What God Has Done

Greetings from Edmonton! We want first of all to wish you a Merry Christmas and a blessed season of celebrating our Savior's birth. Secondly, we want to thank you for keeping track of us throughout 2014 and for the support you have offered to us by prayer, giving and encouragement! Much of what you will read here is ultimately connected to your involvement in the mission here in both large and small ways.

As this is our ministry Christmas letter, we will try to briefly re-cap the highest of highlights from this year as we have continued the church-plant here in Edmonton.

What has the Lord done for us in 2014? According to His character, He has done great things!

The Church
We are the church, the body of Christ, and we have seen growth in our fellowship over this past year in many ways! At the turn of the year we numbered 7 adults and 4 children in regular attendance, including ourselves. At the close of the year, though we have temporarily lost a brother due to visa issues, we number 14 adults in regular attendance and 4 children. And everyone is involved in the ministry serving in some way, including most of the children, so this is very exciting to see and be part of! People have found us in various ways, and we have had many come-and-goers, as well as visitors, but we are blessed to see this growth in our fellowship.

Some of the men went to a men's retreat in Calgary at the Calvary Chapel there, our ladies fellowship grew from 2 to 4-5 over the year, the children's church sang for the church for Easter and Christmas, and we all had a blessed gathering quarterly for food and fellowship, often with additional guests who attend irregularly but whom we have been getting acquainted with as a result of these times.

Reaching Out, Sharing the Gospel
This year we had some new opportunities to minister to people in different circles than in our first year.

Mormon Missionaries
There is subtle but definite presence of the Mormon church in Edmonton, and we (finally) had some missionaries knock on our door this spring. Throughout the summer and fall, Julie had the privilege of nearly weekly visits from two young ladies who were serving their LDS mission in our neighbourhood. We also had some occasional guests from their local church ward, and Dejan got to get some good conversation in as well at times.

With a Mormon "sister" from Wyoming

with our other "sister" from Utah

This was a wonderful experience in evangelism and defending the faith, and we pray that these ladies will be forever changed as a result of their time in our home. We gave them each a book when they were transferred elsewhere, so we pray the Lord will use these gifts to enlighten their understanding of the true meaning of the Gospel.



Tract and Treating
Our girls have been planning since last October what we were going to do this year to redeem Halloween. So, clad in the costumes of a ladybug, queen bee, and Sparky the firefly (from AWANA), they hit the West Edmonton Mall armed with buckets of treat bags, Gospel tracts, candies, and a pumpkin Gospel song the day before Halloween. They giggled at the thought of surprising people with "Tract and treat!!" and the giving of candy to store clerks with a Gospel tract, instead of seeking to get. So many workers were caught off guard and everyone received from these little bugs the message and gift of light and the Gospel. They also hit the mall's amusement park and randomly gave away treat bags with Gospel coins, candy and creation tracts to as many children as they could find. It was very fulfilling.

T
Teams and Visitors

Team from Calvary Chapel Meridian at the Alberta Legislature

Twice we had the blessing of visitors who came to pray for Edmonton and help us in the work here. A team from Meridian, Idaho was touring Alberta and stayed with us for a day and night. We were grateful for their time here and for their investment in the spread of the Gospel in Alberta, including Edmonton.

We were so encouraged by this family!

Not too long after this, a family also came to visit the province and spent a couple of days with us in fellowship as they are praying about moving to Alberta for ministry. These two occasions encouraged us greatly.





Christmas Letters and Cookies
We got the church involved just before Christmas in reaching out to the homeless in downtown Edmonton by ministering the Gospel through Christmas letters and homemade cookies. Some baked, some wrote letters, and still others took them out into the streets. Though it was a bit more challenging to find this year (they truly had to "seek the lost"), the group's persistence paid off and were glad to be able to bless the poor. (Below is a photo of the group that went out).

We hope that this new year is one of great fruitfulness for the Lord in our lives and yours and in His church! Have a BLESSED 2015!!

Dejan and Julie <><

Milestones

The Bible is full of examples of remembering and reflecting on events of the beginnings of things. From Creation to Passover, the entry to the Promised Land and even harvest, God's people are directed and encouraged to recall their origins. We must never forget that God is the source of all blessing, nor to thank Him for each one. He is faithful.

This Sunday we are marking the close of our second year of ministering in Edmonton. It's our anniversary, you could say. Our first "service" was November 11, 2012, a little over one week after our arrival in Alberta. We began in chapter 1 of the Gospel of John in a living room in a Sherwood Park home with one family, and we've been meeting every week since, moving through the New Testament chapter by chapter. By God's grace, our fellowship has grown in number and our relationships in depth as the months have passed.

We are blessed to have a church family and a church "home away from home" here in Edmonton with all of those who join us for worship, fellowship and learning the Word. How amazing to see what began as a step of faith into a harvest field grow from a small seed to a small group! We are also thankful to the congregation at St. Timothy's for allowing us to share their building and for the privilege of simply ministering God's Word here in Edmonton where the need for it is so great.

We are ever-mindful of all you who are holding us up in prayer and who support us financially to live and serve here. You are such a significant part of what we are seeing God do among us, and we pray His continued provision in your lives as well. THANK YOU for laboring and sharing with us! The Lord has opened the door for us to serve Him here, and He has seen fit to keep it open as well, since we recently received the renewal of our visas for 3 more years, should He tarry in His coming. He has truly shown us His good hand of grace!

In Him,
Dejan and Julie

Answered Prayer

THANK YOU to everyone who has been holding us up in prayer, specifically for our most recent needs.

We have received an answer in regards to our visas, and the answer is that they were renewed! We have been granted permission to remain in Canada for three more years, and we are rejoicing at this provision of grace!

We are also all recovered from our month of ill health and are feeling much more rested, so we are extremely grateful for that. Your prayers are making a difference!

We are celebrating Thanksgiving here in Canada this weekend, and truly, we have much to be thankful for, especially the ability to continue to minister and serve Him here in this church plant, a work that we are blessed to be part of!

Praising God for His faithfulness,
Dejan and Julie

PRAYER REQUESTS - Personal & Ministry

Here is a list of the current needs we have as we are living and serving here in Edmonton. We are blessed and thankful to those of you who are serving with us by carrying us in prayer.

Personal/Family

These are in addition to the general requests for our spiritual growth, our marriage, our safety and for God to use us here.

• Our Visa Renewal: We were granted visas for 2 years when we moved here in November 2012, and we have submitted our applications for extension/renewal of our visas. We are hoping for a favorable and timely response.

• Our Physical Health: It is rare for all of us to be ill or unwell, but we currently all are either run down/exhausted or ill, some more than others. We need restful sleep and healing.

• Our Parenting: We are always in need of wisdom and guidance, but we feel a more keen need for it at the present, as our children are growing and the dynamics of our parenting must change and grow with them.

Church-Plant/Ministry

We are blessed to be serving alongside many of the people who attend the church weekly (more than half of them are involved in some way besides attendance). They help set up and clean up and participate in the service in a variety of ways. 

However, Jesus sent out His disciples by twos, and though we are a pair as a married couple, in our ministry duties we operate singly due to the nature of what we do, particularly on Sundays but also during the week. Our desire is for at least two other people to join us in the following capacities:

Partner/Worship Leader

• Partner: Dejan is somewhat limited as to what situations he can minister by himself in preaching the Gospel because he goes out alone. Some scenarios are unsafe/unwise for him to approach alone and even just having a witness seems important, if the person didn't feel confident or comfortable in evangelism. Of course the need for on-the-spot prayer is always acute, and there are other practical things that need doing through the week.

• Worship Leader: Julie is currently splitting her time during the service between leading worship and running the children's church. This takes someone from the church away from part of the worship time to care for the children and Dejan takes them the remainder, which prevents him from being in with everyone. 

*It would be ideal if another person could assume the music ministry and also be the partner for Dejan during the week.

Assistant in Children's Church/Home

• Assistant in Children's Church: For accountability and practicality, we would be blessed to have a permanent helper in the children's church. On the accountability side, this means that no accusations can be brought against the church in regards to how we care for children who come through our doors. On the practicality side, this means that someone can take little ones to the bathroom without stopping the entire class, be an extra pair of helping hands during the art/response time, be able to help those who need extra attention or presence, etc.

• Home Help: When we lived and served at the Bible College, there was an area of student ministry to the pastor's families which included several hours per week of in-house help for the pastor's wives. Most of it was practical home help which enabled the wives to devote more of their time to ministry, either to their children or to others, rather than feeling pressed by the ever-present needs of housekeeping with multiple young children. They also supplied the need for a sitter in certain cases. 

These needs are coverable by singles just as easily as by another married couple. Even if someone would only be able to come on a visitor visa for a short-term commitment of 6 months we would be greatly helped. We are managing without outside help and have been, but we are seeking God for these things and believe He has a plan that extends beyond our family for this church-plant. 

Thanks for taking the time to include us in your prayers over the coming weeks!

By grace always,

Dejan and Julie

As Summer Draws to a Close

Hello again!

It has been quite a while since we have posted anything, as we have had quite a full schedule, so we'd like to update you on what's been going on here in Edmonton. There is much good news!

Over the last several months we have seen some significant growth in our church fellowship.

• At the close of the school year, we had a barbecue at the home of a couple in the church as we celebrated the beginning of summer and waved farewell until fall to our university students who have been attending since winter. We had quite a turnout and everyone enjoyed good fellowship.
• The men meet every other Saturday morning, and have finished their journey through Nehemiah. There are usually between 4-6 of them, and they enjoy this time. Occasionally they also go out after their fellowship to try to share the gospel with people in the area where they meet.
• We began a monthly ladies fellowship in January and it has grown in size from 2 to 6 over the last several months. It has been a blessing to share prayer and encouragement.
• Our small children's church has excellent support from the adult fellowship. We always have help with setup and breakdown, particularly since someone in the church made wheeled cabinets to store the things we use so we don't have to pack and unpack each week. We have had several visiting families (either checking our the church or visiting their family members who are fellowshipping with us) and we have gotten nothing but positive feedback from both children and parents.
• The Lord has brought several new people our way as the summer has developed who are coming regularly. One family moved from Calgary and so "transferred" to us from the Calvary Chapel there. Another couple was seeking to get back to church and preferred a smaller group. Still another young believer found out about Calvary Chapel at the recommendation of a teacher he listens to online. We also have seen the growth of the body in serving at their own initiative. We feel like a church family in many ways.
• We have had a website, Facebook page and blog online for people to find us for quite a while, and we have been in our community league newsletter as well. We are also now in print, as we have a listing in our local Shepherd's Guide, the Christian directory distributed widely across the region. Already we have had one first time visitor who found us in the Shepherd's Guide.

We have a couple of prayer requests as well, but we will put that in a separate post. Thanks for taking time to read about what's happening here. We always appreciate your prayers, financial support and encouragement, and we absolutely couldn't do without them.

By grace,

Dejan & Julie

Major Update, Part 2: Ministry

We're posting our update in two parts, personal and ministry. To see part 1, click here.

Visibility
Last September we moved our little fellowship group outside our home and into a nearby church building. Our aim in this was to provide a third space for people, since not everyone feels comfortable going to someone's home. Since our move we have seen many new faces, usually one at a time, as people have come to check out what we're doing, but most of them have either been visiting Edmonton from another city with a Calvary Chapel or got a "referral" of sorts from someone who does.

Over the last several months we have become much more visible as a group in the following ways:

• creating a website for the church plant
• starting a Facebook page
• making a blog to post happenings
• placing an "ad" in our local community league's quarterly newsletter
• purchasing a small ad space in the local Shepherd's Guide for 2014

and last, but not least, we've become locally visible by

• getting two sidewalk/sandwich board signs to put outside the church building indicating our presence (these are out on Sundays from an hour before service until we pack up to leave)

We're particularly excited about the sidewalk signs because last week we met a couple who had found our website but weren't confident about our location until they saw our signs out Easter Sunday (which was the first Sunday we had them)!

Prayer Need 1: Our prayer is that God would use these media to assist people seeking a solid, Bible-teaching church and to lend some greater permanence to the work He has begun.

Outside the Box
We are blessed to have a stable small group of people who gather on Sundays and for the other fellowship opportunities we have in the month. However, we know that the church grows by the Lord adding to it those who are being saved. This happens as all believers are equipped by their leaders for the work of the ministry in their circles of influence, but as church planters, it happens by our doing the work of evangelists.

We don't hesitate to say that with one full-time worker  (Dejan) and one full-time at heart but part-time at best (Julie) this has been a matter for much thought and prayer over the months we've been here. We've tried many things, with the following observations:

• When the weather is cold, it's harder to get with people. They retreat and withdraw as the winter deepens and making primary contact has been more challenging. 
• When the weather is nicer in the balance of the year, it is much, much easier. Everyone seems hungry for getting outside and getting around people in a way other than the daily commute to work or doing their weekly shopping.

Prayer Need 2: Creativity in evangelism is acute in our situation. We believe the Lord has the best ideas, and we are seeking Him for what exactly to do* during the spring and summer months. Your prayers for these matters would be more than a blessing. 

*One avenue of contact is just meeting with and grilling out with some of our neighbors with whom we are more well-acquainted. Another is that we have a plot in our local community garden. We are also prayerfully considering running a recreational men's soccer night at our local park.

Consistency
Our little core group has changed over the months since last spring but remains pretty stable overall. One couple moved far away, another person drives quite a distance and needed something closer to home. Still another has new job constraints that preclude regular Sundays off. It is important for us to be patient, as all these situations happen regularly in congregations larger in size. It's just way more noticeable when the size is small.

We have firm trust that Jesus is building His church, so these things don't concern or worry us. What is bothersome is the trend that seems to exist of a low priority of fellowship. It seems that many people in general put a higher priority over other, less permanent activities or pursuits. It's kind of baffling, but we have heard that this is kind of an issue in this area from more than one source, so it's a matter we definitely need to bring to the Lord. Perhaps it stems from the general lack of substantial Bible teaching in the church at large, we don't know, but it's something we'd like to see change in the city.

Prayer Need 3: Our heart's desire for our fellowship is that it will reflect the statement about the church at Ephesus in Acts 19:20, "So the Word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed." It's not about numbers, but we know that health often means growth in both depth and breadth.

Outreach
We are eagerly anticipating another team from our home church this summer! Last August we had an amazing time of fellowship, preaching and ministry with the group that came, and we are expecting God to do great things again. Now that we are meeting outside our home, we are excited to be able to direct people there (whereas last summer we were unable to give our home address to relative strangers).

That's just one week out of the whole summer, however, SO... we are longing for other individuals, couples or teams from ours or other churches to also come and invest some time and energy to the work here. Whether it's a weekend, a week, a few weeks, a month, we are in need of more beautiful feet to go out and share the gospel, more hearts and hands to labor together with us, to fellowship, pray and serve!

Prayer Need 4: "Pray to the Lord of the harvest, to send out workers into His harvest field." ~Jesus (Matt. 9:38)

We are so blessed to be here and witness the work that God is doing! Jesus is true to His word, and we are dependent on Him to fulfill His promise that He will build His church, not just in a general sense, but here in our midst as well. Thanks for taking the time to consider all that's going on here. May the Lord bless and guide you in your present work, calling and ministry in His name.

By His grace,
Dejan and Julie <><

Major Update, Part 1: Personal

We're posting our update in two parts, personal and ministry. Since it's been a while since we've updated you will see the * symbol throughout. If you want all the info we're updating, you can read the starred information below each section. For a shorter version, skip the stars and italics and continue reading the section below it.

Emerging After Winter: Health
After a long, deep winter, we finally have reliably mild weather here in Edmonton. At our last post, we were in the middle of what turned out to be a six-week stretch of illness for most of our family*. So our late winter was alot of plain perseverance. Our weekly schedule kept going, and so did we. Thankfully it seems to be behind us now.

*more info on health--(One child went first and was just starting to recover when the other two both had a brief period of illness, but the wear of taking care of all three sent Julie into more than a month of hard illness. First strep throat, then not long after recovering from that she developed an acute kidney infection. Because of her health history she is not able to take antibiotics so it was a lengthy process of healing both times. Thankfully, Julie's mom was with us for 2 1/2 weeks of that period, so God provided help in a wonderful way!) 

Housebound
Like much of the North America and Europe, we had an unusual winter here*.  So it was pretty tough to get out to be with people and the streets and events were sparsely populated. For all the snow, we hardly got to get outside to be in it. Over the last few weeks, however, things have warmed up and people have started to venture back outside. We have reconnected with neighbors we haven't seen much of since Christmas and hope to get more connected to our neighborhood community.

*more info on winter--Our expectation of Canadian winter was always that it would be long and cold. However, last winter we were able to quite a bit outside, including several visits to outdoor events where we sought to do outreach singly or as a family. This winter, however, we had several weeks of straight -20C temperatures and a few days of drizzling, spitting rain in between!

Learning Curve
We have been here in Edmonton for 18 months exactly today, and we are amazed at how much the Lord has done in and through us in this short time! Overall, I think we both see how much bigger this whole mission is than we are; we have a lot to learn. Thankfully, the Lord has called Himself our Teacher, so we are in good hands. We have made mistakes and miscalculations, but God is able to direct us and we are thankful for His correction and guidance in our decision-making*.

*more about decisions--We took on a pretty full schedule this year and that brought to light for us our true priorities. The things we were doing have all been good things, but because we are limited, we have come to see what is the best use of our time and energy. As a result we are each going to be moving away from a weekly teaching responsibility over the next few weeks so we can focus more on some of the foundational matters in the church plant.

Needs
Some of our greatest needs right now as a family are below. If one or more of them particularly strikes a chord with you, we'd be grateful for your prayers in any of the following areas:

-more restful sleep for the two of us (our girls are sleeping pretty well)
-relief from back pain
-for Julie in homeschooling
-our relationships with our neighbors to flourish and grow
-increasing oneness in our marriage (things are growing and we want to keep them that way!)
-our parenting and for growing love between our three girls

Thanks
Thank you for taking the time to check in with us! We are so blessed to be able to live in Edmonton and to serve the Lord here! May He bless and lead you where you're at right now. Keep in touch as He leads.

Dejan & Julie <><

To read more about how things are going with the church plant, click here.

First Time

Four years ago, February 17, 2010, was our first-ever day in Edmonton. That year we had hoped to go to the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in California, but the Lord directed us instead to take a trip up to Edmonton to scope things out. So we redeemed some frequent flyer miles, booked a place to stay, and headed up here for five days.

We were thinking that we would get some good cold exposure, for which Canada is so well-known, but little did we know that Edmonton has a typical February warm spell. So it was a comfortable temperature, just below freezing, for most of our trip, which was a blessing since we ended up doing quite a bit of walking with our 22 month-old first baby.

The Lord blessed our visit and we got to explore about 20% of this huge city and meet with a couple interested in seeing Calvary Chapel here in Edmonton. We were also able to get to Calgary for a Sunday morning service at Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel, with the added blessing of meeting with one of the pastors and his family. We are now solidly connected with the church there, and that initial visit was such an encouragement in our journey to move here.

As we look back to that first time in Edmonton four years ago, we see the hand of God guiding us and sustaining us, granting us vision and blessing us abundantly. We are so glad to be living here!

PRAYER REQUESTS

We are happy to report that things are going well here. The church is blessed and growing every so slowly (but steadily!), we are enjoying our journey through the book of Romans together, and we have been able to put in for actual advertising beginning this month.

Amid the weekly rhythm of our lives, we would like to share the following current personal prayer requests. There are so many people who pray for us, and we are dependent largely upon that prayer!

Health: For the last few weeks we have been passing around sore throats, fevers and coughs. This is nothing "big", since most people get sick during winter some time, but... given our full schedule and the inability to cancel church or delegate certain other ministry activities, taking the extra energy and time to tend to sick little ones or just being down or not at full speed ourselves dramatically hampers things.

Efficiency: We desire to be good stewards of our time in study, prayer and outreach. There are daily tasks to take care of and logistics like government paperwork that crop up and can take a fair amount of time.

Evangelism: Winter is a challenging season for outreach just since it is so cold outside and people inside are often moving from one place to another. We need creativity and wisdom as we pray about opportunities.

May the Lord bless you and grant you all that you need to walk in the good works He has prepared for you in the coming weeks!