Dear Friends,
As in England, September is a time of new starts in BiH. Micah and Talitha start school on 12th September, a week later than expected– no snow closures here, it’s the heat that’s keeping the school shut for longer! Though this summer has been cooler and wetter than normal (It chose the visit of my sister and her husband to drop to 23C and rainstorms) it has still often been above 40C.
I think Mummy is more nervous than the children about them starting school, but they are trying hard with their language and are excited about making more friends.
Klub Novi Most shuts for a few weeks in September, following a busy summer programme, then reopens for the autumn programme at the end of the month. Adam and/or Rachel have been present at most of the morning and evening sessions over the summer. With one or other or sometimes all of the children. Adam has got the internet cafe up and running again and spent time with the young people making use of this facility. Rachel has played numerous games of Uno and Ligretto, done craft activities and generally spent time with the young people who come to Klub. Highlights have included swimming trips, a Salsa night, canoeing for Adam – he only capsized once, and a long day shopping in Sarajevo with some girls for Rachel. Just don’t tell Ezekiel she went on the train or tell the children that she had McDonalds (the first one in BiH opened in Sarajevo recently so this was a ‘must visit’ for the young people).
Adam has also been running football coaching twice weekly in our front garden. This has been going well with about 16 boys on the books and about 8-9 turning up at any one time. We have also been able to take some of these lads into Mostar for Klub activities.
Rachel is starting to get involved in the work Novi Most does with the Roma community. Novi Most helps support a number with education, getting into schools and the cost of books etc.. Alongside this they spend time with the families and children having fun and supporting them in other ways. Time will tell exactly what role God is leading Rachel into within this work.
Alongside our work with Novi Most we have been getting involved in church life. In Mostar there are 2 evangelical churches and we are part of the church on the East side of the city. It is a church which is about half local people and half foreign workers from various countries with a congregation of about 30 each week. The first week there Rachel was asked to go onto the Sunday School rota. Unsurprising as our children make up 2 thirds of the regular attenders! There are a couple of other children who come occasionally, thankfully the pastor’s young son can translate for Rachel when needed. As well as Sunday school
Rachel helps out with coffee afterwards when needed. Adam has been asked to preach a couple of times, in fact one Sunday during the summer when a number of people were away Adam preached and Rachel was due to do Sunday School and Coffee’s. Thankfully she was able to ask a visiting team from England to take over Sunday School as the logistics were getting complicated.
Over the summer we have had a number of visitors, as previously mentioned Rachel’s sister and Brother-in-law visited for 10 days. Despite the ‘English’ weather it was good to spend time with family. We have since hosted 3 lots of visitors connected with Novi Most – this is also part of our role here. Our next visitor is Rev. David Wise, our pastor from Greenford Baptist Church (our home church in England) at the beginning of October. We are looking forward to spending time with him and introducing him to the work here, he will be preaching at our church on the Sunday.
The children are doing well, Hadassah is charming all the teenage girls at the Klub and has learnt a few words of local language as has Ezekiel, his first word was ‘čokolada’ (chocolate). Ezekiel recently celebrated his 5th Birthday with a day at the Croatian coast, with 2 other Families working with Novi Most, which we all enjoyed. Talitha is working hard at the language and her good friend Ana is helping her, Micah continues to be football crazy and take any opportunity to play and is fast learning football based vocab. Adam and Rachel persist with language study with some success but we have a long way to go.
We are very grateful for the way God is blessing us here and guiding us through this time of transition.
‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.’ Psalm 46 v.1,10,11
Thanks again for all your prayers and support.
Good Bye For Now… Love and God Bless
Adam, Rachel, Micah, Talitha, Ezekiel and Hadassah.
Prayer Requests:
- Thank God for the relationships that we are starting to build with the young people and pray that this would continue.
- Please pray for us as we continue work when the new programmes begin at the end of September, that we would have a clear picture of our place within the team.
- Continue to pray that the right car at the right price would soon come available.
- Please pray for continued humility and quick learning as we learn Croatian, both for us and particularly Micah and Talitha as they go to school.
- Please pray for our Borovaks (residents permit). Adam has his and Rachel and the children have applied for theirs.
See our first video from BiH at: https://vimeo.com/28356223
Do visit our web site at www.weservehim.org
Find out more about Novi Most International at www.novimost.org
If you are interested in supporting us in prayer and / or financially please contact us for more information, Rachel at rachel@weservehim.org , Adam at adam@weservehim.org or contact Novi Most International at chesham@novimost.org or visit our “partner-with-us” web page.
