Kingsley and Veronica Box
22/7 email
Hello from hot Maribor!
We heard last night that July has been the hottest for sixty years or so, and although I don’t think it has passed 35oC, we have had maximums above 30oC for most of the month. Slovenes are finding it tough (and we find that we have also acclimitised to the climate and have been relieved to have a couple of days under 30 this week!)
We are now definitely in holiday mode. Maribor is gradually emptying as everyone heads to the coast for a few weeks until about mid-August. We find this to be a difficult time of year - two months of school holidays is a long time. It sometimes feels like nothing is happening, we are aimless and we get to the end of the day and feel like we haven’t done much. (Although I must say I think I probably cope with it better than Kingsley because most of my days all year round feel like that!). Please pray that we will use our time well, pray lots and keep trusting God and his timing and purposes for us in Maribor.
The kids club last week went pretty well. We were all pretty tired by the end of the week, but it was worth it. We had four families who aren’t church goers come - two kids were schoolmates of Zac and Sam and they brought their brothers along. Our Catholic friend, M, sent his daughters along for three of the days and grandchildren of one of the men from the Baptist church came. Please pray for the kids who came, that God will remind them of things that they learnt and that they will be keen to find out more. Pray that we might be able to continue to delevop relationships with them and their families. I have attached a photo of Kingsley talking with the older kids - we had a toddler pool and some water fights which is why Kingsley is wet and some of them are in swimmers!
Next week we are taking a week’s holiday camping in some Slovene mountains not too far away. Pray for a good rest and that we might enjoy God’s beautiful creation. On both Sundays either side of that week Kingsley will be preaching - once in Šmartno ob Paki and once in Ljubljana. It will be the same sermon each time and one he has preached here before. Please pray for God to speak through him and that we might have some good fellowship with our brothers and sisters in both of those churches.
love and prayers,
Kingsley & Roni
23/6 email
Dear partners in prayer,
We are in the last week of school and so everything seems to be winding up. We are all feeling in need of a break and so we are looking forward to heading off on holidays on Friday morning. (Although I am trying not to think about all the things still to finish on the to-do list). Tomorrow my parents arrive for a fortnight and we are very excited to be able to see them. Pray that we can have some good times together with them and that we will come back from our holiday refreshed.As you might expect, the campuses are basically deserted now and so we are now starting to think about the next academic year. Please pray that we might be able to do some good planning and praying over the summer break. Kingsley has invited a few students and some other friends to come and watch the soccer tomorrow but we have discovered that there are lots of public places to watch the soccer - outside the cinema, in the student hall, in all the cafes…. so they are much more likely to meet there. Slovenia is fairly mad about soccer at the moment and very keen to see Slovenia get into the top 16… or even further…! I have attached a photo of people watching the last Slovenia match at a cafe near us.
Church is going okay. We are still struggling with a few people who are more charasmatic and are bringing in ‘victorious life’ teaching. Hard to imagine how it could gain a footing in the church in Slovenia, which is really very poor in a worldly sense, but I guess it is what people want to hear. Kingsley has taken on the role of co-ordinating a kid’s club in July - we were given a month’s notice and decided to give it a go when a few others in our church were keen to be involved. Please pray that we might be able to pull something together in a month. Pray that there will be good partnership between all the people involved, and that Slovenes might really grow as they prepare for the camp. The theme is Narnia. Pray that some non-Christian kids might come along - a couple of our boys’ classmates have said they might come - and that children will hear the gospel and be challenged.Kingsley had his Slovene exam last week. It went pretty well - he is reasonably confident that he passed. He knows unofficially that he passed the oral section already. Pray that we will keep working at Slovene now that our tutoring has finished.
I have also attached a photo from a combined church service and day out with the other Brethren church in Slovenia.
Thanks for your prayers and support,
Roni, Kingsley and the gang
13/6 email
L-PLATES
Dear praying friends,
When we were doing our training for missionary service, we were given some L-plate magnets to stick on our fridge, to remind us that we would be always learning the language and culture while we were living in our new country. We have found that to be true - even though we can now hold a conversation on most topics in Slovene, there are still many words to learn. We still make cultural mistakes.
Tomorrow Kingsley is doing a Slovene exam, in order to push himself a bit further in learning the language. After this exam, our language tutor feels that she can’t help us anymore (and she is moving to Ljubljana), and she is encouraging us to read and listen more in order to keep up our knowledge of the language and expand our vocabulary.
Please pray that we will continue to work hard at learning Slovene, especially when we won’t have the formal tutoring any longer. Pray that we will constantly remember that we are on L-plates and that we will be humble and hard-working in learning the Slovene culture and language.
Thank you for your prayers,
Kingsley & Veronica Box
3/6 email
Dear partners in prayer,
We are now launching into end-of-school-year-madness. The boys have various end of year performances and presentations over the coming weeks. We have three more weeks of school and then two months off. We are all looking forward to a bit of a break.
University lectures finish this week, so the students now have exams and then they will disappear. Pray that God will continue to provide Kingsley with opportunities to talk with students that he sees around town over the coming weeks. He is hoping to invite students to watch the Soccer World Cup when Slovenia is playing - pray that some might come and that we can build relationships with them.
Since the last time I wrote things have not really improved at church. It is just plain hard work to try to work with a church that is significantly different in their theology. Our Bible study groups are both depressing in different ways and we are not sure whether it is worth continuing to invest time in them or not. Please pray for wisdom to know how to encourage people and build them up in Christ and what things are worth spending our time on.A week ago we had a walk up the mountain next to Maribor with Zac and Sam’s school. We were able to talk with some other parents. (I have attached a photo). Please pray that we might have more chances to meet parents and talk with them at the various end of school year presentations and activities.
We appreciate your support and prayers.
love in Christ,
Kingsley & Roni
May Newsletter
Click on the link below to download the latest news from the Boxes
17/5/10 email
MAKING DISCIPLES OF CHRIST AT HOME
Dear partners in prayer,
This morning we said goodbye to a very excited eight-year-old son. Zachary is on a school camp for two nights. We are glad that he is not anxious about being away from home (although it was nice to hear him say that he would miss us!). We ask you to pray that he will make good decisions about how he behaves and that he will do what is right even if it means standing out as being strange. (He is already strange being a foreigner, so it there is additional pressure for him to try to fit in). Pray for all of our children (and your children, the children at your church), that we might raise them to trust God and his word and to live God’s way. Pray that they will stand up for what is right amongst their peers, even when it is costly.
Thank God that Kingsley has been invited to attend a student bbq at the philosophy faculty tomorrow. Please pray that God might provide him with some good opportunities for conversation with students. Pray especially that he might meet up with D, to find out what he thought of the talk he heard at church on Sunday.
Thank you for your prayers,
Kingsley & Veronica
8/5/10 email
Dear partners in the gospel,
Hi from Maribor! I am happy to report that we are currently all healthy - since I last wrote, Sophie has had another bout of bronchitis and we all had a vomiting bug. We are hoping and praying that with the warmer weather we might have a little break from sicknesses!
At the end of the last university/school term, Kingsley ran a lecture on the existence of God. Kingsley thought it was a good lecture, and there were about 25 students and lecturers there, which was great. Christian’s lecture had quite a bit more about Jesus in it than previous lectures, and so Kingsley is interested to hear the feedback from it. Please pray that God might prompt someone to think more about it and that Kingsley might have some conversations about God when he is at university as a result. It seems that students and lecturers are happy to think about ideas and to discuss or debate them, but moving to reading the Bible is a HUGE step. Pray that someone might be willing to take that step.
We had a lovely week of holidays. Kingsley was able to take some time off to spend with the family - there were a few public holidays during the week - which we all really loved. We made a few trips to the park, ate pizza with Kingsley’s Bible study group, made a couple of trips to Ljubljana (a birthday party and a church seminar) where we saw some of our good friends from Ljubljana (always encouraging) and did a walk at Boč (Boch) - a nearby hill.
Last Sunday and Monday we had Philip Griffin and his son, Mark visit us. It was great to have them here and to share some Aussie humour with them. Philip also spent some time talking with us and helping us to think through what we are doing here in Maribor. Basically the conclusion we reached was that we are in a bit of a paralysis. We want to train people to be disciples of Jesus by reading the Bible with them and teaching them how to think theologically about life, but we don’t have anyone at the moment who is willing to be trained and it is hard to know where to go from here.
- Church work is very hard. We are working with people who really don’t trust us - they are arminian and think our theology is dodgy. Kingsley’s Bible study group is basically a mess - it is made up of either people who say very little or people who dominate the conversation and frequently go off on red herrings. The only person who is helpful in the group has just decided she won’t come any more and the guy Kingsley was trying to help to improve at leading a Bible study has decided he won’t lead anymore (he was told by another group member that he was no good at it). He is the only guy in the group remotely close to being capable of leading a group, so now Kingsley is the only leader.
- There are far too many missionaries in our church. One church member said recently that it feels like there are more missionaries than locals. They all have different theologies which is not helpful for the church. The other missionaries are all planning to start other churches at some stage, but we are wondering how long it will be before they feel able to start another church (the chance of them having even 10 people in the next five years is humanly-speaking impossible.) So we are beginning to wonder if we should be in this church at all.
- Student work is basically non-existent - there is still no-one we can read the Bible with. Although Kingsley has managed to meet lecturers and students at the Philosophy Faculty, there is no student or lecturer who is currently open to exploring who Jesus by reading the Bible. Philip has encouraged us to try something different - maybe to try contacting students in other faculties than the philosophy faculty. Easier said than done - its hard to know how to contact students. Or should we be doing something else completely?
Please pray for us, that we will trust God and his timing and pray that he might give us some people somewhere who we might be able to train. A missionary from Graz, Austria has actually offered to bring some of his Christian students to Maribor to help with contacting students. Kingsley finds it very hard to go and contact students by himself, so it would be great to have some others working with him on it. Please pray that something might come together with that and that God will prepare some students to be willing to look at the Bible.
So please pray for God’s wisdom, that we will trust him and his word, and that God will help us to grow in this time of uncertainty. Pray that we will stand firm in the gospel and that we might remain committed to his word and his people.
Thanks as always for your prayers and support. We really appreciate them.
love in Christ,
Roni (& Kingsley and the gang)
An email that came later…
Hi everyone,
I just thought I would send a quick note because I was probably a bit too negative in my update. I guess we have just talked a bit over the last few days about these things and it has been helpful to acknowledge it and to work out that we have been discouraged and lacking motivation. We are hopeful that now we can move forward!
I would like to add some positive things that we can thank God for as well:
- we have lots of friends at church here who pray for us
- they are happy for Kingsley to preach and organise various events (especially if he does the work for the events)
- although Kingsley’s Bible study group is a mess, there are a couple of ladies coming to it that weren’t in a Bible study beforehand
- we have seen people grow in their knowledge of God and his word through our time here
- Kingsley has had lots of conversations with people at uni and has quite a few contacts there
- we have a great God who is able to overcome even the hardest of hearts and we trust that he has people here in Maribor!
Thanks for your prayers,
Roni
10 April email
Dear partners in prayer,
We are happy to report that we have now left the snow behind and the days are either sunny or rainy (as in typical for April), the trees are getting steadily greener and the flowers colourful. Our boys are very excited about being able to play in the park again in the afternoons and were especially excited to be allowed to wear short-sleeved t-shirts again this week!
Kingsley was working very hard for the Easter weekend - first the passover at our house which he basically co-ordinated alone, and I even deserted him on the actual night because Sophie had bronchitis and we had to keep her away from people. (Thankfully she didn’t end up in hospital this time.) So he was running the evening and co-ordinating the kitchen! We had a couple of people come to the passover apart from church people (there were rather a lot of church people, so our place was packed), so you can pray for more opportunities with them. I have attached a photo so you can see 1/3 of the room. On Sunday the Easter service went pretty well and there were a few non-Christian family members there.
Kingsley had some good conversations at uni the week before Easter as well - he prepared a vox pop and asked people if Jesus is resurrected, where is he and what is he doing? Please continue to pray for more conversations and especially that a conversation might actually lead to someone being willing to read the Bible.
Coming up we have a few things happening in April to keep us busy. On April 20th Kingsley is organising a lecture for the subject he attends on the existence of God. Christian Bensel, an Austrian man, is coming to give a lecture for the class. Please pray that lots of students will turn up for the lecture and that they will be challenged to think about the truth of the Bible. Pray for some good conversations afterwards.
The following weekend Kingsley is going with Bojan to a conference on the Emmaus correspondence course. Bojan has been translating the course into Slovene and is co-ordinating the distribution of the course in Slovenia. He has been basically doing it all alone and so Kingsley wanted to show him some support. Pray that he might have some good conversations with Bojan and that it will be a helpful conference. Pray also for the rest of us at home - after signing up Kingsley found out that ‘weekend’ was actually 5 days!
We also have a couple of visits from Australian pastors, coming to help and support the work of CMS in Slovenia - you can pray that they will be helpful and edifying visits.
We thank God for your prayers and partnership with us,
Veronica & Kingsley
7 April email
A STRANGE MIX OF EASTER AND THE DALAI LAMA
The Catholic churches in Maribor have just finished with their busiest time of the year - where many people come to the many masses held throughout Easter Saturday to have their food blessed for Easter Sunday’s traditional breakfast with their families. Most of these people are not regularly in church on Sundays and it is simply a matter of tradition. Yesterday the Dalai Lama was in Maribor and he gave a talk in the largest hall in Maribor. People again flooded in to hear him speak. This is the culture and attitude we find common in Slovenia - a mix of traditions and adherence but yet mistrust of catholicism, a leaning towards new age and eastern religions and a deep mistrust of the Bible.
Please pray for Slovenes, who are very mixed up in their understanding of Jesus and religion, that God will unveil their hearts and minds so they can accept the true gospel.
Pray that Christians in Maribor will take up opportunities to talk with their friends about their beliefs in the wake of the visit of the Dalai Lama.
We thank God for your support and prayers,
Kingsley & Veronica Box
PS Thank you for your prayers for the Easter events our church held. We had far too many people turn up for the passover meal and had lots of people squashed into our apartment (as one of our leaders says “a good problem to have”!). We had a couple of friends/neighbours come. Kingsley (with some contributions from other people from our church) did a great job of explaining the passover and how it was fulfilled in Jesus. On Sunday the service also went well. Please pray that family and friends of church members who heard the gospel this Easter might think about things they heard and that God will bring them to Christ.
25 March update
EASTER OPPORTUNITIES
Dear partners in the gospel of our Saviour,
Easter in Slovenia is quite a big event. Even atheists get together as a family to ‘celebrate’ Easter, even if they don’t see the need to take their food to be blessed by the priest (although their grandmother still probably takes it along to the Saturday mass). Our church is holding a couple of events to try to get people to think about just what it is that they are celebrating. Next Friday we will be hosting a ‘passover’ meal at our house, where we will look at the passover and how it is fulfilled in the death of Jesus. On Easter Sunday we will have a shorter service aimed at the whole family to explain the resurrection of Jesus.
- Please pray for Kingsley as he prepares something for both of these events, that he might be able to explain the death and resurrection of Jesus clearly.
- Pray that people from church will be bold in inviting their friends to come
- Pray for Slovenes, that they might look beyond the cultural traditions to the true reason for Easter and that God might open their eyes to understand the gospel
We thank God for your prayers,
Kingsley & Veronica Box
8 March update
Dear friends,
Hello from cold Maribor. A week ago we had had a week of temperatures up to around 10oC, all the snow had melted, trees were beginning to bud and we thought we were coming out of winter. Our boys were all telling us how hot they were in their jackets (”I’m cooking myself, mum” - literal translation from the expression in Slovene). This week we are back to lows of -7oC and highs of 1 or 2oC. Sigh. We did enjoy the sunshine while it lasted.
We have had quite a busy weekend, with the Old Testament seminar yesterday and lunch at our apartment, afternoon tea at our neighbour’s place, both of us teaching Sunday School this morning, lunch at friends’ and then Kingsley headed off to Bible study. We have survived, although our boys were showing signs of strain this afternoon!
There were more than 20 people at the seminar on the Old Testament, from three different churches and Kingsley thought Peter did a great job of presenting Biblical theology. People seemed to be quite positive about it and Kingsley is hopeful that we can do some more training in the future together. We managed to feed everyone okay (I had some help from Olga and Aleška - and also some help from my boys, so it didn’t end up being too stressful). I have attached a photo of the seminar.
We had a good time with our neighbour and her daughter yesterday - it was quite un-Slovene of them to invite us over for a coffee and it was good to spend some time with them. Lunch with our catholic friends was also good - M has recently become a bit more friendly and willing to talk and associate with us. He is even listening to the letter to the Romans while he exercises, which is great. Pray that God will give us more opportunities to speak about Jesus with both of these families.
Last week Kingsley preached in Šmartno ob Paki and his talk was well received. They are always quite positive about his sermons and often ask why he can’t come more often to preach. He managed to convince 6 of them to come to the Old Testament seminar yesterday. The church there has been asked by the council of a nearby, Velenje, to come and start a church in the city in order to try and address the high suicide and drug rate amongst young people. There is currently no protestant church in Velenje. The church is keen to reach out to families in that city and are praying that a young missionary family would move to Valenje in order to help with this goal. (The church mainly consists of older ladies and led by a godly and faithful doctor who doesn’t feel capable of reaching families). Please pray for them as they seek to make this move and that God will send the right family to work with them.
God has been very good to us in providing a few positive experiences this week - because we were feeling a bit discouraged after last weekend when some people at church were negative about coming to the seminar and bible study. Please pray for our patience, godliness and trust in God as we see steps forward and then steps backward in the people we are ministering to. People in our church are generally too busy and absorbed in their lives to think about serving God or other people. Pray that God will continue to work in their lives.
Kingsley is still attending lectures at uni and trying to meet students. He has decided that he probably needs to get out there and do some mass leafleting - around all the different campuses. Pray that God will give us boldness and that he might lead us to the students that he has intended for us to reach. Kingsley is preaching next week so please pray that he will be able to prepare well and efficiently and teach God’s word faithfully.
Thank you very much for your prayers. We are thankful to God for your support.
love and prayers,
Roni & Kingsley and the gang
28 Feb update
PREACHING AND UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WORD
Dear partners in the gospel of our Lord Jesus,
Next Saturday 6th March, the Reformed Evangelical Church (REC) in Ljubljana and our church in Maribor are holding a seminar on preaching from the Old Testament. Our church rarely hears sermons from the Old Testament, and in both churches people are not confident about understanding and applying the Old Testament. Peter Novak (CMS bursar and pastor of REC) will be giving people an overview of the Old Testament and how to understand it in the framework of the gospel of Jesus, and then they will be doing a workshop on how to go about preaching one passage of the Old Testament.
- Thank God for his word, that it is clear and his Spirit helps us to understand it.
- Pray that many people from both churches will come and that it will be a good time of fellowship and learning together around God’s Word.
- Pray for Peter Novak as he prepares, that he will be able to clearly teach how the Bible fits together.
- Pray that people from both churches might be encouraged to work at understanding and teaching from the Old Testament, that they will be less daunted by the Old Testament and encouraged to teach it so we may grow in godliness.
Thank you for your partnership in the work of the gospel in Slovenia,
Kingsley & Veronica Box
13 Feb update
Hello from a very white Maribor!
We have had even more snow fall this week and temperatures are still hovering around the 0 mark, and usually quite a bit colder overnight. I have attached a couple of photos of the snow. One is a walk Kingsley and the boys did with the hiking club from school and the other is Kingsley clearing the snow from around the car. Its times like these we wish we had a garage!We are extremely happy to report that we are currently all healthy! We are heading off on holidays tomorrow for a week and so we are praying that God will keep us healthy so we can enjoy the snow together. Sophie’s chest is now clear and she isn’t coughing anymore. She is still vomiting a bit more often than usual, but hopefully that will eventually settle back down. She is feeding well now, but has gone off solids - we are hoping she will gradually get back into the routine of eating food. The vomiting bug passed through all of us except Kingsley and it wasn’t too serious so we are thankful to God for looking after us. Pray that God will keep us healthy - especially over the next couple of months which are often when colds and flus are circulating.
Kingsley had to postpone his Slovene exam until June - he was signed up to do the exam the week we were in hospital. Pray that we will keep working hard on our Slovene in the meantime.When we get back from holidays, Kingsley will be preaching in Smartno ob Paki (an old sermon) and then he is working with Peter Novak (CMS bursar) on a preaching seminar in early March for our church and the church in Ljubljana. He will be preaching in our church in mid-March. Please pray for God to speak through him. Aside from that he is still trying to work on contacting students. Pray that God will help him to meet students and that he might be able to talk about significant things with them. Pray also that he might be able to find someone to lecture in the philosophy subject on the existence of God.
Thanks as always for all your prayers.
love in Christ,
Roni (and Kingsley and the gang)
Click on the link below to download the Boxes January newsletter…
Preaching God’s Words
Our church is largely reliant on the work of missionaries and outside speakers for its public teaching. Only a couple of Slovene men from our church regularly teach God’s word - the majority of the time foreigners are teaching. We would love to see people from our church trained in preaching. Our church and a church from Ljubljana are organising a preaching seminar in March, to train people in preaching from the Old Testament.
Please pray that many people from our churches might come along to the seminar and that they will learn to preach faithfully from God’s Word.
Pray that God will continue to raise up more Slovenes to teach his word in this country.
Luther and Calvin
Kingsley recently had the opportunity to lecture a history of philosophy class on the contribution of Luther and Calvin to philosophy. He was able to present the reformers’ influence on the thinking of our society and explain their teachings to second year students.
Thank God for this opportunity and that quite a number of students came.
Thank God that the lecturer was positive about the lecture and was trying to think of ways to include Kingsley in her teaching program next semester.
Thank God that Kingsley was able to have some conversations with some students afterwards.
Pray that some of the students might have been challenged to look at the Word of God and what it teaches about grace.
Pray that God will provide ongoing contact with students and lecturers.
Ana M
Ana is a regular member of our church. She was raised in Poland, married a Macedonian, raised two daughters in Slovenia and has now become a Slovene citizen. She has recently retired and is enjoying having some more time, freedom and energy for Bible study and church.
Thank God for saving Ana and that she is keen to serve God’s people and is regular in attending church and Bible study
Praise God for her witness to her husband, who doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, and pray that he might be willing to read God’s word and submit himself to Jesus
Pray that Ana will use her time wisely during retirement to serve God and his people
We are fully supported by CMS for our ministry in Slovenia.
To make a donation or find out more about CMS, call 02 9267 3711 or visit www.cms.org.au
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty Is 55:11
Kingsley, Veronica
Zac, Sam, Tim and Sophie Box
7/2 update on Sophie
NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET
Dear praying friends,
A number of you have written asking for an update on Sophie’s health. We are very thankful to God for looking after her and are happy to say that she was able to come home from hospital on Thursday. She is now feeding well. She still has congestion in her chest and is still occasionally coughing. Unfortunately it seems we stayed a little too long in the hospital and have brought home a vomiting bug. Sophie was vomiting again yesterday and this morning, Samuel and Timothy this afternoon and evening.
Thank God that he protected Sophie and pray he will continue to heal her chest.
Pray for our family as we deal with this new virus, that it will not infect all of us and that we will be able to recover quickly.
Thank you very much for your prayers and support,
Kingsley & Veronica Box
3/2/10 update
SOPHIE’S SICKNESS: A REMINDER TO TRUST GOD
Dear partners in prayer,
Sophie has been in hospital since Saturday night. She has bronchiolitis and a virus which is causing high temperatures and vomiting. Veronica is able to be with her in the hospital, breastfeeding and caring for her. She is feeling very tired as you can imagine. I have been busy caring for the boys, learning anew what a wonderful, huge job Roni does as wife and mum here at home. Sophie is gradually improving. I am hopeful that she might be able to come home today, but it will depend on Sophie increasing her intake of fluids - she is not feeding well. Please pray for her full recovery. Pray for Roni, that she will be able to cope with the lack of sleep and emotional pressure of having her 7 month old in the hospital and being away from home. Thank God that he is working through the doctors and nurses here to heal Sophie. Praise him for the reminder of our weakness and his strength. I had a conversation with the principal of Sam and Zac’s school over the weekend. He said in the end, we have to have confidence in ourselves because God is fictitious and we have no-one else to rely upon. I said that worked only to a certain extent. There are many things outside our control. Sophie’s sickness is one example of things outside our control. It is great to know that it is not outside of our heavenly Father’s control.
Love in Jesus,
Kingsley and Veronica Box