Al & Diane Mellinger's Missionary Adventure

Love God, Love People, Make Disciples!

February 14, 2019 -  The last four Sundays (since returning) I have had the honor to bring the Sunday message to our home church in Petrich.

 

After praying and thinking about what to teach on, I felt it was time to revisit the mission of our church.  Love God – Love People – Make Disciples. None of this is new or earth-shattering teaching but it is good to revisit the themes and be reminded about why we are here and what we are to be doing.

The enemy can get us and keep us busy doing good things but if it doesn’t contribute to our mission it is just keeping us busy.

This is a lesson for all of us no matter where we are – are we about our Father’s business or just really busy.  I will let you and Jesus talk about that one.

This week pray for…

… team Balkans as many are fighting the flu that has been going around (here they will cancel school for a week if it gets too bad to keep it from spreading to too many students)

…our livelihood groups as we launch new products – pray that they would learn them quickly.

Church Planting Update!

February 7, 2019 - Today I want to share a post from the Galloways about our church planting ministries

Today we brought a conclusion to our Bulgarian church plant project that included 6 new churches. For two years (starting in March of 2017), they have been faithful to come to trainings, learn and grow in God's love and His righteousness, and grow as leaders to love and serve God's people. What an honor as a team to continue to raise one another up to encourage and grow one another for His glory!

What a team of Bulgarians, Roma, Americans and those of different cultures to work among one another, lifting one another up for the sake of the gospel. It is truly an honor to serve among such an amazing group of people!

Pastor John Donnelly did an absolutely amazing job of celebrating and ending off this project. Jill Sweet and David Sweet serve with such selflessness, Ross Manolov and Pawel Nikolow translate so beautifully, Борислава Захариева ordered such a beautiful cake, Любен Илиев encouraging us from his hospital bed, and Petra being the strong mother hearted one for the community. I'm overflowing with the fruit God is producing in this land....good, quality, servant-hearted, men and women of incredible integrity and character and love for God and for one another....we are not bosses, we are mothers and fathers with the heart of the true Father.
He is good

This fall we will begin 3 new church planting projects - One in Bulgaria, one in North Macedonia and one in Serbia - Please pray for these project as now is when we are selecting leaders, locations and raising the funds to make them happen.

Pray also for the store in Michigan -with the cold, snow and ice sales have been impacted - pray for this extension of our economic ministries, pray for sales and pray for the artisans who products we sell - the more we sell the more they can make to support their families.

Pray too for the support of all of Team Balkans - each missionary support, our country expenses, and the special projects all need funds right now.  But we know God can and will provide!,

On the Highway…

February 1, 2019 – Today we did one of our drop-offs and pick-ups for the knitwear program.  That means we drive to 5 different places to collect the products we had them make and give them yarn to knit more this month.  This month we also did training on 2 new knitwear products for the fall 2019 season.

One of the nice surprises is that another section of the main highway we travel is open. This cuts down on travel time and allows us to spend less time driving.

Over the last 12+ years, the highway (about 160 Kilometers long) I mentioned has gone from having one 18 kilometer section of 4 lanes to now having about 40 kilometers of 2 lanes. It has over time been transformed from a 2-lane road winding through many small towns (which slows traffic way down) to a super highway that by passes the little villages.

That reminds me too of the fact that when we started 12+ years ago things were much slower – we were not sure what we were doing. We trusted God and explored the little towns and place to see what God is up to.  Now with more information and more things happening we are often much more driving the super highway to get where we are going.

But I hope that from time to time we get off and look anew at the little villages we once had to drive through to explore then anew and see what God might want us to do and how we can still impact them.

We pray that you too will take some time and see what is happening around you – and how God may want to use you to make a difference in someone’s life!

This week pray for…

… the knitter who are working on new projects for the first time – may the learn the pattern quickly and effectively.

…the many groups we have coming in over the next few months will be helpful and we will help them catch the vision of what God is doing in the Balkans

…the pastors of our churches – that they would stay focused with a passion to reach the lost!

The Difference a Year Makes

January 24, 2019 - When we started 2018 we had no idea the changes that would be coming to us during the year.  There were many things planned but these were the unexpected events with major impacts to our lives.

January brought about Diane turning 60 – reminding us that we are closer to retirement than starting out. (we knew it was coming it just change our perspective)

In February, we made a quick trip bake to the USA for Diane’s father’s funeral. Unexpected but a man of God who lived a good life and taught his children and grandchildren to love God!

In April (while partnership Building) we found out we would become grandparent in the fall – which meant figuring out a way to be back for the birth.  That led to the idea of developing some economic reason to be stateside for the 3rd time this year.

The summer brought about a major remodel of the rental property we have. The renters that moved out destroyed property that we had to fix in order to make it livable again.

November brought our first Grandchild into our lives and the opening of our “Around the World Shop” - a small pop-up shop that grew into a full-blown retail space serving over 30 countries and helping the poor, disenfranchised, persecuted, unemployed and underemployed.  That is now open year-round.

These were all life-changing events – most were not planned when we began the year but all were part of God’s plan and not a surprise to Him.  It is good to remember that we serve a God who knows what will happen and is there to take us through.

So I wonder what is still to come for us in 2019 and beyond?!

This week pray...

...for the team as we are now getting communication resulting from the new law that passed (which we share a great deal about) mostly involving more paperwork but being so new how it is actually applied is being sorted with the lawyers and government (with us caught in the middle).

...for the plans for both the Girls Home – Finishing up the remodel and grand opening plans and our church planting for later this year. Pray for the extra funds both will need to happen.

Praises:

The Sweets received final approval to becoming adoptive parents – so now pray that God would send them the right kids for their family.

A New Year – and few things to reflect on:

January 15, 2019 - The last 2 months have been amazing – seeing and getting to be with our grand-daughter and her parents was amazing.  The store project went beyond what I thought and hoped for.  The people and our work in Bulgaria are going well! For all of this, we praise God and give Him the glory.

So, with things moving on and with more nationals stepping up to do the work – What role do we have what role will we play?  We do not have an answer but rather a list of things that we are going to do and see where that leads.

Here is what is going on:

• We have returned to Bulgaria and are reconnecting with our friends and coworkers over here.
• The Stateside store has remained open and is being run by our son and a couple of other part-time folks who will handle the day to day WITH THE HELP OF LOCAL VOLUNTEERS – (so if you are near –we are still looking for folks to help out each month)
• We will be expanding the Livelihood groups here to help us keep new and enough inventory for the store and our online outlets as well as provide income to support families and churches.
• We will be starting to prepare for General Conference and our regular partnership building schedule following General Conference.
• The Safe House is on track (even though it is taking longer than we want – Team Balkans feels it is moving at the speed of God).
• We are working on plans for the Light and Life Church (our church here in BG) to become a provisional Annual Conference of the FMC USA later this spring.
• Church plants are on schedule for later this year – our plan is to plant between 15-20 in 3 countries by fall.
• Bible School, Agricultural plans and many other things are on schedule for new work this year.

God is at work but we just take things one day at a time and often it is not until we look back that we see all that God is doing.  The things we learn today become the tools God uses in us for His work tomorrow.  I learned a long time ago to enjoy what you are doing today (even when it is not what you thought you would or should be doing) as it is most likely preparing you for a task in the future.

What does the future hold only God knows – but we want to be a part of whatever it might be!  Do you?

This week pray for the list of things above.  Pray God would make it clear what we need to do with each and every topic.

ONE LAST THING - JANUARY 16TH IS DIANE'S BIRTHDAY - SHE IS ONE YEAR OLDER THAN LAST YEAR!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DIANE!