The sight became too much for me, and I turned away and saw a few young lambs, untouched in a cart, waiting for their turn. It was these lambs which I heard before I saw any dead. But now the surprise I had felt at hearing live lambs turns to pity and sorrow, knowing that they too will soon be slaughtered. Then I thought of Christ and all the lambs slaughtered during the Old Testament system. I left the market empty-handed, unable to buy a lamb for our Easter meal. But I took with me something far more valuable: the thought that if God is a God of love, which I firmly believe He is, how great is my sin that the taking of innocent life was continually necessary in the Old Testament! And all the more, how great is my sin that Jesus Christ (the lamb of God) was slaughtered for me!

“You were ransomed . . . not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19, ESV).

After our introductory meeting with her this week, we picked up some items somewhere else in Timișoara before stopping in the town’s center for lunch. The town center is the birthplace of the Romania’s revolution. This building still bears the scars of bullets fired during the outbreak of violence. Ironically, there is a McDonalds located on the ground floor today.

Back in Lugoj, we have found Athan a preschool to interact with Romanian kids. He will be attending two days a week. The school teaches the kids in German and in Romanian. We are also glad that the teachers speak English very well, so the language introduction will not be a complete shock to Athan.

We’re doing well and getting as much accomplished as can be expected in the slower more laid back world of Romania. Nothing happens fast here. For example getting our paperwork notarized for our visas took three trips to the same office and half of the day. The slower pace matches our jet lagged brains quite well, so it hasn’t been too much of a frustration, just a lot of walking around down town, which we and our children have enjoyed.

The Kids

Vivian is adjusting very well. She’s enjoying soaking up all of the attention her blond curly hair brings her. She’s even started to great people in Romanian and often waves at everyone we pass.  Athan’s had a bit harder time adjusting, but he seems to be doing better than he was at first. As you pray for us, please remember our two tiny ones. Your prayers are helping!

Although they have their clingy nervous moments, they’ve also been having a grand time most of the time. They have chickens to visit next door. At the Howerton’s home where we are temporarily staying, they have a dog and two cats, a trampoline, and a swing set.  And in town within walking distance they have multiple parks, bridges, and waterfalls to play at and see. They also get very excited to see the occasional horse and cart rumble by. And as in America, nothing makes their day like seeing a bus or an emergency vehicle—sirens wailing—speed by.

Learning Lugoj
Joshua and I are learning the layout of Lugoj—locating groceries stores, the post office, the library etc. Today we got the first step on our visas done, and Pastor Howerton showed us where the electronic stores were, and I bought a hairdryer and priced appliances. We also learned where the open market is, and discovered a children’s shop.

It’s very hot (mid 90′s) with no air conditioning. Our legs have been operating as our primary vehicle, so while the weather is cheerfully sunny, we are very much looking forward to the relief fall weather will bring to mid-day errands.

I think that we will do some more work on Visas tomorrow and also try to set up language lessons. Baron and Joshua are also trying to nail down the weekly schedule for the church and are organizing groups of church members to share the cleaning of the church, the children’s Sunday school, the yard work etc.

We’ve currently seen three apartments and favor one. We’re hoping to see a few more before we decide. We can’t see any more until this coming Thursday when Lugoj’s weekly paper is published.

Prayer Requests

As always we are so grateful for your prayers. I’ll try to get some specific prayers up here soon. In the mean time, please pray

• for the people of Bereea to adjust to Joshua’s leadership smoothly
• for our kids to adjust, sleep, and eat
• for the government to grant us five year visas
• for the Lord to lead us to the right home.

Thank you.

The Christian life is a long series of interwoven journeys so complex that we can’t hope to perfectly map everything out ahead of time (or after the fact for that matter). But God knows exactly where we are going and how we should get there. So as the Christian navigates life, he ought to continually ask God for directions. Through prayer and the word, God keeps us on the right path (Psalm 119:105).

Unfortunately, it is all too easy to appear to be on God’s path without really asking Him for directions. Instead of prayerfully following God’s course, Christians often just do what other Christians expect of them. This leaves a believer following his subculture’s general will rather then actually following God’s will. Do what’s expected and be accepted. But just doing what’s expected, while common, is not necessarily the most direct or even correct way.

This extended metaphor can be applied to many situations worth your personal reflection. I bring it up to ask you to pray for us. Even before we settled upon Romania, we have been seeking the Lord’s mind on how to live the life He has designed for us. But there are so many human expectations placed upon a missionary that just doing what is expected is a real danger. From time to time, we must examine ourselves. Who are we following? Are our methods Gods or just man’s? Are we still in America because we took a wrong turn when listening to someone giving bad directions? Or are we just where God wants us to be? Please pray for God to lead clearly and for us to follow Him faithfully.

Occasionally, people have asked us if we plan to move over before we reach full support. At this point the idea of just going with what we have seems rather tempting, but we prayerfully and cautiously figured what would be an appropriate figure to raise. So at this point we are continuing to work, pray, and wait on God to move partners to support the vision for Romania. We don’t know what God has in store for us, but as we come upon 75%, Romania feels closer than ever. Please pray with us that 2011 will be the year that sees our family ministering in Romania.

http://baltic-review.com/2010/11/21/geopolitical-journey-romania/

Lingenfelter’s Ministering Cross-Culturally was a short and easy read. Toward the beginning of the book, the reader answers a fairly long list of questions designed to identify values and general thinking patterns. The remainder of the book demonstrates how values and thinking patterns effect ministry and helps the reader identify potential cultural pitfalls a person might encounter when interacting and trying to minister with and to people who differ from him. Even if you don’t move to the mission field you might find this book helpful, potentially revealing that someone you always found obnoxious simply processes things differently than you do. Or the book might also help you understand a different American ethnic group that you rub shoulders with at work. At the very least, Lingenfelter will help you pray better for missionaries who are living with whole people groups who think about the world in very different ways than Americans.

Piper’s book, Let the Nations be Glad, was both inspiring and thought provoking. The first several chapters on prayer and suffering were especially helpful. The very long chapters in which Piper makes a compelling case for the necessity of conscious faith in Christ for salvation and the reality of hell as a permanent place of conscious torment were not as valuable to me as I am quite convinced of those biblical doctrines, but in time the chapters might serve as helpful reference tools, if I have to engage someone who denies those realities. If you read nothing else, read the chapter on prayer. It will likely expose a misuse of your sole means of communicating with God in a way that will both shame and motivate you to know Him better.

Farber’s book, How to Learn Any Language, was definitely the funnest of the three to read. The first third of the book anecdotally makes the case for learning foreign languages—an argument that needs to be read by almost every American. The rest of the book gives strategies for actually learning languages. Some of the strategies, such as the using the Pimsleur Method (which Farber seemed unable stop praising) are too expensive for us to use right now. Others are so out of date that they are no longer available. But overall most of his strategies seemed well thought out, helpful, and attainable. I sure plan to give them a try during language school. If you’ve ever thought about learning another language, or would like to, but think you can’t, read this book.

We are planning to be in Greenville for several weeks while I prepare for ordination. During this time, we intend to revisit churches in the area where we have already had meetings and perhaps to visit a few where we hope to have meetings with in the future. This past Sunday was spent with Emmanuel Bible Church in Mauldin, SC (a church with a heart for God and for the abandoned) and with Romanian Bible Baptist Church in Greenville, SC (a small but delightful group of Romanian believers who have already been very kind to us).

In both services I was asked to give a short update testimony. At Emmanuel, I shared our progress (66%), what God is teaching us (to endure), and when we hope to be in Romania (asap). I shared the same information in the Romanian church but was a little more open about the struggle it has been for us to continue to trust God as we wait on His timing. Then as I was telling my Romanian brothers and sisters how much I loved their people, I nearly cried.

I quickly wrapped up the testimony and sat down. When in my seat, I wondered in amazement why I had had such a strong emotional response. I’m pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve been so emotional in a church meeting. Laurel and I talked about it afterward and came to believe that God simply allowed me to open up in a way that I am not typically inclined to.

After the meeting was over, the pastor shared with me that many times in his life, he has longed and prayed for something for an extended period of time only to have his prayer seem to go unanswered. On those occasions, when he has almost lost all hope and given up in despair, God answered. Why would God do this? Perhaps it’s just to teach us to rely on Him more fully. In any case, our being three years into this process has certainly left us on the precipice of despair. But God’s timing is perfect. His plans are far better than ours, and He is teaching us to continue to trust Him.

JAL

After our meeting with the church was over, Andrew, a seven-year-old boy, helped me take some of our materials to our car. After he helped me pack some other things, we sat down and talked about legos and other nifty toys. As we looked through a catalog, he talked about the different toys that he had, what he was saving up for, and what he thought Athan, our 11 month old son, might be interested in. He told me that he had saved up $7.50 to purchase some additions to his toy castle. I had a good time talking with Andrew and was impressed by the focus he seemed to have on helping others, but before I left God used this boy to completely astound me with His ability to provide.

Having packed up all our belongings, I entered the boys house a final time to say goodbye to everyone. As I walked into the living room, Andrew presented me with $6.25 (out of his total savings of $7.50). What a precious gift. The whole drive home, I considered God’s working in this boy’s heart, God’s faithful provision through unlikely sources, and my responsibility to use God’s resources faithfully.

Laurel accurately compared Andrew’s gift to the gift given by the young boy in the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus miraculously fed five thousand men with the boy’s five barley loaves and two fishes. May the Lord use this $6.25 to spiritually minister to the youth in Romania as He used the little boy’s meager offering of loaves and fishes.

Our family is currently in Ohio. We’re privileged to be with Joshua’s family for Christmas and thrilled to have a meeting at the church he attended when in college, Cornerstone Baptist, the Sunday after Christmas.

Early in December our sending church did a children’s Christmas program in which the children presented monologue testimonies from some of Community’s current missionaries. The paragraphs below are a copy of one of the testimonies from our family. We thought that you might enjoy rejoicing with us through some of the lessons that the Lord has taught us over the last two years.

We all know that God is good, that God is in control of everything and that God answers prayer, right? If you’d asked me those questions two years ago, I definitely would have said, “Of course God is good. Of course He is in control. And of course he answers prayer.” But you know, even though I knew I would say “of course” with my head, a lot of times, my heart was actually whispered slyly in the background, “Well, maybe He’s good sometimes, maybe He’s in control, and maybe He answers prayer.” The reason I know that that’s what my heart was whispering behind the back of my head-knowledge is because my heart was really skilled at a certain activity –worry.

I worried about a lot of things and trust me deputation provides lots of fuel for a worrying mind to keep at a slow burn. I worried about not having money to pay for a trip we had to take to the Emergency Room, about places to stay as we traveled, about putting my foot in my mouth, about the insensitive things people said to me or my husband, about maybe never being able to have a child, about what would happen if our ’89 Buick broke down and died, about no one wanting to partner with us financially because of the economic downturn, about Joshua or Athan or I getting Tuberculosis when we move to Romania, and the list goes on.

You know what? In reference to a lot of the above, there wasn’t much Joshua or I could do to fix those worries and many of them actually happened. We had to cry out to God and actually believe that He was good and in control. And guess what He completely provided for our medical bill, has always been faithful in providing us with places to stay, has taught me humility over that pesky foot that wanders up to my mouth so often, has taught us to care more about what He thinks than what people do, has given us four children –2 in heaven, 1 here with us and 1 on the way, replaced our dying ’89 Buick with a 2005 Toyota Highlander, and has again and again proven Himself bigger than the economy! We haven’t yet moved to Romania and none of us have contracted TB. I hope we don’t but if we do, I know the Lord can provide all we need in sickness or in health.

Now two years after starting pre-field ministry with my husband, I can tell you confidently with my head that God is good, God is in control of everything, and God most definitely answers prayer.