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Please pray for Straso to grow in his new-found faith.]]> Tue, 3 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:55:00 EST Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:45:00 EST
An additional goal of the project is to provide training on soft business skills like teamwork, meeting management, and strategic thinking. To that end, as part of the course, the team held a seminar on good meeting management addressing the four keys to a meeting - preparation, start, execution, and follow-up. We also invited a Macedonian professional business trainer to speak on how to prepare and deliver effective presentations.

We interviewed some students to get their impressions of the course so far. One of the doctors responded, "I joined the classes later than others. My colle?gues were telling me that this is not just another English course. And it really is not. These classes are much more interesting. They are a challenge for me and I enjoy them because of their uniqueness."

Another doctor spoke about the usefulness of the project, saying, "I wanted to be able to communicate on a higher level, and I believe these classes will enable me to do that. I find them valuable and interesting because I learn together with my colleagues, the atmosphere in which we study is spontaneous and our teacher is very open and friendly. We all laugh and learn together."

Student feedback and the results of their mid-semester evaluations confirm that the students are quite satisfied with the quality of the course. We are encouraged by this feedback and plan to continue the project through the spring. It is a privilege to provide a creative learning environment for more doctors and nurses from the state hospital to improve their professional skill set.]]> Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:45:00 EST For my birthday this year, I organized the third annual Jackson Invitational Tennis Tournament.  No t-shirts yet--waiting for the 5th annual to do that. Anyway, it's a combination of fun with friends, great exercise and outreach.

There were four unbelievers along with four missionaries and two national pastors. I came in third place behind teammate Andy Spradley (second place) and a Macedonian friend who actually is a tennis trainer/coach. At the end I gave everyone some birthday cake and a copy of Josh McDowell's More than a Carpenter.

So next time you plan a trip to Macedonia, think December 1st if you want to be part of the tournament.  I figure I'll keep the tradition going, it's a great way to spend a few hours of a birthday. Lynn stayed with me all day and hung out with the guys and of course helped with drinks, etc. I'm a little sore today, but grateful!]]> Sun, 5 Dec 2010 03:10:00 EST
So, this year, we just assumed that the same store would have turkeys in the frozen meat section but they didn’t. In fact none of the stores of that chain did, nor did any of the other grocery stores…in fact, we searched across the city and the best we could come up with was turkey parts – drum sticks and breasts.

Friday night, my husband and son came home from one last turkey quest with a fresh chicken in hand. We decided to roast that bird for the beginning of our thanksgiving weekend and then perhaps try some turkey parts on Sunday or Monday.

The house smelled great!! The chicken was almost done, but I had forgotten the potatoes. So my son and I bundled up and headed out to the corner store for some potatoes.

Not far from the house, my son surprised me with the comment, “Mommy, we’re going to bag us a turkey!” First of all, where did he come up with that phrase and second, where did he think we were going to find a turkey at 6:30 on Friday night in our neighborhood when none of the large stores had them? We laughed and talked about stopping by the farmer down the street to see if he would butcher and pluck one from his yard for us.

As we handed our potatoes to the man to have them weighed, my son said something about the turkey. I explained our failed turkey quest. The store man asked if I had been to the meat store down the street. What meat store? I had never seen one there before. So we paid for our potatoes and a couple of beets and off we went to what I thought was a sliced sandwich meat and cheese store. Sure enough, that’s what it was. I’m not sure why, but we went in.

“Povelete?” (Can I help you?)
“Mislam ne” (I think no). “We’re looking for a turkey.”
She showed us some smoked turkey parts sitting out on the counter.
“No, we need a whole turkey”
“Oh, I think I might have one left – let me check”

So out the door to the deep freezer on the sidewalk, we followed the store lady and watched with anticipation as she dug through all kinds of frozen meat packages to the bottom of the chest. Then lo and behold, she produced a TURKEY! The look on my son’s face was priceless!

“Mommy! We found our turkey!

He was jumping up and down with joy! I could tell it made the store lady’s day – she couldn’t believe how excited one small boy could be about a frozen turkey. He would have carried it all the way home himself had it not weighed so much.

At home, my husband was speechless and then we stopped to thank God for our turkey! As we prayed, I wondered why I hadn’t thought to ask God for a turkey! I was reminded that I so often forget to depend on God for all things, even the little things. I was also reminded that God knows our needs and our desires and likes to surprise us even when we forget to ask!

So, the other cool part of the story is that we were not only looking for a turkey for our own family. We were holding an open house at our ministry that weekend – “A Taste of Canadian Thanksgiving.” Our Canadian teammate did most of the work for various stations depicting the history and traditions of this Canadian holiday – a cultural event for the community. Our part was to bring the “taste” – a bit of turkey, stuffing and cranberry – for everyone to sample. We had almost settled on serving chicken in place of turkey. Now we had the real thing to share with our Macedonian friends.

Please pray for the friends, neighbors and community people who came and for opportunities to share the spiritual part of why we give thanks at this time of year.]]> Fri, 15 Oct 2010 04:25:00 EST Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:20:00 EST
Communication through the man in Serbia who first told us about the festival had been challenging in the run up to the event, but once we arrived in Croatia things went very smoothly. My friend said again and again how impressed he was with the organization and how far Macedonia has to go to be able to pull off events like this. And that is coming from someone who sings in the Macedonian Opera for a living!

After the dress rehearsal that afternoon, we tooled around the town for a couple of hours. This town was severely damaged during the war between Croatia and Serbia when Yugoslavia broke apart in 1990. Beginning in August of 1991 the city came under siege by the Yugoslavian army. Despite being vastly outnumbered and completely surrounded, the Croatians defended the city for almost a hundred days until finally capitulating. It was a sobering reminder of the many wars that have been fought in the Balkans and how Christ remains the only hope for reconciliation and healing.

There were probably 500 people in attendance that night for the festival. Surprisingly, the event was recorded for TV broadcast in June. So all of Croatia as well as other countries in the Balkans will get to hear my friend’s song! We are praying that many would be touched by the message of the song: to come boldly before God believing that He can cleanse us from our past and make us right with Him.

My buddy was one of 20 performers, and although I’m slightly biased as his friend and producer, I think his song was definitely among the top three. However, the festival was not competitive in nature, so no winner was pronounced. It was fun to see the front row of priests clapping and getting into his song! The guys commented several times that such a festival would not be possible in the Macedonian Orthodox Church, since instruments are not even allowed in the building.

On our journey home, our conversations in the car were really encouraging. We read and discussed most of the book of Philippians and also did a songwriting workshop. My friend really seized the moment and spoke into the lives of the younger men. My hope is that our group of four will continue to meet and that younger guys will be encouraged and equipped to lead worship well in their churches.]]> Tue, 25 May 2010 09:00:00 EST