An Exciting Convergence of Ministry Leaders and Kingdom Workers in Eurasia

Join us for a three day gathering in the beautiful area of Beatenberg, Swizerland.

2023 Gathering Highlights

Tuesday Morning Keynote Sessions

"Reaching the Unreached with Scripture"

• Rachel & Yan will share with us crucial research from the UK that confirms the power of the Bible to bring the curious to faith;
  

• Lindsey will share how Biblica's global "Open Generation" study, in partnership with Alpha, Barna, World Vision, and others, is shaping the way we develop scripture engagement programs for the Rising Generations
  

• Sherami will bring a simple yet compelling method of opening the Bible with seekers and the curious.
  

Tuesday Plenary Workshops

"Scripture Outreach"

• Join the Scottish Bible Society to consider the place & power of Story in product & program design
  

"Scripture in Times of Crisis"

• Join Olga, Ksusha, Ryan & Amir for a panel discussion around their experience of serving communities with scripture in crises, be they wars, natural disasters, or persecution.
  

"Creativity in Bible Publishing"

• Be inspired by the way Biblica's commercial publishing partners create compelling Bible resources.
  

Wednesday Morning Keynote Sessions

"Digital & Media Strategy"

• Anna will cast a compelling vision for the power of social media & and the internet to funnel online seekers into community Scripture engagement
• Jessica, Charlotte & James will share how CV uses digital in 3 key areas: 1) introducing people to Jesus, 2) mobilising Christians to evangelise, 3) resourcing the Church with free digital content and knowledge
  
• Nardine will give an overview of Biblica's digital strategy, including how we use simple apps to enable easy Bible access
  

Wednesday Plenary Workshops

"Digital & Media Strategy"

• Join Anna & Nardine to go deeper into the practicalities of digital engagement
  

"Developing Scripture Resources in Partnership"

• Come & see how Biblica's field partners have adapted our Bible engagement programs through contextualisation, digital, and originating content
  

Agenda

Monday

16:30 - 18:30

Opening Session

18:30 - 19:30

Dinner

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Meet Our Partners

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

I've worked for Bible Society for 37 years, currently my role is Trade Sales and church scripture service coordinator.

Bible Society exists to help everyone have access to the Bible. In publishing, we produce and distribute upwards of 4.5 million scriptures per year as well as developing creative and innovative Bibles for the UK market. Biblica Partners - no, we have never attended so it’s great to be here! I’d like to talk to people about how we are using our licence to print NIV to produce, bespoke and customised scriptures to help local churches connect to their communities.

Interesting fact - studying for ordination

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

My name is Olga Myronchuk, and I'm from Ukraine. I am the Head of the Children's Ministry at the Baptist Union of Ukraine. Our ministry reaches the young generation in every region of Ukraine. The goal of our ministry is to bring children to Christ and nurture leaders who will serve the young generation. Our partnership with Biblica began during the quarantine when we received wonderful children's booklets called 'The Survivors.' This year, we had a great collaboration with Biblica and received children's Bibles, which we were able to distribute in 20 regions of Ukraine during summer camps and events. Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, this summer, we organized more than 940 camps, impacting approximately 68,000 children. I eagerly look forward to further collaboration so that the young generation of Ukraine can hear about God.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

I attended a Biblica gathering earlier this year in Oxford and was pleasantly surprised by how much I could contribute to the day and by how welcoming everyone was.

CV’s focus is on evangelism on a global scale. We do this by using social media platforms to reach non-believers directly, to equip Christians to share their faith, and to resource the church with relevant content and training materials.

I’m particularly interested in how others build bridges to reach the lost.

I own a beautiful 3-legged cat called ‘Whisky’.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Charlotte Nall, Community Manager at Christian Vision. I live and work in Solihull, UK. I look after our user interactions including working with churches, ministries, and individual users across our Western European context. I have recently led on the development of a new initiative we are working on called DigitalReach. DigitalReach is an initiative that trains and inspires churches to use online spaces to reach explorers. It includes in-person training days, an online training hub and a training community. This could be through podcasting, creating purposeful content for outreach, reels creation, going ‘live’ or setting up a live-stream community platform to create a safe place for seekers to engage in.

I’m passionate about seeing churches embrace these spaces and harness the power of technology and social media creatively to engage people. I am also online location lead at my church alongside my husband, Gavin. I’m looking forward to growing my understanding of methods and current thinking around how we can help to continue to reach more people for Jesus through the digital space. I’m an award winning author and have circulated over 15000 copies of my book for free to bereaved parents

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Hey I’m Jessica, I live in the Leamington Spa in the UK and am a Content Manager at CV Europe. We focus on digital evangelism and operate globally but from our office, we are responsible for Western Europe. We create content which introduces people to Jesus, encourages and equips Christians to share their faith, and resources the Church to do the same! I’ve not been to a Biblica Partner’s Gathering before but am really excited to meet everyone and get to learn from each other. An interesting fact about me is that I have pet fish and a lot of pet house plants.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Ksusha Bondarenko

Forward United Ukraine

Zhytomyr, Ukraine

hope_7@ukr.net

Hello, my name is Ksusha Bondarenko, and I'm originally from Zhytomyr, Ukraine. I serve as the CEO of the charity organization Forward United Ukraine. Our focus is to reach a new generation of Ukrainians and help Christians and local churches share the unchanging Biblical truth using innovative methods.

In partnership with Biblica, we have developed the Follow Book and are nearly finished with Follow Book Acts. Our team has also worked on the audio version of the New Testament and Psalms. We've undertaken numerous humanitarian projects in Eastern Ukraine during the war, specifically addressing essential needs and distributing printed versions of the New Testaments among our partners with a focus on the new generation. We represent the Word One to One and Christianity Explored ministries in Ukraine and collaborate with every region of the country.

This will be my first time at the conference, but our friend Pasha Tokarchuk was part of the conference last year. I'm looking forward to meeting people who love Jesus and seek to share the Gospel with as many people as possible despite the modern challenges of Western culture and the ongoing war in my home country.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

I am Senior Bibles Editor at Hodder Faith, the specialist Christian imprint of John Murray Press (part of Hachette UK). I am based in Leamington Spa, and work out of Hachette’s London and Banbury offices. I joined Hodder Faith earlier this year and am looking forward to my first Partners’ Gathering. I am excited to learn about what others are doing with the NIV translation and to be inspired for future projects.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Rachel is the Executive Director of HOPE together. She has always been passionate that others meet and come to know Jesus Christ. She has worked with YWAM amongst prostitutes in the red-light district of Amsterdam and has done a PhD at Kings College London. She leads the Hope Together team as they equip and inspire local churches to reach out with the good news of Jesus. Previously she was the Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism Adviser and is still connected to the Anglican church as her husband Darren leads a church plant in East London where she is actively involved.

Rachel has enjoyed partnering with Biblica over the years and her time with the partners at last year's meeting! She is excited to explore future partnerships and continue to spread the love of Jesus Christ through the Bible.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Anna-Karin is MediaServe’s Executive Director. She has a wealth of experience as a project leader, including working in a Christian publishing house (marketing and distribution worldwide) and as Director of a Gospel bookstore. Anna-Karin lives in Sweden, is married to João and they have three sons.

MediaServe, since 1993, has been producing and distributing innovative Christian literature (including Bibles and New Testaments) and other media materials. We want to empower local churches and evangelists with tools to reach their communities with Gods Word.

We strive to meet the desperate need for culturally relevant materials for evangelism and discipleship in areas where it is hard for a person to get hold of a Bible and teaching material.

MediaServe has worked in 30 countries and printed material in 48 languages.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

I am a software engineer with over 15 years of experience. I work for MediaWorks in Austria as a software engineer on LightNet. This is a product that creates engaging digital media communities for Jesus' followers in any language.

About our organization: MediaWorks equips local ministries around the globe with relevant print and digital media that helps them share the gospel and strengthen believers in their communities.

I would like to meet people who have an interest in category systems as we are working on this initiative called Global Christian Taxonomy. I am also interested in digital solutions that can help the Christian media landscape.

In my free time I like to create folding paper popup cards amongst other things.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Stuart has worked for international charities for over twenty years, following a corporate career with Ericsson where he was Global Commercial Director. He was ordained in 2005 in The Salvation Army and spent 5 years in church leadership. Stuart has worked for the British and Foreign Bible Society and Sailors’ Society – a global chaplaincy organisation ministering to seafarers. He is currently the Chief Executive of the Merchant Navy Welfare Board, the umbrella organisation for maritime welfare charities. Stuart is married to Carey and has three children. They live in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Interesting fact: My great uncle, John Evan Smith, was private secretary to General William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Carey was a Salvation Army Officer who, after ordination, served for 5 years with the Aldershot Corps. She joined NMBS in April 2018 as an Advocacy Officer, having spent 4 years driving buses for the Salisbury Reds bus company. Previously, she enjoyed three very happy years at the Soldiers’ and Airman’s Scripture Reading Association. Carey is married to Stuart and has three children. She lives in Salisbury, Wiltshire. In her spare time, she enjoys dressmaking, patchwork quilting and knitting.

Interesting fact: I’ve been on mission trips to South Sudan and Macedonia.

Naval & Military Bible Society (NMBS) believes in the power of God’s Word. We exist to provide support to the Armed Forces and uniformed personnel, merchant seafarers and associated organisations in the UK and globally through the provision of Bibles and other Christian resources. NMBS is a ‘gifting’ society, relying on donations to fund its ministry.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Anna works for One Hope which focuses on engaging children and youth with God’s Word. This is Anna’s first Biblica Partner gathering and she is looking forward to new partnerships and good brainstorming over the common challenges. She’s interested in discussing digital evangelistic projects.

An "interesting fact": I have a supernatural ability to sleep anytime anywhere, like at the dentist’s. If I am not actively engaged in activity, my brain and body automatically goes to the sleeping mode.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Sherami serves as the Revive Lifestyle Director as well as the Scripture Engagement Leader in Revive Europe. She leads a team that encourages and equips Gen Z to Live Revival Rhythms. She also volunteers with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA after serving them as paid staff for 19 years, most recently as a National Scripture Engagement Specialist and Regional Coordinator for Spiritual Formation & Prayer. She holds a Master of Letters in Biblical Languages & Literature from University of St Andrews in Scotland and a Master of Arts in Theology from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. She is also a certified Spiritual Director through the Pax Center. Sherami loves meeting new people, being active in nature, and learning to connect to God in authentic ways through good conversation, the Bible, and prayer. She currently lives in St Andrews, Scotland.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Darren Tosh is the London-based Executive Director of Samaritan’s Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association UK. Darren is a long-term employee of the ministries having served in 9 countries over the past 23 years. Samaritan’s Purse is a growing international relief organisation that does everything in Jesus name, with international offices in Berlin, London, Calgary, Sydney, Soeul and the head office in North Carolina. As Executive Director of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Darren has been focused on internet evangelism and the God Loves You Tour which has recently seen almost 4000 people respond to the Gospel in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Newport. As the lead executive in the UK, he has been engaged in multiyear legal battles for freedom of religion under the equality and human rights act in the UK after venues de-platformed Franklin Graham in 2020. Three cases have won, 4 have been settled in favour of the BGEA and one is still in the High Courts. Darren is married to Jodie who is equally adventurous working for Samaritan’s Purse, and together they have three children and two dogs who bounce around the world.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Ryan Lane originally hails from the American Midwest, in Minnesota, USA and is now resident in Kyiv, Ukraine where he is the Country Director for Samaritan’s Purse International. There he works alongside his 100+ staff to meet the physical and spiritual needs of hurting peoples throughout the country. This is Ryan’s first Biblica Partners’ Gathering, and he is looking forward to time spent in community with believers, sharing and hearing about the ministry needs present around the world.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

My name is Olimpiu Filip, general manager at Scriptum Publishing House, established in 1995, soon after communism fall, headquartered in Oradea, situated in the western region of Transylvania, Romania.

After 40 years of communism without any Christian values, in 1989 our country started a wild original democracy characterized by rapacity, selfishness, no Christian or moral values, corruption, thievery, hate, and political regimes with only reason to cheat and steal. We consider that the best way to influence our society in this situation is through education; publishing good books and making them available to the Romanian people. Scriptum has expanded its presence by establishing two bookstore locations, one in Oradea and one in Cluj Napoca, a city about two hours drive away and a children’s reading club. We worked for the very first three years to have enough money to print our first title and now we are printing a new title each week. We added to our portfolio one by one a Christian Women’s magazine and a Christian Children’s Magazine. In the last years, we added also books for any age of children and different models of Bibles. Recently we became a Biblica partner.

I attended the last two editions of Biblica Partner’s Gathering and I already became addicted as I found each time people with fresh ways of thinking, new ideas, and inspirational models for our publishing house.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

My name is Erzsébet Komlósi. I live in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. I have been working with Scripture Union for many years (you can ask me for how long when we meet in personJ), first as a National Director for SU Hungary, and more lately as the Field Development Director for our European work. Our main aim at Scripture Union is to help children, young people and families engage with God’s Word, so that they may come to personal faith in the Lord, grow in Christian maturity and become both committed church members and servants of a world in need. This is our most important passion! We are working towards it not only through our published resources, but our activities as well, in partnership with local churches. We have 27 Scripture Union movements all over Europe, using 23 different languages. I am here for the first time at the Biblica Partner’s Meeting, and I am looking forward to getting to know all the other participants, and to building new partnerships.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Ruslan Zagidulin lives in a town, Tokmok, near the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. I represent Central Asian Youth Movement TwoCA. The movement's primary focus is reaching 2% of the young population in five post-Soviet Muslim countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It is my first time attending a Biblica Partners' Gathering. Being introduced to the organisation's friends is a privilege for me as a Biblica partner. I'd love to hear from other partners. I also look forward to learning how to make God's Word attractive for GenZ, use technology, and develop digital outreach.

I don't have some special about myself. But it is interesting, at least for me, that it is my first visit to Switzerland and the fourth country I have visited.

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Yan, married to Claire for the last 25 years has four children. Yan enjoys football and golf. He has been a keen supporter of Arsenal since the age of 7.

He has been a missionary for 33 years now with Youth With A Mission. Lives and works in Harpenden. As an evangelist has preached at number of national and international conferences and Bible schools around the world. Yan has led over 150 outreaches in over 65 nations. His family also in joins going on outreaches together. Yan is a magician and an escapologist.

Yan helps lead YWAM Harpenden location. He is a senior leader for YWAM ltd. He gathers all the youth organisations to pray for nations young people once a year. Leader of YWAM internationals response to the Olympic Games in London 2012 looking after 4500 people on outreach and was part of the More Than Gold leadership team. And is currently helping the sent come to the UK. YWAM is one of the largest missionary movements. We focus in 3 areas. Evangelism, training & mercy ministries. Sometimes it is easier to say what we don’t do rather than what we do because we are so broad.

This is my first time attending and I looking forward to networking and seeing a greater link between missions and the bible. Finally, 3 things about me. One of which is not true.

1. I had an ID card to get into Buckingham place at the age of 14.
   
2. I drove a race car at Silverstone at the age of 14.
   
3. I starred in a movie for channel 4 at the age of 14.
   

We are thrilled to welcome our special guests from various ministries.

Jessy Pfarrkircher is based out of Germany but working in Lausanne, Switzerland until December. She has been with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for 16 years, 13 of those have been working alongside her German husband and three children in Berlin. YWAM has three main areas of focus: Evangelism, Mercy Ministry and Training and Jessy is serving in the training area currently leading a school called the Oral Bible Translation School in Lausanne. Before joining YWAM she earned her BA in Biblical Research and later studied under YWAM's the University of the Nations in their first Masters in Applied Linguistics in Bible Translation course. This is her first Biblica Partner's Gathering and she is looking forward to networking and hearing about innovative ways the Bible is being shared worldwide. She first joined YWAM as a dancer, then taught Bible, debriefing and learned German accounting.

Meet Biblica Team

Biblica

Team

Mark grew up in the deprived East End of London, where he saw first-hand the transformational power of God in the lives of many lost people without hope. He is passionate about building strong teams and partnerships that change the lives of marginalised and vulnerable people, through breaking down barriers to God’s Word to introduce people to Jesus.

Mark joined Biblica in 2011 after leadership roles in publishing at Inter-Varsity Press, Authentic Media and Paternoster. His vision is to inspire Christians to use their God-given creativity to revolutionise the world for Jesus through sharing the Bible with those who have never encountered Jesus. Mark leads Biblica’s team working with partners in Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa as Vice President, MENA/Eurasia.

Biblica

Team

Trevor joined the Biblica team in February 2016. Trevor’s role involves working with partners and assisting them as they develop relevant formats of Biblica’s translations and he is also responsible for our Rising Generations programmes across Europe. Trevor is married to Katie and they have two daughters – Niamh and Anabeth, they live in Belfast, Northern Ireland and are members of Belfast City Vineyard.

Biblica

Team

Oli joined Biblica in February 2016, having worked previously in the Christian publishing and music industries and works in the role of European Partnerships Manager. Oli’s role involves finding, serving and developing ministry partners as they carry the Bible to their communities. Oli lives with his wife and 2 children in the north of England where they serve their local church in worship, leadership & discipleship. He enjoys walking in the hills and has climbed nearly 100 of Scotland’s highest mountains.

Biblica

Team

Cathy joined Biblica in 2019 in the role of Project Manager. She previously served in a church planting role in the Philippines for nine years, alongside her husband Paul. Cathy’s role involves overseeing project reporting overseeing print projects, in collaboration with partners, printers and Biblica’s global publishing team. Cathy and Paul now live in Bangor, Northern Ireland with their 3 children and attend Scrabo Hall in Newtownards.

Biblica

Team

Gary joined Biblica in October 2019 following a career in the Northern Ireland Civil Service and works in the role of Communications & Advancement Officer. Gary played dodgeball internationally, representing Northern Ireland! Gary’s role involves developing content for the website and overseeing social media channels. He is married to Alison, they have three children and attend Abbots Cross Presbyterian Church.

Biblica

Team

Nardine joined Biblica in June 2022 as a field product manager for the digital innovation team. She has a vision of using technology to help reach the unreached and make the Word of God more accessible than ever before. Nardine’s role helps connect the dots between the needs of Biblica partners in different regions and the digital solutions that can serve those needs. Nardine is based in the busy city of Cairo, Egypt where she lives with her husband and two amazing kids.

Biblica

Team

Luther grew up as a Pastor Kid in upper Egypt! Where he used to see people coming to know Jesus as a personal savior, growing up as a pastor kid shaped his future to join Campus Crusade for Christ in Egypt for thirty years!

Evangelism and discipleship became the two strategies that captured his heart and mind! Especially when it connects to the Muslim majority not only in Egypt but throughout the whole Arab world!

Joined Biblica in Feb. 2020 as the MENA regional director.

Luther’s heart is to work with like-minded partners to reach the unreached in MENA focusing on the Majority “Musl@ms” giving everyone a relevant opportunity to say yes to jesus.

Luther is married to Juliette , they have two young men, Martin luther who is 33 years old serving God with Athletes in Action” Power to Change iCanada”, and Andrew Luther who is 28 years old, studied Political science and now working in London.

See you

on October

09 to 12!

Please send us more stories, photos, and product updates at chris.aitcheson@biblica.com or nardine.farah@biblica.com for after-event brochure updates

Biblica Resources

• Gathering Presentation
  

Partner Resources

Endorsements