UPDATE: January 2010

Thanks for your prayers!! Quite a bit has come together for us in this last month regarding our hopes to head north. The LORD has directed our steps, even though it hasn't been in the ways we imagined. It's been better!

Missions Conference
So we didn't go to the missions conference in southern California last month (see previous post). But we did get a copy of the messages from the conference, and we're going to listen separately and discuss each session.

Contact
The LORD connected us with the assistant pastor from the Calvary Chapel in Calgary, which is some 185 miles south of Edmonton. Dejan had a very encouraging conversation with him, as did our pastor prior to Dejan's conversation. They are excited to hear of our desire to go to Edmonton and said they get calls about every 2 weeks from people asking if there are any Bible teaching churches in Edmonton that they can recommend. Apparently there is not a single one, sadly, but it is another encouragement to us from the LORD that we are headed in the right direction.

Visit
Not long after we learned about not going to the missions conference, the LORD gave us an idea. Why not use the funds we were going to put toward to conference toward a trip to Edmonton for several days? We presented the idea to our pastor who said he was thinking the same thing! We had enough frequent flyer miles to get tickets for the cost of taxes and fees and found a Bed & Breakfast which was very reasonable and fairly central, so we booked and Lord willing, we'll be going to Edmonton this month, February 17-22.

Our purpose is several fold:
1) pray over the city
2) explore and cover as much ground as possible though public transportation and/or driving
3) locate the various culture hubs (esp. the Serbian community)
4) see if any local Kindermusik studios plan to hire
5) find out more specific visa information and
6)meet with this assistant pastor from Calgary.
We look forward to this journey and all that will result from it.

Meetings
We have begun meeting with our pastor to hammer out the logistics and discuss all the other aspects of moving back out onto the mission field. Our rough target is late spring/early summer. Our first meeting was extremely fruitful and encouraging, and we anticipate many in the future.

Translation
Please check the side bar of our blog for where Dejan is at with translation. It's still going, but as it is a ministry without many "fireworks" for now, we thought it best to give more of a progress report in an easy to see place than to include it always in our updates. But please do keep it in prayer!!!

Prayer Needs
We ask your prayer for us for the following:

• God's will to be done in us and for us through our upcoming visit to Edmonton, Feb. 17-22
• provision for in-town transport and food during our stay
• wisdom and direction from the Holy Spirit in our planning meetings this month
• strength and unity in our marriage & family
• open doors from the LORD in every way
• translation progress (including Zlata, our proofreader)
• physical & spiritual health for us all
• whatever else is on your heart...

Personal

• Dejan's mom to receive salvation (we have noticed a renewed spiritual battle)
• continued preparation of our hearts for the work ahead, our times of prayer & study

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our update. Hopefully we'll have some photos and footage for our next post!

Blessings to you and peace in our LORD,
Dejan & Julie