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June 2007 |
As most of you know we are leaving next month to come home on furlough and while we are home there are some needs that we will be trying to meet that I would like you to start praying about. They are big needs, but our God is big and I am positive that He will meet them. 1. For additional support to be raised. We have lost close to 40% of our support due to the low dollar and rising prices. 2. To raise an additional $50,000 for the Mladost Baptist Church to put on the loan so the payment will be low enough that the church can pay it without my help. 3. To raise $20,000 to purchase a good used 4-wheel drive vehicle. I had one for the last 7 years but at 20 years old it finally gave up the ghost and I need to replace it. I still have several dates open in November 2007, January, February, April and May 2008. If your church would like to schedule me to be in a service or missions conference to report on what God has done these last 4 years in Bulgaria. Thank you in advance for your prayers on these matters and we are looking forward to seeing many of you when we are home. Blessings, Steve & Janelle Swann |
Dear Friends, One of the most successful projects we have been involved in during this last term has been our Awana club. During the last 4 years, we have seen the program grow from 17 children to averaging 50 to 60 this last year. The program is in English and attracts children both from the international community and from the English-speaking Bulgarian community. It has been exciting to see the Gospel reach into the lives of these children and see them come to know Christ. |
Many of these children come from homes where their parents are unsaved. On occasion, we have seen the children become testimonies to their own families. Recently an Australian family started sending their children to the program. At the beginning of each Awana book one of the requirements is that the children have to attend church twice. The two boys were concerned because their parents did not go to church, so I made a point of personally asking the mother if she would like to come to church with her children to fulfill the requirement in the book. Without even thinking twice, she responded bluntly, "No." She did however; agree to let them come with me to church if I picked them up. I picked them up on Sunday and took them to church with us where they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even though it was all in Bulgarian and had to be translated for them. The next week, the mother told me how much her boys had enjoyed their trip to church. Her enthusiasm made me hope that she we would bring them to church herself the next Sunday, but they didn't come. The next morning when I was dropping my children off at school, I saw the mother and she told me that she had forgotten about taking the boys to church. She and her husband had gotten up on Sunday morning and gone about their normal Sunday routine. By lunch time she had noticed that her boys were avoiding her and that they seemed mad at her so she asked them what was wrong. The oldest spoke up and said "We had all of our clothes picked out this morning and you did not take us to church!" Please pray that these boys do not lose their desire to go to church and that one day they might see their mother and father come to Christ. |