From our friend and co-worker Vladimir Cizmanski:
Dear fellow soldiers in the Kingdom,
After a truly long time, I am getting in touch through this letter in which I want to share with you about the last few months.
Firstly I would like to thank all of you who carry us in your prayers and who support us financially.
We have been learning over the last few months what it means to be faithful and to serve despite disappointments and watching the status quo. We would like to see growth in individuals in church but, unfortunately, we are witnesses to the fact that some people who were encouragements to us in the fellowship are now in a crisis zone where they have grown cold towards the fellowship and even allowed themselves to commit serious transgressions of God’s principles. We are praying for them that they would return to the embrace of God’s love and again taste God’s forgiveness and the refreshment of His presence as well as fellowship with their brothers and sisters. This is nothing new, as the Apostle Paul’s letters to various churches show and for whom he often shed tears.
We are praying for workers who would devote themselves to the teenage work. We are encouraged by the interest from this section of the population about when we will start these meetings. We realize that before an individual comes forward who could lead this ministry, we need to start the meetings ourselves with the resources we have available.
We are thankful to God that He has enabled us to have help from a married couple, Želimir (Magi) and Klara, from Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. They decided to attend a second year of training at the HUB Bible School. The syllabus is based on students attending three weeks of lessons and then they are in a church which they have chosen as the place for their practical work. In this way, they will be a great support in several areas of the ministry of the church in Podgorica.
Prayer Conference in Macedonia
We are very glad that an initiative has started to organize an unusual conference, the point of which is PRAYER. We all love to hear inspirational sermons – which are of course necessary – but we rarely and only briefly dedicate time to prayer. Some of our brothers in Croatia came up with the idea of organizing this sort of conference in Macedonia, as the starting point from which the Gospel began to spread 2000 years ago first through the Balkans, and then to the rest of Europe. It was a time of blessing and refreshing our vision as well as renewing our fellowship with brothers and sisters from Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania. The next conference of this type should be happening in Montenegro in February.
12th November – All-Montenegrin conference
In line with our agreed good tradition among Evangelical churches in Montenegro, a joint meeting was held on November 12 in Niksic where about 120 people gathered together. It was a joy to get together and see people who we do not meet so often, but it is also sad that year after year the number of people attending is staying the same. That means that, despite the small growth in terms of new people, there are a similar number who have stopped coming.
The speaker was Miško Horvatek from Croatia who spoke about the influence of the Reformation in the Middle Ages, and the effects of which we need today in the 21st century.
Imminent distribution of shoeboxes and the Christmas program.
One more season of distributing Christmas shoe boxes is upon us. This means lots of work, organization, contacting and driving throughout Montenegro. Your prayers will be of great help to us so that we would carry out this task in the best way.
We are praying for new contacts, safety on the roads, for a good time and for unity in our work so that above all God’s glory may be made visible. This year we plan to distribute 20,000 shoe boxes from Samaritans’ Purse.
We wish you Merry Christmas and blessed New 2012, Year
Many greetings in His love,
Vladimir and Marijana
