Dear family in Christ,
I started this letter some time ago… I first wrote: “We are already in the Fall… “ so you already know it was a while ago when I first started, and now we are already coming so quickly to the end of this year. The days, weeks and months are just flying in front of our eyes. So many times we feel like helpless in this fight, so our prayer is to the Lord: “help us ‘…to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom’.” Ps.90:12
If you are following news you already know that a week ago, in our neighborhood, in Durres, Albania, 120 km (around 80ml) away, happened pretty strong earthquake (6,5 Richter). It took 52 lives and injured about 700 people. We felt it also in Podgorica, Montenegro at 4 am when almost the whole nation jumped from bed. We were hoping it will stop quickly (usually we have 2-3 short earthquakes a year) but it took about 20 second shaking by different intensity to finally calm down. In those moments you realize how small we are and how quickly everything can change. It is still shaking from time to time and it will continue for some period.
Teenage camp
It is already long time after camp happened in July but I would like to mention one detail that is encouraging me very much.
Vasilije (he attended our Shoe Box Christmas program) was for the first time attending our teenage camp last year and at that time everything was very new to him (he comes from non-believing family). As he returned from the camp he was not interested to continue the contact with us, but this year he took initiative to ask if he can go to the camp again. It was double interesting because his best friend who was last year with him wasn’t interested to go. When Vasilije was attending for the first time he was wondering why some teens were crying, but this year he got the answer – he was touched by the Holy Spirit and he cried also and wanted to give his live to Jesus. We pray that this seed with bring forth he fruit.
Building project
I know that many of you who are interested to know at what stage we are with our building project. We had a promise from the City Council to get their response by the month September, but as it is usually happening in the Balkans nothing is going smoothly with administration. There are announced changes in the system that should make it easier through the process, but nobody knows when it will take place. The law is there but it is not implemented yet. We need wisdom what to do in this situation. I applied to city council to meet with responsible people who are making decisions, so please pray that they can make exception for our case.
We are so grateful to all of you who made donation toward this project. We are so blessed to see God at work in this area. Now we would ask you to pray fervently so that the building can get all needed paper work and permissions so it can rise soon.
Just to mention to you, last Sunday meeting we had 32 kids and when they left to their Sunday school, just few chairs left free in the meeting room. We really need a new space!
Baptisms
One more encouragement: three Montenegrin people were baptized this year and there are two more that expressed desire to be baptized soon. Those are Slavica who started to attend our meetings a year ago along with her daughter Violeta (24). Slavica is a sister of Julka, one of first converts in our assembly. It took about 25 years for Julka to see a first fruit of her family to come to Christ! Both of them are strongly confessing Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
If we are not able at the moment to build physical building, the Lord is at work to build his spiritual building! Glory to Him.
Please pray for our Christmas program, we are expecting 1400 kids to attend our program. Pray that there will be majority of those who will receive a shoebox as a present for the first time. Pray that parents and children will be open for follow-up and that many will be attracted by the message in the play. This period is greatest period of the year for evangelism, pray that we will hear clearly what the Lord wants to do so we will join Him!