8 years

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Wow. Yesterday marked our eighth anniversary for the church plant, Calvary Chapel Edmonton. In some ways it is hard to believe that we have been in Edmonton for eight years, but we certainly have!

We came into Canada at the start of November expecting to find a place to live, unpack, settle in over the winter and begin in the spring. The Lord had other plans! 

The people we stayed with temporarily asked Dejan to start service the second Sunday we were here. All our things were packed and sitting in their garage, but we went ahead and Dejan started with the gospel of John with this couple. (We have since completed the rest of the New Testament on Sundays and have begun again.)

Julie played the guitar and took the six kids, age newborn to 11. We had one Christian children’s book in our car, so we used it to cover the parable of the Sower, stretching it out over the next four weeks. (This led to the discovery of our current children's church curriculum.)

The second week we had another couple join us who were waiting for Calvary Chapel to be established in Edmonton. The husband is now one of our church elders to this day. The following week a family of six and a guest showed up. They are missionaries to Mexico with Calvary Chapel Bible College through whom Dejan was invited to teach apologetics the past two years, and whom our little church supports monthly and with outreach teams. Such great beginnings we did not realize!

Within six weeks of our arrival we moved into a townhouse with a large living room, which became the meeting place for the church plant. Dejan was also leading a weekly Bible study at an assisted living facility. Over the following months in our first year the group meeting for fellowship, worship and Bible study in our home grew to about 8. We had our first outreach team come that summer from our home/sending church to do evangelism at the world's largest multi-cultural festival. It was a huge blessing and encouragement.

During that outreach our first year, the Lord opened the door for our fellowship to move into a church building near our home. We began to use their small prayer chapel for Sunday afternoon services and stayed there for about three years. We were blessed to host two baptisms, two of which were for new believers! There were two babies born and dedicated in the fellowship (one to us) during that time, as well as a marriage and the passing of an elderly new believer we were blessed to serve. 

First church baptism

We saw the establishment of a men’s Bible study/equipping group and a ladies’ fellowship over those first few years. There was another outreach team from our home church during FIFA women’s world cup event and some guest pastors from supporting churches which greatly encouraged us. One real highlight we had was a family if six that came for a full month to serve alongside and pray for the church!

Meeting in the downstairs fellowship hall

Dejan with our Church elders

In our fourth year we took a further step of faith, moved downstairs from the prayer chapel in the church building where we were renting and rented the fellowship hall instead. As a result, the Lord grew the church, and we gained three elders and two deacons, as well as sound help, children’s church servants and worship leaders. We also had several more baptisms, both of children and re-dedicated adults. We were meeting monthly for church potluck fellowship as well. The church officially became registered as Calvary Chapel Edmonton, and we had a visit from the overseeing pastor of our missions support organization and his wife, which was a huge blessing. Overall, it was an encouraging season of slow but steady growth.

Teaching with a translator at the Bible College

In our fifth year we sent our first missions team to Mexico, and in the sixth year, Dejan was invited through our missionary friends from Edmonton to Calvary Chapel Bible College Mexico to teach a teo-week, 3-credit Apologetics course. He returned in 2019 to teach it again, this time with another missions team from our fellowship! Our whole family was able to travel with him and encourage these missionaries as well as serve with them and see the work God is doing on the other end of the continent. Amazing.

Home sweet home & our ministry HQ

Last year, the Lord opened the door for our family to stop renting and get into a home with more space for our family at a lower cost, which we felt was a big win. We are further from the church building, but since most of the people in the church commute from all over the Edmonton area it hasn't seemed go be a problem. The area is quieter, an outlying city/suburb, but we were most amazed that the Lord allowed us to buy from another Christian missionary homeschool family. He is so wonderfully gracious in all His works!

A small group for our 1st service back in-person
Aug. 16th, 2020

So here we are at our eighth anniversary week. People have come and gone over the years, some to other cities, provinces or countries. Like most churches, we are weathering the global situation as a church the best we can with the limitations God has allowed. We are broadcasting our services as well as our prayer meeting online, while having a small attendance in-person. Potlucks are on-hold. Our men’s and ladies’ groups have stayed the course. Our children's church has both grown and shrunk due to restrictions. We feel the isolation and yet the community. We have kind of come back to square one in many ways, but we feel more deeply connected to this church body more than ever before. We are seeking to renew our visas in hopes of moving forward with a religious work permit, if the Lord allows. We are so blessed to be here and be allowed to serve in this city in this capacity. God is faithful.

 Gathering outside for food & fellowship mask-free

Please continue to pray for us and for the establishment of Calvary Chapel Edmonton; for the people who call it their church home. Truly the Lord Jesus builds His Church, of which we are a small part. We don't understand how He does it, but we know He is faithful and able to do all He pleases in its construction and sustenance. We rely daily on His grace, and we are so thankful for those of you who come alongside to help in the work of the ministry here by your prayers. Your labor of love will not be forgotten by the Lord.

Thank you for joining us in remembering the goodness of the Lord in our journey here in Edmonton, Canada. We hope it is an encouragement and a blessing to look back and consider what God has done here so far. And we pray He will be pleased to carry on this work and allow us to share in it!

In Him,

Dejan and Julie <><

Summer 2020 update

Wow...it's been a while!

We sent out an emailed news update at the start of the year to try to keep up with people that way, thinking it could be a quarterly thing. And then, of course, the world went into a tailspin.

So the good old blog seems the best way to get some news out at present!

The Necessary "Hassle" of Missions: Visas

This year our visas for Canada expire in November. We have lived here for almost 8 years now--wow! Our hope was to see if we were eligible for something like permanent residence so we could avoid the bi- or tri-annual renewal process on our visitor visas. Dejan has a work-permit exemption for clergy on his visa and Julie has an "open" work permit that has allowed her to teach Kindermusik and Bradley Method childbirth classes as the family schedule allows. We have re-applied for our visas twice since coming in 2012 and both attempts were successful. 

We learned from an immigration lawyer in June that we do not qualify for Canadian residence permits, so we have re-applied the last week of July for our visitor visas. We are asking prayer for God's favor in this visa renewal, as the lawyer indicated that denial of our applications will only be a matter of time; maybe not this time, but eventually. It was unsettling news, but we know that God can move the hearts of those in authority, despite what the "norm" may be.

One bright hope we have is to get Dejan a work permit. Originally we were informed by the lawyer that he should ask the church in Calgary to apply for a special assessment required by law for Canadian employers seeking to employ non-Canadians. It is "very difficult" to get approved. This was discouraging. However, upon filling out our visa applications, Julie noticed an exemption field on the application for this assessment. After further investigation in the immigration law, we believe Dejan may be eligible to apply for a work permit as clergy through an exemption. We cannot apply at this time because his passport expires in 2022 and the U.S. Consulates are not accepting passport renewals yet due to the pandemic. As soon as that becomes an option, we hope to pursue it immediately.

Church Planting in the Pandemic

We have been blessed by the LORD over the past 5 months by His sustaining grace in our church fellowship. Alberta started to shut down for the pandemic in mid-March, and at first we were still able to meet, since we are a small church and our gathering numbers were below the limit. After a couple weeks, no gatherings over 15 people were permitted, and since our family alone is 7 people, the church presence shrank considerably. We ended up sending Dejan to service alone so more people could be present and had our children's church just like in the beginning: in our house, with very minimal trappings. It was kind of nostalgic. 

Both the men's and ladies' Bible studies met virtually throughout the spring and early summer, which was a blessing because for both groups, new faces joined. Some previously had schedule conflicts, some were in the age group not recommended to gather, and others were just new to the church, using the downtime to check into a new fellowship. This was an unexpected side-effect of being closed!

We have now resumed in-person Bible studies as they are hosted in private homes, but we are still unable to gather as a congregation. The church we are renting space from is not yet open for an undisclosed reason, so we are broadcasting via our church Facebook page for Sunday and Wednesday services and prayer. The biggest "missing piece" is our children's church, as we have not been able to have anyone besides our own family, nor will we for the foreseeable future. Our Sunday services are staffed by elders, the sound person, pastor and worship leader. It looks and feels so bare, but we are blessed to live in the era of technology which is keeping us virtually connected.

Ladies' fellowship is back!

Church, minimalist/pandemic style

Throughout the strictest part of the public health restrictions, Dejan met with regional Calvary Chapel pastors bi-weekly online, which was a great time of encouragement. All the pastors were able to connect more or less face-to-face and share how they personally and their congregations were adapting to the challenges. It was a real blessing. Those meetings have ceased as restrictions relaxed at the start of summer, but perhaps they will resume in fall or winter if they are not able to gather in-person for their yearly pastors and leaders retreat.

Family

Our children have been pretty resilient overall. They had to flex immediately at the beginning, as the girls' ballet performance, AWANA car race and closing ceremony, and their brother's birthday party were all cancelled within a week. It was especially disappointing for our oldest, as she was to graduate from AWANA. Eventually, we did a drive-by pick up for our AWANA awards so there was closure. And their dance classes were hosted online, which helped keep them involved in some physical activity as well as a bit of routine.  

Our biggest blessing by far has been that we were already homeschooling, as it proved a key stabilizing factor for our family. They even finished school 2 weeks early due to a cancelled family trip and other canceled activities! Our school devotions in March were about trusting Jesus in the storm, and in April the focus was that, when life changes/is scary/hard/sad, God is good. A true anchor. Being all together, all the time, has put our children to the test in their relationships, but we are glad to see many sweet interactions between them, even with the extra squabbling. 

              

 

Health

Health-wise we have been pretty well. The one exception has been for Julie. In 2016 she developed a pinched nerve in her upper mid-back that causes little to no perceptible pain. It does cause worrisome symptoms when it is pinched, however, mimicking heart and brain issues. Once we learned about this, we started addressing it with regular physiotherapy/chiropractic care, and Julie has been fine. However, when those offices closed in March because they were considered non-essential services, Julie went 6 weeks without treatment. 

In late April she experienced an incident of severe shaking and other symptoms, and we were advised by a health nurse to call in EMS which further resulted in Julie driving herself to the ER. The ER doctor gave her an IV suspecting dehydration and ran a thyroid test, and she came home. The test was negative, but she had another event of shaking a couple days later. Thankfully, she was able to contact her physio care provider and qualified for "emergency" treatment under Alberta health guidelines and only had one further "shake-down" since. We suspect this was part physical, part spiritual and appreciate all who prayed with us and through this time and continue to pray.

Marriage

In June we celebrated 15 years of marriage. Thankfully, things were open enough here that we were able to go out alone together and have a sitter in! Our marriage has been marked by ministry from the start, and we've been so very blessed to serve the LORD in Hungary, then Serbia, the U.S. and now here in Canada. We have learned to make our home in our relationship and in service rather than a location, but now more than ever we are looking forward to being in our heavenly country. We are so thankful to be serving side by side here in the church.

Major Prayer Requests

• approval of our visitor visas; ability to renew Dejan's passport and apply for a work permit
• continued stability in Julie's health and healthcare
• for the church fellowship to remain encouraged and knit together as we are still unable to gather for worship
• opening of our host church so we can resume meeting

Other Prayer Needs

• spiritual stamina, physical strength
• that all we do would be by the power of the Holy Spirit
• our children and their relationships with each other, with the Lord and with us
• our personal devotion to Jesus and each other to increase and remain strong

Thanks for reading through our update and for praying for our requests. We know everyone is dealing with an ever-evolving situation in your own lives. We truly are grateful for your love and support, as we press on here in the ministry.

Much love in Jesus,

Dejan and Julie <><