Petula Myers

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Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

The BiH Chronicles (December 2008)
Prayer letter from Petula Myers, C&MA Missionary to Bosnia-Herzegovina

Dear Praying Friends,

It is hard to believe that more than 2 months have passed since I last wrote. The last few months have been full of lots of activity, new faces and, of course, innumerable cups of coffee. Though I have often found myself at the edge of complete exhaustion, I can also say that the last few months have been some of the most exciting that I have had since starting my ministry in BiH more than 5 years ago. So here's an update on what's been happening. Sorry it's a bit long, but like I said, there's been a lot happening!

Youth Conference
At the beginning of October, the Sarajevo Malta church (where I am now based) hosted its annual Youth Conference. Nearly 100 young adults between the ages of 18-30 gathered in Sarajevo from every corner of BiH (and also a few from Croatia and Serbia) to worship the Lord and grow deeper in their understanding of His Word and His will for their lives. I had the privilege of organizing housing and overseeing the volunteer corps which consisted of our ROOTS interns, young adults from Mostar, Breza and Sarajevo; Pastor Sasa as head cook and a few other church members and missionaries from other organizations. The theme for this year was, “To seek Your face...”. The keynote speaker, talked about the importance of basic spiritual disciplines such as prayer, daily time in the Word, etc. It is always exciting for me to see this group gather to seek Him and to dream about how God will use them to change their country for His Kingdom.

ROOTS interns
It is hard to believe that our ROOTS interns, Missy and Allix, have come and gone already. I really enjoyed spending time with these young women and they were a huge blessing to our churches both in Ilidza and Sarajevo-Malta. The girls had weekly lessons on Bosnian history, culture, politics and economics with my teammate, Mark Eikost. They also helped out with the Alpha course at Ilidza, my English conversation group in the Malta church and tons of other great stuff. When asked what they did during their internship, they enthusiastically responded, “Whatever Petula tells us to do! We're her slaves!” That's not quite true, I gave them time off occasionally! Pray for the girls as return to college classes and seek God's will for their lives.

Conversation group
In mid-October, we started an English conversation group for professionals who are already nearly fluent in English but want more opportunities to speak in English. Our group now has 8 students. We are considering dividing the group into two groups to accommodate some of our students who are a bit more reserved in speaking freely. We had a great time at our Thanksgiving Banquet with the students. All 3 of our interns (Bekah from Muncie Alliance joined us in mid-November) did a great job putting everything together and I had fun cooking my very first turkey. All together, we had 22 people attend this event. It was a great time for our students to get to know more of our C&MA team and some of the members of the local church. I am really excited about the relationships that are beginning to form through my one-on-one coffee times. Please pray that I will have more opportunities to share my faith with our students.

Young women's group
Over the past year to year and a half, the Lord has been burdening me to encourage young men and women in the church as they seek to follow God's plan for their lives. Helping to organize internships with our team is one way God has been allowing me to do this.

He also gave me a special burden for encouraging young single women in the church to find their contentment in Him and to see their singleness as a special time when they can really be focused on serving His church. Thus, I began a monthly time of community building and prayer for the young women in our local church. This group also includes a few young missionary women serving in Sarajevo as I know that they too have a great need for community when they are so far from family, friends and their local church. I have truly been blessed over the past three months by the enthusiasm of this group to meet and pray for one another. Please pray that each of these young women will grow in their knowledge of Christ and His Word as well as their love for prayer and His church.

BiH Year of Prayer draws to a close
As many of you know, this year was designated as a year of prayer for BiH. At the beginning of this month, we had the last of three prayer conferences held in different cities around BiH. This conference was held in Tuzla so it was a great chance for me to be able to see all of my friends from Tuzla and pray for a city and region that is very dear to me.

There were many great moments during the conference and God truly revealed Himself and His glory to us. One of the best answers to prayer was the news that we had received all the money we needed to buy the additional land for the ECBH's campsite. Praise the Lord and please continue to pray for this as the landowner is now trying to change the conditions of the sale. Also pray for the Camp Board as they develop a plan for developing the campsite and look for additional funding for this project.

Shoebox distribution
I am sure that many of you have been a part of preparing and collecting Christmas boxes for Samaritan's Purse. Bosnia-Herzegovina is one of the countries that receives these boxes. Each year, thousands of these boxes are distributed in BiH. Each individual church prepares a special presentation for local children who will receive these boxes. The Sarajevo churches will be distributing a few thousand of these packages. Pray for the Malta church as we prepare to give our presentation (an adaption of the Max Lucado book, “You are special”) 14 times between January 3-8. Pray for us to all remain healthy and that the Lord will use the message of this play to touch the hearts of the children and the parents who will be in attendance.

Permanent visa
As you know, each year our team members must file for a one year visa. Several of us were close to getting a permanent visa when they changed immigration laws making it impossible for us to get permanent visas as volunteer church workers. Please pray with us for wisdom as we explore other possibilities for getting visas that will eventually allow us to get permanent visas. My visa renewal paperwork will need to be turned in by early February.

For reaching Bosnia-Herzegovina for Christ,
Petula Myers

CONTACT INFO:
MAIL: Bav?i? Umihana za Myers Petula, Olimpijska 40/viii, 71000 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina
E-MAIL: myers@thebalkans.org or peculica@yahoo.com
BLOG: peculence.blogspot.com
SKYPE NAME: peculica
SKYPEIN NUMBER 317-489-5685 (Calls into my computer if I’m online or you can leave a voicemail. The same cost as a long distance call in the States!)
Do you have Facebook? Look me up under Petula Myers to see pics from recent ministry events.

If you would like to make a contribution to my ministry, you can do so by sending your gifts to The Christian and Missionary Alliance, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500. Please make checks payable to The Christian and Missionary Alliance and be sure to designate whether your gift is for Petula Myers Support (Great Commission Fund), Petula Myers Work Fund (ministry use, e.g. scholarships for camp, evangelistic events, etc.), APS Bosnia Center Ministry or APS Church Planting BiH (both of these funds support our new work in Sarajevo and the surrounding area) by writing the name of that fund on the memo line. If you attend Eagle Church, please also include the following code on your check, Eagle Church 18-18-253. You can also contribute to these funds on-line by copying the following link into your Web Browser www.cmalliance.org/give/gmissions.jsp?projectDesc=Petula%20Myers

Answers to Prayer/Prayer Points

PRAISES
A great time with our interns

Continuing growth of our young women's group

Good relationships being built through our English group

Fantastic youth and prayer conferences

Received all the money needed to purchase additional land for camp

PRAY For

The land deal to be finalized without any problems

The Malta church to be able to correct and finalize the deed on their church building to remain a permanent structure when the new road goes through

more opportunities to share Christ with our English students

The children and parents who will be attending our Christmas shoebox distributions to be touch by the presentation and have open hearts--January 3-8

Wisdom as we seek new possibilities to be able to get permanent residency visas

The Youth Conference in Mostar--January 8-10

Bosnia

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