Za Mnogu Godina

Literally translated this means "for many years," but on one special day called Vodnitza, you say this to not only every one you know, but to those people you pass on the street. It is to wish good luck and wellness for many to years to come on the whole city. This day is a huge celebration that begins with the drinking of hot rakia. Rakia is a VERY strong homemade alcohol that flows freely to all on this day. By freely, I mean, when we walked out of our door on that day to go to our landlords to celebrate we could smell the alcohol. The church just up the street from us was giving out free cups to anyone including children, and as we continued to walk we found that restaurants were giving it out for free, shops were giving it for free, coffee houses, and just regular people who had brought their hot keg into town were giving it out for free. This was of great interest to us. Many men and boys ran around in their speedos with a steaming hot cup of rakia and prepared to jump in the lake. "Jump in the lake? In January?" You may be asking. Yes, this is the day they celebrate John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus, and so tradition is that many men jump in the lake (this is not a required thing, and some people think it is crazy, but the whole city comes out to watch the men who do jump). But there is more to it than that; the supreme priest of the city comes to the lake, blesses a small wooden cross, sings some songs in the old language and tosses the cross in the water. The men and boys then jump in the lake to find the cross. Whoever gets it wins good luck for the whole year and also some money and a DVD player. Then the guy who captured the cross in the freezing cold lake walks around town with his buddies collecting money from the whole city and singing at every place he stops. He dropped by our house later that day with his friends. We were in language class, and I had no idea what to do. Maria, our language tutor, said I had to give him lunch, of which I had none, money and chocolates, of which I had none. So we chose not to open the door. It was better to pretend we weren't home than to disappoint him. So here are a few pictures of the festivities. Sorry they aren't very good. My camera batteries were almost dead.
This is the processional bringing in the priest.

This is one guy serving up his homemade rakia.

This is the best shot I could get of the guys in the water. About 100 jumped in, but you can't see them all.

Rock On!!!

Last night, we were inviting to our tutor's boyfriend's heavy metal band concert. She didn't invite anyone else and really wanted us to be there, so we went. The night was quite an experience. We were kind of the big brother and sister on the scene. She quickly introduced us to everyone, and was very excited to show us around. Then she handed me her money, id card and her phone to hold for the evening. We kind of just sat back and watched in amazement as they sang all kinds of heavy metal songs in English. Very funny. Maria stole my camera and was off. She took a ton of pictures and had me take several of her. All in all, we had a very loud, but good time. We are very excited that Maria trusts us and repsects us to this level. She called her mom on our way home who made sure to speak to Brian to confirm we were with her daughter.

Here is Gotze jamming out on the keyboard.


Maria and me hanging out. This is where I sat most of the evening sipping on my juice and Coke.


Brian and Gotze before Gotze's big performance.


Here is the rest of Gotze's band playing their little hearts out. "Off to never never land."

Their Answers

Several of you were curious about the answers the Macedonians gave us to the question of why Jesus came to earth. 99% of the people we talked to could not give us a reason for His incarnation. We did have a few people tell us He came to do good things and heal people. This is not a completely wrong answer, but it does not even come close to fully answering the question of why Christ came.
Thanks for your comments, questions and prayers!!!

Orthodox Christmas

"Isus Se Rodi!!!" "Jesus is born."
"Vistina se rodi" Truly, He is born."

The above is what you say to your neighbors, friends and family on Christmas. One person says the first phrase and the second person responds with "Truly, He is born." Amazing that everyone here says that and celebrates that, and yet a vast minority actually know why He was born--to give life, and to give it abundantly. Although they do not know the truth and hope that Christ brought when he came to earth to pay the penalty for our sins so that we can have a relationship with the Almighty God, they celebrate Him only on that day. We were able to visit with a few families for their Christmas "parties." In one home, we were able to share of the hope that Christ gives us. We were able to share with them that they can have this hope as well. The subject was quickly changed, but we give God the glory that He allowed us to throw a little salt in the conversation.

In the second home we went to, we were able to boldly share some Scripture about why Christ came to this earth. In John 10:10, Jesus says, "I have come that they might have life and have it to the full." We shared this verse and the hope that Christ's coming gives us. "Everyone must choose his own way" was the way the man of the house responded. "Jesus is The only Way!" we responded. He was quiet, then we shared John 14:6 with them where the Lord says, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me." Here again, the subject was changed very quickly, but praise our Lord and Savior who again enabled us to remember the verses we have memorized in Macedonian to season the conversation with salt!!! He desires a relationship with these families. Pray that we will continue to boldly share the beautiful Truth with them that "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God." -2 Corinthians 5:21. Give Him all the glory and pray that these men and women, their sons and daughters will come to know the Lord as their Savior.

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you so much to those of you who have given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering this past month. We are ever so grateful for your financial support. You have allowed more than 5200 missionaries and their families to remain on the field and you have sent more into the world! Many lives will be changed eternally because of your gifts! WOW!! God is doing amazing things through you, your willingness to give and your willingness to pray! Thank You!!

Successful

So the party went off without a hitch except the fact that by the end of the night I felt like I had just worked a 12 hour shift at Applebees. I was the greeter, the cook and the waitress. In this culture, the woman does it all, which is ok except when there are 30 people roaming in and out of your house. All the same, it went great, and almost everyone came. We gave everyone a gift bag full of cookies and offered them a book entitled "Jesus our Destiny." Only a few of them took the book, but we were able to have a few conversations regarding spiritual things throughout the evening. Thanks so much for your prayers!!! Continue to pray for those who took a copy of the book. Pray that they will actually read it and seek to know more. Here are some pictures of the night. Oh yeah, Dedo Mraz (Santa Claus) stopped by for a few minutes bearing gifts of food and drink. He then decided he was too hot in his outfit to remain, so he returned to the hallway and came back as our friend Alexander (from the photo shop).

Ohrid Decked in Christmas Lights

Ohrid has begun to twinkle in the past few days. Lights are going up all over the place. You may be thinking, it is a little late to start putting up lights, but don't forget, Macedonians celebrate Christmas on January 7th. They have a couple more weeks to prepare for their holiday. Our favorite new sight are the skinny Santas that sit outside the photo shop in the center of town. We just want to stuff a pillow in that suit with them... or feed them some cookies or something. Santa is just not supposed to be skinny, I don't care what Dr. Atkins says.




Christmas is, however, not the biggest deal around here... not yet at least. Right now everyone is gearing up for New Year's. Evidently they know how to ring in the New Year with style. And most of the signs we have seen that would probably say Merry Christmas in America, say Crekna Nova Godina (Happy New Year) instead. We have heard the Christmas tree called the New Year's tree by several people and have realized that we don't have anything to wear out for the evening of New Year's because "you must dress like you are going to the prom." Personally I would rather ring in the New Year in my pj's, but for the Macedonians...





And for anything you may ever need for decorating your home for the holiday season visit the outdoor market. This has been a really fun place to visit to learn some new Christmas words and practice our language. And you can find anything from Christmas cards to sparklers, Santa hats to scary masks (not real sure what that's about yet).

Take a look at that temperature!!!!


And look at how I have to dress!!! I love it!!!


Pray that we will be able to share with the people what this time is so special!

Our New Home

Despite the lack of pictures on our walls, we have finally gotten settled into our new apartment. We are really happy here and have already seen our new place become a meeting place for our neighbors and friends. I have gotten settled into our kitchen even if it is Carolina Blue. Brian intends to make no comment regarding this. :0) I suggested painting the walls NC State red to make up for the little bit of blue, but he refused. "Wolfpack Red never ever mixes with that shade of blue" he says. So we will just leave that with a "Go Pack!!!!"

We have gotten our Christmas tree put up and I am enjoying spending my down moments enjoying the lights of the tree. Have a look around our apartment!!!
This is our entrance way. Put your coat on the right.


Don't forget to leave your shoes at the door.


Here is our living room. Do you like the tree? It is fake, but does the job just fine. We had to buy fake because it is illegal to have a real tree in our town. Amanda, you wouldn't break out in hives. :0)


Our dining room....


And yet another view of our living room.


Here is our bedroom. A day trip down to Greece was great assistance in furnishing our house.


And our kitchen.


Feel free to drop by anytime.

Cloud

Since we last wrote we have become parents. We have a new little puppy who has brought a little more excitement and laughter into our lives. His name is Cloud (named after Brian's favorite video game character from Final Fantasy 7 "best-game ever"). Brian named him. Some of our top choices were Chip after "chocolate chip cookie dough" or Spoto after that great Italian family up in New Jersey. Brian decided that neither of those "flowed" so Cloud it is. He is a happy little puppy who is coming out of shell more and more everyday. We got him from a farm on the outskirts of the town. He was malnurished and parasite infested, but after a scary trip to the vet, he is well on his way to growing into a strong healthy dog. He has some Dalmation and, we think, some Spaniel in him. Enjoy the pictures of our bundle of joy. :0)

Tale of Woe .... our internet saga

There have been many things happening in our town in the last month and we have not put up a single thing about them. TOMORROW, we will spend the time in the computer lab and write a myriad of updates. This tale is about our Internet. We did finally move on Dec. 1 to our new address (more later). We also got a dog(more later). However we still had the same old Internet which got worse, so bad that we haven’t been able to send an email in almost a month, much less post and upload pictures. The only reason we have not gone to the lab to do our posts is because of the constant lingering promise of working internet that never came. We are sorry about the problems.
For anyone who is interested in the specifics, we have a unit that goes outside the apartment that picks up the wireless signal being broadcast from one of many towers around the town. The place to where we moved is a void of signal because we have a cliff on one side and a super tall house on the other. From time to time we will pick up reflections off the cliff, but it is never long enough to stay connected to gmail to send an email. We have about 13 drafts that we want to send out. Tomorrow everyone will get updates!!!

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

WOW! It is a gorgeous sunny day in our town! The temperature has hit 50 degrees and the people of the city are out in droves. As I walked out of our apartment this morning, I watched some kids playing up in a tree. I walked past several other children playing in the streets enjoying the warm sunshine. As I rounded the corner, I spotted an elderly woman who was out in the street in her bedroom shoes speaking to anything that would speak back. As I got closer, I greeted her with a Dobar Den. Her whole face lit up. She was anxious to get out of me anything she could. So, we talked for a few minutes and then a man on a bike rode by and ended my conversation with her as he started talking to her. As I continued walking, I was greeted by three other elderly men on their bikes. I watched people feeding the birds in the lake. I giggled at the site of 4 slightly overweight men crammed onto one park bench for their afternoon conversation. And their wives chatting on the park bench next to them. And by the time I got where I was going I was stripping off my coat because the sun had warmed me on my journey. What a privilege to be able to enjoy God’s creation in all things!!! Praise Him for He is good!!! Praise Him for He created the children up in the tree, the children in the streets. He created the men and women of this town. They are fearfully and wonderfully made. Praise Him!!!! Pray that they will soon come to know Him as Savior and give Him the praise He is due.
Thank you for always praying with us and for us!

UUGA!!!

So I have joined an aerobics class with my language tutor here. I thought it would be a good place to make some new friends and workout during the cold gray days. It is a blast! The last three nights our instructor has thrown a little Macedonian style kickboxing in the routine. I giggle through the whole thing, because every time we kick, we say UUGAA!!! I just love the sound effects we make for things around here. So uuga is my new word. Say it with me. It’s fun!!! And every time you say it think of the women in my aerobics class. Pray that I will be able to build relationships with them that will bear fruit for the Gospel of Christ. Thanks for praying!!! UUGA!!!!

Mandy Rocked!!! (Thanksgiving)

Yesterday we celebrated our Thanksgiving here in Macedonia. Of course they don't celebrate it here so yesterday was our day to expose American culture and American Tradition to our friends who have been teaching us to be Macedonian. Since this was our first Thanksgiving away from family, it was Mandy's first time to cook a Thanksgiving meal ... and she rocked!!! Look at the Turkey!!!!

We (she) made Turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, 4 batches of yeast rolls, snikerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, walnut tarts, and cheesecake. Thanks to Mandy's mom who sent Ritz crackers and cheese spread for h'orderves (along with the stuffing). Everything was great and right during the middle of dinner I felt like I was back in America. Of course it wasn't as good as being with family, but it was fun. For this being Mandy's first time cooking Thanksgiving, it couldn't have gone any better. I was so proud of how everything came out, it was perfect.

This was us after dessert.

We're Moving!!

Yes, as of December 1st we will have new and more permanent residence. We will post pictures and a whole bunch of information on the new place very soon, but we wanted to let everyone know about the fact that we are moving!

This also brings a prayer request: It was stated when we arrived that our current apartment would only be temporary until we could learn the city well enough to find a new place. As a matter of fact we changed the lease from a 6-month lease to a year lease the day we went to sign the papers so that we could have a little more time to learn the city. We also changed the final notice from 2 weeks to 30 days to give each other enough time to prepare (whether they wanted us out or we found a new place). We even picked up on a couple of hints that they might be ready for us to leave so we THOUGHT that us leaving “early” would be well received. Hmm, that was wrong. Apparently they had financially planned on us staying a full year and they take pride in the apartment so they think that we are leaving early because the apartment is not good enough. This could not be farther from the truth. Our landlords are fantastic and the apartment is extremely nice … but it is not home. The main issue is that we want some place that can be home with our own pictures and some of our own furniture so we don’t have to worry about food, glasses, and whatnot getting all over the place. Anyway, pray for us as we try to smooth things out with the landlords and that we will be able to maintain the friendship that we have been trying to establish despite language barriers

Indescribable

This is one of my favorite songs! It has been a great source of help to me on days when I can't seem to get focused on anything but myself. It helps put all things in perspective. God deserves and merits all of our praise and adoration, and that is why we exist, that is why we live and move and have our being, to praise Him. And wow, does He deserve it or what!!! "He sees the depths of our hearts and loves us the same. You ARE amazing God!!!"

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God
Incomparable, Unchangeable,
You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same.
You are amazing God

Written by Laura Story
Recorded by Chris Tomlin

Prague Trip

We just returned from a business trip and a tacked-on vacation to Prague, Czech-Republic this weekend. We had our Ebenezer Conference which is a conference for new ms to talk about what they have experienced so far. It was great!!! We were able to listen to testimonies of our friends of what the Lord has done in their lives within the past year. We were also able to listen to some “old” ms give their testimonies of what the Lord has done in their time of service overseas. Basically we learned that we aren’t crazy. :0) Culture shock is a real thing and while Brian and I haven’t experienced a horrible case of it, we know from where our frustrations are now stemming. The Lord is teaching us a lot about how much we need Him and how dependent we must be on Him in order to survive everyday, and it seems like He is teaching that to all the new ms. :0)

We also got to spend time with some really good friends with whom we were in training. Of course we did this while enjoying American restaurants (TGI Friday’s, McDonald’s, Subway, KFC, and Hagan Das). We laughed at each other’s language and cultural mess ups. I was excited because I went shopping in a real-sized mall!!!! :0) and even visited a superstore kind like Walmart. It was a real American vacation: food, shopping, laughing, food, more shopping, and of course site seeing (Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world). But the best part of hanging out with all these friends was bearing one another’s burdens. It was so wonderful to talk through some of the things through which we have been going since we have been here. Not only that but it was relieving to have a listening ear of someone who is going through the same things and understands our situation completely!!! God is so faithful to supply all of our needs and even our wants. He does so everyday whether we want to see it or not. He is good!!!

Idol Worship

During our time here in Macedonia I have become more and more saddened by the mass worship and hope people put into idols. They give their money, light their candles and pray to their saints when in reality they know little to nothing about the saint to whom they pray. They do not know that most of the “saints,” if alive today, would point them to Jesus Christ. They would plead with them to stop idolizing them and to start worshipping the One True God who Alone can save. I was burdened with this in America as people have their statues of Mary (who was a fantastic role model, but not able, by any stretch of Scripture, to answer our prayers or redeem us from sin) and their little Buddhas (who can only give you a list of rules and maybe make you a “better person,” but still cannot change the human heart), but here in Macedonia, it has broken my heart. People pour their lives into forming, carving, melting an image of some man who has no power to save you from an eternity separated from the one thing for which you truly long, a relationship with the one who created you.

“Inasmuch as there is none like you O Lord (You are great and your name is great in might), who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is your rightful due. For among you all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, their is none like You. But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; a wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. Silver is beaten into plates... But the Lord is the true God; He is the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble and the nations will not be able to endure his indignation. The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.” Jeremiah 10:6-12

Please pray that the Macedonians will see and understand this truth and that they will worship the one true God who can change their hearts forever, not by any works that they have done, but by the power of his Spirit. He loves them unconditionally and He is pursuing a relationship with them. Pray that they will not be blinded by the idols they have set up around them. Pray that they won’t be too busy trying to be good people to accept the sacrifice Christ made for them on the cross.

God desires a relationship with you too. I know some of you are still exploring the right way for you or striving to work your way into heaven, but the Lord offers His love to you. He offers to change you from the inside out. No other god can do that. Every other religion is works based. But Christ already did all the work. There is nothing left for you to do except accept Him as your Lord and Savior. You will never be “good” enough on your own. God created you. He knows “your sitting down and your rising up” (Ps. 139). There is no where you can go to flee His love for you. It is deeper and wider and higher and greater than anything we can dare to imagine. No other god loves you. No other god offers to make you pure. There is none like our God!!! We plead with you as we plead with the Macedonians, do not forgo the chance to know true love. Give your life to Christ. Please email us if you have any questions or if you would like to accept God’s gift to you. We would be more than happy to talk with you about any of this. We love you all and we are so grateful for your friendship and support!!!

Texas Comes to Macedonia

This past weekend, we had the joy of hanging out with some good ole’ boys from Texas. They came decked in Texas Longhorn gear and everything. They were here for just a short time exploring the possibilities of God using their church here in Macedonia. Although, there entire time here in Ohrid was rainy and dreary, we were able to show them around and give them some ideas of ways they could pray and be physically involved. We spent some time in prayer at the fort, which is one of our favorite places to pray as you can see the whole city and its surrounding villages. They were a great encouragement not only to us, but also to Aleks and Marija.

Sights and Sounds of Fall

Wow! The season change certainly has been beautiful. How awesome that God allows us to enjoy His creation in so many different ways. The leaves are changing on the mountains around us, and the array of color is amazing. And the smells. OHH!!! There is definitely a harvest season in Macedonia that doesn’t exist in America anymore (at least not in Raleigh). A vast majority of people have some sort of garden that is filled with anything from corn to apples, peppers to kiwi. At harvest season families come together and make tomato sauce (they call ketchup), pinjur (with tomatoes, onions and some spices), and ajvar (a red-pepper sauce). The smells that come from these tasty treats have been wafting in our windows all month which has made the fast that much harder. But we have learned to appreciate our sense of smell. After they have made their sauces on their huge grill/stove thing, they jar them for the winter. They also jar pickles, small peppers, mushrooms, you name it, they jar it. This is a must for them as they don’t import as much in the winter as the good ole’ USA. So, this is how they get their nutrients during the winter. We have already received a few jars of traditional sauces from some friends, and we are excited to break them open for a taste.

Spend some time praising and thanking God for the smells and sights of His creation. He is such a creative God. Praise Him, for every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

Fall has just about arrived...

Well, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous here lately. The temperature has been hanging around 73-75 every day And let me tell ya, we aren't missing the NC humidity at all. We have been out and about enjoying the weather as much as we can. I have tried several times to study language outside, but I find I get way too distracted by the people and the beauty of the city to focus on the conjugation of all my verbs. So, my during my study breaks, I try to head out for a prayer walk and then a quick seat on a bench to enjoy God's creation. Isn't it just awesome that the Lord allows us to enjoy the beauty that He created for His glory. I am reminded with every look at the mountains and then out at the lake that God is more than sufficient for all my needs. He is the creator and sustainor of life, and He is more than faithful. He offers us more than we could ever even comprehend, and my cup overflows!!! My new favorite scripture is Psalm 18:35. It says "Your right hand sustains me, you stoop down to make me great." WHOO!!! He, the God of all gods, the LORD of all lords and King of all kings, the one Who created me, formed me in my mother's womb, and from Whom I cannot hide no matter where I go (Ps. 139) bends down to make me significant. WHOOHOO!!! Abundant, joy-filled life is what He offers. I know full well that some of you think I am crazy for getting excited about something so "illogical." My prayer is that one day you will know this Love and Truth through the blood of Jesus, and that is my prayer for the people of Ohrid, Macedonia as well. Pray that they will be open to the Truth. Pray that they will turn their hearts from "religion" and traditions to a relationship with the Savior. Pray that they will be broken over their sin. Pray that we will see fruit from our labor.

We Love You guys, and we pray that you are living abundant-joy-filled lives, that you are abiding with the Lord and that you are bearing much fruit.