement of all senses and personal contact with children are used to convey these truths.
If you want to start such a program for toddlers in your city, maternity center, mother’s group or church community, we offer you the manual “Knowing God from the Very Beginning“. The contents of the manual are: 20 lessons for 1 school year, notation of children’s songs used in the lessons, a CD with picture material for the program and articles about the developmental stages of children and the biblical view of them.
The price of the manual (in Slovak) is 10 EUR + postage.
If you are interested, we can organize a seminar in your city or community on how to lead the “Knowing God from the very beginning” program, or help you with its launch.
Let’s use the first years and give our children a good foundation for a living relationship with God!
CONTACT
Vlado & Renata Sochor
We’ve been married since 1991 and have 4 adult children. Our involvement in family ministry goes back almost 30 years. In 2004 we graduated from the Discipleship Training School and the Family Ministry School training, after which we joined YWAM team in Slovakia full-time to work with families. Within this ministry we organize programs for entire families, events to strengthen parent-children relationships, marriage enrichment weekends or marriage preparations. Since 2009 we’ve been organizing Motivational Weekends and as of 2010 we launched the National Marriage Week initiative to support marriages nation-wide.
We believe that God has a plan for every family. We are glad that we could discover it in our own family; it’s also exciting to encourage other families to enter into what the Lord God has prepared for them!