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

In case you haven't heard...

Jonathan, Kristy, and ?'s January 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

It is hard to believe January is gone already! We praise the Lord for all that He did this past month, and thank you for your continued prayers and support.

On January 1st, we took a quick trip with my parents and Larisa to Germany to visit Joanna and Bruce and their family. It was a blessing to spend time with them and have a few days of relaxation and fellowship with them and some of the people in their ministries. We weren’t sure that we would be able to go, as there is a rather important detail that has been playing a part of all of our plans and activities: we are expecting Heisey #3! The due date is August 5th. Thankfully, it worked out that we were able to go to Germany.

We had our first prenatal doctor’s visit last week, and everything is good. We believe we have found a good obstetrician, and are hoping to tour a private hospital in the city to see if it would be a possibility to have our baby born there. We would appreciate your prayers for Kristy and the baby (and me!), and for all the details to be worked out for the baby’s arrival.

This winter has been the coldest Romania has had in 53 years! There were several weeks with below zero weather. We are very grateful that one of our supporting churches sent us a gift for wood, as ours was running out more quickly than we had anticipated.

Lots of children have been coming to the children’s classes. Often, they sit close to the wood stoves at church, and are grateful for the heat. They have not been very good generally, but it is still exciting to see them learning. On Sunday, one of the little girls was trying to teach another little girl John 14:6 (her own version of it :o)). During the one children’s class, the children were extremely well-behaved and attentive, asking questions and answering review questions at the end. What a blessing!

We are thankful for the teens that have been coming to church. The teenage years seem to be the hardest for them to stay close to the Lord. Please pray for these teenagers that are saved to come faithfully to church and to desire to obey the Lord.

The children in our English classes at Casa Rafa are learning and progressing. There are two pictures of the class attached. We had a nice time at the counseling class also. Unfortunately, the lady that runs Casa Rafa is not very clear with the Gospel, so we try to get it to the young people there as often as we can. It was a blessing to be able to share our testimonies with them.

Adi (Oddy) and Lusi continue to come to the church services now and then. Please continue praying for their salvation.

Mariana, the lady whom we are doing reading classes with, was in the hospital. I believe she had an operation to have a kidney stone removed. She was not feeling well, but we went and had a short reading class with her last Thursday. The Lord is working in her life. We are not sure if she is saved and appreciate your prayers that the Lord would get ahold of her heart.

Kristy’s sister, Rhonda, is getting married in April, and Lord-willing, we will be attending the wedding. We will be arriving in the US March 19th and leaving May 6th, and will be reporting to our supporting churches during our time there. Please pray that the Lord would work out all of the details of our time in the US (a vehicle, meetings, etc.). If you would like to schedule us for a meeting, please let us know.

Thank you for your prayers and for taking part in the Lord’s work among the Gypsies in Romania! May the Lord bless you as you serve Him!

In His service,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

winter goings on

It's been a while since I posted anything.  Life has been incredibly busy with holidays, travels, ministry, and furlough preparation (just to name a few).  But enough babbling.  On to some pictures!

Back in the beginning of December, we had some beautiful, clear days.  The mountains off in the distance could easily be seen with their snow-capped peaks.  How beautiful!

Next was preparing for Christmas.  One night we went downtown to see the lights, browse the shops and stands that were set up for the holidays, and get some traditional Romanian food.

One of the things we had been praying about was being able to buy a Christmas tree.  It may seem like a small thing, but we didn't know that we would be able to, and we very much wanted to decorate for that special time of the year.  However, the Lord provided for us to get one.  And my siblings gave us money for decorations as a Christmas gift.  Praise the Lord for His provision even in the small things!

On Christmas day, Jonathan and I first celebrated together, then with his family, then with our coworkers, and finally with some other missionary friends.  What a busy but wonderful way to celebrate Christ's birth.

the lovely earrings my husband gave me for Christmas

After Christmas, the weather turned cold.  Really cold.  The first snows started one afternoon and continued falling through the night.  It was beautiful that first night, as the snows rested gently on the ground.  But the next day we awoke to howling, frigid winds, bare grass, and snow drifts.

the trees were sure beautiful...

... but the bare grass was not

the winds even blew the sidewalk dry

you can see some of the marks the wind left in the snow

even the windowsills were full

It was pretty at times, but oh, so cold.  The winds just raged and howled.  We rolled towels up and put them around several of our windows because so much air was blowing in.  Strong drafts were even coming in our key hole!  The cold hung around for a couple of weeks, often dipping below zero (Fahrenheit).  Reports stated that it was the coldest spell this area of Romanian has had in 53 years.

Unfortunately, the frigid temperatures meant that we needed to use more firewood than we thought we would.  Last year we had fires going every two or three days, and the house stayed fairly comfortable.  This year, however, we were often making them every day.  We could see that our supply was not going to make it through the winter.  But the Lord always supplies when we need it.  A supporting church somehow heard of our plight and gave us a large love gift with which we were able to purchase some more wood.  We now only have a small amount of the old wood left.  We are saving it in case we get another super cold spell, as it burns better and hotter than the newer, greener wood.  The new wood, though, is perfect for the not-so-cold days, as it warms our house, but doesn't make it stifling.

January 1st we flew to Germany to spend a few days with Jonathan's sister's family.  We had a lovely time.

Well, that's been our winter in a nutshell!  Hopefully I'll be a little bit better about blogging in the future...

Jonathan and Kristy's December 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

 

December was a busy month again, and we rejoice in the blessings God has given to us. Please rejoice with us as you read how the Lord is working, and continue praying for us.

 

The children’s classes continue to be well-attended for the most part. The one evening, there were about 17 children, and they were a bit wild, but seemed to learn pretty well. Most of the time, several leave before we’re finished, so it was surprising to see them stay for the lesson. During one of the other children’s classes, the children were pretty bad. Romica, one of the teen boys who often comes to the children’s classes, tried to help keep some order with the kids. I asked him some questions from the lesson, and he knew some of the answers. A lot of the children (and even some of the teens) don’t seem to know how to learn very well, so we appreciate your prayers for them, and for us, as we try to teach them God’s Word.

 

A few teens have been coming off and on. Rebeca came with a friend of hers, Ioana (Ye-wonna), and after the teen class, they wanted to sing. So, we ended up singing several songs, and they enjoyed it. Ioana also comes to Casa Rafa, so we have spent some time with her there. She is not saved. The other week, a bunch of the teens were hanging around outside before the service. I went over to them (thankfully, they didn’t disperse, which is what usually happens when I go over to them), and invited them to come to the teen class. They didn’t want to come. Please pray that the Lord would work in these young people’s hearts. At least two in the group claim to have gotten saved, but have not been to church for a long time.

 

Although Ion (Yone) is going very slowly with his reading, some things do seem to click for him every now and then, which is encouraging. Gicu (Jee-cu) actually came for part of the reading class the other week, and it was surprising to see how much he remembered. Last Tuesday, no adults came to the service except for Ion. He heard the Gospel again. Please pray for him to get saved.

 

Mariana, the mother of a couple of the boys that come to church, asked us a few weeks ago if we could help her to read. She is wanting to take a course for being a care-taker/nurse, so she needs to improve her limited reading abilities. She has done very well for these first few lessons. Sometimes, we are able to talk about spiritual things with her. She told us that a while ago, she “surrendered.” Normally, this means that she got saved, but I am not totally sure what all she understands about the Gospel, or exactly what she did. In any case, she is not living for the Lord, but does know what she should be doing. Please pray for her, and for us as we minister to her.

 

It is a great blessing to have our co-workers back! Their help is much-appreciated, as they help to bear some of the burdens of the work here.

 

Adi (Oddy) and Lusi, Gina’s unsaved son and daughter-in-law, have been coming to church now and then. It is encouraging to see this sharp young couple listen to the Word. They seem interested in spiritual things, but are not yet ready to make a personal decision to receive Christ. Please pray for their salvation.

 

It was a blessing for Kristy and me to spend our Christmas together. :o) We also spent the day with my parents and sister, with the Freels (our co-workers), and with the Tylers (missionary friends of ours). It was a wonderful day filled with good fellowship, games, and thankfulness for the Savior’s miraculous birth!

 

As firecrackers pop all around us, ushering in the New Year, we are amazed and grateful to think of all the Lord has done this year. Thank you for the part you have had in our work among the Gypsies in Romania! We are blessed to have you behind us!

 

Serving Him,

Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

Merry Christmas!

This free photo collage created with Smilebox