39 Wishart Drive
Broomridge, Stirling FK7 7TR
Scotland, U.K.
Tel: 011-44-1786-816259
Email: mitchvick@btinternet.com

Mid-Summer in Scotland

This is always one of my favorite times of the year in Scotland, whether it’s a hot summer or a cool rainy one. This year, so far, definitely comes down in the cool and rainy category. Our brilliant sunny weather of May has given way to showery weather throughout June, but it is still very pleasant. Days are long at this time of the year (the sun doesn’t set until around 10 pm), making it possible to be outside a bit more, as long as you take an umbrella with you!

Stirling Church News

The Stirling congregation is doing well. Our congregational meeting in early July was an informal “feedback session,” getting ideas and views from the church which the elders want to process and work with over the coming weeks. It was a good and positive time together as the church looks to the future and seeks better ways of reaching the lost of Scotland.

Our members are doing well, though many will be out of town in the coming weeks. John Renwick has been given an “all clear so far” in his follow-up scans and check-ups. His three month post surgery recovery time is almost complete now, and we are hoping to see him beginning to resume at least some congregational duties next month. We praise God for the continuing victory of his recovery. Our sister Maggie Campbell has experienced some ups and downs in health, and we continue to keep her in our prayers, praying that she might be as healthy in body as she is in spirit! We continue to study weekly with Pauline McGachy, and recently the church held its mid-week Bible class in her home, which was quite a step for her husband Stephen. We believe we are slowly building bridges to Stephen, who is a committed Roman Catholic and has been difficult to reach out to in the past. There have been several “extra” fellowship activities recently. In late June, a number of Stirling church members enjoyed a recent Saturday trip to Bamburgh Castle and Holy Island, an early center of missionary activity to the British Isles on England’s northeast coast. It was a great day of fellowship together.

Temporary FriendSpeak Changes

The summer holiday season is now upon us, and this has disrupted our regular Sunday FriendSpeak sessions with so many people out of town in the weeks ahead. Until the university resumes in August/September we will continue working with our 4 regular FriendSpeak readers, Jie, Danny, Ann, and Carey on Tuesday afternoons. We are thankful that Jie, who was baptized earlier this year, Danny, and Carey all continue to attend Sunday morning worship faithfully. We are planning a BBQ at our home soon for all involved in the FriendSpeak work, and several other special activities are also being planned for the near future.

Stirling’s First Youth Day

The Stirling church’s first ever Youth Day was a big success with over 25 young people attending from Morley, England, and several churches across the central belt. Tristan and Leslie Block, along with David and Emma McCready, put a tremendous amount of work and preparation into this excellent day, and the feedback from all who attended was extremely good. We certainly hope to be able to host other similar events in the not too distant future.

Family News

Isobel and I are doing well. We are enjoying having our son Robin and his wife Chrissy back in Scotland at the moment. They are visiting various congregations as they gather information and begin to make some decisions about what they would like to do when they finish their studies in Bible school next year. They are committed, God willing, to returning to the British Isles to work with congregations here and, perhaps, in time, to planting a new work somewhere. Please keep them in your prayers as they plan and prepare for this. The Stirling congregation enjoyed hearing Robin preach in Sunday worship on June 22nd. Hannah has now finished her first clinical placement, in ER, and has started a second, in family practice. She enjoyed being able to spend the 4th of July holiday with Laura and Clay in Dallas. Laura and Clay are also well and are busy with their jobs, as well as making plans for her graduate studies next year.

Brethren, we love you and appreciate your interest in Scotland so very much. We ask you to keep praying for us.

Yours in the Lord’s service,
Mitch and Isobel Vick

Our beloved Christian brothers and sisters in the Lord,

We have just finished a very successful, 4th Christian Seminar at the city of Corinth in Greece.

We spent four unforgettable days with Gospel preachers coming from Russia, Bulgaria, Israel, Romania, Greece, USA and Austria.

More than 100 precious souls were with us. Also, the Harding University students and their professors came to visit us for a day. The topic was “Holiness”.

We had 14 teachers and assistants teaching children’s classes, daily, each morning and evening.

Debbie was the coordinator and organizer of the children’s classes and our Greek sister Mary taught at these classes everyday. We were delighted to involve new Christian ladies and also our teenagers in assisting the teachers.

The ladies had an hour of prayers and fellowship which Eleni Melirrytos coordinated. All sisters enjoyed the encouragement they received from one another.

The sermons on holiness given by Gospel preachers of the churches of Christ were powerful:

Joe Shulam from Jerusalem spoke on “Be Holy as I am Holy” and “Father keep them from the evil one.”

Alexander Melirrytos from Greece spoke on “Holiness in young people.”

Igor Egirev from Russia spoke on “Holiness in the workplace.”

Dr Bill Richardson from Harding University spoke on “Holiness in marriage.”

Tim Brinley from Russia spoke of “Holiness during crises in our lives.”

Ron Kretz from Greece spoke on “Holiness in the family.”

Also we had the opportunity to hear about the work of Eastern European Missions from brother Brant Rybinski. Rick Walker from Kiev, Ukraine, spoke about the importance of been educated in the Word of God.

I thank God for the opportunity He gave me to be in charge of this year’s Christian Seminar in Greece.

It was an amazing feeling to see so many nationalities of Gospel preachers, of the churches of Christ, come together in fellowship. Some preachers met for the first time. Also we had many visitors from around Athens.

We strongly believe that the Lord’s work will be more productive due to the precious time spent in Corinth, Greece.

We are sorry that a group of nine Albanian Christians with their Gospel preacher; Alfred Zike, were unable to receive their Visas in time from the Greek Embassy in Tirana. Although they had presented all the necessary documents in plenty of time. We missed them, but we hope that they will have the opportunity to join us another time.

On June 29th we had a SPECIAL worship service at the Omonia Church of Christ in the heart of Athens. Joe Shulam and Igor Egirev were the speakers. Songs were sung in Bulgarian, Greek, Russian, Romanian and English.

After our worship, I had the privilege in baptizing into Christ a Russian Muslim lady called Irena. She has studied the Word of God with us for several months and now she dedicated her life to Jesus. We were ALL very happy with her faith in Christ.

Debbie and I are flying to the States on July 8th to attend the Global Missions Conference. They have invited me, to be one of the keynote speakers. I will be speaking on July 26th in Arlington, Texas. You may receive more information at www.globalmissionsconference.com.

While in the States we will visit several congregations and we will spend time with our children and grandchildren in Atlanta, Georgia and Dallas, Texas.

We will return to Athens on August 13th.

Please keep us in your prayers.

May the Lord bless you all.

We will see you soon,

In His love,
Dino and Debbie Roussos

Holiness in Corinth

“Holiness” was the general topic for the Conference we had in Corinth in June 25-28, 2008. It sounds like a very good one for the Conference in a place which in 1st century was notorious for the lack of holiness. But for us, modern Christians, who gathered there from different countries, the topic still was very relevant.

There are several things which made that event special.
The first noticeable thing was of course the beauty of the place. Many people compared Kalamaki Beach with Paradise. Although we never seen Paradise with our own eyes, after being there, we got impression we have been there… done that and got a baseball cap with the sign “Holiness” in 3 languages: Greek, English and Russian. After staying in Kalamaki Beach we could not help, but compare all other beautiful places with it and say: Kalamaki is better.

Another important thing is the number of countries represented there. Being at the Conference we had chance to meet brothers and sisters from Greece, Israel, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, USA, Ukraine and Russia. In a way, it was like traveling to all these places. We shared stories about our congregations and religious situation in our countries. It helps to get a better vision of the Church of Christ in general. Unfortunately, we did not get to see brothers and sisters from Albania. They could not get visas to Greece. That reminded us that the World is still divided, but, as famous Christian song goes, “we are one in the Spirit” in spite of that.

Wonderful teaching also was a remarkable feature of the Conference. We heard lectures on the subjects “Be Holy as I am Holy”, “Holiness in the family”, “Holiness in young people’s life”, “Holiness in our workplace”, “Holiness in marriage”, “Holiness during crises in our life”. We were privileged to hear brothers Dino Roussos, Joe Shulam, Ron Kretz, Alexander Melirrytos, Bill Richardson, Tim Brinley and Bartosz Rybinski. I am very thankful for the opportunity to speak with such brothers.

The trip to archaeological sight of ancient Corinth was short, but very educational. We got to see the place where Apostle Paul was judged, the evidences that support Bible story and signs of presence of Christianity in Corinth.
Last evening in Corinth, June 27th, was unforgettable. One Greek couple had their 50th anniversary on that day, and Alexander Melirrytos, a minister of the Greek congregation, had his 55th birth day. He shaved his beard on this occasion and “looked like a baby” (quotation from A. Melirrytos). There were enough reasons to have good calibration. We had a lot of singing and rejoicing that night.

We left Corinth on Saturday, June 28th. We went to Athens and our acquaintance with this wonderful country and its people continued.

Sunday morning, before the worship service, Dino took us to the Mars Hill and Acropolis. We stood at the place where Paul was standing and delivering his famous sermon, recorded in Acts 17.

On Sunday we’ve been to several worship services at the same location (Omonia square). People speaking different languages get together at different time, because they would not fit in the auditorium all together. I was surprised to hear so many languages in Athens and in church particularly.

It gave a good sense of International brotherhood, where no one feels left out. There is rather big Russian speaking community in church. They got together at 4 pm. There were so many Russian speaking people at the Conference in Corinth and in church in Athens, that brother Dino asked me to speak in Russian, which made a perfect sense. In Corinth Bulgarian brother George Vassilef translated for me into English.

In Athens at church assembly I also spoke Russian, George Vassilef translated it into English and Dino Roussos translated from English into Greek. Usually translation shortens the message. But the good thing about it was that while one sentence was translated I had enough time to think about my next sentence. I made a lot of friends among Russian speaking Christians and think that I was encouraged by them much more then they were by me. I heard their stories, their confessions, their prayers, the way they sing to God, and all of that lifted up my spirit. But I do hope that our fellowship had a mutual encouraging effect.

The highlight of the trip was the baptism of a Russian lady, former muslim on Sunday during the worship service.
I was leaving Greece with feeling that I’ve found another home. Part of me did not want to go and leave my newly found relatives: Artur, Anatoliy, Luda, Natalia, Sveta, Nicolas, George, Tanya, Bogdan, Gabriela and many others. Not mentioning my good old friends that I had chance to visit there with.

We are very thankful to Dino and Debbie Roussos and all brethren in Greece for providing such a wonderful opportunity to get together and think about the way God expects us to live as Christians. And ultimately, we thank our Lord for that event; for He knows we need meetings like that to strengthen our faith, hope and love. Let all these end up in our holy life for His glory.

2008, July 5th
Igor Egirev

Dear Dino,

Thank you very much for organizing the seminar, for your tour-guidance in Corinth, Athens and on the islands! We really enjoyed the time of teaching and of Christian fellowship. You chose such a beautiful place for the seminar! It was wonderful combination of the God’s creation around us (palm trees, blossoming bushes, singing birds and cicadas) and tranquil friendly atmosphere that was created by you and other Christians from Greece. We also enjoyed the Kalamaki Beach hotel stuff hospitality.

We look forward to meet you and Debbie again!

With Christian love,
Sergey and Tanya Shishkin

I thought longingly of your gas prices yesterday as I waited in a long line of cars at the gas station down the street that lowered its prices for the evening to the equivalent of 8.54/gallon. Amazing! The line of cars was all the way down the street. Needless to say, people are trying to drive as little as possible these days — no matter where they live!

CAMPAIGN

Otherwise, things are going well. For four weeks we had four students from Harding University, (in the photo) ROSIE, ANDREW, ASHLEY, and LAURA, with us doing English Bible studies (EBS) with people who wanted to practice their English. We didn’t have as many calls from the newspaper ads and posters this time, but the students did a good job dealing with all who came and left us with quite a few who will either continue studying with Alicia and me on Monday evenings or who want to be part of our other English activities – like the English movie we will be seeing and discussing this Friday. In the past, such activities have encouraged more people to join the regular study groups and have also allowed for them to get to know more of the Christians, who also take part.

This campaign was good in another way also. In the past, the EBS activities, including the student visits, have pivoted around Jim and me. This time, Jim is not here and I knew I was not able to deal with the stress. Enter TEAMWORK. Early on, the plan was that Mark would coordinate things, but as his plans changed, it became a group project led by RUEDIGER, FLORIAN, ALICIA and me. Ruedi and Flo gave it structure, and Alicia and I had our previous campaign experience to contribute. Actually, Alicia did most of the footwork: being the first contact (on the telephone) for most people responding to our advertising; helping to train the HU students by passing on her own EBS experience; and keeping tabs on all the contacts throughout. Though it was not always easy for CHUCK HICKS, (the faculty sponsor who accompanied the group with his wife MELINDA) to deal with four of us instead of just one, it was encouraging to see how the Lord could combine and use our differing personalities and talents and how smoothly we were able to work together. Though Alicia and I, as “native-speakers,” will be leading the English studies, the four of us continue to see it as a group project.

GOOD NEWS!

That brings me to some very good news. ALICIA, who came to us in October 2006 for two years, has decided to stay longer. I have written you before about her helping me personally in the past 9 months and in making Jim’s library useful for others, but her involvement here has gone far beyond that. She is a willing servant – whether with a kind and comforting word, a well-done Bible lesson, babysitting or swinging a mop. Watching her grow has been fun. She used to be sort of timid.

Her sponsoring church/main supporter in Searcy has graciously extended her support, but because of the weakness of the US Dollar, she will need to find an additional $400-500/month support at least through next summer. Please keep her fundraising effort in your prayers.

THE BREMEN CHURCH

Dependence on God’s Word has always been an attribute of this church, but all too often, I think we depended on Jim for our nourishment. Looking around, it is exciting how much study is going on right now, both with each other and with others. First, RUEDIGER and FLORIAN are taking courses online from Sunset Bible Institute in Lubbock, and this has encouraged several others to consider doing the same. Then on Tuesdays twice a month, there are three groups meeting: the Men’s Class; MICHAELA, INGRID and ALICIA in one part of town; and KATERINA, STEFANIE and ROTRAUD in another. On the other Tuesday evenings, we have our regular Ladies’ Class. Besides that, HELGA is trying to share the Gospel with Linda and BARBARA Sa., and INGRID with BARBARA So. Finally, in addition to the EBS, I am studying with SIMONE, who became a Christian in December, as well as with my neighbor HEATHER, and ALICIA is reading in the Bible with JANA. Not bad for a small congregation!

But that is not all. There is also JUERGEN, Simone’s husband. Last week, he asked Ruediger if he could come over with some Bible questions. It turns out that he is already in the Psalms on his way to reading through the whole Bible and had a page full of good questions. Both he and Simone are from the former East Germany, where there was little or no religious training, so in order to understand the Lord’s teaching and sacrifice, he wants to read all of God’s Word just as Simone did last year before becoming a Christian. Juergen also has attended worship on Sundays several times in the past few weeks.

PERSONAL

Rejoice with me! I have gotten the tax information far enough along so that others can help me and am very thankful for the CPA’s on both sides of the Atlantic helping me to get it in finished form. There is just something unsettling about dealing with the IRS! Actually, it was rather emotional going through last year in detail, invoice by invoice, but I think it did me good. However, at the end, I would have preferred to continue holding onto 2007 (and Jim) rather than adding up the totals.

If you remember, I told you I was looking forward to things slowing down a bit. Well, as it turns out, life is not that much slower, just more regular, which is good. Also, a couple of the people I am counseling at the moment are in emotional situations similar to mine, which means that helping them find solutions does a lot to help me as well. God is good.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Gott mit euch!

Your fellow servant,
Elsa Springer

39 Wishart Drive
Broomridge, Stirling FK7 7TR
Scotland, U.K.
Tel: 011-44-1786-816259
Email: mitchvick@btinternet.com

Hello from Scotland

Our spell of really great Scottish weather continues, with only a few days of rain over the past month. For the most part we have had brilliant sunny weather, with the temperature in the 60’s and 70’s. That’s about as good as it gets!

Visit from the Antwines

Last week we were thrilled to have Clyde and Gwen Antwine visiting from Oklahoma. This wonderful missionary couple stopped off enroute to Germany to see Tristan and Leslie Block, who work with us here in Stirling under the auspices of the H.I.M (Helpers in Missions) program. It was so good to be with them and to introduce them to the Stirling congregation. Clyde preached for us on Sunday (June 8th), and the congregation enjoyed a fellowship meal afterward to enable Clyde and Gwen to meet the group. It was an excellent day, and several non-Christian visitors were present.

Church News

The congregation has had a much better month and is focusing well on our work and on the future. A congregational meeting is planned for Sunday, July 6th, after our next fellowship meal so that the elders can both present some ideas for future outreach and take suggestions from the church. We look forward to this special time with the congregation. John Renwick continues to get good reports after his surgery and is making slow but steady progress back to health. He and Irene have just returned from Aberdeen this week following the birth of their third grandchild, a 10 lb. 7 oz. son for John Anthony and Kristen. Our sister Maggie Campbell is also enjoying a better spell of health. We continue to have studies with one of our newer members, Pauline McGachy, and we were very pleased to have her husband Stephen with us for worship last Sunday. Tristan and Leslie also continue to study regularly with Jie Luo and her husband Danny, and they have just begun some extra work with Carey Lee, another FriendSpeak reader.

FriendSpeak

Our FriendSpeak work has been a little slower because of exams and travel by many of the students, though we are still pleased with how it is going. Wendy, one of the readers, has now moved to England, but we still have, in addition to Jie and Danny, regular sessions with Ann, from China, Carey, from Taiwan, and Marcia, from Brazil. Since it has been a time of some “coming and going” among our regular workers, that is a comfortable number to work with through the summer.

Youth Work

The youth work is also going well, though we have been unable to restart the Tuesday youth club. This will probably have to wait for the autumn now, when we hope the construction on the school will be finished. However, Tristan, Leslie, David, and Emma continue to get together regularly with our own group of young people, and they are all working hard to get ready for our Youth Day this coming Saturday. A lot of planning and preparation has already been done, and we are hoping for a really good group of youth from the Scottish churches.

BBS Extension Classes

My own teaching work for the British Bible School extension program is now finished. The last session took place last night. We averaged 8-10 students per week, one of whom is taking the course for BBS credit, so it has certainly been a worthwhile effort. I expect to be teaching again in the future, but in the meantime I look forward to having that evening available for other things.

Family News

Isobel and I enjoyed attending the wedding of Paula Ferrie and Stephen MacDonald a couple of weeks ago (Paula is the daughter of Alastair and Linda Ferrie, who work with the church in Dundee). It was a very good day, even though attending the wedding meant that we had to miss the 50th anniversary celebration of the Hyvots Bank church in Edinburgh. (They also had a really great day of fellowship.) We are looking forward to the arrival on Robin and Chrissy on Friday (June 20th) and the opportunity to spend some time with them. They have finished their first year at Sunset and are in North Carolina as we write. Hannah is doing well, and her first clinical placement, in ER, has been successful so far, though the 12 hour days have taken some getting used to. Laura is also well, and she has just been accepted to do graduate work in Library Science at UNT (University of North Texas).

We love you and appreciate your interest in our work so very much. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a note when you can, and please keep us in your prayers.

Yours in the Lord’s service,
Mitch and Isobel Vick

Family Institute of Latin America Website

jgheiderich@gmail.com

Salvador, Bahia

Salvador is the third largest city in Brazil, after Rio and São Paulo. It is 550 years old and was the first capital of the country. The ICOS (church of Christ Salvador) is one of 6 Churches of Christ in this great city. This congregation is being evangelized by 4 American missionary couples. They have 35 members and an attendance of 70 after 3 years of work. We spent 5 days with this mission team at the end of April. This was our second teambuilding workshop with this talented team. Last year they were in the midst of loosing one of their team members and things were very stressful and uncertain. This year we found a team that is working well together and focusing on evangelizing their part of the huge city of Salvador. We admire their desire to keep growing as a team and not to let anything hinder their effectiveness.

Thanks

We are so thankful that Jerry and Gail have been able to work with our team and family over the last two years. It is such a blessing to have a couple come in with so much experience in church planting. We know that when we share the challenges that we face as a new church plant here in Salvador that we are speaking to people who can truly empathize with our situation. Their experience gives them much wisdom that has allowed them to confront, head on, the problems and conflicts that our team faces. But the greatest thing is that they do this with so much love, care, and concern. At the end of our last workshop we commented to each other how comfortable we felt sharing our deepest fears and challenges, as this is not something that we would have to or want to do in any other profession. But after 2 short weeks of conversation over the 2 years, Jerry and Gail have gained our confidence. It is so freeing to be able to share with someone some of the deepest aspects of our lives, knowing that they will treat us with the love and care that we would expect from deeply concerned mentors or overseers. This is so important because as missionaries we do not have these kinds of relationships here on the field, as our mentors live so far away and don’t have the same perspective that Jerry and Gail can have when they come and work with all of the families of this church plant. Thanks again Jerry and Gail for your lifegiving, spirit-renewing, ministry.
In Him, Travis and Alicia

To me, the ministry that Jerald and Gail offered our mission team was a depth of understanding into our lives and our families that cannot be measured. They helped us to understand ourselves, our marriage, and our teammates in new ways while encouraging us to trust each other. They have seen it all and done it all, and they somehow manage to stay impartial while each family shares their defeats and victories over the life of their ministry. We believe that every family in mission work would benefit from an intensive workshop with the Heiderichs and hope that they continue to offer their considerable expertise to struggling families and mission teams who want to improve their relationships but do not know how. We have more fun and less conflict because of them. Thanks guys!
Em Cristo, the Quireys

We have been so blessed by our time with the Heiderichs. They have worked with us personally as well as our whole team. The first time they came to work with us was at a crucial point for our team. Through their guidance and counsel our team was able to be more open with one another and build a deeper level of trust than we had ever experienced. We know that God sent them to our team at just the right time and we continue to benefit from the tools they have given us. Through their second visit with our team we were able work more on how to be a healthy team and work together in productive ways. The Heiderichs worked to challenge us individually and as a team to grow for the betterment of the work here. Personally they challenged us to not have blind spots in our life that leave room for Satan and to stay focused. We are grateful for what the Heiderichs have done for our team and us and by extension the church family here in Salvador.
Randy and Jennifer Porter

Jerry and Gail helped our team work through some things that have come up in the first few years of our ministry here in Salvador. It was good to have them help us do that. We now have some great suggestions on changes we need to make to become stronger in our walks with Jesus and in our work together as a mission team and young church leaders.
Matt and Mary Virginia Mabery

Other News

We will be arriving in the US on June 24th. We will be traveling to report to our supporting congregations, fundraising and visiting with family until August 24th. Give us a call!! 214-669-8296. Your encouragement makes our work a joy and your prayers keep our spirits lifted. God is doing great things in the country of Brazil!!

Remember

All contributions for this ministry should now be sent to the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas: 12700 Preston Road, Suite 210, Dallas, Texas, 75230. We want to thank Continent of Great Cities for handling this for us for so many years and thank our sponsoring congregation, Prestoncrest, for being willing to take on the task. Please write to us if you have any questions about this change.

Pictures frmo the Roussos

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

We are sending you our latest news from the mission work in Greece. Praise the Lord for His many blessings as we teach Jesus and His Word to those who are still in darkness and without the HOPE to live forever.

Five Souls were Baptized into Christ

The angels in heaven and all of us are rejoicing to see that God’s holy Word brings precious souls to Jesus. Natasha Glushko and Liutmila Savsenko gave their lives to Jesus, and I had the privilege to baptize them in the River Jordan in Israel, in April 2008. They are both from Ukraine but they live in Athens and speak Greek and Russian.

Natasha is a journalist for a Russian newspaper in Athens, and Liutmila is a teacher of chemistry. They are good friends and both of them are on fire for the Lord and His Truth.

It was an unforgettable event. In the River Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, we had the joy to baptize our two sisters for the remission of their sins. They surrendered their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and now they are coming faithfully and with GREAT JOY to our assembly.

Irena has been studying God’s word with several members of our church in Athens. When brother, Sammy Flannary, came to teach recently, at the Sunset Bible Institute, he baptized Irena after our Wednesday Bible Study.

Patience is a Nigerian woman who attends the new congregation on the island of Crete where John Adasoye is preaching. Alexander Melirrytos with his wife Eleni and a group of American Christians visited the church in Crete and Alexander baptized Patience. Since last year about 15 people have dedicated their lives to Jesus and were baptized in Crete. Thank you for your prayers.

Mayia a Bulgarian lady was baptized by Christo at the congregation in Omonia in Athens.

Sixty-Seven from the Church in Athens visit Israel

For the last two years several of the members were asking me to put together a church group to visit the Holy Lands where our Saviour Jesus Christ lived, taught, healed the sick, died and was resurrected. I was surprised at the number that wanted to come. I was expecting around 15-20 people would be interested, but 67 were so excited to fulfill a lifelong dream. In the group we had Greeks, Russians, Romanians, Ukrainians, Philipinos and Americans. It was a spiritual and very educational study tour of Israel.

Wherever we travelled, we could study the Bible. In Tiberius, Capernaum, Cana, Nazareth, Jericho, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. In the evenings we had Bible studies answering questions and we had daily devotionals.Two precious souls were baptized for the forgiveness of sins in the Jordan River.

I thank God for allowing me to lead this Christian group to Israel. For most of them, it was a life dream that became a reality. We studied the scriptures together, we enjoyed Christian fellowship, prayed together and our faith was renewed as we meditated upon the sufferings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Here is the translation, in English, of our new sister, Natasha’s impressions from our trip in Israel:

“It had long been my dream to visit the land, where once was born, lived, preached, taught, was crucified and resurrected our Lord Jesus Christ. At last, with God’s help, I headed for the Holy Land with a group of pilgrims.

We were reading from the scriptures, touching the places where our Lord endured trials and agony, traced His way down Via Dolorosa, which is called “the road of the cross”. It culminated at Calvary where Jesus was crucified. We spent some time at the place of His ascension to heaven and took the opportunity to see the tomb of the Lord.

We were blessed to visit the birth town of Jesus, Bethlehem, as well as Jericho near the mountain where Jesus fasted for 40 days and was tempted.”

Teaching God’s Word in Athens

It is a great joy for me to preach every Sunday for the Greek, Bulgarian, Russian, or English services. Sometimes I have to preach 3 or 4 times on a Sunday. At the end of the day I might be exhausted but very happy that I had the privilege to teach God’s holy Word to the nations. Please continue to pray for us and the work in Greece.

Guest Speakers for the Church in Athens

The last few Sundays we had excellent gospel preachers who came to visit us and preach for our congregation.

Sammy Flannary, a teacher for the Sunset International Bible Institute and a gospel preacher gave us a good lesson on “The Law in the Old Testament”. He also conducted a three-day seminar for a charismatic Nigerian church in Athens concerning the “Power of the Holy Spirit in our Lives”. I enjoyed listening and learning from our brother Flannary who is a great servant of Jesus.

Jerry Heiderich, We were happy to have Jerry Heiderich, missionary to Brazil and his son, Chris, come through Athens last week. Jerry has been supported by the Prestoncrest Church of Christ for several years to perform counseling services for missionaries and church members in Brazil. His son, Chris, just completed a semester at ACU’s program in Oxford, England and spent a few days visiting Greece. Jerry spoke at our Russian worship service on Sunday evening and gave an inspirational message on the importance of human touch.

Larry Foster, spoke to us on Biblical archaeology and the historicity of the Bible. Through the presentation we were able to see the archaeological sites in Israel and verify that the Bible is very historic, authentic and true.

As you know many Russians were not taught that the Bible was inspired by God and they need historical evidence.

Francis Habashy, who is a preacher in Cairo, Egypt came to spend two weeks in Greece. I arranged for brother Habashy to speak in Arabic for a group of Arabic speaking people from Iraq, Somalia, Marocco, Algeria and Egypt. On Monday night we went to Evripidou. Doug Reeves, Dean of Sunset International Bible Institute, was with us as well. On Wednesday night he preached for the refugees at the Samaritan Refugee Center. Then we assisted in feeding the refugees.

Dr. David Burks, president of Harding University, preached for our English speaking congregation on May 25 on the subject of “We are the Light of the World”. Dr. Burks brought 24 members of his family (children and grandchildren) for a 10 day journey to Greece. Debbie and I enjoyed being with them on a four day trip to the Biblical city of Ephesus, the island of Patmos where John received the Revelation, and the islands of Rhodes, Crete and Santorini.

Christo Arnautov returns to Bulgaria

Christo Arnautov has been the preacher for the Bulgarian congregation of the Omonia Church for several years. Brother Christo and his wife, Jana, did a dynamic work among the Bulgarian population in Athens and, through their hard work, the Lord created a strong Bulgarian congregation.

We ask God’s blessings upon them as they leave us and pray that they will continue to work for the Lord wherever they go.

We now have to preach for the Bulgarian Church. Please pray for us as we find the BEST ways to serve Jesus.

Stephen and Debbie Return

Debbie returned to Greece on May 4 from her trip to the States for the birth of Nikki and Matt’s baby. She stayed to take care of the baby for a while after Nikki started back to work. She also went to Texas to see Melody and Andy and our other two grandchildren, Jackson and Zoe.

Stephen just arrived two weeks ago after finishing his semester at ACU. He will be here until July then will return to take the remaining classes he needs to graduate in August. He is enjoying seeing some of his old school friends, but is also studying for his GRE exams for graduate school.

Seminar in Corinth

June 25 - 28 we will hold our 4th annual Christian conference. I have spent the last couple of months making preparations for this event. There has been great participation each year from the Omonia congregation and many others. I have invited speakers from other countries as well as Greece and have extended invitations broadly. It will be held again at a beautiful hotel on the seaside, close to Corinth.

Trip to the U.S. in July

We will be traveling to the U.S. on July 8th where I will be one of the keynote speakers for the Global Missions Conference in Arlington, TX. On this trip we will also stop to visit Debbie’s father in Virginia, who underwent open heart surgery in September at the age of 80. We have not seen him yet since the surgery.

Since Stephen is supposed to graduate from ACU in August, we have arranged to attend the ceremony and return to Greece immediately afterward on August 13th.

Nikki and Matt come to Greece in September

Our daughter Nikki and son-in-law, Matt and their new baby girl, Ashtyn, are planning to come to Greece in September rather than July. They are waiting for their house to sell and, as everyone knows, the housing market has reached a crisis point. Please pray that their house will sell soon so they may come and start their ministry with youth camps and the young immigrant population in Greece.

Brethren,

We are looking forward to seeing you soon.

We appreciate, very much, your love to us and we thank you for your letters, cards, phone calls and support.

TOGETHER we can continue the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

In His Service,

Dino and Debbie Roussos

WHY DID I DECIDE TO BE A PREACHER?

God answers prayer! The day I was born, my mother started praying I would become a preacher. She never told me she was praying for this, but my mom and dad showed me the way.

In 1952, I enrolled in college at Oklahoma A & M at Stillwater, Oklahoma. I went to worship Sunday morning and the church received me with open arms. There were many other students there. Eldred Stevens was the preacher and he was a good one. He was preaching a series of sermons on world religions each Sunday night. It was a big thing. The elders put a big ad in the paper each week. One week it would be on the Baptist Church, one week on Pentecostalism, etc. This drew big crowds. When he preached on Roman Catholicism even the local priest was present. The next day he called Bro. Stevens and challenged him to a four day public debate. Naturally, Eldred accepted the challenge. I was there every night. Eldred did a masterful job. He built a fire in my soul. Eldred loved to teach young men to preach. He had classes for all the young men each Sunday afternoon. I decided I wanted to become a preacher. Eldred encouraged me to transfer to Central Christian College (the forerunner of Oklahoma Christian University) located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I sat at the feet of L. R. Wilson, Roy H. Lanier, Sr., Hugo McCord, Joe Spaulding and the other fine Christian teachers. This changed my whole life.

MY HEALTH

I have had a hard time for the last year and I still have a long way to go. However, I am doing a lot better. Last week I had to have Vitrectomy surgery on my left eye, as well as some laser procedures done and it went well. I am able to work most every day corresponding with the churches and preachers in Italy. I also receive several letters, E-mails and phone calls each week, almost every day.

PROBLEMS IN ITALY

All churches have their problems from time to time. This is true here in the States and also in Italy. This problem has to do with instrumental music. I know of three churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that use them and perhaps there are others. Recently, a front page article in the Oklahoma City area told that the largest Church of Christ in Oklahoma City had instituted musical instruments in their worship.

This is not our problem in Italy. We do not have a single congregation that uses instruments. Our problem is the problem that is sweeping America - the desire to have unity with the Christian churches in Italy in spite of what they teach and practice.

Recently, the congregation that we began in Rome held a lectureship near Rome and asked a Christian Church missionary to be one of the principal speakers. I was shocked. Immediately, I wrote to Vittorio Vitalone, my son in the faith, objecting. I wrote the elders of the church in Rome also. Several other former missionaries wrote to them. Another Italian preacher (another son in the faith) told the Roman elders that he could not attend the lectures in good faith and he didn’t. I asked them why they didn’t just go ahead and ask other denominational church preachers to speak. The conservative Christian churches have existed in Italy for over 50 years. We have talked with them again and again, with no avail. We went our own way and let them do the same. I warned the brethren to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, for a little yeast ruins the entire lump”. I also pointed out, “How can two men walk together except they be agreed?” Vittorio and the Roman elders replied that they were just trying to unify the churches and that the use of instrumental music was not used in the church at Rome and would not be used.

GOOD NEWS

Other than this all goes well in Italy. I have heard of 29 Baptisms since my last report. They have had some great lectures and gospel meetings. The churches are growing. I stay in contact with them weekly. I am happy to be able to work with them even though I still have to remain in bed.

God bless all of you. I am thankful for the elders at Prestoncrest who are not afraid to take a stand for the truth.

Until next time,

Charles Moore

Family Institute of Latin America Website

jgheiderich@gmail.com

Elder Preparation

On April 11-12 we hosted a retreat for the servant leaders of the Curitiba congregation. Decision-making was the theme. Jerry and Gilberto led the men’s sessions and Gail led the women. The men discussed how to make the best decisions and how to lead the congregation to growth and maturity. The women talked about how to encourage the men and how to avoid conflict. The purpose of these retreats is to prepare competent men to serve as elders in the near future.

SerCris Training School

During the week of April 14-18, Jerry taught a course on Spiritual Growth for Leaders at the preacher training school in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. He teaches this class and one on Lay Counseling to each group of students that pass through the school. The elders at this church and the teachers at the school have been very supportive of our work and often ask us to help out with graduates of the school as they work with congregations throughout the country.

Brasilia Team Retreat

We traveled to Campinas, São Paulo, on April 30 and spent 6 days at our final retreat with the Brasília team before they move to the capital in January of 2009. This was a training and integration retreat with the leaders of the Brasília congregation and the project support team all present. We did individual counseling with each of the 3 couples, group counseling with all of them and integration exercises with the team and the leaders. Others on the support team dealt with financial concerns, moving issues and how to conduct effective meetings.

England and Greece!!

Jerry had a once in a lifetime experience! He traveled to Europe and met up with Kristofer after classes were finished. They spent three days in London, 4 days in Greece and 2 days in Oxford before going their separate ways, Jerry back to Brazil and Kris to Dallas. They went to Delphi, Corinth, and Athens and took a boat tour of 3 islands. The highlight for Jerry was getting to preach for the Athens Church of Christ where Dino Roussos is the evangelist (he is also supported by Prestoncrest). Jerry’s sermon was translated into Greek, Russian and Belgium. Kris and Jerry were moved to be able to stand where the apostle Paul preached on Mars Hill and where he stood trial in Corinth.

Other News

Next week Jerry will be attending two courses in São Paulo, which will serve to better prepare him for the work we do with missionaries, staffs, and church leaders. He will be studying about Servant Leadership and Mentoring.

Kris is now back in the US and looking for a summer job. Please pray he will find something quickly.

Gail will be in the US on June 5th and Jerry will arrive on the 20th. We will be visiting our supporters and family until August 18th. We hope to be able to see many of you while we are in the US. We would appreciate your prayers for our safety as we travel.

Please Note

All contributions for this ministry should now be sent to the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas: 12700 Preston Road, Suite 210, Dallas, Texas, 75230. We want to thank Continent of Great Cities for handling this for us for so many years and thank our sponsoring congregation, Prestoncrest, for being willing to take on the task. Please write to us if you have any questions about this change.

God bless you all!!

39 Wishart Drive
Broomridge, Stirling FK7 7TR
Scotland, U.K.
Tel: 011-44-1786-816259
Email: mitchvick@btinternet.com

Beautiful Scotland!

Today is a beautiful day in Stirling. Just a few short weeks ago Scotland was still getting occasional snow showers. Today the weather is in the 70’s, the trees and flowers are in full bloom, and the sun is shining. It is a day to make us especially thankful for all God’s wonderful care for His children.

Stirling Church News

The past weeks have had their “ups and downs” for us. Our work continues to make progress, with some excellent Bible studies on a personal and group level with Pauline McGachy (Isobel and me), Jie Luo (Tristan and Leslie), and of course our regular mid-week classes. Despite a number of families being out of town at various times, which is normal for April and May, we have had excellent attendance in worship for most weeks. FriendSpeak has also gone well, and we continue to have enquiries from possible new readers. However, we also have been saddened by the news that one couple has left us after some spiritual struggles, and that has been a sore personal loss. We also learned that Bro. Craig Ferrie is moving to Glasgow for work reasons, and he will be missed especially in our youth outreach. John Renwick is now at home and making slow but steady progress as he recovers from surgery on his colon and liver. The surgery went very well, and he goes this week for further check-ups and a progress report in Glasgow.

Youth Club Frustration

Another setback over the past weeks was the news that, because of construction at the local primary school, our youth club for neighborhood children has had to be suspended indefinitely. This has been frustrating for us, because the youth club was going very well. So far we have not been able to find a suitable alternative venue. The plans for our congregational Youth Day in June are going ahead, and Tristan, Leslie, David, and Emma continue to work with our own group of young people to put plans together for this event.

Kirkcaldy “Social”

There have been several opportunities for inter-congregational fellowship over the past weeks. Several of us from Stirling were able to participate in the Kirkcaldy social afternoon in late April. Scottish “socials” generally involve an afternoon of singing, preaching, fellowship, and food (not necessarily in that order) and it was an enjoyable time for Christians all over the country to connect again with each other. Tristan and Leslie were also able to take several of our young adults to a weekend retreat organised by the Dundee congregation.

British Bible School Classes

For the past three Monday evenings I have been teaching a class on Thessalonians as part of the British Bible School extension program. In an effort to make the British Bible School more accessible and compliant to the needs of the church in this country, a trial program of classes which will offer BBS credit has been started here in Scotland, with the first classes taught by Jon Galloway and myself. At present we have between 5 and 12 students per week from 5 congregations, with two students actually taking the classes for BBS credit. I will be teaching a total of 8 three hour sessions in the Cumbernauld church building.

Personal Notes

All is going pretty well for us personally, though the days stay extremely busy. As usual, Isobel’s work at the hospital keeps her very challenged. We are beginning to look forward to late June and July, when Robin and Chrissy will be with us for about 5 weeks. Their work at Sunset is very challenging but goes well, and they are now in their last session of year one. One major purpose of their trip this summer is to look at options for a possible return to Scotland when they finish Sunset next year. Laura and Clay are well in Seagoville and are enjoying being a part of the Landmark church of Christ in Kaufman. Hannah has now finished her regular academic work in the Physician Assistant program at Harding and is now starting a year of “on the job” placements. It has been an especially demanding time for her.

Brethren, we ask you to keep our work in your prayers, especially in the weeks ahead. Thank you for all you do for us.

Yours in the Lord’s service,
Mitch and Isobel Vick

Thank you for your prayers. God is truly good!

My trip to California was wonderful, and turned out to be a little different than I had expected.
As you see in the photo, they didn’t just invite me to teach a class about my 35 years on the mission field. They also honored me with a Distinguished Christian Service Award. Originally, the award was supposed to be for both Jim and me, but when he died they decided to go ahead with it for me. Although I am not either used to nor very comfortable with so much honor, it was certainly nice to be recognized and appreciated. It was truly an uplifting week. Just being on that beautiful campus was like a vacation and the weather certainly increased that feeling. Although I graduated from Pepperdine, it was my first time to be back since they moved from the Los Angeles campus to Malibu.

I was only gone 10 days, but on the way to California, I got to have a few days with my sponsoring church, Lake Orion in Michigan, meeting the new elders and their wives and being thoroughly pampered by all. They even let me do a “dress rehearsal” of my class, which gave me a better feeling about it. And, on my way home to Bremen, I made a 24-hour stop in Memphis as well, so that I could attend worship instead of traveling on Sunday. It was a short visit, but thanks to my hosts, ART and AMY, who arranged a gathering for lunch, it was enough time to get to see a lot of dear friends. Thank you again to all of you who made my trip so pleasant.

LADIES’ RETREAT

Monday starts this year’s national women’s 5-day retreat near the city of Heidelberg, and this year, the women of the Bremen church are in charge of the program. It has not been easy to get it together, but now we are all looking forward to it. Please keep us in your prayers. We have been able to delegate a lot of tasks, but STEFANIE will be teaching a class, INGRID will be leading a workshop, and MICHAELA is sort of coordinating things. I will be teaching twice, but both are presentations I have done before here in Bremen. Even though they had to be adjusted somewhat, the second time around is lots easier. There is quite a group of us going – 12, including two visitors.

HARDING CAMPAIGN

The Monday after that (May 19), we are looking forward to welcoming ANDREW, ASHLEY, LAURA and ROSIE, students from Harding University, who will be coming to Bremen for four weeks with CHUCK and MELINDA Hicks offering free English conversation based on Bible texts. Before Jim got sick, we were planning for this year to have a student campaign group without an accompanying faculty member, but when Jim died, Chuck offered not only to prepare the students but also to accompany them. Their stay will be shorter than has been the case with campaigns in the past, but with the very weak dollar, this was a necessary adjustment. Please pray that there is time for us to get to know the people the meet. On this end, the preparations have been a group effort. ALICIA has taken the calls of people answering our newspaper and internet ads and posters, RUEDI, MICHAELA, SERGEJ and MICHAEL have gotten the second floor of the church building set up to house visitors, and I have been encouraging and advising from the wings.

UPDATES

HEATHER: The studies with Heather continue to go well. This week her older son got married, so we didn’t meet, but before I left for California, she asked me for a book to read while I was away. She has been reading diligently, and we will talk about it when I get back from the retreat.

DAVID (who has colon cancer and shared a room with Jim in the hospital): I talk on the phone with David often but don’t seem to be able to get past the outer shell. He has more pain now, which doesn’t help him to think about other things.

TAXES: Thank you for all the offers of help. I was able to talk to a CPA while at Pepperdine who is willing to help me get through it. That comes after the retreat, etc.

I am looking forward to things slowing down considerably in the near future. It has probably been good for me to be busy, but I am ready now to deal with missing Jim in the quiet times, too, and feel the need to take stock of what has been, what is and what should come. Over the years, I have usually stayed pretty busy, but I could rely on Jim’s vision to make sure we were on course. For me to do that myself will take some time and effort – and quiet. Thank you for accompanying me through these changes. Between you and the Lord, I feel very blessed.

Your fellow servant,
Elsa Springer