Dear Special Partner,
Crossing The Macedonian Border – As I crossed the border last week and the passport control officer looked at my passport and thumbed through the many pages of “boarder crossing stamps” from so many different countries he smiled and looked up at me. I have seen this look many times from border guards. He saw the stamps from Poland, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and on and on.
My Passport travel stamps represent just a small part of all the times I have visited so many cities, churches and pastors over the last 34 years we have served as missionaries. Each one of these stamps can represent meetings where many times we were planing the beginnings of a new church in a town or city.
If you will look at the enclosed photo it may just look like meaningless info in our passports but to us they represent peoples lives. Lives of people in large and small towns throughout the countries of Eastern Europe. Towns with names like Zvolen, Veles, Krakow, Trebisov and over 250 other places in Eastern Europe.
Crossing borders can always be a little unnerving as you never are sure what will happen. We are almost always asked what we are doing in such and such a country when we enter and leave. Most of the time they are surprised to see the American Passport.
I remember well when I was leaving Serbia once, crossing the border to Hungary the Serbian boarder guard said with a smile, “You are so lucky to be American,” Others have thanked us for coming to their country and for the work we are doing.
Last week I was in Macedonia and Kosovo and even though Kosovo is a 99% Muslim country they were still glad I was there. They may not have totally understood “why” I was there, but they still were so thankful I was there.
In the coming weeks and months I will cross more and more boarders and we will make a difference in these countries. God’s grace is so around us in all we do. So many times we have seen miracle after miracle in our travels. When so many things could end horribly, they totally turn around for good. We are convinced it’s because people are praying for us.
This month I will be in Bulgaria meeting with yet more leaders. I will cross more boarders, Thank you for standing with us as we see at least FIFTEEN churches started in Eastern Europe.
Loving our Lives as Missionaries in Hungary,
Jim and Brenda
PS. Can you or your church help start a church in Eastern Europe? We give $4000.00 to each new church. Can you help this year on this?