The official at the immigration office indicated that we were granted one-year visas rather than the three-year visas because our rental contract is only for one year. If we owned a home or had signed a five-year rental agreement, we would have been granted a longer visa. Please pray for us as we continue to serve, trust, and learn how to serve the Lord here in Romania. We are happy to be here legally now.

Well, at least four of us our happy to be here. We’re not quite sure what to make of Athan’s expression. It just seems to be begging a laugh.  Caption suggestions are welcome.

Promised help
But as all of this had been hitting us and beating us down externally, the Comforter was and continues to patiently work and faithfully minister to us internally.  Scripture passages have been flooding our minds.

Jeremiah 12:5 —”If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? — really put into perspective our light trials. Sure, the week had been exhausting and perhaps we hadn’t been treated in the most ethical way, but Christians through the ages and all over the world have endured and are enduring much, much worse for Jesus’ sake. The Holy Spirit has and is enabling them to complete with horses. We are merely in the foot race and yes, we are wearied, but He is there to help us and to grow us until we are strong enough to contend with the chariots. May that day come.

Matthew 9:37-38 —”Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’”—reminded us that there’s a reason Jesus called his servants laborers. There’s a whole lot of exhausting and rather thankless work that must be done, and there truly aren’t enough people doing it. But the labor is worth the sweat and the tears. The harvest is a promise!

Palms 126:5 – 6 —”Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” There have been tears. And there will be many more, but the contrast of the memory of those tears will only intensify the euphoria of those certain shouts of joy when we parade home with our golden and eternal sheaves.

Intercession of the Saints
So at our lowest point so far the Holy Spirit has buoyed our spirits and strengthened our resolve. He has also used fellow Christians to encourage and reinvigorate us. Two families wrote this week to tell us that we are regularly in their prayers. They try to pray for us daily. The knowledge of their labor on our behalf has been like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert. We often feel so alone here. But we are not alone. The Comforter is with us and the prayers of the saints are strengthening us carrying us forward when our human strength fails us. Praise the Lord with us.  And please keep praying. We are counting on you.

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.

Joshua met with a group of Christian businesspeople near Spartanburg, SC on Friday afternoon to explain our vision for Romania. One woman picked us up for support, another man is planning to share our DVD presentation with his Sunday School class and church, and a third man who was already supporting us committed to make up our remaining support difference for the next 12 months! We still need to raise a permanent 12% financial support, but what a blessing to know that while we are in Romania for this first term that we are starting out at 100 %. The Lord is such a good Father and his timing for provision is perfect.

The Spotted Event
We are also resting in the truth of God’s perfect timing for our spotted event. Although it is a bit more challenging to understand why Friday afternoon was the perfect time for Vivian to come down with the Chicken Pox, we do believe that it was. The Chicken Pox complicate our plans to leave on Wednesday a bit. For good reason, United Air has a policy against kids with Chicken Pox flying, so we’re waiting for an OK from the doctor that she is not contagious. In the mean time, we’re proceeding with our packing and finalization of details as if we are departing tomorrow at noon. But at the same time we are aware that we may have to reschedule. Please pray that we will be content with whatever God decides is best for us.

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.

As we continue engage in pre-field ministry, the most important element for achieving success is a faithful walk with God. But as we walk with Him, God graciously uses people to encourage us along the way. Recently, we revisited the Romanian church in Greenville, SC and received some welcome encouragement. God seems to use the very physical presence of Romanian believers to energize me toward serving in Romania. But in addition to the general fellowship, I was given the surprise opportunity to share from God’s word, we were given over a dozen eggs from a family in the church, and we were asked to pray for the church’s growth so that they would be able to take us on for support.

The love that God has laid on my heart and the encouragement reciprocated by the Romanian believers serve as a much needed shot in the arm, reconfirming God’s desire for us to serve in Romania.