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

Posted by Mike | Filed Under Montenegro