Looking Back at April

On the 24th of April we went to Pridnestrovye (the country which doesn’t exist officially) to the orphanage and also to visit the Missionary Training Center graduate, Marina, who is on staff with IM now and labors there for the Lord. It has been a good trip and it is amazing how fast the kids grow and change. We are grateful that the Lord has provided us with a privilege to share the Gospel with these kids from the young age and to follow up with them as well.
Our friend and fellow servant Marina is doing well despite of numerous trials. But she is taking them as growth opportunities and though it is tough- she is eager to grow.


Orphanage Trip:

Looking Back at April

Bible Study:
Bible Study is going good. Attendance has been down though, we tribute it to the nice weather and the class schedules. We finished the series on apologetics and have started another study series on friendship. The first lesson we had went great people got a lot of things to think and pray about. We got some good reports.

Looking Back at April

One on one discipleship:
It has been going well. The meetings have not been as regular as they typically are due to the exams people are having and the extra requirements that their Universities bestows upon them. But the meetings we had have been good. We had some difficult meetings dealing with some personal issues with people we serve to but we were happy to see that people have responded well and are continuing to grow in the Lord.

Current Matters April

Us 3:
Mikael finally recovered from the cold he had. We needed to go to the doctor for that and they had his nose flushed. Needless to say Mikael was not thrilled with the procedure but he has been a good sport and has taken it a LIKE A MAN (maybe more like a little man). But he has some sort of an eye infection at the moment that we are trying to deal with and we have discovered no matter how strong we are it is quite a job to get his eyes opened for the drops :). But his smiles keep lightning up our days!

Current Prayer Requests- April

Please pray
•For wisdom to see the opportunities to share the Gospel with the guys from the guys’s night
•For our church to be about fulfilling Great Commission while hiking.
•For Marina in Pridnestrovye as she is trying to establish a youth ministry in the nearby village.
•For wisdom as to how to take care for Mikael.
•For wisdom for us as we try to communicate the nature of God to the Church
•For wisdom and discipline to continue to devote ourselves to one another as spouses while having very busy lives.

Greetings!

It has been indeed a very busy but a wonderful month! We are grateful while looking back at what the Lord has done and are very eager to share with you…

Looking Back at March

Serving together with the team from Iowa:
We had a team from Iowa serve with us from the 12th till the 21st of March. What a wonderful time it was! The Lord put together a great team. As a team we served together at the Christian University and at the local school in our neighborhood. It was a wonderful time of serving.
On Thursday a part of the team which was at school got kicked out. The principle of the school knew that we were sharing the Gospel during the basketball program however she chose to close her eyes to that fact since no one complained. But on Wednesday a grandfather of one of the kids called a local TV station to come and cover a story as to how the kids are being “brainwashed” by “westerners”. The school did not let the TV guys in but they “evacuated” us through the back door and told us not to come back to do the program again. The teachers apologized profusely for what had happened but could do nothing to stop the principle from making this decision. Up to that point we had already shared the Gospel with 200-300 kids and were very grateful to the Lord for letting us have that privilege.
Altogether we had a wonderful time of serving together as the “Living Hope” Church from Odessa (church we are busy planting) and the Church from Clear Lake, Iowa. What a joy to see Churches come together and working alongside for the sake of the Gospel.