Dear Friends,
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love,
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of
our God and Father (1 Thess. 1:3).
*The Youth Club
The words of Paul at the beginning of his letter to the church
in Thessalonica expresses the way in which we look forward to
our work materializing with the youth club in Vidin. Our work
with the youth of the town, as well as the orphaned and
abandoned children living in nearby villages, must be a work
produced by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and not shaped by
our desire to be "good" people who do "good" works. The work
must also be prompted by our love for the Lord and not driven by
our emotions at their state of hardship. And our patience, which
will carry us through many a tough season, must be inspired by
the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise we
will surely fail.
As you may already know, we have found a large room to rent in
an old building in Vidin which will serve as the youth club. The
rent is low, $125 a month – however, even for this small amount
we need to trust in the Lord for provision. Cleaning and repairs
on the room will hopefully start up in August. The club will
have four main areas of ministry:
- Music area – for worship,
concerts, and music lessons & jam sessions;
- Prayer area – for
informal conversations with youth and prayer ministry;
- Learning area – for informal and formal teaching, seminars,
tutoring and internet access; and
- the Cafe – where youth can
grab a soda or light snack, talk and play games.
There is much
to do to prepare this room for ministry, so we ask that you pray
for: volunteers, energy, and the finances to accomplish the work
(We are looking at a need of about $3,000 for the renovation
alone!). The task seems huge and more than what our small group
of volunteers can handle, but with God's help and your prayers
we know that we will pull off more than what an army could have
done in our place!
Preaching in Vidin (July 4-14)
We will be spending ten days with the church in Vidin next month.
Part of our work there will be connected with the youth club and
another part will be leading two Sunday services and gathering/
encouraging the saints while Yavor (the pastor) is away. Please
pray for Vik's teaching on those two Sundays, God's leading in
both Vik's and Teresa's discipleship relations in the church, as
well as a greater will, on behalf of the saints of the church,
to follow God during times of hardship and testing. Vik will be
leading the service on a third Sunday while the pastor is away,
but the family will be in Sofia.
*The House Hunt Continues
God's work is always on time – this is something that we have
learned through many pleasant and difficult situations in our
lives. Since January we have been looking for a place to move to
in Vidin. After facing the disappointing reality that we needed
to prepare ourselves to either pay twice as much as what we are
paying here in Sofia for an apartment in good condition (which
in itself is ridiculous) or paying less, but for an apartment/
house needing thousands of leva of repairs to become livable
(Bulgarians have this practice of offering their apartments for
rent at a slightly lower rate with the clause that the renter do
all the repairs necessary to make the place livable). We've had
a friend scouring the ads in the newspapers and have even had a
real-estate agent say that our request (for a 150 sq. m.
apartment in decent condition at the price we pay for in Sofia)
is an impossibility. The real issue here is trying to be good
stewards of the finances God has entrusted us with and not
giving in to the greed of the housing market.
Well, this is where God needs to make His move on our behalf –
after rattling about various ideas it seems that if we are able
to get a loan and if we can come up with a down payment of 20%,
we will actually be paying less monthly by buying a house than
renting an apartment in good living condition in Vidin (which is
a city about 320 times smaller than Sofia)! The "ifs" seem BIG
at this point, but the timing appears right to us to move
forward more radically. We know God wants this move to happen,
so please pray for several things:
- to find the right house to
buy;
- to find a means for getting a loan and other finances
necessary to buy; and
- that all of our searching be in
participation with God and not our own efforts.
Thank you for your prayers – they are so important to us.
July, 2008 |
