This page is often updated. Please check back. Click here to see a map of ministry sites. There is more detail on some countries at the bottom of this page.
As Stoneworks grows, we see opportunities and needs arising in several parts of Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans. Several people have asked if we could list these needs. Please contact us if you’re feeling called to help in any of these areas.
It’s important to emphasize that our primary purpose is to honor Christ and abide in Him. The work we do is secondary to our relationship with Christ and our love for one another. Therefore we look for people whom the Lord is calling into relationship with us, serving Him as members of His body. We hope to help others do what God is calling them to do. Spiritual unity is necessary. We send short-term mission teams often. Our long-term missionaries raise their own support, and we ask for a minimum two-year commitment.
In Brief — Opportunities and Needs
Estonia:
- We are praying for a pioneering long-term missionary, family or group of missionaries, to establish a ministry base in Estonia.
- We are asking the Lord to call people to be the ‘home base’ for growing ministry: hands-on ministry in orphanages and shelters, hosting short-term mission teams, building a summer camp program for orphans, purposefully expanding the scope of the work.
- We have opportunities for short-term teams to:
- minister in existing summer camps
- help establish and run a new summer camp
- serve in orphanages during the school year
Montenegro:
- We pray that the Lord will provide a summer camp; there are no Christian camps in Montenegro
- Serbian speaking church planters and funds to support them for their first year of ministry (and to perhaps purchase cars for them).
- Need for long-term discipleship, especially older men who would learn the language and make a serious commitment.
- Need for long-term counseling, committed relationships; short-term, mature missionaries who will commit to making regular visits.
Belarus:
- Stankovo orphanage is making a kitchen for kids, so that they can cook. So far three out of 5 groups have their own kitchen. Two more are needed. We are looking for a possibility of getting them kitchen cabinets or a refrigerator or some pans, pots, dishes,etc.
- We are looking for a donation to purchase chickens this spring. One chicken is about $3. We would like to get a least 100 chickens for foster families with orphans.
- a short-term team to lead VBS at a local church with orphans
- we hope to open another Minsk Family Home; that would cost about $1200/month.
Russia:
- Our partner in Russia, MIR, needs help creating videos, slide shows and other media to help communicate the ministry and help with web site management
- We hope to hire workers to serve children in Hospital #15, where children are brought by the police when they come in off the street or are removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect. The state does not provide workers to care for the children. Very often only one medical worker is on duty overseeing 30 children, and she does not interact with them at all other than in medical situations. We want to hire Christian workers who will love and serve these children.
- Camp Elama — this summer camp is a program of MIR; we hope to run a summer camp for children-at-risk.
- Funds for food for the camp
- funds for materials for building projects.
- Other opportunities and needs are listed here.
More detail
Estonia
Estonia is a European country bordering Russia, very near St. Petersburg. The population is 1.3 million. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Estonia gained independence, and many Russian families who had settled in Estonia after WWII were ‘stranded’ there.
Some areas of Estonia are 95% Russian. These ethnic Russians, in many cases, do not have the rights of full citizenship because they do not speak Estonian.
There are orphanages full of Russian children; the issues they face, the facilities where they live, and their needs are very much the same as orphans in Russia. They speak Russian and have very little hope for a fruitful life.
However, the doors are wide open for ministry in Estonia. Orphanage directors have asked us to come and minister the gospel there. Americans and Europeans don’t need visas to be there.
The culture is very welcoming to Evangelical believers (unlike the attitude in Russia). This is a special opportunity to minister the gospel to Russians in a culture that is open and welcoming. To our knowledge, very little mission work is being done in the orphanages of Eastern Estonia.
Montenegro
Montenegro has a population of 650,000 people. There are about 200 Evangelical believers there; there are only three churches in the country, the largest being about 35 people. Several cities have no church and less than 10 known Christians. In the mountains, there are no Evangelical churches, and many villages with no Christians.
Stoneworks wants to help plant churches in the mountains. The role for non-Serbian-speaking people is intercession, prayer walking, and partnering in gospel presentations on short-term trips. The model of Circuit Riders may fit the situation in Northern Montenegro; as we identify church planters, we would purchase cars allowing them to build a circuit of villages for church planting.
Stoneworks has helped establish a summer youth camp and has hosted the first church retreats for the Brethren Assembly. Camping facilities have always been rented. We are now asking the Lord to give a camp to the church in Montenegro; many Christians in America have experienced the blessings of being able to visit a Christian camp for many years in a row. The Church in Montenegro does not have this tradition, and we want to help establish that.
