Christmas Program
We are so excited that we had again had the privilege to host a Christmas program (Eastern Orthodox Christmas is on January 7th) with Samaritan’s Purse shoe boxes.
We had one program in Cetinje (town 35 km away from Podgorica) for the first time. We were expecting around 600 kids but because of bad words spread about us, we had around 150 kids plus their parents. God willing, we will go again next year and try to build up trust with those who will be there.
For the the third time we had a Christmas program in a public place in Podgorica and this time record number of visitors was present. There were around 2,000 persons (1,400 kids + 600 adults) which means there was 1.25% of Podgorica population. We are very excited that there were maybe 40% of those who came for the first time, which means that more and more people are covered by the Gospel message.
After the program, a few weeks later there was organized follow-up discipleship program named The Greatest Journey. One mother brought her daughter for discipleship and the next week she brought her best friend with her daughter. The third week there were three mothers with their children!!! Usually numbers are decreasing as time goes by but here they are increasing. There are 12 lessons so maybe by the end there will be 12 mothers with children.
Baptism
Two months ago, we had request from three persons that came to minister in Montenegro, to get baptized. Well, we never did baptism in the winter time but we decided to do it this time because there was another Cuban couple and one Montenegrin student who wanted to be also baptized. So we made a pool that we can use whenever we will need it. We have more candidates to be baptized but we are waiting for their decision and assurance.
Building Project
We are astonished when we observe the advance of the building project! We are now in a waiting mode to get the building permit papers. It is processes where government ministries need to meet, discuss about it and verify it. Our lawyer Miomir and I meet some people in a ministry office and they were very polite and positive regarding our request. They were assuring us there shouldn’t be any obstacle to get the permission. We are prying that the process will be short, so we can start to build soon.
When we start to build we will be able to go pretty far with the construction, because by God’s grace, there is already about 82% of needed funds! We are so grateful that God touched so many organizations that wanted to contribute with larger contributions which made such a difference. We are so thankful to individuals that gave according their possibilities because God is looking at the hearts and willingness to obey Him. We are confidant that the Lord will take care of this project till the end and that all of us together will celebrate His grace.
If you sense that the Lord is prompting in your heart to join forces to see this project finished soon, please write to us and we will give you instructions how to proceed with your gift. (To support this work you may also visit the Stoneworks Support Page, click through and choose Montenegro: Building Fund from the drop down menu)
May the mighty and merciful God’s hand be with you,
Vladimir and Marijana