Belarus — Families, Cooking and Conferences
December 24, 2009
Dear friends,
As you continue pray and support the ministry in Belarus, we want to fill you in a bit.
The Minsk Family home really brings us a lot of joy. The girls have lived there for about 3 months now. So we can look at it as a trial period and can say, that it went well and we are ready to move on.
This month we had an official opening ceremony of Minsk Family Home. We invited people close to MFH, we prayed together for girls, we shared with them the goals, the plans and ideas about MFH.
Each girl has signed a contract to agree with all the rules and all the girls lit one candle as a symbol of family flame and unity. We had a nice dinner and shared stories after that.
The girls are also having great desire to minister to orphans, so this month we gave them an opportunity to go to the Zhdanovichi orphanage to visit pre-school orphans and give them diapers, as well as to Stankovo orphanage to have cooking classes.
Since there are more of us now, we can actually take several groups to cook at a time. It went really well, the orphans were happy and the girls want to do it again.
And also in December two of our girls: Alla and Tanya had their birthdays. Those were the first family holidays in MFH.
The girls invited their friends from colleges and had real birthday parties. We also wanted to do something special for them, so we took them out for a day trip celebration. We went to bowling (for some of them it was the first time, but by the end all of them were doing pretty well). And after bowling we ate together in a cafe.
The girls were happy, we made their day and it was very special. It’s also neat to see how they support each other and help each other. Read more
Montenegro — update from Vladimir Cizmanski
December 23, 2009
Dear brothers and sisters,
Here we are again on the verge of a new year! Can we believe that the whole year is behind us now?
It seems that recently both believers and non-believers have been talking about how quickly time is passing. Before we know it what we plan for the future is already the past. Things are happening in the world so fast that we hardly notice them.
I have the feeling that the enemy of our souls is counting on that very fact, trying to numb us so that we do not think about the here and now, and that we do not get concerned when things do not work out according to God’s required standards.
I sense that attack even on myself and it is my prayer that we would pool our strength so as to be watchful together in prayer, seeing as we do not when our Lord will return, so that he does not catch us sleeping. (1 Thess.5:1-11)
Teenage ministry
In the last bulletin we mentioned Christina who feels God’s call to come from America and be in Montenegro for three years. Her task to start up a work with teenagers and help with worship is coming along very well.
Beginning a new ministry is never easy, especially with unstable teenagers! However, the beginning is already behind us.
Every Friday evening we have a time set aside for them with appropriate games and practical teaching. We pray that this ministry would really take off and glow with an inextinguishable fire. Read more
Language, Kids and Worship
December 2, 2009
The most recent from Christina Melton –
Hi all! I just wanted to write a little bit for those who read the blog and want to understand life and ministry here in Montenegro.
As many of you know, I have 3 primary responsibilities here: learning the language, working with teenagers, and developing the worship team. I want to report on these three things briefly so that you all can understand the work here and how to pray.
Language has been more difficult that I thought it would be. I have an excellent teacher who comes to my house to teach me 3 times a week, and I have a fairly new, well-structured book from which to learn.
I am also surrounded by people who want to help me learn Serbian. However, I am finding that this strange fear rises up every time I want to speak, and I slip and suddenly my accent is horrible and the person to whom I am talking recognizes this as an opportunity to show off his knowledge of English.
My level of understanding has greatly increased, and I can structure sentences in my head, but I have to practice and speak and mispronounce and practice out loud and do so constantly.
Naturally, it is tempting to default to English, and I have to pray for the ability to speak without fear. It will be a supernatural occurrence, but those are exciting, so that is a good thing.
Secondly, teenage ministry! I have spent the last couple of years working primarily with college students, so it is actually refreshing to be with teenagers again! They have so much energy and so many interests and ideas and are confident that they want something even when they don’t know what exactly that is.
There is no Wal-Mart here, so finding games that don’t need props, or that only use items we already have, is difficult. It is proving to be a fun challenge and I have enjoyed trying to come up with teaching that meets them where they are and games that give them something fun and exciting to do.
We meet on Friday nights, so we compete with every other plan a teenager can make. Our prayer is that the church will feel different somehow, and will be a place that they feel at home. Read more
