Outreach Week

This is just a quick prayer request.  This week we will be hosting a team from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Italy.  They will doing quite a bit while they are here.  They will be working with our children in our MOP'S group, hospital visitations, spending time with high school students, worship, helping out with Sunday school as well as helping out with practical things around the church.  Please keep us in prayer that we will have a fruitful week of outreach. 

Praying for a new vehicle

As many of you know we have been praying for the provisions for a new vehicle.  For the last few years we have been having quite a few problems with our Land Rover.  This year the problems have intensified.  Last night on the way home from ministering at the base outside of Prishtina the Land Rover broke down on Mark late at night outside of Pristina.  Please keep us in your prayers as we need to get the Land Rover repaired as well as purchase something that will be reliable for our family.  Thank you for standing in the gap for us. 

August Prayer Update

Hello Everyone,
Greetings from CC Prishtina, Kosovo and thank you all for your prayers. To update you with whats happening and how you can pray.  Mark was recently diagnosed with having a kidney stone. So he is presently waiting for it to make its way out of me. Being that its the first time he has ever have dealt with this, he has yet to find out how painful it is as everyone is telling him.   So pray for God's strength and grace to get through this experience.

Also we have been dealing with a lot of problems with our vehicle (98' Land Rover Discovery); it is presently having its second major repair of the year and at this point we  think we will need a new vehicle. Please pray for God's provision for a new vehicle.

On the 28th of August our assistant Lirak will be getting married to his fiance Suela. They will be having their wedding in Tirana, Albania. Pray for God's blessing to be upon the wedding and the marriage as Lirak and Suela come together in holy matrimony. Pray that God will supply all their needs as they settle into their new life together. Pray also that God will give Suela the grace to settle into her new life away from home and into life here in Prishtina.

Our youth outreach in the community near the church has been facing some challenges. We had a major opposition rise up against us and had to move on to a different area. So we are in the same neighborhood but a different area where a park is. We  have been spending time at this park on Friday evenings and have had some good interaction with parents and their kids. We were also invited to visit one of their homes. Pray that God gives us favor with the families and that we would be able to share the gospel with them. Pray for those who are held captive by the evil one that they would be set free.

Next week our worship leader (Sam and his wife Elizabeth) will be returning from the US. Pray that God will give them a safe trip back to Kosovo. On August 16th we will be going to Austria to attend the CC Missions Conference. Pray for traveling mercies and a refreshing week.

Celeste also desires to go the the US in the Fall to attend a pastors wives conference. She would be bringing Isabella with her and she would  be staying with her grandparents. Pray for God's provision for this trip.

In a few weeks we will be attending the annual mission conference in Austria.  We are really looking forward to this trip.  This conference is such a refreshment both physically and spiritually for our entire family.  The teaching, fellowship and rest is amazing.  This is also a wonderful experience for Isabella as she attends the VBS and reconnects with her missionary friends that she has made over the years.  An added blessing to this trip is that Celeste's parents will be serving at the conference.

We are also needing help in rebuilding our care team in New Mexico and possibly getting a few started in both Northern and Southern California.  If any of you would like more information on what a "care team" is, please email Celeste at celesteyocom@gmail.com







Thanks again for your prayers and support and God bless you.

Mark, Celeste, and Isabella

A little miracle today

The past few weeks we have been pretty busy with traveling, celebrating birthday's, getting ready for birthday's and weddings.  In the midst of the busyness it is easy to loose track of things.  Things like your camera. 

On Saturday evening Isabella drew a picture, one that really touched my heart. I wanted to take a picture of it, it was a pretty powerful picture..... I wanted to capture the moment of the picture.  As I went to get my camera, I could not find it.  It was not in either of the two places I normally keep it. It is either in my purse or in my desk drawer.  I searched everywhere for it and it was no where to be found.  I even called Mark, wondering if he had it, nope he did not have it.  I was REALLY discouraged.  There were a few reasons for the discouragement.  It was my birthday gift from Mark last year.  In the past Mark and I had always shared a camera and most of the time when he was out, he carried the camera with him.  Therefore when I wanted to capture special Isabella moments, take pictures of homeschooling stuff, my garden, stuff that I was cooking.....  I didn't have a camera available to capture the moments.  The camera was really nice, plus we really did not have the money to replace the camera.  Over the past few days I had been really discouraged about the loss of my camera. 

As I had been replaying things in my mind, I knew it had been in my purse and was certain I did not take it out of my purse at home after our last trip to Albania last weekend.  For some reason I felt I had left it somewhere in Prishtina.  I felt that I must of been digging around in my purse to either get my wallet or my ITouch or something and felt that I left it somewhere.  To be honest, I felt that I would never see my camera again.  Mark encouraged me to go back to the places I had been last week to see if it would come up.  This afternoon I went to a few place to inquire and it wasn't there.  This evening, after dinner Mark and I decided to go the restaurant we went to last Tuesday as soon as we had arrived back to Prishtina.  When we asked the waiter about it, he asked what time of day we had come in and he walked to counter and handed me my camera!  I was beside myself.  I felt that if I had left it at a restaurant that either a customer would of seen it and taken it.  Or it would of been taken by an employee.  As we left the restaurant we were thanking the Lord for the honesty of the people at the restaurant.  Thank you Jesus.

One outing, two contrasting conversations

Wow, what a very interesting outing I had this afternoon!  On Monday's Mark takes Isabella out in the late morning to have a special daddy/Isabella date.  This frees me up to have some time for myself.  Yesterday evening a friend had messaged me on facebook asking if I would have time to meet for a coffee.  We had made tentative plans to met.  This morning I realized I did not have credit on my phone to call her with the time and the place to meet, so I messaged her on facebook with the time and location that would be convenient for me, hoping she would see the message and be free at the time.    As I spent time reflecting on the events of the afternoon I am able to see how the Lord directed my steps this afternoon to open my eyes to the good as well as the evil that is taking place in the society that I am a part of.

Before my meeting I thought it would be nice to go and have a nice lunch by myself at a cafe I had not been to in awhile (I enjoy getting out for some quality alone time to read, pray and reflect).   As I walked in, I notice the cafe was crowded, however there was a table close to two young people who were speaking English.  To give you an idea of how close I was to these people, my back was almost touching the young man's back.  Although, I would not intentionally eavesdrop on a conversation (actually I was trying to read), I could hear what they were saying.  They were talking about Jesus!  The conversation was very edify.  From what it seemed like, they were a part of a short term outreach team.  The young man has a desire to be a pastor and the young lady has a desire to work with human trafficking.  Because I did want this people to think I was intentionally listening to them (really I wasn't), I didn't not speak to them.  I just left edified.  As I left the cafe on my way to another restaurant to meet my friend, I was just thanking the Lord for the wonderful time I had just experienced

As I .approached the restaurant I found a table to sit out that would be easy to spot my friend if she showed up, I wasn't too sure if she would show up as we had not made concrete  plans.  This table was very close to another young lady and man.  However the conversation that was taking place was ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!  I really was not trying to listen, actually at one point I wanted to find another table simply because I found the language that the young lady was using was offensive.  Every other word that was coming out of the young lady's mouth was a swear word and she was speaking loud.  As they were talking I was really trying to concentrate on my book.   About half way into the conversation the young lady started talking about a relationship that she recently ended.  It turns out the young lady is a lesbian, she was sharing with this young man why she broke it off with her "girlfriend." The details that had taken place in her life were just not good.  I was trying not to listen, however the young lady was talking really loud and I am sure many others heard what she was taking about.  As I was sitting there reading and waiting for my friend, my heart just started to break for these young people at the next table.

My friend did not show up, however I felt the Lord had other plans for me.  As I left the restaurant I felt led to find a bench in front of the place to just sit and intercede  for the young people I was sitting next to at the restaurant.  As I was reflecting on what I had just heard, I felt the  Lord gave me a small glimpse of the ugliness that takes place in the homosexual lifestyle.  As I thought back to the conversation I heard earlier, two young people on fire for Jesus, desiring to seek Him and serve Him with there life, then hearing what I just heard I could help but think about the spiritual battle we are in, good fighting evil.  I felt that the Lord used this experience to open my eyes to what is going on in the spiritual world, there are people seeking Him to do His work, but yet the enemy is out to steal kill and destroy.  Although I did not enjoy hearing some of the things that were said in the second conversation, I am glad I heard them.  Why? You may ask..... Because the Lord loves those caught up in the homosexual lifestyle.  The Lord needed me to see these two young people because He wants to people to be praying for them.  I am thankful that I was able to get a good look at there faces that I will be able to remember them in prayer often.  I am also thankful that the Lord used this to give me a glimpse of what the people go through who are caught up in this lifestyle.   

Now I am sure after this post you all are going to think that I eavesdrop on every conversation, really I don't at all.  I believe the Lord just wanted me to hear some things.

Spring Update From CC Prishtina

To bring you up to date with whats happening over here. Recently  Isabella's finished preschool in our homeschool "The Yocom Christian Academy" and she has now begun kindergarten. Mark was greatly blessed to do the last assignments with her to finish preschool. Her kindergarten has come with an increased volume of work and assignments. We have loved homeschooling our daughter and the time and work is worth it. It has been such a rewarding experience for us as parents. Its just such a great blessing to be directly a part of our daughters academic development and to lay in her life a Biblical foundation with it... Isabella is becoming a little evangelist as she endeavors to tell people about Jesus and how they can go to heaven.

We are starting our garden.

 

In science we studied plants and the desert.

Isabella loved planting our garden.  We planted cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, herbs and flowers.

We made cactus's

This is an experiment on how water climbs up the stem.

 In Math, we played store.  Here she is learning how to write the prices of the items she is selling.

 Recently she was invited to join the worship team (playing the tambourine) at a chapel service we attend every other Sunday evening at Camp Bondsteel. Its a blessing to see her growing up into a servant of the Lord!

She received a certificate of apprecition

At CC Prishtina we have been studying through the book of Titus on Sunday mornings and we just finished the book of Job on Thursday evenings. So we are now getting ready to study the Psalms on Thursdays which Mark is really looking forward to.

 Lirak is presently taking a break from teaching every other Thursday due to a busy schedule with school and work etc. He and his fiance Suela are now preparing from their wedding on August 28th. It will be my Mark's wedding he has ever officiated  Lirak has been as a son in the faith and it will be an honor to officiate his wedding. Lirak and Suela will also be attending the ministry conference at Vajta, Hungary at the end of this month. 

Since the outreach with the soccer team from Vienna, a new chapter of youth outreach has begun in our ministry as we have now been doing the kids club again every other week. We have had a group of around ten kids from the Dardania district (near the church) coming for a time of activities such as songs, Bible teaching, English lessons, games, and crafts. These kids are from the same area where we first began doing outreach at Calvary Chapel's beginning 12 years ago. Many of the kids that we first ministered to back in the beginning are young adults and so the younger sibling of some of them  are now coming to our programs. And in addition we have been going out to a school yard every Friday evening to do recreational activities with the kids. 

Another highlight to update you with is that we have a new family attending our fellowship who are from Serbia. The man Dejan, is Serbian and the woman Daily, is Estonian and they have three beautiful children. They are baptist missionaries in a small town outside of Prishtina called Gracanica which is predominantly Serbian. So their focus of ministry is reaching the Serbian minority here in Kosovo. They presently operate a community center in Gracanica that provides a kindergarten and other services for the community. What's significant is that we have a Serbian believer who is gathering with Albanian believers to fellowship and worship the Lord despite the deep rift that still exists between the two ethnic communities. So this is a very significant development in our church at CC Prishtina. The Albanian members of our fellowship have received them very well. Only this can happen as a result of the work of God's spirit in people's hearts. 

Ministry at Film City (NATO HQ) continues with the Bible study on Tuesday evenings and counseling and prayer on Saturday afternoons.  

After a great Spring with the mom's ministry Celeste and the ladies are now taking a break from their weekly sessions for the summer season. They will still be meeting regularly to do outdoor activities with the kids. 

And and again thank you so much for your prayers and support. We look forward to a summer of fruitful ministry and outreach as The Lord opens doors here in our community. Keep in touch and may God bless you richly in Christ.

By His Grace,

Mark, Celeste, and Isabella

Prayer Summary:

* That God will move upon peoples hearts in our community and draw them to himself.

*  For God's blessing and anointing to be upon the ministry of the Word as it is taught and preached throughout each week.

*  Isabella's home schooling and that God enables us to provide her with a quality education. 

*  The funds to be able to purchase next year's curriculum. 

*  Celeste's group of women and children that they would continually be strengthened and refreshed.

*  Our outreach to the kids and families in the Dardania district, that God would draw the kids to himself.

*  The Saturday kids club that God would anoint us to minister to the kids.

*  Lirak and Suela's wedding in August as they plan their future together. 

*  Our US service members serving here in Kosovo that God's hand would be upon their lives and for the ministry to them at Film City. 

*  God's guidance and wisdom and that the council of ministers, (which I'm serving with) will be able to deal wisely with the local government and religious communities in Kosovo.

In regards to financial support; donations may be done online at this link: https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH

You will find  Mark Yocom in the missionary list provided.

Or a check can be made payable to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa with a note attached indicating; "Missionary Account : Mark & Celeste Yocom". 

Then it may be sent to the following address: 

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa

Attn: Accounting.

3800 S. Fairview Rd.

Santa Ana , CA

92704

It has been awhile since I have shared about our life and ministry.  Wow, a lot has been taking place over the past few months.  In order to share all that has taken place I have decided to let the pictures speak for themselves. 

In March I had the opportunity to attend a Pastor's Wife's retreat in Paris.  It was a wonderful time of refreshment and encouragement in the Word and GREAT fellowship!

Within a week of returning from Paris we hosted a soccer team from Surge International.  The group is based in Austria, however the team members were from American and Canada.  Not only did they play soccer with the kids, but they hosted and English Camp.

  Mark sharing the Gospel with the kids.

 While the team was here we hosted a church lunch for Easter.  We had a great time of fellowship and every one seemed to enjoy the food.

Family fun in Skopje, a day of rest

Thank you all for praying for us.  It has been a pretty busy spring and we are looking forward to a great and fruitful summer.

Hello Everyone,

Greetings to you from CC Prishtina... Hope you are all off to a good start for 2013 and abounding in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We want to thank each of you for your faithful prayers and support for what God is doing in Kosovo.

We are now presently fully moved into our new church facility but still getting settled and organized. It is a blessing to have the extra space and we anticipate a furthering of God's work among the people in Prishtina. As I had stated before we are located just across the street from the facility we were in over three years ago. It is on a main artery road that connects the south part of Prishtina with the center and at times we have thousands of pedestrians that pass by every hour. We had never planned or wanted to leave our last place but we had prayed that the Lord would do what he wished including to move us to a different location in the city according to his will and that's just what he did.


 As we are settling into our new place we are finding that we do have some needs, in order to function as a church better. 

        

Sanctuary

  Our kitchen is used a lot as we serve refreshments weekly after our Sunday service and our weekly MOP'S meeting.  As well as to feed team members.  We are praying for the Lord to provide the funds to be able to purchase small stove top burners as well as a small oven in order to cook monthly lunches for the church as well as for teams to be able to cook.  We are also needing proper cooking utensils. 

Fellowship Lounge

We are hoping to get some nice chairs for the office as well some pictures on the wall and a book case.  We have often talked about getting a copier as Celeste often has to go to the copy place to make copies. 

 We finally have a kids room and Celeste and Isabella are excited about this.  As you can see from the picture we do not have a place to store the toys.  We are needing some cabinets and bookshelves for this room.  We would also like to get some children's chairs and a small table for the kids.  It would be great to have an easel as well as some children's Sunday School pictures on the wall. 

The bathroom on the left is the located on the 1st floor next to the sanctuary and the one on the right is on the second floor.  The bathrooms are in need of shelves as well as small cabinets to store cleaning products. 

While our Christmas was occupied by the move into the new facility we did have a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration (the last in our old facility). We were at a maximum capicity of people attending the service which included a group of US soldiers from the NATO HQ. We also managed to distribute a small number of OCC gift boxes to the kids that came to the service with their parents. We were also blessed this holiday season with a visit from one of our members, Niti and his family, who are presently living in the US but may be coming back around the summer to live here in Kosovo.

A few weeks ago  after the Service, Xhavit's two boys (Fatlum and Arbnor) prayed to receive Christ. It was a real special moment for them and it really meant a lot to Xhavit to see his boys ope their hearts to Christ. So we are looking forward to another baptism this coming summer with Xhavit and two boys ready to be baptized.

Recently a young American couple (Sam and Elizabeth) from Illinois who had started attending our fellowship; are now doing worship for our services. Back in 1999 when I first came to Kosovo, Sam's father (who was working here in Kosovo) was my roommate.  Sam is teaching at a private high school here in Prishtina and he and his bride Elizabeth are newly married since August. We are greatly blessed to have Sam and Elizabeth with us. 

 

Celeste is planning to start a weekly Bible study for women on Saturdays in the next couple weeks. This will be in addition to her Mom's meeting that continues to meet Wednesday mornings. Isabella is now at the kindergarten level with her home schooling which she is doing very well with. Lirak is also doing Albanian classes for her. Josef who has been in Spain is doing well and met up with me in Germany  for the CC Pastors Conference.

Genesis 1:1 in Albanian

Isabella Writing the Bible

Mop's Christmas Party

 Ministry to the soldiers is entering a new season as well as a new commander, LTC Brett Criqui has stepped in. I have enjoyed getting to know Brett. He is an Iraq war veteran who commanded an Apache Helicopter group which was the first to enter Iraq at the beginning of the war. God continues to bless the weekly Bible study at Camp Film City and we are seeing wonderful doors of ministry open to us at Camp Bondsteel as well.

In March, Celeste is praying about attending a Pastor's Wife's conference in Paris France.  She attended last year and came back to Kosovo refreshed and encouraged.  It would be such a blessing for Celeste to be able to attend this year again as she rarely is able to sit in the Sunday service since she teaches Sunday School and isn't able to always make it to  the midweek study as we do not always have childcare for Isabella ( the past few month's Celeste has been able to attend).  Celeste is looking forward to the time of just being able to sit and receive as well as the fellowship with like minded believers.  Please pray with us for the provisions to be able to attend this conference.  

Celeste is seeking the Lord concerning which homeschooling curriculum to purchase for Isabella in the fall, as she will be starting first grade. If anyone has any used curriculum or would like to contribute to Isabella's curriculum  please contact Celeste at celesteyocom@gmail.com to find out what Isabella's needs are for this.

Winter Fun!

Thanks again so much for your prayers and support

Prayer summary:

*  God's blessing upon our new church facility. 

*  God's provision for the added expenses and things we need for the facility such as furniture for the kids room, Mark's office, a copy machine and the needed kitchen equipment.

*  We will be light and salt in our new location and neighborhood.

*  God's blessing upon all areas of ministry at CC Prishtina.

*  The Bible study Celeste will be starting in coming weeks.

*  God will strengthen the members of our fellowship in their relationships with him that they would have close walks with the Lord and bring forth much fruit in their lives.

*  Xhavits two boys; Fatlum and Arbnor that a solid spiritual foundation would be laid in their lives.

*  Sam and Elizabeth that God would bless their involvement in our fellowship with leading worship.

 and that God would bless their new life together as a married couple. 

* God's blessing upon the ministry to the US service members and for the weekly Bible study.

*  Provisions for Isabella's homeschooling curriculm

*  Provision for our insurance payment that is due in March
*  The Provisions for Celeste to be able to attend the Pastor's wives conference in March.

As I have been watching Isabella’s personality and character develop, one of the things that I have noticed is that she has a giving heart.  She absolutely LOVES to give things to people and as I have seen this quality develop in her I have been blessed.  When it is someone’s birthday she always wants to give something to that person, not just when it is a birthday party that she has been invited to.  Whenever she hears that it is someone’s birthday she always wants to get or make present for that person.  Every so often she makes things to send to her friends in other countries and often when we go places, she makes things to give to the people we are going to see, this is all upon her own doing.  At times she even wants to give her own toys and books away.  This year for Christmas she was so set on giving Mark and I gifts that she got her own blankets wrapped her stuffed animals in them and set them under the tree, I knew it would upset her if I were to take them and put them away.  So this year when it came time to exchange gifts she was so excited to give us her gifts.  If we even try to give them back to her she gets upset.  There are times that she would like to give something of hers away that I don’t want her to, or often times she wants me mail her books to her friends in the US and she doesn’t understand why I can’t do this all the time.  At times I have felt as if I discouraged her in always wanting to give things away.  As I have been watching this God given gift of giving develop in her I have been praying asking the Lord how I could encourage her in this gift. 

A couple of days ago I came across a devotion that really spoke to my heart concerning this area.  The devotion came from my devotional called “The 100 Most Important Bible Verses for Mothers.” 

Give, and you will receive.  You will be given much.  Pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it will spill into your lap.  The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.  Luke 6:38

Giving Freely

A fistful of squished yellow dandelions, a paper with a crooked rainbow colored on it, a heart with “I love you’ penned across it – your children are naturally giving to the ones they love.  They give with great delight and affection when they are young, and often would give away their own toys if you did not stop them (yep, that is Isabella). 

Something happens as children get older.  Unless cultivated, that free spirit changes as the child matures and learns to look at things “reasonably” and with “good sense.”  Your own giving spirit might have shriveled in the face of adulthood, particularly when you faced the reality of having a family to support.  Adulthood is serious business. 

God’s call to you is to regain the abandonment and the joy of giving.  Instead of a careful measure of what you think you can do, give freely and generously.  God will generously give back as freely as you give.  What a promise – He will never fail you.  Proclaim your faith and trust in God, and become like a child again, believing he will do what He said He would.  Imagine the people you can bless when you give with God’s abandonment.

Learn to give freely and joyfully like a child again, and God will give back to you in that same measure. 

The statement in this devotion: “Unless cultivated, that free spirit changes as the child matures and learns to look at things “reasonably” and with “good sense” really challenged me.   I found myself asking the question “am I cultivating this free spirit that I see in Isabella?”  I would love hear how you all cultivate this free spirit of giving in your children.