Mission to Montenegro newsletter
Blog entry for 18 February 2021
February 2021 Mission to Montenegro Newsletter
Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast. Ps. 36:5-6
Grace and Peace to you in the name of God our Father!
With the trials of Covid, winter storms, and worldly unrest, we sometimes find ourselves challenged to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer (Rom. 12:12). Yet God proves Himself faithful with mercies new every morning. Alleluia!
- In our morning services we finished the book of Exodus on a high note: God's glory and presence among His people. Amen! Stan will begin preaching through the Gospel of John beginning this coming Sunday.
- We've begun in-person meetings for our evening service which is also streamed live. Stan is continuing through the book of Hebrews albeit at a faster pace. This additional live meeting provides opportunities for other men to preach as well. For now, only our weekly prayer meeting is via Zoom.
Zoom Prayer Meeting--better than no meeting!
- Through a partnership with some missionaries down on the coast, we, as a church, have been hosting a food pantry for those hard hit by Covid-related losses. This is not an open pantry where anyone can come, but as we know people (both from within and outside the church) who are in need, we can go "shopping in the pantry" and provide food and household products. This has been a great testimony to those struggling, and a joy for us to provide practical demonstrations of God's love and care.
Our mini Food Pantry
- Our prayers have been answered: the last attempt at "We are not criminal" documents was accepted and the BGU interns have their one-year residency permits. Soli Deo gloria! They've been active in both the church community and EUS student ministry. We personally have them to thank (Thank you, Ladies!) for a well-organized library--a project that much needed to be done.
They can stay!
Additional Upcoming Ministry and Prayer Requests:
- Please pray for all our regular services and for Stan and others who do the preaching and teaching. May God's Word be proclaimed powerfully and reach many.
- Please pray for our continued health and safety. On one hand, with respect to Covid measures: some things are more open, other things are more restricted, and no one has gotten a vaccine as they are not yet available here. We entrust ourselves to God's care and being mindful of risks; pray that we would have wisdom discerning the big picture.
- Please continue to pray for the Book project and Video project. We've experienced minor delays, mainly related to weather issues.
- Please continue to pray for us regarding events and teams for this year. With increasing restrictions plus the US State Department declaring a Level 4: Do Not Travel warning for MNE, major events remain in limbo. May we be creative in reaching out to one another as well as our community.
With great love and appreciation for your ongoing prayers and support to make this all happen,
Stan and Vicki Surbatovich
