Montenegro — Get Away from Facebook
May 24, 2010
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
April 26, 2010
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???
April 22, 2010
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
April 1, 2010
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. 
Good Days
March 25, 2010
We’ve just finished our Stoneworks retreat. We met near Tallinn, Estonia for several days. We shared meals, saw the sights, and were encouraged by fellowship.
This was the first time many people had met other Stoneworks affiliates and workers. We were very blessed by the unity we have and how much we enjoy each others’ company. Here is the whole crowd, Russians, Belorussians and Americans:
seated: Katie and Melissa Bull; Christina Melton — Montenegro; Mike and Olga Cantrell — Russia; Liz Hulley — Russia, Matthew and Mark Bull
standing: John and Karen Bull — Russia; Olga Goncharenko, Masha Goncharenko and Alesya Kuleshova — Belarus; Katya Plusnina and Masha Oshkina — Russia
And here is a picture Liz Hulley took –
People shared slide shows of their work; we had times of prayer, worship and teaching; most of all, we were able to spend time together and increase our sense of unity and common commitment.
And we got to see the sights. Here are Olga and Christina in the old town of Tallinn –
And some of us had good rest:
Stoneworks Retreat In Estonia
March 21, 2010
Many of the Stoneworks associates and workers are meeting in Tallinn, Estonia for our first annual ministry retreat.
Attending are Christina from Montenegro; Olga, Masha and Alesya from Belarus; The Bull family, The Cantrells, Liz Hulley, Masha and Katya from Russia; eleven adults and four children.
We’ll post more news soon, but for now here’s a picture that was taken today. Some of us went for a drive in the country. Here we’re overlooking the Baltic sea, west of Tallinn.
Do I Really Live Here?
March 16, 2010
From Christina Melton, in Montenegro –
Hey all!
I just had my first birthday in Montenegro, which was actually a little bit harder than I expected it to be. Christmas made me miss my American family. My birthday made me miss family AND friends in the states.
Thankfully I have my adopted Montenegrin family. The night before my birthday, Violeta and I went downtown for ice cream around midnight and walked around in the cold eating it.
That’s actually a good way to meet people– walk around eating food that is not seasonally appropriate.
Slavica made an amazing cake for me, and Violeta and Lazar (who both are a tremendous help when it comes to teenage ministry) set up a little surprise for me during our teenage meeting, after which we played “Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Bible Edition.”
I am thankful for Skype and the chance to talk to family and friends in the US, and for my Montenegrin family, and for even making it to the ripe old age of 24.
The weekend following my birthday, Violeta and I went to visit our friend Helena, one of the other college-age believers, in Kotor on the coast, where she is in University. The sun FINALLY came out after several days (weeks) of rain, and we probably walked about 10 kilometers total in the two days that we were there.
Helena has a beautiful view from her roof, so we drank lemonade and played some guitar there.
Some days I think, “Do I really get to live here?” Read more
Working Together
March 7, 2010
Christina Melton writes from Montenegro –
Psalm 133 is all about unity and how pleased God is when His kids play nice together. It’s so good for us as believers to have to work with people who don’t look exactly like us.
There are so many small points where we can differ, and those minor things can easily lead to major arguments, which lead to hatred, mistrust, and gossip.
The last 2 weeks, we have seen brothers dwell in unity together, and there really is a blessing there!
This last Sunday, the Brethren Assembly church and the Pentecostal church (the only 2 evangelical churches in Podgorica) had a joint service. The church was full of people, including many that I had never met. I enjoyed worshiping with these people.
Our teenage meeting two Fridays ago also featured some diversity! Teenagers from Niksic (about an hour away) came to Podgorica and we all had a meeting together.
We sang together and had a teaching, and played games so that the teens would be more comfortable with one another. We played blindfolded musical chairs, which is why the picture resembles a hostage crisis.
If we learn to work together with other believers in our lives here on earth, I think we will be less offended in the Kingdom when we worship next to people we didn’t like very much here. The world cannot understand the type of unity that we are called to as believers, but when the world sees it, they will know that there is power in the name of Jesus.
Revelation 7:9-10
“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”
Update from Christina Melton
March 2, 2010
Hello All!
I have been here in Montenegro for 4 months now! (Time for an update, right?!) Some days it feels like I have lived here for years, and some days I feel as though I had just arrived.
Ministry has not been “easy,” but it is an honor to be a part of the work here.
My teenagers now do not have parents who are believers or who attend church.
These teens all began coming to children’s programming at church and have now graduated beyond kids’ meetings.
It is a miracle that they are here, and we pray that God will continue to draw even more.
It is a challenge to show up as a foreigner and to try to minister to these teens. I am slowly learning their language and their culture, but I often feel like I will never catch up.
Fortunately, we serve a God who does not change with trends or cultures. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, never changing no matter how many borders we cross.
Lately, we have been partnering a bit with the teenage ministry in Niksic, a smaller city about an hour from Podgorica.
Because there are so few believers in Montenegro, we all have to work together if we want to see the Kingdom of God in this country.
We recently held a joint teenage meeting with teens from Podgorica and Niksic which went pretty well, and I believe that partnership will continue.
Plans are also underway for camp this summer, where we hope to see teens from Podgorica and Niksic, as well as some new faces who need to hear the gospel!
Thank you for your prayers and financial support, and please check out my blog, CMinMNE.blogspot.com
For more detailed information and pictures, and feel free to email me for any reason.
From Russia to Montenegro
February 26, 2010
About 10 days ago, my wife and I began a road trip from St. Petersburg, Russia to visit Stoneworks ministry sites in eastern and central Europe. Stoneworks continues to expand, and it’s an honor to be able to visit so many wonderful people that God has put together as living stones.
Our first stop was in Minsk, Belarus where we visited with our ministry Spring of Revival. We stayed with Yasha and Olga Goncharenko and had a great time visiting several ministry sites.
Olga and her staff continue to do great work under difficult circumstances. They are very worthy of our help and support.
The highlight of our visit was at the Minsk Family Home. The young ladies who live there are doing very well, and Alesya (the counselor, in front on the right) is doing a great job.
We had a good meal together, shared stories and were blessed to have a good time of fellowship and mutual encouragement.
We also visited a foster family we support. The home, for eleven children, is in a small village 30 minutes from Minsk.
We had a great meal there (this is a theme of our travels), and saw some of the pigs we bought for them. We’re now helping purchase a cow, and we’ve also purchased chickens and provided other aid for foster families.
From Minsk, we drove through eastern Poland to Budapest, Hungary after a long day.
The trip through that part of the world is quite interesting and the land is very beautiful, especially as we made our way through the Carpathian mountains of eastern Slovakia. Read more
