August 9 Update

It's certainly been a slow week here.  I only preached twice this week.  Most of our time has been spent in resting, caring for the children, and visitting Polly at the hospital.   Today Katy and Isaac are about ninety percent recovered from their illness.  Polly is doing better.  Yesterday she had another x-ray which showed improvement.  Today she is having blood work done.  The doctor should tell us today when she can come home.   Our missionary friends and family have been very helpful to us this week.  We also want to thank you all for your concern and prayers.   From Bulgaria, Zachary LeFevre

August 3 Update

All of last week I was in Romania.  We spent three days working with the national pastors on the new hymns.  They were thrilled with the new hymn book.  Helping us were pastors and their families from Bulgaria.  Then my family came up, along with the other missionaries from Bulgaria for four days of English church.  In those four days we heard some excellent preaching!   This week has been much more difficult.  Three of our children are sick with pneumonia.  Polly was so bad that the doctor sent her straight to the hospital.  She is now in the intensive care unit.  Her room is clean and the nurses so far have been very helpful, and we thank the Lord for that.   Pray for us. From Bulgaria, Zachary LeFevre

July 5 Update

This week I've been working with Brother Ralph on the Turkish hymnbook.  We met with three of the Turkish pastors and went over every hymn in the book, correcting minor mistakes.  It took us four days, working sixteen hours a day, but we finally finished.  After singing over two hundred hymns we just about lost our voices.  Sometime this in the next week or two we'll be singing them again, this time for a recording.   We appreciate your prayers for this work.  As always, we have many needs, and the Lord knows them.  Pray for us. From Bulgaria, Zachary LeFevre

June 27 Update

This week Brother Nasuf went to yet another new village in hopes of starting a church.  They had announced their coming, and when they arrived there were twenty-five adults there waiting.  Several of them made professions of faith, I don't recall how many.  Along with this comes the excitement in the "home" church at Tirgovishte.  Some of the believers there are travelling out to these new meetings along with Brother Nasuf.  They see the Lord saving sinners and starting new churches, then they come back and testify about it in their own church.  This new work actually started some months ago when several church members agreed to fast and pray one day a week.   We're planning a furlough for next summer.  We'd like to come see as many of you as possible, and present the work in your churches.  Please pray with us about this.   From Bulgaria, Zachary LeFevre

June 13 Update

 

This month we've been continuing in the regular village meetings.   I've been with my brother in a couple meetings and translated for him while he preached.  Everyone here is glad to have a new missionary.   Brother Nasuf has started a new meeting in a village about thirty kilometers north of their town.  With his new vehicle he is also travelling to other villages to evangelize.  Brother Kenan, his son-in-law, will be taking over some of their older meetings as a pastor.  Brother Nasuf's youngest son-in-law lives in Romania and been a part of our churches since he was a boy.  Now he has started preaching.  His father has kicked him out of the house, and now he's struggling just to feed his wife and child.  Please pray for him that the Lord would direct him to a place of service.   Brother Ismail has also been travelling to new villages.  One day his wife and another lady from their church went to a village to visit some relatives.  While there the people asked them about their religion.  So sister Naziye was able to tell them all about how the gospel came to her town and they had believed.  The two ladies sang hymns and told of the many things the Lord had done for them.  From that house they were invited to another and then another.  Several people in that village invited them to come and start a church.  Lord willing, tomorrow Brother Ismail will return to that village to organize a weekly meeting along with his son.  His son works as a driver driving used cars from Germany to Bulgaria.  Last week he was in an accident on the highway in Hungary.  The car was "totalled"; two other drivers involved in the accident were hospitalized, yet he walked away without a scratch.  Now he wants to travel with his dad, the pastor, to some of the village meetings and testify of how the Lord protected him.  Please pray for Sezgin, that the Lord would strengthen him in the faith.     From Bulgaria, Zachary LeFevre

May 30 Update

Yesterday I was able to make it up to Constanta for their morning English service.  It was a blessing to see the other missionaries up there, and to see the children in the home.  Then in the afternoon I was in the Turkish meeting at Kadriye's house.  The house was full.  We sang for about an hour, then for over an hour four of us preached.  Everyone loved it.   Recently Brother Ralph gave a copy of the Old Testament in Turkish to the preachers up there.  They've been preaching from the books of Psalms and Isaiah every day for the last couple of months.  New homes are opening up in new villages in Romania.  I believe they're going to about twenty villages now.   From Bulgaria, Zachary LeFevre

May 18 Update

I think it's been a couple of weeks since I wrote last.  After ten years our old computer monitor finally quit working.  We were able to get a new one, though, thankfully.   Brother Nasuf is now travelling to his own villages again in his new car.  His son-in-law is also a preacher, and now that they have reliable transportation they want to start some more churches.  Recently, one of the new believers from Varna moved back to his village, which happens to be near a village where Nasuf already has a church.  This new believer said that he wants a church in his house.  It looks like the Lord is opening new doors for new churches out there.  Remember to pray for Nasuf.  He'll need some extra money for fuel each month.  His church continues to fast and pray one day a week.  Recently a woman who had been out of church for eight years came back.  In one of the village churches two ladies walked into the meeting from off the street.  They enjoyed the meeting and came again the following week.  That day they professed faith in Christ Jesus.  Prayer works.   In our village there is a boy who visitted church about two months ago.  He came to the meeting twice and asked for prayer.  He has epilepsy.  Yesterday he told us that he has had fewer seizures, and less severe.  When he was in the meeting he recorded the hymn singing on his cell phone, and says that he listens to it every night.  He asked why he cries every time he hears the hymns.  One of our believers told him, "Don't worry.  That's just the Lord softening your heart.  Keep on listening to the hymns and come back to church."  Pray for him, and pray for all our churches. From Bulgaria, Zachary LeFevre