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!