Chris and Lotta Strajnic - Serbia |
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Prayer Letter December 2007
Dear friends and mission partners,
2007, a year of surprises:
We have had a very exiting term here in Serbia, by the way the whole year has been full of surprises. We feel that our ministry has moved to a new level and I must say it is amazing how God sometimes surprises us. We have had the opportunity to train many fine young perspective leaders (some of them are already in ministry or have some experience of ministry) this year with one of our courses "2 ways to live". We started piloting this course in February (the purpose was to test the course and see if it really works here in Serbia) the response has been more than we could expect and we have run the course in the youth network training centre called "Mreza" where 12 youth leaders attended the different trainings. We are now finishing the same training course for the "Serbian Teen Challenge" (16 home group leaders with helpers) and for the "Oak Hall Bible school" in Belgrade (16 students). We have also so many testimonies, one of similar we would want to share with you briefly.
In the beginning of the course "2 ways to live" we do a prayer list with the attendants name and each of them puts down two friend's name (non Christians), this so we can pray for our non believers friends or family through the course. Now, one student had a interesting testimony, he wrote down names of his two best school friends, who he hasn't seen for a while (because when he became Christian his friends terminated their relationship), but he still had a burden in his heart for them. So we prayed for his friends and guess what happened? One Sunday he saw both of his friends coming to the church at the same service, he told us he really couldn't believe that that was possible. So thank God for that, we just never know...
Pray for:
1. The young students that we have been training, some of them are back (or are returning) to their churches, pray that they might understand that the training we gave them is not just for them, but that they will see it as a strategic tool for their ministry...and use it...
2. We have several ongoing training courses that we have finished piloting (testing in different environments so that we can know how to best use those courses in Serbia). Pray that we now can finish the translations and do the DVD recordings (of talks and case studies) that needs to be done, we need to apply for permit to use those courses and to officially launch them 2008. The actual courses are: 2 ways to live, six steps of encouragement, and Home group training course.
3. We need to decide which courses to start piloting (translating and start testing) for the next year, we are looking at a leadership training course, and a course for finding your gifts, biblical preaching course, evangelism course and a follow up course etc. Pray for us that God may guide us an give us wisdom in choosing...
4. We are also doing some practical training for the youth leaders conference in December (7-9th of December), there will be about 50 youth leaders, pray for us that things goes well...and that we can network and build important relationships with them...
5. Somebody stole our registration plate from our car, pray that we can sort this one out without paying a lot of money and that it can be sorted as quickly as possible, we are really depended on our car.
6. Pray also for Serbia as it is facing many difficulties, especially the Kosovo problem...
Your love and your prayers means so much for us, thank you for all of your support.
Yours in Christ
Chris & Lotta Strajnic