News in Our family:

My wife is planning out our garden and is encouraging me to help her get the soil ready for planting vegetables. Kids continue going to school with only one more month of school left. Warm weather outside is interfering with their ability to focus on studying, but the school year end is near. I thank you for your prayers. I asked you to pray for Damir (my son) and I can see God acting and slowly changing his heart. Please continue to pray for him!

News in Our church:

I continue preaching from 2 Kings. I finished preaching on the life of Jehoahaz, first son of Josiah. Then I moved on to looking at the life of the next king Jehoiakim. (2 Kings 23:36 – 24:6) This was a good time as God was teaching me and the church this important truth: that judgment and shame come upon God’s people if they ignore the gracious discipline of the Lord. And so we looked at two ways God’s discipline is ignored which leads to the following outcome:
1) when God’s people only want to take care of the consequences of sin but do not want to address the root of the problem
2) when God’s people are tempted to reject those who tell them the truth.

As I mentioned before, God was teaching me a lot through the study of this text. This was also a very applicable passage for solving some current spiritual issues in our church. The work of God in the life of Jehoiakim was first and foremost an encouragement to me, especially in this highly stressful situation recently in our church.

Mission Project in the South:

I also worked on planning my mission project in the south as much as I could find time. The board of elders of our church held a meeting where it was decided to create a formal missions outreach project for Southern Kazakhstan led by yours truly (me). I praise God that the other men in our church are seeing the need for me to serve the Kazakh nationals. This project will be coordinated by our church as they send me out in the near future, Lord willing. Here are the three areas of spiritual work that I am preparing to do in the South:

  1. Teach expository preaching and train pastors and men within the region of ______.
  2. Influence and help the local church through expository preaching.
  3. Preach the Gospel to the unbelieving Kazakh people there.

The region I will be moving to is quite large, with a population over 1.5 million. There is also another area of work that we are hopeful in prayer about: the need for translation work into the Kazakh language. We are looking into and estimating translation costs for required literature for further education and publishing, and planning how to best accomplish specific projects.

Please, pray for me as I realize my short-comings as a husband and a father. Pray that I may know how to love my wife and children better. This is my great personal prayer need. Please, also pray for my children and their salvation. I praise God for my wife, that she is supportive of my desire to move and serve the Kazakh nationals. She is also learning the language and is trying very hard. Pray also for this opportunity in the south.