Our College kids had fun making this little video about the history of Thanksgiving. It is in Spanish, but you know the story and can see what is happening by the students acting it out. After the skit, a few of them tell why they are thankful. We are thankful for them! They are great kids who have put God first in their lives. Teaching them about Thanksgiving is fun. One of our graduates at Puerto Rico Baptist College learned how we do it here and he liked it so much that he is teaching his church in the country of Colombia to celebrate Thanksgiving too.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Wet Monkey Syndrome: Do You Have It?
Missionary work is tough, but we get a lot done because we are careful to cultivate a positive attitude and to make that the emotional environment or culture in our church and Bible College.I enjoy reading and listening to Christian business man and author Dan Miller. I heard him tell a great story explaining why many suffer from a "Can't Do It" culture and the importance of not being a wet blanket.
"Imagine a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage there is a banana on a string. Before long a monkey walks over and reaches for the banana. As soon as he touches the banana, all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt to grab the banana with the same result. All the monkeys are instantly sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to reach for the banana, the other monkeys will try to stop him.
Now forget the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and obviously goes over and starts to grab it. But to his surprise, all of the other monkeys attack him to prevent him from touching the banana. Next, remove another of the original monkeys and replace it with a new one. Now all of the monkeys currently in the cage stop the new one from getting to the banana. Replace the third, fourth and fifth monkeys with new ones. Each one becomes a willing opponent to allowing anyone to touch that banana.
Now, none of the monkeys in the cage at this point were every sprayed with cold water. But they continue to prevent each other from grabbing that banana, the one food that they should all naturally love.
None of these monkeys ever approaches the banana again. They have no idea why it's off limits. But that's just the way things have always been done around here.
Sound familiar? If you walked in to your work, church, marriage, or neighborhood as an unbiased outsider, what would you question about the "normal" activities there? Are you accepting old traditions that defy the intelligence or spiritual insight you have today?"
"Imagine a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage there is a banana on a string. Before long a monkey walks over and reaches for the banana. As soon as he touches the banana, all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt to grab the banana with the same result. All the monkeys are instantly sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to reach for the banana, the other monkeys will try to stop him. Now forget the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and obviously goes over and starts to grab it. But to his surprise, all of the other monkeys attack him to prevent him from touching the banana. Next, remove another of the original monkeys and replace it with a new one. Now all of the monkeys currently in the cage stop the new one from getting to the banana. Replace the third, fourth and fifth monkeys with new ones. Each one becomes a willing opponent to allowing anyone to touch that banana.
Now, none of the monkeys in the cage at this point were every sprayed with cold water. But they continue to prevent each other from grabbing that banana, the one food that they should all naturally love.
None of these monkeys ever approaches the banana again. They have no idea why it's off limits. But that's just the way things have always been done around here.
Sound familiar? If you walked in to your work, church, marriage, or neighborhood as an unbiased outsider, what would you question about the "normal" activities there? Are you accepting old traditions that defy the intelligence or spiritual insight you have today?"
Saturday, November 19, 2011
The 8 Questions Kids Ask Me the Most About Missions
Dear Kids:
Thanks for writing to us! I took a couple of questions written by AWANA kids (a church youth group) like Joshua, Conner, Jake and others, and made them into a letter that all of you can use. I like AWANA. My wife was an AWANA kid and taught in the AWANA club at Southside Baptist Church in Tacoma, Washington, where she grew up. We like it when you ask questions because we enjoy showing what life is like on the mission field, how you can help and how you can become a missionary too.
#1. Where do you work? I am a missionary to the people from the island of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but not a state. Everybody here is a citizen of the USA, but sometimes it can feel like a foreign country because of the distance and because everyone speaks Spanish. It is a small island, about 35 miles wide and 100 miles long. It is crowded here, about 4 million people on the island. There are another 4 million Puerto Ricans living in the United States. A lot of them come and visit, so it gets even more crowded during vacation times.
Where is Puerto Rico? It is about 1200 miles South East of Miami, Florida. Go to the tip of Florida and look down to till you find Cuba. It is 90 miles South of Florida. Then look to the right and you will see the island of Hispaniola. It has two countries on it: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The next island to the right is Puerto Rico. We are the smallest of the big three islands, but bigger than all the smaller islands that you can see that go all the way down to South America.
Where we live is a hot place. We never get snow, ice or even frost. I have lived here almost 20 years and have only see it get to 55 degrees one time in the mountains. Most of the time it is 85-90 in the day and at night it gets down to 74 degrees. It is always very humid. If it gets in the 60's many people stay home because it is too cold for them. We don't get cold weather but we do get hurricanes. They can do a lot of damage. We have been safe so far. I think it is because a lot of people pray for us. I hope you will too.
#2. What is your job? My main job is to start churches. The newest church I am starting is in the town of Comerio, a little town of 4,000 people up in the central mountains. The name of our church is "Iglesia Bautista." That means: '"Baptist Church."We teach the people who come to Christ how to be good church members, missionaries, pastors and Christian school teachers. I do this at Puerto Rico Baptist College. I also help teach in a night school to train busy pastors and help a Christian School in Levittown, Puerto Rico. My favorite part is giving devotionals from the Bible to the kids, just like I do in AWANA club meetings.
#3. Do you have fun being a missionary? Yes. It is not ALL fun all the time. Sometimes there are sad days, like when someone in the church dies and I preach at their funeral. But other activities, like teaching college kids in the Bible College makes me happy and gives me energy.
We also enjoy foods, places and experiences that we never had before we became missionaries. The water here is 85 degrees all year round and you can see tropical fish when you snorkel dive. I saw a squid swim by the other day and he looked at me with his big, moving eyeball. It was scary, but fun to talk about afterwards. When we got better in Spanish, it got easier to make friends and I can have fun enjoying jokes in two languages now.
People sometimes feel sorry for missionaries. But, if you always eat the same foods, go the same places, never meet anybody new or have any new experiences, well then….we missionaries just might be having some fun you are missing out on! The best fun in life comes to you when you are doing what God wants you to do.
#4. What is it like? What is it like? Well, there are parts of missionary life that drain energy and other parts that fill us up and keep us going. For me, visiting houses door to door in the humid, hot tropical sun is hard work and makes me tired. But when I teach in the Bible college, I am surrounded by a lot of young people that are excited about serving the Lord. I get my emotional batteries recharged when I am with them. Two of those students help me with the church work. When I work with others and mix the fun parts with the hard parts, then I feel very happy to be a missionary, especially when it all adds up to souls saved, churches started and lives changed.
#5. Is it hard being a missionary? It can be, but it is worth it, like many things in life. For example, one hard part is that when we left the United States, we left our families and friends. It is not just the emotion of missing them at the airport that I am talking about. We missed all the help and fun we had with them. We missed the help grandma gave us babysitting the kids, the friends coming over for a BBQ, playing games, going to birthday parties of our friends and family and things like that.
We missed our church too. When we start a new church, there is no choir, youth group or AWANA. By the time the church has all those things, it is time to leave and start another church. I was sad that our children did not get to have some of the good church experiences that you enjoy. But we do have the happiness of seeing a new churches come into the world and that is a lot of happiness.
When we get letters like yours, when people visit us and when we visit the United States and people are kind to us and support us, we feel good about our hard work and feel it is worth it.
It can be hard, but just like it is hard being good at sports or getting good grades, if you work hard and obey God, then good things happen. Most of the things that you enjoy came from somebody’s hard work. We work hard to make these good things happen.
#6. Can anybody be a missionary, Can I be a Missionary? First, you should know what a missionary is. I think a person is a missionary when he crosses a "line" to take the good news to people that are different from himself. That "line" could be a different language, color, age, handicap or even a hobby. That is why people can say they are a "Missionary to the Deaf" or to the Military. They can call themselves missionaries because they take the good news from where they are and cross over a line to bring it to a group of people that are different from themselves in some way.
Could you be a missionary? Let me ask you a few questions so we can find the answer. Do you know Christ and like how He made your life different and better than it was before? Then I think you have something to say. Do you care about someone and want them to enjoy what you have? Then I think you have a caring heart. Are you willing to cross over some line or difficulty to bring them what you have, so they can have it too? Yes? Congratulations! Then I think that you can be a missionary!
The important thing is to begin where you are with what you have. If a person is not a missionary where they are, crossing over a line or learning a new language won't make much of a difference. If they are serving the Lord where they are right now, it will make a difference and they will be a good missionary. AWANA is a good place to start! Get invloved in AWANA, let God change your life, enjoy what is going on, invite your friends to get in on the good stuff that is happening around you and inside you and guess what? You are a missionary too! Now work on being a better one. That is what we do.
#7. Can I visit you someday in Puerto Rico? Is there AWANA in Puerto Rico I could go to? I hope someday you can visit us and see for yourself what we missionaries do. In Puerto Rico, AWANA is called OANSA. It is in my plans, I went to a training course, got the books and stuff, but right now, we don't have enough people or kids to begin AWANA. I wish we did. Maybe you can come and help us make it happen. I hope some AWANA group could help us start another AWANA group here. Maybe it will by your club that makes a difference. You never know!
#8 How can I find out more? Here, this blog, is where you can see pictures, read stories and even see videos and write us questions:
More questions?
Write us at Prelgovisk@yahoo.com
Dios Les Bendiga,
(May the Lord Bless You)
Steve and Tina Prelgovisk
3315 Calle 31
Urb Sierra Bayamon
Bayamon, PR 00961
Ministries:
Church Planting in Puerto Rico,
Puerto Rico Baptist College
Mission Agency: Continental Baptist Missions
Thanks for writing to us! I took a couple of questions written by AWANA kids (a church youth group) like Joshua, Conner, Jake and others, and made them into a letter that all of you can use. I like AWANA. My wife was an AWANA kid and taught in the AWANA club at Southside Baptist Church in Tacoma, Washington, where she grew up. We like it when you ask questions because we enjoy showing what life is like on the mission field, how you can help and how you can become a missionary too.
#1. Where do you work? I am a missionary to the people from the island of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but not a state. Everybody here is a citizen of the USA, but sometimes it can feel like a foreign country because of the distance and because everyone speaks Spanish. It is a small island, about 35 miles wide and 100 miles long. It is crowded here, about 4 million people on the island. There are another 4 million Puerto Ricans living in the United States. A lot of them come and visit, so it gets even more crowded during vacation times.
Where is Puerto Rico? It is about 1200 miles South East of Miami, Florida. Go to the tip of Florida and look down to till you find Cuba. It is 90 miles South of Florida. Then look to the right and you will see the island of Hispaniola. It has two countries on it: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The next island to the right is Puerto Rico. We are the smallest of the big three islands, but bigger than all the smaller islands that you can see that go all the way down to South America.
Where we live is a hot place. We never get snow, ice or even frost. I have lived here almost 20 years and have only see it get to 55 degrees one time in the mountains. Most of the time it is 85-90 in the day and at night it gets down to 74 degrees. It is always very humid. If it gets in the 60's many people stay home because it is too cold for them. We don't get cold weather but we do get hurricanes. They can do a lot of damage. We have been safe so far. I think it is because a lot of people pray for us. I hope you will too.
#2. What is your job? My main job is to start churches. The newest church I am starting is in the town of Comerio, a little town of 4,000 people up in the central mountains. The name of our church is "Iglesia Bautista." That means: '"Baptist Church."We teach the people who come to Christ how to be good church members, missionaries, pastors and Christian school teachers. I do this at Puerto Rico Baptist College. I also help teach in a night school to train busy pastors and help a Christian School in Levittown, Puerto Rico. My favorite part is giving devotionals from the Bible to the kids, just like I do in AWANA club meetings.
#3. Do you have fun being a missionary? Yes. It is not ALL fun all the time. Sometimes there are sad days, like when someone in the church dies and I preach at their funeral. But other activities, like teaching college kids in the Bible College makes me happy and gives me energy.
We also enjoy foods, places and experiences that we never had before we became missionaries. The water here is 85 degrees all year round and you can see tropical fish when you snorkel dive. I saw a squid swim by the other day and he looked at me with his big, moving eyeball. It was scary, but fun to talk about afterwards. When we got better in Spanish, it got easier to make friends and I can have fun enjoying jokes in two languages now.
People sometimes feel sorry for missionaries. But, if you always eat the same foods, go the same places, never meet anybody new or have any new experiences, well then….we missionaries just might be having some fun you are missing out on! The best fun in life comes to you when you are doing what God wants you to do.
#4. What is it like? What is it like? Well, there are parts of missionary life that drain energy and other parts that fill us up and keep us going. For me, visiting houses door to door in the humid, hot tropical sun is hard work and makes me tired. But when I teach in the Bible college, I am surrounded by a lot of young people that are excited about serving the Lord. I get my emotional batteries recharged when I am with them. Two of those students help me with the church work. When I work with others and mix the fun parts with the hard parts, then I feel very happy to be a missionary, especially when it all adds up to souls saved, churches started and lives changed.
#5. Is it hard being a missionary? It can be, but it is worth it, like many things in life. For example, one hard part is that when we left the United States, we left our families and friends. It is not just the emotion of missing them at the airport that I am talking about. We missed all the help and fun we had with them. We missed the help grandma gave us babysitting the kids, the friends coming over for a BBQ, playing games, going to birthday parties of our friends and family and things like that.
We missed our church too. When we start a new church, there is no choir, youth group or AWANA. By the time the church has all those things, it is time to leave and start another church. I was sad that our children did not get to have some of the good church experiences that you enjoy. But we do have the happiness of seeing a new churches come into the world and that is a lot of happiness.
When we get letters like yours, when people visit us and when we visit the United States and people are kind to us and support us, we feel good about our hard work and feel it is worth it.
It can be hard, but just like it is hard being good at sports or getting good grades, if you work hard and obey God, then good things happen. Most of the things that you enjoy came from somebody’s hard work. We work hard to make these good things happen.
#6. Can anybody be a missionary, Can I be a Missionary? First, you should know what a missionary is. I think a person is a missionary when he crosses a "line" to take the good news to people that are different from himself. That "line" could be a different language, color, age, handicap or even a hobby. That is why people can say they are a "Missionary to the Deaf" or to the Military. They can call themselves missionaries because they take the good news from where they are and cross over a line to bring it to a group of people that are different from themselves in some way.
Could you be a missionary? Let me ask you a few questions so we can find the answer. Do you know Christ and like how He made your life different and better than it was before? Then I think you have something to say. Do you care about someone and want them to enjoy what you have? Then I think you have a caring heart. Are you willing to cross over some line or difficulty to bring them what you have, so they can have it too? Yes? Congratulations! Then I think that you can be a missionary!
The important thing is to begin where you are with what you have. If a person is not a missionary where they are, crossing over a line or learning a new language won't make much of a difference. If they are serving the Lord where they are right now, it will make a difference and they will be a good missionary. AWANA is a good place to start! Get invloved in AWANA, let God change your life, enjoy what is going on, invite your friends to get in on the good stuff that is happening around you and inside you and guess what? You are a missionary too! Now work on being a better one. That is what we do.
#7. Can I visit you someday in Puerto Rico? Is there AWANA in Puerto Rico I could go to? I hope someday you can visit us and see for yourself what we missionaries do. In Puerto Rico, AWANA is called OANSA. It is in my plans, I went to a training course, got the books and stuff, but right now, we don't have enough people or kids to begin AWANA. I wish we did. Maybe you can come and help us make it happen. I hope some AWANA group could help us start another AWANA group here. Maybe it will by your club that makes a difference. You never know!#8 How can I find out more? Here, this blog, is where you can see pictures, read stories and even see videos and write us questions:
More questions?
Write us at Prelgovisk@yahoo.com
Dios Les Bendiga,
(May the Lord Bless You)
Steve and Tina Prelgovisk
3315 Calle 31
Urb Sierra Bayamon
Bayamon, PR 00961
Ministries:
Church Planting in Puerto Rico,
Puerto Rico Baptist College
Mission Agency: Continental Baptist Missions
The 8 Questions Kids Ask Me the Most about Missionary Stuff.
I get letters from young people that are interested in how missionaries live and what they do. Here are 8 questions that I get the most:
Where is Puerto Rico? It is about 1200 miles South East of Miami, Florida. Go to the tip of Florida and look down to till you find Cuba. It is 90 miles South of Florida. Then look to the right and you will see the island of Hispaniola. It has two countries on it: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The next island to the right is Puerto Rico. We are the smallest of the big three islands, but bigger than all the smaller islands that you can see that go all the way down to South America.
#4. What is it like? What is it like? Well, there are parts of missionary life that drain energy and other parts that fill us up and keep us going. For me, visiting houses door to door in the humid, hot tropical sun is hard work and makes me tired. But when I teach in the Bible college, I am surrounded by a lot of young people that are excited about serving the Lord. I get my emotional batteries recharged when I am with them. Two of those students help me with the church work. When I work with others and mix the fun parts with the hard parts, then I feel very happy to be a missionary, especially when it all adds up to souls saved, churches started and lives changed.
Could you be a missionary? Let me ask you a few questions so we can find the answer. Do you know Christ and like how He made your life different and better than it was before? Then I think you have something to say. Do you care about someone and want them to enjoy what you have? Then I think you have a caring heart. Are you willing to cross over some line or difficulty to bring them what you have, so they can have it too? Yes? Congratulations! Then I think that you can be a missionary!
#7. Can I visit you someday in Puerto Rico? Is there AWANA in Puerto Rico I could go to? I hope someday you can visit us and see for yourself what we missionaries do. In Puerto Rico, AWANA is called OANSA. It is in my plans, I went to a training course, got the books and stuff, but right now, we don't have enough people or kids to begin AWANA. I wish we did. Maybe you can come and help us make it happen. I hope some AWANA group could help us start another AWANA group here. Maybe it will by your club that makes a difference. You never know!
#8 How can I find out more? Here is where you can see pictures, read stories and even see videos and write us questions:
Dios Les Bendiga,
Dear Kids:
Thanks for writing to us! I took a couple of questions written by AWANA kids (a church youth group) like Joshua, Conner, Jake and others, and made them into a letter that all of you can use. I like AWANA. My wife was an AWANA kid and taught in the AWANA club at Southside Baptist Church in Tacoma, Washington, where she grew up. We like it when you ask questions because we enjoy showing what life is like on the mission field, how you can help and how you can become a missionary too.
#1. Where do you work? I am a missionary to the people from the island of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but not a state. Everybody here is a citizen of the USA, but sometimes it can feel like a foreign country because of the distance and because everyone speaks Spanish. It is a small island, about 35 miles wide and 100 miles long. It is crowded here, about 4 million people on the island. There are another 4 million Puerto Ricans living in the United States. A lot of them come and visit, so it gets even more crowded during vacation times.
Where we live is a hot place. We never get snow, ice or even frost. I have lived here almost 20 years and have only see it get to 55 degrees one time in the mountains. Most of the time it is 85-90 in the day and at night it gets down to 74 degrees. It is always very humid. If it gets in the 60's many people stay home because it is too cold for them. We don't get cold weather but we do get hurricanes. They can do a lot of damage. We have been safe so far. I think it is because a lot of people pray for us. I hope you will too.
#2. What is your job? My main job is to start churches. The newest church I am starting is in the town of Comerio, a little town of 4,000 people up in the central mountains. The name of our church is "Iglesia Bautista." That means: '"Baptist Church."We teach the people who come to Christ how to be good church members, missionaries, pastors and Christian school teachers. I do this at Puerto Rico Baptist College. I also help teach in a night school to train busy pastors and help a Christian School in Levittown, Puerto Rico. My favorite part is giving devotionals from the Bible to the kids, just like I do in AWANA club meetings.
#3. Do you have fun being a missionary? Yes. It is not ALL fun all the time. Sometimes there are sad days, like when someone in the church dies and I preach at their funeral. But other activities, like teaching college kids in the Bible College makes me happy and gives me energy.
We also enjoy foods, places and experiences that we never had before we became missionaries. The water here is 85 degrees all year round and you can see tropical fish when you snorkel dive. I saw a squid swim by the other day and he looked at me with his big, moving eyeball. It was scary, but fun to talk about afterwards. When we got better in Spanish, it got easier to make friends and I can have fun enjoying jokes in two languages now.
People sometimes feel sorry for missionaries. But, if you always eat the same foods, go the same places, never meet anybody new or have any new experiences, well then….we missionaries just might be having some fun you are missing out on! The best fun in life comes to you when you are doing what God wants you to do.
#5. Is it hard being a missionary? It can be, but it is worth it, like many things in life. For example, one hard part is that when we left the United States, we left our families and friends. It is not just the emotion of missing them at the airport that I am talking about. We missed all the help and fun we had with them. We missed the help grandma gave us babysitting the kids, the friends coming over for a BBQ, playing games, going to birthday parties of our friends and family and things like that.
We missed our church too. When we start a new church, there is no choir, youth group or AWANA. By the time the church has all those things, it is time to leave and start another church. I was sad that our children did not get to have some of the good church experiences that you enjoy. But we do have the happiness of seeing a new churches come into the world and that is a lot of happiness.
When we get letters like yours, when people visit us and when we visit the United States and people are kind to us and support us, we feel good about our hard work and feel it is worth it.
It can be hard, but just like it is hard being good at sports or getting good grades , if you work hard and obey God, then good things happen. Most of the things that you enjoy came from somebody’s hard work. We work hard to make these good things happen.
#6. Can anybody be a missionary, Can I be a Missionary? First, you should know what a missionary is. I think a person is a missionary when he crosses a "line" to take the good news to people that are different from himself. That "line" could be a different language, color, age, handicap or even a hobby. That is why people can say they are a "Missionary to the Deaf" or to the Military. They can call themselves missionaries because they take the good news from where they are and cross over a line to bring it to a group of people that are different from themselves in some way.
The important thing is to begin where you are with what you have. If a person is not a missionary where they are, crossing over a line or learning a new language won't make much of a difference. If they are serving the Lord where they are right now, it will make a difference and they will be a good missionary. AWANA is a good place to start! Get invloved in AWANA, let God change your life, enjoy what is going on, invite your friends to get in on the good stuff that is happening around you and inside you and guess what? You are a missionary too! Now work on being a better one. That is what we do.
#7. Can I visit you someday in Puerto Rico? Is there AWANA in Puerto Rico I could go to? I hope someday you can visit us and see for yourself what we missionaries do. In Puerto Rico, AWANA is called OANSA. It is in my plans, I went to a training course, got the books and stuff, but right now, we don't have enough people or kids to begin AWANA. I wish we did. Maybe you can come and help us make it happen. I hope some AWANA group could help us start another AWANA group here. Maybe it will by your club that makes a difference. You never know! #8 How can I find out more? Here is where you can see pictures, read stories and even see videos and write us questions:
Stories, Pictures & Videos: Prelgovisk.blogspot.com |Our Family and Work: OverlookedFields.com | Questions: Write us at Prelgovisk@yahoo.com
Dios Les Bendiga,
(May the Lord Bless You)
Steve and Tina Prelgovisk
Friday, November 11, 2011
Nov 2011 Prayer Letter - Please Download the PDF file and share it with others.
You can read our latest Prayer Letter online here (Prelgovisk Prayer Letter, Nov 2011). To download it, scroll to the bottom of that page, where you will find a download and also a share button. Please print it out and share it where ever people pray for missionaries.
Prelgovisk Prayer Letter - Nov 2011
Prelgovisk Prayer Letter - Nov 2011
Saturday, November 05, 2011
"Redeeming the Time" Can Be Fun
I like playing chess, and while it may help prevent Alzheimer's disease, it does not add much to our work. We work hard on the mission field and we need our recreation time, but I felt that it would be a good idea if our hobbies could be profitable to the work. A few months ago I switched my personal hobbies to more guitar playing and blogging as well as Facebooking about health improvement and less chess playing. My chess score on Chess.com has not risen much, but my waistline and weight have gone down and I can contribute more to our churches worship service now.
Do I still like chess? Yes! But I like getting skinny too, and the guitar playing is enjoyable. It is a good feeling to know that you can "Redeem the time" and still have a bit of fun doing it.
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