Friday, January 8, 2016

Jonathan and Kristy's update 1/7/2016

NEXT GENERATION PREPARATION
„But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;” I Corinthians 1:27

1/7/2016

At the beginning of this new year, it is amazing to think on all that the Lord has done for us in the past year! We are so grateful for your prayers and support for us and the Gypsy ministry here!

Gypsy ministry is always exciting, although not always in a good way! :o) Please enjoy reading about some of our exciting happenings!

We continue to keep someone outside the church building during services to guard things (cars, the generator, etc.), as the children can be very destructive and disruptive. During church services, there have been tires slashed, junk stuffed up the exhaust pipe, the plug pulled out of the generator, and banging on the windows. Please pray that the children will stop disrupting and destroying things at the church building.

Among other excitement, a fight broke out with the boys in my class the other week. I sent one of them home, and the other was fine after that. It is exciting to see the children learn though, and very encouraging to see children who don’t seem to learn answer review questions correctly! One Sunday, several children came, but only two ended up staying until the end. One of them was Gina’s grandson, David, who is 4. He doesn’t usually participate much, but since it was just him and Sara, I tried to make extra sure that he learned. He answered several review questions at the end very well!

I was able to preach to the adults a few weeks ago, and it was encouraging to see visitors. Radu, one of the main drunks in the Gypsy neighborhood, visits our services occasionally. He came last Sunday and was very obnoxious. It was obvious the alcohol was controling him. Another one of those “exciting” moments! Please pray for Radu’s salvation.

Another very exciting event for us was Kristy’s family visiting from the States. We had a wonderful time with them, and her parents were thrilled to see their first grandson. :o) They enjoyed seeing our ministries also, and our Gypsies really enjoyed them. We sang together as a family for church, and it was a blessing to us as well as to our people. After Pastor Montgomery (Kristy’s dad) preached at our Gypsy service, Lusi, Adi’s (Oddy) wife, said she wanted to receive Christ as her Savior. We are overjoyed that she is now part of God’s family! Please pray for Lusi’s spiritual growth. The Montgomerys left us on December 30th, and although the time was short, we thank the Lord for our time together!

Thank you for praying for the heating for our home. The Lord worked it out for us to get all the heating panels and install them in the house before Kristy’s family came to visit! This is a huge answer to prayer, and we are excited to have heat! :o)

We would appreciate your prayers for the teens. They don’t come often, and those that used to, like Rebeca, seem to be drifting away.

Ica (Eeka) did very well with the reading class. She comes off and on, so the reading classes haven’t been very regular. Please pray that Ica will come faithfully to the church services and reading classes, and that she will learn to read.

It is an encouragement to know that through all the exciting times, you are praying for us. Thank you for your continued faithful prayers for us and the Gypsies!

In His service,
Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory

P.S. Enjoy the attached pictures of our time with Kristy's family!