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The Aderholdts' Blog
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Saturday, September 04, 2010
Back in Eastern Europe
Dear
Friends and Family: Here is praying that you had an excellent week!
Ours has been beyond crazy and we are already looking for some proactive
ways to find some margin and rest. I know that probably sounds funny
to you, seeing how I just got back to Macedonia @ 0100 hours Thursday
morning . . .
. . . but
it has been a crazy three days! The gal who does our visa work was
ringing me early Thursday morning yelling at me that we needed to go to
the police station immediately since my visa had expired the day before
while I was somewhere over Croatia. So instead of sleeping off jet lag
for 12-14 hours like my body was screaming for me to do, I got up and
took a shower hot enough to scald all the skin off my body and headed to
the police station.
Speaking
Macedonian at that hour of the day, after two days of international
travel, while jet lagged and head aching is not a good scenario. But I
had to because not only had my visa expired while flying in, but I had
only one day left on my housing contract (which thankfully we resolved
yesterday), the police were not happy with all of the anomalies to their
procedures. In the end, God prevailed and they did not force me to
leave the country. In two weeks I will receive my new visa . . . or
not. Thanks for praying.
Continue
to pray for Brenda. She is enjoying her parents for a couple of weeks
before returning to Macedonia, but she has piles and piles of urgent
work, especially now that she has received permission to begin
translating the book for her girls. Please pray for her that she will
be able to accomplish both - enjoy her parents and yet get some quality
work done on her tasks that are looming larger and larger for her.
Thanks.
Helen is settling
into a great groove at BFA is seems and she is much encouraged about a
number of things are happening in her senior year of High School. Most
of all, she is cranked about being selected as the Worship Leader for
the Chrysalis program at BFA. She is working with a band and having a
blast. Brenda and I are already looking forward to the end of October
when we will see her for her 18th birthday in Germany. Thanks for
praying for her.
Jake is
settling into his new living arrangement and it appears to be going well
on all fronts in the early stages. He is working fulltime and trying
to get on his feet. Thanks for praying for him that he will work out
inside himself what God has for him and where his next steps should
lead. We had a great time with him in York.
Heidi
had a root canal done this week, and while her bank account is empty,
her mouth feels a lot better. She and Tim encouraged us much while we
were in the states. Thanks for praying for them, especially Heidi as
she is traveling this week.
We
are, as always humbled greatly by your love, care, gifts and prayers.
Together we make a great team, and without you, we could not accomplish
the work at hand. David from Skopje | |
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Dog Days of Summer
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Dear
Friends and Family: Warning! Warning! This is the last update for
3-4 weeks because we are traveling and without regular internet and most
critical, dear Shannon who sends this out every week is gone on
holidays herself for the next three weeks.
We seem to be melting
like the rest of the world. Very warm temps here. But I imagine that
this is good preparation for FL and GA and PA. We leave EARLY (0400)
Monday morning for the States to reconnect with our family and
partners. Here in Skopje the streets are already empty for the most
part, people leaving the city in droves because of the heat and these
coming weeks are the vacation months of the year.
This has been
an extremely extremely busy week, preparing the message for Sunday,
putting together the worship set, sermons for while we are in the
states, groups that will be using the house while we are gone, people to
look after things, organizing a number of other projects that happen
while we are away, working on our visas that need to renew on the day
that we return, 100s of emails and conversations with missional people
throughout Europe, Brenda's dad admitted to the hospital, arranging
flights and hotels for travel while in the states, and a bunch of
coaching situations, and that was just the obvious stuff. Of course we
are under no illusion that our lives are busier, more difficult, or are
more complex than yours. This week I heard from a number of you about
surgeries and struggling marriages, moves, job losses, job changes,
aging parents, difficulties with kids - no illusions at all. I share
ours, so that you can pray for us and we for you.
At ICS we
continue to search for a worship leader who could come for a year or 3
and assist us in this weekly opportunity. Thanks for praying. We also
would love to have an assistant pastor come as well and help. Warning!
these are self funded positions.
Please pray that Brenda will
receive the copyright approval she needs to translate the next book that
she wants to lead her women leaders through. She is extending her
planning cycle farther out into the future, so that we don't feel like
we are in crisis mode all the time. She is with her girls all day today
in Mavrovo. Please pray for her that she will have the vision and
energy to carry her ladies through their next training cycle!
Congratulations
to Heidi and Tim on their one year anniversary!! It is so hard to
believe that a year has already come and gone. They have gone away for
the weekend to celebrate. Then on Monday they are coming to the airport
in Baltimore to see us for a bit before we head South. Thanks for
praying for us as we have about 30 hours of travel to get to the States
and then dinner with the kids in the airport, and then a couple of hours
of driving before we can crash for the night. Thanks for all your care
for us. Together we make a great team! David Brenda and Helen from
Skopje |
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Saturday, July 10, 2010
From Brenda
Hi, it's Brenda
this week. Today I'm writing from Istanbul, Turkey. Right now the
skies are sunny as I look out over the city. It's a huge city of 17
million people, and I pray that these precious people will come into a
relationship with God. David and I are at our regional conference. He
is in a lot of leadership meetings before we officially start tomorrow,
and I'm having a chance to get some pressing things done. Helen is at
home in Skopje and has a full day planned of helping a family move and
hanging out with friends later on. Heidi and Tim are doing well. Jake
got a job! Thank you God, and thank you Kimmy!
We had our last
Entrust weekend for this year, and it was truly a time of blessing. On
Friday, we discussed 3 challenges that we face as leaders in ministry,
gossip, interpersonal conflicts and spiritual warfare. On Saturday, we
discussed the characteristics of a good leader and what that meant for
us personally in each of our situations. At the end, I handed out their
final exam, which I hope will be a helpful application of the things we
learned this year. They'll turn them in in the fall when we meet
again. We will miss getting together until then!
Please pray for
a difficult situation that we currently have. I usually run from
conflict, my goal is harmony and peace at any cost, but as a leader I
can't always do that. Please pray that God will give me wisdom as I
seek to help the women involved to be able to honestly talk about things
and take the steps needed to resolving the situation.
Also
please pray that God will lead us as what course will we study next
year. Entrust is currently updating many of their courses and none of
them are ready right now. We need to begin translation as soon as
possible. We would like to do their Evangelism/Discipleship course.
But it's not ready yet and there's no guarantee when it will be ready.
I'm in the process of researching other courses with this subject, to
maybe use instead. Finding a good one is hard and also it takes time to
get the permission to translate.
Time is flying and we are
looking forward to our time in the States in which we'll see Heidi, Tim
and Jake, our parents, all of my sisters, extended family, our
partnering churches and hopefully many of you! We leave Skopje on July
26th. During the month of August, there will be no Sunday services at
the International church, many people are coming and going. But there
will be Sunday fellowship lunches in various homes. Please pray for
these to be times of encouragement and drawing people closer to one
another.
God's blessings and have a great week!
Brenda
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Saturday, July 03, 2010
Independence Day
Dear
Friends and Family: This is my favorite secular holiday of the year. I
hate that we are going to miss the fireworks and all.
This afternoon (Saturday) we are going to the USA Embassy for the July
4th picnic - in all the years we have lived here we have never gone for
one reason or another.
This week has been mad busy as we prepare
for the worship service tomorrow, as well as the European Regional
Conference that will be starting this coming week in Istanbul. It has
been one of the busy and yet most productive weeks of the year.
Speaking of the year, we are winding this one down. Our church year
runs September to July. August is the deadest month in Europe. So we
only have four more Sundays between now and August. On the 26th, right
after the last Sunday of the month, we are coming to the States to
reconnect with our families and partners. Brenda’s dad turn’s 80 this
month and David’s grandfather turn 90 last Sunday - so we need to
celebrate these milestones with our families.
Helen has been
hopping all over and having a summer-break blast. Jake is now going
door to door looking for work, even McDonalds would not hire him, saying
that he had no experience. I told him he should have responded, “but I
have seen my dad flip burgers a 1000 times on the grill!” Heidi and
Tim are manning their fireworks tent on Route 30 24/7.
Brenda
also brought her ENTRUST year to a close this past week when they all
came to Skopje for a weekend together. Perhaps I can talk her into
telling you all about it and cut and past that below.
We need
your prayers and support for all of the above matters. We would ask you
to pray especially about our provisions. Our mission account has
dropped to less than $500 this month for the first time ever. We are
thankful, so thankful for all that we were able to accomplish this past
year, and we are looking forward toward another great year, but we need
to shore up our account or to cut back what we do. We are so encouraged
by your love and care and prayers. Whatever would we do without you??
Together we make a great team! From Skopje this week, David Brenda and
Helen |
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Saturday, June 26, 2010
Hot and Cold
Dear Friends
and Family: This is a study in contrasts. How can we go from blazing
hot melting temps, to Fall like temps in one week? I am a bit
confused. Brenda was wearing a jacket this past week on some days.
Personally I was loving it.
Ministry can be like that too.
Blazing hot one week, everything going right and people connecting to
God right and left, and then a week of cool temps, where it seems hard
to find God much less connect to Him. This isn't my personal struggle
but I do see it regularly in others that I am working with at ICS and
the national church.
I am writing this weekly to you much earlier
in the day than I normally do. This is Brenda's ENTRUST weekend and
that means we have a house full of women folk. That also means until
they all get up and out of the house, I can't get to my bike and workout
this morning, so I have tiptoed into the living room (where thank
goodness no one is sleeping) and have begun to type this week's
update. Would you stop and pray for fruit from Brenda's weekend of
teaching and coaching? By the time you get this, the weekend will be
over (unless you are one of those type A personalities that wrote this
down on your calendar when mentioned in previous weeks) but that is not
the important part. What is important is that what is taught sinks deep
into their souls and into their daily experience with Christ - so that
the cycle of a blazing hot week followed by a cool week is a weather
phenomena NOT a spiritual phenomena. Thanks for praying.
Our
summer cycle has begun here at the International Church (ICS) and that
means tons of departures that are permanent. We lose roughly a third of
our congregation every year. And we lose lots of people to the
vacation/travel/out-of-town pattern of the summer as well. The end
result is that we have about half as many attenders during the months of
June and July as we do the remainder of the year. This makes
everything more challenging. It makes the worship team more challenging
because we don't have our full band. It makes chair setup and teardown
more difficult because we lack the manpower to pull it off, etc. etc. I
am just asking you to pray that it won't discourage our folks too much,
and that it won't overwhelm those of us still working on these teams.
Thanks.
Jake continues to search for work in central PA. Thanks
for seriously praying about that situation. His school tab each year
is astronomical and he needs a job! He is currently camping out at
Heidi and Tim's house. Tim and Heidi are working long hours, plus they
have their firework business running until the 4th of July (which is
only a 8 days away!) Pray for them please. Pray too for Helen, as
these summer coming and goings affect her much too. Last night she was
watching the world cup with me, rather than hanging out with her
friends, because all of them were out of town. While we had a fun time
together, she would have preferred to be out and about.
As you
can see, we continue to need your prayers and honestly would fail in
every area of life without them. Thanks for your participation in our
prayer and provision team! Together we make a great team, David, Brenda
and Helen in Skopje | |
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Saturday, June 19, 2010
Breaking Heat Wave
Dear Friends
and Family: Trust that you have survived your local heat wave, because
we barely did. I think I soaked my shirt completely through at least
six times last Sunday and could never really rehydrate all day. Today
it is suppose to break (the heat wave) and be cooler in the coming
days. It might actually happen since it came a rain shower yesterday.
It
has been a difficult week, but productive too. As always Brenda is in
full blast mode, visiting all of her girls this week! That is
especially significant since it was so hot all week. The buses were
especially miserable and hot. She is amazingly involved in their lives
and is a huge change factor as she pushes them hard toward God. Next
weekend is her ENTRUST weekend where all the girls come to Skopje for
the meetings and they dive deep into God’s word. Prayers please, both
for the incredible events and changes that are happening in their lives,
and for the resources to accomplish it. We have sorta zeroed out our
mission account . . . thanks for praying.
Jake made is safely all
the way across the USA this week. He is now camping at Heidi’s place
temporarily looking for work. Thank you so much for praying for him.
Brenda and I are much relived that he is now there. It was parentally
harrowing to track him across the country. Thanks for praying . . . and
if you know of any jobs in the York, PA area, let us know.
Helen
has almost recovered from her school year at BFA and is now engaging in
a number of interesting activities. It was awesome to hear her singing
at worship team practice last night. She is so fun to work with and
play music with, it is a joy to have her home!
David has been
struggling this week, trying to rest more in order to impede this
creeping malaise that threatens his effectiveness and his peace. Thanks
for praying. There were some bright moments in the week and that helps
much.
We are staying highly focused on our tasks here in order
to be able to focus intensely on you and our families while in the
states in August. We never take you for granted and we thank God for
you daily. There would not be an Aderholdt Task Force in Eastern Europe
working, except for your participation on our prayer and provision
team. Thank you. Together we can be pretty amazing
Until next week, David Brenda and Helen in Skopje
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Saturday, June 12, 2010
A really tough one
Dear Friends
and Family: This has been one really tough week. I hope yours has been
much much better than mine. The weather went from hot Spring to
blazing hot summer all in one week as well. At the beginning of the
week we still had snow lining the tops of the mountain range around
Skopje. Now all of that snow is in the Mediterranean. It is hot!
I
know I am having a bad go of it when I start being angry with
Macedonians for just being Macedonian. That may not make sense to you
but let me see if I can explain (and amuse you all at the same time). I
am not Macedonian. I don't think like a Macedonian nor do I act like a
Macedonian. But I generally have a large capacity for the Macedonians
to be Macedonian. That is necessary if you wish to thrive long-term in a
cross-cultural setting. You have to let the locals be loco and it not
bother you overly. It requires large amounts of internal ambiguity,
where it is perfectly OK to NOT understand everything going on around
you, where it is OK to not make any sense of the actions of people that
you see - you can let them be who they are without trying to change
them, even when you don't understand why they are doing whatever crazy
thing they are doing. It is the internal certainty that it makes sense
to THEM even if it does not make sense to you.
So you know you
are in trouble, when you begin to get frustrated or angry at Macedonians
(or whichever ethnic group you are working with) for simply being
Macedonian and doing unexplainable things. That means you need a
break. You need to chill. You have reached your cultural capacity for
the unexplainable. So I see the warning signs going off . . . now to
find the margin to recharge. Hmmmm. Pray please?
Helen arrived
this week and our home is a hurricane! That has been one of the best
parts of the week!! She is such a breath of fresh air and so fun and so
funny. An injection of energy and life into the mix. We also got
Jake's short term future settled. He will be leaving for York tomorrow
from the West Coast. If you know of a job in York please say so!
Prayers please for safety and great gas milage! May the angels protect
him. I so completely enjoyed talking to Heidi this week too. So there
were some good high spots. The best news of the week probably though,
is that the IRS released us from their clutches and we survived our
first tax audit. Whew! Prayers please!
We frankly could simply
not accomplish what we do without you. Thank you so much for your
faithful prayers and resources. Together we make a great team! David,
Brenda and Helen from Skopje
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Saturday, June 05, 2010
wide Open
Dear Friends and
Family: We are currently sitting and soaking up our third round of our
International Church marriage workshop that we have been running wide
open all week. Ah ha, running wide open all week? Try for the last 7
weeks . . . in fact, I am about completely totally out of gas. Come
Monday, I am planning two days of serious serious silence and quiet and
no people.
Dr Larry Shelton and h
is wife
Faith arrived last Thursday and have been leading marriage workshops for
the International Church and for the National church. They have done
an amazing job and given of themselves completely. We are thrilled with
the work that we have be
en able to do in people's
lives and relationships over the last 10 days. It has been exciting to
see this as a first step toward giving back to the community for ICS.
We have long needed an awareness and involvement in the community. As a
missional church we want to build this into our DNA, but it is more
difficult than you would think. Mobilizing the
whole church, each and every person, is
the challenge of the 21st century
church. It may have always been so, but it was never more so than
today.
Brenda and I have put everything else on hold while having
these guys here, in
order to fully capitalize on
the opportunities they present, so we hav
e this
back-pressure building that will be flooding through our lives this
coming week. Thanks for your prayers, both for the fruit of this week
and for the pressure of having placed all things on hold.
One of
the advantages of being with our new parent organization is that we no
longer plan to take furloughs. Instead we plan to live like the
Europeans we have become. We will be coming back to the States each
summer during the European vacation month - August. Not for vacation
purposes, but rather for reconnecting with our partners and families.
We hope to see you then!
We have been back
in Macedonia almost a year now, and we are so thankful that you have
enabled us to live here and impact these peoples and these nations. We
have discovered this year that while we have enough provisions to
survive and live in Macedonia, we do not have enough provisions to
invest and enable the ministry opportunities around us. So we have come
to the conclusion that we need to raise about another 30% of
resources/provisions in order to truly be firing on all cylinders here
and to capitalize all the opportunities for the Gospel that are needed.
We are not exactly sure how to do this, since we have extremely limite
d time in North America. Do you have any suggestions? How
could we expand our Individual donor base? Thanks for your prayers and
suggestions.
We will be at most of our partner churches this
summer in the month of August.
We also will
be having a Kymanovo church project meeting on Tuesday (ooops, I guess I
will not in fact be having two days of rest and quiet). Here is a
couple of pictures I took earlier this week! The doors and the windows
are going in!!!!
We admire you so much for your faithfulness and
dependability. You humble us. Together we make a great team. David and
Brenda from Skopje
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Saturday, May 29, 2010
At last
Dear Friends and
Family: At last I am home for a good long stretch of time, oh yes. The
answer to last week's culture quiz about air kissing is so totally
true.
The same day that I returned from Hungary, we had guests
arrive from California for 10 days. They are here to do three Marriage
Encounters with us at various places. Today Brenda took them down to
Bitola where they are meeting with Macedonian leaders and their
spouses. Tomorrow Dr. Shelton will be speaking here in the
International Church and later in the week they will be holding two more
Encounters here in the capital city with a broad band of different
types of folks. We would appreciate all your prayers about this.
Safety while traveling, productive changes in many marriages, and new
connections for the International Church. Thanks.
Brenda has
been working all week translating the Sheltons material that they are
using today. She and I together have put over 60 hours into this just
on the translating/organizing side of things. Of course Brenda is
working on ENTRUST material non-stop as well. She is one very very busy
lady. She needs your prayers.
This past week I was in Hungary
at the European Leadership Forum. I am still unpacking all that went on
there. It was some great networking, and that was my primary reason
for going. It was interesting to see how many European leaders I am
already connected to in a number of countries, so that was encouraging.
The schedule was brutal, no breaks for five days, one class, lecture,
session after another . . . I came home completely tuckered out.
Seriously totally completely out of gas. And I don't know if I will
return unless I am a speaker . . . it had less to do with leadership
than I had hoped and more to do with mentoring and coaching (which are
also good, but not what I went for) and there weren't nearly as many
guys my age and experience there as I had wished for . . . many more
younger ones . . . and I just don't have time to coach more people than I
already do.
Helen comes home in 10-11 days!!! We are totally
ready for that, as is she. We would ask you to keep Jake in your
prayers, that he would find a place to live, find a job, find a passion
in life. Heidi and Tim seem to be enjoying their new jobs. We will be
heading to the USA on July 26 for our annual visit with our families and
partner churches. We hope to see you then!
Speaking of that,
we would ask you to pray especially for some extra resourcing right now .
. . with $2928 for airline tickets this month, and $2200 payment this
month to the boarding school, we are taking some on some extra financial
pains in May, and our account is pretty much zeroed out. We understand
that everyone is feeling similar pains, but we thank you for your
prayers. Together we make a great team! David and Brenda from Skopje! | |
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Saturday, May 22, 2010
Where did the month go?
Dear
Friends and Family: Where did the month go? Too much traveling . . .
and not quite do yet. Was in Bulgaria for the first half of this week -
very productive time. Leaving for Hungary in less than two hours for
the European
Leadership Forum. This may be the most important trip so far.
Return Thursday and then I am HOME for at least 6 weeks! Yippee! Last
week's cultural quiz question was about threshold hand shaking and the
answer is FALSE! While it is true in Russia, it is
not true in Spain. This week's
question is the final one:
In France
greetings are exchanged with an air kiss. One plants a firm kiss in the
air next to the person's cheek, mind you, no touching. True or
False??
This week, Brenda has been in the most intense mix of
things you can imagine! I wanted you to hear about some of it in her
own words. Enjoy! Remember that together, we make a great team, David
and Brenda
In
the midst of all the bad news we hear daily both from the media and
people’s
personal stories, this week has been like that bright ray of sunshine
that
penetrates through the clouds!
May
13 – 23 have been days of round the clock prayer here in Skopje, with
individuals from all the churches participating meeting at one of the
churches.
And tomorrow, Sunday the
23rd there will be a wonderful city wide prayer service in an
auditorium downtown as we participate in the Global Day of prayer.
In
the meantime, for the 3rd year in a row, May 17-23 they are
holding
“Days of Hope” in Negotino, a city in central Macedonia.
Food has already been personally distributed by
believers to families in deepest need.
There was a mime drama that portrayed the gospel put on by the
youth.
Today, (Saturday)
there
are games for the kids, free
medical checkups, and free sandwiches/fast food. Last night I had the
privilege
of being a part of a women’s tea (though no tea was served! – but there
were
drinks on the table and a piece of cake.)
The church in Negotino has about 30 to 40 members.
The women invited their friends,
relatives and neighbors.
All of
the evangelical churches in Macedonia have been praying about this for
weeks.
11 Women from the Skopje
church
went down and led the
program.
It was a rainy night, and
also really bad timing because right now, there are so many graduation
parties
going on.
If you don’t have a
child graduating, you most likely will go to several different homes to
celebrate with those that do.
But
the women began to trickle into the restaurant where we were meeting.
They were greeted by women from the
local church and directed to the table to sit with the woman who had
invited
them.
Soon the place was
filled.
I didn’t count, but my
guess is that there were between 100 and 130 women there!!
Daniela
our pastor’s wife (from Negotino) welcomed everyone, and Nada (our
pastor’s
wife from Skopje) led a game that she called out various items and the
first
one to find it in their purse and hold it up was given a small gift.
Everyone laughed when the last item she
called out was “a picture of your mother in law!.”
Of
course no one had one.
This was a nice
transition to Hristina who told some jokes
about men and women, but started out with “Of course all of us from
Skopje
carry pictures of our mother-in-laws” which caused another peal of
laughter at
the impossibility of that!
Then
there was a short drama about God creating woman with all her uniqueness
and
capabilities.
Next, Hristina gave
her testimony, how she had sought to advance in her career and reached
the top,
sacrificing her family and described the emptiness she felt inside. I
know many
of the women were able to identify with her in that feeling of emptiness
and
thirst for the fullness Hristina talked about she has now as she follows
Jesus.
She truly has a way with words. Sneze was next, who talked about her
battles
with cancer and the peace God has given her.
Our
table was in the front and we were facing the whole
group.
I was praying while they
talked and noticed how intently the women were listening.
Several were wiping their eyes as Sneze
talked.
Eli was next.
She
has only been a Christian for a
year.
She shared how fearful she
was when her husband died, how angry she was when she lost all the money
she
paid to buy an apartment due to an elaborate plan of fraud, and also how
many
pills she took each day to calm her nerves, sleep, and have energy to
make it
through the day.
It was so
powerful to hear her talk about the peace, joy, love and hope she has
now, even
though her problems in life are by no means solved.
Then
our Skopje crew sang two songs, it was a joy for me to get to be a part
of this
and look into the faces all of the women.
The believing women
from
Negotino were interspersed among the crowd and it was touching to see
their
faces beaming, singing along with us.
Now it was time for Pastor Mirche to speak.
He
is very gifted, able to even connect with a huge group of
women!
He captured their interest
right away through humor and skillfully intertwining the spiritual
thrust of
the message with their daily lives.
Every one could easily relate.
He spoke on the wide and narrow road (Matt. 7)
The
invitation to follow Jesus on the narrow road was very
clear.
Daniela
thanked everyone for coming, asked them to answer a few questions on a
survey
(their opinion of the evening, prayer needs, desire for further contact
and
names and phone numbers).
Coffee
was served and we passed out the cookbooks that the Evangelical church
women
compiled. What an evening!
Please
pray for fruit from this evening!
On
the 1 ½
hour
trip home, the women in
my car started to share testimonies.
I wish you could have been there to hear them all.
I’ll just briefly sketch out two here.
Goni,
is about 56 years old.
While her
son was in college, studying to be a doctor, they really struggled
financially.
Her son was a good
student and did well.
He passed
all of his exams, then he took the last one.
That
professor was notorious for only passing the students who
had paid him bribe money.
They had
no money to pay the bribe.
The
next day, the professor wrote the names of those that passed on the
board.
Her son’s name was not up there.
He came home and told her and she began
to pray.
She prayed all night, crying
out to God, asking him to cause the professor to change his mind and
pass her
son, and other students that deserved to pass.
The
next day her son had to return to the university to
withdraw, because he had failed.
When he talked to the secretary, she said, “Why would you
withdraw now
after all your hard work?”
“I
failed my last exam,” he said.
“No
you didn’t,” she said.
“Your
professor came in today and changed your grade to passing and some of
the other
students as well!”
What an answer
to prayer!
God did the impossible.
Vesna
is 46. Her son, Timmy had wanted a sister for years, and when he was 12
her
husband agreed that it would be nice to have another child.
She was 37 at the time.
She got
pregnant quickly and all her
prenatal checkups went well.
But
her water broke at 8 months and she went into labor.
Little
Ana was born and at first they thought everything was
fine.
She began to talk, and learn
words.
But as she got older, they
noticed that she was not gaining motor skills like she should be, and
also at 3
½
she was
still only talking in
words and not sentences.
They took
her to the doctor, told them she had many challenges, and immediately
got her
in to special therapy.
They were
crushed.
Vesna fell into a deep
depression.
At this point in her
story, she began talking through tears, so it was hard to get the
details, but
it sounded a lot like Hannah from the Bible.
In
church as she was praying and crying out to God, the
pastor asked her what she was asking God for.
She
replied, "that Ana will be able to go to school like a
normal child.
" “May God answer your
prayer”, he said.
They continued
on with therapy for 3 ½
more
years.
It was now time for Ana to
begin school.
And she began
successfully!
God once again
intervened and performed a miracle.
Vesna said that her motor skills are still behind her peers and
she has
to work to learn how to do things when others do them naturally, but she
is
reading and writing, her teacher loves her and says she is 10th
in
the class!!!.
These
are only two of the stories that were told.
Everyone
parted on a very high note, encouraged to trust and
believe God for the needs and problems in our lives.
On
the other hand, as we trust and believe God sometimes He
doesn’t choose to intervene.
Many of
you have prayed for Goritsa through the years.
She
lost 3 of her limbs due to a train accident when she was
15, over 40 years ago.
Her
pleasant attitude in spite of the pain and hardship in her life is truly
an example
for all of us.
Her prosthesis are
beyond repair now and just fit for the garbage she was told. The cost of
new
ones is exorbitant and virtually impossible. She has been told by the
Macedonian
government that they can’t help her, doors have been slammed in her face
and
she has been told not to bother them again.
This
week she has been in extreme pain with a lot of
different physical problems. It broke my heart to see her on Thursday.
Please join us in prayer for her, and
also her deep desire for her sister Snezana to come to know the Lord.
Nothing is impossible for God, as the 2
previous testimonies show.
On
Sunday morning, all the Evangelical churches throughout Macedonia will
be
meeting together in Negotino for a joint service under a huge tent.
This is a once a year service and
always a huge blessing. It truly is a reunion and a taste of heaven.
It’s the
closing to the Days of Hope and all the people in Negotino are invited
to
attend.
The service ends with
baptism service.
Please pray for
this to be a powerful time. Thank you for giving and for praying with
us, Brenda |
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Saturday, May 15, 2010
Rainy and stormy
Dear Friends and
Family: Trust this finds you well today. It is a rainy breezy day here
in Skopje. Very dark and stormy actually.
It has been so
excellent for David to be home for a whole week. He is feeling much
rested and connected. Have had a constant stream of meetings and
connections throughout the week. This afternoon we have a team arriving
from Hope CMA church in Germantown, MD. Hope CMA has been here before
and will be here again, and it is always a privilege to have them. They
will be working in Kymanovo for the duration of their visit. Thanks
for praying for them.
Brenda has been working on her next class
for the women of ENTRUST. She is busy preparing all the material and
schedules for them to finish out their ENTRUST year strong. Thanks for
praying for her, and the women as well. Satan is working hard to steal
fruit. Let’s pray that he fails!
David leaves Monday for
Bulgaria for three days of meetings and coaching with the team in
Sophia. Then back to Macedonia for a couple of days and then to Hungary
for the European Leadership Forum - perhaps the most important trip of
this past month in terms of potential. It is an invitation-only
gathering, of the top Evangelical leaders in Europe to synergize and
strategize and connect. Thanks for praying for David as he finishes a
marathon month of travel that stretched from Asia to the UK and most
points in-between. Thank God is is almost over!
Helen will be
done with her 11th grade year and home in 3.5 weeks!! We are cranked
about that! Jake also finishes about the same time with his sophomore
year of college and he has no idea where he is going or what he is doing
for the summer. Prayers please!
Last week’s culture quiz
question was,
In Russian recitals are
often given during social events. Guests are encouraged to
participate. It is recommended that you take this to heart and learn
something suitable. This is most certainly true. This week’s
question is,
If you visit someone in
Spain, it is quite easy to make a blunder, right at the front door. It
is considered bad luck if you greet someone over their threshold.
True or False, sound off! We only have one more week of our cultural
quiz!
Together we make a great team! Please pray for some extra
resources if you would please, as we strive to begin paying for Helen’s
final year of high school. Thanks, David and Brenda from rainy Skopje |
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Sunday, May 09, 2010
Dear Friends and Family: Trust this finds you well. What a
week! I hope yours was more calm and settled than ours. First things
first though, we just received a call, and were told that six people
received Christ as their Savior this weekend at the ALPHA course in
Bitola which we have been sponsoring!!
. . . and speaking of
Bitola, Brenda traveled down to Bitola where we planted a church nine
years ago early this week. She was there for an overnight and then came
home where she has been in crunch mode all week because of her ENTRUST
weekend that happened on Friday and Saturday. She also had some of the
women staying at our house.
David was battling with Ash clouds in
the British Isles this week. The first part of the week was extremely
intense at a conference for the Anatomy of Peace. Where we live in the
world, peace is needed like no other place on earth. We need every form
of peace! Of course we need the Peace that passes human comprehension
the most, and that can only come from God Himself in the hearts and
souls of people. But not everyone is willing to talk about peace or
pursue peace at a spiritual level and for those people we need other
avenues of beginning the peace talk. Thus I am learning a Peace
paradigm.
After those two long long days in a big big city, I
took the Eurostar train up to the midlands of England and had a couple
of days discussing a new strategic church plant with a number of
pastors, and I spent some time encouraging the missionaries working
there. The Eurostar train is amazing! 186 miles per hour over the
English countryside is breathtaking.
Helen had her SAT exams on
Friday and then the Junior Senior banquet. I have not yet heard how
things went, as I have been traveling back to Skopje all day. Keep her
in your prayers please, so that she can finish strong. Thanks.
Pray
too for Jake. I talked with him on the phone this week and he is
really struggling. He said to me, "dad I don't know why I am here." and
that was a hard thing to hear, even though it is clearly true. We need
to take care that Jake discovers his own purpose in life, and that we
don't supply one for him. Please please pray for him. Thank you.
Thanks
for your prayers, we need them much. The fields are white unto
harvest. The laborers are few. Pray unto the Lord of the Harvest for
more laborers/workers. And while praying, if you think of anyone who
would/could be interested in working with children in Macedonia, then we
are looking for them. I know that I wrote those exact same words last
week, but they are still completely true and an urgent part of our life
right now.
Last week's culture quiz question was,
In contrast to other cultures, a gift for
the host can easily be taken as an insult in India. On the border of
acceptability is some form of food, if possible from your own country.
True or False? Well this is certainly true
.
This week the question is,
In Russia
recitals are often given during social events. Guests are encouraged to
participate. It is recommended that you take this to heart and learn
something suitable. True or False?? You decide.
Together
we make a great team! David and Brenda from Skopje
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