Local ministry background:
Miriam was born into a Christian family and was brought up and led to faith. In her teenage years she went through a period of searching for her own path and relationship with the living God. She serves as a missionary and pastoral worker with youth in her home church. She is thrilled to be able to speak about faith and Christian values with young people in Czech schools as part of the Healthy Youth ministry, especially the programs from the seriesSpiritual Heritage’.

She has been involved in the HY ministry since 2017; in the beginning only part-time in cooperation with the Christian Academy for Youth. Today she is an established HY worker at the non-profit Christian organization Ethics and Character Education.

She offers the certified programs from the seriesRespect for Life’, which focus on problematic class collectives. These are the HY topics that are mainly devoted to relationships among children in the 1st to 5th grade of elementary school. In the 5th to 9th grades, topics such as addiction, the risks of cyberspace, and risky sexual behavior are added.

Miriam follows up her HY ministry by offering an open leisure club Kex for youth from 12 to 19, to which she can invite pupils and students from schools during the HY ministry. In 2007 she was at the birth of this club and used to be involved in its management for many years. Today, she actively takes part in discussions on various topics and prepares the programs for the various events. As she writes, “I have fully handed over the leadership to the younger generation, but the relationships with young people have remained.”

More about programs

How she became a HY Worker:
After graduating the university, Miriam became involved in the youth ministry, either in the diakonia in the Czech Republic or in England as a missionary and pastoral worker. In 2015, during her internship in the USA, she experiencedpersonal calling to go into schools in the Czech Republic and pass on important Christian values and attitudes to Czech youth.

The aim of her HY ministry in schools is to positively influence children and youth and help them find the right direction and prevent risky behaviors. Through the HY programs and project days, children can learn, with Miriam’s help, among other things, to build the much-needed psychological resilience and to see hope.

Miriam writes: “I see the work in schools as seeding. I try to bring messages of hope to children and young people within the framework of the Healthy Youth ministry. Through the programs, I want to highlight the important moral, ethical and spiritual values that previous generations have left for us.”

Program topics and resource:
In her HY ministry Miriam uses much-appreciated program series called Respect for Life, especially:

Programs for the 1st to the 5th grade:
Prevention of bullying
Dangerous situations
Ethics lessons
Supporting relationships in the classroom
Prevention of cyberbullying
Prevention of addictions
Supporting for communication
Supporting for mental resilience

Programs for the 5th to the 9th grade:
Prevention of bullying
Supporting for mental resilience
Prevention of cyberbullying
Ethics lessons
Prevention of xenophobia (prejudice)
Risky sexual behavior
Prevention of extremism

Secondary schools and vocational schools:
Risky sexual behavior
Prevention of bullying
Ethics lessons
Supporting for mental resilience

Educational programs on the topics of Christmas and Easter