Update (delayed): you're definitely going to want to read this one

We appreciate the patience of everyone who has been waiting for news about us. We were in a situation of having to use our phones for internet, and we ran out of data before Thanksgiving, but we're back online now!

This move is not like any other we have done. Most moves are "point A to point B". Not this move. This one has so many moving parts, locations and steps, it has felt like a confusing dance diagram, and it has been challenging not to clumsily fumble around in the process. :)

When we came out of Canada, we were graciously giving a "landing pad" by a family member. All told, we were able to live in that one spot for about 3 months, which was SUCH a blessing! We had a place to come back to when we traveled and didn't have to continually uproot everyone. Not having to pay rent also helped alot, as our house is still on the market in Canada.

For weeks we were in a state of flux, not knowing what our next step would be. Since mid-September to the end of November there was an inkling of direction but no firm light. It was hard. Finally, after many weeks of praying, discussions and waiting, we finally got some clarity last weekend. As a result, we are passing the month of December with our primary sending church in Idaho. The LORD provided help to rent a furnished house for four weeks in town. His kindness astounds us!

Then, going forward, Lord willing we will move to northwest Montana at the beginning of January. Our other sending church is in need of another staff pastor, and they have offered to be a "base" for us--a place for us to be and serve actively in the longer short-term while we seek the Lord for His longer-term direction. Dejan will be employed through the church full-time, and we can stop wandering from house to house so much. We are so grateful for light from the Lord for another step!

Prayer Requests

This of course means we will be moving mid-winter, although the place we will be renting is fully furnished. So logistically we are keeping much of our household items in storage for the next half-year or so. This month we will be attempting to streamline this storage and take out the things that we have learned are true necessities for our household (which we have been without the last several months). This is a daunting task, and we appreciate prayer. We do not want to have to open alot of boxes!

The church in Edmonton is thriving, and for that we praise God. They are still in need of a full-time pastor, so please keep that matter in prayer. The Lord knows who He is calling to pastor the church, and we wait on Him to let us know, too!

For Dejan, we are not fully clear just yet on all of the roles he will be taking on at the church in Montana. Please pray for the elders and pastors there for vision and clarity. We also appreciate prayer for finances, as the cost of living is high there, and we still have expenses in another country, in addition to the rising cost of our current situation. Nothing is impossible with God, and we know He is faithful.

Two items for prayer back in Alberta:

1. Our house is on the market with some offers here and there, but nothing firm yet. We have had three fall through, and are currently negotiating on a fourth.

2. The Canadian tax authority selected us for audit (on our missionary support or our U.S. refund, it is unclear which). They responded last week to our submission of information that they requested, saying that we owe a further large sum, which is in addition to the hefty tax that we already paid when we filed earlier this year. If you recall, we had to get a new accountant, and we thought everything was squared away. We have also never been audited before, so it is a frustrating situation. The calculations page sent to us by the tax authority was unclear, but we have to resolve the issue before Christmas, as there is a due date on it.

We appreciate your prayer for these matters as they are somewhat stressful.

Last, we ask prayer for our children (their health and their hearts, as they are weary of not knowing their future), our marriage (that all the different stressors won't have a negative but strengthening effect), our health and strength (so much moving, lifting, etc. has left us pretty exhausted at times).

Thank you to those who are reading our updates and lifting us up in prayer. You may not know how precious your support and care are to us!!

We wish you a blessed December and will update again in a couple of weeks.


By God's grace, Dejan and Julie <><

Remembering

  This update is a bit overdue. There has been alot going on in our hearts and it has been a challenge to put feelings into words. We have had alot of logistics to take care of, such as health coverage and home insurance and snow removal for our house in Alberta which is still for sale. We also faced some health challenges for Julie that began just after the retreat she attended last month and which lingered through our time in California and on into our return. Praise the LORD it seems like everything is stable now with her health, and we thank you for your prayers for our family while we were traveling. It was a blessed time, and the LORD brought us back safely.

Did any doors open for us while we were there? Not in those areas, but any door that is not open is still direction from the LORD of where we are not to be. So we are still waiting and seeking. We are also still waiting for our house to sell. There were two offers that came in, but neither culminated in a sale. Patience and prayer is the path forward.

We were able to connect with many friends in California and Nevada, most of whom we served in missions with in Eastern Europe through the Bible College in Hungary. We also went to several different churches and worshiped with diverse congregations, meeting with several of the pastors as well. Some of our friends we were able to see multiple days. It was a blessing to see how God is moving in all these places and we are greatly encouraged by the times of fellowship.

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 "I will remember the works of the LORD..." (Ps. 77:11)

"Remember His marvellous works which He has done..." (Ps. 105:5)

Today is the 10th anniversary of the church in Edmonton. Our first ever service was November 11, 2012, with 3 people in the living room of the house of a couple who had moved recently from Calgary. Dejan started right in with teaching in the Gospel of John. Julie had children's church with 6 children, three of our own and the three of the couple, an age spread of newborn to 12 years old. 

All of our things were in boxes in their garage. We didn't even have a place to live yet. But since we came to plant a church, the husband of the family asked if we couldn't just start then, so we did. The following week one of our current church elders and his wife joined us, and the week after that we met the family who our missionary friends in Mexico and whom the church supports to this day.

our second service

Fast forward just one year to 2013 and we were  a small group meeting in the little chapel at St. Timothy's Anglican Church. And for several years the church has met in the fellowship hall downstairs where it has only grown over the last 5 years, even in spite of the difficult situations of 2020 and 21.

God has done great things.

There is a song by Phil Wickham with a similar title. One verse says, 

                "You've been faithful through every storm, You'll be faithful forever more; 

                You have done great things. 

                And I know that You'll do it again, for Your promise is 'Yes' and 'Amen'; 

                You will do great things. God You do great things."

This is a true testimony in our experience, and it forms the base of our hope in this season. God is faithful. 

We were reminiscing last night on how our current situation mirrors, in many respects, our situation ten years ago, on a purely logistical level. We are again staying at someone else's house, looking for a place of our own to live, at the start of winter. The cost of rent where we are now is 3x what we were paying for housing where we came from, identical to our move from Idaho to Edmonton ten years ago. Our money is worth less and everything costs more now, just as then (though for different reasons). And God, who gave us the ability to make that move and start to minister in the midst of a set of improbabilities, has not changed. He is the same. He is able to cover us again, even though the circumstances are filled with what seem like improbabilities, even impossibilities. 

We are missing the people and places we came to know so well during the last ten years of our journey in a more acute way this week. But we are thankful for the body of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit, who can transcend borders and time.  

Thanks for keeping us in prayer. We will update soon.

By grace,

Dejan and Julie <><

Waiting

 

Dear Friends and Partners in prayer,

Wow, we have officially been in the U.S. for one month as of today. We are more or less settled in to our temporary lodging, though we have taken a decent number of trips. Every weekend Dejan has shared or taught from the pulpit. He has also carried on with Wednesday Bible study and prayer, as well as the men’s study in Edmonton via Zoom.

We have enjoyed seeing family after three plus years apart, and our children have made some precious memories with grandparents and cousins. All of us are feeling more rested. God has been taking care of us in various, sometimes surprising, ways, and we are blessed by the various gifts of food, funds and other care in this time of transition. The body of Christ continues to shine beautifully, and we are humbly thankful for His care through our brothers and sisters.

So far in our search of what the Lord has for us in the future there has been little light. We are making contacts, praying and waiting, with many who are coming alongside to encourage as we wait.

This week we are headed to a couple of ministry events: Julie is signed up for a Calvary Chapel pastor’s wives retreat and Dejan was invited to attend a men’s retreat with a long time friend from Bible college. We are driving down to southern California with our crew for a few weeks, and we hope the Lord will not only refresh and speak to us, but that He will also give us some direction, if it pleases Him. We have tentative plans to visit some friends while we are there as well as to stop on the way back up to visit more friends and possibly a couple of pastors.

Our prayer requests for this trip are:

Safety in travel for the entire trip

Health/safety of our family

Refreshing times at the retreats

Blessed times with friends we served with and have known for years

Direction and leading of the Lord

Our house in the Edmonton area is still on the market, and we are praying eagerly for its timely sale. The home insurance policy we have expires in mid-November, at which time we were advised the underwriter would most likely not renew the policy because the property is vacant. Please pray for the soon sale of our home and for a fair sale price.

We are continuing to be involved in the ministry in Edmonton, and we are also hearing good reports of how the congregation is doing there. We praise the Lord for being the Head and being faithful in building the church at Calvary Chapel Edmonton. Please join us in continued prayers for the elders as they lead, for those who are stepping into new areas of ministry, as well as a pastor to faithfully lead in the next season.

Thanks for taking the time to read our update. And if you pick a request or two (or more!) to join us in seeking the Lord, we are greatly blessed.

In Him,

Dejan and Julie

A Time of Rest

 Well, we are officially temporarily "settled" for the time being here in Idaho. It is quiet here! Our biggest noise disturbances (outside of our own children) are the grasshoppers flapping, the occasional car driving on the dirt road and some small airplanes doing sightseeing tours and the like.

THANK YOU for your prayers as we left Canada! Those requests were almost all answered!

The two days of driving were super tiring and fairly long. Crossing the border was relatively simple, and we got everything processed in under an hour. One officer even told us "Welcome home!". It was thankfully received from our band of sojourners. We had one near out-of-gas, and the last stretch was tough to stay awake, but by the grace of God we had no accidents and arrived safely, though very late, in southern Idaho August 28.

We are grateful for the small armies that helped us on both ends. First, the amazing crew in Edmonton that showed up for two days to pack us up, clean our house and load the truck. They sweated it out the first day and then worked through the rain the next! So many people also looked after our children, feeding them and taking them to the park. We got what we prayed for! This group covered us in prayer as they sent us off with our two drivers, one for Canada and one for the U.S., both men of faith and encouragement we were so blessed to have alongside. 

On the receiving end, there was a welcoming crew in Pocatello who were incredibly patient and hard-working, as we had a triple unloading. They hauled things off the truck, down the stairs to one storage spot, and other things back onto the truck to go to the second storage spot, where there was more unloading, and then they re-loaded and unloaded the remainder to store in a room at the church building there. It was a hot day, and they were so cheerful and willing, though we were all exhausted at the end.

Julie's dad brought us up to his cabin that Tuesday, and we used the rest of that week to rest and take care of some immediate logistics. After the month of packing and then moving, our bodies took the opportunity of quiet and solitude to catch up on much needed sleep. It is such a blessing to have a place to stay without pressure of renting right now, esp. since the market here is so inflated and we are in transition.

We are feeling a bit more settled being here for now, although it still feels kind of like an extended vacation. Dejan continues to teach Wednesday nights and lead the men's study for CC Edmonton, and Julie is also still hosting the monthly ladies' fellowship, all of which are a great blessing. It encourages our hearts to see and fellowship with the church our hearts are so knit with during this huge time of change.

NEW REQUESTS

Our house in Canada was put on the market to sell the last day of August, though there is no buyer as yet. It is hard to be patient and wait, but it is completely in the Lord's hands. We ask for prayer that He would bring the right buyer in His time, and that before our home insurance expires at the start of November it would be sold for a fair price so that we can close our financial affairs in Canada.

Next weekend we are headed to visit family and for Dejan to speak at a Calvary Chapel in Montana.  He shared briefly last Sunday at our sending church in Idaho, and we also went to service here today. There will be alot of travel and sharing in the coming weeks so our prayer is for safety of travel and also that the Lord will show us where we are to be. It seems like such a far off thing right now, that we will ever know, or how we will know, but we are trusting that through prayer, He will reveal His will.

Last, please also keep our children in your prayers through this transition. They have started school this past week, so that is a familiar activity, but they struggle on and off with emotions and loss and questions, though they are being such troopers and are soldiering on, trusting God in their beautiful childlike faith.

Thank you so much for covering us and staying current with our situation. We are blessed to be in the body of Christ, and among friends who love and follow Him and share the love and care that we are receiving. 

in Him,

Dejan and Julie

Travel update

 And we are off! Like a herd of turtles, as the saying goes. Not too fast, but our caravan of 2 cars and moving truck towing a trailer left Edmonton last evening around 6 p.m. Rainy weather and the late hour brought us to southern Alberta before we had to stop for the night. Our aim is to finish the journey today. 

Here are our immediate prayer points:

1. Safety on the road - yesterday we had two near misses, one due to visibility for one of our cars plus a passing driver and the other when an impatient driver swerved around to pass on the right as we were moving over to let them pass on the left. Praise God for His hand of protection!

2. The border - we will be stopping at the Canadian border office to give notice of our voluntary departure before entering the line for U.S. Customs. We have several importation steps to go through for our vehicles, cat, and household effects which we hope will be straightforward. Patience, for the little ones especially, is needed.

3. Strength - the past several days have been physically demanding and taxing. We will need to make it all the way to our destination, as well as unload all that was loaded Friday and Saturday. Pray for a good crew of helpers at unloading. (It is a bit overwhelming to consider that at some point we will need to re-load in future when we know where the Lord is ultimately leading us, but that’s for a future time and in the Lord’s hands).

4. The church - SO many people came out to help Friday and Saturday, doing everything from carrying boxes to wrapping large furniture, loading the truck and trailer, cleaning, yard work, bringing food, taking our children to the park, giving encouragement, the works. We know they are likely very tired and somewhat spent emotionally and physically as we are. As they gather today in our absence, our hearts desire is for the congregation to know the presence of the Lord, to worship Him, and to maintain and grow close bonds with one another in His love.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers. We are upheld by His grace and have been experiencing His transcending peace because of the prayers of many.

More soon,

Dejan and Julie <><

Mission Impossible Update

 “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18). “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

We are staring down an impossible week here, finding comfort that though we are unable, our God is able! To those who are following this journey and praying along with us, we want to give a fresh update and some specific prayer points.

Church

Today, Sunday, is our final in-person Sunday at CC Edmonton. Please pray for grace and strength for us and the church. Dejan will be laying hands on the elders to commend them to overseeing the ministry. Our children are going to be leaving their children’s church as well, which is all most of them have ever known. Pray for their hearts’ comfort.

Legal and financial

We have many calls and appointments this week, while we continue packing. Please pray that we will get things set up with our lawyer (for the house and our personal affairs; the paralegal has been on vacation the past two weeks), the realtor (we are binding our contract for the listing of our house), the insurance company (and our house sitter to check on it while it is vacant) and our bank. We will continue to pay our mortgage until the house sells of course, so we also pray for things to go quickly.

Move-out

We need to leave the house in move-in ready condition and need to do all the cleaning and touching up that comes with a usual house move. Please pray for a small army of volunteers to help with this. 

Parting

Last, please pray for all of us as we start truly saying “good-bye for now” to people. Until now it has been processing things together and we have spent time packing or meeting but we have still had the opportunity to meet once or twice more. At some point it will be the last time, and we need God’s help with that. Especially our children, the youngest of whom can’t really understand, and the older ones who know what’s coming but are struggling to leave their close and dear friends.

Thanks for holding us up before the Father in these matters. We will update again later in the week, Lord willing, with some logistics details on crossing the border and landing back in the U.S.

Until then, by grace,

Dejan and Julie <><

Prayer points for this week: move-out and church transition

Dear praying friends,

Last week we spent a number of days hammering out some things and trying to project our logistical needs. We also started packing. Several of us in the house were sick so it was slow going, but most of us are recovered now, or mostly so, which makes it easier to tackle this monumental project. As with any move, everything has to leave the house, be it by packing, donation or trash. It's just such a tight time frame, as we now have a move-out date of August 27, about 2 weeks from now. 

Please pray for us!

For the move-out:

• no injuries as we are lifting and moving heavy items like boxes and furniture; safety for our kids as their house comes apart piece by piece
• strength, energy and focus to get things done quickly and efficiently
• wisdom on what to part with
• provision for all the logistics and expenses of cross-border moving (import fees, permits)

and

• the legal paperwork for everything with the house, bank accounts, etc.

Praise God for:

•  friends who offered to take our daughter's rabbits
• compliance letters for both our vehicles so we can import them into the U.S. 
• offers to buy at least some of our food pantry items which are not easily imported into the U.S. without lots of paperwork

The Church

Dejan has met a couple of times with the elders of the church to go over things and so far everything is looking good. He has also met often with those who are taking on the website and various accounts of the church (Facebook, YouTube, etc) and though the meetings have been long, they have been productive.

Pray for the church!

• next week's funeral for one of our members
• provision of an interim pastor (this is a huge need and is looking very hard to fill)
• provision of children's ministry leader and worship leader (both short and long-term)
• that the church stays together and people remain in the congregation through the transition (this is hard on everyone, since it is so sudden)

Pray for our hearts!

• especially for our children; they have varying degrees of sadness, loss and also hope and excitement
• grace: things are happening too fast to process emotionally for us as adults right now

Thanks if you took the time to read this, and double thanks if you are praying. 

More soon,

Dejan and Julie <><

Update on visas

After over 5 months of waiting and praying, we finally received an answer to our visa renewal applications over the weekend. We were refused. Each of us received a letter briefly explaining the reasons the border officer was issuing this decision, and since our current visas have already expired, we must leave Canada "immediately". This generally means within 30 days or we will be deported through legal action. 

Of course this came as a great shock, since nothing has changed on our end and our other renewals were always granted. We have spoken several times this week to an immigration consultant referred to us to see if there is any recourse. In considering the various options he gave and the current border restrictions, as well as many other factors, it seems tenuous at best to pursue any of them. 

This week we have been in touch with our overseeing pastors, our supporting pastors, our sending pastor, our missions organization pastor and others, and in this counsel we have concluded that our season here is coming to a close. 

We are filled with a flurry of emotions, but we have made the difficult decision to leave Canada permanently.

This doesn't mean the church will end; Calvary Chapel Edmonton is a successfully planted church! Dejan is working with our church elders to transition to this new season and will be involved throughout that process.

In the coming days and weeks we will post more, but for now, we wanted to announce this turn of events and ask for prayer. We need wisdom, strength, guidance and clarity as we move quickly to enact all the various logistical factors. We need grace to process along with the church this sudden news. We will need provision and favour in our financial obligations for moving. And we need encouragement from the Lord as we are stepping into an entirely new situation.

We are grateful for all of you who stay up on our news and who support and pray for us.

More soon,

Dejan and Julie <><

Update and answered prayers

 Hello friends,

We have been in a season of waiting and a simultaneous flurry of activity these past couple of months. It has been a challenge, but we are thankful that we can lift all our needs to the Lord, and we are grateful for those of you who pray alongside us. Though we are unaware of who is praying and when, we know that without prayer support, our situation would be more difficult and our hearts more burdened. If you have been praying for us, thank you!

Visas

We are about half-way through the application waiting period for our visa renewals. We were able to apply  at the end of February, and the processing time is 130-140 days. Lord willing, we will receive a decision by mid-June, and we are praying it will be as before, that we are granted renewal. We applied for a three-year stay, but the final length of time we may be given could be less, though we hope for the full term. Please pray for God's favor, but also His will to be done regarding our visas.

Logitics

Accountant:    Praise the Lord we were able to find an accountant locally in Edmonton who could help us to file our taxes for Canada this year! We wrote that our previous accountant here stopped doing personal taxes and had to "let us go", so we were kind of left high and dry in a complex cross-border tax situation for many weeks. Our new accountant is very kind, and she even gave us a discount on her normal fee, to match our previous accountant's fee, for this year. We ended up owing a fair amount of tax in Canada due to a withholding oversight, but praise God for providing for that with our U.S. return this year! Praise God all our taxes in both countries were filed on time!

Extensions:    Since our visas are in process, we were thankfully able to extend our basic health coverage here in Canada for 90 days past our visa expiration. This will hopefully cover us through until we receive our new documents. We are grateful this process involved just a simple phone call. However, Julie had to renew her driver's license by Easter, and it wasn't so simple. She was told that without a valid, current visa, she would not be able to get a new license. It seemed the future included taking the bus or making Dejan the sole driver for a couple months, but by God's grace we got it resolved. Through some emailing and phone calls to both the federal and provincial government, we were able to obtain her "proof of status report" which was accepted at the licensing facility. We are thankful that both of us can continue to drive and for continued health care coverage!

In the Church

Congregation:    Like most (all?) churches, we have experienced a lot of staggered attendance and slow return of some people to worship in person due to the global health situation. We have a definite core group that come very consistently, but also many newer people, and some with work schedule conflicts. As a small congregation, these fluctuations have been challenging as we have sought to minister to people who are present one week and not the next, and some only months between. Pray for the members of our congregation to exercise wisdom but also not to fear and to not forsake in-person gathering as it is so critical to personal spiritual and church body health. We were so blessed to have a sizeable turnout for our Easter Sunrise service and breakfast potluck the other week!

With some of the ladies in the kitchen at Easter

Men's and Ladies' Groups:    Both the men's and ladies' Bible studies have been fairly consistent, and we have even met new people through these ministries. Dejan is taking the men through the book of Romans in a discussion format twice a month as he is training the men to articulate their faith and to raise them up. Julie is covering women in Genesis in a teaching format once per month. Both groups are able to meet at the church building which is a huge blessing, as it is central and people feel comfortable coming to this space. It may not be permanently available, as previously, the building was used Fridays by another non-church group. Please pray for open doors to continue meeting at the church building for men's and ladies' ministries.

A/V Ministry:    Over the past month or so, the Lord touched the heart of one of the men to learn how to run the A/V and manage the sound booth, livestream, and recording of the services. This was a huge blessing to Dejan and to the other A/V person who had been serving solo every service for several years. When that person was away sick for two weeks and Dejan had to both preach and run everything by himself, he was at home participating online. The next Friday at men's study, he presented himself to Dejan to help out, and he has been training ever since. Praise God for raising up someone to serve in this important ministry!

Children's Church:    By the end of 2019, we lost all of our children's church helpers and many children, due mostly to people moving away. Since re-opening last summer, we have had several new children start coming, and also one other adult to help. This is a great blessing, as we seek to always have two adults present for church accountability and also classroom management. Neither of our other two remaining children's church helpers have continued. We recently tried to incorporate others from the congregation but it wasn't a good fit for them. Please pray for the Lord to raise up another person or two who has both gifting and calling to serve in the children's church. This will enable us to have a small team so that people can rotate and sit in service at times, as the two of us currently serving are full-time with the children. 

Dejan's mom

We are blessed to report that Dejan's mom has been able to start walking using a walker! She was bedridden for many months and not even able to sit up for almost a year, which left her muscles weak and furthered the problem. Initially (about 30 months ago), she was diagnosed with having a stroke, then after extensive testing and x-rays in Serbia it was thought she had a brain tumour. This led her to getting into the neurological nursing home facility she has been at for the past two years where she has gotten physiotherapy that has been the game-changer for her situation. At first it was once a week, but the neurologist who owns the home does evaluate the residents, and he prescribed physio several times per week for Dejan's mom, which helped her turn the corner. She gained strength and made progress in sitting up, and then standing and now walking. The only thing preventing her from returning home at this point is that she is as yet unable to go from a seated position to standing with the walker by herself. The neurologist thinks her health situation is related to the re-surfacing of a work injury she had in her late 50s that drove her to early retirement.

Through this journey Dejan has been able to have more frequent conversations with his mom, as well as visiting her personally in early 2020 before all the lockdowns. This has been a big trial in her life, but she is not yet a believer in Christ. However, she has seemed more open to spiritual input lately, and she talks about God a bit here and there. We pray daily for her salvation. Her goal is to go back home; our goal is that she will go to heaven, and that she may be able to return to her home in Serbia renewed and regenerated in Christ. Please pray for her salvation.

Time-Sensitive: Dejan

Last Friday at men's study Dejan broke a tooth during their fellowship meal. It is in a molar that had an extensive filling put in it years ago in Serbia before we even met. Part of the filling and part of the tooth came off. He is not experiencing pain, but the dentin is exposed, and we don't want it to become painful before getting it addressed. We have contacted two dentists for assessment and are seeking an appointment in the near term. As it is a mercury-based filling, there can be health implications. Please pray for wisdom and resolution to Dejan's dental issue in a timely manner and without complications. 

Thank you for reading our update and for praying for any or all of these issues! May the Lord make you fruitful in the areas you are serving Him, and may He continue to show His love and grace to you and you walk in faith.

Dejan and Julie <><

The season of renewal

 Wow, winter has officially ended, but you wouldn't know it by looking out our windows! A fresh blanket of snow, atop the dwindling but stubborn snow pack, greeted us this morning as a reminder of how far north we actually live.

Spring is the time of renewal; nature reveals how much the rest provided by winter has made it possible for new life to start bursting forth. Our tulips have just braved the surface of our front planter as a sign of hope. But like all the years we have lived here, we wait. We will wait for weeks, usually well beyond Easter, for true spring. The effects of the equinox and lengthening days have an influence, but it just seems to take SO LONG for the winter's cold to finally yield to the changing season.

Our family is in another season of renewal: visa renewal. And there is waiting, and there are implications to it, too. Yesterday, our visas expired. We are now again in a period of "implied status" here, kind of like bureaucratic limbo. We have submitted our applications over a month ago, but, like the lingering winter that is slow to respond to the coming spring, we have a lingering hold while our applications are processed; approximately a 130-day wait.

Please join us in prayer that the Lord would be gracious and grant us our documents, so that we can continue to serve the church plant here. Until a decision is reached we are permitted to stay, but it is always a strange time that feels unsettled.

While we're waiting we have a few other needs. Some logistical, some personal. All for prayer.

First, a new tax accountant

Our Canadian accountant let us know that he is no longer doing personal taxes for any clients who don't also have a business. As our international tax situation is complicated, we have relied on him for years to help us navigate the complexities of our U.S.-Canada taxes, in partnership with our U.S.-based accountant. We are in need of a new accountant here a.s.a.p. and appreciate prayer for God's guidance to the right person or firm. Last year, due to our short visa status in 2020, we had no clergy tax credit and ended up paying a hefty sum to the Canadian government and will likely do so again because of the same reason. If our visa renews, it will be Lord willing, for three years, and we can avoid these heavy taxes for next year.

Second, health coverage

Every time our visas expire before we get new ones, we have to apply for a health care coverage extension. The extension is 90 days. Please pray that we will get the extension easily and for no health emergencies (both overall and in the meantime). Praise God our recent health issues (eye checks, new glasses, a broken finger and injured toe, all on different people) don't need any further care and our other  care is separate and self-pay.

Third, safety

We have had a string of physical ailments or injuries over the course of fall and winter. Many are from trips and falls; some are adult, some children. Nothing too serious, but it has just seemed like alot. 

Julie has had an autoimmune disorder for years and now one of the girls does as well. Also, Julie's has re-surfaced after decades of dormancy (but this seemed to be connected pretty directly to a tetanus shot she got at the end of 2020 summer). 

Dejan had a toe injury that got re-injured recently at church when something got dropped on it. The podiatrist said it's not going to get infected, but most of the nail bed will not recover from the trauma. He also either displaced or (likely) broke a rib in October moving straw bales in our back yard. Thankfully he has recovered, but it took several months. 

Three of the girls have had minor bone breaks; one a big toe, another a small toe, the third a pinky. Thankfully our little guy has stayed clear of injuries, but we would really appreciate prayer for safety!

Last, harmony

Please pray for our children. They love each other, but they live together pretty much 24/7, and being in ministry, with Dejan pastoring and counseling people we get our fair share of spiritual warfare in the home, which often shows up as discord of some kind. This can happen between them and also between them and us as parents. Wednesdays and Saturdays seem particularly challenging due to Dejan's prep for services. We are so blessed to be able to serve the Lord as a family, and we treasure all the time we get together, as well as the multiple opportunities to pour into our children spiritually, but some days are just hard. Your prayers and ours combined are a powerful force against the enemy who wants to drag them and us down, and a vital lifeline to access God's grace in our times of need.

We hope this update finds you blessed in the love of Christ. He is the Rock that never fails!

In Him,

Dejan and Julie <><