Our Ministry Center is Open!!!

We've had a great start for our ministry center. Last Thursday we had our grand opening that doubled as registration for English conversation classes. Teammates from Ohrid and Skopje came to play guitar, and Nikola, a very close friend whom Kyle discipled in Skopje, came to play the bongo.

We were thrilled with the turn-out! I think we had at least thirty people come, and seventeen signed up for English classes.

Thank you so much to Indian Springs Baptist Church near Little Rock, and for all you individuals (you know who you are!), for all you did helping get the ministry center up and running -- and for helping to keep it running!! We have English classes scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday nights and Kyle hopes to offer a Bible study there too soon. Our bookshelves are supplied with Christian literature like Bibles, Purpose Driven Life, Peace with God, Jesus Our Destiny – all in Macedonian and available for free -- and also many books in English that may be borrowed.

On Thursday I was talking with Magdalena and Maria, two students who were in our classes at the local university last semester. Magdalena asked me about the book, Peace with God (Billy Graham), that we had given the students on the last day of class. She and her husband hadn't been able to come but Maria had told her about it and she wanted to know if she could still get one. As we walked over to the shelves to get one, Maria followed us and eagerly commented, “I'm already on page 336!”



We continued talking and I mentioned an old copy of Marriage Partnership magazine (thanks to you, JLK WMU group at UBC, Baton Rouge!!) that I was reading at my house and Magdalena was very interested in reading about marriage from a biblical perspective. I promised to bring it up to the center for her to read. I think we'll try to keep a supply of some Christian magazines for light reading at the center; they should provide easy ways to get into some spiritual conversations.

Please pray for our English classes. We have a lot of fun in them, but fun is not the reason for them! Please pray that they will be a means to our goal of reaching the people of Prilep for their salvation and for Jesus' glory! I am so excited thinking of the possibilities – God has already proven so faithful by bringing out the number of people he did just for the opening! (I'm ashamed to say I was not expecting so many!)

Last night we had our first classes. We had ten students there all together; I had four students in my class: Gabriel, Monika, Ace (pronounced Aht-se) and Johan (pr: Yo-hahn). There are still others who have signed up but weren't able to come last night – there are two in particular that I know will come, they just couldn't last night. Please pray for Jeff and Amy and Kyle and me as we spend time with our new friends. Pray for opportunities and for boldness! Pray for open hearts!

Jeff & Amy will be gone to Prague for training for three weeks in February so Kyle and I will be trying to balance all the classes. Pray for Jeff & Amy, that the training will be fruitful, and for Kyle and me, that our efforts at the center AND at home will be fruitful as well!!!

Back from Christmas in Africa

We had a wonderful trip to Tanzania to visit Kyle's sister Cara and family, and to Kenya to visit Kyle's parents (and Cara's family joined us there too!). It was so wonderful to finally see Cara's home after years of imagining it! They live in Morogoro, Tanzania, and when she warned us that it was, "hot, hot, hot," she was putting it mildly!!! We could have roasted chestnuts over an open sidewalk! We traded in our winter coats for sleeveless shirts and shorts (though Rebekah and I had to wear skirts to fit the culture). We had a great time at Mikumi Park where the kids saw elephants, lions and crocodiles in the wild for the first time! (It was my first time to see crocs too – they're kind of spooky, the way they just watch you silently!) [Josh just commented that they weren't spooky for him!]





























After a week in Tanzania, we drove two days to Kyle's parents' home just outside of Naivasha, Kenya. We drove on December 28, which was Rebekah's 12th birthday! We celebrated in a hotel and then sent her off the next day to her very first Missionary Kids Retreat -- you had to be 12 years old to go! It was a very exciting time! She had a blast with all those African MKs and they were so sweet to welcome a European MK!

You have to drive through a small game park to get to their home – it's great because they live on a lake and many animals stroll right past their home as they head to the lake for a drink. We had the chance to watch giraffe, eland, buffalo, hippo and monkeys as we relaxed on their porch! The giraffe, eland, buffalo, hippo and monkeys all watched us too, though we weren't all that impressive! We took hikes and game drives and found more animals, like impala, hyena, zebra, Thompson's gazelles, dik-dik, springhares, and jackals nearby. It is a beautiful place and we felt blessed to be there for the view and for time with family. God is incredibly creative and he is so kind to let us enjoy his handiwork!



We saw leopard tracks but didn't get to see one. This tree is on "Leopard Hill" -- you can be sure I checked the tree well before letting the kids climb up!

We left Kenya and came back to lots of snow here in Macedonia. The house took several days to warm up, but now we're cozy! The kids started school Tuesday and they are doing well.

Tonight we had our grand opening for our ministry center. We had a GREAT turn-out. Our opening was paired with registration for English classes for adults, so many people came just for English, but at least we have the chance to meet them and we'll see where God takes it from there! Some friends just came to check out the center and one guy Kyle met said that if we are serious about starting a Bible study, he'd get some friends together to do it! God is so good! Our teammate Amy took pics so I'll post them as soon as I get them!

For now, I'll leave you with a pic of us with Kyle's family!