The Events of Last Week/Weekend

On Thursday of last week, I (Dustin) had the privilege of traveling, with Pastor Mirche from the Evangelical Church in Skopje, around the country. There are two Gypsy churches that are being built. The first was in Prilep and is being renovated. We met with the pastor and talked about the progress of the building. Things are really coming along. They have just started on the second level and are continuing with the work every day. The second was about 3 hours from Skopje in a city called Bitola. This was a newly acquired piece of land. The two story building on the property is over 100 years old, so it needs to be torn down and a church built on it. It was exciting to see what God was doing throughout the country and to hear about the Gypsy people being reached.


On Friday night, we were invited to help minister in the city of Veles. We arrived at around 5:00. We traveled up a hill close to where Pastor Isa's church building is. We set up and started giving out balloons and stickers to the children who were gathered there. We had a crowd of about 50 people of all ages by the time we began with puppets. I shared a few hip hop songs, which we had translated onto Powerpoint slides behind me. Then I shared my testimony and Pastor Isa came and shared for a few moments. The purpose of the outreach was for the community to get to know Pastor Isa better. His work is fairly new there, and he was pleased with the outcome.

On Saturday evening, we headed over to Negotino for a youth service. There was a group of about 8 teens who showed up. They have been meeting and having a Bible study for some time. We enjoyed getting to know them personally and spending more time with Pastor Goran. We will continue to travel to Negotino and work with the youth there. Our goal is to establish a strong ministry and train a national to become the youth pastor there. We are also praying about some other possibilities in that city, such as starting an English class to reach young people.

On Sunday night, we were invited to preach at the Evangelical Church in Veles for Pastor Dragan. Dustin preached on Joseph and his dreams and encouraged the people there to hold on to the calling that God has on their lives no matter what. We enjoyed being with the people there and will be joining them for an outreach in a village outside of Veles this Friday evening.

Preparing for Weekend Ministry

Please be in prayer for us this week. We are preparing for several ministry invitations that we have had for this weekend.

On this Friday, we've been invited by a Pastor in Veles to come and be a part of an evangelistic outreach. We are in the process of having some hip-hop songs translated into Macedonian. I'll be sharing a few songs, with the words in Macedonia projected behind me, my testimony and closing with a presentation of the Gospel and an altar call. The targeted group is the young gypsy kids and teens, but our location is on a hill that overlooks the city, so we will probably attract many different age and culture groups. Please pray for a receptive audience and that many will come to know the Lord.

On Saturday, we are traveling back to Negotino and meeting with Pastor Goran about working with the youth there. We will probably be working with them and structuring a youth ministry there, with the intention of identifying and training a national youth pastor. Please pray for the Lord's direction for us and the young people of Negotino.

On Sunday night, we have been invited to come and preach in Veles at Pastor Dragon's church. Please pray that the Lord would anoint the message and that we would have a great service with the people there.

Thank you for everyone who is supporting us with prayer and financial support. We could not do what we do without all of you.

Weekend of Ministry

We had a busy weekend the last couple of days. On Saturday night, we lead the junior high school group at the Evangelical Church in Skopje. We spent some time getting to know each other, and spoke about servanthood. Afterwards, we had a party for Caleb and Daniella (Eddie and Patti's son and daughter) for their birthdays (shown in Picture 1).

We had an invitation to preach in Negotino at the Evangelical Church Sunday morning. Dustin spoke on hearing God's voice, and we spent time in fellowship with Pastor Goran and speaking about ways that we can help the church to reach teenagers (Picture 3 and 4). He has a Bible study with them once a week. He said that it is very hard for Christian teenagers in Macedonia because there are so few Christians, on the weekend, all of their other friends go out and drink alcohol and hang out in dangerous places. We are praying for direction about whether or not we can help to start some kind of alternative place for them to go and have a good time.

In between services, we traveled to Prilep, where there is a church building being built for the Roma (Gypsie) church there (Picture 2). We met with the Pastor of the church for a minute and headed out for another village called Veles. We met with Pastor Esa and Pastor Dragon and some of the gypsie teens. We had an opportunity to fellowship, share my testimony and share a devotional from the Word. We are going to put on an evangelistic outreach there on June 26th with hip-hop music and sharing the Gospel to the young Roma people. Please be in prayer for this exciting opportunity. We want to help the small group of young believers there grow!

Southeastern Europe Retreat

We have just returned from the Southeastern Europe Retreat. It was held in Chaldiki, Greece, which is in the "first finger". It was a time a relaxation, training, and fellowship. This retreat only happens once a year, but we were fortunate to be able to attend when we have just arrived. While there, we were able to meet missionaries to Albania, Kosovo, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria and more! It was great to be able to spend time with missionaries who have been on the field for many years. There were many stories of the work that God is doing all over this difficult part of the world. We were challenged by the teaching of Greg Mundis (the director over the Europe region) and Kevin Beery (Southeastern Europe's area director). We enjoyed getting to know all of them. For two of the sessions, Dustin and I had the privilege of leading worship. Coming back to our apartment in Skopje felt like we were coming home more than ever before. Our language lessons start this Friday!