On Sunday morning, July 9th, a team of ten of us headed to Albania for our annual summer camp. Most of the team had been there before so there was much joy when old friends saw each other again. Ten of us, Kerri, Rachel, Kelly, Christine, Kendall, Jim, Elaina, Benny, Elias and myself joined another 80+ for a week of eating, playing, swimming but most of all of singing praises to our God and learning from the daily teaching on the greatness of our God.
We thank God for another wonderful time at camp where we met God and He met us in a big way. Thank you to all of you who prayed and gave. May our Lord bless you abundantly! A huge “THANK YOU” to Focused Living Bible Study women. These ladies come from eleven churches of San Ramon Valley and meet at Community Presbyterian church in Danville, CA and have supported this camp for over 20 years.
Happy times of eating! When the camp first started over twenty years ago, there was hardly any food. Now, thanks to the generosity of the Focused Living Bible Study women, there are three delicious and healthy meals a day!
Daily teaching by Jim Krouscas!
More teaching!
Kitchen crew joined by niece Christine Aardema of Long Beach, CA
Craft time with granddaughter Elaina Krouscas!
Game time!
Leadership team at morning devotional!
We praise God for the eleven who gave their hearts to the Lord this summer. Pray that with continued discipleship they will stay firm in faith all the days of their lives!
On Sunday, July the 2nd, we celebrated God’s faithfulness by dedicating the new church in Yastrebovo. The first Christian church in this town ever! It was such a praise to God! We cried from joy, laughed, sang and prayed!
Gopi finally got the cross and the bell in the new church. Eventually I will send you a video so you can hear the bell. There were ten Americans and one Greek pastor among those that came to celebrate. We had about 130 people. 50 percent of the town! What a glory to God. All this He did through prayer and generous giving by some very generous people!
Praise God that 17 years ago he brought us together with Gopi and eventually Reni through our American missionaries, Keth and Margie Brown. What a dedicated couple serving in Bulgaria for 20+ years.
Elaina with her sisters and friends raised over $600 to buy food for a very poor ghetto where people still live in chicken coops!
This was a day of hard work but the joy on the people’s faces made it all worth it!
Gopi and his wife Reni. What a blessed dedicated couple!
DAY OF CELEBRATION!
Jim and Pantelis did the dedication service!
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CHURCH EVER!
Hello again:
After the mini conference at the Turkish church in Pazardjik, we moved on to the Pastors’ Conference in Yundola. We lost track of time but it is either the 12th or 13th annual.
It was wonderful to see our pastors and their wives once again. They were all ready and anxious to learn more and were very attentive to the teaching. Pantelis and Jim did five lessons each and I had the privilege of doing three sessions with the women.
We started the morning at 7:30 with singing and prayer
Very attentive audience
It was hard to say good bye!!!
Hello family and friends:
On Friday June 23, Pantelis, Jim, Elaina and I left Litochoro, Greece for what turned out to be an amazing 10day journey of two weekends and a five day conferences with our Bulgarian, Turkish and Roma pastors and other people whom we have come to love and call family over the years. In Pazardjik, Ilene and Mike from Alamo Travel were waiting for us along with pastor Sasho, his wife, Christina and others.
The first weekend we spent in Pazardjik at the Turkish church where Sasho is the pastor. Pantelis and Jim did a mini-conference and Saturday evening we went to a village church where Jim gave the message.
I was at this village over ten years ago with a Greek pastor Kostas and his wife Nina. A parishioner of that village church, which met outside in the summer and different homes in the winter, told us at that time that he would legally give part of his property and trust that the Lord would build a church for them. At that moment, the Greek pastor said, “if you do that then I will give you the money for the foundation”, which he did. You can see from the picture the foundation was built with the possibility of holding over 100 people.
To be honest with you as the years went by, I totally forgot about this. They didn’t ask for money then and they didn’t ask for any now. However, the fact that they brought us to this village was an indication to me to remind me of that day many years ago. I didn’t promise anything but since they do the building themselves, I did ask how much was needed for the architect (new EU rules) and for the materials. Pray with me asking the Lord, if it is His will, to help us build this village church.
We then finished Sunday worship at the Turkish church and on Sunday afternoon we went to Yundola for the Pastors’ conference.
Jim and our wonderful translator Teo
The village congregation with all of us
Turkish congregation