God never binds Himself to work within the limitations of our expectations. In fact, He seems to delight in working in gloriously unpredictable ways. When we began to work toward going to Romania, some advised us that missions support was drifting away from flowing exclusively through the church and that we would be wise to focus on cultivating individual partnerships alongside church partnerships. However, others advised that church support is generally more stable than individual support and that we should seek to keep most of our support weighted towards churches. This left us in a bit of a conundrum.

We asked God for wisdom, and at the beginning of pre-field ministry, we focused exclusively on raising church partnerships. While we were doing this, God moved also moved individuals to take us on. And over the last three years we have not found our partnering individuals to be unreliable at all. On the contrary, our partners are passionate about how God is leading us to minister in Romania and are committed, often sacrificially, to sticking with us for God’s glory in Romania. Now that we recognize the tremendous potential of individual support, we focus on fostering both kinds of partnerships. Our current support level is made up of  46% individual support and 54% church support.

Taking a closer look at our thirty-seven ongoing, individual partners reveals a surprising mosaic of demographic backgrounds.

• We knew eighteen of our partners very well before deputation.
• However, we have yet to meet eight of our partners.
• While we don’t know what each partner does for a living, here is some of what we do know. Our partners include 4 educators, 4 in medical related jobs, 2 in camp ministry (from two different Christian camps), 1  pastor,  3 missionaries (each working with a different board), 1 farmer, 1 military airman, 4 retirees, 1 truck driver, 2 in marketing, 1 graduate student, and 1 middle school student.

Do you detect any kind of pattern here? We certainly cannot. And while it is true that people often support those whom they have built a relationship with. The diversity of our partners shows that even that statement is a gross generality. So who supports missions? People sensitive to God’s leading in their lives, support the missionaries God directs them to. There is no salary requirement, no employment specialty, no common background, and no blazing message in the sky. As you pray for God to provide for and work through the missionaries God has knit to your heart, perhaps God will answer your prayer by prompting you to give.

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How?

If God prompts you to give to the Romanian ministry, please visit our support page to view different support options.

Yet God has been providing. After no increases in support for several months, He rocketed us up to nearly 70%. And today he provided a special blessing to remind us of His loving care for us.

Before heading off to cloister myself for study, I ran to the store to pick up some milk and a few other items. When the cashier rang me up, I reached into my pocket and discovered that I did not have my wallet. I told the cashier that I would have to come back to pay for my items, and to my surprise, the lady in line behind me piped up and stated that she would buy my items for me.

Jesus teaches us to pray “give us this day our daily bread.” Today God gave us our daily milk through the kindness of a complete stranger.

Joyce wrote:

“Joyce Howerton is looking for/praying about a homeschool partner in crime…I could really use some assistance. If you are interested in serving in Romania for a year or two or longer let me know and I will give you more details!

our dream home

We have located a modest, well-maintained, functional, and reasonably priced home for sale near Lugoj. The home has a kitchen, one bathroom, two bedrooms, a small living area, a very small room off the kitchen that could be used as a school room or a laundry room, and an annex room (not attached to the house) that could be used as an office for Joshua. The house also has a barn attached that could be turned into additional bedrooms if the Lord sees fit to grow our family someday. Another advantage of this home is the courtyard area and land out back which could be used for ministry activity during the summer months. And to top it all off, the sellers are including all of their furniture with the sale of the house.

The price for the house is reasonable because the home is located in a village near Lugoj instead of actually being in the city. If we were to look in the city, prices for similar pieces of property could easily run as high as $300,000.

The only problem is that, as reasonable as the price is, we do not have a lump sum of 55,000 € ($78,000) in our pockets.

If we were buying a home in America, we would seek to take out a home loan. However, as Americans seeking to purchase a house in Romania, we are finding ourselves in an awkward situation with regard to financing. American banks are not willing to give home loans to those buying overseas. That roadblock would logically lead one to seek financing in Romania. But the Romanian banks are not willing to give home loans to people who earn their income outside the country. This double denial leaves us in financial limbo.

Our first response to this situation has been and will continue to be prayer. In our human wisdom, this home seems perfect, but it may be that God has a different plan. Above all, we want the Lord’s will for our housing. In my prayers about this matter, I have been very open with God about my desire for this house, but my heart is willing to live elsewhere if that is what God chooses.

We are seeking to find a solution, and if anyone knows of any other responsible financing options, please let us know. In the mean time, please join us in prayer about this matter. God knows if this house is best for us, and He can provide if He chooses. Please pray that however He leads, we will follow willingly and that our faith will grow.

We found plenty of homes that will not work and a few that might. Tomorrow we hope to go inside the few that I’m interested in and to find out how much they cost. Some of the pictures of the many houses we looked at can be seen below.

Please pray for wisdom and that God provides in a faith building way. Laurel and I are getting excited about the possibility of having a home here, but we don’t want to act on our own and regret things later.

Please pray that God will use this time to show us how to proceed. Please pray also that we will trust Him for all our needs.

This week’s to-do list:

this baby really enjoyed feeling my prickly face

The baby hospital is working hard to make the best of a difficult situation. Many things had improved since Laurel’s and my visit in 2007. The walls were more colorful, painted mostly with Disney characters. The babies had more toys to play with. And it seemed like the babies were being picked up more often than before. However, the staff member from Livada who was regularly visiting the hospital, has moved back to England; there were more babies in the hospital this time than there were last time; and when we arrived at the hospital, the babies were all just in their cribs.

We really enjoyed holding the babies. But there is so much more that can be done. Please pray that God opens doors for us to minister in the hospitals in Lugoj. Currently, they do not allow any foreigners in with the babies.

We are rejoicing in how God prepared our hearts for her demise. During the second service on Sunday our pastor preached from Matthew 6: 19-33 about the sin of worrying. The Lord used the sermon to remind us of several truths.

1. Worrying is sin. We must not indulge in it.

2. Our Buick was His car. He can do what He wants with it.

3. We are His servants, and we are in need of transportation to obey Him, but this is not something to worry about.

3. He’s the best employer in the universe. He will provide. There is nothing to worry about.

We are excited to see how the Lord will provide for this need, and are completely confident that although not having a vehicle seems to put quite the damper on pre-field ministry, that the situation isn’t even the slightest bit challenging to our almighty God.

At 11:15 last night, our ’89 Buick failed us for the first time. It had to be towed to the shop, and a mechanic will look at it on Monday. We knew this day would come, but with our loukling due in February our car couldn’t have chosen a more inconvenient time to get sick. We’re really hoping its prognosis isn’t terminal. No matter how much time dear old Betsy has left, we’re trusting that this is all a part of the Lord’s plan.

• Please pray for wisdom to make the right decisions with our vehicle.

• Please pray that we would obey Philippians 2:14 and cheerfully embrace God’s plan without question.