Michael Waskosky
Sarajevo, BiH
January 2007
Hello again,
I pray that you are doing well and that God is showing you His wonderful plan for your life. He is showing me a lot; about how faithful He is even when I think He is not doing anything important in my life. He sent me here for a reason, so I know I should be here.
In
December
I wanted
to wish you a
Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year.
I hope that you had a great
time remembering why we celebrate
Christmas, Christ’s birth.
Here there are three religious groups:
Muslims, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox.
From Dec 24th to the 25th, city life was interesting.
I went out the morning of the 25th looking for a gift,
and shops were all open for business,
in contrast to Ecuador where almost everything is closed.
I had a good Christmas. As an OM team we got together,
had a delicious meal and a fun gift exchange.
I hope that you had a wonderful time bringing in the New Year.
On December 31st I was at Travis and Stacy’s.
We shot off fire works to bring in the New Year,
so that was fun.
(Not as loud as
in Ecuador, but
it was good.)
Here in Bosnia the Muslims celebrate Biram; it’s an interesting holiday during the days after New Year. They cut up sheep and do a sacrifice like what it says in the Koran, when Abraham almost killed Ishmael. (In the Koran it says Ishmael instead of Isaac like in the Bible.) Most people don’t know why they celebrate Biram and why they kill a sheep they do it because of the sacrifice for sin and that a ram was provided so that “Ishmael� would not have to die so they miss the important point that Jesus came and died once and for all and now they do not need to kill and have more sacrifices.
Please keep praying that we move forward effectively with starting a church in Dobrina. I’m sure Satan doesn’t want us invading his territory. Now that we’re meeting on our own and not with an established congregation, our worship community doesn’t seem to fit my old definitions of what it means to be a church. The beauty is that when believers are together to praise the Lord, it doesn’t matter if there are only 3 or over 300.
Lindy is in Ecuador now, and she is having a wonderful time. Mom, David and she were sick for a little bit but they are now getting better. I found out Saturday the 6th that my grandma had died on Friday the 5th. You can lift up my Dad in prayer as he travels to the US and is at the funeral. Pray that He has a blessed time with family, mourning the death of his mother.
I am in Bihach, right now, and I had a wonderful day on Wednesday the 10th I drove around and distributed aid to people, so we gave Rice, Flour, Noodles, Sugar, Nutella (witch is like chocolate jam), and coffee, and out of the 5 families we were invited in and asked to drink coffee and talk. I understood quite a bit, so that was exciting, I mean not everything but I liked being with Bosnians who just spoke Bosnian they did not know English so I had to listen in Bosnian. The first place the lady was a Muslim and she had a husband and a few children she took us in and we had coffee because no one was at home, and we talked a long while and then we prayed for her at the very end. Then the second home that took us in was this 80ish year old lady, and she is a catholic, and we asked if she had any prayer requests and she said for her salvation and that she prays everyday to Jesus, so we read her some scripture from John and Romans and she understood that she is saved if she believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, so she was so happy that we showed her and told her about what she needs to know she is going to Heaven and she was ecstatic.
Thank you for keeping Cory and me in your prayers.
· You can still pray that I would seek God more and love God first in my life, and love my neighbor as myself, because by our actions and by what we say in situations is how we show God to people.
· You can also pray for us as we get more involved in Dobrina, that the Lord would guide the OM Team and that He would show us who to talk to and who to share His light with. May He give us the exact words to say and may the listeners receive the words as truth.
· Please also pray that Lindy and I grow close to one another, because it is hard to have a long distance relationship.
In Him,
Michael
PS. Please visit my website:
Skype User Name: michaelwaskoskymkmk
MSN Messenger: michaelwaskoskymkmk(at)hotmail(dot)com
Yahoo Messenger: waskoskymichael(at)yahoo(dot)com
Aol Messenger: mikewaskosky(at)aol(dot)com