Mission to Montenegro newsletter
Blog entry for 18 April 2019
April 2019 Mission to Montenegro Newsletter
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations. Is. 61:11
Grace and Peace to you in the name of God our Father!
Praise our Sovereign Lord that He does indeed make righteousness and praise spring up, else our work would be a work in vain. Even as the flowers in our garden remind us, bursting forth as they are right now, we long and pray that God would add to His people here in Nikšić for His praise and glory.
To that end, here are some highlights of this past (busy!) month:
- Through his exegetical preaching, Stan is currently covering Exodus 4, expounding on the call of Moses to deliver the Israelites, his unwillingness, and God’s mercies in the face of all Moses's weak excuses. In our evening service, we continue to be challenged by James's pastoral concerns, and in chapter 3, we are confronted with the terrifying power of the tongue and the impossibility of our taming it—apart from being united with Christ.
- As part of the outreach to university students, we hosted Dr. Alexander Fink, a biophysicist and Director of the Institute for Faith and Science (Institut für Glaube und Wissenschaft). He gave several lectures, both in Podgorica and Nikšić, speaking on such topics as Are We More than our Brains? and Can a Scientist Believe in God? There was a good turnout and new students were reached and stretched in their thinking. May God cause those seeds to grow!
- Although we said good-bye to the Danish Bible School students at the end of March, our Montenegrin-Danish partnership continues to flourish. Right now, several Montenegrin young people are in Denmark, attending a Christian Easter Camp, hearing the Word and being challenged to choose this day whom you will serve. Please pray for illumined hearts, changed hearts, worshipful hearts.
- Stan has finished all the paperwork (officially stamped!) for his cataract surgery. Thank you all for your concern, warm wishes, and prayers. He nows awaits a phone call telling him when it will be; we have reasonable expectations that this will be during the first half of May.
Upcoming Ministry and Prayer Requests:
- Urgent! It has recently come to our attention that the draft law on church-state relations proposed by the Montenegrin government in 2015 is to be adopted by June 1. This is the law that we spoke out against as being very restrictive and burdensome on religious freedom. We have yet to see what (if any) changes were made to that proposal and have been finding it very difficult to find a copy or any information whatsoever. Please pray that we (the entire evangelical community in Montenegro) would be able to read, assess, and respond in a timely manner, and that God would intervene to allow our current freedom to continue.
- Joyous times ahead! We will be celebrating Easter on April 28th (according to local custom), and a wedding on May 4. Both these events are wonderful, natural opportunities to testify to the foundation (Christ!) of our happiness in this life and in the life to come. Pray, too, for Saša and Marina as they commit to each other before God and family and enter into the joys and challenges of wedded life.
With great love and appreciation for your ongoing prayers and support,
Stan and Vicki Surbatovich
