Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Jonathan and Kristy's June prayer letter

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

This has been another busy month with plenty of Gypsy-style excitement. :o) The beginning of June, my sister and brother-in-law, Joanna and Bruce White, and their 4 kids came to Romania for a visit. We had a wonderful time with them, and it was great to spend some time with my 3 nieces and nephew.

While Bruce and Joanna were here, my dad took Bruce, Kristy and me to a Gypsy village a couple hours away for an evangelistic service with another Gypsy pastor. There were around 60-70 people there, and it was a blessing to be able to give my testimony during the service. The Lord worked in hearts, and that evening, 5 people received Christ as their Savior!

Kristy is constantly improving her Romanian, and Lord-willing, her language lessons will be completed in a few weeks. Thank you for your continued prayers for her language learning.

As far as Gypsy-style excitement goes, basically every time we start our services, someone in the neighborhood starts blaring loud music. There is one family in particular in that neighborhood that has been playing loud music, even into all hours of the night. Neighbors have made complaints to the police, and the police have come and talked to this family, but to no avail. They are almost always drunk and blaring music. The other week, we had services outside, and a couple of the little boys outside the church gate called me. I went out, and they wanted to show me that one of the little boys had a bottle of beer and was drinking. Drinking (and smoking) starts at a very young age with the Gypsies, even though it is illegal for minors. I explained to them that it was not good to drink. Please pray that the Lord would get ahold of these young hearts and turn them to Him.

Although last Sunday no teens came for the teen class, a few teens have been coming, and it is nice to see Rebeca continue to come. We scheduled an informal teen activity for last week, just to play some games, spend some time with the teens, and get to know them better. It started out with several little kids coming, but some teens did come too. All in all, around 30 young people and some of their parents ended up coming. The activity went amazingly well, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Kristy had a lesson for the teen girls twice, and during one was able to talk in depth about salvation to Mirabela (Meer-ah-bella), an unsaved teen girl. She said her parents don’t want her to get saved. It is sad that many parents would rather their children revel in sinful pleasures like drinking, fornication, and partying rather than getting saved. Please keep the young people in Mosnita (Moesh-neetsa) in your prayers.

Ion (Yone), Mariana’s unsaved husband, has been doing pretty well with the reading classes. Little by little, he continues to improve. Gicu, the unsaved guy his daughter is living with, came to one of the reading classes. He had come to several reading classes in the past, but hasn’t come for a while. He buzzed through the lesson! Please pray for their salvation. Ion’s health is not good, and we hope that through this, he will get saved. While I was at one of the reading classes, I was able to talk to Alin (Ah-leen), Mariana’s saved son who hasn't been living for the Lord. When I asked him why he doesn’t want to come to church, he didn't have an answer. Please pray that he would grow spiritually and live for the Lord.

The work on the exterior of the house is almost finished. Praise the Lord! We would appreciate your prayers for the rest of the work that needs to be done on the inside of the house also.

Earlier in the month, we had a group of young people to our church from an independent Baptist church a few hours away. They were a blessing to our people as they brought special music and a message from the Word.

We appreciate your prayers very much, and are blessed to have you behind us as we serve the Lord among the Gypsies!

Serving Him,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

Please enjoy the pictures! There is one of the group from a few hours away that ministered to our people, one of the evangelistic meeting, and a few of the young people's activity.





Thursday, June 26, 2014

the longest day

Saturday not only happened to be my dad's birthday, but it also happened to be the longest day of the year.  We are on the western edge of the time zone here in Mosnita, so during the summer it stays light here for quite a while!

7:00 PM
8:00 PM
9:00 PM
10:00 PM
11:00 PM
The last  picture doesn't show it very well, but there was still just a little bit of red color in the sky.  Amazing!!

And then yesterday we had a nice storm.  It started off as just a really nice rain, and then the wind picked up and we had a little bit of thunder and lightning.  We were standing at the kitchen windows watching the rain whip around the yard when suddenly, right before our very eyes, half of one of our plums trees toppled to the ground.  :(  There were only 6 plumbs on that half, and we were planning on taking that tree out eventually anyway... but it was still sad to see it laying there.  It broke at the place where it had been grafted a few years ago, so it just must not have been strong enough to withstand those gusts.



Tuesday, June 10, 2014

ever tried an ostrich egg?

Neither have I, but we saw one for sale several weeks ago at the grocery store.  :)  It was on sale... apparently no one else wanted it either.  It intrigued me... but how on earth would you go about cooking it??


Saturday, June 7, 2014

teeny-tiny toads

For the past week our yard has been crawling (hopping?) with these tiny little toads.  They are everywhere - in the grass, on the sidewalk, in the street.  It's hard not to step on them.  They're really cute, though.  We took these pictures when we first saw them.



many views of Mosnita

The sky here is always changing.  We see spectacular sunsets, beautiful clouds, and stormy skies.  Below are some pictures of the view behind our house taken from our balcony.  It seems like no two days are ever alike!










And just a few more of the last sunset because it was so pretty!  The sun was setting to our left, it was pouring down rain straight ahead of us in the distance, and there were beautiful clouds to our right.  All in one sky!






Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Jonathan and Kristy's May Prayer Letter

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
 
The month of May brought many days of perfect weather. This gives us more opportunities to talk to people as they sit outside, and we have enjoyed getting to know some of our neighbors. Please pray that we will have wisdom as we seek to be a testimony for Christ and share Him with those around us.
 
Kristy’s Romanian language lessons continue to go well, and she is progressing quickly. The teacher is impressed with how well she is learning. Our Gypsies are glad to be able to communicate a little with her. Thank you for your continued prayers for Kristy and her learning of the language.
 
We had a special service with missionary Ron White, who is the president of a Bible college here inRomania. With him was the Gillespie family who ministered to our Gyspies with some beautiful music. With the nice weather, we had the service outside, and many were there to hear the Word of God. They seemed to enjoy the service, and we had a good time of fellowship with our guests afterwards.
 
New children, teens, and adults continue to come to the services. It was encouraging to see Rebeca come to church a couple times this past month. Please continue to keep her in your prayers, as well as the other teens. There have been a few teens coming now and then, including Ionel (Yone-ell), and his older unsaved brother, Alin (Ah-leen).
 
A few weeks ago, we had an activity for the teen guys. Ionel, Alin (Mariana’s saved son), and Tica (Tee-ca), one of Alin’s unsaved friends, came to the activity. They enjoyed it, and it was good to be able to talk to them directly about spiritual things. It is difficult for the saved teens in Mosnita (Moesh-neetsa) to take a stand for the Lord. There is a lot of wickedness, negative peer pressure, and temptation in that neighborhood. Please keep them in your prayers. Pray for us as well to have wisdom as we seek to encourage them in the Lord.
 
Ion (Yone), Mariana’s unsaved husband, has been doing pretty well with the reading classes. It is very slow going for him, but he is recognizing more and more words. We keep praying for his salvation.
 
The children’s classes have been going pretty well. Sometimes, they are so distracted and chatty that it seems I can’t get through to them. However, the other day, they were very well-behaved, and it was exciting to see them learning. Please be in prayer for our VBS which is coming up in a few weeks.
 
Lord-willing, after nearly two months of nothing being done, the rest of the work on the exterior of our house is supposed to be finished within the next two weeks. Please pray for the interior items that need to be finished also.

Please enjoy a few attached photos of our special service, and one of Kristy and me. In the last picture is Ion, Mariana's unsaved husband.
 
We appreciate your prayers very much, and are blessed to have you behind us as we serve the Lord inRomania!
 
Serving Him,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey