Dear Friends,

40 Days Solitude in the Woods in the Mountains of Georgia
This is what a group of Baptists do south of the Caucasus Mountain border with Chechenia Russia. 40 days abstaining from (particular) food, business and luxury, just to focus on God, meditate on His guidance, and the gifts He wants you to use for His glory. The group has a spiritual leader, eight full time members and a variety of short time participants. This is one of the ways God blesses the church in the Central Asian former Soviet State Georgia, where the Baptist churches still experience different ways of persecution. This was part of the testimony of the Georgian Baptist Bishop (General Secretary from the Georgian Baptist Convention, which is part of the EBF.)

We just returned from the annual European Baptist Federation (EBF) Council last week. This is a business meeting-like conference in the beginning of the fall, and it is always a highlight for us. Most of the 51 Baptist Unions (conventions) in Europe and the Middle East have one or more representatives at the council. Many of them we have met at earlier councils or conferences or in their homes in their own country. It serves us for updating the information that we have on volunteer options in Europe and for networking with the Baptist Unions and Partners, and for making plans for the months to come and the year ahead.

We were very happy that it was in Warsaw, Poland, not so far from Prague, this year. That way we could go by car and our budget allowed us to visit the council as a couple for the second time in four years. This turned out as a double blessing because the European Baptist Women had their meetings partly overlapping the council in the same location. We both could make and refresh valuable connections for our ministry.

What encouraged us especially were the reports on the indigenous missionaries. This program by the EBF is mainly supporting missionaries in Eastern Europe that are sent by their own Baptist Unions to regions that have no Baptist Churches at all. We are happy that in some of those cases we, as ABC International Ministries, are involved in supporting this type of highly effective missionary outreach. We, as ABC-International Ministries volunteer coordinators, even have some cases with volunteer possibilities alongside those indigenous missionaries, in terms of evangelism and construction (i.e.: in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia and the Ukraine). Please contact us at kalkman@ibts.cz or contact International Ministries through Jonathan.Hilsher@abc-usa.org

Currently we are caught up in the annual residence visa extension procedures. This involves somewhere between 100 and 200 pages in documents, numerous stamps and signatures and visits to many different offices in Prague. Our next travel later this month is planned for Spain and Portugal (especially for potential Spanish-speaking volunteers). And for next month we are planning visits with the Baptist Unions of Moldova, Romania and Hungary.

Please be with us in your prayers and through your support of International Ministries' World Mission Offering. Together we can make a difference and make decisive contributions to the health and growth of Baptist life in post-Christian Europe.

The Lord Bless you,

Pieter & Nora Kalkman with Norita