Mission to Montenegro newsletter

Mission to Montenegro December 2011 Newsletter:

Recent Church/Ministry Events:

Thank you for your prayers for the All-MNE Believers meeting held mid-November, right here in Niksic.. It was our church's turn to host the annual fellowship meeting for born-again believers here in Montenegro. This involves logistics like booking a room, arrangements for lunch, inviting a guest speaker. Stan invited Mr. Horvatek from Croatia who teaches at a seminary there that is sponsored by Master's College. We felt everything went very well: the teaching was very good and solid, the fellowship great, the weather cold but sunny, and we had a record crowd! :-)

The College Outreach ministry is being blessed by God. There is a weekly bible study (led by Danijel P.) and a weekly English Conversation Club held at the university. This past week we had a student outreach at the Cafe Atrium in downtown Niksic. We are thrilled that we have good relations with a (currently) non-believing cafe owner who is willing to let us host public lectures/concerts in his cafe. The topic this week was Servant Leadership (as exemplified by Jesus Christ our Savior) and there was good discussion with students, the employees, and other guests in the cafe. Please continue to pray particularly for V, L, and A (three students) and N (former student) who have varying degrees of understanding the gospel. Pray, too, for Danijel and Peter S. as they spend the most time with these students.

Ongoing and Upcoming Ministry

We have been seeing new faces at our Sunday morning services, in particular Danica's family. Danica is the young lady who was baptized this summer along with our Milijana. Her parents have a communistic background and merely permitted (an answer to prayer in itself) Danica to participate in our Christian meetings and events. Danica's baptism was the first time her father attended a service. But now they are regularly coming to Sunday services and other fellowship-sponsored events and are really listening to God's Word. Please pray that the good seed being sown would bear fruit in their lives.

Our BIG project in the next few weeks is the distribution (and gospel presentation) of the 4000+ Samaritan's Purse Christmas shoeboxes that arrived today. Please pray for this as it takes the whole fellowship to get the job done! For our Christmas program, it appears that we will be able to use large rooms at both the hotel and the conference center where we hosted the All-MNE Believer's meeting. Please pray that God would grant us wisdom in explaining the Good News to so many unbelieving children and their parents, that the packages would go to appreciative homes, and that God would be pleased to magnify His name through these efforts.

We will be celebrating Christmas on Jan. 7th because Montenegro still follows the Orthodox calendar. Additionally, there are several Saint's Days that are culturally important. Please pray that as we get together with unbelievers, we would redeem the time and winsomely share God's truths about Jesus, His birth, life, death, and resurrection, and that all the true saints of the past want to see the Lord glorified and honored and not themselves.

Family News:

Right now we are in the throes of Josiah's university application process--without a "local" college (so to speak, since the ones here aren't a worthy option for us), he has all of the U.S. open to him and with a lot of interests, he is applying to more schools than the rest of the kids (so far) combined. Please pray that God would guide Josiah and that he would end up at the school that will best equip him for life, mentally, spiritually, and physically. We've seen the Lord mightily answer this prayer with respect to our three oldest, and once again, we earnestly seek and pray for the Lord's direction.

Christian arrived Dec. 17) after another successful semester at CSU Fresno. This will be his first time back since heading off to college a year and half ago and he will be here til mid-January. Amy Joelle will also be spending the Christmas holidays with us but needs to head back on Dec. 27th; as a working woman, she no longer has those long between-semesters college breaks. Sadly, Anna Marie can't make it over here and will be spending the holidays with good friends in New Jersey.

Lastly, please pray for Stan as he has been having an increase in the number and magnitude of migraine headaches and other physical distresses. Please pray for both mercy from God and wisdom in knowing how to best manage his busy days.

With great love and appreciation for your ongoing support in this great work of God,

Stan and Vicki Surbatovich
Mission to Montenegro

Prayer Bullet Points:

1. That God's Word would be boldly proclaimed from the pulpit, in the mid-week Bible study, in casual conversation, in counseling, in every opportunity that God grants.

2. For the university students who are grappling with the Big Questions of Life, that they would meet the Giver of Life.

3. For the unbelieving families of church members: Danica's parents and brother, the wives of Rade, Milan, Jovan, the extended family of everyone (no multi-generational Christian families here--these are the first converts in the country).

4. For the leadership of the Niksic Fellowship: particularly Stan, Danijel, and Peter.

5. For the Samaritan's Purse Outreach project: grace, stamina, wisdom, and fruit.