Blooming Blessings

Dearest friends and prayer partners,

God has been working and blessing this past month. Thank you so much for your prayers! God is working through them. There are several answers to specific prayers that I want to praise God for with you:

• The homesickness that I had been struggling with has become much better. I still miss those I love in the US, but it is not nearly so overwhelming.

• My doctrinal interview with BMM on May 15th went well and they have recommended me for full-time missionary service with them.

• Don and LeAnne have made it to the States and have been able to connect with several of their supporting churches and other individuals already.

• The ladies' study and Sunday school lessons I taught went well and were blessings.

• David and Ellie Luethy safely arrived this past week. Ellie taught the ladies’ study this past Friday and David preached on Sunday.

• I’ve had a little more time to work on my Slovak the past couple weeks, and I was able to read a few books in that time, practice my pronunciation for the Sunday school lesson, and was even able to help with translating a few conversations for David and Ellie this weekend.

Over the past month, we’ve had three visitors come to three separate Sunday morning services. Please pray that God will use the messages they heard and the conversations they had to draw them to Himself, and that they would be saved. Please also pray that they will come back and that we will have additional individuals visit the church.

The couple that has been heading up the Friday night children’s program, Lukáš and Valerie, has been having a lot of health issues lately. She has been having a lot of pain in her back for which the doctors have not determined a cause. Lukáš broke his foot this past week. Please be praying that God would provide the doctors wisdom, and that He would provide healing. Please also be praying that despite the difficulties, they would continue to have hearts that desire to serve Him and will remain faithful.

The next step in joining BMM full-time is to attend their candidate seminar. This happens once a year in July. A couple years ago, I attended a few days of this seminar as part of my short-term orientation, but now I need to attend the entire two weeks. Due to this, I will be coming back to the US. Lord willing, on Sunday June 29th, I will be taking a train and then a bus to the Vienna airport and then on June 30th, I will be flying to Chicago. I’ll be picked up by one of the ladies from my sending church and will be staying in Wisconsin for a few days to visit with my sending church and other friends. Then on Sunday July 6th, after the morning service, I will be driving from Wisconsin to Ohio where the candidate seminar is. The seminar starts Monday morning July 7th and goes through Thursday evening July 17th. On Friday the 18th I will be driving back to Wisconsin and will stop to visit with my parents on the way. I’ll then have a few more days in Wisconsin before flying back to Europe on Friday July 25th. I will then be in Slovakia for another two months before coming back to the US at the end of September to begin deputation. Please be praying for safety in travel, that the Lord’s will is done during this time, that I would learn what He would have me to learn, do what He would have me to do, and that He would use me to be a blessing and an encouragement. In addition, please pray that God will be working out the details of my transition back to the US including housing while I am there.

Please continue to pray that my Slovak language skills will continue to improve. My pronunciation has improved drastically over the past few months, and there is relatively little in everyday conversations that I don’t understand, but when I speak in Slovak it still requires patience on my part and the other person’s part because I’m not able to speak very quickly yet. I also still have difficulty expressing complex ideas. In addition, pray that my out loud reading skills will continue to improve so that I can smoothly read a text the first time through. This is important for being able to read Bible verses during studies or if I needed to teach the kids last minute. I’m also at a point where I need to start doing some more dedicated grammar study. I’ve used an immersion based method for most of my learning so far, but just like school children need to learn the grammar rules of their own language, I need to spend some time learning the grammar rules of Slovak. Grammar is something I’ve always found difficult to study, so please pray that God will make it clear and give me the perseverance needed to learn it well.

Over the past month, I’ve had the opportunity to sit with Simeon (almost 3) and Samuel (18 months) during the service prior to the sermon. Their parents have been busy playing the piano and managing the announcements and other items. Unlike in the US, we don’t have a nursery and the parents keep their kids with them in the service. It has been such a blessing to me to spend time with them. They are the sweetest little boys and they have become increasingly comfortable around me over the past several months. Please pray that these boys and the other children in the church will come to know Jesus as their personal savior, and that God will guide their parents in raising them.

Your Sister in Christ,

Shae Zabel