Sunday, January 12, 2014

A Quick Family Update

Hello everyone, we hope you all had wonderful Christmas and New Year celebrations! We had a busy, but happy Christmas with everything from holding a Christmas Eve service in our home to handing out shoe boxes to needy children. A highlight of the season was that we had two young women, students from the Bible School in Erseka, stay with us for two weeks over the holidays and we had no end of fun with them. Our kids grew very attached to the girls and we all miss them a lot now that they have returned safely to school in Erseka.

Christmas morning with our guests

New Year's Eve with our guests and Hasan's family

**We are now on week two of our Foundations of Christian Faith Bible study, it is going great and we've had a pretty good turn out so far. We are so encouraged, thank you all for your prayers! For those who don't know, this is a study being held at our home led by Hasan. It is open to any and all -friends, strangers, believers, or anyone interested in knowing more about Christianity and what it is all about. A special praise is that Hasan's sister is able to attend, we are very close with her and she is a believer, but she lives in a town rather far away and is unable to get any discipling there. It is such a blessing that she can come to this. The class is being held weekly and will wrap up just before our trip to the States in mid-March.

Hasan speaking

**And that leads me to our other big news -we're coming back for a visit! We'll be in the US from mid-March to mid-May and staying in the Tri-Cities with my (Jacquelyn's) parents. We hope to have a chance to visit with all our friends, family, and supporters during our time there, so if you'd like to see us, please let us know and we can set something up!

** We were recently alarmed when our landlord called us, out of the blue, to say he had lost the house he is renting us to his brother during a family argument and that we must move out within days! Though we are not positive yet, it seems as though things have been sorted out between them and that we will be able to continue living here after all (we do have a 2 year contract). Thank you all for your prayers over this, they are working! It was rather startling information, but of course, the Lord knows and we have peace and it seems to be sorting itself out.

Frosty view from our home in Malisheve

Thank you all again, we love you! May your new year be blessed!
The Bytyqi Family