Vision Report #11

Wednesday, July 30 - One other wonderful news, on the long bus ride last night, Nena talked to the bus driver and then Betty got in on the conversation.  The bottom line is that the bus driver said he accepted Christ Monday night at the outreach meeting in front of the restaurant.  Betty was going over the 4-laws with him again and got to Law 3 when we arrived, but it seems this man has indeed become a family member.  He will not be driving us to Greece Thursday since he does not have the right visa so he will be replaced by a different driver, but this driver said he hoped to join us again later, as he felt really a part of our group.  He is married and has two children, so pray for this new believer and for his family. We got together fairly early today to go to a nursing home and sing for the residents there.  One of their residents is a French widow of 5 years who has been a missionary to Macedonia for 50 years.  Betty encouraged her greatly and she, as well as the 30 or so residents, were very happy to hear us.  Ellen shared her testimony of being delivered from her childhood fears after she accepted Christ.  We then returned to the church to have our devotions.  Since Tania, Tamara, and Alex are leaving us when we return to Serbia , we also took this time to debrief them.  Tania shared that she enjoyed our group devotion time and wanted to use a similar method when she leads them.  All said they enjoyed singing with us.  We gave them our feedback and prayed for them, something we will do for everyone later in Belgrade .  After lunch, we took the afternoon off, caught up on our sleep and washed some clothes. At 6 PM, we had a special time to play with the children who came to church.  There must have been 60-70 kids at the church along with some parents.  We had brought pencils, balloons and other knick-knacks with us left over from VBS to give to these kids and we also bought candy.  After the fun and games, we sang a couple of songs to them, "The Orchestra Song" and "Isus Me Ljubi (Jesus Loves Me)".  We then walked over to the village center where the church had set up a sound system for our 5 PM outreach program.  This is the third night (in 3 different cities) in a row we had an outreach.   The first two nights had crowds of several hundred and quite a good response when the invitation was given.  Tonight, the crowd was much thinner and the response was only a handful of people, but we praise Him and thank Him for these who did respond to Mike's message (and Ellen's testimony).  We did not mention this before but we have added several men's songs to our repertoire, including "Standing in the Need of Prayer" and "Rise Up O Men of God" and have been singing them at the outdoors events. Some of you may know that Keiko had felt called to go on the mission field in some medical capacity.  Yesterday, she found out (through email from her family) that she had been accepted to the medical program at Drexel University in the East Coast.  After much prayer, it seemed clear to her (thanks to discernment from Betty) that although Keiko was willing to give up Drexel to follow God, He wanted her to accept this opportunity, step out of her comfort California zone, and attend this school.  But this means she has to leave Serbia early to get back and pack for school and attend orientation on Aug. 5.  Pray that she can exchange her ticket (for minimum fee) and get back either Saturday or Sunday.  This has been a long journey for her and we praise God for His guiding her.  God is good! Tomorrow, we leave early for Strumica, another Macedonian city close to the Greek border.  We are gong to leave the Serbian youth in a church close to the border (since they have no visa) and we will go to Greece and swim in the Aegean Sea and visit Thessalonica.  Then we will rejoin the Serbian team and sing at a church in Strumica and then return to Negotina to sleep before leaving Friday for Serbia .  This is probably the last email you will get for a few days. You can catch up on any missing items by going to http://visionchoir.blogspot.com