Dear Friends and Family,

We have just completed a new DVD about that contains a video of a short term mission team installing one of our eDOT’s eLearning Centers in the Ukraine. Check it out at –> http://www.roesgarden.com/2006/08/prayer-requests/elearning-center-video/ . The DVD also has videos about why Europe is a mission field and the latest video about our ministry eDOT (electronic Discipleship Outreach Training). If you would be interested in receiving one of these DVD’s to share with your friends or your church, please email us.

We also wanted to tell you about some exciting new initiatives that eDOT is starting this fall:

• Translation of a Moody Bible Institute course into Farsi (the language of Iran). By the year 2020, 40% of Europe’s population will be ethnically Middle Eastern. With such a huge influx of people, eDOT is working with several organizations to make an impact for Christ with these immigrants. But by providing these resources in Farsi (and soon Arabic) online, the impact will not only be in Europe, but wherever the Internet and these languages exist.
• Visiting All Nations Christian College in the UK in September to help them start a distance learning program. This is a missions college for training people for cross cultural missions service anywhere in the world.
• Participating in an internet conference for reaching Muslims.
• Rapidly finishing the first course being translated into Italian where the classes will begin in September.

We are excited about what eDOT is doing and look forward to when we are with the team in Europe working on these projects full time. We just need to raise 25% more of our monthly support before we can set a departure date and go. Please continue to pray for eDOT and for us.

Your friends,

Courtney and Krista Roes
www.RoesGarden.com

Normally when God calls someone to another culture to serve as a missionary, their first fears are “Am I going to miss my family?” or “Will I be able to survive the elements?” My fear came in the question of “Oh God, please don’t make me buy one of those really small cars?!?!” You see, I’m not exactly a small guy. I stand 6 ft tall (1.83 meters) and over 200 lbs or over 91 kg (way over). My first vehicle that I drove was a 1979 GMC Suburban with a 454 engine in it. That equates to something like a 7.2 liter engine. I once had 15 people in there. (this was before seat belt laws) Once a VW bus rear-ended it only to total the bus and there wasn’t even a scratch on the Suburban. It helped that the Suburban had a dual ball hitch on the back that went into the engine block of the VW.

But the vehicles that came to mind when I thought about moving to Europe (especially with a heart for Eastern Europe) were the old Soviet made vehicles that you could dent by hand (and subsequently pop out the dent by hand too). These vehicles have two cylinder engines in them which are smaller than some of the motorcycles found in the US. I have a weird fear that I am going to be in one of these things, be in an accident, and have a permanent suit of armor around me.

Well, now because of the increase of gas prices in the US, the Smart Car is coming. Not until 2008 but that may be because it only has a 60 HP engine and it’s a long drive from Europe. You see, most of the world has been dealing with high gas prices for a while and so they have learned to minimize their vehicles but not here in the US where a Hummer is considered the next minivan. Why even the “mini”-van is no longer even remotely small. But now with the over $3/gallon prices (which is really nothing to the over $7/gallon in Europe), the US is starting to see smaller can be better.

I am now resigned to the fact that the Smart car would be a fun car to drive. I hear they get special permission to be “creative” in their parking.