This week, Russia celebrates 20 years of….McDonald’s!

I would like to leave the fast-food (health) debate for the moment and comment on the culture implications. This kind of anniversary is interesting when looked at in the light of what was going on the world at the time.

1990: I was almost 8 years old and probably didn’t know that the USSR existed. And I barely knew what McDonald’s was, as I wasn’t raised on fast-food.

Meanwhile, in Russia, an interesting “cultural” exchange was taking place. I enjoyed reading the accounts in Monday’s local paper (Metro) about people’s memories of the first McDonald’s opening in Moscow.

They speak of the lines, the intrigue, the scent of a new kind of food. People who had worked as servers describe the pressure they felt, then the relief as the idea took on.

I don’t know exactly which characteristics of American culture are represented by McDonald’s cuisine: Convenience? Mass-marketing? Consumerism? At any rate, in some ways this was a little crack in the cultural barrier. Something that could be “shared”?

An interesting excerpt from Metro (Feb.1, 2010).

How many hours do you have to work, to buy a Big Mac?

-in 1990: 2 hours, 10 minutes
-in 2010: 30 minutes

-in 1990: average salary was 297 rubles a month, a Big Mac cost 3 rubles, 75 kopecks

I asked a friend recently what her favorite restaurant was, and she said “McDonald’s.”

I suppose it is cheaper than other establishments in St. Petersburg, but it is still considered “eating out,” not something most people can afford to do regularly.

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A couple of kids whom I know in one of the orphanages are both expecting to be adopted soon, after having spent some time with American families.There is a light in their eyes now, or maybe a sense of confidence, that they will soon belong to someone.

It’s bittersweet, because as teenagers, they are making a huge life decision, and they will be missed here.

They come up to me now chattering in English, eager to hone communication skills.

The other day, I was helping Lena write a letter to her potential family. She wanted to write about the rough plane ride home.

I was dictating the words. “Difficult. D-i-f-f-i-c-u-l-t.”

I didn’t look at her paper until she was done.

She had written, “Diff I see you lt.”

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There are five girls involved, in addition to Alesya the counselor.

Katya S. - Studies in vocational school for the shoe-making trade. She is a new believer and attends the ABC (basic) Bible training at church. After some rough times with personal issues at the beginning, she is now fitting in well. She and Alona are good friends.

Alona G. - Was studying insurance, but has dropped out and is looking for a job.  She will apply to school again in the summer.  Alona’s birth mother has cancer, and Alona often visits her as well as her brother and sister on weekends.  As you might guess, this takes her away from church and Family Home activities, leaving her as the least “plugged in” of the girls - although she is good friends with Katya.  Imagine the stress Alona must be under.  Please pray for Alona, and that the other girls will know how to minister to her.

Alla S. - Studies chemistry at the Belorussian State University.  She has finished a Bible training course at New Life Christian Church (NLC) and has become a member there.

Tanya S. - Is taking evening courses to be a sales clerk. She plans to take qualifying tests during the summer so she can apply for the teaching program at Belarussian State Pedagogical University.  She attends pastor Tamara’s church in the village.

Masha I. - Studies marketing at a college in Sennista village, near Minsk. She is at the MFH on weekends. She loves the Lord and has completed part of the Bible training course at NLC.

So you can see there are four girls full time. One leaves, but another joins, on weekends.

Aleysa is doing very well. Olga says the girls respect her as a leader and listen to her counsel.  Alesya keeps Olga informed about how things are going, and Olga gives input as needed.

Finances

The expenses are running about $1100 monthly, a little less than we had projected. A few furniture and supply needs remain, but basically things are going well . The girls are contributing on the average of $35 each monthly. It’s good to enhance the participation of each girl by having her contribute something.

Training

The girls go to church on Sunday, and they are offered the ABC course - six basic lessons in Christianity. Following that is a Beginner School (which Alla has completed).   On Monday they have home group at the MFH, which includes Bible study, prayer and fellowship.  They also have a study weekly, with video and study guide.

Ministry

The girls are involved in the orphan ministry - going to shelters and participating in programs at orphanages. How wonderful it is that they are learning to minister to others.

Prayer Requests

Well, praise first.  Olga says they are growing in unity, love, and friendship among themselves - an extremely important aspect of the ministry.   The girls love and respect Alesya, something so critical in this context.  Olga and the others are very moved by those in the U.S. who enable the MFH to flourish through their prayers, gifts, and encouragement.

In terms of prayer - Alona’s situation, as mentioned above, is a big concern - for her mother, a job, and in time an open door for more study. Pray for schooling, health and spiritual growth for all the girls. Remember also that these girls all come from families broken in some way. Pray for their integration into the Family Home family, that they will experience healing of hurts, that they may become vulnerable and trust and love others, and that they may be prepared even now for their life post graduation.

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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.

Kosovo is 90% Muslim, and I think everyone is somewhat familiar with it’s history in the last 15-20 years. The country has perhaps around 500 protestant believers, more than twice the number in Montenegro (though our population is much smaller).

We visited a pastor there who is interested in the situation in Montenegro, and he spent some time speaking with Violeta. It was a privilege for me to listen in, and I hope that this will be a connection that we maintain.

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.

The statue got me thinking about the kind of impact we make in people’s lives. Our theme verse at Stoneworks International speaks of living stones being built in to a spiritual house. I believe that we are also being built as a monument.

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!’

Cornelius stared at him in fear. ‘What is it, Lord?’ he asked.

The angel answered, ‘Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.’ “

The work being done here in Montenegro is surely going to stand as a monument. We are not perfect here, but our prayer is that we would be a marker, that when people see us, they remember Him.

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When I was in the 6th grade I received 8 spankings (maximum allowed by the state of Arkansas) at school for selling fireworks at school.

This year, Melissa’s second grade teacher gave the kids a gift for the Christmas holidays.

It was . . . FIREWORKS!

You can buy them and shoot them virtually anywhere in the city.

I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  No spankings here.

Click here to read more.

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During this Christmas season Montenegro also received two trucks of Samaritan’s Purse packages which were given out to four groups of distributors (in Bar, Nikšić and Podgorica).

As 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.

We were helped in this process by a team of four people who came from Texas for a week, as well as Robert Vargo from Pennsylvania who has been coming regularly for several years. Along with them we also visited several centres for children with special needs.

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.

In the last few years, after each package distribution, there have been more and more children coming to the weekly clubs, and we hope that there will similar fruit this winter too. This enables our list of contacts to grow and we pray that parents would become more seriously interested in the Gospel.

Some have already invited us to visit them in their homes, which indicates to us that the Holy Spirit is already at work in their hearts.

As the activity around the packages dies down, we are starting to plan this summer’s camps which we are in particular advertising for teenagers. Some are already asking about this and are already happy that they are old enough to be in that group.

We are already praying that the Lord would prepare their hearts to give themselves or be more deeply devoted to His will.

We are praying for place to hold the camp and for good organisation. If you are interested to help the participants financially, please contact us for more details. We are expecting the price to be around €150 for 5-7 days’ stay.

One big prayer request for the whole country is prayer for the protection of young people from drug addiction.

In 1992, when we came to Montenegro, the number of drug takers was very small. Today, after nearly 20 years this ‘pandemic’ has spread so much that almost every wider family has one or more members who are addicts.

What is worst, especially for young people between 18 and 30 years old, is that many lose their lives through overdosing, suicide or car accidents.  Almost every week we hear reports about tragic cases which is a lot for a small country like Montenegro which has a population of only 650,000.

We heard only a few days ago about the tragic end of a young man (in the picture in middle) who had been in our flat 13 years ago and with whom we had spoken about eternal life.

He had been full of youthful vitality and had a restless spirit. Soon after that meeting, we lost contact with him, but his unforgettable personality remained with us.

Lazar (also known as Simon), who at one time hung out with him, was very surprised that we knew him because his violent behaviour had caused a lot of pain and suffering for many people, especially girls.

The things we learned about him revealed much more about what the life of someone involved with crime, drugs, violence and life ‘at full throttle’ looks like. He lived like that, drove like that, and ended his life like that - “at full throttle” - in a narrow street in Podgorica at a speed of nearly 130 mph he crashed into the drinks refrigerator of a small shop…

This evening I found out that one of the leader from the RETO centre had been talking with him and had offered to put him on a rehabilitation programme, but he had got the reply: “well, I can’t do that, I’m crazy.”

After a short time, his life ended as the life of an irrational person. He was only 37 years old.

Another tragic end was that of another of Lazar’s (Simon’s) friends, when this young man was found dead in his bathroom after having overdosed. That man’s brother a few years ago had ended his life by throwing himself in front of a train.

Many from that circle of friends no longer walk this earth, in fact there are only a couple of them left…

As Lazar (Simon) says: I myself would be dead by now if the Lord hadn’t bumped into me on my journey through life…

In Christ’s love,

Vladimir & Marijana

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Christmas season is very important for our ministry as it’s a great time to touch so many lives of children that we know, tell them that we love them and Jesus loves them as well as to meet new children that need our help.

Stankovo

Christmas started for us December, 14th when we went to have a Christmas fair at Stankovo. 65 children waited on us, as we came in with many toys, sweets, school supplies, and other things we prepared for them.

That day the concert room looked like a store with different department, where children can buy things using their orphanage motivation coupons. They come in by groups.

There 5 groups and only two groups have girls (all together there are 10). Each group has made Christmas cards and we too brought them cards from the students of Holden Christian academy.

The fair is a fun event; it’s always a question if we brought enough things or if we sell out before some kids have a chance to get things.

It surprises me that soap and shampoo are the first things to go, as well as food and drinks. (Click HERE to see more pictures from the fair.)

Slytsk

Next step was Slutsk orphanage with 105 children (again less girls, only 40 and more boys, 65).

It was a hard trip, as far as driving. The weather was about 0 F and our diesel fuel froze all the time. We had to stop, the trip one way took almost 4 hours verses 1,5 in the normal weather. But it was worth it.

We invited a Christian musician, who really did a great job in putting a concert, he played 4 saxophones of different sizes, shared his testimony of how he became a believer, told a story of silent night, let children play his saxophones and the concerted finished with all of us singing together a great Christian song.  Everyone was impressed.

Our team has packed 105 gifts for all the kids as well as we brought cakes for every group of orphans.

Besides that we gave a special time for 22 Slytsk orphans, by paying for them to go to circus during their winter break. They loved it.

Church and MFH

The next step was celebrating Christmas at church, where Thomas was performing on the stage, he sang two songs with other kids and recited a Christmas poem.

The rest of the day we spent with Minsk Family Home girls. It was a really true family Christmas.

The girls prepared a duck with apples and a Christmas bunt cake. It was really nice.

Stankovo shelter and kindergarten

A few days after the Christmas we were on the road again.  Now it was a shelter in Stankovo, with 15 orphans, that are not true orphans yet, but were just taken out of their families because of different reasons: death of parents, alcoholism, etc.

Almost all the girls there have really short hair (because of lice) and in their possessions there is very little.  So the best gifts for them are socks, underwear, shoes and some clothes.

Besides that, we brought, sweets, toys, Christian literature and a wonderful Christmas program with clowns (Alesya and Sasha), who really did a wonderful job of spreading the meaning of Christmas.

We finished our time there when kids needed to go for a meal, but the day was not finished for us.  We continued with visiting a village kindergarten, where there are 64 children, mostly from poor and unprivileged families (most of the kids from shelter used to go there).

We shared about Christmas, gave them gifts and Christian books. They were very happy and in return recited poems and sang songs.

New Year and village church celebration

New year came along and the celebrations continued. We had a lot of family members and friends, the actual midnight we are in church, giving thanks to God for what He did for us in 2009 and the girls from MFH were there as well. It’s always such a pleasure to see them at church.

January, 3d was a special Sunday, when we celebrated Christmas and New year at Pastor Tamara’s church in the village. 4 families from another village who took orphans into their homes, came to join in the service. It was touching and moving to hear those kids call the parents ” mom” and hear their testimonies. MFH girls were there as well and shared their testimonies. There was a special lunch for everybody and SOR gave out gifts to all the kids there.

Those are the families that we have provided pigs last year. One family needs a cow and we would like to give them a cow this year (about 350$)

Orphan babies and hospital visits

The other visits were made were to the hospital, that has two rooms with orphan babies, some of them were found on the street, we brought diapers and spend some time with them. It’s not possible to go there without tears, as we were leaving all the babies started crying. In the past, several babies from this hospital were adopted. It’s our prayer to have more of those babies in the families. It was also a nice surprise to see one girl Yulia, who was a camper in our camps, and now she works in this hospital.

We also visited a cancer hospital, where15 year old girl Masha and her mom Sveta have stayed for over a year by now. The situation is really bad, please pray for Masha, she has an incredible faith.

Stankovo shelter

Stankovo shelter welcomed us again right before the orthodox Christmas. We had a fair there. All the kids wanted to have toys, socks, and sweets. It was Dima’s 15th birthday and he got a special gift of new winter boots.

January 7th Christmas celebration

January 7th we had a special Christmas celebration at our place, about 30 people, including girls from MFH and two orphan brothers Igor and Vitya, who stayed with us for 5 days during their holidays.

We are very happy that we shared so many great moments during Christmas season and we thank you all for all the help you have given to SOR, so we could do all the above.

Thank you and God bless you,

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I started my classes again this week. It’s sort of an inter-term because the new semester doesn’t really start until February. Since I paid for classes in January, I figured I’d better go.

Can you tell I was reluctant? I dragged my feet so much on the first day, but I actually had an enjoyable time.

I arrived at 9:30 and found out that I didn’t actually have class for nearly two hours. I hadn’t been able to find out the schedule ahead of time. However, I had known this was a possibility. I headed to a café next door to have a second breakfast and finalize my question list for the FMS.

When I entered the classroom, there was a stack of books on the table, but no sign of anyone. Finally an elderly woman poked her head in. I recognized her from the back of one of my textbooks. She said hello and then disappeared for a few more minutes. Eventually she returned, bringing with her a priest from Argentina who has been in a few of my classes. He was supposed to have an individual class, but everything was moved around.

There we sat-a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Russian, presumably Orthodox.

The main topic was fairly boring, the ethics of casinos; but we had a fun time together discussing it. The priest from Argentina is less fluent than I am, so sometimes the teacher told me to translate, only the priest doesn’t know English.

So I tried to make the words sound Spanish. Sometimes he said something in Spanish and I could understand. We also got confused about whether we should use informal or formal address, so we switched back and forth a lot!

I had been reluctant to begin classes again, but I felt more motivated by the end of the day. It’s always interesting to meet new people and learn new things.

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Before I left the USA and after I arrived here, I asked several people who have lived overseas what the milestones are in foreigner’s life.  All of them said that 3 months was the first, and this week I hit the 3 month mark (January 21).

The biggest change I can feel is that I am excited about learning the language now.  To be honest, I have been pretty stressed out about it, but for some reason things have shifted in this last week.

Violeta has been forcing me to speak Serbian more, and I am so thankful for that.  I can call a taxi now and tell the driver where to go, order a meal, and even joke with people occasionally.

Of course, 3 months means that I have to cross the border so I can renew my tourist visa, start working on my papers, have a more solid plan for this semester.

Also, the reality of cold weather and no car has set in.

But I can honestly say that I am still incredible thankful to be here.

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.

My prayer and goal now is to have a solid vision statement on which we can stand when making decisions about activities, etc.

So, just a quick bit about our teenagers.  Where did they come from, if only one has parents who are believers (he is not even from Montenegro)?

A missionary from Serbia arrived around 9 years ago (I think 9) and began children’s programs here.  Though she began with only 2 children, she and others were faithful were those 2, and the number grew.

Because of her ministry, we now have teenagers who, for the last few years, have been coming to church and learning about Jesus.

“Who has despised the day of small things?” (Zech 4:10)

“Whoever can be trusted with little can be trusted with much…” (Luke 16:10)

Please continue to pray that we here in PG will be faithful with the few we have, so that no matter how many are to come, we will have the humility and discipline to be faithful with the many.

Right now, our teenage group consists of around 10 teenagers, mostly girls.  Pray for wisdom, that we would know how to minister to these faithfully, and that they would come to truly know God.

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SOR brought a lot of sweets, drinks, cookies, chips as well as toys, school supplies, soap and shampoo  etc.  The orphans enjoyed the fair as they got to spend their own “money”:

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