Jonathan and Kristy's update 4/6/2016

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

 4/6/2016

 

The past few weeks have flown by, and the busyness has certainly increased! With my parents in the States on a reporting trip, we are taking over some of their responsibilities and taking care of their house (not to mention the fact that, out of the blue, life and schedules in Romania can change quite quickly!). What seems like it will be a quick trip into the city often turns out to be an all-day event. We are grateful, though, to be busy for the Lord! When you are serving Him, He doesn’t let you get bored. :o)

 

We would ask for your continued prayers for us to get Cory’s residence permit. We went to pick it up a couple weeks ago, but were told it wasn’t ready yet as it was delayed. We tried again last week, and it was still not ready. We plan to try again on Thursday, and are praying that we will be able to pick it up, Lord-willing.

 

Teens coming to the church services is a rare thing these days. It often seems that dogs that wander into our services are more faithful and well-behaved than a lot of people! Rebeca did come once, and although I have made contact with some of them, they just don’t seem to be interested in coming to church anymore. Please pray for the teens in Mosnita (Moesh-neetsa).

 

Children, on the other hand, always come! For one of the classes I taught, they were not really paying attention, but we had a nice time of fellowship with the adults after the service. The other day when I taught the children, they were extremely good, very attentive, and did great with review questions from the lesson!

 

There have been lots of visitors coming, and it is exciting to be able to share God’s Word with them. We have been having services outside, as the weather is beautiful. This gives opportunities for those hanging around outside to hear the preaching, even if they might not come to church. Radu (Roddu), one of the main drunks in the village, has been coming quite often. He informed me that he likes my preaching the best, better than even Brother Pete’s and our co-worker’s! :o) Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a complement as he is usually drunk when he comes. But we pray that the Lord will work in Radu’s heart through the things he has heard from God’s Word.

 

Thank you for your prayers concerning our house contract and land deed. I went with the previous owner, Mrs. Condre, to the notary and got it taken care of. It was good to see Mrs. Condre again (she is a believer) and catch up with her. Praise the Lord for quickly and smoothly resolving the issue of our contract and land deed!

 

We would ask for your prayers for our protection. The other day, Kristy and I both felt a strong sense of spiritual oppression. During a trip into town that evening, within about 15 minutes, we almost had 3 accidents! I think people were praying for us, as the Lord obviously protected us from harm. Drivers (and in some cases, pedestrians) can be crazy and unpredictable here. They often seem to be paying zero attention to what is going on around them. Our neighbor just brought a petition for us to sign to the mayor regarding the crazy traffic on our newly asphalted road. Most vehicles pay no attention to the speed limit, yet there are many children that play on our street. We do appreciate your prayers for our protection.

 

Thank you for praying for us as we minister to the Gypsies here. We are blessed to have you behind us as the Lord uses us here!

 

In His service,

Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory

 

P.S. Please enjoy the picture of Cory enjoying his time with one of the ladies in our church. He loves people! :o)

Jonathan and Kristy's update 3/6/2015

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

3/6/2016

The last few weeks have been busy with ministry, getting paperwork for Cory’s Romanian residence permit, and preparing for my parents’ absence. My parents leave for a 7-week reporting trip to the US this week.

The Lord worked miraculously in our dealings with the immigration office for getting Cory’s residence permit. It did take several weeks for us to get all the paperwork ready. In fact, we had an issue trying to get a statement from our doctor saying that Cory was in good health. The program used in our doctor’s computer system wouldn’t let her print a statement for the patient without a Romanian ID number. Cory will receive an ID number with his permit, but we can’t get the permit without the doctor’s statement. And we couldn’t get the statement without an ID number! Thankfully, the doctor had one old form left that could be written by hand, so she filled that out for us. The other miraculous part was that the paperwork and documents were accepted by the immigration office . . . the first day we submitted them! It usually takes several tries of putting in paperwork, being told this or that is not acceptable, or that we need something else. We are praising the Lord it was accepted, and expect to pick up the permit in a couple weeks. Thank you so much for your prayers!

It is exciting to see the children coming to the classes at church and learning! It is obvious people are praying for them, and the Lord is working. Children who normally don’t even seem to pay attention, or even if they try, don’t seem to learn, have been knowing answers to review questions at the end of the lessons! Gina’s 4-year-old grandson who lives with them has been memorizing Bible verses, and knows some of the children’s songs by heart. Although the children are often quite rowdy and wild, it is so encouraging to see them learning! Please keep praying that the Lord will work in the children’s hearts! Sara, the saved granddaughter of Mariana, comes very faithfully and is such a joy. She listens and learns very well, and she loves to sing. :o) We are praying Sara will want to get baptized soon.

We were able to attend a course for several days on teaching children, taught by Jeff Welch. It made for some long days, but it was a blessing, and we gained much knowledge through it. We pray that we will be better able to minister to the children because of it.

Some days with our English class, the children are great, and other days, not so much. :o) Last week was not so good. It is difficult to know what to do with them sometimes, but despite the challenge, we are grateful for the opportunity to spend time with some of the children in our village. We will take a break from English classes for a few weeks while my parents are in the States, since we will be taking over some of their responsibilities.

I had the opportunity to preach to the adults the other week. Radu (Roddu), one of the drunks in the Gypsy neighborhood, was there, and thankfully, didn’t cause any problems. He loves to sing the church songs. Hopefully one of these days, the words will sink into his heart! Ion (Yone), Mariana’s unsaved husband, was also there. Please pray that the Lord would work in his life, and that he would be saved.

Alin (Ah-leen), Mariana’s saved son who is away from the Lord, and his 15-year-old wife, Lacri (Luck-ree) just had a baby boy. Please pray that Alin would turn back to the Lord, and that Lacri would be saved.

Regarding our house and land, Lord-willing, this week we will contact the previous owner and get the contract and deed taken care of. Basically, as foreign citizens, we cannot own land in Romania. Currently, the land is in our name, so it is not legal. The previous owner will have to give us the land rights, so we are praying that the Lord will resolve the land/house issue quickly and smoothly.

Time fails me to tell of the many broken Gypsy families in our church neighborhood, the poverty they choose to live in, and the ways the Lord has worked in some of their lives. They need your prayers. We need your prayers as we minister to them, and are so grateful to have you behind us as the Lord uses us here!

In His service,
Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory

Jonathan and Kristy's update 2/8/2016

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

2/8/2016

 

Through all the trying moments, exciting happenings, and busyness of our lives and ministry, it is a great comfort to know that people are praying for us all over the world! It is a great comfort to know that God hears His children’s prayers and answers them!

 

An answer to prayer is that the children have not been quite as destructive and disruptive in general. We still have to keep an eye on things, but there were a few services where they weren’t as bad. Please continue to pray that the children will behave.

 

It was exciting to have Adi (Oddy), Gina’s son, and Lusi (Lucy), his wife who recently got saved, come to a church service recently. Lusi is learning from the Bible and growing. Many times after our services, we sit around and talk with people and have a time of questions. Ana, an unsaved older lady from the neighborhood, has had many questions. Lusi adds to these conversations, and it is encouraging to see the understanding she has of spiritual things. Please pray that Ana will understand the Gospel and be saved. Please pray for Adi and Lusi to be faithful and follow the Lord.

 

We have not been having reading classes, as Ica (Eeka), our only student at the moment, comes just every now and then to the services. Our plan was to have reading class after our mid-week service. We trust that the Lord is working, and hope that Ica will have a desire to read, and that she will come and learn.

 

Shortly after the New Year, we took a trip to Germany to visit my sister and her family, Joanna and Bruce White. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, and while it was short, we enjoyed spending time with them and the nieces and nephew. Cory thoroughly enjoyed meeting his cousins. Please enjoy the recent picture of our little guy. :o)

 

Speaking of Cory, when we returned from Germany, the passport control didn’t want to let Cory enter the country because he had been in Romania (before we went to Germany) more than 90 days and didn’t have a residence permit yet. Because he was born in Romania, we didn’t think this rule applied to him, as it does to other foreigners. It wasn’t even possible for us to get him a residence permit within 90 days of his birth, because it took about that long to get his birth certificate and passport, which we need in order to get the residence permit. We were praying that they would allow Cory into the country. After many phone calls and people explaining to us what the problem was, as well as us trying to explain how it wasn’t even possible for us to do what was necessary, they decided to allow Cory to come into the country. Praise the Lord for answering prayers! We are working on getting everything together for Cory’s residence permit, and we appreciate your prayers that everything will go well and smoothly.

 

The children at our English class are learning, in spite of not having the best behavior at times! They got a strong reprimanding by the staff the other week for being bad, so thankfully, they were better for our last class. We are grateful for the opportunity this allows us to be a part of the children’s lives, as well as to get to know more children.

 

Please be in prayer about our house/land situation. We just learned that, although we are the owners on the contract, the law says that only citizens of EU countries can own land in Romania. We can legally own the house. But if someone contested that we are not the legal owners of the land, we could legally lose the house and the land, since those are on the same contract. We hope to soon have this resolved, which will mean re-doing the contract with the previous owner as legal owner of the land. The owner will then have to give us the rights to the land. Please pray that the Lord will work this out quickly and smoothly.

 

This week, we are attending a course by Jeff Welch about teaching children. We are excited about all there is to learn, and are trusting that the Lord will use this time to make us more effective as we minister to the Gypsy youth here in Romania!

 

Thank you for your prayers for us and for your part in our ministry! We trust that the Lord is blessing you as you serve Him!

 

In His service,

Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory

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!

Jonathan and Kristy's Update

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 grateful for this time of year when we specifically remember our Savior’s miraculous birth! Some Christians do not celebrate Christmas for various reasons, but even so, it is a good reminder to appreciate and remember with wonder the love of God in sending His Son to earth to be our Savior! We are excited to be able to spend a few days with Kristy’s family, who is coming in just two weeks!

Cory continues to grow and learn quite quickly. We appreciate your prayers for our health, and praise the Lord that Cory is doing well.

Ana, who recently got saved, came to church once a few weeks ago. She told us that she is reading pretty well, and reads the Bible at home. So, she hasn’t come to the reading classes, but we are thankful she is reading the Bible! She continues to go to the Pentecostals, and we pray that Ana will be grounded in the truths of the Bible and stay close to the Lord.

Ica (Eeka) has been coming pretty regularly, but we haven’t had reading classes with her, as she doesn’t usually come to our Tuesday services (we have reading class after the Tuesday service). The one time she did, the generator that runs our lights in the church building ran out of gas at the end of the service, so we didn’t have light to do a reading class. Please pray that Ica will come faithfully to the church services and reading classes, and that she will learn to read. Mariana, whom we did reading classes with several months ago, said that she wanted some help reading and writing, but she will let us know when she is ready to start.

A few weeks ago, we had a teen activity playing games at the mall, then coming to our house for snacks and a challenge from the Word. Sara and Rebeca, two young saved girls, came to the activity along with our co-workers, and we had a great time of fun and fellowship. We have been having some teens/pre-teens off and on coming to the church services. One week, 4 boys came who are not known to be good. They were great! They listened and answered review questions at the end of the service. Please keep praying for the young people in Mosnita (Moesh-neetsa)!

We have begun after-school English classes at Casa Rafa (Roffa) again. It has been nice to connect with some of the children from last year’s classes, and meet some new ones. The ones that were in our previous class remembered things surprisingly well! We hope that not only will we be a help for the children’s education, but that the Lord will be glorified through these relationships.

Several weeks ago, a friend of a friend stopped by our house with lots of baby boy clothes for Cory! We were very grateful for them, but couldn’t use them all, as there were quite a few. We took what was left to a few Gypsy families in the village who just had babies. It was nice to visit with them, as well as meet some new people who had recently moved to the neighborhood. Please pray that we will have opportunities to share the Gospel with those around us, and that they will be open to the Lord’s working!

Our Thanksgiving was an enjoyable time of food, fun, fellowship, and giving of thanks. We spent the day with my parents and Larisa, our co-workers, and another American missionary friend of ours. We have so much to be grateful for, and must remember daily to give the Lord thanks for the blessings He gives to us!

We thank you for your continued faithful prayers for us and the Gypsies! Thank you for your part in this work!

In His service,
Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory

Jonathan and Kristy's update

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 praise the Lord for the work He has done these past few weeks and look forward to what He will continue to do! A Gypsy lady, Ana, whose children often come to our services, came to church a few weeks ago and said that the Lord was working in her life. After coming a few times, she received Christ as her Savior! She seems to have been drawn in by the Pentecostals now, so please pray that Ana would be grounded in the truths of the Word and grow spiritually.

We have started reading classes again. Ana came to one of our reading classes along with Ica (Eeka), another lady who recently got saved. We are hoping that Alina, the saved mother of some of the children that come to our church, will also come and learn to read. She has not been to church for a few weeks, so please pray for her to come to church faithfully.

A few weeks ago, I put down a layer of concrete in the children’s room at the church building. The children were very curious, and it was all we could do to keep them off the floor. But they thought it was the greatest thing! :o) There always seem to be plenty of children coming to the children’s classes. Many of them seem to leave before the service is over, but this is very typical with their short attention spans and lack of discipline. We praise the Lord that we have had a few services with little disruption from the children. It is nice to not have to have someone constantly guarding things outside for the entire service!

Cory is growing quite quickly! It seems like he was born last week. We took him to see a dentist about his possible tied lip last week. Thankfully, the dentist said everything was fine. Cory had been having some trouble nursing as well, which was why we thought his lip was tied. He has been doing much better, so we thank the Lord for that. It was exciting to receive his American birth certificate and passport in the mail! We have begun the process of trying to get all the proper paperwork together for his Romanian residence permit.

This past Sunday, there were a few visitors at our service. Some teen girls came, and the man that Ica is living with. After the service, they wanted to stay for a while, as it was warm in the building. The Lord provided wood for the church for the winter, and it is having positive effects already. :o) Speaking of heat, we are grateful that the Lord has provided part of our heating system for the winter for our house, and we are trusting He will soon provide the rest. We would appreciate your prayers for this need.

I was able to preach a few weeks ago, and it was a blessing to see several visitors come to the service. We were able to talk to them afterwards for a while and share the Gospel with them. Most, if not all, of the Gypsies in the church neighborhood have been shown the Gospel. Please pray that many more will be saved!

Thank you for your continued faithful prayers for us and the Gypsies in Mosnita! We are blessed to have you as helpers in the work here!

In His service,
Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory

Jonathan and Kristy's update

Sometimes it is mind-boggling how quickly another month passes. We are so grateful for all the Lord has done this past month, as well as for your faithful prayers.

 

We are happy to report that Kristy is doing much better. At her postpartum doctor’s visit, the doctor said that she is healing well. He was thrilled to see Cory, and said that if we come again, we need to bring Cory too. :o) The Lord has blessed Cory with good health for which we are grateful. We do believe he has a tied lip, and are planning to see a dentist about this in a few weeks. We have attached a recent photo of Cory.

 

There have been lots of children coming to the children’s classes at church. They were very excited to hear about our Bible school program. Our theme was the armor of God. Bible school went quite smoothly and was well-attended. There were children, as well as adults and teens, and I think the adults enjoyed the puppets as much as the children! :o) Everyone was well-behaved, so thank you for praying! It was good to be able to talk to some of the teen boys that came, as they haven’t been coming to the teen classes at church. Many heard the Gospel during the 3 days of Bible school, and we pray that the Lord will use His Word that was planted in their hearts. Many of the children said the memory verse on the last day, and it was encouraging to see they had learned something. We praise the Lord also for the ladies in the church that were willing to help out with Bible school. We have attached a picture of some of the children helping me with the memory verse during Bible school.

 

There have been some teens that have come to the teen classes recently, which has been a blessing. Rebeca continues to come off and on, and there were some boys that came also. They paid attention very well, which was thrilling to me! They are generally not used to sitting in a class and listening to someone trying to teach them something. Many times, they come and either talk to each other, leave after 2 minutes, or are just totally not paying attention. It is exciting to see them listen and learn the truths of God’s Word! Please pray for the teens in Mosnita (Moesh-neetsa).

 

Thank you for praying for our trip to Bucharest to get Cory’s report of birth abroad and passport from the American Embassy. We went to the Embassy, put in our paperwork and signed in front of the consulate, and in a few days we should receive the report of birth and passport in the mail! While we were in Bucharest, we stayed with some dear missionary friends of ours who also have a Gypsy church. We had such a blessed time of fellowship and refreshment with them. Cory did very well traveling also, and slept for most of the flights. Praise the Lord for a smooth trip and a wonderful time of fellowship! Please continue to pray for us as we start the process of getting Cory’s Romanian residence permit.Often government workers are not kind or very helpful, which only makes the process harder. Please pray that it will go quickly and smoothly, and that we will be dealing with friendly, helpful people.

We also ask you to pray for our reading classes, which we are planning to start up again next week. Two ladies who recently got saved showed an interest in learning, so we hope they will come and learn.

 

Thank you for your continued faithful prayers for us and the Gypsies in Mosnita! We are blessed to have you as helpers in the work here!

In His service,

Jonathan, Kristy, and Cory