The New Normal & What's Next: Balancing Ministry, Opportunity and Recovery.

I was tethered to an IV for about 8 days in the hospital to make sure that I didn't succumb to the infection I received in the same hospital during a prostate biopsy. Now I am free! Almost...

They let me go home Friday, but a nurse has to come to my house for the next 21 days and give me antibiotic through an IV. She comes to our home and sets up everything in our living room. She hangs the IV antibiotic dispenser on a hanger on the window curtain bar and then inserts the IV into a vein in my arm. I sit on the couch for about 15-20 min. as it drips into the tube and I receive the full dose for the day.

When the nurse leaves, she leaves the IV connectors in my arm for the next time she comes around. I can go about my business, but I decided to wear long sleeve shirts and light jackets to cover the apparatus so that I won't alarm anyone.

Ministry wise, I have had to call in a lot of substitutes and slow down some of our activities, but the work is still progressing and moving forward. I am having our Puerto Rico Bible College kids fill in at our church Sunday until I feel better. My Bible college kids are to do their school projects on video and submit their homework by email.

My Civil Air Patrol Chaplaincy application is just awaiting for the final references to come in and they already have appointed me the rank of Captain, based on my education and experience. When I get final approval, I will be able to speak on a regular basis to the flight squadrons here. There are about 14 pilots in the local squadron that I attend. I am also scheduled to be the speaker at Summer Camp this July and also we plan on a Summer Vacation Bible School for a week towards the end of July.

Late May or early June is when I have to schedule the procedure for the prostate removal. I understand that the recovery time from this can take a while. Please pray for us that we will strike the right balance between doing too little (which doesn't seem to be happening) and doing too much (which tends to happen more often.)

Maybe it's time to green-light some back-burner projects. As a "Father/daughter" project, I am studying Japanese, because my daughters are doing it and it gives us a project in common to work on. I have been stuck on disk 3 of a 9 disk program, so I might catch up on that. I also do have a high frequency radio transmitter and a FCC license to use it ( I am WP4NVR), so if I am house bound for a few weeks, I might explore extending our ministry that way while I recuperate.

Please pray for our emotional stability also during this time. I have faith, but I am nervous about some life changing side effects that prostate surgery may bring about. Whatever happens, we are committed to seeing the work here advance. We are encouraged by your prayers and support that makes it possible.

Please keep us in your prayers and take some time to encourage us as you are able.

My Week in a Puerto Rican Hospital: Why it happened and Why I Need Your Prayers

A few months ago, I used a hammer drill to remove a concrete step in our carport. I spent about 2 days using a little plastic carton as a stool. I sat on that thing for about 6 hours both days as I chiseled out all the concrete. I got a bit of joint pain and a sore bottom later and took some Ibuprofen and didn't think any thing of it.

Over the next few weeks, the pain did not go away. The pills helped, but I was afraid of hurting my liver and kidneys with too much medication. So I went to Dr Jordan, our family Doctor. He sent me to get an x-ray to check for arthritis or a damaged ligament.

Nothing

Then he sent me to the Gastroenterologist for a colonoscopy. The results:

He: "Your fine."

Me: "Why do I hurt?

He: "Check with another specialist"

Back to the family doctor. This time he guesses the prostate may have swollen when I was sitting on it so hard for so long, and swelled and pinched a nerve. So he sent me to a Urologist for a prostate exam.

So I went to the Urologist. During digital exam:

He " It is slightly enlarged. Do you have any trouble usung the bathroom?"

Me: "None whatsoever"

He: "Just in case, we will schedule for an ultrasound."
Me: "Could sitting on it make it swell and cause nerve pain?"
He: "What? Who told you that? I never heard of such a thing."

So...

The ultrasound showed a small nodule, which lead to a biopsy, which lead to an infection and prostatitis, giving me all the symptoms that I didn't have before I saw the doctor. So I have to spend over a week on intense antibiotics to purge myself of a microbe that I didn't have before I went to the hospital. After all the medication I was given, I actually got worse the first 3 days I was here.

I am typing right now from a hospital bed, hoping to return home sometime next week. I just had a consultation with Yuri, an infectious disease specialist who will be planing some tests for me. The closer I seem to going home, the harder it gets. Please pray that I make it back home.

All this did find some localized, early stage cancer. Even though the cancer did not cause any of this pain, it was the pain that led to it's discovery. We don't want to fool with cancer, so we opted for the complete removal, maybe near the end of May or early June. Please pray for Tina and me as we face this new challenge of cancer and some unpleasant side effects that may occur.

The doctor says that prostate removal involving an early caught and localized prostate cancer has a very high success rate.

After all this...

Me: "Doctor, Is this the reason I am having pain in my lower regions? Will this help me sleep without using medicine?"

Him: "Nah, It's probably hemorrhoids. You should see a Proctologist!"

Being "Anti-Church, Anti-Religion, Pro-Jesus" Is Not Helpful to Missions

It is popular today to bash the church and to denigrate religion, but does popularity mean that it is a good thing to do?

I say "NO!"

Instead of picking on the church, we should take our place in it and serve the Lord in some capacity to make it a better place for new Christians to grow up in and an effective home base to launch and sustain mature Christians as they take the gospel into all the world.

Our First "Ladies Retreat" in Puerto Rico.

Our Ladies held their first Ladies Retreat today. We rented out a Fishing Club building along side a pretty lake, set the theme as "A Wise Woman Builds Her House. Prov. 14:1,"  made plans for a nice dinner and sent out the invitations.

Tina, who was the MC of the event, said that the ladies were a bit nervous that  maybe no one would come, or maybe we would be overwhelmed with too many.  But it urned out to be just perfect. About 58 came, representing women form about 5 churches and their guests.

We had special music, great messages from Omayra Roman-Ponce, the wife of a Bible College college colleague of mine, a fine dinner and wonderful fellowship.

A few of us men did come along to set up and serve the ladies.

I am so glad that the women of our church are taking their part of our church's ministry so seriously and doing such a tremendous job in reaching out to others.

Thank you ladies! You did a tremendous job and our church is better for it!

PS Here is a video clip showing the ladies listening to a very pretty special sung by one of our college girls, Adaia Portugal.

Extending Ourselves Through Others

Meet a serious Quechua indian, Julio. I helped train Julio for the ministry, which in his case was to return to the Bolivian-Brazilian border area and start churches there.

Julio representes a challenge, an opportunity and a blessing.

The Challenge: He seems to be very unlike me in a number of ways. He is a very serious man. He is a martial arts instructor who runs something like 5 miles, does 300 pushups a day and has some martial art schools he runs in Bolivia. He also speaks Quechua (an ancient Incan indian dialect) as his primary language, so I,  an English speaker, had to teach him things like Biblical Greek in Spanish, which he then processed in his own mind into Quechua. That year was tough on both of us, but we both survived.

Teaching someone very unlike yourself is a challenge. but it also turned out to be an opportunity and a blessing.

The Opportunity: Julio came back to Puerto Rico looking for missionary support for church planting in some pretty tough areas of South America. besides speaking in a lot of churches, he has volunteered to work on construction projects and then accept any love offerings that the people are led to make. We were blessed to be able to help him and he did some amazing work, like re-cementing and painting our carport roof, putting in 12 hour days and doing an incredible amount of work. He is doing the same all over the island, hoping to return with funds to help his new ministry.

He is physically tough, mentally focused and spiritually dedicated to build churches.  He is also uniquely equipped to deal with a culture and a language very alien to our own. He can go places we would not be able to enter and is equipped to do things that we would not do nearly as well as he can do them.

The Blessing: In Julio and students like him, we find our ministry of reaching the Latino people for Christ is reaching into new areas and multiple languages. We find that good discipleship really extends and expands the work and effectiveness of missions.

Please pray for Julio and help us help him and others like him. Your  support is a blessing that enables us to help him and, through discipleship, multiply the blessing and pass it along to others.

When Teaching Others Might Save Your Own Life...

Besides our busy schedule church planting, Bible College teaching and being a Civil Air Patrol Chaplain, I have the opportunity to give devotionals and also to teach things to young teens in a Christian school near our home.

We had a CPR class the other day and the kids loved it. A health care worker was able to bring some training aids. I demonstrated to the kids the proper technique while she talked them through the steps. I do teach these kids God's plan of salvation, Bible lessons and about how to live the Christian life.This is all really great. But now they know how to do CPR.

Being a missionary certainly does not pay well, but it has it's benefits. Besides the spiritual benefits of teaching others God's Word, I am now teaching in a room full of people who could save my life if I had a heart attack!

 You never know, but when you help others, you just might be helping yourself.

Fun Day, and What's so Fun about it.

We took some young people to a "Fun Day" and tried out a new game called "Defend the Castle." The fun part of the day for me was this: I taught some of the teachers that are now teaching these kids. Now they are teaching me something new. What fun!

I explain about the game at about the 3 minute mark on the video clip.

When the Past Catches Up to You and It's Good!

My classroom full of young people getting a great message from a "young" person I helped to train at Puerto Rico Baptist College. Good memories from the past and a great ministry opening up before our eyes in the present make us exited and full of hope for the future.

30 years Married, 20 years Missionaries

 Tina and I discovered, early in our married life, the joy of giving to others. We have given the last 20 years in service as missionaries to Puerto Rico. We are very happy on our "mission field" but to us, it has become "home."

People think it is a life of sacrifice, and so it is. But it is just that kind of life that is worth living, and also give the greatest satisfaction.

Being married for 30 ears is worth a celebration too. We are trying to think of a good way to celebrate. But our problem is, we are already happy doing what we are doing and can't think of anything more fun to do. A trip to a tropical island and a nice sandy beach? We live on one and can go for free. A nice hotel and a big meal out? We don't like spending money on hotels and Tina likes her own cooking better.

 So what to do? Maybe we will get the house a new piece of furniture that we can both enjoy. Better yet, if we can afford it, maybe we could fly the Twins down here for their one week vacation from the college work program in Pensacola.

 The best way to celebrate is to share the fun with others. Please do yourself a favor and give of yourself to support the work of missions. When you do that, you will feel what we feel, and that is something worth celebrating.

One-Way Tickets To Florida: Puerto Ricans Escape Island Woes

I knew it was true before I heard it was true.

In visiting door to door, talking to people in the street or trying to make medical appointments, this phrase kept popping up: "They just moved to Orlando..."

It is so significant now that NPR radio just made a four part special just on this one topic.

It is affecting our ministry. But not just negatively, as I feared.

It is true that a significant part of what I would call prospective members for our church have moved or are planning a move to the States. While some have moved to Texas, New York and Connecticut,  the vast majority of them are relocating on the I-4 corridor,  a strip of central Florida that extends from Tampa to Orlando on continues on a bit towards Daytona Beach.

At first I was unhappy to lose some good prospects and some good mature Christians as well.  But I am happy that our work here has meant that a number of these immigrants are now good Christian people and will join churches of like faith and practice and help them grow.

This opens up the way for a new kind of ministry: Referring Puerto Ricans to good churches in the States and helping churches in the States minister to the incoming Puerto Ricans (and other Spanish speaking peoples).

Giving back is a lot of fun. We have been blessed  in receiving help, now we get to experience giving help to some good churches and helping those who have helped us.

Please pray for our ministry here. We need your help. We still have a lot of Puerto Ricans to reach before they move to the USA mainland, and we would like as many of them as possible to arrive saved, baptized, discipled and ready to serve the Lord in some good churches.

A Quick Quote from Ken Lynch at Our Pastor's Fellowship

A picnic table surrounded by a couple of missionaries and one evangelist can be a pretty fun place to be. It is also an intellectually stimulating and a spiritually uplifting place to be, given the great people who gathered there today. 

Evangelist Ken Lynch shared a quote with us during our Pastor's Fellowship on the mission field of Puerto Rico that got me thinking. Here is a short clip of it. The iPod video is a bit shaky, but it will give you a sense of the fun we had together.

Evangelist Ken Lynch Plays the Violin for Us

Evangelist Ken Lynch came to Puerto Rico to help a missionary friend of mine with an evangelistic campaign.  They both came to our Pastor's Fellowship today. Ken gave the devotions and we were treated to an impromptue violin concert in the carport where we had our pot luck dinner.

I recorded one of the songs on my Ipod and posted it here to give you a sample of the blessings we had. It is hard being away from "home" (the USA) but that makes visits like this all the sweeter.Thank you Ken Lynch for being a blessing to us this week.

An Open Letter of Thanks for a Special Gift

Dear Friends at Grace Baptist Church,

We heard from our home office at Continental Baptist Missions that a special gift of $50 came in from Grace Baptist Church, Paso Robles, CA. Please pass our thanks on to the church and to whoever designated it toward our work here in Puerto Rico.

It is true our family has needs. It is also true that our greater family, our brothers and sisters in Christ, are providing what we need to survive and thrive out here on the mission field.

May God Bless and Prosper You All Accordingly,

Steve and Tina Prelgovisk
URB SIERRA BAYAMON | 33-15 CALLE 31 | BAYAMON, PR 00961-4365 USA

PS. Our mission agency has posted a new "Financial Support Declaration" document online that can be printed out and mailed in for those who wish to make a official written declaration of support. Phone and email contact information is available on the CBM web site for those who wish to declare a gift through those means.

Thank you to those who are helping "Hold the Rope!"

Finding the Right Place to Cry

The first man to come through the doors of the church had been waiting for me. He was trembling and had to sit down to speak. He shook as he told his story.

Mike was in New York visiting his daughter when he heard some bad news from Puerto Rico. His ex-wife dropped dead of a heart attack. Even though they were divorced, Mike felt she was the closest person to him after his daughters. The death came as a shock. She had not showed any symptoms and was in her early 50's.

We prayed together. Mike gave me a big hug and said he loved and respected me.  He said that the first thing he did when he came back to Puerto Rico was to come straight to the church, because he knew he could get help here.  Since we weren't there Saturday, he had waited anxiously all night for the doors to open.

When our members began arriving and the service started, I shared Mike's story and we prayed for him. After that, Mike walked to the front of the church and told his story again. He then pointed at me and said, "I love this guy" and gave me another hug in front of everyone.

Later Mike raised his hand and volunteered to paint the church for us, all by himself.

Clearly I have made a convert, but is Mike a convert to me or to Christ? I am glad we could help him through this rough time and also that he knows where to go when he needs to cry and find help. But making a convert to the missionary or even the church isn't the same as being saved by Jesus Christ.

Mike seems to be on the right path, but please pray for him, that he may find new life in Christ, who alone can save.

Hobby Evangelism?

The Bible says "go into all the world ..." in order to share Christ. Part of that world meets in little rooms or classes that are orientated around hobbies. 

A teacher once told me: "Try something new every two years. Meet new people, make new friends and explore new interests."

Instead of having a passive hobby such as television, I thought that pursuing a hobby that could lead to witnessing would be a good idea. Sometimes it works well. Sometime, not so much.

I tried Chess, (http://www.chess.com/members/view/Prelgovisk ) but chess players aren't very talkative, and it wasn't as conducive to witnessing as I had hoped. I did enjoy it though. I met some nice people and learned a lot of neat openings.

I joined the "Civil Air Patrol" as a Chaplain, and this is proving to be a more effective opportunity. I get to speak to young people and also rub shoulders with the Search and Rescue community. I also upgraded my Ham radio license to "General Class" so that I may be a person of value to people in that community. To them I am "WP4NVR."

Am I still knocking on doors? Yes. But I am also getting through some formerly closed doors by adopting a new hobby or two. I will keep you posted on how it turns out.

Motivating Our Members to Witness

About once a year we have a "Tract Day."


I order a "Sampler Pack" or assortment of gospel tracts from a couple of places and bring them to the church. During our Sunday school class,  I put the people in small groups and give each group a pile of tracts. I ask them to each read a couple and evaluate them on:

1. Clarity in communicating the Gospel

2. Was it really good, mildly interesting, OK, dull or offensive?"

3. Would it be something they would feel good about giving to someone? 

I have the groups come together and I ask a spokesperson from each group to give a quick review on their experience and share which were their favorite tracts.  I ask which ones we should order. 

Our people like the Spanish version of this one, for example.  

I say "I am going to order our favorite tracts, but I want them all passed out. Who will pass out a tract if I order them?"

I place the order, and when they come in, I make a big deal about it. 
We have a scheduled Saturday as "Tract Blitz Day." We try and have every member come and pass out tracts for about 2 hours. Then we have a lunch at the church and share our experiences of what happened. 

The following Sunday, I ask them to give testimonies and praise their efforts in evangelism. We encourage and motivate each other to do more evangelism this way. 

I find that our church is more likely to pass out tracts they have read and got exited about then they would if we just had a few that we picked and put out for them to take. It works!

Starting Something New

Our little church is going along great; we have visited, had special meetings, got college kids to help, but...is there something more or something new that we could be doing? I invited Phil Bell, a pastor friend from a town near us, to come by and talk to me about a new ministry idea for our church.

Phil began an AWANA program in his church. AWANA is a club for kids that my home church uses and I have seen work very well. Phil liked the program so much that he became the Regional Ministry Directors for AWANA for Latin America.

I interviewed him all about it and also what it was like to be a missionary. It is about a 45 min. interview. I don't have a podcast yet, but I will put the mp3 recording of it in my Dropbox folder. You may listen to it by going here.You can download the file and are welcome to listen in on our conversation.

Four people from our church came to the meeting we had about it at my house and we had a great time of orientation and training. We plan on getting everything ready, having a few practices and then officially starting the program when school starts up again, after the Three Kings' Day Holiday, around the 3rd Sunday of January.

Pray for us! If you have AWANA in your church, consider us as an AWANA missionary project that your club can get behind and help get of the ground!

We are willing to do some new things in the new year to have some new growth. But we need some new support and new helpers to make that happen. Please pray and plan on doing something new yourself this year. We hope that you will have a fruitful year and that you might help us have one also here on the mission field of Puerto Rico.

Don't Let Your Help Get Hijacked.

Don't Let Your Help Get Hijacked.

We see it all the time. A well meaning visitor to Puerto Rico sees a beggar and gives him aid, only to find out from us later that they just boosted the local drug trade. The sad thing is, there really are worthy poor people here on the island who could use the help, but it just gets hijacked by some hoodlum and it never makes it to the person who truly needs it. It hurts us to see church members  and Bible college students in tragic conditions while needed funds are hijacked away from unwary, but well meaning, loving people.

What to Do?

1. When you hear of a hurricane, earthquake or other tragedy  and your heart goes out to those people, ask your church if they know of a missionary or of a good church in that area. Contact those missionaries and churches and ask about the needs they have among their own people and the other needs that they see. Contribute to the afflicted through them to the people they minister to. Offering sent to relieve the poor and needy in our own churches and within reach of our own missionaries should be a priority. People who you can trust and who are local to the event are in a better position to make sure the sacrificial offerings of God's people are not sacrificed in vain.

2. Call a Bible College, Seminary, or other institution that you respect and tell them that you would like to make a donation to help pay the school bill of a worthy but struggling student, or alumni. This way the school gets the funds it needs to help others and the student gets to finish his training and begin his ministry. Funds directed in this way can help both at the same time.

Why Bother? 

You could just forget the church and give towards helping someone through McDonalds. But then there will be a photo shoot of Ronald McDonald giving a big check to some hospital and everyone saying how wonderful they are.

Some might say: "Who cares who gets the credit as long as people get the help they need?"

But I say this: "Why should some clown get the credit for your love, when our sacrificial love is designed to bring glory to God? "


Here are some suggestions of where you could start:
A Good Mission agency: Continental Baptist Missions
A Good Bible College: Puerto Rico Baptist College
Our Ministry: (This blog, go to the right hand margin, under"Support" and "Offering Plate")

Comfort food from Puerto Rico: Spanish Soup

People have been asking my wife Tina for her "Spanish Soup" recipe. I checked the copywrite laws and found that recipes can be shared, it's just the description of the product that is copy-writable.

So here is a copy of the recipe without the description.
Enjoy!

We are trying to eat a more Mediterranean diet than before and I think it is improving our health.

How Bad Do You Want that Fish?

If you want fish bad enough, you will find a way to get them. These Sri Lanka fishermen did. Shouldn't those of us who are called to be "Fishers of Men" find a way to make it happen as well?

In Puerto Rico where we serve as missionaries, we often have to wait for what seems a very long time for someone to finally accept Christ as their Savior, be baptized, join the church, become disciples and then take their place in helping our church grow. But we have learned that patience all by itself doesn't make that happen.

We find that, like the fishermen of Sri Lanka, we have to go where the "fish" are, and do everything we can do first, before we can expect our patient waiting to be productive.

What is to be done first? Go. Extend yourself. Have something to offer of value. Offer it. Patiently bring the fish in. Have a plan on what to do with it and a place prepared for it when you get one. How can all this be done? Fortunately, your Bible will tell you just how to do these very things.

We have seen a book called "The Fisherman's Bible." Fortunately for Christian fishermen, our "Fisherman's Bible" is the Bible itself! The Real Bible. I say that gives us a real advantage. Also, our fish don't stink! The longer we keep them the sweeter they get!