Thanksgiving

We had two Thanksgiving celebrations again this year.  The first was on Thursday night when we invited some Macedonian friends: three other couples and their children to join us for dinner. 

Since it isn't a holiday here, dinner was at 8:00 pm, after all our guests got off of work!  We had a great time introducing our friends to traditional Thanksgiving dishes; they particularly love our sweet potato casserole (though we make it with pumpkin since sweet potatoes aren't available here) -- but they eat it for dessert since Macedonians do not eat sweet and savory together!  We shared a verse from a Psalm and ask everyone to write down what they are thankful for; then we read them aloud and try to guess whose is whose.

Then on Friday our teammates from Ohrid and a few other friends poured in for our American (post-)Thanksgiving celebration!  (Lee and Brandon came from Albania and Jan & Ethan came from Bitola.)

 We were twenty all together and watched football games, played some football, and ate lots of food! 

It was so great to be together.  Our Thanksgiving celebrations have become really special as we are family for one another, when our own families are so far away. 

Thank you, Lord, for such blessings!

On the Road Again

So sorry for not updating -- things have been crazy.  We're on the road again right now but will update as soon as we get back!

Don't give up!

Ladies' Night and Dog Days

Friday Night is for Ladies (and one son)!
There are several women who came occasionally to Bible studies in the spring, but with the start of homeschooling and without my teammate Amy Williams here, I haven't been in contact with them recently. So Friday I called them all and invited them to a Ladies' Night at our club. 
Talking to them on the phone they were all very friendly and eager to get together and only four of about 20 said they couldn't come.  Unfortunately though, they didn't all show up.  (I found out that night that an NGO was also hosting a seminar on abuse among families and several of our women had gone to that.)  Still, we were able to reconnect with some and since the group was smaller, it was more intimate.  We also had three who had never been to one of our seminars before.

Biljana, a believer from a nearby town, came and shared her testimony.  It is so good for our friends to hear from another Macedonian who has taken that step of faith; it is important for them to know that this is not a foreigner-thing, but rather Biblical, directly from God!  I am so thankful for those who came and for all Biljana had to share with them.  Pray for God to continue to use her words to work in their hearts.
No one responded when invited to join a new Bible study, so the time I had set aside for the weekly Bible study I will use instead to get together one-on-one with some of these women.  Please pray for my time with these women.  Time spent together over coffee is extremely important in Macedonian culture, so pray that it would be fruitful for God's glory in their hearts and mine!

Saturday in the Park at the Dog Show!
Kyle was in Serbia for the weekend, but the kids and I headed down the street for a REAL dog show here in Prilep, a town of only 70,000!  I spoke with people who had come from Russia and France and was told there were people from several other countries!  I was very impressed! 
Our friend who helped organize the show said that the show was part of the European Circuit and that often people choose to come to a small show (like in Prilep) because there are fewer people and they are more likely to place higher!
 If you know me, you know I had a blast -- I met many more dogs than people!  And the kids enjoyed it too.  Here are some pics.

Miss Fancy Schmancy graces Prilep with her presence!

Some of us were so relaxed with the  judge, we just laid down on the job!

Such character.  I just love him!

And in this corner: three St. Bernards!

 Here's the BEST part: The dog most frequently seen was probably the Sarplaninec, which is our (Macedonia's) national dog.  They are HUGE and are used for shepherding.  You can also see one below on our one-denar coin.

Rebekah with Macedonia's National Dog: the Regal Sarplaninec!

Missing in Action or Gone Fishin'?

You may have wondered what happened to us. Well, I think we have mostly been missing in action, though God is gracious and we were ''gone fishin' '' a bit too! I'll give you a brief update with a few pics.  (Bear with me: it's a brief update of a long time!)

Home Schooling

We started homeschooling the kids in mid-August, and that's mostly why I was MIA. It was  overwhelming at first; it felt like I had read books about how to swim and even talked to people who are good swimmers, but when I plunged in the water it was shockingly cold and swim-theory wasn't helping much! In fact, I was struggling to keep my head above water. Thankfully, God provided an opportunity for me to meet with a home-schooling friend in Slovenia, and she showed me how it all works. (The record-keeping part was what scared me the most and being able to SEE examples was tremendous!) Suddenly I realized that the waters weren't so deep afterall and if I'd just stand up, I was not in danger of sinking! We are now approaching the end of the first 9-weeks, and I am feeling so much better about things. Thank you, Joan Bell, and thank you, Lord, for making that happen!

August: Serb Team Retreat and Volleyball Back in Prilep

Kyle is interim team leader for the Serbian team and some long-time team members returned from the States in August.  A retreat was the chance for many new team members to meet each other, meet their new team leaders through Skype (they'll arrive in January) and also to say goodbye to some whose term has ended.  It was a good time to be together.

It was still warm in August and one of our regulars had the idea to play volleyball in the park as a way to strengthen friendships with those we only know casually through English and/or Spanish classes.  We were so encouraged at his initiative!  We had a great turn out and a really good time together!

Vacation

In early September, Kyle's parents met us at the beach for our family vacation. This is a great time to go because most people take their vacation in August so the beaches are emptier. However it's also risky time to go because you never know what the weather will do – September is when it all changes to cold and rainy.

We had a great time. (Here we are with our beach vacation tradition: roasting marshmallows!)  The weather was really great! We had a couple of days that were cooler, but still sunny and we were still able to enjoy beach time – and the boys braved the sea despite the cooler wind! The place that we go is to a small village on the second finger near Thessaloniki, Greece. It is not very developed and most people are locals – and since we went after the close of the season, the rooms were inexpensive. The beach is exquisite and calm. There is a small rock island about 15 yards off the coast and it's fun to swim out to it and climb the peak. And just one bay over (about a three-minute drive around a ridge), there is another bay whose direction points to the open sea so the waves are HUGE at times (for this mom, anyway!)


I was about to say there was no TV in the room, but there was, we just never turned it on! We read lots of books and played lots of cards and just plain vacated! What a blessing and fantastic place to rest!
 
We've been in the Balkans so long, but this was our first trip to Philippi!  If you look closely over Daniel's shoulder, you'll see some of the ruins.  It's was cool to see, but to be honest, it looked like a lot of other ruins around here!

Birthday and Holiday Cookout

September 8 is Independence Day for Macedonia. We had told our Bible study group to have plans for an Independence Day activity so when we returned from vacation we could just step in and celebrate. Well, we returned from vacation on Monday and on Tuesday learned that they had planned a cookout for Independence Day (the following day) – and it was going to be at our house! We just had to laugh! Anyway, we had the cookout and it was great because Kyle's parents were still with us and so were our teammate Janae's parents. Also September 9 was Janae's birthday so we combined the celebration to include a birthday cake for her. So, Happy Birthday, Macedonia! And Happy First Birthday, Janae – First Birthday in Macedonia, that is!

Wedding in Serbia

In September, Kyle performed a marriage for a friend from Skopje. Vlatko married a young Serbian girl, so we went to Serbia for the wedding. Vlatko and Jelena met while at a Bible college outside of Belgrade and have now decided to live in Skopje. We look forward to see how God uses them in there!

Slovenia

After the wedding we continued on to Slovenia for a retreat with friends whom we've known for years as we've all worked in the Balkans. Fred Dallas, a former IMB missionary in Norway and the Canary Islands, and our former supervisor – and most importantly, our very dear friend – came from Houston to lead the weekend. It was a really special time to be together and though the drive was long, it was worth it!

Next Time
There's lots more to catch you up on but I'll catch you up on this month in the next few days!  (Really!) 

Summer is for Cook-Outs!

Sunday night we had a cook-out at our house. The food was fantastic (Thanks, Kyle!!!) and we had a great time eating and hanging out! Most of those who came are those who come to our Wednesday night Bible study, though there were a few who are still on our "prospective" list!

 

Also we are in our second week of Spanish classes. Our teammate Janae is teaching and we had more than 45 people register to take the classes!

Offering Spanish classes is something new here in Prilep; in fact I don't think there is a single other school offering Spanish! Our English and Spanish classes are used as tools to meet new people and then offer them the chance to also study the Bible with us.

So far God has really blessed our English classes and many of our students have also joined our Bible studies. Pray that our Spanish students will also show interest in studying the Bible.

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Last Wednesday was Joshua's 11th birthday! He celebrated with friends the day before since his best friend was heading out of town on Josh's birthday.The tradition in Macedonia is to pull the ears of the birthday person to help him grow! Rebekah was happy to show Josh's friends how we "honor" the birthday boy in America!Then we had our Kirkpatrick traditional birthday breakfast of pancakes followed by a lunch celebration of homemade corndogs with family (including teammates Spencer, Janae and Kate) on Wednesday.
We love you so much, Josh, and are so proud of the young man you are becoming! May this next year see you grow daily in Jesus' love and wisdom, even as you grow taller and taller (possibly shooting up past your ole mom?)!

Volunteers from Ruston, LA

This past Monday we said good-bye to another team from First Baptist Church in Ruston, Louisiana. This is the fourth team from this church in three years and we are so excited about all they were able to do while they were here.

The team of nine came during our town's summer festival, which lasted from Thursday through Sunday night. Our town of 75,000 was overrun as people from all over Macedonia and even beyond came to join the fun. Sunday night at the main-event concert, they estimate we had almost 200,000 people packing the streets!





FBC, Ruston, printed coozies with our club logo, filled them with water bottles and passed them out in the early evenings during the festival.















I don't think anyone here had ever seen or even heard of coozies, so we had to explain what they were. The name of our club is "Izgrev" which means "sunrise." Everyone seemed to really like the coozies because our logo has the Macedonian flag behind a silhouette of the distinctive mountain peaks that border our town of Prilep.

In June the Texas volunteers did some repairs and renovations and a sign with our logo was posted on site. These coozies were another great way to get our logo out there so that people will begin to learn who we are.

Along with the free water, several from the team performed short dramas in the town square and passed out fliers inviting people to come to a seminar that night at our club, which is very close to town square. Even Joshua and Daniel were able to get parts in the skits!!! (Rebekah was out of town.)


On Thursday and Friday nights Kay Bradford sang for us and Pastor Chris Craig shared his testimony and taught on having a personal relationship with Jesus.























On Saturday night we hosted a Ladies' Night. Melodye Patterson shared and at the end three of the ladies sang "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" in Macedonian!!! (Check out the video on my facebook.) None of them speak Macedonian but we wrote it out phonetically for them and they did a great job! It was so sweet watching the ladies' faces as they realized they could understand the song even without translation!
After each night's events, we all went out to the square with Macedonian friends and ate together and "enjoyed" the live music (it was a bit LOUD!).
Thank you so much to FBC, Ruston, for faithfully supporting missions in Macedonia! You each can name certain people who touched your hearts. You came to Prilep and made new friends. Hanging out is so important here and the time you spent with us was not in vain -- you were able to open doors and soften many hearts. May God continue to bless and nurture the seeds you have planted!

Here are a few more pics of you and your new friends: