Vladimir Cizmanksi reports from Montenegro:
Dear Fellow-soldiers in the Kingdom —
It has been a long time since we had our Christmas programs which gathered around 1,300 children delighted with their Christmas boxes from the organization Samaritan’s Purse. What encouraged us was the fact that many parents were present, but also that there was a more relaxed and open atmosphere than in any of the previous years. On the survey which we handed out to parents, 50 answered that they wanted to be informed of programs for adults.
At the beginning of this year a few of us had a strong impression that God would start to do some significant things in Montenegro this year. It is interesting that we meet people who are praying for Montenegro but who have never visited it. This gives us evidence that God is preparing the spiritual situation through the prayers of others and, I am certain, through ours too.
In January we went on a day trip with our younger teenagers to the seaside. This was also our first event to kick-start our work with teenagers. Even though we gathered only a small number of teens, we were not discouraged because we believe that God blesses modest beginnings.
This year we are planning to continue our teenagers’ camp. We are planning to have it in the mountains but because of the limited capacity of the place we had been using, we need to find a larger place. We are expecting around 20 teenagers. To this end, we need people who are willing to help the teenagers with transport to the camp because most of them come from socially disadvantaged families and cannot pay the full cost of the camp. The cost of the camp for six days is €150 per teenager. The dates of the camp are 23-29 July.
Our fellowship is going through a lot of changes in its structure. One family with three children has moved from Kotor, a town on the coast. We have acquired three other babies and are expecting another one. These new little beings are bringing a new flavor to our fellowship. It is interesting that the babies are all male. Together with the babies from the last two years we have 10 of them. Is God preparing preachers and future leaders?! We want to see such a vision come true in the future.
Bojana is a young woman who has been coming to the fellowship for more than 6 months. Her husband was in the RETO centre (a Christian drugs rehabilitation centre) and when he left the centre he started to come to our meetings. She started to come with her daughter but unfortunately he stopped coming, but Bojana continued. About two months ago Bojana herself prayed the believer’s prayer and expressed her wish to follow Christ as her Lord.
Changes happened… she herself could see the difference in her life after that prayer. We are glad that she wants to learn how to follow Jesus and how to listen to Him. Unfortunately her husband is no longer living with her and their daughter, because he does not want this. He is falling ever deeper into alcoholism and he needs God’s intervention to be freed from this and for this house to be rebuilt. We are praying that Bojana would not be disheartened by these trials.
There is also another girl, Tanja, who moved with her mother from Subotica in Serbia a few years ago and has made the decision to follow the Lord. We are delighted that people from the fellowship are also taking on others to help them in their walk with the Lord.
We are encouraging people from the fellowship to have their own disciples, to help younger believers and it is great that we can see obedience in this ministry.
Many greetings from us to all of you who are praying and helping financially for this work.
Vladimir and Marijana
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