Peter Stonelake – Montenegro
December 2019
Name |
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Pete Stonelake |
Work |
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Proofreader and translator |
Non-work responsibilities |
- Helping out with EUS CG (IFES Montenegro) student work in Nikšić, and keeping in touch with graduates.
- Help with the church's outreach work in Nikšić, with music in worship services and occasionally preaching.
- Generally being active within the local Christian fellowship in Nikšić specifically and also Montenegro as a whole. As Christ's ambassadors, people scrutinise our every action/reaction and I aim to give glory to God by having a godly and moral reputation, as well as speaking his love meaningfully into everyday situations.
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"Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 5:19b-20 (NIVUK)
Prayer & praise
- Evangelistic event: I have been asked to be part of the music group for an evangelistic event in the capital organised by one Italian missionary.
- Student ministry: This year has been unusual in terms of having a small number of unusually committed students attending our Bible studies and other activities. Please pray in particular for Nikola, Ksenija and Aleksa in Niksic. This semester in the weekly Bible studies we have been covering Jesus' "I Am" statements, and now we are going through Galatians. The latter has been particularly challenging the lives of the students attending. Praise God!
- New group on coast: During this semester we started a group in the coastal town of Kotor (please pray for Ivana and Andjela), where the state university's faculties of tourism and marine studies are located. There are no evangelical churches in that region, and only a very small number of evangelical believers.
During this year
- EUS in IFES: The Montenegrin Christian student movement, EUS CG, was officially inducted into the worldwide IFES family at the IFES world assembly. We had an Australian AFES staff worker, Terence, spend two weeks with us in November. These links are a consequence of being officially part of the IFES family. Please pray for follow-up to the activities we had on campus while Terence was with us.
- Summer camps: Although I wasn't involved in the yearly Camp Monty this summer, I will be involved in the follow-up activities. While many young people had a genuine emotional response to some of the evening evangelistic talks, more work is needed to help those people to understand what Christianity and living as a Christian really means. There was no UCCF English camp this summer, and we will be trying to decide what is best for the future of that particular outreach, given that the situation for many students is different now, and most spend June-Sept earning money from summer jobs on the coast, often to pay for their tuition fees for the following academic year.
- Jelena back: Our staff worker Jelena returned from a two-year internship at St.Michael's Church in London, with courses attended at Cornhill and Oak Hill. We sorely missed her energy and commitment during that time, but now many new things are happening in the student ministry because of her creativity and persistence.
Other stuff
- Visiting the UK: I will be in the UK this Christmas season 17 Dec-4 Jan.
- Learning how to rest: I've never been great about making a distinction between work and play, which as a freelancer can be quite unhealthy and risks burn-out, etc. My trips to the UK should be times of rest, but often end up being just as busy with work stuff as my time in Montenegro. So, I decided to be much more proactive about taking time out and also filling more of that time with planned activities, such as hiking/walking, making new friendships and taking the initiative in encouraging believers in the churches I attend in the London region. I have started to look forward to my UK visits, not just to be able to sleep more, but to explore on foot the wider region around where my mum lives, and to attempt some new culinary experiments.
- No calendar: I'm taking a break from my calendars with pictures of Montenegro, mainly because I am not satisfied with my photographs this year. This is partly because of some health problems that stopped me mountaineering both in the winter and summer, but also I'm not sure whether my calendars have been the most effective way to use my money.
As ever, you can view the current and previous prayer letter here, or view my pictures
on Facebook if you are a member, or on
Flickr. My website has some of the same photos at https://www.reetpetite.org.uk/pictures/.
Contact