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How you can pray for us:

– NEW Dave and Peter (15 year-old) are traveling to Azerbaijan and Poland October 1st through 12th. Please pray for ministry opportunities for both of them and a clear way for all the arrangements.

– Helping our son, Nathaniel, become more independent (spastic quadriplegia)

-Protection – especially over the Bible translation, Samir, who is the primary translator, and the technology (all the websites, recording equipment, for EP and the translation)

-Wisdom – in all the decisions that are being made with EP, in our discipling relationships, the Bible translation, and in our family and with our kids. NEW We have started working towards moving Dave’s parents into a retirement community near us. He’s been traveling one weekend each month to try and help them out, but they need more help than we can give at a distance.

-Encouragement

– Strength, to always see the Lord before us so we walk always in His ways and in His peace and joy

– For the new teaching materials in the Romani language to get the seed of God’s word planted into the hearts of the Roma people of Macedonia — These are the poorest of the poor in the country.

Most Recent Update:

SEPTEMBER 2023

Dave has continued making his discipleship videos. I have finished the Discipleship course for EP. The whole thing will go on the site this month. I have also released the new September Study on the kingdom. Before there was a cross, there was good news being preached. They preached the kingdom! When Jesus rose from the dead, it was the kingdom he preached on for forty days.

AUGUST 2023

Dave and I have both been working on discipleship materials. I am finishing up a 90-day course for EP. Dave has been making video lessons on similar topics for the language the Bible translation is for. There is no Christian teaching material in their language other than what my husband is producing.

JUNE 2023

Miracle story 🙂

Dave’s Bible translation partner, Samir, broke his arm. He fell off his scooter riding to work. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital. His arm was put in a cast and he was told he would need surgery. A few days later he met with the surgeon. He took his own x-ray and declared there was no break and took off the cast. There’s more…Dave (my husband) had been praying for more time for translating. The first doctor had already submitted paperwork that Samir needed 6 weeks off of work (all fully paid with his job guaranteed since it’s considered a work injury because he was on the way to work). The doctor said it couldn’t be changed. He showed up at work and they told him to go home. So, they took that extra time and got another group of Psalms done before they jump into the next gospel. I was thrilled at this because I know my husband just wanted to press forward, but I know the Psalms that are already translated have meant so much especially to the women. They all had the same reaction: “I can breathe when I listen to these.”

Previous update (APRIL 2023):

Our first Romani language materials for children has gone out to the church that asked for it. They already had a ministry outreach to the street kids. Their education level is very low and the Macedonian Bible has a lot of words they have never heard before. We’re excited to help reach the kids in their own language and to have a new way for the word of God to go out in the Romani language.

We have a lot of contacts in India. Dave preached twice at churches in India this past month via Zoom.

A man gave his life to Christ in the online church group my husband leads for Romani speakers living in places without Roma churches. They are scattered in several European countries, but all come from this same village in Macedonia. A week later he reported that he had been completed delivered from his gambling addiction since his decision for Christ. That’s always what we want to see: transformed lives!

Previous update (January 2023):

We spent a week in Macedonia doing lots and lots of visiting and talking with people about the translation. The two things we heard most often were, “I can understand this,” which of course is the point of translating it into their dialect, and when reading or listening to the Psalms, “It’s like a weight lifts and I can breathe.”

One thing that was mentioned was the need for teaching materials for children. Our friends there have a ministry to street kids, all Roma like them, so it would be for unchurched kids. That, of course, is right up my alley, so my husband and I are praying about what format and content we should prepare for them. It gets me excited. I love creating new materials.

Our Ministry:

Our family has been involved in ministry almost always. Lee grew up doing liturgical dance on her own and then creating a group in college. In college she began running a children’s ministry to at-risk youth through a drug rehab and homeless shelter. After Dave and Lee married, they prepared to go to the mission field, while continuing the inner-city work with the children.

In 2002, they went to Macedonia (now known as North Macedonia) as church planters among the Roma (often known as Gypsies). In 2008, they moved to Turkey where they continued living among the Roma and among refugees. It was this year that they walked away from raising support, their missions agency, and such things and stepped out of the boat to just walk hand in hand with Jesus and let Him take care of them. In 2011, Lee started developing Easy Peasy, the all-in-one homeschool curriculum. You can learn more about this time in Turkey and developing EP here and here.

In 2016, having been refused a visa renewal, they eventually accepted the Lord’s hand moving them back to the USA. Dave got his MA in teaching English as a second language and Lee took a coding course and, in time, was able to build the app program My EP Assignments to deliver lessons to the EP homeschool students. The Lord showed them again that He doesn’t want them using the world’s methods of providing for themselves and showed them He still wanted them to just trust Him to provide, so Dave stopped looking for a job. The creation of My EP Assignments increased usage of EP so that donations became enough to become an income. Through Lee’s parents’ decision to move to a retirement community, Lee and her family were able to have her family’s house, where she had grown up since she was a toddler. That enabled them to continue living debt-free, another part of the Lord’s provision for them.

In 2020, Lee started putting some of their miracle stories online to encourage people to not be afraid. She also started creating Bible lessons for EP apart from the regular course lessons. It started as five lessons per week and now has grown to lessons working through the whole Bible. She has added another series of video lessons. And has released a really big study for  each year .

At the same time, Dave started work on a Bible translation for the Roma of Macedonia. Macedonia has the largest Roma settlement in the world. We lived there for a time when we were in Macedonia. Dave is fluent in their Romani language and partners with his best friend, Samir, his Roma language tutor who he’s now known for a couple of decades.

The Bible translation is being written down, which is a feat in itself since the language lacks a standardized written form, and it’s also being recorded on audio and made into videos for YouTube and for our RomaniBiblija.com website.

Beyond that daily work, Dave has been involved in India. Before 2020, he traveled a couple of times for multiple weeks at a time around India, ministering to believers as a guest of a local minister. Now, he preaches through Zoom on occasion. We have partnered with an evangelist there who has been working for years among an unreached group of low-caste tribal people. He wanted to provide them a school since their children don’t have much access to education. While we discussed homeschooling, illiterate parents and no electricity make it not very feasible. We helped him financially to get a school started. They now have around 100 students and minister to their families. In 2023, we also connected with an orphanage run by widows. They even do monthly prison ministry. We are finding more people like them in India, who are truly being the hands and feet of Christ, and who were working anonymously without ministry title or support, just living by faith in the God who blessed them to be a blessing. Dave does Zoom calls with them to encourage them and pray with them. He has a ministry of encouraging pastors in various countries.

We’ve gotten reconnected with some of those kids from Lee’s inner city ministry as a college student. We spend some time in this little city that struggles with unemployment, poor education, poverty, drugs, and violence, having one of the highest violent crime rates in the country. In particular, Lee visits with one of those kid’s older sister to disciple her. She is older than Lee but still calls Lee her “mama.”

When you support our family, these are the types of things you are supporting, and not just putting food on our table and keeping the heat on. The Lord meets all our needs, and He uses you and others like you to do it, though He’s not past just miraculously providing. 😉

We pray for you all and truly appreciate you praying for us. We value your prayers!