Kingsley and Veronica Box

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…

jan-2010-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

18/1/10 update

Dear partners in prayer,
Hi from a white Maribor. We have had quite a bit of snow over the last few weeks. Not quite as much assome other parts of Europe, but enough to keep our footpaths white for a number of weeks. I have attached a photo Kingsley took of the take-away on offer at the ski-field next to Maribor.
Church continues to be a joy and a struggle. Kingsley’s Bible study group is still hard going because people in the group are so volatile and apt to go on red herrings. My Bible study group is also quite frustrating because we don’t really study the Bible. Kingsley preached last week and did a good job. Please pray that we can encourage and train more of the men in our church so they can preach regularly - currently there are more missionaries preaching than Slovenes.
Kingsley is currently working hard on preparing his lecture for his history of philosophy class this week. It is actually the last week of the semester, so please pray that a few students will actually turn up and that he can prepare something well, being true to the principles of the reformation and also interacting with philosophy. He said today it is actually a bit depressing preparing this material, because he can just see so many places where our church is not holding to the reformation principles. Keep praying for our patience and wisdom working in this environment. Pray also that Kingsley will have some follow-up conversations and will find some students to have coffee with over the mid-year break.
Kingsley is planning to take a Slovene exam at the beginning of next month. Pray that he will prepare well and that it will help him to work hard at improving his Slovene and expanding his vocabulary.
Please pray for me to use my time well. It is easy to spend all my time getting things done and not to make sure I spend some focussed time with my husband and my children. Pray that I will be disciplined in getting up before the kids to read my Bible and pray.
Thanks as always for your prayers and support.
love in Christ,
Roni, Kingsley and the gang

13/1/10 update

LUTHER & CALVIN: THE PHILOSOPHERS
Dear praying friends,
Next week, Kingsley has an opportunity to present the philosophy of Luther and Calvin to a history of philosophy class for second year students. He has been attending these lectures this year, and last month offered to do a presentation on Luther and Calvin when he saw their names on a list of possible topics for student presentations. He was thinking he would give a 20 minute presentation like the students do, but found out last week that the lecturer has set aside the entire two hour lecture for Kingsley’s presentation! She is happy for him to present Luther and Calvin’s teachings and the principles of the reformation.
Please pray for Kingsley as he prepares material for the lecture, that God will give him clarity and that he will be able to prepare well (two hours in Slovene is A LOT!).
Pray that he will be able to present something of their interaction with philosophy but also clearly explain the gospel they were preaching.
Pray for God’s wisdom and a quick mind when he is answering questions.
Pray for further conversations with students and lecturers in the coming weeks.
Thank you for your prayers,
Kingsley & Veronica Box

7/1/10 update

TOUGH TIMES
Dear partners in prayer,
We are very thankful to God for his work in the life of our good friend from church, who has been brought to her knees over the last few weeks. Her life has “fallen apart” in her words and she has come to realise that she has effectively left God out of it and needs to make some changes. Last Sunday she asked Veronica if they could meet mid-week to read the Bible and pray (earlier Veronica had offered to do this but it never eventuated… until now). She is keen to put God back into his rightful place in the centre of her life.
Please pray for our friend, that God’s spirit will strengthen her spiritually as she reads God’s word.
Pray that as she and Veronica meet each week, they will be touched by God’s word and be able to encourage each other to live godly lives.
Thank you for your partnership in the gospel,
Kingsley & Veronica Box

24/12/09 update

Dear partners in the gospel,
Hello from a cold and wet Maribor. On Saturday we had lots of snow fall and then a number of below zero days, but yesterday and today it has warmed up to about 10oC and it is raining making the snow turn to slush and mud. Our boys were very excited to be able to go sledding and to try out their skis on Sunday morning (we had church in the evening with the Baptist church last Sunday). We are very happy that the days are now starting to get longer again - at the moment it isn’t getting light until after 7.30am in the morning and then it’s dark by 4.30pm in the evening.
Last Saturday Kingsley and the boys went with some others from church to sing carols at the nursing home and it was well received. In the afternoon we had a Christmas party at our house and were very pleased to find that quite a few of our neighbours as well as one of Sam’s schoolmates and his mum came along. Even our elderly neighbour who has always refused to come for coffee came along - she even made an effort to dress up specially! Kingsley also managed to convince her husband to join us. Kingsley and Monika sang a couple of carols and then Kingsley gave them a quiz about Christmas. The quiz got a few people talking - please pray that we might be able to follow up on some of the conversations. One of our neighbours said he would invite us over for coffee and Christmas cookies - pray that it might happen and for good conversations with his family. I have attached a photo.
Coming up we are looking forward to church on Christmas morning and then we are hosting lunch with the Hribars (CMS missios) and Margaret (our English friend) from Ljubljana. We have a kids Christmas service on the 27th - so that non-Christian friends and family might come along to see it. In the nativity play Zac and Sam are both shepherds and Tim is a sheep - he wanted to be a shepherd as well but then settled for being Cecil the sheep (the name of the sheep in a book about Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep).
The boys finish school on Thursday and then have a week off school. Pray that we will have a fun relaxing time together and will all be ready for school again after the week off. Pray that the weather won’t be too cold so that we can get outside most days! Kingsley is preaching on the second Sunday in January from Mark’s gospel - you can pray for good preparation and that God will give him the right words. He has also offered to do a presentation on Luther and Calvin to his history of philosophy class at the university in January. Pray that he might be able to prepare something at a university level that is fair to Luther and Calvin and also philosophical. (The lecturer had Luther and Calvin on her list but wasn’t planning to say anything about them and now Kingsley has to work out exactly how to present their impact on the philosophical world). If you have researched, written an essay on the reformers or have anyone in your congregation who is a Luther, Calvin expert, can you ask them to contact me if they have any good resources on Luther and Calvin’s contributions to ethics and philosophy.
We wish you all a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2010!
love in Christ,
Roni, Kingsley and the gang
PS I am planning to put these updates on our blog with some other photos - if that is helpful for you or other church members, feel free to check it out: http://boxesinmaribor.blogspot.com/

18/12/09 update

JOY TO THE WORLD
The Lord is come! We can truly rejoice as we remember the birth of our Saviour at Christmas. In the next week we have a number of opportunities to share our joy at Christ’s coming with others around us. This Saturday a group from our church are singing carols and reading some scripture verses in a nursing home, where one of our church members currently resides. In the afternoon on Saturday Kingsley’s Bible study group is hosting a Christmas party at our apartment and we have invited a number of friends and neighbours to join us. Next week we will have a service on Christmas day and then on Sunday a special family Christmas service where the children will perform some songs and a play and Kingsley will give a children’s talk.
Please pray that God will provide many opportunities in the coming week for us to share our joy at Christ’s birth.
Pray that friends might come along to some of these events.
Pray that God will touch the hearts of people in Slovenia this Christmas, that they might look past the traditions and think about what we are really celebrating.
We wish you all great joy as you remember the coming of our Lord,
Kingsley & Veronica Box with Zac, Sam, Tim & Sophia
PS Kingsley’s presentation at school last week was received well and Sam was very pleased with how it went. Please continue to pray that we might make further contacts with families and teachers from school.

7/12/09 update

WE’RE DREAMING OF A RED HOT CHRISTMAS?
Dear partners in proclaiming the gospel of God,
This week on Thursday, Kingsley will talk about what Christmas in Australia is like to Samuel’s first grade class and to the other 2 first grade classes. He has done this presentation before when Zac was in kindergarten and first grade. We love to take these opportunities for a number of  reasons:
1. Because we want Samuel to have the opportunity to see his dad up the front of class and to help dad in presenting Australia to his classmates. We hope this will make a pleasant difference to his experience of school.
2. We want to develop relationships with the staff in the school and open up further opportunities in the future for cooperation with them.
3. We want the Slovene children to go home to their mums and dads and tell them all about the Australian kid Sammy in their class and how cool he and Australia is, so that their parents will be interested in getting to know us.
4. Of course we are praying that as we get to know Slovenes at school better, that God will grant us opportunities to testify to Christ and that God will save Slovenes through this gospel preaching. Please pray with us for God to work in the lives of our children, their schoolmates and families, and the teachers at their school.
If you have some great resources which present Australia, esp. an Australian Christmas…it’s landscapes and different cultures (photos of Australian animals, famous places and things, games that a group of 60 children could play, songs, etc.), please send us an email now (before Thursday) and let us know your ideas and how we can access them over the internet.
Love in Jesus,
Kingsley, Roni, Zac, Sam, Tim and Sophie Box
PS For those of you in NSW, Australia:
People often ask us how they can best support us. One great way is to go to CMS Summer School in Katoomba, which will be held 2-8 January 2010. You will be challenged by God’s Word as you hear talks on the topic of “Radical Discipleship” and hear from missionaries who are serving in various countries around the world. For more information or to register on-line:

1/12/09 update

Dear partners in prayer,

Unfortunately it is the season for colds and viruses and everyone here is very paranoid about the flus circulating around. We have been very healthy - but just yesterday I stayed home from church with Tim and Sophie as Tim had a temperature overnight and a cough. He is still feverish, and we are assuming he has the flu - so we are likely to have a few more days of fevers. Please pray that the rest of us won’t catch it and that God will bless us with good health over the coming months - typically kids are always getting sick until it starts to warm up again.

Kingsley finished a two week series preaching on money in Ljubljana today. It was good to see our friends there and to challenge them to be generous because God has been so generous to us. Please pray for Peter and Lidija Novak, who lead the church in Ljubljana, and Nenad Vitorovič, who is heading up the IFES student work there. Both of them are in difficult situations financially and the church is not big enough to support a full-time worker. Pray that God will raise up greater support within the church and also provide money from other sources so that the Novaks or Nenad don’t have to seek paid employment elsewhere.

We are heading into the lead up to Christmas. Christmas decorations have been going up in the streets this week and they will be lit up in the coming week. We don’t have the end of school year madness that hits Australia at this time, but there are a few extra things happening in school and church. Pray that we might be able to have some good conversations with people around us about the meaning of Christmas. Kingsley is hoping that his Bible study group will be able to put on a Christmas party for our church - pray that it might happen and that some friends might also come along.

We had a good walk with the hiking group from the school. It proved to be a great opportunity for talking with people - there’s not too much else to do when you are walking up a mountain! The walk wasn’t really designed for three year olds and so I ended up straggling at the back of the line with Timothy. Kingsley had a few more chats than I did. We have seen some of the families around the school since then - you can pray that we can develop those relationships further in the coming year. I have attached a photo of a few of the walkers. I have also attached a follow up to our prayer point on soccer - it is an ad that was up after Slovenia won the qualifier for the world cup. It says: ”We have put Slovenia back on the world map”.

Thanks so much for your faithful prayers for us.

Roni, Kingsley and the gang

20/11/09 update

For the glory of Slovenia or God?

Last night Maribor, a normally sleepy little town in the north east of an very small (on a world scale) European nation, came alive. As Slovenia defeated the giant Russia 1:0 in a world cup soccer qualifying match, Slovenes couldn’t hold their pride in. Fans chanted with delight, “Whoever isn’t jumping (with delight) isn’t Slovene,” and the coach and players waxed lyrical about how all their dreams had been fulfilled and this match would be written down in the Slovene sporting history book in gold lettering. Even the politicians did unusual things eg the Slovene premier Borut Pahor promised before the match that he would polish the shoes of the soccer players if they won and he remained faithful to his promise.

If you want to (cyberspatially) relive the experience in Slovenian, click on the following link which will take you to the website of Maribor’s largest newspaper (Večer) where you can watch some videos  Večer na spletu: www.Vecer.com. (In english try this link… Slovenia stuns Russia to reach World Cup finals | The Australian)

It is interesting to hear Slovenes talk about the importance of this soccer match for the Slovene nation. One neighbour said that it has the potential to throw this small nation onto the world stage and bring in enormous money and publicity. Perhaps he is right. What struck Kingsley about this neighbour’s uncontainable enthusiasm was how much Slovenes value recognition ie glory and fame. Slovenes want to be recognised and respected by other countries around the world, especially by the bigger ones. It is important to them how they look in other people’s eyes.

The sad thing is that many of them are not interested in glorifying God and sharing in his glory through faith in Jesus. They are only interested in their own glory. Please pray for Slovenes that they would become even more excited about Jesus than they are about their country’s success.

Love in Jesus,

Kingsley, Roni, Zac, Sam, Tim and Sophie.

P.S. Next Monday Kingsley has been invited to a social gathering of philosophy students. When they invited him they said, “Since you are so often amongst us, we are inviting you as well.” Please pray he will be able to build significant relationships during the evening.

9/11/09 update

Dear partners in the gospel,

Hello from a cold and wintery Maribor! After beautiful sunny days on our holidays a week ago in Italy, for which we were very thankful to God, we have returned to a chilly Maribor. We are definitely moving into winter - days are short and cold and gradually the yellow leaves are disappearing from the trees and turning into a brown carpet on the ground. We had some snow fall this week - it melted almost as soon as it hit the ground in town but the mountain next to Maribor is still white.

We had a great response to the two lectures at the philosophy department. Thanks for praying! About 50 students and lectures came to the first lecture and about 40 to the second. That was partly due to the efforts of the head of the department, who asked some of his lecturers to move their lectures and to encourage their students to attend these lectures instead. There were some good questions afterwards and especially after the second lecture, there were some good conversations over coffee. There are number of things to thank God for:
- the lecturers were very happy with the lectures - they were both different but both appropriate for the philosophy department
- one lecturer, who lectures a subject next semester on the existence of God, asked Kingsley and Leon if they could find someone similar to come and lecture his class next semester
- Kingsley had a number of good conversations while handing out leaflets before the lectures
- one student rang Kingsley yesterday to ask for a copy of the talk, came to our apartment for coffee and continued talking about philosophy and God with Kingsley. He said that he had grown up in the Catholic church but was not convinced of the truth of Christianity - he basically challenged Kingsley to show him that Christianity is credible and believable. Pray for God to give Kingsley the words to challenge him and that God will change his heart and help him to see the truth of the gospel. (He left the CD of the talk here so Kingsley will have to organise to meet up with him again!)
Praise God for these things and pray that he might work in the hearts of some of these students - continue to pray that Kingsley might be able to find someone to read the Bible with.
I have attached a photo of one of the talks on the historicity of the resurrection -  for members of our church and their friends.

Coming up Kingsley has a few weeks of preaching. Kingsley preaches next week in our church on Mark 2. Then we will travel to Ljubljana on two Sundays for Kingsley to preach his sermons on money that he has already preached here. Pray that he will preach clearly and faithfully from God’s word.

Next weekend we are going on an excursion with a group from the boys’ school. They have a hiking club which Zac has joined and so we are catching a train and going for a walk on a mountain south of Celje. You can pray for some good opportunities for conversations with other parents and teachers.

Thanks for your prayers and support and encouraging emails.

Roni, Kingsley and the gang

19/10/09 update

DOES GOD EXIST? DID JESUS REALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD?
This Thursday (22nd October) we are hosting two lectures in Maribor. Jürgen Spieß, a German professor of history, will be lecturing as part of a series of lectures that ZVEŠ (the IFES student organisation in Ljubljana) is organising throughout Slovenia. In the afternoon, the philosophy faculty will be hosting a lecture in which Dr. Spieß will interact with the thoughts and arguments of atheists like Richard Dawkins. In the evening, there will be a lecture on the historicity of the resurrection in the building we meet in for church. This week, Kingsley is working hard to invite students to the lectures and to try to make contacts with students. One of the leaflets is attached. We will also be hosting another talk on atheism by Stefan Gustavsson on November 3rd at the philosophy department.
Thank God that the philosophy department has been willing to host two lectures and is encouraging students to come to them. Pray that both lectures at the university will reach different groups of students (they will be held on different days of the week) and that these lectures will strengthen ties and relationships with the philosophy department.
Please pray for Jürgen Spieß and Stefan Gustavsson as they lecture, that God will give them the right words as they speak and for wisdom and boldness as they answer questions (especially from atheist philosophy lecturers!).
Pray for Kingsley as he invites students and hands out leaflets, that God will give him boldness and some good conversations and that God will lead him to a student willing to read the Bible and find out more about Jesus.
Pray that God will give people from our church opportunities to talk about Jesus as we invite our friends to the lectures and that our friends might come and hear the gospel.
Thank you for your partnership with us,
Kingsley & Veronica Box
PS Next week we will be taking a week’s holiday so please pray for a great relaxing time together and that we might return refreshed.

12/10/09 update

To our faithful pray-ers,
Hello from a colourful Maribor. Trees are now changing colour, leaves are falling around us as we walk through the park and the boys are collecting chestnuts. We have had a very sunny and warm September, but now we are heading towards winter. The days are getting shorter and colder and if the weather reports have it right we’ll be getting nearly down to zero overnight in the next week. Looks like we’ll need to get out our winter coats.
We are all healthy at the moment, but are still recovering from a vomiting bug that went through our family last week. We are just moving into the ’sick season’, so we would appreciate your prayers for our health over the coming months.
Thanks for praying for our friends who have decided to stop coming to church. None of them have come back, but M did call Kingsley this week and they went for coffee. Thank God that he is still willing to be friends and pray that he might also at some stage be willing to read the Bible again with Kingsley one-one.
We had a good visit from Steve Pivetta (CMS) last month. We had some good conversations and the main thing we came away with was that we need to be a bit more deliberate in setting aside time for student work - because our church work will eat up our time if we let it. Pray that God will give us wisdom and boldness in getting something happening with students - that we might be able to reach students here with the gospel.
Kingsley preached today on Genesis 4 and 5 and preached very well (photo above). Please keep praying for our Bible study groups, that people will be committed and regular and that leaders will be well prepared. Pray that people will be willing to listen to the Bible and not just to talk about their opinions of what is important etc. Pray also for the organisation of our Sunday School - we are having a meeting next week to try to solve some problems that have surfaced (basically we have about 10 kids aged 2 years to 8 years in the same class and not enough teachers or another room for two classes). Pray that more people might be willing to serve in teaching Sunday School and that we might be able to find some good material in Slovene to use.
In the next couple of weeks Kingsley is planning to try to hand out leaflets about the lectures coming up that will be held at the philosophy department and to try to meet students as they get underway with the start of their academic year. Pray for boldness and that God will lead him to the right students. Thank God that the philosophy department is willing to host two lectures and pray that students will come. One is on October 22nd and one at the start of November. He is meeting the head of the history department tomorrow - to try to organise a lecture in the history department about the historicity of the resurrection. So far he has been given the impression that they won’t host the lecture - its too religious - but pray that they might change their minds or at least for ongoing contact with lecturers and students in the history faculty.
We are heading to Tuscany for a week’s holiday at the end of this month (there are some positives to being a missionary in Europe!). While we are there, we will visit the Lubbocks (CMS missios in Florence) and another family in Florence that we know from Kingsley’s Christians in the Media days. Please pray for a good break and some good time together as a family.
Thanks as always for your prayers and support of us.
Roni & Kingsley and the gang

Check out the October 2009 “Letter Box” below…

letter-box-oct-2009

30/9/09 update

THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

Jesus says: “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ” Over the last couple of weeks we have been confronted with a number of people unwilling to count the cost and take up their cross to follow Jesus. We have had a few non-Christian people coming to our church and/or Bible studies for more than a year and they have decided to stop coming. We have also had a number of conversations with Christian people from our church, who are finding the burden of service and ministry too much.
Please pray:
- for those who have decided that the cost of discipleship is too high, that God will open their eyes to understand the gospel and the salvation it offers
- for people in our church who are struggling to serve and give up time for God’s kingdom, that they will be struck by the sacrifice of Jesus and be willing to sacrifice their lives for him. Pray they would organise the rest of their lives around Jesus’ priorities and not vice versa.
- that we might continue to proclaim the gospel faithfully, knowing that God will work through his word and His Spirit in his time
In him who gave up His Son for us,
Kingsley, Veronica, Zac, Sam, Tim and Sophie

22/9/09 update

Dear supporting friends
We are very grateful for the support of our partners - our supporting churches, our friends and our mission organisation, the Church Missionary Society. As part of CMS’ care of missionaries, once every year they send a one of the staff to visit each family/individual for a couple of days. This week we have Steve Pivetta coming to spend two days with us, and we will be doing a lot of talking, listening, praying and reflecting. The aim of the visit is to assess how we are travelling, to prayerfully reflect on our life and work here in Maribor and to think and pray about how we can continue to work at advancing the gospel here in Maribor.
Please pray for safety for Steve as he travels
Pray that we might be able to have some good conversations and that it will be a good time of reflection and prayer
Pray for God’s wisdom as we think and plan about this academic year
Thank God for the great support we receive from you and through CMS - in prayer, in personal visits and financially
Yours in Christ,
Kingsley, Veronica, Zac, Sam, Tim & Sophie

15/9/09 update

Dear partners,
As it heats up in Australia, it is cooling down here. A couple of weekends ago it was as if God turned the temperature gauge down ten degrees and overnight we changed from t-shirts and shorts to long pants and jumpers (especially in the mornings).
Kingsley preached yesterday on Genesis 1 and did a great job. Now we will see how the other guys in our church go with the Old Testament - we haven’t had any Old Testament sermons in our church over the last three years, so we are not expecting too much. Pray that Kingsley might have opportunities to help and encourage some of the other men as they prepare and review their sermons. Kingsley and Peter Novak (Ljubljana) were discussing this week the possibility of jointly running a seminar on how to preach from the Old Testament maybe later in the academic year - you can pray that we might be able to get that initiative off the ground.
We are heading into the start of the university year. Please pray that we might be able to get into contact with some students at the start of the year. Kingsley talked with one of his contacts in the philosophy department and he seemed to think that there wouldn’t be too much of a problem with holding another lecture - pray that God will open doors for that to happen and that Kingsley might be able to have some good conversations with students and lecturers as he organises and advertises the lectures.
Next week we will have a visit from Steve Pivetta - a pastoral visit from CMS. Please pray that we will have a productive and helpful time as we assess our work here and think and pray particularly about the coming year or two.
The two older boys are settling well into school. We have found a child care centre close to our house which will take Tim two days a week. Unfortunately because part time or occasional care is so rare in Slovenia, at the moment he is the only child in the centre (or one of two). He is finding it hard. Pray that some more children will start coming or that we might be able to find another alternative.
The photo is of Kingsley and the boys as we showed the Clarks, our friends from Sydney, around Maribor.
We thank God for your faithful prayers and support,
Roni, Kingsley, Zac, Sam, Tim & Sophie

9/9/09 update

LECTURES IN MARIBOR

At the end of October and the beginning of November, the IFES student organisation in Slovenia, ZVEŠ, will be hosting a few evangelists from other European countries, to speak around Slovenia. We are planning to have these men give some lectures in Maribor as part of this venture. Our church will host one lecture in the building we meet in for church. The other meeting we are hoping to aim more exclusively at students and we have asked some contacts in the philosophy department if they would be willing to host a lecture on campus.

  • Please thank God that these men are willing to come and give talks in Slovenia and for the initiative of ZVEŠ in inviting them.
  • Please pray that the philosophy department might be willing to host the lectures, so that students will have more incentive to come.
  • Pray that many people might be invited and come to the talks to be challenged about the gospel.

Thank you for your prayers,
Kingsley, Roni, Zac, Sam, Tim and Sophie Box

31/8/09 prayer update

BACK TO SCHOOL

Tomorrow our three boys are embarking on new adventures. Zachary is returning to his class for his third year of school, Samuel is heading to school for the first time and Timothy is starting preschool (2 days a week). It has been a long summer, and they are all looking forward to school, but especially Samuel and Timothy have some apprehensions about the new beginning.
Please pray for all three of our boys, that they will settle into their classes quickly, make good friends and that they will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of the Slovene language.

Timothy understands a little Slovene, but was described today by our local shop owner as ‘the quiet one’ - he doesn’t say very much in Slovene yet (she would probably change her description of him if she saw him at home in an english environment!).

Pray also that God will give us opportunities to build stronger relationships with teachers and parents this year and opportunities to talk more about the gospel.

Thank you for your prayers for us and our family,
Kingsley & Veronica Box, Zac, Sam, Tim & Sophie

24/8/09 prayer update

FREEDOM FROM THE FEAR OF DEATH

Dear partners in the gospel that brings hope,
Please pray for our neighbour H. She is an elderly lady, whose body is falling apart. She has great trouble walking. She is lonely, only leaves the apartment to go to the doctor, hardly anyone visits her and her husband is almost always away from home, helping take care of their son’s tourist farm. She just worries about everything: cleaning, the weather, the state of the world, health, death… everything. Yesterday she said it won’t be long till she’ll have to go into a home. Often times she mentions her death and funeral. She is already preparing her gravesite. She is a powerful example of someone who is living her life in slavery to the fear of death (Heb 2.15). We want desperately to tell her about the one who took on flesh and blood in order to deliver her/us from the devil who holds the power of death but she is very resistant. We are constantly inviting her to come for coffee but she has never taken up the offer.
Pray that we will take up every opportunity in conversation to testify to Jesus Christ. Pray that God will have mercy on her before it is too late and she dies. Pray for your neighbours too, that God would give you courage and wisdom to talk to them about Christ at every opportunity.
Love in Jesus,

Kingsley, Roni, Zac, Sam, Tim and Sophie Box

24/8/09 update

Dear partners in prayer,

Hello from sunny Maribor! We are all feeling refreshed and recharged for a new school year after a conference at the seaside and a quick family holiday this last week. Well, actually Kingsley keeps reminding me that the holiday was too short, so maybe we could have done with a few more days…!

The conference we attended last weekend was great - we enjoyed seeing our friends from Ljubljana and also meeting a family from Klagenfurt in Austria - that area of Austria used to be part of Slovenia and the father and children speak Slovene. Kingsley’s talk went well and you can really pray that people will continue to be challenged by what they heard from God’s word. Pray that all of us will work hard at preaching the gospel and that we won’t be disheartened in the context of Slovenia but will keep trusting God to change people through his Word.  I have attached a photo of Kingsley preaching at the conference.

We had a lovely time together after the conference on holidays near Lake Bled. God gave us some glorious weather (except for the torrential rain and thunderstorm on the way home) and we enjoyed God’s beautiful creation and the sun and water. Thank God for a great week off and for some good time together.

Zac and Sam start school in a week’s time. Pray that we will be able to prepare them well and get everything organised for school. Pray especially for Sam as he starts first year, that he will be put in a good class and have a teacher who will be sensitive to the fact that he is a foreigner (the class is the same all the way through primary school and the teacher stays with them for three years, so this is a fairly significant thing!) We are hoping to start Tim going a couple of mornings a week to preschool/child care soon after. Please pray that we can organise something that’s not too costly and that he will make the adjustment well.

Kingsley will be preaching on the first two Sundays in September - an old sermon at the Brethren church in Smartno ob Paki and then a new one at our church. He suggested that we do a series from the Old Testament (we haven’t had any OT in the three years we have been in this church) and so they suggested he preach the first one. Pray that he will be able to teach the Bible clearly and faithfully and give a good model of how to teach from the Old Testament - Biblical theology is not known here!

We are also nearing the start of the university year and so we are gearing up to try to contact some students as they begin their year. Please pray that we will be prayerful and bold in working out how to go about contacting them and that God might lead us to some students who might be willing to read the Bible.

Sophie is going well - she’s getting chubbier, more alert, is sleeping at least 6 hours through the night 2 out of every 3 nights, has started smiling and is making those cute baby ‘goo’ noises.

Thank you for your prayers,

Roni, Kingsley, Zac, Sam, Tim & Sophie


Older updates

JEZUS OR FAMILY?
Dear partners in the gospel,
For the last month or so our friend M has not be answering phone calls and has been acting strangely. Before he would always say that we are “Big friends”, over this summer we have hardly seen him. He has also stopped coming to church and Bible study. At first we wondered if he was avoiding us because of Sophia… the locals have this idea that they don’t visit families with newborns for a month so they don’t transfer disease to the child. Then we wondered if he had started building his house again and was occupied with that. Last week he rang and said he was coming for a visit. It was obvious he wanted to explain his strange behaviour. He wanted to say that he was still a catholic. He said, “My wife is catholic, my father is catholic, I have always been catholic and I don’t want you to think I have become a protestant.” He also wanted to say that he didn’t want to come to our church any more because he felt like he was living a double life and people wouldn’t understand his current decision to stay catholic. He did say he wanted to keep reading the Bible and coming to Bible study which was a good thing. Kingsley said to him that nothing had changed in the way we viewed him and wanted to relate to him. Please pray for him and for his wife, children, father and relatives. He is obviously feeling the pressure from his family to remain loyal to the family religion and ways, even though those traditions are not leading him to trust in Christ alone for his salvation. Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Pray that he would be prepared to suffer the reproach of his family for Christ. Pray that we would persevere in good relationship with him and be able to read the Bible with him.
Please pray also for Kingsley as he prepares a talk this week on “How to evangelise” for an upcoming church conference, that he would be able to encourage Christians in this situation to persevere in evangelism even though there are a lot of knockbacks and disappointments along the way.
Love in Jesus,
Kingsley, Roni, Zac, Sam, Tim and Sophie