New Life, Death, Answered Prayer, Victories and Sadness
“Did you know it (faith in Jesus) was what you were searching for when you heard Zvonko share the gospel?’ Lori asked, and her response was, “I wondered if this was the thing I had been searching for, but I knew it was real when I saw the immediate change in my husband’s life. He no longer swore or spoke mean, and I knew this had to be the real thing, for him to change.”
“I love our church”, was Meagan’s comment as we left church last night. We are grateful to be serving here in Ljubljana where the Spirit is obviously at work. This month we will be having our all church retreat with around 110 people. There will be 8 people baptized, one of whom is Laurel. Please pray for us and we seek to enfold new people and as we learn about the Authenticity of the Bible. There will be many non-Christians there as well.
Several of our students have been baptized recently, or will be at this next retreat. We are excited as many of them are taking this step. But we still see how many students aren’t being baptized either because they are afraid to tell their parents, or their parents have forbidden it. Please pray for these students. It is not easy for them.
This month Terry’s grandmother, Lena Toavs went home to be with her Lord. She lived an amazing 96 years and kept her humor up to the last days. She died peacefully in the arms of her daughter Lorna. While visiting with her this last summer 
Terry asked How is God good to you?, and her response from her nursing home bed is “He helps me to be happy and content”. Terry replied,” He keeps us going doesn’t He”; her reply, “Not very fast”. We rejoice over the heritage that she left us. She was a woman who loved to serve others as was evidenced by the fact she was sad to not serve us dinner while we were visiting. Kiley’s first response after hearing she had died was, “Now she can cook again”. Terry was able to be at the funeral and spend the week with his family in Montana as they remembered her life.
It finally happened – We bought a new (to us) van. We are very excited about it. It feels as if the Lord did exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine. We have been looking at getting a smaller vehicle just because we could not seem to come up
with the funds for a van, although we really believed we needed a van. While Terry was in Montana an additional $5000 was given which put us in the price range for a van. This van will save us greatly in monthly expenses at the mechanic, gas and even on tolls! Those of you have ridden in our other van when it has broken down know what a gift this is to us. Thank you to all of you who have eprayed and given towards this. It will be felt everyday!
Also this month Meagan took first place in her school in a European Math Competition. She will now advance to a city-wide competition. She also received a “silver” award for her achievement in a National chemistry competition and placed second in a Physics competition. All of these competitions will help her to get into the high school she is hoping to attend.
One of the most common words in our home these days is “Camps”. They are quickly approaching, but before the students climb on the buses in 11 different countries to head to over 60 camps there has been a great deal of details behind the scenes. Terry will be living, eating, and breathing camps for the next 4 months. Below is a bit of a schedule for things you can be praying for. This year will involve quite a bit more travel for Terry, thank you Lord for a new vehicle.
“Mom, Marta is smoking now.” Meagan shared sadly about one of her friends at school. Laurel (age 11), told us that some of her classmates were drinking during the Christmas break. We know this is not unique to Slovenia, but is sure breaks our hearts. If this is what these kids are doing at age 11 and 14, not to mention all these kids know about sex at as early ages as 6, where will they be as adults? This just increases our desire to reach these kids when they are young. Please continue to pray for our junior high group. We really desire to get into the hearts of these kids and offer them the Lord and have him change their lives forever.
Schedule:
March 28-April 13 Terry’s mom, Lorna, is visiting for Laurel’s baptism and Easter
March 30-April 1 Church Retreat and baptism at Croatian coast
April 4-5 Camp meetings in Czech
April 20-21 Camp training in Serbia April and May In schools inviting students to camp
May 29-June 6 Summer intern training in Czech
June 24 Camps start
