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

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...