a holiday in Serbia!

Some missionary friends of ours in Serbia invited us to visit them in Belgrade for the 4th of July.  We had a lovely time with their family and got to see a lot of cool sites!

This view was just a stone's throw from their house and up a hill.  Beautiful, isn't it??

From there we climbed this to this tower and toured it.

It had some awesome views, too!

Belgrade

the Danube!

Our hotel was just a few blocks from our friends' house, and was also right across the street from the Danube.  So the next morning we took a stroll along the river.  It was a gorgeous day!

On our way back to their house, we walked through the local piata.

Next our friends took us to downtown Belgrade, where we did a little shopping and walking around.  It is a very pretty city!

Eventually we wound up at this fort.  Parts of it were built in the 1400s!

"Inner Stambol Gate Built Around 1750"

Some military equipment was also on display.

These tunnels were excavated so that you could see what they looked like back when the Romans were in power!

This tower was built in the 1400s!

We had a lovely time in Belgrade, visiting with our friends and enjoying the sites.  And we were very excited to find an ice cream stand downtown that sold absolutely delicious 100% natural, sugar-free ice cream along with gluten-free cones!  We were just about in heaven, and had some both on our way to the fort and on our way back to go to lunch.  Yum!!!!  What a treat!  It's a good thing we don't live in Belgrade or we might visit that stand a little too often.  :)

vampire preventative!

We do live in Romania... you know, the land of Dracula and vampires.  So perhaps it's a good thing that earlier this year we discovered random bunches of garlic growing all around our back yard.  ;-)  Apparently, unbeknownst to us, the previous owner had planted it, and when the drainage field was dug for our septic tank, the garlic ended up being churned about with the dirt, as well.  As they were growing we would occasionally pick the leaves and chop them up like green onions in whatever we were cooking.  But last week Jonathan decided that he didn't want to have to mow around them anymore: it was time for them to come out!  I looked up online to see how to tell when they were ready to harvest, and sure enough, it was getting to be about that time.  We shoveled and pulled and yanked and dug, and after a while, we had a nice big bundle of garlic!

A few of the cloves had to be used right away since they'd gotten damaged when we were digging them up, but the rest I braided and hung in the shed to (hopefully) dry.  The bulbs weren't huge, as it was still on the early side for harvesting them, but I'm sure we will enjoy having them this fall and winter!

And of course we won't have to worry about vampires for a while now, either...  :)

Jonathan and Kristy's June prayer letter

NEXT GENERATION PREPARATION

„But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;” I Corinthians 1:27

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Serving Him,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

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