What is MIR?
March 30, 2009
MIR is a primary partner of Stoneworks. Here is a video that will help you understand better what MIR is.
MIR does very good work for many people. Click here to support the work of MIR.
Estonian fact-finding
March 27, 2009
I (Mike) am in Estonia now, looking at several opportunities for ministry. Yesterday I visited Camp Gideon, the first Christian camp in Estonia. It’s been owned by the Methodist Church since the early 90s and is directed by Artur Pold, a minister who is also a congressman (called a Deputy here).
The camp is very large and has about 800 meters of beach on the Baltic. It’s snowy and beautiful there now, and it’s sunny and beautiful there in the summer. Here you can see the Baltic sea just beyond one of the buildings. It is quite a piece of property.
We’re hoping to bring orphans from Belorus and/or Russia to this camp. Perhaps American mission teams could come and meet them here. It would be very good for the kids to be in an environment where they can freely hear the gospel. The cost is about $15/day for food and housing, plus transportation. 
Probably the most important thing I’m doing now is establishing and building relationships with believers here, and I’m looking to see which of those relationships God is establishing closely. We want the work to flow from our relationships, rather than have the work define the relationships.
Over the next few days I’ll be visiting orphanages and shelters, and I’ll also be looking at some property that could perhaps serve as a summer camp and ministry center. Onward . . . .
New Site!
March 23, 2009
Stoneworks in now building its new site. Please be patient as we have a construction zone for a while.
Please leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
We Are Orphans
March 23, 2009
One of our partner organizations, Big Family Missions, recently posted a video of their work. They are great people doing wonderful things in Russia. You can visit their website here.
Update from Montenegro
March 19, 2009
Montenegro was a part of Yugoslavia and is located in the Balkans, across the Adriatic Sea due east of central Italy. It’s a small country (pop. 650,000) with only about 200 protestant believers.
Stoneworks continues to partner with the Brethren Assembly in Podgorica, one of only three Evangelical churches in the country.
In May, Stoneworks will send a team from the University of Georgia to do a variety of projects — prayer-walking in cities where there is no local church, running a four-day youth camp, leading children’s ministry meetings, teaching English and most important of all, building relationships.
Stoneworks continues to partner with the Brethren Assembly in Podgorica, one of only three Evangelical churches in the country.
Here’s a report from Vladimir Cizmanski, pastor of the Brethren Assembly: Read more
News from Belarus
March 6, 2009
My wife and I were very glad to make our first trip to visit Spring of Revival recently. I first met Olga Goncharenko, the director, when she worked as an interpreter with American teams in Russian summer camps several years ago.
Pictured above is Olga (right center), with her sister Olyesa (left center) and two orphans they hope to house in a transition home we are hoping to establish in Minsk. The baby is Olga’s youngest child Stephanie (she’s a cutie!).
Belarus has been called the last dictatorship in Europe. While the country is clean and orderly, we also felt the chill of government restrictions. For instance, a law was recently passed banning the discussion of the current world economic crisis. Read more
