Village life

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Recently, Chara and I took a trip to the village of Omorani in central Macedonia. The town literally looked like it could have just popped out of a storybook, as you will see from this video (which includes wildlife). Enjoy, and remember to pray for the small villages of Macedonia, as they are important too:

A wedding celebration

We captured the tail end of this wedding celebration out the window of our apartment. Take a look and a listen!

Refugee Ministry

We had the opportunity recently to take part in the relief effort with the local church we attend here in Skopje. Here is what our day looked like:

We arrived at the makeshift village close to the Serbian border at about 11 am on a rainy, cool Tuesday morning. As we backed several cars up close to the train tracks, people of all ages, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, flocked the vehicles for bananas, bottled water, and rain ponchos. Many of the migrants had already begun the short walk north toward the border, where they would be picked up and carried further. 

After everyone received what they wanted, we proceeded to a tent where we could set up our official distribution area. Before long, another busload came through. The people seemed to have almost nothing -- many of them only had the clothes on their backs. We saw many mothers with little children, teens, and young men. Despite having traveled hundreds of miles and paying what little money they had on transportation, they still managed to smile and say "thank you" as they were given, clothes, toys, and care packages with food. 

I noticed several backpacks with Samaritan's Purse printed on them, and remembered that even on a cold and soggy day, the love of Christ was still shining on these people. 

Pray that these people can find places where they can live in peace. But even more critically, pray for opportunities for the gospel to be presented to these people in a clear way!

Matka

This is from a boat ride on the Treska River going through the Matka Canyon. It is about 40 minutes from our doorstep...

Vardar River

This beautiful, rushing river is only a a five minute walk from our apartment . . .

Worship in Macedonian

Prayer Partners,
Many of you no doubt are curious about what the worship service is like here in Skopje. Turns out it is not entirely different from how we do things back home :) Here is brief video from our church "God's Voice." You might recognize the tune!

Greetings from Skopje!

Hello Prayer Supporters,
Just a quick update that we have made it to Skopje and are getting settled in, and we officially start language learning next week.

Our initial impressions are very positive! Skopje has a large variety of cultures and ethnic groups, including Slavic as well as Greek Orthodox and Albanian Muslims. This will be both a challenge and a blessing as we seek to push back the darkness and saturate the gospel in an area with so much lostness.

Although most people here know "survival English," and even in some cases Russian, we are going to need to press in and strive to learn Macedonian to have the deep gospel conversations that we really want.

As always, we must have your prayers to be successful, and we hope that you will remember us frequently before the Father. Some things to pray for right now:

1) That we quickly learn Macedonian
2) That we will find the strategies that yield the most fruit and produce the biggest gospel impact
3) That God would lead us to those He has already prepared for salvation

Thank you, and we look forward to posting more updates soon!

D and C

Great News!

Hello Blog Readers,
As many of you already know, we are in the process of applying for visas to Macedonia! We are excited and blessed to be able to continue our missions journey to a place where less than 1 percent of the population has a saving relationship with Christ.

As we contemplated this decision, we were drawn to Acts 16:6-10, and how the apostle Paul was blocked from Asia, but received a call in the form of a vision of a man from Macedonia. Could it be the same for us to have been blocked from Asia, only to have a received a call to this place with so much significance in Paul's ministry?

Thank you for your prayers, and we look forward to communicating more as we move forward!

Stateside Update

Prayer partners,
We are still in the states and are finishing a busy few weeks. Here are a few of the things we have been involved in since we returned in November:

-- presented in approximately 10 different venues (including churches, retired missionary gatherings, and more).
-- reconnected with family and friends.
-- received medical clearance to return to the field.

Recently we did experience a sad event, as the missionary with whom we were deported from Russia, Alvin Conyers, went home to be with the Lord. He passed away the day before we got on a plane to fly to Atlanta (his hometown). We were planning to spend time with Alvin, but instead we knew the Lord wanted us to be there to be with his family and friends as well as to celebrate his life. Our lives were profoundly touched by this remarkable human being, who was a Christlike example of kindness and humility even in the midst of such a difficult situation as deportation.

We have also just finished participating in a mission weekend here in north Texas, and we expect our schedule to slow down some going into March, so if we have not met with you please notify us and we will do everything we can to make it to you.

We do not yet have a future place of service but hope to have more direction on that in the coming weeks.

May God richly bless all of you who lift us up to the Lord, as we know your prayers "availeth much!"

Thanks and look for more updates soon!

More to come soon!

Dear blog readers,
I apologize for the long delay between posts! We have recently concluded our first term of service and are currently on stateside assignment in Texas. We are awaiting God's direction on a new assignment, and we should know more about this in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates . . .

Hello blog readers!

Hello blog readers!

My apologies for the long delay in writing, but due to the transition of moving to a new country and setting up life there, the blog unfortunately has been neglected. Please look for new posts shortly about our life and ministry here in Latvia!

Kрещение

Greetings blog readers!

Not long ago in late January, Chara and I accompanied some friends to the annual day of Kрещение (kre-she-nye -- which means "baptism"). Although it was a not-so-warm -2 F outside, about 100 or so people gathered at a little creek to watch the orthodox priest give a short message and bless the water in a large cross cut out of the ice. After the priest blesses the water, many people dressed only in bathing suits take turns jumping in and dunking themselves 3 times. Paramedics are literally within a few hundred feet of the creek just in case someone goes into hypothermic shock, but amazingly this doesn't stop many people from participating. 

Some participate only for cultural reasons. Some participate because they really think dipping in water blessed by a priest will pardon their sins. We pray for both, that they will come to a knowledge of the truth and realize that water baptism is but a reflection of the repentance and new heart we have received inside. 

"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life." Romans 6:4

Below is a short video of the priest blessing the water. It would be longer but my phone shuts off quickly when the temperature is very low!

Christmas at a Glance

Greetings Blog readers,
Overall we had an excellent Christmas holiday. We ate Christmas lunch at TGIF and then went and saw an interesting Disney movie titled in Russian "Cold Heart", I think it is "Frozen" in the US. The movie is quite apropos here, and we got some great listening practice.

Chara's parents came in for New Year's, but unfortunately, the flu bug traveled over with them and we spent New Year's with a fever and cough. We still tried to be a blessing to those in our apartment building, making gift bags and baking cookies (washing our hands many times in the process!)

Even more importantly, we feel extraordinary blessed to have had multiple opportunities to share the gospel with people. We did a candlelight service for one of our ESL classes and encouraged people at the end to "make room in their hearts for Jesus", and not to say "no room in the inn." Several new people were there who we had never seen before, so we hope they will come to the ESL classes when we start again this coming week.

We  continue to prepare and pray about starting our first small group. Pray with us and we'll continue working toward this goal over the next few weeks.

Here are a few photos from a winter festival we visited in downtown Krasnoyarsk:

Snow, snow, and more snow!

Greetings prayer partners,
Last week we attended an excellent training in Novosibirsk centered on the small groups we would like to start early next year. The training involves starting a small group and discipling all members of that small group to start their own groups. We are convinced that Krasnoyarsk cannot be reached for Christ with just big churches, but small groups of people reaching their family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. We are excited about the potential of these groups, so be in prayer that God will take the "7 loaves and 2 fish" that we bring to the table, and multiply it so that all Krasnoyarsk has a chance to hear and respond to the gospel in a safe place. We would like to start the first group in January or February.

Here is a video from the huge snowfall that hit us today and yesterday. Enjoy!

Prayerwalking: Riverfront

Greetings Prayer Partners!

This video was taken close to downtown along the riverfront. There is actually a whole other part of town across the river from downtown. We know one lady who lives there and so we cross the bridge every now and then. The Yenisey River (visible in the video) actually never freezes up due to a hydroelectric dam a few miles upstream. When it is really cold (about 5 degrees or below), steam rises from it, which is beautiful to watch. I will post a video of it as well once we get that cold. As you view this brief clip, pray for God to move and change the hearts and lives of those who live on both sides of the shore in this vibrant area. 

Thanks again for your prayers!

New Prayer Walk: Prospect Mira

This is the main street in town. Our language school is on this street as well as many interesting restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Yesterday was a major holiday, and so there were not many people out, but pray that God will use us to make His presence known in this area of town as He brings people into our lives.

Thanks again for your prayers!

New prayer walk coming shortly, but where were we????

We actually were out of the country for a few weeks to get visas, but we got the chance to go to several countries in northern Europe in the process including:

Copenhagen, Denmark

Oslo, Norway
(ski jump -- too bad there was no snow yet!)

Glasgow, Scotland

Dublin, Ireland

Cork, Ireland

Cherbourg (Normandy), France
Omaha Beach

London, England

Paris, France

However, as great as these places are, the place we want to be most in the world is where we are. Being lights for Christ in Krasnoyarsk, Russia!

We're back!!!

Prayer partners and other blog readers,

We have finally returned from our visa run! Although the countries we were in were interesting places and we had several opportunities to share the gospel, we very much missed our home here in Krasnoyarsk and are glad to be back. Stay tuned for more prayer walking updates coming in the next few days . . .

Another clip from around our apartment

Prayer walk: Around our apartment

Our city block has around 35-40 apartment buildings. In this video, you will see a few of them and an area with park benches where many people sit during the evenings. Pray for the thousands of residents who reside in and around our apartments. Pray that the Lord gives us wisdom in how to reach out to them so that many can hear the gospel and respond! (More videos to come)