A Light in the Darkness

Children filled the room with eagerness as the band began playing worship music last night. Where? In the middle of a physically and spiritually, dark neighborhood. Speranate Vie, the Living Hope Church, is bringing fresh water to empty souls, and they are responding. You could see joy and hope in the children’s eyes as they danced and sang at the top of their lungs praises to the God who can rescue each of us from our sin. This is a safe place. A place they are loved and yet being trained in God-honoring living. They are learning to share with each other, use kind words, have self-control when a leader is talking, to say thank you and to be patient. The children are learning that boundaries are good. Adults are coming too! Mike talked with them about the treasure that children are as a gift from God, and the responsibility we have to raise them in a way that honors Him.  In the midst of many interruptions, He shared the gospel with the group as well. We trust the Holy Spirit to convict and guide them to hunger for more spiritual food that will not leave them wanting.

This was the perfect way to end our week in Romania. We are in awe. We are changed. We want to go back. We are grateful that no matter what, we will spend eternity with these friends in heaven praising our Lord. It will be our privilege to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these friends who are living passionately for Jesus Christ. Our hearts are full.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you..." 1 Peter 3-4

The Greatest Gift Embraced

Speranta Vie celebrates 15 years!

How can a church service get any better when you have a man pray to receive Christ as Savior and commit his life to Him right in the middle of the service? Just another beautiful, precious God-sighting this week as we end our time in Romania. Mike preached out of Colossians 1:1-6 and talked about Paul’s focus on faith, hope and love. The body of this church is alive with believers of all ages who are living this out, by depending on God for their every need and taking the message of the gospel to a neighborhood of people that are in desperate need of a Savior. Cristi told a story of a girl who had come to him last night saying her dad wanted to rape her and teach her how to kiss a man. This kind of behavior is rampant. This is why the message of the gospel is necessary…for our Holy God who created all things and is worthy of our worship. Yet all of us are sinners who are separated from Him. We are unable to do enough good to out way our sin before a Holy God. In a great act of love, however, He has offered to rescue each of us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who gave His life on the cross for the covering of our sin. He proved His power over sin and death by rising from the dead and then ascending into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of God. What each of us does with this gift is our choosing.  What have you done with this gift offered to you? The precious man today embraced the gift and reflected in his being the gratitude of one who understands their sin and is grateful for a Savior.  It doesn’t get any better on this side of eternity.

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24

We sing Yahweh!

Tonight we witnessed a wonderful act of kindness. A well-known international band, ‘The Marker” gave a simple concert to about 75 in the neighborhood where the church is doing outreach.  The concert was held in the local grade school where the church is renting space for gatherings. The room was the size of two average classrooms put together. It was packed with excited teens, and a few adults. The group did several songs, and Cristi did a couple of interviews during the concert. One interview was of one of the band members and focused on the purpose of their work/music, which is to honor Jesus Christ.  You can check their music out on YouTube “Yahweh” is a great song. Their name comes from the idea that they want their music to leave a mark on people drawing them to Jesus Christ. The second interview Cristi did was with a man who grew up in an orphanage, lived on the streets, spent 6 years in jail and there found the one true friend that would not desert him or lead him down the wrong path…Jesus Christ. Now instead of being a tough, gang member, he is a gentle, grateful man who is content with all the Lord has done for him. The students attending seemed to listen. They come from lives of great dysfunction, no boundaries, abuse, manipulation and wildness. Cristi and the team from the church are seeing God’s hand as they are reaching out to this outcast people group in this city. It is a pleasure to be witnessing the work. Cristi has told us God-sighting after God-sighting. Last night another came as he received a call from a man in Norway who saw the need for money in the recent newsletter to help this concert happen and had wired the money to the account for Cristi to use. God is never late to supply all that is needed for work that is in His will.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Eternal Friends

The best thing about this trip is meeting, in advance, some wonderful people we will get to spend eternity with! Our worship time before each of our sessions the last two days has been beautiful. Though the words are in Romanian, the melodies are ones we sing at home so we know the songs in English. The genuine, beautiful faith of our brothers and sisters in Christ here is inspiring. They treasure the goodness of God and depend on His provision greatly in a cultural system that does not reward honesty, integrity or hard work. We pray for the Lord to help them persevere to be beautiful lights for Christ and witnesses to those who have yet to know Him. Many gifts reside in this church…musicians, teachers, leaders of youth, servants of caring for the behind the scenes maintenance and so on. Each a treasure…each with an important gift to make the body here complete. Some have shared intimate, personal stories of pain and sacrifice. God has been faithful to bring many stories of restoration and even is in the process of writing another. Others are yet to come, and in a few instances at least one member of a relationship was at our seminars and sees where they can change for the benefit of restoring their broken marriage. We look forward to hearing how the future chapters are written, and we are grateful we were given a glimpse of seeing how our time here made a difference. To God be the Glory!

Laughter Binds Us Together

Sandy and I had a chance to meet with the women again this morning. Two ladies from the church, one young lady from the US, and two from the neighborhood outreach program attended. I taught them all the 3 Question Method of Bible study that I teach ladies in Bible Study Fellowship, and that we used to study the book of Philippians in my home church this past summer. Today we studied Philippians 4:4-9. It was good. The translator was very talented and kept the conversation going so we all could understand, and contributed to the conversation from her perspective as well. All the ladies felt the time in the Word was beneficial, and they could see how they could do this in their own study time as well as with groups they are facilitating.

Jayme was with Pastors Mike and Jerry making more home visits. However, today was not ordinary.  The men visited a shelter this morning for young girls who had been sold into human traffic rings by their family or “Lover Boys”.  They spent some time with the director of the program hearing unbelievable stories of predator’s strategies to attract young girls and boys into sexual trades.  The stories are too horrific to put into this update, but we are humbled by the commitment of this organization to rescue girls as young as 13 and 14 from such an industry.  Once the girls are saved from the human traffic trade they live in the shelter for a year or more receiving ongoing education, counseling and life skills that can be used as they re-enter into society.  

The Marriage and Parenting Seminar was attended by about 30 individuals this evening. We focused first on the importance of growing our relationship with God as a foundation to a healthy marriage. The second session content centered around valuing the differences of your spouse and the importance of love and respect in the husband/wife relationship. Our translator was excellent. All in all we had a lot of fun. We are praying this content will help marriages here that have gotten in the cycle of anger and frustration, as well as help the younger couples to form good communication and relationship patterns. We are so grateful to be sharing things we have learned over the years and pray they are a benefit to our new friends here.

Our days have not been short on laughter as Mike catches the rhythm of Romanian driving (a few angels have lost their lives), as three or four of us have folded ourselves into the backseat of a small cars, as we savored “Big Apple” sundaes at McDonalds that had no apples, or as Jerry and Mike have shared bad missionary jokes. I’ll leave you with Mike’s famous words…“I have already told you more than I know.”

Blessings!

Good Conversations

Sandy and I met with women from the neighborhood that the church has been reaching out to this morning. Her experience with Romanian helps make the language connections much easier for her. I get tripped up in my head thinking how do say hello (buna ziua), good-bye (la revedere), thank you (va multumesc), please (va rog) etc… I inadvertently said good evening this morning to our host, and said good-bye to a sales clerk when I meant to say thank you. We did manage to help the economic recovery along in Romania by a few purchases we made this evening. Starting tomorrow we won’t have anymore time for exploring the stores.

Our time with the ladies was good in that we shared our stories of God bringing us into a personal relationship with Christ.  We got to know them also as they talked of family hardships, medical challenges, and one being an outcast in her community because of her faith. We invited them to come tomorrow and Saturday for the marriage and parenting classes…one had a little girl with her and would benefit from the content of the curriculum. We are praying for a good turnout and that the teaching content is relevant and helpful.

Jayme had a good meeting with some Christian business men and women this evening discussing ethics in business. The discussion focused on what it is to be a Christian in a business environment. What it is to be an employee, a manager or an owner, and how our work is done with excellence for the Lord. The discussion lasted more than two hours and was very interactive.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Life in a Box

Sandy and I each found ourselves awake for a good amount of time in the night again. Seeing families of 6-9 living in long narrow apartments of about 8’ by 30’ causes one to wonder about daily routines. Both families we visited yesterday had very tidy living conditions, but the constraints of space and the anger and frustration of one father are very real reactions. How do you find hope of a better life or even being able to provide for your family? The poverty is overwhelming. Many of these children don’t have a lunch, a simple sandwich, to eat when they are at school each day. Providing that is one of Cristi’s goals for this outreach. Simply helping with the basics. Mistreatment of wives and children is common. The faces of little 3 month Roberto, who was almost aborted 5 months ago, his brothers Alex, Coste and Dani flooded my mind and were a focus of prayer at 3am. Their father Daniel was encouraged to come to the men’s meeting tonight to hear of the hope Christ offers. The mother, Angela, was also encouraged to join the women tomorrow…even is she needs to bring 3 of her 7 children because they are not yet in school.

Our day was filled with seeing more of Pitesti and visiting the coffee house set up at the church the youth are working on. We had a good discussion about youth ministry with Florin and Avery. We have a bit of experience with teenagers so could offer some suggestions on that topic. J Cristi and Cami had us back for a late lunch, and Dennis and Bianca tried to teach me how to count to 10 in Romanian and then back to zero. When I am awake in the middle of the night tonight, I’ll practice, probably counting the number of different dogs I hear…enjoying some “dog fellowship”. L

Best news of the day, though, is that Daniel, the father of the children I mentioned above came to the men’s gathering tonight where Mike presented the gospel in clear and convicting terms. Seven men came plus the pastoral team and Jayme attended. Men were each given Bibles and given the opportunity to follow along as Mike referred to Romans 6:23 and related scriptures that tie to the gospel. Daniel was very engaged and had good questions. Jayme was able to share his testimony and the heaviness of life that men often bare in balancing work and family. He used Philippians 4:6-7 as an encouragement for the men to lean on Christ and not be anxious. We pray now that Angela, the wife and mother of this family, will come tomorrow.

In Romania

Greetings or Buna Ziua (as they say here),

We arrived safely yesterday, on time with no problems in our flights and all our bags arrived too. Having experienced the power of jet lag coming this direction in the past, we did all we could to sleep or at least have eyes closed and rested on our two flights. None the less, I was wide awake at 3:30 this morning for about an hour and after praying for all the things filling my mind (like our son's prep and leaving for the DR) I fell hard back to sleep until 8am. Thank you Jesus! Our dear traveling companion, however, was so excited getting here that she didn't hardly sleep at all and jet leg hit her hard this morning. We all seem to be in good shape now. 

We had a wonderful day getting to see the city of Pitesti, having lunch with Cristi and his family, and visiting the neighborhood where the church is doing outreach. This gypsy neighborhood is not loved by the average citizen here. But as we know, God makes no distinctions and neither does Cristi. He and the church have been working to establish relationships with people there and the Holy Spirit is moving in amazing ways right now. As he walks though the area, children, teens and adults alike flock to him. He is showing them the unconditional love of Christ and their hearts are hungry for that genuine love. He is believing that as people meet our group that they will be further encouraged to attend the gatherings that are planned later this week to help them learn and understand the basics of Biblical Christian living in business, marriage and parenting. The gospel message of Christ's offer of forgiveness and promise of eternal life for all who believe and receive that gift will always be the foundation, because without that all is in vain. 

Thank you for your support in prayer. 
We are blessed by what we are seeing and look forward to telling you more.