Dennis, Korinne, Seth, Jesse, and Tia

24. September 2005  •  Special Prayer Request

17. September 2005  •  Our First Week In Tbilisi

Gamarjoba, Rogora Hart?  (Hello, how are you?)

I (Dennis) sit here in my make-shift office listening to the kids outside playing soccer and yelling to each other in an unknown tongue (Georgian). The sounds and smells of the city come into our little apartment. We are almost settled into our apartment in the heart of Tbilisi.  It is an old mansion that was divided up into smaller apartments (Soviet doing- "we must all be equal now, unless of course you are running the place").  We have spent the last week getting it into shape to live in - fixing the toilet that constantly leaked across the floor, fixing the front door so it opens easily, etc, etc.  We are actually quite glad to have it and are beginning to appreciate and realize that it is from God for us.

We went to the market today (Saturday) to pick up a few things. The market is a combination of open streets, warehouses, and multiple-floor buildings all jammed together over an area of about a square mile. Add to that about 20,000 people all shopping at once and it becomes a real adventure (hold hands so you don't get separated!).  Most people are very polite and helpful, but you need to really force your way through the crowd.  We came out with lots of things to equip our apartment.

At this point we have not begun to look for a house to buy yet; we are mostly trying to get settled in so we can start ministering as soon as possible. Keep praying for it though, that the Lord will show us in His time when, where, and how to begin the search.

A few days ago we met with the Teachers and staff of the School of Tomorrow that we will be teaching English in and partnering with.  The boys will also be attending this school. We shared a bit about ourselves and the method of English teaching we will be using. The teachers listened attentively and gave us a great response (they are all Georgians, but also speak English).  One of the teachers said, "You know exactly what we need!" I think what she meant was 'teaching English as a skill not a subject' (that means teaching them practical conversational English that they can use as opposed to just teaching grammar and theory).

Another of the teachers, who also teaches at one of the State Universities, approached us with an invitation from the Dean to teach conversational English at the University! This a great opportunity to reach these young students with the Gospel via teaching English. We have not met with the Dean yet, but likely will this next week. Please pray for this opportunity to influence these students for Christ.

Seth and Jesse, as I mentioned above, will be starting school on Monday the 26th. The School of Tomorrow is a school mainly for Georgian kids. The school teaches the children half the day in Georgian Language and the other half in English using Christian curriculum. The founders of the school started the school as a mission to reach kids for Christ. They have around 350 kids in attendance now and have been in operation for about 13 years. The big attraction for Georgian parents is that the school teaches the kids English and the school has a reputation for excellent education taught in a godly setting.

This will be the first time Seth and Jesse have gone to a school. In the past we have always home-schooled them. Jesse will be going into the 6th grade and Seth into the 8th grade. Not only will they get great Christian education, but as they speak native English they will have a great chance to influence the other kids for the Kingdom of God.  It helps the school to have native English speakers in attendance because the Georgian kids can hear and converse with native speakers and this will help them in their English. We are also hoping that our boys will learn Georgian from the other children. We are all studying Georgia, so the boys will have lots of opportunities to practice with the kids.

While we were in America we had two YWAM teams here from Belarus and Ukraine, and they did a great job of ministering and serving several of the local ministries - the School of Tomorrow, an orphanage ministry, other ministries, and doing lots of friendship evangelism.  This has really given YWAM Georgia a jump start by giving us a good reputation of service and ministry. We hope to have more teams and individuals come and minister here in various ways. If you would like to come or send a team please contact us, we will get you plugged in and ministering.

OK, I have gone on too long already!

I would like to mention some Prayer Topics for you intercessors:

1. That we get settled in as a family and stay close to each other and the Lord.

2. About the English teaching opportunities we mentioned above.

3. The Lord to lead us to a house to serve as our YWAM base and also staff housing.

4. Our monthly financial support:

    a. this last year we lost about 120 dollars a month in support (no broken relationships just financial problems). We need to make up this loss. Good news is that we got some new supporters this summer, but we are still about $275 short of our needed budget for living in Tbilisi.

    b. the school will cost us about 1000 dollars for Seth and Jesse's tuition this year; this is a new expense for us and not in the budget yet.

    c. some large appliances we have bought and some we still need to get- washer, gas heater, vacuum, mattress, computer printer, tape recorder/player (especially for language learning, etc.

God is so good!  Our first week back here in Tbilisi has been both emotionally and physically exhausting, but we are glad to be "home."  One night this week we had really come to the end of our patience, complicated by jet lag, and culture shock. After the kids were in bed we took some time to pray and just pour out our hearts to the Father.

After a while such a peace came on us, I felt so refreshed and renewed. All the troubles and weight that were on my shoulders just seemed to be lifted and all the obstacles that I was seeing suddenly just seemed like nothing and we were at peace.  We slept great that night and got up with a new enthusiasm. 

New Mailing Address

Dennis and Korinne Holt

PO Box 15

Tbilisi 2,  0102

Nation of Georgia

Our Home Phone

995 32 95 60 23

Cellphone  995 99 137 286

Thanks for reading and lifting us up when you pray.

 Seth holding the old & new Georgian flags and wearing a traditional hat.