Moores in Macedonia: January-February 2020

Hi Everyone

Welcome to our first update of 2020. We really appreciate you taking a few minutes to read our news and highlights from the past couple of months in Macedonia. At the end of this month we celebrate two years of living in Skopje and we are really thankful to God for all he has done over this time.

Evangelism here is quite seasonal, once we get into December and January the weather gets colder, the air gets polluted and there are fewer people on the streets and fewer people (sometimes none) hanging around at the drug clinic. We have been learning to take advantage of the quieter season by using it for planning and administration, which makes for a slightly less interesting update! However God doesn’t stop working and there is always something exciting to report.

Family on Mission

One of our dreams for our time in Macedonia was that we would have an open home, where people could gather, those who know Jesus and those who don’t and there would be a sense of community and God working through it all. This has been harder to get going with than we had expected but this winter we have been able to use natural opportunities such as mealtimes, family birthdays and new year to create more of a community around our home. Please pray we will be able to develop this further over the coming months.

New team member

From the 3rd of March there will be an additional member of our team joining us here in Macedonia. Our good friend Scott Jackson has felt God call him to come out here on a full time basis after a number of shorter visits over the past few years. Scott will be spending his time working with the House of Prayer and also with us. He is a member of King’s Church Warrington, our home Church and will be an Elim Missionary as we are. We have known Scott for many years and he is a great friend and we are very excited for his arrival. Please pray for him as he makes his final preparation and for safe travels.

Branching out from Skopje

Ian is now using a day a week to support mission in other towns in Macedonia where we have partner churches. This month he will be starting to work with a team in Stip, about an hour from us, where he will work with local Christians to help develop evangelism strategies and build community in their homes. In the next few months we are hoping to begin a similar work with a church in Kumanovo.

Please would you keep the following in your prayers:

• Please give thanks for all that God has done over the past two years. We can see how he has worked in us as we have embarked on this adventure with him!
• Our residency visas are due to be renewed in March. Last year this was a formality, but we don’t want to take anything for granted so please pray for favour with the authorities.
• For Scott as he prepares to come out and for his Visa as he is applying for the first time.
• For our health as we are still very much in the smog season. At times in January the air pollution in Skopje was the worst in the world.
• That God would work through us and we would follow his lead, and as we head into the spring we would be able to see more of the kingdom at work.

Thank you so much for reading our news. We love hearing updates and news from our friends from around the world, so please feel free to contact us and let us know some of the exciting things that are going on for you.

We are very grateful to all of you who support us financially as we need to raise 100% of our family and ministry costs. If you would be interested in supporting financially please get in touch with us or use the link below.
Love
Ian, Katie, Kristen and Josiah.