Greetings from Varna American International School where we celebrated Thanksgiving on November 7th. Thanksgiving was the month’s theme, and we’re now approaching finals and gearing up for Christmas holidays trips.  As one of our chapel choruses repeated, we have “so much, so much to be thankful for!”

Smooth Transitions

We thank God we’ve quickly acclimated to our 2nd floor apartment within the quaint Serbian village that houses VAIS students, staff, and classrooms. Our landlord and neighbors are incredibly friendly and generous (always sharing fruit from their gardens or offering us homemade wine/alcohol). Most are older and lead a quiet, slow paced life.  Learning and using their names and greeting them in Serbian elicits smiles and simple conversations.  And George’s greater attempts to communicate even resulted in several kisses on his head the other day by an elderly widower kitty-corner from us! :-) He’s working harder than his parents at speaking and even writing, which delights our cook and others with whom we interact.  We’re also learning our way around Trebinje, a gorgeous city surrounded by mountains in the southern, Herzegovina part of Bosnia.

Being familiar with Chinese culture made it easy for us to connect with our 32 students and the Chinese staff Mark is serving with. We’re thrilled to report we’ve now learned everyone’s names! Eating with them three meals a day in the school cafeteria has certainly helped this effort!  The students, who range from 13 to 18 years old, study Bible in addition to all the subjects in an American high school and have Chapel each Wednesday and Worship Service on the weekend. Besides academic excellence, they must demonstrate spiritual maturity and life skills proficiency in order to be recommended to study abroad at a Christian high school or university.

Student Life and Preaching

Mark serves with the Student Life team here at VAIS.  This means he attends several weekly meetings where the dorm supervisors discuss how their students are doing, pray over them, plan dorm activities and talks, and encourage each other in their personal walks with the Lord. The meetings are usually in Chinese since Mark’s the only American so we thank God for his language ability! Every Friday he also disciples his coworkers in basic Christian disciplines they can practice themselves if they’re not already and then pass on to the students.  In addition he and I are Dorm Dad and Mom for the four oldest young ladies.  Unfortunately space doesn’t allow us to live together but their two bedroom apartment is at most a three minute walk.  We do Dorm Check twice a week, reward them for keeping things orderly, have Dorm Talks about different pertinent issues, enjoy occasional activities, celebrate birthdays and other holidays, and carry out discipline as needed.

We’re grateful God’s also given Mark several opportunities to preach during the Worship Service. Some students seem open to his spiritual guidance, but we have yet to see much practical application.  However, two of our girls are trying to read a chapter in their Bibles each night and share their gleanings with each other.

Dorm Girls

It’d take too long to describe the spiritual and family backgrounds of our four beautiful blessings.  But suffice it to say, they aren’t pretty!  Consequently, they each have unique struggles. Two are very independent, not interested in coming under authority if they don’t like the rules.  The other two are for the most part teachable, but insecure about their abilities and exactly how they fit into God’s Kingdom work. Of course, they’re also all concerned about their futures since they’re 17 and 18 years old.

Please join us in praying specifically for each one.  Though working with them is challenging, we have no doubt God brought us together and that He will accomplish His purposes in and through our relationships.

L:  A new Christian as of April.  Pray she’d continue to faithfully read her Bible and look for good works to do for others in Christ’s name.  She has a wonderful salvation story and is the most teachable of our girls, but sometimes still struggles with self-centeredness.

P: L’s roommate.  Really, really wants to serve God somehow on campus, but struggles with discipline in many areas of her life.  Also feels inferior to her dorm-mates who have obvious gifts and abilities.  Pray for wisdom as we help her discern what she’s good at and can do for the Lord. Also a possible career path.

R:  Smart as a whip and identifies as a Christian but is struggling to read her Bible daily and frustrated about our school’s too-strict rules on boy/girl relationships.  She’s under disciplinary measures for breaking a rule with her boyfriend and we’d so love to see her repent and accept the protection of the authorities in her life.

A:  Bitter at her parents for past physical and emotional wounds and takes this anger out inappropriately. She has a protective shell and doesn’t want to let adults in.  Pray for forgiveness, freedom in Christ, and the healing that only Jesus can provide.

George and Mom

George has been serving on the church worship team, helping students with guitar and drums, participating in a recently formed little band called Microwave, (Don’t ask me! :-)), leading a Bible study with some guys, continuing to compose Christian songs online, and joining PE classes.  He’s also working on Chinese and Hindi in addition to Serbian.  He’s furthest along in Hindi and still plans on attending Bible college and Lord willing, one day serving in far-flung places, bringing the Gospel to those who have never heard.

My days have been fuller than expected with not needing to prepare meals, but I’m loving every minute!  I pray more, read books I haven’t gotten to in awhile, have students/staff in for tea, spend time with Chinese daughter Lily, who teaches Biology here, occasionally go for walks and swim, pray weekly with our principal, accompany Mark to take girls shopping, sit with and provide comfort for those sick, make an occasional American meal for everyone, and just join in whatever’s going on. I’m especially enjoying mentoring former student, Jane, as she came here for a couple months just to help before she heads to Southwest Baptist University.  We make a morning snack for students and staff once a week and have lots of time to talk about Jesus and what He means to us.  Her spiritual journey, like many here, is remarkable and she recently wrote on a Give Thanks poster in our home, “Thank you God for giving me this new life!”  She wasn’t a believer before she came to the school, but she sure is now!

Micah and Victory’s Thanksgiving Visit

On Thanksgiving Day our son Micah (26) and his girlfriend Victory arrived and spent eight days here, hence the reason this letter is later than anticipated!  They shared about their life, faith, and relationship with our students in a very well received joint Dorm Talk, participated in PE, spent lots of time chatting with the students and learning about our school, toured our village and campus, and just enjoyed lovely Trebinje’s sights and culture.  We had a wonderful time with them and are so grateful, though it rained four days straight before they came, God gave us three sunny days to enjoy together!

Thank You

As always, we deeply appreciate your every prayer and gift.  God is working through you to impact Chinese young people!

Overflowing with thanks,

Rachel, for the B’s in Bosnia