Today–as we wrap up our interview series with Honza Kuklinek–we will look at the man behind the ministries. Great men of faith are not born, they are made. Day-by-day and year-by-year they are shaped by God so that He can use them as He sees fit.

Honza became a Christian at age 8 at a Christian Camp. He was not the first Protestant in the family–his Grandpa was excommunicated from the Catholic church when he became a Protestant.

Several years later, Honza took a job at HP and was able to make a living for him and his family including his wife Nada, and two daughters Miriam and Nela. Along the way in his 10 year career at HP, he made the decision to begin looking at what it would look like if he went to work full-time in ministry. After a 3-year process he made the decision–not entirely popular with his wife–to leave HP and go into vocational ministry. He had many worries but as Honza told me, “God told me that He would provide for my family!” With that call he joined Josiah Venture working in IT infrastructure. He then moved into a role as Education Director.

Fast forward to 2011 and Honza faced a difficult time in life. His job at Josiah Venture was in transition. He was in terrible condition and he even said his mind, “was going crazy”. He was getting 3 hours of sleep a night and was experiencing a terrible case of burn-out. During this ordeal, he spent time in the hospital and his health deteriorated to the point where he told his wife that he was done. He thought he was going to die. Finally, around Christmas he asked forgiveness for something in the past and the healing process slowly began.

He finally started sleeping 6-7 hours a night. His relationship with his wife grew and they found a new love for one another. It took a couple of months to get back into ministry but God opened new doors out of this difficult time. Honza took the position of Director of the Education Foundation and you can read last week’s blog to see what has happened from then!!

I asked Honza how he now stays fresh in his relationship with Jesus to help prevent another burnout. He is fortunate to live close to beautiful mountains and he goes to those mountains to get away from the pressures of ministry every few months. He takes his Bible and his journal and a picture of his wife (what a smart man!) and reconnects his soul to the living Christ. Another discipline he has formed is that when someone asks him for prayer he prays right then and there for them. He did this for me as we wrapped up our conversation. He doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to pray and he says when you pray with unbelievers it can have a dramatic effect on them.

Another amazing thing that has happened since then is that Nada–who initially was very skeptical of Honza’s vocational move–has now joined him in ministry!! This is a source of incredible joy for Honza as he is now officially a job partner with his life partner!

I hoped you enjoyed this 3-part series on Honza and some of the ministries going on in the Czech Republic. If you have any questions please let me know.

Your challenge this week is to pray for Honza and his family and the ministries God has given them stewardship over. And, take a lesson from Honza–pray right now!!

More to come…
Jeremy