I (Jerry) am very thankful to a sweet couple who gave me a ticket to the USA and back to see Kristen graduate. (I know God will reward them for their love and sacrifice they made.)
We were also able to see Jacquelin and Tara & Will & Keren and Kristen's husband Chris. We also saw our sweet friends Gene & Charmaine from Roanoke, Va. who were a blessing at Kristen's home.
The winter weather and airports where a bit challenging, but God blessed all of our travels.
Thank you Jesus and all who prayed for Kristen & Chris and our travels.
My youngest brother, Perry (above photo, with a white beard) was at the graduation also. During the graduation ceremony the gospel message was clearly shared by Dr. Danny Akin. Perry prayed to receive forgiveness for his sins and he trusted Jesus as his savior!!!!!!
We have been praying for Perry for 18 years!!! God is faithful to save!!!
Had a great meeting with Baptist brothers who want to begin a Roma ministry in St. Petersburg. It was a fruitful trip. Exciting flights with canceled flights and last minute dashes to the gates to catch my flights. A blizzard with a lot of snow. Spinning, sliding and extreme driving were also part of the adventures. This is a monument to the Russian defeat of Napoleons army in 1814. This monument marks the place of the furthest advance Napoleon made into Russia. Due to security reasons I can not write to many details on this blog. Praise God for this time. Pray God will open doors and hearts of the Roma people in St. Petersburg, Russia.
This past September we asked you all for prayer about the ministry center we have in Nowa Huta, Poland. We will have to move out of the center at the end of this month (December).
Pray the Roma school program will be able to find affordable room to continue the program. The Roma church group will return to meeting on Sundays in their homes. The Roma donations of clothing, household goods and food distribution will be located in our garage where we kept our van.
We thank you all for your prayers. I was really worried the city would throw our stuff out on the street and we would have lost all of our ministry supplies.
Praise God nothing happened while we were in the USA.
This is a photo of Krakow's medieval old town square. Today it is covered by snow.
Our family is smaller here in Poland. We had to leave another daughter in the USA. Jacquelin, we miss you! We know this is the next chapter God has for you in your journey with Jesus. Roma ministry update; Many Roma have moved to England. Those that are still in Poland are doing the same as when we left on September 7, 2010.
Wednesday I will be flying to St. Petersburg, Russia to meet with Russian brothers who have a desire to reach the Roma there. Pray God will use my words and experiences to motivate our brothers to reach cross culturally. God has a plan for the Roma people. His plan is that the Roma people will become disciples of Jesus and go and make more disciples. All of this being done for the glory of God!
We thank you all for praying! Z Bogiem, Jerry and family
It has been a long time since my last post. We had just spent 9 weeks in America. With intermittent internet availability and on the road a lot, left me with little time to post.
We drove a little over 8000 miles by car and flew from Ky. to California also.
Our time with family and friends was great. We were able to share in a couple of churches about what God has been doing in Eastern Europe.
God's people are great and the best family to be in.
It was a bitter sweet time in the USA. We have to leave another daughter behind (Jacquelin) in the USA. But we also got to hug or new Granddaughter for the first time also.
Our time in the USA was busy, but fruitful.
Now that we are back in Poland, it is time to roll. We have a busy schedule with a lot of places to go and a lot of work ahead of us.
I like the fast pace of life. No time to get bored. The only down side is that time flies by to fast.
Thank you all for your prayer support and love for the Roma people and our family.
The Mayor of Krakow is pressured by the Catholic church to evict us from our ministry center for having prayer meetings in a Government owned building. We rent from a private man who rents the whole building from the city of Krakow.
The city has sent out control officers to validate the claim that we are praying and worshiping in our ministry center.
Of course the claim was found to be true, now the Mayor told our land lord of our ministry center to evict us or they will evict him from renting the entire building.
We fly to America on Tuesday, so we may loose our ministry center while we are in the USA and I don't know what will happen to our ministry supplies???
Pray that God will allow us to continue to rent this space for our ministry center and that the government officials will not evict us or remove our ministry supplies while we are not here in Poland to save our stuff or to defend ourselves.
Andrzej and I have recently been in the mountains of Slovakia for a few days. Andrzej Mirga (Roma Christian leader in southern Poland).and I went "fishing for Roma" and we found around 2500 Roma in an area in north central Slovakia. It was the first time they ever heard the real gospel message. They knew only some catholic teachings about Mary and the church is the way to go to heaven. The street side meetings began with them having great suspicion of who and why we we want to talk with them. Then it got ugly with drunk men and women screaming about "Mary is the mother of God and we only pray to her". By God's grace as we shared the scriptures, hearts began to change and open up. We shared the whole gospel message and there are now a few homes that are open for us to return to. After 2 1/2 hours of many people coming and going, the crowd would become huge with over 300 people pressing all around us, then it would dwindle down to a couple hundred people, then increase again. A core group of 100 or more people stayed the whole time and listened intently.
As we reentered Poland we were by a Roma village were 5 years ago, they said they would kill me if I ever returned. I saw a Roma women from another village I work in sitting out by the road, so I pulled over quickly and Andrzej said " Are you sure you want to stop here?" "This is a real bad place" I said, "I have a good feeling about this". So we got out of the van, walked over and began talking to the women I knew and a couple other women. Then I asked the women if we can walk through the village. They looked at Andrzej and told him "he (me) can go if he dares to" As we were walking through the village, Roma men would cuss at us out the windows, but we just kept walking and praying. When we arrived near the end of the village a man yelled to us and told us to come to him. We did. He was the "king" of the village. We spent 3 hours talking with him and his many family members. He is 72 years old and very rich. God truly blessed our time there. We shared the gospel message clearly to them all and we also talked about how and what God had done for us through Jesus. We are welcome back to his home again! He is active in the Roma communities and he is one of the representatives for the Roma at the annual Roma day at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz Roma day is August 2, so I will be there to see him again.
We are praising God for what He did there and for His protection!!!!!!!!!
God's word is alive and active, sharper than a two edged sword....... Hebrews 4:12
Halina & Zbyszek were joined in marriage today. They did the civil wedding at the government office then returned to Szaflary for the Roma ceremony. It was a nice day and great time to see God join two people and two Roma clans together.
Zbyszek is from Krosnica and Halina is from Szaflary. These two Roma villages were once enemies. Jesus has changed several people in each village and relationships have been made. Today the two villages have another common bond.
Please pray for the new couple as they begin a new live together.
Janek & Rafal and their families on the night train to Prague, Czech Republic. We will miss them very much. They are going to share the gospel message and start Roma church plants for the next year. We will see them again someday.
Sunday June 13, 2010 was the last time of worshipping together in the Nowa Huta Roma church plant.
Janek and Rafal and their families have been called by God to be missionaries to the Roma people in Prague, Czech Republic for 1 year.
Rafal has been the leader "Pastor" of the Roma church in Nowa Huta for 3 years. Janek has been the leader "Pastor" of the Roma church plant in Tarnow, Poland for 2 years.
God has raised up new leaders to fill the leadership positions in each church plant.
God has given Janek & Rafal's families a opportunity to see God at work through their obedience to go to Prague.
Please pray for these 2 families as the under go an adventure of a life time.
We are always thankful to Cedar grove baptist, Alabama. Billy has been here with his daughter Hanna to minister to the Roma people. Billy has been here 3 times now and each time he is blessing to the Roma and our family. We really enjoy his fellowship and great personality.
Here is a photo of Billy at Zeslawice with a small group of Roma believers.
We traveled 2 hours north of Krakow, Poland to reach Roma in Kielce.
Kielce is a city of 200,000 people. 100 Roma people live there today. 28 Roma showed up and heard the Gospel message and testimonies of the Roma believers from Krakow and Tarnow, Poland.
The word of God was shared and seemed to be received well. Now it is between God and those who heard God's plan of salvation.
Please pray that God will open the eyes and hearts of those who saw and heard God's message.
There were 6 languages spoken, one spirit and a great time of fellowship at the Roma conference.
The best event was when Janek & Rafal shared the gospel message and a Roma man from Romania was saved!!! The man in the wheel chair trusted Jesus as his savior!!!!
Janek, Rafal, Andrzej, Jacqui and I traveled to Brno, Czech Republic on Friday to evangelize and invite Roma to the Roma conference on Saturday and church on Sunday.
Many good things have been happening here in many ways. But yesterday the President's plane crashed as he and a delegation of political, military and financial dignitaries all died.
The reason for their travel was to participate in a 70 years after the fact memorial of a massacre of thousands of Polish officers, soldiers and inteligencia at a place called Katyn. The first event took place during WW II at the hands of the Russian Red Army.
It created a vacuum of physical fathers and leaders. This second catastrophe will also impact the future political leadership of several parties and the nation.
Today there was 2 minutes of silence across the country at noon. All malls and corporate businesses are closed today as a 7 day national mourning began. Polish flags with a black streamer are seen on public transportation, buildings, homes and other places where people gather.
Please pray for:
Poland;
it's people to turn to God in this time of sorrow;
the future leaders will be men and women of integrity, moral and righteous,
and lastly, pray for the healing of many in this land.
We all had a great time for 4 days in Przemysl, Poland. We were able to share the gospel and hand out tracts and copies of the Jesus film on DVD to many Roma and Polish people. We also had daily times of prayer, reading scriptures related to leadership. It was a wonderful time for our 3 families to minister together each day. God opened several homes and hearts for us to return again with more of God's word. The photo of our feet was a thought from Romans 10:15 We had a great time and we can't wait to go fishing again soon.
Tara and Keren are both healthy and doing well. Keren entered this world at 1:45 pm on March 27, 2010. Keren is 20 inches long and weighs 8 pounds, 6 ounces.
We are all praising God for a great blessing to our family.
Brenda and I are officially grandparents now!!!!
Kristen, Jacquelin, Kari, and Abbe are now Aunts. And also Chris Cathell (Kristen's husband) is an Uncle. Our family continues to grow.
God has truley blessed our family.
Thank you all for your prayers in behalf of Tara, Will and Keren.
Brenda was blessed to be with Tara & Will in the delivery room the whole time. (20 hours of labor)
Tara is really close to delivering her baby (Keren). Brenda is there in KY and they are all having a great time together. It is so hard to believe that Brenda & I are Grandparents. I guess we are officially old now :)
Jacquelin, Kari, Abbe & I are doing well here in Krakow, Poland. We thank God for skype!!!!
Pray for Jacqui as she is enjoying her graduation present. Her present is to spend time with Ala at Ala's home in Bristol England. Pray they have a lot of fun and God keeps them safe.
Pray for the children who go to the Roma preschool located in our Roma ministry center in Krakow. This is the 3rd school year that children have learned to read & write and they also learn about Jesus and God's plan for them. This is a photo of the children. The school averages about 9 children each day.
The Roma people in Szaflary had been praying for a "Plac Zabaw" Play ground for their village.
God answered their prayers by a women named Sherri in Krakow. Sherri and her family are moving back to America and she donated this great play ground to the Roma people in Szaflary.
This play ground is one more example of God's amazing love for His people.
This play ground brought smiles and happiness to a village who needs Hope and happiness.
Jesus is our hope and God's intervention through pray is a part of our happiness.
We have been blessed for the 4th time by Peter Tadin. Peter and our ministry has a long history. Peter's church, Hyde Park Baptist, in Austin, Texas have ministered to the Roma people of southern Poland. Peter stopped by to visit the Roma here in 3 locations before his planned mission trip in Romania with the Roma people there. We all were blessed by the Roma in Zeslawice with a New Years Eve meal and fellowship and prayer time. We had 6 great days with Peter. Peter was a huge blessing and an encouragement to many Roma people as well as our family.
Brenda and I were both blessed to be a part of seeing Kristen graduate and receive her diploma. Kristen had worked so hard and so long. We are very proud of her accomplishments.
