Sickness took down each team member, one at a time. Our rental host served us a homemade Bosnian breakfast. Missionaries told of great need and great difficulty in building trust to start ministry. Bombed-out buildings remain a feature in every Bosnian town we saw. The corner store lady nearly cried when we said goodbye and gave us candy when we left. Pastors shared about how God is moving and gave us a better understanding of the difficulties of ministry in this region.

We spent a lot of time on airplanes.

At SeaTac airport, checking in for our first flight.

Thank you for your prayers. We met with pastors in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and missionaries in both of those countries and Montenegro. God brought us men and women of peace who welcomed us, offered insight and advice, and provided us with opportunities for ministry and partnership if EFM moves forward with this field.

The team is recommending moving forward with this field of southern Croatia, possibly including southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina/northwestern Montenegro. We are feeling called to go to this field and are planning accordingly. However, the final decision on whether or not to approve it won’t be made until the November board meetings. We continue to feel a strong call to EFM and have discussed a “plan B” if this field isn’t approved, which would likely be working with Muslim refugees in Greece. In the meantime, our family will be busy with deputation, fundraising, continuing to build relationships here and abroad, and maintaining the activities of “normal” life.

Part of our team at Stari Most in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The kids walked a ton, but sometimes they needed help. This is in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Family Life

On the home front, Fred continues to work in the city and to run tech for our church. Jonelle has been busy with the kids, planning a missions conference for later this month, and family things. Alex continues to love dinosaurs and cars, sings all the time, pushes the stroller on our walks, and is fascinated by letters. One of his current favorite things to sing is the last line of the alphabet song “w, x, y, i, z,” and he sings it every time he sees letters on something. Like a box, a book, a shirt. He is working on his first memory verse and a simplified catechism. Jael’s vocabulary grows every day. She loves building with blocks, playing chase with Alex, petting the kitties, and reading books. She is a bundle of sunshine and energy.

Alex wanted to “help Jael walk”.

And here Alex is walking Daddy.

Snuggles on a long day in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Below).

Prayer Requests

Please pray…

• For Fred as he juggles family, work, church, and missions things. Pray for peace, for energy, that he will be a light in his workplace.
• For our interactions, as we are with family, friends, and visiting churches. Pray that we will be an encouragement and a witness.
• For our preparation, that we will be diligent in study, faithful in drawing near to Christ, and will clearly discern his leading

Thank you again for your prayers and support!

Fred and Jonelle Liddell

Alex and Jael

The post Liddell Family: July 2024 Newsletter first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

We left our home around noon, to begin our 26+ hour journey to Čapljina, BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Vivian had an even longer travel day from Wichita, with two more layovers, and met up with us at the Istanbul airport for our last flight to Sarajevo.

Meanwhile, Patrick had already made it to Sarajevo, nine hours ahead of us. So, he got to explore the city while he waited for us. Patrick is a last-minute addition to our team after plans changed and Stan would be staying home to care for his family. We miss having Stan with us but are glad to have Patrick join us and help us in this discernment process.

We finally made it to Sarajevo and met up together as a team. After taking this picture we went to get our rental van from a kiosk near this sign, only to be told that the office is inside the airport on the 2nd floor (3rd floor in American terms). So, we trekked back up to find out the office had closed for the night. We paused for a moment to pray and ask that God would help us now in this last leg of travel and we got a call from the office right after that, with the manager telling us he lives five minutes away and would come back to rent us the van.

We struggled to get the car seats installed in the van, especially due to a misunderstanding of where we could stop to load. While we were trying to get the kids situated a line of cars built up behind us. It was stressful, but we got it and made it safely to Čapljina that night.

The next day (Sunday, June 9) we went to the church in Čapljina. It is a small Evangelical Church of about 12, and the building was just built 20 years ago.

The pastor was at a church in another city that day and a pastor from Mostar preached. We stayed after for coffee and went to hang out with a missionary family who told us about the church activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On Tuesday we visited three pastors in Mostar, at one of the Baptist churches. They shared what they were doing in Mostar especially, and again have church sizes of about 12.

The kids have done great. Alex is adjusted to the time change, but Jael is still struggling at night. They have quickly taken a liking to Vivian.

We visited a group of pastors in Croatia and the GEM missionaries for the region, in the church in Dubrovnik. They were very nice, and the meeting was very helpful in understanding where the needs and the opportunities are in this region.

Here is Alex showing the GEM director his dinosaurs. The GEM missionaries told us that they felt Orebić was a key spot for a new work, and the pastor from Vela Luka concurred. We plan to meet that pastor in Orebić on Monday to discuss this more.

May God be glorified,

Fred

The post Luke 10 Exploration Trip #2: Eastern Europe Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

The post Pray for the Second Luke 10 Exploration Trip to Eastern Europe first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

The following is a report from team leader Jonelle Liddell. The whole team is grateful for your prayers and support!

The team was comprised of:

• Jonelle Liddell, NWYM
• Fred Liddell, NWYM
• Stan Leach, EFM Executive Director, FSW
• Vivian Titus, EFC-MAYM, Future Missionary

In addition to this team, little Alex Liddell accompanied his mom and dad on the trip! When we arrived in Hungary, we joined up with EFM missionaries Tony and Agi Frei.

We based out of Tolna, Hungary where EFM missionary Tony Frei works and pastors. We visited his Roma ministry sites in Kolked, Hungary and Backi Monostor, Serbia. The potential new field sites that we explored were in Sombor, Serbia and Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia. We ended the trip with a partial day in Budapest.

We were on the edges of where we want to be but even on the edges we sensed an openness to conversations about the gospel and to deeper connections. All three cities have very little Protestant/evangelical presence. They are mostly Eastern Orthodox (in Sombor) and Catholic (in Osijek and Vukovar), though it seems that religion is largely cultural. So there is a great need for the gospel, specifically for the gospel to be shared in a culturally sensitive and aware manner.

God seemed to be giving us a pretty clear welcome in Osijek. Our first four interactions were: a woman giving us her permit for the paid parking lot with an hour left on it, a woman giving us Croatian cash for the rest of our parking cost before we had a chance to exchange money, a woman at the restaurant giving us peaches from her garden for Alex, and the waiter letting us all leave when we were short of Croatian cash (due to an ordering miscommunication) because he trusted that we would come back to pay the balance.

While we were in Osijek, Stan had a good connection with a group of junior high boys that started with his question about liking ice cream and ended with a brief discussion on whether they knew people who prayed. Tony met and connected with a young family who had a Presbyterian background but were not involved in a church, to our knowledge. And Vivian, Jonelle, and Sabrina (our interpreter) had a long conversation with a Catholic nun who helped us understand the religious landscape a little more and was generally very welcoming.

God also answered many prayers about transportation issues, flight delays and cancellations, interpersonal communication, and individual direction during this trip. Specifically, all three potential future missionaries on the trip came away with far greater clarity about their next steps regarding missions and EFM.

We look forward to sharing more news as it becomes available about what we are finding and discerning in EFM’s Luke 10 Initiative as we continue to explore where EFM may launch new mission fields.

Matt Macy
Director of Mobilization

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