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.’”
My teenagers now do not have parents who are believers or who attend church.
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.
Last week, Violeta and I visited a friend of Violeta’s in Priština, Kosovo, as I had to cross the Montenegrin border to renew my visa. We spent 2 days with Fitore (Vio’s friend, with Vio in the picture), who is native to Kosovo and works for Campus Crusade at the university campus there.
One interesting sight in Priština was the Bill Clinton Boulevard, which contained an American flag and a statue of the former president. There were many statues of Kosovo’s heroes in various places in the city, but it was strange to see an American president statue in such a prominent place.
Acts 10:1-4 “At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, ‘Cornelius!’
s usual in December leading up to New Year we have been trying to distribute the packages through schools while they are still open (primary schools are on holiday for the whole of January). This time we went into smaller schools which so far had not received packages.
The second part of the distribution happened in the premises of our church. Although there were fewer children than last year, about 800, we had good feedback from parents who indicated on a questionnaire an interest in the weekly children’s clubs that we offer. We pray that that interest would not just be short-lived.
This last month has been about vision for teenage ministry. It is easy to just “fly by the seat of one’s pants” when working with teenagers, but without vision, we can easily begin to turn one way or another and not arrive where we originally hoped.
January in Montenegro is a bit of a slow holiday month, especially for students. This means that I have had the opportunity to spend extra time with the two college girls in the church, Violeta and Helena, who are both excellent musicians/worship leaders and who are so much fun to be around!
