October!

My intention is to post at least twice a month, but I blinked and then it was October.

So, there’s that. lol

For those following our journey, thank you. Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting us in prayer and finances, thanks for messages or comments or What’s App messages and all the things. They mean the world to us, because we want to stay connected to you all. It’s so important to us.

And, for those just finding us, know that we are just a (mostly ordinary) family from the midwest of America who felt God’s call to live and serve in the Balkans and then set out on a 6 year journey to see that come to fruition. Just click back through blogs and you’ll catch right up, I promise.

The past month has been full! Some really hard life things in our family and in the families of the team here, but also some really fun celebrations and moments of real joy.

Kurt and I helped launch monthly “Seek” nights of prayer and worship coinciding with the US Lifegate campuses, and it’s been meaningful and unifying for all of us. We have another one tonight, in fact! We sing and pray – half in Serbian, and half in English, and Kurt and I are trying desperately to learn to lead in Serbian as often as possible.

Kurt, Annabelle, and I also started “Worship Wednesdays with the Wagoners,” after finding so much joy in singing together while we were on vacation. We record short little clips of songs that are moving us at the moment, and we post them on Instagram reels @wagonersgo. It’s been a fun way to stay connected, do what we love, and worship Jesus all at once. 🙂 Views and things don’t matter, we just want to bless others and create an offering for the Lord. Consistency, however, is not a core strength of anyone in our nuclear family that I know of, (Maybe Alex?) so we’ll try really hard to stick with it.

Beyond that, we’ve been serving in Novi Sad and Subotica, and we’re going to be in Belgrade this weekend. Last week in Subotica, we had the opportunity to play some ambient music at a benefit for a family facing serious illness, and Pastor Laki made an amazing stew, which sold out in less than 15 minutes. (Which is a bummer, because it was gone before we could taste it, and it smelled amazing! lol) It looks like we might have a repeat opportunity to do this type of thing, or have other opportunities reach out to the people of Subotica through music, and we are excited to dive in.

The girls’ school has been a challenge, for sure. Anorah, in particular, has us questioning all of our life choices (not really, but kind of), so extra prayers for her mental health would be appreciated. She recently switched buildings, so we are hoping that will help. It’s more of a hassle for Kurt to get the girls to two different buildings in the morning, but if it stops the daily panic-attack meltdowns, we will consider it an answer to prayer. Annabelle is facing the highs and lows of online high school, but she’s also had some fun opportunities to build a band of her own and help lead worship in Novi Sad.

Beyond that, we are just busy living life in community, which is a full time job as all of you know. We now have the correct paperwork for Kurt’s firm and visas, so we just need to continue to arduous paperwork trail that is the civic system here. I (Emily) am able to meet with my therapist over zoom, because her Mdiv circumvents some of the licensing problems other therapists might have operating overseas. So, thank you for your prayers in that respect.

Things to continue to pray for:

1. Anorah’s mental health and healing. She has a brilliant mind, and that comes with an extra dose of deep, existential thoughts that can run away with her a bit. We are trying to broaden her “coping skills tool chest” and give her options, but we desperately need wisdom concerning schooling and day to day life.
2. Protection for us and for our teams. A couple of our team members have lost family members in these past months, and there have been some significant stressors and health concerns, so we are asking for a covering for us and the entire Serbian team. (I’m sorry to be so vague, but there are stories here that aren’t mine to tell.)
3. Pray that God would continue to point us to “signs of life” as we support church staffing transitions and encourage areas of new growth and outreach for all three campuses. Pray that God would give us His heart and vision for what’s upcoming… maybe Skopje, maybe something else? We want to be in sync with Him, and that is part of what these daily practices in our church’s Cultivate series have been about. If you need some encouragement for how to “cultivate a life that looks more like Jesus for the good of others,” I’ll post a link below.
4. Finally, pray for Isaac as he is back in Hawaii for Bible School! He has gradually taken himself off of all of his medications, and I’m in awe of his ability to navigate school, relationships, and ministry without those aids. Pray for financial provision for him, as Kurt and I aren’t in a position to support him as much as we’d like to. And pray for God’s desires for Isaac to come to fruition, because Isaac is so willing to listen and obey.

We love you all so dearly. ❤ Thanks for being part of this with us! We could not do this without you, and we wouldn’t want to! 🙂 As always, here’s a link to join us in monthly financial support if you feel so led and are able! Hopefully I’ll be able to post again soon!