Mike and Lindy Waskosky

Michael Waskosky

Sarajevo, BiH

April 2007

Chao or if you prefer Hello,

 

Wow, you would not believe what great weather we are having here in Sarajevo. It has been around 70 degrees, which has been very nice. I have been wearing shorts for the past few days!

 

Last Monday, we met for the first time at the Germans’ house with Vinko, his wife Alma, and his daughter Sarah. We had a celebration for Vinko and his family because they bought their first car, and also Alma was hired for a new job! Many of you may not be aware of how hard it is to get a job here in Bosnia, but it is very difficult. Once one has a job, he or she works very hard to keep that job. Thursday, April 12 was Vinko’s birthday, so I made sure to send him a birthday wish. It is very important to Bosnian people that their friends send them birthday wishes.

 

In the last update, I asked you all to pray for me because I had been feeling sick. After two weeks of feeling sick, I finally went to the hospital. I went to the German Military Hospital, where I needed my passport to be seen by the doctor. After I told the doctor my symptoms, he gave me some medicine without telling me what he thought I had. Since the medicine names were written in German, I have no idea what I took, but I am feeling much better! Praise the Lord!

 

 

I will be leaving Bosnia on April 27^th. I leave Sarajevo at 7:50 AM on an Austrian airline.  I will make my first stop in Vienna.  From Vienna I will fly to Washington. From Washington, I will finally fly to Minneapolis. I will arrive in Minneapolis around 6:56 PM. After a very long day of travel, I will be able to see Lindy for the first time in eight months! It will be great.

 

I have been doing well here in Sarajevo, and I have enjoyed getting to know Bosnians. I have worked hard, but wish I could communicate even more effectively in Bosnian. I also wish I could have made more Bosnian friends. However, it has been quite an experience over here. I didn’t imagine that I would learn as much as I have. God has taught me to rely on Him, which is one of the best lessons I can think of. Although it has been very hard along the way, it has be a wonderful time, which I would not exchange for anything.

Oh and one more thing, I am an uncle again. Her name is Allison Marie born April 10, 2007 at 2:50 am in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. 4 weeks early, and she weighed 6lbs 5 oz. And she was 19 inches long.

 

Praises:

• Thank God that the OM team is moving forward!
• People have been showing interest in having churches and/or bible studies in their homes!
• Thank you for your prayers for me and Cory. We are both feeling much better!

 

Please pray that:

• God would give us wisdom when starting these new Bosnian church plants.
• We are invading Satan’s territory. I am sure that he will try to attack us, so pray against these attacks in Jesus powerful and mighty name.
• Vinko’s house will be a site one of the new church plants. Pray that we say and do the right things to encourage him and his family towards Christ.
• I would seek and love God first in my life and to love my neighbor as myself. Pray that my actions and words would reveal God to others.
• For safe travels back to the states
• Pray that Lindy and I grow close to one another. We will have two weeks until the wedding after I get back. As we grow closer to God, we know we’ll grow close to one another.
• Also pray for Lindy, as I am not there all of the work falls upon her.
• I am also having computer problems, so you can pray that I can get them fixed and that it will last me until I get back from internship.

 

Thank you for keeping Cory and me in your prayers.

 

If you would like to see pictures you can visit my site: www.waskoskyfamily.com/fotos

 

In Him,

 

Michael

 

PS. Please visit my website:

www.waskoskyfamily.com

www.waskoskyfamily.com/fotos

Skype User Name: michaelwaskoskymkmk

MSN Messenger: michaelwaskoskymkmk(at)hotmail(dot)com

Gmail: mikewaskosky(at)gmail(dot)com

Michael Waskosky

Sarajevo, BiH

March 2007

Zdravo or if you prefer Hello,

How time flies. It is already March. Internship is now picking up a lot more, so that is nice. I am understanding more and more in the language. But I am still not were I would like to be. That is okay, because I would not be able to become fluent in this short of a time. A little advice for anyone doing a 8-12 month internship. I would suggest for the first 3 months to just really work to learn the language.

I have some very encouraging news, we are starting Bosnian churches. I really did not think this was going to happen when I was here, so this is very exiting. This is a big Praise and a Thank the Lord. Thank you for praying with us. We are trusting that God will meet us where we are at, and also push the Bosnians in the right way, also.

Well you can also pray for Vinko, He is a Bosnian believer. His Wife Alma a Muslim. And he has a daughter Sarah. I am spending more and more time with him. And I am thankful to be able to be an influence in his life and the life of his family. I hang out a lot at their house. Vinko and I go out to play pool.

We also recently elected Travis as a Shepard of our group, not a pastor exactly. He is sort of an overseer/deacon. Someone who will be looking out for the church spiritually, will be looking to God and just to be responsible for everything. He will share and bring to the service like a portion of scripture to talk about, prayer concerns, or also directing worship. We have figured out that we need a little more structure and so we are moving forward in that.

Please pray that:

• I have a praise: Thank the Lord that we are moving forward. Also pray that we would know how to go about these new Bosnian church plants. We are invading Satan’s territory and he does not want us. I am sure that he will try to attack us, So pray in Jesus powerful and mighty name against these attacks.
• People have shown interest in having church or a Bible study in their house. So just pray that we get more people like this.
• Vinko’s house will be one of these houses that we will be starting in. Pray that we can do and say the right things to encourage him and his family towards Christ.
• I would seek and love God first in my life and to love my neighbor as myself. Pray that by my actions and words people can find God.
• The Lord would guide the OM Team to know who to talk to in sharing His light as we start the Dobrina churches. May He give us the exact words to say and may the listeners receive the words as truth.
• Pray that Lindy and I grow close to one another. Our wedding date is sneaking up on us. As we grow closer to God we know we’ll grow close to one another. Also pray for Lindy, as I am not there all of the work falls upon her.
• I am also having computer problems, so you can pray that I can get it fixed and that it will last me until I get back from internship.
• Cory and I are not feeling well. Cory has a cold, and I have stomach problems so please pray for us for healing.

Thank you for keeping Cory and me in your prayers.

If you would like to see pictures you can visit my site: www.waskoskyfamily.com/fotos

In Him,

Michael

 

PS. Please visit my website:

www.waskoskyfamily.com

www.waskoskyfamily.com/fotos

Skype User Name: michaelwaskoskymkmk

MSN Messenger: michaelwaskoskymkmk(at)hotmail(dot)com

Hey Everyone,
Well every year on internship there is usually a presentation/video that gets done, this years class has a video, of advice and just what to do, so feel free to go see it, it is up on the web at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2896579042533214372&hl=en
God Bless,
Mike

Michael Waskosky

Sarajevo, BiH

February 2007

Well Hello,

Wow! I cannot believe how the time as flown by so quickly. It is already February and yes, I am almost done with internship. The end feels closer now because I just got back from our internship conference in Rome. Let me tell you how things are going here in Bosnia now.

My last newsletter left off telling you about what I was doing in Bihac.  I am no longer there, but let me tell you how the rest of the week went when I was up there. It went really well actually. After the time that I did aid distribution or what we call wood visits with Jael, and then we started to set up the kids club and get stuff ready for them. Ed and I made sure the Play station 2 was working, we actually took it in and had it fixed. Good thing we checked that out or all the boys that came for PS2 would have been very disappointed. We also set up the church so that the kids could have fun playing ping pong, foosball, board games, draw, or just hang out on the couches.

So we had a few days of this kids club. A team from Vienna Christian School came down to participate. That was cool to meet new people and to hang out with younger kids in high school. They helped with open fun a lot (open fun is when the kids come, play, and do pretty much anything they want). Then there was a Bosnian team that came. They did skits and plays for the kids to get the Word of God planted in these kids. As missionaries we are not allowed to proselytized children (proselytize is to convert/preach to), but we step around this by sending home permission slips that the parents must sign saying it’s okay if we teach their children about Jesus and God. A lot of parents usually come back and thank us for investing in there kids. The parents notice that their children are better behaved and different when they come home. God is doing a lot even if they are not accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I need to talk about Haris, because when I was in Bihac this young boy affected me the most. I hung out with him the most because I think he was pushed out of the groups and did not fit in very well. So I reached out to him, we had many wonderful talks, with my limited Bosnian and his limited English. You can pray for him, he seems very smart and knows a lot, but he does not think highly of himself. He would write stuff on papers and name him self as dork or some one who does jack squat. Please pray for him, I loved him when I was up there, or at least I tried to show him how much Christ loves him.

After I got back from Bihac, I had a few days here in Sarajevo. Then Cory and I left for Vienna to visit Jason, Tyler, and Charles, other Bethany Students doing there internship in Vienna.  It took us 14 hours on a bus. We toured Vienna, so that was cool. I got to have my First Burger King in a long time, not as good as the ones in the US. And that made me realize how much I really miss Ecuadorian Food. We took a 17 hour train ride over night to Rome, no rest but very cheap. We all toured Rome, getting to see the Coliseum, where emperors lived, where they built their palaces, where Paul and Peter were held, inside the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, etc. It was nice to visit these places, they did not feel any more holy than any other place. My favorite was seeing where Michelangelo painted and where Paul and Peter were held. We had a lot of meetings with Paul Hartford, our Internship Supervisor (those were sometimes a little boring but good).

Now that we’re meeting on our own, not with an established congregation, our worship doesn’t fit my old definition of church. I’ve had to change my mind and adjust how I view church and true community The beauty is that when believers are together to praise the Lord, it doesn’t matter if there are only 3 or 300, we still praise God together.

Please pray that:

• We would move forward effectively with starting a church in Dobrina. I’m sure Satan doesn’t want us invading his territory.
• People would volunteer to host a home group or house church.
• We would be able to disciple these people as soon as possible.
• I would seek and love God first in my life, love my neighbor as myself. By my actions and word, people can find God.
• The Lord would guide the OM Team and show us who to talk to and share His light with as we start the Dobrina church. May He give us the exact words to say and may the listeners receive the words as truth.
• Lindy and I grow close to one another. As our wedding sneaks up on us, we would grow closer to God together.

Thank you for keeping Cory and me in your prayers.

If you would like to see pictures of me going to Bihac and of Rome they are at my website: www.michaelwaskosky.com/fotos

In Him,

Michael

 

PS. Please visit my website:

www.michaelwaskosky.com

www.michaelwaskosky.com/fotos

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

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 24^th to the 25^th, city life was interesting.

I went out the morning of the 25^th 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 31^st 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 6^th that my grandma had died on Friday the 5^th. 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 10^th 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:

www.michaelwaskosky.com

www.michaelwaskosky.com/fotos

Skype User Name: michaelwaskoskymkmk

MSN Messenger: michaelwaskoskymkmk(at)hotmail(dot)com

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Michael Waskosky

Sarajevo, BiH

December 2006

Hi everyone,

Well, hello again. I hope and pray that you are growing closer to God, as I am. If you have any prayer requests please let me know; I would love to be able to pray for you, because I am finding out that God loves prayer and He answers prayer in His own way. It might not be the answer we want, but He does answer.

I had to leave the country because of my visa, so Cory and I went to Dubrovnik (on the coast of Croatia). It was nice, but I would suggest visiting there during the summer. There was not much going on when we were there; a lot of things were shut down for the winter. We couldn’t do much except look and wander around the walled city, which was very beautiful.

I also went to Banja Luka, which is about five and a half hours away from Sarajevo by bus. I visited Nick and Nada and their son Srdjan. My supporters Steve and Diane Wilson know Ogy, another son who lives in the US right now and is studying there. I left home at around 2:30 in the afternoon and got to see a little bit of the road by day. I always like that better than not being able to see God’s beauty. I got to their home Friday night at around eight o’clock, so that was nice. The next day I spent some time touring the city. Nick also showed me what he does for his work; it was fun to see. First he took me to where his construction company is building the second tallest building in BiH; it will be a government office. Then he took me to where they are building a highway to Croatia so that Banja Luka will be connected to Europe; that will be good for them. Also he showed me the tunnels where they are putting the highway through hills so as not to make the highway go around the hills. Last but not least, Nick took me to see the swimming pool that his company is building. As a couple they were very open and asked lots of questions. I shared with them about Christ and what He has done for me in my life. I hope to visit them again before I leave Eastern Europe at the end of April.

Please keep praying that we move forward effectively with starting a church in Dobrina and starting another church in our own homes. This last Sunday we were sent out by the local Pentecostal Church. They prayed for us and blessed us. That is exiting. Now we are not expected to go to church there on Sundays, so we can begin to have our own church and just get together and give the glory to God. Please keep praying against the evil one who is trying to bring us down. Pray in the power of Jesus and in the name of Jesus, who has already won the battle. Satan is trying to get at all of us here, so please lift us up in prayer often.

Lindy travels to Ecuador this month! Please pray for safe flights on Dec 26th. My parents say David talks about her almost every day; he must be very excited. While David is having Christmas vacation, Lindy will spend 2-3 days with my family at the beach and then 1-2 days with them in Quito, where I stayed in the dorm while I went to high school. She’ll be there for one of my favorite Ecuadorian holidays – Año Viejo (New Year’s Eve). People make life-sized dolls out of old clothes stuffed with straw or crumpled paper to represent the old year. At midnight they burn the viejos. Some people dress up as women and ask for money, because they are a “widow.” Their husband is going to be burned (their husband being the viejo). They get a little money from the passersby; it is all fun and games. Burning the old year is a good illustration of forgetting what lies behind us and going into the future with new vision.

I want to say one last thing about politics and voting. I do not think one side is right and the other side wrong. I do believe we are supposed to vote. Both political parties have their problems; the Democrat, Republican, and Independent Party’s are going to do some things that are wrong on some issues and are against what we believe. I want to encourage you to seek after God and to look to Him, because he will show you who to vote for. I just wish there was a politician who I could vote for who is firmly founded on Christ and His word. But since there is not, I must live with love, grace, and forgiveness now in this imperfect world and wait until Christ comes back to claim His perfect kingdom. As it says in Matthew 6:9-13, “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’� So we should be preaching Him, and we should be shining as His lights, so that He will come back and be the Government which we are supposed to have, a Great and Loving dictator.

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 that is one of the ways that we show God to people is by our actions and what we say in situations.

· 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 the Light of God with. May He give us the exact words to say and may the listeners receive the words as truth.

In Him,

Michael

PS. Please visit my website:

www.michaelwaskosky.com

I should be getting pictures of my two trips up soon, so you can go see those at:

www.michaelwaskosky.com/fotos

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

Michael Waskosky

Sarajevo, BiH

November 2006

Hi everyone,

I greet you from snowy Sarajevo (it snows but the snow does not stay on the ground; when the sun comes out it melts it all). Winter is here, so it is cold. It does not get as cold as Minnesota, so that is nice for me. I don’t enjoy the cold weather, but it is very beautiful.

In almost three months in BiH (Bosnia i Hetcergovina), I have gotten to know a lot more people, and God is giving me open doors even though I do not know the language. Quite a few people know English or want to practice their English so I can talk to most of the people in English. That is good and bad; it does not help me to learn Bosnian but I can share with them my story: what God has done in my life, and the power of Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross. I have photos up. My website is: www.michaelwaskosky.com

www.michaelwaskosky.com/fotos

Please keep praying that we move forward effectively with starting a church plant in Dobrina and starting another church in our own homes. We have just started to move into Dobrina. We are getting to know people and to reach out to them with Christ’s love and the Gospel. Because there are very few believers, we need people to come to Christ before we can start a church, so please keep praying against the evil one who is trying to bring us all down. Pray in the power of Jesus and in the name of Jesus, because he has already won the battle. Satan is just trying to get at all of us here, so lift us up in prayer as often as you can. Also pray for my English class and for the students. I want them to see God more clearly and see that the road which they are on leads to death and destruction. It’s my prayer that they accept Christ and experience joy and peace now and heaven for eternity.

Lindy has been doing a great job planning our May wedding. She’s excited about her Ecuador trip which begins right after Christmas. David is excited to have her be his aide too. My parents think her stay will be too short for them to be able to show her everything and everybody she will want to see: places where I grew up, schools I went to, people I knew, fun activities I did as a kid, etc. Pray that she will be a blessing and will be blessed while she’s in Ecuador.

Thank you for keeping Cory and me in your prayers.

· You can pray that we seek God more and Love each other, because sometimes it is hard to love someone when you live with them, they do things that get on your nerves.

· You can also pray for us as we get more involved in Dobrina and that the Lord guides the OM Team.

In Him,

Michael

http://navigator.ba/maps/sarajevo/dispmap.php

Well I could not acctually get the maps up here so yes, please go to this site, or ask me for an email where i have added it to some paint files so yeah enjoy.

Michael Waskosky

Sarajevo, BiH

October 2006

Hi everyone,

I greet you from cold Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Fall is here, and the trees are beautiful (if you see any, that is). In the city I do not get to see much of the countryside, but Bosnia i Hetcergovina (BiH) is a beautiful country. What’s BiH? This country is not just Bosnia. People get offended when you just refer to BiH as Bosnia, so you always should say BiH (Bosnia i Hetcergovina).

In almost two months in BiH, I have done many things both here in Sarajevo and else­where. A recent treat was that I got to see three other Bethany friends: Jason, Tyler, and Charles. They are on their internship in Vienna, but there was an Assemblies of God youth conference here in Sarajevo. They came down to speak in it, so we had them stay with us at our apartment. It was a great time, like old times back at college except we were in a different country. Thank you, Lord, for this reunion.

Another treat was that the OM (Operation Mobilization) team went on a team trip. Those of us from Sarajevo and also those from Bihac all met at Jahurina and went to something like a camp. It was a big building with lots of different rooms; some rooms had bunk beds and some rooms were for couples. The trip was fun and good. We did a lot of planning for the next year. Cory and I are just here for 8 months so we couldn’t contribute much to the planning. We didn’t know how much to say, what to say, when and how much to participate. Since we were up in the mountains, it was beautiful and a bit chilly. You can go to my website; I have new photos up. My website: www.michaelwaskosky.com

www.michaelwaskosky.com/fotos

Please pray that we move forward effectively with starting a church plant in Dobrina and starting another church in our own homes. Also pray for my English class and for the students. I want them to see God more clearly and see that the road which they are on leads to death and destruction. It’s my prayer that they accept Christ and experience joy and peace now and heaven for eternity.

Lindy, my fiancé, could use your prayers too. She is planning our May wedding while I’m on another continent. It’s not always easy to communicate long distance, but we’re thankful for Pastor Dan who has been willing to do our pre-marital counseling by email.

Lindy will be going down to Ecuador for January and February to be my brother David’s classroom aide. Please pray that she will have a safe trip, and that when she is in Ecuador she can be a blessing for David and my family, and they for her.

Thank you for keeping me and Cory in your prayers.

In Him,

Michael