Stoneworks International » Montenegro

Done and Done!

Mike — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:39:24 +0000

I’ve just returned from Montenegro, where we had a great teen camp. Above you can see the campers, counselors and mission team. We had a house full!

The theme of the camp was What Does the Bible Say About God’s Love. The teenage members of the mission team did daily devotionals about God’s love for us, how we can love God, and how we can love others. We also had a very good discussion with the young men and women, separately, about godly relationships between men and women.

We also did a lot of hiking, sports, arts and crafts, and we had some very good food. The team brought some toritillas from the US (interestingly, Mission tortillas), and we had a very welcome Mexican meal. Team member Hannah Cole is at left with the treasure.

Attending the camp were young people from all over Montenegro — this is truly the national Christian teen camp. This is the third year we’ve held the camp and it continues to grow. Our long-term missionary Christina Melton did an excellent job preparing for and leading the camp. I continue to be impressed with her skills and heart.

I’m now in Russia for just a few days before heading over to Estonia to meet our first ever mission team there. That will be my next post . . . .

Montengro Camp Slideshow

Mike — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:10:26 +0000

Here’s a quick slideshow of the first few days of camp.

I’m posting this from the shores of Black Lake in the Durmitor National Forest, not too far from where we’re staying. The kids are now on a photo scavenger hunt, taking pictures of places we scouted a few days ago.

The theme for this year’s camp is The Love of God. We’re talking about what the Bible says about love, how God loves us, how we can love God, and how we can love other people. We’ll focus on boy-girl relationships, since this is an important issue for these kids.

We’re having a lot of fun, tie-dye t-shirts, games, music, and good food as well.

In Montenegro

Mike — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:07:12 +0000

A team from St. James United Methodist Church in Athens, GA arrived in Montenegro yesterday. We drove over to Dubrovnik, Croatia to pick them up. We’ll be in Podgorica, Montenegro for a couple of days and then head up to the mountains to run a youth camp all next week.

They are a great group and we’re looking forward to some good times together. I’ll post more news as we have it . . . .

Random Summer Teams

Jay — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:59:54 +0000

Here’s an update from Christina in Montenegro

Hey all!

Summer in Montenegro is time for tons of random teams from various countries to come do short-term work.

While this makes for a bizarre summer schedule, it also provides some good ministry opportunities that we would not otherwise have.

The most recent team that I had a chance to work with a bit was a rather large team from an organization called Convoy of Hope. They do a lot of disaster relief, but have recently been interested in the refugee situation in the Balkans.

The team worked primarily with the Pentecostal church in Podgorica, but for their big event in Podgorica they needed a little more help. Violeta and I showed up on that Saturday to help with whatever was needed.

The team put on a small carnival-type event, with clowns and face painting, plus some pretty cool carnival games.

I helped in the “manicure room” (which is usually the pastor’s office at the Pentecostal church), where the moms and older sisters could go while the kids played games.

It was a great opportunity to practice my Serbian, and I also met a lot of new teenagers that way. We even had some teenage boys come in periodically to check out what was going on.

I have been trying to focus on strengthening relationships with the teenagers we already have so far this year, but working the manicure room was a good chance to talk to more teenagers and get a better idea of what they think and care about, and how to begin relationships with them.

New places!

Mike — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:39:16 +0000

Here’s an update from Christina Melton –

Last week, Violeta and I and some friends of ours from Nikšić went up to the mountains to scope out possible hikes for teenage camp, which is approaching quickly!

We set out from Nikšić and expected a 2 hour drive; however, we came upon road construction and were forced to go backwards and take another road (typical Montenegro!), which meant lots more time on the car

I thought that I had seen all the pretty places in Montenegro, but I was completely wrong. Thanks to the road closing, we got to drive past Piva Lake, which was once a deep canyon and was then filled with water. I think I have found my new favorite lake! (I didn’t take this picture, but this is what we saw as we headed up the road away from the lake!)

We then set out for Durmitor National Park with just under a quarter tank of gas. After about 30 minutes of beautiful, hilly, sheep-filled landscape, our gas light came on. Oops.

Thankfully, we made it to a gas station by driving downhill in neutral, but we had a moment there when we though we were going to get stuck in the middle of nowhere!

Here are some pictures (again, that I did not take, but our friend from Nikšić took along the way) to give you an idea of what the middle of nowhere looks like:

The drive was much longer, but indescribably beautiful. I never expected to see snow in June, but there it is!!

Of course, this is proof that inconveniences like closed roads can actually lead to better adventures than we initially have in mind.

Vladimir Cizmanski — News from Montenegro

Mike — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:53:39 +0000

Here’s a recent update from Vladimir Cizmanski, pastor of the Brethren Assembly in Podgorica, Montenegro. Our own Christina Melton leads the youth ministry there and helps with the worship team.

We are grateful for all your prayers for us and the advancement of His kingdom in Montenegro.

Before us there is a lot of work and there are many needs present, but we are thankful to God that He gives us the strength to go on.

In memoriam

Some sad news which took us by complete surprise was the passing away from this world of our sister in Christ, Biserka. She had already been in hospital for a long time, but there had been no signs that she would be taken from us. She was only 56 years old and was one of the first people to give her life to the Lord at the start of our ministry.

We believe she has gone a much better place and is freed of the shackles that she wanted to be free of and now is looking at the face of her Saviour Jesus Christ.

Moving house

Some of already know that we moved into another house which is twice as large as the old one. We are very glad to have left the house where we have been for 10 years and which, especially in winter, had lots of problems with damp. This was one of the reasons for us moving, but the other reason was the need for a larger place that we could use for housing guests.

Tanja and Denis’s wedding

We are glad that Tanja and Denis from the Congo got married. It is a great challenge to find another individual knows the Lord and to sort out all the other things in married life together.

Even though we miss Tanja, because she now lives in Belgrade, we are happy that she has found her fellow-traveller through life.

Formation of a Vision and Mission Statement

In the course of the life of our small fellowship we have come to the conclusion that we should facet he challenge of asking ourselves what we are and what our desire is to become. For several weeks we have been getting together for special meetings to talk about a statement of our vision and mission. I believe that we are near the end of this process and that we will soon have a quality and an all-encompassing idea which will be an encouragement to hold fast to the goal of our existence.

We are very glad that the teenager work is continuing. A teenagers’ camp is very soon upon us, for which interest has been constantly growing. We believe that a new generation of people are coming that need even now to get to know Christ. We are praying that the camp would be a place where many will get to know the beauty and majesty of life with Him.

Picnics, 1st and 21st May

According to a well-established tradition, this year we had outings in nature where about 50 people attend each of them. Many of them were teenagers. This is a good opportunity for informal conversations, getting to know friends and for encouragement. On both outings there were people there that we had not had any contact with before. On the second picnic on the 21st May our guests were the Majerskis and David Brown from Northern Ireland. Brother David shared a message from the Bible which completed our enjoyment in natural surroundings that God created for us.

Montenegro — Get Away from Facebook

Mike — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:29:14 +0000

Here’s news from Christina Melton, serving in Podgorica, Montenegro —

May has been a bizarre month weather-wise in Podgorica. Possibly due to volcanic ash or global warming or who knows what, we have received bucket-loads of rain over the last few weeks.

Fortunately, the sun decided to show up for our two major May holidays, May 1 and May 21 (independence day).

Our weekly teenage meetings are officially suspended for summer, partially in order to prepare for camp in July and also to give us time to make ready our programming for next semester.

However, our national holidays have given us opportunities just to spend good quality time with our teens. Several of our teenagers from Podgorica and the teens in Niksic came for the outdoor picnics on both holidays, where they were also able to fellowship with the adults in the church.

This picture above was taken on one of the beaches on Skadar Lake on our independence day holiday.

Our teenage camp will take place July 19-25, and we request that you would pray for that event as you feel led. Our teens will be away from TV, facebook, and other distractions, and it is the most important opportunity for us to talk about God with them.

From Head to Toe

Mike — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 03:44:43 +0000

Another great post by Christina Melton —

I haven’t posted about teenage ministry in a while, so I will go ahead and do that, for those of you who are curious.

It is difficult to come up with activities and topics from week to week, so this last we we did some cooking together. Of course, we had no idea that it would take an hour and a half to cook 2 kg of cevapi (a type of sausage).

I am continually finding that it is not that hard to study the Bible; however, it is another thing entirely to try to live out what it says.

One of my teenagers asked me as we were all cooking, “What are we learning about today? Jesus cooks? Is cevapi in the Bible?” (joking, of course)

My response was simply, “Nope! Just cooking!” But I guess we were doing a little more than that.

“Love is patient; love is kind…”

“Bear with one another…”

“Consider not only your own needs, but the needs of others as well.”

We have been talking about how Jesus treated the people that society considered annoying (Zaccheus) or unintelligent (fishermen) or “sinful” (the adulterous woman in John 8). Cooking was an opportunity to see if any of those stories transferred into real-life “I’m so hungry!” situations.

I think our guys did a pretty good job. Paul once wrote that “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” and “there is no law against such things.”

Moving from head knowledge to honoring Jesus by living according to His word, through His strength, is pretty difficult and often painful. It hurts when we don’t get what we want, when we want it.

Our guys patiently waited, were willing to help cut potatoes and flip pancakes (desert!), and to serve even the adults upstairs who were not part of our teenage meeting. Good job, guys!

I think next time though, we will cook something that doesn’t require so much time…

Is that the Bible???

Mike — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:58:30 +0000

From Christina Melton, in Podgorica, Montenegro:

Hello all!

Pictured at left is an unusual sight: Montenegrin teenagers holding a New Testament in their hands!

Granted, we sort of made them read some stuff out loud…

For all who have been praying for Montenegro and the work here, many many thanks. I will ask that you would please continue to pray for our teenagers especially.

Outside of our weekly meetings and other contact that we leaders make with them, our teens have no Christian influence. Only one has parents who are believers.

Recently we have begun trying to spend more time just opening the New Testament and becoming familiar with it, reading actual stories about Jesus and talking about them or acting them out.

We have yet to find a form for Friday night meetings that “works” — something that will grab our teens’ interest and keep them coming on a continual basis. We are competing with average teenage weekend occupations, which can sometimes be frustrating.

There is also no “youth group” culture in Montenegro, but we are trying to create an understanding among our teens that we are here every week, and that if they come, they will have fun and learn about God in a way that they cannot anywhere else.

It is difficult to find resources here in Montenegro, as there are so few believers, but some time in June, Violeta and I are planning a trip to Belgrade to visit the Serbian Christian publisher there. We hope to find good material to use when we begin our weekly teenage meetings again in the fall.

We stop having out regular Friday night teenage meetings at the beginning of May, but we will continue to get the teenagers together some weekends for some fun at the beach and other beautiful places in Montenegro.

Teenage camp is July 19-27, and a team from St James UMC in Athens will be coming to help us run the camp. This is an amazing opportunity to get these teenagers away from their usual distractions and teach them about Jesus and how to live as believers.

Again, thank you all so much for your interest and your support, and for more frequent updates, more pictures, and more information, please take a look at my blog: CMinMNE@blogspot.com

Driving Up Central Europe

Mike — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 08:18:24 +0000

The latest from Christina Melton:

Around 6 AM on March 14, I hopped in the car with Mike and Olga and we started the drive from sunny Montenegro to cold, snowy Tallinn, Estonia.

In case you are not familiar with central Europe, take out a map.

Find Podgorica, Montenegro. Find Tallinn, Estonia. Yep, we drove that.

Rather, Mike drove, Olga navigated, and I mostly slept in the back seat and woke up occasionally to take some pictures.

Here a a few:

We stopped for a couple of days and spent some time with missionaries Jerry and Jan in Budapest, Hungary. Here we are sitting with Jerry and Jan and Juli, who works at the ministry center there, eating Chinese food (of all things!).

And this is one view of Budapest, split in half by the Danube.

After that, we left again at 6 AM and drove straight north. Central Slovakia looked something like the Sound of Music, except the buildings were too colorful.

We stopped in Poland at Auschwitz, and I think that is enough said.

After staying at a hotel in Poland, we finally finished the last leg of the drive and made it to Tallinn. The Bay of Finland was basically cold water covered with ice chunks.

We had our Stoneworks Retreat in a lovely house with a sauna! Here are the attendees, representing Russia, Belarus, and Montenegro. (We are very serious.)

Tallinn has a beautiful, well-preserved medieval town full of shops and cafes. Here we are trying to figure out where to go:

And this is old Tallinn, in front of new Tallinn…

I flew back to Podgorica on Tuesday (after connecting in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Belgrade) just in time for sunny spring weather!

I will be purchasing knock-off brand sunglasses at the pijaca today.