At this point in time, most of you who will read this already know what has happened. Kristin and I did not get married on April 11th and we are not returning to Croatia this week like we had planned. This has by far been the most difficult month of my entire life. I had such great confidence and excitement for everything that I thought the Lord was doing. But then everything I had planned completely crumbled before me and all of a sudden I found myself completely lost and confused. I am not going to try and give any explanations for the occasions of this month; I still don’t understand it all fully. All I will say is that God is faithful and He is good! He has been my rock and my comfort and a very present help in time of need. Through this whole horrible trial of confusion and frustration, God has never left me, nor forsaken me. Even though I can’t see what in the world He is doing – I know He is doing something. Even though I can’t understand why – I know that He knows why. And in the end, all that matters is that He knows. And I trust that someday this will all make more sense; it will just take time. “My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. (Ps. 62:5-6)

I have been very much encouraged by this verse: “According to my earnest expectation and hope that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be magnified in my body…” (Phil. 1:20) My prayer has always been that the Lord would be magnified in and through my life. This trial has brought much confusion and shame and embarrassment to me. Yet, the Lord reminded me that He is in control. I have no reason to be ashamed because He is my hope and the commander of my life. And even more than that, I can have the confident expectation that Christ will be exalted through this situation and through these circumstances! I am not exactly sure how, but I know the Lord will be magnified!

I do not have any plans to return to Croatia right now. I love the ministry there and really desire to return to it; however, it is obvious to me that now is not the right time. The ministry in Croatia will be fine without me. As always, the Lord doesn’t need us to work for Him. He desires to use us, but is never dependent on us. The Lord has raised up and sent other ministers to serve in Split and I trust and pray that He will continue to do so. Please pray with me that the Lord will send laborers to Croatia to share His love and His truth.

Until the Lord leads me to return to the mission field, I will be working and spending time with my family and friends. The Lord already provided a job! He blessed me with the opportunity to go to a Men’s Retreat with my dad. My dad was saved one year ago at that retreat! God is so good! Please pray for my dad’s battle with cancer. It is getting worse and the cancer is aggressive. He will have a third surgery soon.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I have been overwhelmed by the emails and phone calls, all of the prayers and encouragement. I have the best friends in the world and I love you all. THE LORD BE MAGNIFIED!

“Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!” (Ps. 27:14)

PRAYER:
1) I am NOT returning to Croatia this week. I will have to give up my plane ticket. My heart still desires to serve the Lord in Croatia, however my plans are indefinitely postponed. Please pray for me. Pray that the Lord will lead and direct my steps and where I go and what I do now.
2) My dad is still battling cancer. Cancer remains in his liver and has now returned to his colon. He is very uncomfortable and tired. Please pray for him. Ask the Lord to heal him and give him strength.
3) Grace Warholic (in Croatia) is due to have a baby any minute now! Pray for a healthy delivery and healthy baby.
4) Pray for the ministry in Croatia; that the Lord would save many souls!

PRAISE:
1) My dad has now been saved for one year! I am so thankful that he has the Lord during his battle with cancer.
2) The Lord has provided laborers to serve in Croatia in my place.
3) Nine people gave their lives to the Lord during a recent outreach in Split!!! (We’ve never had that many get saved before at one time!) Pray that they grow in the Lord and are discipled.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” ~Isaiah 55:8-9

“We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” (Prov. 16:9 NLT)

“And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” (Ps. 39:7)

Dear Beloved Friends and Family,
    
I’M GETTING MARRIED!  My best friend and fellow missionary in Split, Croatia, Kristin Palosaari, agreed to marry me on January 8th.  We met four years ago at a Calvary Chapel Missions Conference, but it wasn’t until we were serving alongide one another in Croatia for twelve hours a day everyday that we fell in love and realized that God had called us to serve Him together for the rest of our lives.  Truly God does exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or imagine; He has extremely good plans for His children.  He has brought me the most amazing woman I have ever met! 

Kristin and I are both home in America for furlough.  We spent Christmas with family and friends.  We are both very eager to get back to the ministry in Croatia, but we feel the Lord would have us first get married and then return.  So, we are fully engaged in wedding planning right now.  We will get married in April and then return to Croatia as a married couple on May 4th!  It will be a busy three months, but we want to get back to our ministry in Croatia as soon as we can.  While we are planning our wedding and preparing to return to Croatia, Kristin and I will also be volunteering and doing some practical ministry at our home churches, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace and Calvary Chapel Tucson.  Please pray that we would be a blessing to our friends, families, and churches while we are in America. 

My Dad’s Battle With Cancer:
Thank you for praying for my dad.  He had surgery on his liver on December 30th and he is now recovering.  We are still unsure as to the current state of his cancer. We are hoping for a miraculous healing.  Please continue to keep him in prayer. His lungs are also in bad shape (unrelated to the cancer) and he is on oxygen continuall. Pray that his lungs get better.  Please pray that he would be able to go back to church soon. Thank you!

Picture Below: My family all together for Christmas

GLOBAL CAFÉ MINISTRY
When I first took over managing the finances of the Global Café, I had serious doubts about our ability to pay our bills and keep the café open for ministry.  Yet, the Lord has done exceedingly abundantly beyond what I thought and expected!  He is so good!  In the weeks before Christmas we were busier than ever before!  We have over a hundred students coming into the café everyday: hanging out, doing homework, drinking coffee or soda, eating cookies and brownies, and meeting people who love them and want to share the love of Christ with them.  It is so exciting to be a part of what God is doing.  With the increase in the numbers of students coming to the café, comes an increase in the number of opportunities we have to share the Gospel.  Please pray for the students to have open hearts to hear and know the truth of the Gospel of grace. 

With Kristin and I both in America, it would be impossible to keep the Global Café open, unless God provided some more laborers.  Of course, the Lord provided and He led Emily to serve in Croatia at least until May when Kristin and I return!  God is so good!  Please pray for God to give Emily and Pastor Tim strength to keep going; it has been very busy lately and though the Café can stay open, ideally we need at least two more people to work and serve at the Café.  So please pray for God to send more laborers to be a part of this ministry, and pray that the servants we do have don’t get burned out. 

Pictures Above & Below: Students from our weekly English Club hanging out at the Cafe for an end of the year Christmas party. Pray for their salvation!

CALVARY CHAPEL OF SPLIT
Please continue to pray for Pastor Tim, his wife Grace, their kids Thomas and Mila, the new baby on the way (Grace is due in May), and the rest of the church in Split.  With me in America and not able to lead worship, Tim is now leading worship and teaching.  Pray that the church would continue to grow in grace and truth and that God would use our small fellowship to reach many souls in our city. 

* Financial Support:  As with most missionaries, my income comes from the generous donations of brothers and sisters in the Lord who prayerfully and financially partner with me in ministry.  I will continue to receive financial support as a missionary during these few months that I am in America.  Before returning to Croatia with my wife, I am praying for an increase in monthly support.  As a single man on the mission field I was able to keep my expenses very low by sleeping in the basement of our ministry café.  Now that I am getting married and planning on moving to Croatia definitely long-term, practically I need a little more income.  Please pray that God would increase my financial support.  Thank you very much to those of you who are partnering with me. To God be the glory!

Thank you so much!  God bless you!

THE LORD BE MAGNIFIED!    
~ David Wilkinson (& Kristin)

 Activities for the evening included American Christmas party traditions, such as a gingerbread house contest and a white elephant gift exchange.  We provided all the gifts, however, and the kids were delighted with their classmates’ funny and eccentric gifts – toilet paper,  canned meat, prune marmalade, gift certificates to the cafe and a “New York” sweatshirt. 

 Before the gift exchange, however, we had each students’ attention as we shared about the most important gift ever given: Jesus.  David shared his testimony of receiving that gift when he was 13, around the same age as the kids there, and how they can receive the gift of salvation as well.  It was the quietest and most attentive I’ve ever seen the kids. Praise the Lord for that! 

Please keep these children in prayer!  We talk to them often on Facebook, and we’re all eagerly anticipating the return of English club in February!  Pray that as we continue to get to know them, they’d ask more about how they can have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Also, I’m back in the States for Christmas!  It’s been so great to see so many of you already, and I look forward to reconnecting with many more of you during my stay.  I’ll be here through January 14, with part of that time spent at the mission’s conference in California.  So if you see me around church, grab me and say hi!  I’m so thankful for each and every one of you, and it’s been so encouraging to see your smiling faces and hear that you’ve been praying for me and for the people of Split!

He strolls (sometimes stumbles) in between noon and three every afternoon, ordering a glass of milk and at least two jumbo chocolate chip cookies – his breakfast – and sits down to chat with us.  He’s just woken up after a long night of partying.  He likes music, art, and skating.  He turned 19 yesterday, and lives in his own apartment, which is very, very, very unusual for this culture.  And he desperately needs Jesus.

I’d noticed Bell (his “artist” name – his real name is Zvonimir) around town for the past year, seeing him nearly every day at the grocery store, on my street, outside the cafe.  Always with a different friend.  And always looking so lost.  Finally, he came to the cafe one day a few weeks ago, and once he got hooked on our baked goods and cheap prices, has come in nearly every day since. 

He almost never comes in with friends, and always sits downstairs with us instead of going upstairs to the seating area, both of which make it really easy to engage in conversations with him.  We’ve shared about Jesus with him several times now, and invited him to church.  This Sunday, he came in for his breakfast (even though the cafe is closed on Sundays) right before church, and this time, accepted our invitation to join us.  He was very interested in our study in Revelation, and has been asking us since then what we mean by Jesus being the Door.  Yesterday, he told us, “I like the way you do church.  You have the answers for everything.”  I assured him that God, in His word, has given us those answers, and they’re available to him, too. 

Please pray for him.  His mind is clouded and confused.  His eyes are blinded.  His heart needs to be touched by the Holy Spirit and by God’s saving grace!!!

Dear Beloved Friends and Family,

      A major blessing and privilege of serving with Calvary Chapel in Split, Croatia is the many opportunities I have to help host short-term missions outreach teams.  In the last month we had four outreach teams back-to-back!  Needless to say, it has been a very busy season – busy but blessed!  With the extra influx of Christian servants and leaders we spent a lot more time on the streets and at the local schools sharing the love of Jesus with whoever would hear. 

OUTREACH 1 – Soccer Tournament
       Our first outreach team consisted of a small team of semi-professional soccer players who spent a week in Split and helped us put on a 6 vs. 6 soccer tournament.  The Lord provided marvelously and it was a great day!  14 teams participated in the tournament, the weather was great, and best of all – nearly 100 people heard the Gospel preached!  We were all very excited about the great turn-out and the opportunity to give out Bibles and tracts.  Please pray for all who heard the Gospel to remember the Word, repent of their sin, and turn to the Lord.  Pray also for the possibility of doing another tournament outreach in the future.  

Picture Below: Sharing the Gospel at the Soccer Tournament

OUTREACH 2 – Evangelism at the Local High Schools & Our Global Café
       The day of the soccer tournament another outreach team arrived to serve with us.  They came all the way from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in York, England.  They spent the week evangelizing at the local high schools and working in our Café.  I was blessed by their fellowship throughout the week and their small team had many great conversations with people about the Lord and the truths of His Word.  The team met and became friends with a group of students that regularly come to the Café and invited them to church.  They came and have continued to come still!  Please please pray for Ante, Anela, Antonija, & Matea to realize the difference between religion and having a relationship with God.  

Picture Below: Cafe Regulars who have begun to come to church!

OUTREACH 3 – Café Ministry
       A group from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta, Hungary came to assist our team in running the Café and reaching out to the many regular customers we have.  Iva and Katja are two girls who come to the Café for tea almost every morning before they go to school and then come again to hang out after school.  I have talked with them a few times and a few girls from this outreach team shared the Gospel with them too!  Please pray for the Lord to soften Iva and Katja’s hearts and draw them to His love and grace. 

Picture Below: Weekly English Club

OUTREACH 4 – Team Retreat & Café Ministry
       Seven girls who have been traveling the world for the last year helping various ministries chose Croatia as their last ministry destination before heading home.  They ran the Café for a week which gave our team the freedom to take a much needed little break.  We were all pretty wiped out after hosting all the teams so the opportunity to get away for two days to relax was a huge blessing. 

Picture Below: Students hanging out at our Global Cafe

       The months seem to go by so quickly.  Thank you for keeping me and the ministry here in your prayers.  It is extremely encouraging to know that I have friends and family who love me, support me, and pray for me.  In addition to the prayer requests that I already mentioned, please keep the following things in prayer this month: 
* Weekly English Club – Kristin and I have been organizing a weekly English Club at a local junior high school.  We have around 40 kids that come!  Please pray for them to see the love of Jesus in us and to be drawn to Him through us.  Pray especially for an end-of-the-year party we want to have for all of the English Club kids.
* Worship – Continue to pray for God to lead me and use me as I attempt to lead His Church in worship weekly. 
* Administration – Ask the Lord to give me wisdom with all of the church finances and the Global Café finances.  Pray that I make wise decisions in running the Café and that I am a support and blessing to Pastor Tim.

Thank you so much!  God bless you all!

       THE LORD BE MAGNIFIED!    
           ~ David Wilkinson

Picture Below: Lunch with friends for my birthday!

We’ve been doing the English Club at Pujanke School for three weeks now. It’s been a blast! We’ve had over 30 kids attending, and as several of them have added us as their friends on Facebook, we’ve been getting messages like, “I can’t wait for next Wednesday!” “What are we going to do next time?” “Who will our special guests be this week?”.

The Lord has been so good to give us so much favor with the administration and students at the school. And it’s been fun to bring special guests each week (from the various outreach teams we’ve had) to talk to the kids about topics such as sports, life in America and England, etc.

Please pray for opportunities to share the Gospel with the kids as we’re getting to know them more; for creative and fun activities and ideas for each week; and for wisdom about extra-curricular activities we can plan where the Gospel can be preached more openly.

Last weekend we hosted a free 6-on-6 soccer tournament. We were blessed to have four missionaries from Vienna visiting to help out with the tournament and give the local teams a run for their money. It ended up being a great day!

Fourteen teams showed up to play, so there were over a hundred guys ranging from high school to adults, who came. Some of the soccer players from Vienna shared the gospel and their testimonies with the guys, and lots of Bibles and invitations to church and the cafe were handed out. Please continue to pray for the guys who attended and for those seeds of the gospel that were planted in their hearts to bring forth fruit in their lives!

Dear Beloved Friends and Family,

     Please accept my apology for not being in better communication.  Summer flew by quickly and I have been swept up in the busyness of Fall.  Students returned to school the first week of September and all of us serving the Lord here were extremely excited to have our Café full of youth again!  It is a lot of work for our small team to run the Café daily, but everytime we get to share the Gospel with the youth here we are reminded of how blessed we are to serve the Lord in this place.  God is touching the hearts of the youth of this city and is drawing them to Himself.  Just the other day a young woman came in and asked Kristin, another missionary on our team, if she was going to Heaven!  Kristin was able to sit and share the Word of God with her for an hour.  Such huge open doors like this don’t happen everyday, but God is definitely giving us many opportunities weekly! Please pray for even more! 
         
     I was extremely blessed to go home to CA for a very short trip two weeks ago.  I was thouroughly encouraged by the great love I receive from so many of you.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!  I am so grateful to the Lord for the amazing friends and family I have.  Next time I hope to stay longer because there were many of you I did not get to see and talk to. 

Here are a few pictures and some prayer requests:

Pictures Above & Below:  Students hanging out at our Café.  Pray for even more opportunities to share the Gospel with them and for God to show them their need for Him. 

Pictures Above and Below:  Youth in the city that need Jesus!  “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men… For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
~ 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Special Prayer Request for Upcoming Outreaches:
This month we are hosting 3 outreach teams back-to-back.  1) A group of American guys just arrived to help us host a Soccer Tournament Outreach.  We rented a field and have been advertising and signing up teams to play in our tournament Saturday, October 17th.  Please pray for many to come and participate, for the weather to be good, and for many to be receptive to the Gospel when we preach at the end of the tournament.  2)  A group from Calvary Chapel Bible College York, England is coming next week to serve alongside us at the Café and on the streets evangelizing.  3)  A third group coming at the end of the month is from Calvary Chapel Bible College Vajta, Hungary.  They too will assist us in ministry at the Café and evangelizing on the streets.  Please pray for all of these teams and for all of the people that we will talk to. Of course there is a lot of practical preparation I need to do in order to host these teams, so please pray for wisdom in that regard.  Pray for strength and endurance and the constant filling of the Spirit.  Pray most of all that God would be glorified and that His desire will be accomplished! 
 

Pictures Above and Below:  Our team and an outreach team from Calvary Chapel Budapest on the streets evangelizing.  Pray for us to have boldness to preach the Gospel and for unbelievers to be brought out of darkness and into the Light through the knowledge of God and a personal relationship with Him.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. 
THE LORD BE MAGNIFIED!
~ David Wilkinson

The Lord also caused me to run into Jelena, a friend who Rachel met quite awhile ago. I got to share the gospel with her for a long time, and eventually, in the course of the conversation, she shared that she had been in a car accident with her father a few days earlier. This event (caused by her father’s drunken driving) had caused her to think soberly about her life and about God. As I shared the gospel with her, she admitted that she didn’t want to make Jesus her Lord and surrender everything to Him. Pray that she would see the joys of surrender and choose to make Jesus her Savior and Lord.

Your prayers are so precious to me! Thank you for partnering with us in sharing the good news with the people of Split!

Prayer Requests
- For continued opportunities to share the gospel with the students and other customers who come in to the cafe daily, and for those we’ve already shared with but who have yet to commit their lives to Jesus. Specifically, please pray for Ivan, Lana, Bistra, Tea, Dora, Gina, Sara, Jana, Marko, Jan, Damir.
- For the English club at Pujanke school. I feel a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of doing this, as Croatian kids can be pretty wild and generally disregard order and authority. Pray for favor with the kids and meaningful, gospel-centered relationships to form.
- For upcoming outreaches: two 10-day outreaches from the Bible colleges in Hungary and England, and a soccer tournament outreach from Vienna. Pray for very fruitful times of witnessing, service, and fellowship.
- For spiritual growth, unity, and love among the believers in our church and those in other churches in the city.
- For God’s continued provision in my life: spiritually, financially, emotionally; and for me to abide in Him, that my joy may be full in HIM!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!