Paketice - Weihnachtspakete

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Merry Christmas

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Dear friends
This year I will turn 50, but it's not too late to still dream. Right now I am reading DREAMING WITH GOD by Bill Johnson, which has inspired me a lot. At one point I asked the Lord to give me a word for 2009 and I got this one:

What is impossible with men is possible with God. Luke 18:27

That really hit my heart. If I look ahead at 2009, then I believe there will be many opportunities where we have to say that it is humanly not possible. In those moments hopefully I will look at God's promises and know that all things are possible with God. We started 2009 as a ministry team with a planning meeting. Some of our goals can only be fulfilled if God will make them possible. Here are some of our desires: - To be unified and to improve the relationships in our team and the church - To develop and improve in worship and prayer - To renew the children’s ministry - Susy Müller is going to marry and will leave Bosnia in April - To invest in trustworthy co-workers to disciple and run a ministry school with them - To encourage the small groups and develop the church service - To find jobs and income for our co-workers who are a part of the ministry team: Dzemajl, Jasmin, Nermina and Ruza - To do more outreach, with everyone reaching out to people outside of the church. One way is to show the Jesus film in different locations. We got the equipment for this at the end of 2008. - To take the first steps for the pre-school project with Roma children

OVERVIEW
We had visitors in December: Theo Hunziker from Switzerland and Dr. Daniel Hahn from Ventura, USA. Judith Nettelroth visited her sister’s family. That was a time of encouragement and thinking about future projects. As a team we met in December for the first time all together: 26 people including children. We are really thankful for a great team with which to start 2009. Our last service had the theme: “What we are personally thankful for in 2008.” The picture shows many candles burning, each expressing thanks for special things. It was really very encouraging to share everything that happened last year, and the dark room became brighter with every single candle. I guess it was the same in our hearts.

ROMA VINEYARD SARAJEVO (RVS)
Before Christmas we had a wonderful special event with a lot of new guests. Indira presented the Christmas story as a drama with the children. At the end we handed out a Christmas package to every child.

CHURCH SERVICE on SATURDAYS at 5 PM
EVERYONE IS VERY WELCOME!

Vineyard LEADERS CONFERENCE Jan 2009 Berlin
This is a really important start point for our year, so hopefully in the future we can bring more of our team to this meeting with 450 people from Vineyards in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other countries around. Even as the number of attendees grows, we are still family. Again the input was great and gave perspective for the future. You might like to listen to the teachings – a lot of them in English with German translation:
http://www.vineyard-dach.net/veranstaltungen/podcasts/leiterkonferenz-berlin-2009.html
What especially touched my heart was the final speech from the leader Martin Bühlmann, mentioning three important points:
1. A Vineyard that doesn't serve the poor is not really a Vineyard.
2. God is checking our love for Jesus in our relationships with the Roma and other outcast people.
3. There is a army of older people in front of the churches. The second point is special to us because our heart is with the Roma!

OTKRIVAČI – Winter-camp


We heard a lot from our kids about a wonderful camp and they already are planning for the summer camp. Altogether 37 people were packed in the mountain house. Besides a lot of fun and sporting activities, the children heard about the basics of faith. Susy and Astrid took part, Susy leading our kids and Astrid responsible for the kitchen. Thanks to the entire OTKRIVACI team for their investment in the kids.

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?
At the end of February we will go with a small group from Sarajevo to Leskovac, where a church connected with the Vineyard has been planting churches in the surrounding area. This conference will join a team from Vineyard Staufen, Germany and Vineyard Graz, Austria, with Paul and Holly Miller as the speakers. We need your prayers for this important event.

Then we will send us many people as possible from our ministry who are interested in children’s work, to a seminar from CEF held in Sarajevo. This is also an important step in developing the team for our children’s ministry.

Blessings to everyone and don’t forget: What is impossible with men is possible with God.

Roma Ministry Team
Astrid and Reinhold Harms, Susy Müller, Corah and Malcolm Duerod, Heike and Gerson Witzlau Dzemajl Mucista, Jasmin and Nermina Hasanovic, Ruza Leleta and our children: Rahel, Rebecca, Kaleb, Debora, David, Tikvah Joy, Emanuel, Valentina, Rifad, Sadmir, Sara, Benjamin, Amira, Elma

PRAYER REQUESTS:
praise report
- For the church service and home groups that are going well
- For every encouragement
- For the team
- For the first small jobs provided for our people
- For God’s financial plans
- For perspective for 2009
requests
- For the conference in Leskovac
- For open doors and opportunities to reach out with the Good News
- For protection, encouragement, and provision for all of our church people
- For more paid work for our people - For protection on every journey
- For strengthening of the home group leadership
- For empowering of our small group leadership and for all co-workers
- That we will be able to send four people to the CEF seminar for children ministry

Don’t be scared to do something new.
Ordinary people built the ark, but experts built the Titanic.

Dear friends,
Can you believe it is already Christmas? Does the time run faster when you’re older? Today some say you’ll notice the difference when you turn 50. Ok – I still have some months to go!
Sarajevo has already turned white and covered by snow. It has already been really cold but recently we have also had some warm days.
We are really thankful about all the stuff that has happened in the Roma Vineyard Sarajevo.

I GOT A NEW JOB
Since 4 weeks ago, I (Reinhold) got a new job: every Tuesday I am a cleaning lady man. A lady in our church is always complaining about everything, mostly that she doesn’t have a job or enough money. One day she got a job in her building and the one next to it, but she still complained, “It’s too much work for the small amount of pay.” I was personally challenged by this and so I took some cleaning equipment for floors and stairs. That was how it started and from then, it’s been every Tuesday for about 5 hours – 10 entrances with 7 floors each.
In the beginning I thought I would do this just once, but now I know the blessing of it, I will keep this job for a while. This is an opportunity to learn about how life is for some Roma, and to experience the challenges of their life. If that isn’t part of a Bible school schedule, it should be! This is a way to meet people in a different and more real way than in church. We have a new perspective on the people in those buildings and have started to pray and to proclaim them for Jesus. Sometimes we have the chance to pray directly for people in need. God might open a new door in Otes.
A lot of people got irritated at first, because I am a man and they think that a man should not clean like a woman. Last Tuesday, however, a young lady who lives there said that I am the best of all the cleaning people they have had. I just needed this one compliment. Thanks, Lord!

ROMA VINEYARD SARAJEVO (RVS)
About 4 weeks ago, we changed the structure of the RVS. Out of a bigger home group which looked like a church service, we built home groups in Otes, Dolac Malta, Butmir, Alipasino, Tarcin and teenage girls’ club in Stup. In the first week we had a wave of encouragement coming through the church. Every single home group gave great reports. We were excited about this.
Beside the home group, our goal was to make the church service the center of our church life and an opportunity to meet other church members. At the same time it is also the chance for our co-workers to invest in different areas of ministry and to learn. There are still not so many people in church but one of our preachers said that he felt as if he was preaching in front of 200 instead of 20 people. That is a wonderful perspective – now is the time to prepare for 200 church attendees.
Every church service we have a team running the children’s class, a welcome team, a refreshment team, a leader, a preacher, a team for the ministry time, worship, transportation and so on. So about 70% of the people are involved in ministry to do the Church service. I have the privilege to be a coach and to do everything myself as well.
Now our sermons are really fresh and simple. Can you imagine a preacher in front of you who can hardly even read the bible because he never attended school? Last Saturday we had this situation. We had some guests with high level education and the preacher was Dzemajl, who has never gone regularly to school. I believe that he has a call to preach the good news.

1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;
God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Our church service feels different now and brings hope for the future. The worship is really encouraging, teachings are simple and part of their life experience. We are excited.

Church service is every Saturday at 5 pm – you are heartily welcome!

HOME GROUP TARCIN
4 years ago the Jesus movie was shown in Tarcin. Some people confessed Jesus as Saviour, but backslid afterwards. But still it feels that God opened a door in Tarcin which no one can close, even though we face a battle going on there.
We have had more people but right now there are just four people together. Last week it was hard to get to the group because of heavy snowfall. Finally we arrived and this evening was very exciting. God spoke encouragement to the young believer there. It seems that God will use them to build his Kingdom and intercede for Tarcin.
Today we got really bad news: a baby from Jasmina’s family died after two surgeries. The baby is from a young couple and the family invited us the first night to have the home group in their house. The next time we moved to another house because he found it too challenging to admit that they are a part of a Christian congregation. It isn’t easy for them but still the mother called me to pray for the baby. Last Saturday we prayed in Church and then some individuals also prayed. And two days ago Jasmina called me and said everything was ok, so I stopped praying. The next day she called and brought the bad news. Please pray for the parents and for the young believer.


WHAT IS GOING ON NEXT?
We came just back from the prayer-conference in Tuzla. We had a great time there.
Nermina is continuing with school and in January she will have final exams.
Astrid will visit her father and stay with him on his birthday. Her father cried when she telephoned him with the news.
The Witzlau family will come back soon and Susy Müller will be in Germany from the middle of December until the first week in January.
Next week, Theo Hunziker will come from Switzerland and around new year evening Dr. Daniel Hahn will come from Ventura, USA.
In the beginning of next year I will attend the Vineyard leaders conference in Berlin.
Then there will be a youth conference in Mostar and a children camp at Jahorina and hopefully we may able to send some of ours to this conference and camp.
Yes we are celebrating Christmas, except we could forget because there are so few lights in the street!

That is a good place to finish this report and a chance to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2009. Thanks for your participation in this ministry!

Your Roma Ministry Team:
Astrid and Reinhold Harms, Susy Müller, Corah and Malcolm Duerod, Heike and Gerson Witzlau, Dzemajl Mucista, Jasmin and Nermina Hasanovic, Ruza Leleta and our kids:
Rahel, Rebecca, Kaleb, Debora, David, Tikvah Joy, Emanuel, Valentina, Rifad, Sadmir, Sara, Benjamin, Amira, Elma


PRAYER REQUESTS
Thanks for
- The great start of the Church service and home groups
- Every single small or bigger encouragement
- Team
- Job opportunities for our brothers and sisters in Church (Ruza got an offer for a job)
INTERCESSION FOR
- open doors and opportunities to reach out with the Good News
- Protection, encouragement, provision for all of our church people
- More paid work for our people
- Protection on every journey
- Strengthening of the home group leadership
- Perspective for 2009

To our dear friends
This summer has been different for us. In the past we’ve always had trouble after we left Sarajevo for furlough, but this year we have a much stronger team. Gerson and Heike Witzlau and Susy Müller are our permanent team members, and we also have Dzemajl and Hasreta, Jasmin and Nermina, and Ruza as a supporting team. It was important that the ministry continued during our time in Germany and it gives us hope for the future.

FURLOUGH IN GERMANY
We were really blessed by the OJC in Reichelsheim (the Reichelsheim Fellowship is a German non-denominational evangelical community). They offered us a six-week stay in their center, which was formerly a castle. Of course it was a special opportunity for our daughter Debora and the others to live in a castle for the first time. We consider them princes and princesses so it is very appropriate, especially as we were celebrating Rahel’s and Debora’s birthdays. We spent a great time there, resting, receiving counseling, listening to interesting talks and conversations. We made new friends and learned from other experienced missionaries, and we are very grateful for the blessings we received from them. During this time, Astrid stayed with her father who had just left the hospital. They had a good time together, though the children missed their mother very much. After the time in the OJC, our entire family stayed with Astrid’s parents close to Aachen. That was also a really good time. Astrid’s parents are facing a really challenging time. Her father had half of his larynx surgically removed because of cancer. Consequently, Astrid’s mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s dementia has had to go permanently to a nursing home. The good news is that Astrid’s father doesn’t need chemotherapy or other treatment, and even if he is very quiet, he can still speak. They realized that many people prayed for them and he received prayer a couple of times, which was encouraging. We were grateful for the opportunity to spend so much time with them, and afterwards Astrid’s dad wrote us a letter to let us know how thankful he was.

MINISTRY TEAM - ROMA VINEYARD SARAJEVO
It is a privilege to have such a wonderful team with Heike and Gerson Witzlau, their little son David and Susy Müller and really soon also Corah and Malcolm Duerod. Beside that our Roma brothers and sister slowly are growing. That is really much our desire to see them involved in the ministry and step by step just serving them so they will minister to their people. Please pray for that. Right now there are Jasmin and Nermina, Dzemajl and his wife Hasreta and Ruza. Corah and Malcolm (pictured left) are preparing for their mission in Sarajevo. Malcolm will be a professor at www.aubih.ba, so he’s already got a contract for October. That’s why they have changed their plans to come in September instead of February next year. But at the moment they are anticipating their baby’s birth. Please pray for them for this challenging time. Nermina is also pregnant and she and Jasmin are awaiting the birth very soon. Please pray for them as well for the whole family’s situation. He is still a student and she has to finish school beginning in October. Budimka had surgery for a spinal disc herniation, which she had tried to avoid for a long time. The surgery went well and now she is recovering. According the doctors she may still have some pain for the rest of her life. So let’s pray that God will do a miracle and heal her. Astrid saw the doctor to have a check-up for some melanocytic nevus and she is awaiting the results. Please pray that the results will be good.

SHORT TERM MISSION TEAMS Globe Europe came with the X-TREME MISSION team to support our ministry here in Sarajevo. They reached out particularly in the gypsy village in Butmir, and everyone was encouraged to see the Holy Spirit moving. Together with the local Jesus Film Project they showed the Jesus film. Today one lady came with her three kids and asked me when we will come again. That was the opportunity to share the Gospel with her and finally pray for them all: JUST DO IT!

CVJM Loebau is an organization which has had a long-term relationship with Nermina and Bisera since this family stayed in Germany as refugees. The day after we returned home last week, they came as a team and stayed in our house. They are doing outreach around Bosnia and Croatia for two weeks and are also prepared to share the gospel in Butmir.

SCHOOL STARTS AGAIN Next week, Bosnian children will start school again. Once again our ministry will support Roma families in buying books and school material, hand out used clothes and bags, etc. Our four kids will also be going back to school - Debora for the first time. Please pray for all involved in this event. We have had a long time to think about our ministry and situation. There is too much to say but we know our time here in Bosnia has not yet come to the end. The ministry still needs our support. Our desire for the future is to give away more ministry, tasks, and responsibilities. We want to concentrate on the most important things and even take some new steps. Please pray for wisdom and that the Lord will build His house with us.

Many greetings from Sarajevo and God’s blessing from the Roma Ministry Team: Susy Müller, Gerson, Heike and David Witzlau, Malcolm, Corah and baby Duerod, Astrid, Reinhold, Rahel, Rebecca, Kaleb and Debora Harms

PRAYER REQUESTS:

Thanks for - A new fire in our prayer life and a new love for God’s Word - Our local co-workers Ruza, Dzemajl and Hasreta, Nermina and Jasmin - the opportunity for furlough in Germany - Astrid’s parents and family - Short-term teams - A working place for Indira - The prayer conference - The children’s camp

Intercession for - Corah and Malcom’s preparation for the upcoming move into mission and - provision for all their needs, especially when Corah gives birth to the new - baby. - Astrid’s parents to experience the presence of God - The development of the ministry team - Further steps for those who heard the Good News through the ministry teams - The next steps in ministry - All our co-workers: the Witzlau family, Susy Müller, Ruža, Džemajl and Hasreta, Jasmin and Nermina - For the new babies - Recovery and more healing for Budimka - Good results for Astrid - The start of school - A more powerful testimony to people around us - Development of the small groups - Healing and constructive life changes - More employment opportunities - Children’s camp