Baby!!

We welcomed Cory Dwight Heisey into our arms on Sunday, August 2 at 7:25 p.m! He was 20 inches long and weighed 6 pounds 7 ounces. We are so grateful that the Lord provided a private room for Kristy at the hospital. Kristy had some extra bleeding, but the doctor got it taken care of quickly. Thank you so much for your prayers! We are working on feedings, and hope to get into a routine soon. We would appreciate your prayers for us as we get all the official paperwork for him, and get things ready to go to the embassy in Bucharest for his American birth certificate and passport. Thank you for rejoicing with us for our little bundle of sweetness!

Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory

Jonathan and Kristy's July 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

We are very grateful for your prayers for us this month. We truly believe God works through your prayers! July was full of busy times, ministering, completing the finishing touches on our hall and baby’s room, unpacking and washing baby things, and trying to get everything ready for our little boy’s arrival. Although there were several delays and things that slowed us down on the house work, we praise the Lord that we were able to finish the hall and baby’s room before his arrival. :o) Everyone at church, and even our neighbors, are excited about the birth of our child. He is due August 5th, so we are expecting him to come any day! Please pray for an uncomplicated birth, and for Kristy to get a private room and be able to have the baby room-in with her the whole time.

Ion (Yone) is still admitted to the hospital, but should be getting out soon. He is doing some treatments there for a spot on his lungs. The Lord is working in his life and calling him to salvation. We don’t know why Ion keeps waiting. Please pray for him!

Adi (Oddy), came to one of the services the other week. His unsaved wife, Lusi (Lucy) has been coming sometimes too. My dad was able to talk to her specifically about her salvation. She is certainly thinking. Please pray that she will get saved.

For one of our services, a lot of children came, and they were not being well-behaved. They kept disrupting things and messing with the cars. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen every week, but it is frustrating having to have someone stand guarding things outside, instead of being able to participate in the church service. We would appreciate your prayers about this situation. For another service, the children were very good! :o)

A couple that was living next to the church building came to our services a few times. The woman, Ica (Eek-ah), showed particular interest, staying until the end of the services. After talking about salvation with my parents during a visit, she received Christ as her personal Savior! This couple just moved back to her village, but she said there is a church there that she would like to go to. Please pray for Ica’s spiritual growth.

A few teens have been coming to the teen classes, so that’s a blessing. Rebeca comes occasionally, although she sometimes seems to have an attitude. Please pray that she will grow in the Lord. Romica (Roam-eeka), the son of Alina (Ah-leena) who recently got saved, came to one of the teen classes. He paid attention very well, and seemed to want to learn. Alina has been growing spiritually and has also expressed interest in learning to read. We are hoping to start classes with her after the baby comes.

Please continue to pray for Alin (Ah-leen), Mariana’s saved son who is not living for the Lord. His new wife is only 14. :o(

We asked prayer for Radu (Roddu), one of the drunks in the Gypsy neighborhood. The other week, he got bit by a dog, and his leg was bleeding badly. I let him use my phone to call an ambulance. Although the ambulance didn’t want to come to the Gypsy neighborhood, Radu seemed to appreciate my help. It would be a great testimony if he would get saved and live for the Lord! Please pray for Radu.

We can’t thank you enough for your prayers and support for us and our ministries. Thank you for the encouragement you are to us!

In His service,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey
P.S. Enjoy the before and after pictures of the hall and baby's room. :o)

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

 

We are so thankful to you for your prayers for us as we serve the Lord here in Romania. June was an eventful month, and we praise the Lord for the way He is working!

 

The last few English classes at Casa Rafa were full of anxious children, seemingly restless for school to be finished and summer vacation to start. They were glad to have us back though, and we enjoyed our times with them.

 

Reading classes have been put on hold for a few weeks, as Ion (Yone), our main student, has been admitted to the hospital. He has been feeling OK, but they want to do some testing and get some papers together for him so he can get disability. He is not sure how long this will take, but he does still get to some of the church services. Several days ago, he said that a Christian man came to talk to him about the Lord at the hospital. This man had spoken at the funeral of one of the ladies in our church. Ion has been hearing the Gospel much, and we ask you to please pray that he will receive Christ as his Savior.

 

Adi (Oddy), the young man who recently got saved, was in Germany for a few weeks. He is now back, but has not been to church. Please pray for his spiritual growth, and that he will come to church faithfully.

 

Sometimes the children in the children’s classes at church can be so different from one week to the next! The one week, they were excellent, they paid attention, they knew answers to the review questions, and said memory verses at the end. :o) Other weeks, someone has to stay outside the church building and try to keep children from disrupting the services and messing with the cars. Often the children who come to the classes seem to be in their own world, and leave within five minutes of coming. Please pray for us to have wisdom, patience, and love as we try to reach them with the truths of God’s Word.

 

It was a wonderful blessing to have two men from our sending church come and help us with some house projects, as well as some church building repairs! With the baby due in just one month, we are trying to get the house ready for his arrival. We are so grateful for these men and the sacrifices they made, for their hard work, and for all that was accomplished. Their fellowship was a breath of fresh air. There are still a few things to be done, such as painting and putting flooring in the baby’s room, but the bulk of the work is done.

 

Speaking of the baby, he is doing fine. Kristy is uncomfortable at times, but is doing well also. At our last doctor’s appointment, the ultrasound showed that the cord is wrapped around his neck twice. This could be a problem, but many babies are born this way just fine. He will be monitored during the labor, so steps can be taken if there happen to be any problems. Please do pray that the rest of the pregnancy and the birth will go well, and that mother and baby will be healthy!

 

We had lots of ladies and girls come to the ladies meeting at the church a couple weeks ago. There were games, crafts, and a lesson from God’s Word. Alina (Ah-leena), one of the ladies that came, also came to church the next service. God was working in her heart, and she put her trust in Jesus as her Savior! Please be praying for her spiritual growth.

 

Mariana’s saved son, Alin (Ah-leen), who has not been living for the Lord, ran off with one of the young teen girls in the village. They have since gotten married (not legally, but according to Gypsy custom), and are living with Mariana. Sin always seems to complicate things and cause problems. Please be in prayer for them.

 

It has been difficult to get the teens to come to church, but a few have been coming. Gugu, the young man who had the brain tumor, came to one of the services recently. I have had several opportunities to talk to him as well. Please pray that the teens will come to the services, especially those that are saved, and that more will receive God’s gift of salvation.

 

We can’t thank you enough for your prayers for us and our ministries. Thank you for the encouragement you are to us!

 

In His service,

Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

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

May was a full month with lots of events and happenings. We are rejoicing in all that the Lord is doing!

The beginning of May saw our last few days in the States. We spent our last Sunday at Ambassador Baptist Church, where Kristy’s father is the pastor. Marissa, Kristy’s sister, had her graduation that day also, and it was nice that we could be a part of that. It was not so fun to say all of our goodbyes to friends and family, but we are blessed to have spent the time with them.

We praise the Lord for giving us a good trip home to Romania with uneventful flights. We even got our gluten-free meals this time! :o)

Everyone was very happy to have us back home, and that is a blessing. :o) The services are going well, and we enjoy our times with our Gypsies, answering their questions, having fellowship, and discipling them. We also had the opportunity to take care of the services while my parents were away for a few days.

Mariana informed us of a recent incident where one of the young men in the village was drunk and smashed another family’s window with a bottle. Alina, the mother that lives there, was inside the house, and the glass hit her head. She was bleeding badly. Several people called for an ambulance, and after a bit, the police came. The ambulance took about 1 1/2 hours to come. The hospital gets prank calls a lot from that area, so they were reluctant to come. In the meantime, Alina almost bled to death. The young man was taken to the police station, and they basically told him to be good, and that was that. The police in Mosnita (Moesh-neetsa) are very corrupt. Thankfully, Alina seems to be doing well now. Mariana also told us that Gicu (Jee-cu), the “man/boyfriend” her daughter Lili (Lilly) lives with, got drunk and beat up Lili and broke the windows in their house. These are the types of things that are happening in this Gypsy neighborhood, and it breaks our hearts. Please pray with us that God would work in their hearts, and that they will turn to Him and be saved.

During one of the children’s classes, there were around 15 children. Ion (Yone) felt the need to come in and help keep the kids in line. They were very well-behaved, and Ion seemed to enjoy the lesson too. :o) Please continue to pray for Ion’s salvation.

After we got back home, Kristy had a doctor’s appointment and everything is going well with the baby. We hope to tour the hospital soon and go over our birth plan with the doctor. Please pray with us that we will get a private room at the hospital. This would allow the baby to sleep in the room with Kristy at night, and I could probably stay with Kristy as well. We don’t feel right about leaving the baby in a nursery for the night, so we are trusting the Lord to provide.

We are looking forward to the coming of a missionary from our sending church. The Davis family has a ministry helping pastors and missionaries with construction projects. Terry Davis will be coming in two weeks, Lord-willing, to help us with a project in the teens’ room at church, and to finish our hall and baby’s room. Please pray that the Lord will continue to provide for all the materials, help, and strength to accomplish this work.

Radu (Roddu), a man from the Gypsy neighborhood who is drunk most of the time, came to church the other night after the service was over. He wanted us to sing a song, and asked my dad to pray for him that he won’t be so sinful. It would be a great testimony to the village if he got saved and would live for the Lord! Please pray for Radu to get saved.

A couple weeks ago, there was a special youth night at the Tylers’ church. Alin (Ah-leen), Mariana’s saved son who hasn’t been coming to church for years, came with us along with a few other teens. The speaker had an excellent message about Hophni, Phinehas, and Samuel, and the importance of serving the Lord. Our teens really enjoyed it. They came with us to that Sunday service at the Tylers’ church to hear the special speaker again. I wish they would come faithfully to our services! Please pray that the Lord would work in the hearts of the young people in Mosnita, that those who are saved would live for Him, and that many more would be saved.

This past Sunday, Gina told us that her mother, who lives a bit of a distance away, received Christ as her Savior! We had been praying for this for some time, and are rejoicing for this answer to prayer! Gina’s son Adi (Oddy), who recently got saved, has not been to church much. He had gone to a Pentecostal church, and told Gina that he doesn’t like how things are done there, and doesn’t want to go there anymore. We pray that he will come faithfully to the services and grow in Christ.

Thank you for allowing us to share our burdens, blessings, and ministry with you, and for taking the time to pray for us and our Gypsies. You may never know until heaven how great of an impact your part in this ministry is!

Serving the Lord,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

Jonathan and Kristy's April 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

 

What a busy month April has been! With meetings, a wedding, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and different activities, it kind of felt like a whirlwind.

 

First of all, we are very grateful that the Lord provided a vehicle for us to use while we are here in the US. We were able to use one of Kristy’s parents’ cars, and I’m afraid we’ve put quite a few miles on it. :o)

 

The beginning of April, we began our journey to Rhode Island to be with one of our supporting churches for Easter Sunday. We took two days to get there, as the traveling really wears on us both. It was good to finally meet Pastor Stricklin and the people at Narragansett Bay Baptist Church in Rhode Island. They supported Kristy for several years, and continued to support us after we got married; but this was my first opportunity to meet them. We had a blessed time with them. Easter Sunday evening found us at Lakes Pond Baptist Church in Connecticut. The pastor, Douglas Meader, was in Romania for a couple weeks with some men from his church in 2012, and it was good to see them again. We presented our ministry there, and Pastor Meader and I enjoyed sharing what it’s like in Romania with the Gypsies. The Lord blessed us with some wonderful fellowship.

On April 10^th, we again left Pittsburgh to go to a supporting church in Iowa. My cousin, who lives in Michigan with her husband, invited us to stay with them overnight on our way to Iowa. What a fun time we had re-connecting with family!

Liberty Baptist Church in Iowa had us join them on April 12^th for their services. This is another church that supported Kristy before we got married, and I had never met them. It is a breath of fresh air to meet pastors and churches who are faithfully serving the Lord and standing firm on His Word. It was a wonderful blessing to be with them and to be able to share the ministry God has called us to do.

From Iowa, we traveled to Wisconsin to help get things ready for Kristy’s sister, Rhonda’s, wedding. This meant several days of morning to evening busyness! But the wedding on April 18^th was beautiful. It was a wild week, but it was worth it.

Although these busy times have been a bit tiring, we are thankful that Kristy and the baby are doing well. Praise the Lord for His strength when ours isn’t enough! Thank you for your prayers for our health.

Last Sunday, we presented our ministry at Ambassador Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, where Kristy’s father is the pastor. Ambassador has a prophet’s chamber that we have been staying in for most of our time in the US, and it has been a huge blessing. We have greatly enjoyed the hours spent with Kristy’s family and the church family here.

Our last meeting was at Sewickly Lighthouse Baptist Church, about half an hour from where we’re staying. Pastor Gelfand and his people were a blessing to us as I preached and told them about our ministry in Romania.

With less than a week left before we head back home, we would appreciate your prayers for us as we pack up our things and say our goodbyes. Those are never fun. But we are looking forward to going home on May 6^th and being with our Gypsies. Please pray for safety and good travels.

We can’t thank you enough for your prayers for us during our time in the States, as well as for our ministries while we are away. Thank you for the encouragement you are to us!

In His service,

Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

Jonathan and Kristy's March 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 Corinthians1:27

 

We had a wonderful blessing at the beginning of March. Adi (Oddy), Gina’s son, came to church with some good news: he received Christ as his Savior! Please pray for Adi to come to church faithfully and to grow in his walk with the Lord.

 

At the end of February, my parents went to Germany for a couple weeks to help take care of the grandchildren while Bruce worked and Joanna helped with a literacy conference. Our co-worker, Nathan Freel, and I took turns preaching, and we all took turns teaching the children’s classes. For one of the children’s classes, the kids were not very well-behaved at the beginning, but they answered review questions well. It is encouraging to see them learn, even if they are not always on their best behavior. :o) Even some of the ones that don’t usually answer actually answered questions. There have been new people coming to the services also, and we rejoice that they can listen to God’s Word, and we pray that they will be saved.

 

Sometimes others will come in and listen to Ion’s reading class. I hope it will grow a desire in them to learn to read, so they can read the Bible. Ion is improving in his reading. Please continue to pray for his salvation.

 

Kristy’s most recent test results indicated that the infection was at least a few months old. The doctor was not 100% sure that it is from before the pregnancy, but we are fairly certain it is. Because there are serious risks associated with more testing to see if the baby has been infected, as well as risks of the treatment used if further tests are positive, we believe the Lord would have us not do anything further. Everything seems to be fine, and the doctor will keep an eye on the baby. Thank you for your prayers for Kristy and the baby.

 

March 19^th, we left for the States. The day before we left, we found out that there was a pilot strike, and one of our flights was cancelled. This meant we had to get an early morning flight, getting up at 3:30 a.m. It was a long trip (almost 30 hours total), but praise the Lord, everything went well. Thankfully, although Kristy does get tired easily, we didn’t really have problems with jetlag.

 

Our first Sunday in the US, we presented our ministry to a group of people from Metowers, a senior citizens apartment building. We had a nice time of fellowship, and they seemed to enjoy learning about our ministry. We went to visit an elderly lady there that Kristy knew who had done mission work in a few different countries years ago, and she was beside herself with joy that we came to visit her. :o)

 

The next Sunday, we had a meeting with our home church, Mount Zion Baptist Church inDenver, PA. We had good services, and it was such a blessing to spend some time with the people there. We had a wonderful time of fellowship.

 

Your prayers are much appreciated as we minister here in the States for a little while. Please pray that the Lord would meet our needs while we are here, and that we will be a blessing. We are encouraged and blessed to have you behind us and to know you are praying for us!

 

In His service,

Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

Jonathan and Kristy's February Prayer Letter

It has been a blessing to have slightly warmer weather these past couple of weeks. The temperatures have been staying above freezing for the most part, and all the snow is gone.

There have been some teens coming to the teen classes at church. The one evening after class, they wanted to sing some more. We ended up singing quite a number of songs. They do love to sing! Hopefully the messages of these songs will go to their hearts. During another of the teen classes, 6 boys came and they were all amazingly well-behaved. They asked relevant questions, and answered review questions well at the end.

It is exciting seeing the children at Casa Rafa learning English. They are picking things up and remembering words. They had fun trying to act out animals and guess the names in English. It was cute to hear them say, "Keeken" (chicken) and "Duke" (duck).

Several years ago, my family started a church with some Gypsies in Jebel (Jeb-ell), a town about 40 minutes away. They basically all went to France, so we hadn't seen them for quite a while. Recently, they contacted us, as they had returned from France for a bit, and wanted to have a church service with us. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with them, and it was a blessing to find out that almost the whole main family had gotten saved!

After one of our services here in the village, we were discussing some of the beliefs of the Pentecostals, and what the Bible has to say on some of those issues. It was encouraging to see the adults’ and teens’ interest in what God has to say.

Although the children's classes have been going relatively well, often several children will hang around outside, and try to unplug the cord to the generator. Normally someone has to stand outside and guard things. Please pray for them to stop disrupting the services.

Ion (Yone) has been doing an excellent job reading. This last class, he did the best he has ever done, and picked up on things he has never picked up on before. Please continue to pray for his salvation. Mariana, whom we are also doing reading classes with, came to church the other evening. Thank you for praying for her also.

Our latest doctor's visit went well. Kristy had some blood work done, and there was a positive result of a type of parasitic infection which can be problematic for the baby. There is a possibility that the infection is from a while ago though (before the pregnancy), in which case there would be no problem. We are scheduled to do some more blood tests a week from Monday to see if it is an old infection. Please pray with us that the tests will indicate that the infection is clearly from before the pregnancy.

I never thought I would say this, but we had several blessings getting our Romanian health insurance for the year. I was able to put Kristy on my policy, so we didn't have to pay extra for her. We weren't able to get one of the notarized documents that we needed, but thankfully it was not a problem at the insurance office. Things went unusually quickly and smoothly, and we didn't even have to go back in to get the official paper stating we are insured. They just put it right into the system!

My parents are in Germany for two weeks, helping take care of the grandchildren, as Joanna is going to a reading primer conference, and Bruce will be working. Please pray for us as we take care of the ministry and things here for them, and as we prepare for our trip to the States on March 19th.

We are encouraged and blessed to have you behind us and to know you are praying for us!

In His service,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey