Sunday, August 05, 2007

Joshua's 8th Birthday and More

The last two weeks have been pretty full. We took a three-day trip up to Serbia to visit some colleagues up there. Had a great visit, got to see their ministry projects and spend some time talking strategy and future plans with them.

We got back home and did a 24-hour turn-around to go down to Lake Ohrid and visit our teammates, Brian and Mandy. We had a great time with them and got to celebrate Joshua's 8th birthday in their home. For his party we invited over Riste, Emilija and Andrej. Riste and Emilija were baptized two weeks earlier (see post below). The boys really got along well with Andrej and we enjoyed getting to know Riste and Emilija better. Pray for them as a family as they grow in their faith and face a number of serious work and family issues.

That Sunday, the 29th of July, we had the privilege of driving over to Lake Prespa to witness the baptism of six Macedonian believers! The church in Bitola, where our teammates Ethan and Jan Schrader have been serving for years, hosted us and we had a great time swimming in the lake and then a good meal with our friends. It was great to see our third baptism this year! Definitely a good year for the church in Macedonia!

Thank you for your prayers for us and the church here. These baptisms that are pictured here and in previous posts are fruit of your prayers!

Finally, yesterday, we visited an ancient Roman aqueduct about 15 minutes from our house. It was amazing to see this huge object out in the middle of a field, totally unmarked and unprotected. It felt a little weird to climb up on a 2,000 year old aqueduct and even walk on it. Almost a little sacreligious! But, we did it anyway.

Enjoy the pics below!


Friday, July 20, 2007

Baptism in Ohrid!

On Saturday we travelled down to Ohrid to celebrate the baptism of new believers and the birth of the church there! Our teammates, Brian and Mandy Davis (see their link to the right) have been living in Ohrid for the last year and a half. It has been great to watch how God is working in and through them and we were so happy to have the chance to share this day with them. A married couple, Hriste and Emilija, were baptized in the beautiful lake. Their testimony of how God saved them was great to hear. We had about 15 folks from our church in Skopje present, a team of volunteers from North Carolina, a couple of non-believers from Ohrid, to witness this great event. Brian and Mandy's neighbors were able to look and listen over the fence!
We also shared the Lord's Supper together, a time of worship with our new brother and sister. Afterwards, we had a good meal together and enjoyed just visiting and getting to know folks better. We were after midnight getting home that night, but it was well worth the fatigue to have enjoyed that day together.
Rejoice with us as we celebrate this event and pray that there will be many more in the city of Ohrid! Check out the pictures below.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Ohrid Baptism

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

July in Skopje

We are sweating it out here in Skopje in the middle of July, however, we are refreshed as we look back at some pictures of the last month.
At the end of June, we went to Greece for our annual mission meeting. We got together with colleagues from a dozen other countries and with volunteers from the states who came to lead the children's program. All told, there were more than 300 of us at the hotel.
We had a great time hanging out with good friends whom we rarely see, learning a few new things in seminars and especially enjoyed some great teaching from Colossians. The kids had a VBS type program all week long and they loved it. They ended the week with a great presentation. All three of our kids had some part in the program and they all did very well, made us proud.

When we got back to Skopje just in time to celebrate Angela's 13th birthday! We had a big party at our house with folks from church. The icing on the cake was that Angela's mom, Riki, and brother, Trajche, were able to come for a week-long visit! Riki is doing very well in her rehab for alchohol. You can see a huge change in her and we are so thankful that God has provided that ministry to bring healing to the family.
After their brief visit, Riki and Trajche headed back to Croatia and Angela was able to go with them! She will spend the whole summer there. This is a real blessing both for her family and for ours! Please pray with us that God will use these two months for Angela and her mom to get to know each other again and that her mom's healing would continue at a steady pace.

Other prayer items:
1) Pray for discipleship of key individuals in the local church.
2) Pray for the baptism in the city of Ohrid (see the link to Brian and Mandy Davis). This is the start of a new church in that city!!!
3) Pray for our family. This summer will have busy spurts and some downtime. Pray that we will make the most of every opportunity!

Enjoy the pics below. Most are from our mission meeting, a few are from Angela's birthday party.

New pics

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Back in the Land of the Blogging!

Yes, we are alive! Below are a few pics from hikes, basketball, baptisms and other stuff going on. Enjoy!

We're back!