Family and Fun in New Jersey

About 2 weeks ago, we got to spend an awesome 10 days with Brian's cousins in New Jersey, his home state. He is so very proud of the place he was born. In his opinion, it is 'God's Country' cause there are Dunkin Donuts every 1/5 mile and the YES network which shows all Yankees, all the time. I reminded him that they do not have sweetened iced tea or Bojangles, but he said there was no need with donuts, NJ pizza and Yankees TV.

We had a blast spending the first part of our time in Towaco with his woodsman cousin and his family. ;) Mark loves to hunt and will shoot anything that moves and has fur on it. :0) Their little girl is just a few months younger than Kate and they had a blast playing together.


The second part of the week, we moved over to Licoln Park to stay with his oldest cousin and his family. We had a great time hanging out with their two boys, one of which is Brian's godson.


The family took us to the zoo, kept Kate while we went to the 15 inning Yankees, Red Sox game, made late night Dunkin Donut runs with Brian, took us over to Hoboken, NJ (greatest place in NJ), went with us into THE city (NYC), and ate with us at quite possibly the most expensive sandwich shop in the world.
Look at the size of that sandwich!

Brian and I in Time's Square.


We also got to go over to Garfield, NJ, where about 30,000 Macedonians live. Our friends, Marija and Aleksander, live there now. We enjoyed a day with them. Brian was the best man at their wedding about 2 years ago. They showed us where they work, took us to the Macedonian grocery store, and made us a skara (Macedonian cookout). While we still miss them terribly and wish, selfishly, that they would move back to Macedonia, we are so thrilled to see that they are thriving in this new world. Please pray for them, that they will find a church in which to be active and that they will grow in their faith in Christ.

Remember to Sign Up!!

We do not have a lot of people registered as of yet for this Summit! Please, if you know anyone in the Dallas/ Fort Worth region, please let them know about this. A lot of missionaries will be there and talking about opportunities to help in our work in Europe.
Engage Europe Summit.

Check it out and let all your Texas buddies know so they can come out and learn more.

Gatlinburg and Camp Mundo Vista

Hello Everyone,
We just finished of our week 3 tour. Our first week we were in Virginia, the second week we were in Gatlinburg, TN with Mandy's family for family vacation. Although it was vacation, there was no relaxing, it was go, go, go! Here are some pictures! After Gatlinburg we got to speak at Mandy's father's church. And then last week we arrived at Camp Mundo Vista in Asheboro, NC. We were the resident missionaries there and we tried to explain to the campers what it means to be a missionary and tell them about what we do in Macedonia. The three weeks were enjoyable and helped us to reflect on what we had been doing in Macedonia, but we didn't get much rest.

Here is a 6 month shot of Mandy as she was filming Kate and I throwing rocks in the river!

Here is Kate carrying Papa because he was tired on the nature trail.

Here is Kate throwing rocks into the river in Smokey Mountain National Park.

Here is Mandy addressing a group of campers during our presentation time at Camp Mundo Vista.

In America

Greetings from Virginia!

The Davis family returned to the States for a 6 month stateside assignment on June 27th. I realize that it is now 2 weeks later, but we have had a pretty packed schedule. The last week of June we were in Greece for a Annual General Meeting (AGM) of all Ms from Poland to Far East Russia and from Norway to Greece. Needless to say we packed the hotel where we were staying. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures at AGM so I have none to post.

We flew straight from AGM back to RDU. The 28th was my brother's birthday and so we were able to spend that day with him. Since the 28th until today, we have visited with all of my family and all of Mandy's family. We also were able to visit with some close friends. Although lots of pictures were taken at these encounters, they were taken by family and friends so once again we do not have any pictures. We are now at Stateside Conference in Virginia and this is our first opportunity to update the blog. Here are the only pictures we have since we have gotten back.
Kate and Grandma Davis

Kate and my friend, Matt Creech

Kate and Mom at the pool with our friends, the Broglis

A picture of me making a video for my dad.

And Matt, Kenna, Kate, and me just after we got into the pool.

Temporary Goodbyes

Just before we came to America we had one last big team meeting in Ohrid. The purpose of this meeting was just to hang out and greet our new teammates, the Dover's, and a chance for Mandy and I to say "goodbye" to K and M. It was bitter-sweet, of course. We are really looking forward to working with our new teammates and Kate is really looking forward to playing with Josiah and Judah. We hit it off really well with them and we are excited about how God is going to move in the town. They had been in Ohrid 3 weeks and about the time they got settled, we left! Fortunately the girls will be there and we have a friend from the church in Skopje down to help us out as well.
On the other hand, we had to say goodbye to K and M. They came the same week Kate was born and have been with us every step of the way. Together we took a coffeehouse from being open 3 nights a week and built it up into a great place for ministry. The girls have worked long and hard at their relationships and the coffeehouse will not be the same without them. I wonder sometimes what it will be like when we go back and they are not there. However, I do pray that God will guide them and give them wisdom as they seek to follow Him at the end of their terms. Although M will be there until August and K until October, we will not get to see them again in the near future. As a reminder of their time in Ohrid and the coffeehouse they help run, we had a local artist grave the name of the coffeehouse in copper. Below are some pictures from our final big Team Ohrid party.

Here is K and M with their gifts:

This is a picture of Team Ohrid Squad (the name we gave the four of us)

Here are the ladies playing Apples to Apples

Here is the a picture of Team Ohrid at its biggest!

The last week with the Dovers

The Dovers arrived one week from yesterday and we have had a blast getting to know them and helping them get settled. I think we have seen them in some way every single day for the last week. I have been able to help Jennifer find her way to and around the grocery store, Brian has taken them furniture shopping. He has been to the police station and the telephone company with them several times. He has helped them move their new stuff in and get it set up. We have enjoyed lunches with them and coffee at their landlords. We have both loved every minute of it. Jennifer is so great, and Brian is especially loving having a guy, Charlie, around. He has been the only male American presence in Ohrid since we have been here and he is enjoying the fellowship with a 'dude.'

The boys, Josiah and Judah, are adjusting good as well. They are learning a little Macedonian every day and I am sure will have the language mastered in no time. Ah, to have the mind of a child....

Thanks so much for praying for this family. The Lord answered your prayers and then some. They have already ministered to us so much! We feel very blessed to have them on our team. Please continue to pray for them as they start full-time language study the first of July and as they continue to adjust to life in Ohrid.

(I will try to get a picture soon.)

The Dovers are coming. The Dovers are coming!

We couldn't be more excited as we just got word that the Dovers were approved for their visa and will be on the plane coming to live in Ohrid in one week from today. YAY! Please pray that they will have safe travel and that their two young boys, Josiah and Judah, will do well on the long trip. Pray that they will adjust quickly to their new home and that they will find peace and rest in the Lord on the good and bad days. Thanks to God for sending us this new family to work with.

We will be stateside one month from today. We are getting pretty excited, but are totally overwhelmed at all that has to be done before we take our place on the airplane. Please pray that we will prioritize, listening to the Holy Spirit for every step, that we won't be anxious or stay awake worrying over what didn't get done the day before, and that we will bear fruits of the Spirit in all that we say and do.

We hope to see all of you while we are stateside but are realizing that six months really isn't that long, especially when you are having a baby right in the middle of it. Let us know if you want to meet one day and we will do our best to work it out to see everyone of you who we so dearly love.

Sayonara Ya'll

Logan, Stella and Sacchio at the fort


Japan and Alabama came to Ohrid. Our volunteer team from Jacksonville State University Baptist Campus Ministries just left on Friday morning. It was comprised of a Japanese exchange student, a "non-traditional" student and a sophmore who, like most, isn't sure what God wants him to do long term. All of them had a refreshing passion to see the nations worship. They did a fabulous job and we had a blast working with them and getting to know them. They were able to help us with a cookout with our Sunday night Bible study group. They were able to share with the whole group how Christ had changed their lives. The group was especially interested in the Japanese student who had come with the team. He shared how he was the only Christian in his family and he had come to know the Lord through IMB workers in Tokyo.

God also used the group to distribute 2000 tracks throughout a part of the town that we hadn't gotten to yet. They prayer walked, helped with English classes and just spent time sharing their time and lives with Macedonians. It was a fabulous group and we are so grateful for their faithfulness in coming.

Sacchio with two Macedonians at the cookout.

The team getting ready to share their testimony with the Bible study group.

Brian manning the grill. He is a grill master.

Another Day in Another Village

We recently went with our friends, to her home village about 3 hours away from Ohrid. We had a good time, and boy was it interesting. The time with this family was great and our relationship is continuing to grow. We were their for the villages Saint George Day celebration. They had a concert until about 3:00am and Kate was trying to sleep 100 yards from the speakers. It didn't go over that well :). Anyway, here are some pictures:
Her family is a family of farmers. They grow LOADS of cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelons and sell them throughout all of Macedonia. Here is one of the ginormous green houses, it was about 120 yards by 80 yards. This is the biggest one, but by far only a small percentage of the crop.

We were there on a holiday and the music literally never stopped. They played ALL night long.

This is a picture of their cucumber plants.

I ate a lot of cucumbers. I guess, even though I am through my first trimester, some food aversions just aren't going away--like, for instance, the lamb we ate after they 'sacrificed' it in their front yard and then said, "Oh, don't worry. He was sick." Um, can we say lamb flu? I did try a bite, but couldn't bear to eat it. It was ok, cause I ate their cucumbers like bananas the whole day. Brian did eat quite a bit of the sacrificed lamb and I am happy to say we have seen no signs of the lamb flu. PTL!

Inductive Bible Study Sets

After (and a result of) our team leader training in Prague in February, God inspired the idea of using Bible Study sets in Ohrid. As a team, we have a lot of friends, but they did not want to seem to commit to a Bible Study. The idea of a set of Bible Studies was a perfect solution on both ends. When I say set, I mean a course that meets once a week for 8 weeks, 10 weeks, or 12 weeks. On their end this works because they do not need to commit to anything longer than the course. On our end if someone is not really serious at this moment in time we have an excuse to move on temporarily. We of course never close the door on anyone, we just focus our time on better soil. Currently we are working on a 12 week Chronological Bible Study that covers 12 key Bible Stories. When we asked our friends if they wanted to do a 12 week course, many of them said yes. Until now they were skeptical in some ways, but this offers both of us a chance to discuss the Bible.

Not only are we doing sets, but we are doing them inductively. The model of church we have in America is built off a tradition of mainstream Christianity. We preach the way we preach in churches on Sunday morning because we think most people in the congregation have a Biblical understanding on which they can understand the material ... well until the last couple of years. In America, this is changing because the younger generations are not being raised in a Bible teaching church and many of them can not tell you the difference between the Old and New Testament. In Macedonia, people have very little Biblical knowledge so before we can even preach, we need them to read and understand basic principles of the Bible. An inductive approach is the best way for THEM to learn. It is the easiest for ME to tell them (preach), but it is best for THEM to interact with the text and see it for themselves. What we do is read a text of Scripture as a group (for example Genesis 1 - Creation) and I (the facilitator) ask a set of questions that gets the group to read the text and process it. In the end, the points that I would preach on end up coming out in the form of questions.

There are many different types of inductive approaches, and I am using an approach of Observation, Interpretation, and Application that I learned from Kyle. (We may not be Baptists here yet, but we can teach them early about 3 points that all end the same ... golf analogies come later :) ). Actually, we have to get a golf course in Macedonia first!

Observation: Observation questions are questions where the answers come from only the text. For example, what did God create on the 5th day? or What did God ask Abraham to do? The answers to these questions are non-debatable because we are only getting our answers from the text. If you are good facilitator you know what points you want to bring out and then you ask the appropriate questions. It is also good because I cannot bring out a point that is not found in the text so it keeps me honest as well.

Interpretation: Interpretation questions are usually always the same, and we only have three. "What does the text teach us about God?"; "What does the text teach us about man?"; and "What is the main point of the text?." The questions are obviously less grounded in the text but they come from the things we learned in Observation. For example, since we saw that God created X on day X, Y on day Y ... in Observation, we learn that God is the Creator of all things. Or from Observation with Abraham and Isaac, we learn that God wants us to be obedient to what he asks of us not matter what it looks like will happen.

Application: What does this text mean for me in my life? or How does it apply to me? Please note that we did NOT say "What do I think the text says?" The truth of the text is not debatable, but the application of it can vary from person to person and situation to situation. For example, from Abraham and Isaac we learned that God wants us to be obedient in all areas of our life and I know that he hates a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:16-19) so I will be honest in all my conversations at work no matter what I THINK might be the result.

So in a nut shell we are using this inductive approach throughout the whole Bible in order to lay a solid Biblical foundation. This way people are reading what the text says instead of me telling them. People who have been in our earlier Bible Studies like this approach much better. One guy, Igor, who I have been friends with since the beginning told me he is glad we are using this approach because "we get to see for ourselves what God is trying to say." One day I hope that we will be able to have more in depth preaching, but we have to have a foundation before that can take place.

I want to close with a comment that this approach might be used effectively in America. There are many people who sit in the pews and really do not know basic principles of the Bible nor do some of them know how to read and interact with it. We are assuming that people are on the 3rd and 4th floors when they might be on the ground level or 1st floor. A lot of our material that we use for Sunday School and small groups makes the same assumptions. It might be the best thing for some Sunday School classes to put the material in the closet for a while and open up the Word and start interacting with it and see what God has to say for Himself. Once that foundation is laid, bring the material back out and go deeper!

****
I just uploaded the inductive Bible Study for creation (translated into English :)) here for you to look at. Creation is pretty straight forward, but if want to see another example from a harder text, please let me know.

Back in the Day... at the Village

We recently spent the day at the village home of our friend L. He no longer lives there, but he goes back with his family regularly to visit. We had a blast walking through the village and grilling out with their family. Here are some pictures of our day (they are in no particular order).
This is the whole village from a distance. Beautiful.

The abundance of meat. We had everything from chicken wrapped in bacon, to hamburger meat stuffed with cheese to good ol' fashion sausage.

This is what Kate thinks of the village. Stay tuned to her blog for more pictures of her day at the village.

The men preparing for the BBQ.

These are some OLD shoes, but what they would have worn back in the day.

Just some of the houses we saw on our walk around the village.

We stopped and talked to this lady. She was stoking the fire in her stove to make bread.

She invited us to come back later to have some of the bread, but sadly we never returned that way.

Check out his hat--Charlotte Hornets. We asked him about it, and he had no clue what the Charlotte Hornets were--although who really does nowadays. Ah, Mugsy...



This is the house L grew up in. Cool, uh?!

Poor donkey. That looks heavy.

L and Brian--buddies.

Kate found a feeding trough. I guess she was hungry.

Bittersweet Times

We are getting pretty excited about our new teammates getting here. Charlie, Jennifer and their boys, Josiah and Judah will be arriving in the next few weeks (we hope). They are going to be career m's here just like Brian and I, which means they are in for the long haul. We are so excited to have some more help and are thrilled that it is coming soon.

Our time with M and K, our journeymen, is quickly winding down.

M plans to leave August 6th to return to the states and pursue a masters and K is planning on staying here until October 16th. Please pray for these girls. They have been so wonderful to work with and have become a part of our family here. We are going to miss them greatly! Pray for them as they finish up their time. Pray that it will be fruitful and that they will work diligently. And pray that they will know where to go next. There are many questions from, "Where will I work?" to "Where should I go to seminary?" to "Should I continue to pursue a life of foreign missions?"

With the girls leaving we are hoping to have two more girls or guys come and fill their spot! That is a huge prayer request. Pray that someone will answer the call to work for two years in Macedonia teaching English and working at the coffee house, among other wonderful things. If you know anyone who might be interested in filling this spot. Please let them know we are looking and would love to talk with them.

The BSU of WCU

The Baptist Student Union of William Carey University sent 5 talented musicians to assist us in our work here. While they were here, they did two concerts at the coffeehouse and one at the big name coffeehouse downtown. The concerts were fantastic and the coffeehouse was the fullest we have ever seen it for their last concert there. On the days when there were not concerts, we did prayer walking and literature distribution and have already heard back from 2 people (which is a big deal). Here are some pictures from the last concert:





Before coming, the group prepared a song by Tose Proeski, who has recently passed away and is as big as Elvis was in his time. People would come and stay just to hear the group play it. I recorded it, but my camera does not quite give the song justice. Nontheless, here is the group playing Tose's "The Hardest Thing" (one of the few songs he sung in English.)


Overall, the group was a huge success and I am grateful for their time, effort, practice, and faithfulness to come. I know they did have an impact and they helped us spread the word about the coffeehouse.

Great Video

As much as I can remember, this will be only the second time since we created this blog that we posted something outside of our own thoughts, comments, or activities. My brother-in-law forwarded me this video that he saw at a pastor's conference and I think it would be good for all our brothers and sisters in Christ to watch. As a matter of fact, watch it once and once you understand the message, watch it again!



This video is comprised of the full length speech called "The Year of Living Dangerously". If you would like to download the whole speech click here. If you would like to see a list of all Al Mohler's sermons and speeches, they can be found here.

A Baby in the Making

We, Jackie and I, were able to throw a baby shower for our colleague and great friend, Amy. She is due to have a little baby girl in April. We are so excited to meet their new baby and had a blast celebrating this new life with her.
Some of the attendees.

The cute pregnant Amy and me.

The beautiful cake done by Jackie. Isn't that amazing?!

A wreath made out of diapers. Brian is quite crafty. :0)

And the food. Yum.


But wait, there's more...
There is another baby in the making. We found out last week that we are pregnant with our second baby. I am 7 weeks along and have started having all the normal symptoms of pregnancy. We will be having this baby in the states around November 1. Having just come out of a miscarriage, I am a little nervous about this one. Please pray that I will rejoice in my Sustainer and Provider--the Giver of Life. Pray that I won't focus on what could happen. And most of all, please pray for a full healthy pregnancy. YAY!

In Prague

Prague is the home base for our region of Central and Eastern Europe. This is where a great deal of training takes place. We are here for team leader training for 3 weeks. We are so grateful for this opportunity and we are having a blast learning tons and eating lots of great American food. :0) We are right in the middle of training now, and although we are enjoying the time and fellowship, we are looking forward to returning to Macedonia. Kate spends the day with 3 other kids, but we hurry home to pick her up and take her out on the town with us as we look for dinner.

In January, we celebrated our 5 year!!! anniversary in Paris and then came back to celebrate my birthday just a few days later. It was good to get away for an extended weekend. The Kirkpatricks were kind enough to look after Kate. They kept resisting and coming up with excuses not to take care of a 15 month old who walks around and talks to everyone, but in the end they caved and took care of her :). Okay, that was a bit of sarcasm/ They willingly and kindly offered to take care of her for us.


We have had a very productive month and are excited to see that God is doing some awesome things in our city. We hope to be starting a Bible Study the beginning of March so please pray for God to bless that!