The checklist includes but is not limited to, securing visas, setting up language lessons, finding housing, moving into that housing, hopefully recruiting a few musicians for the church, assuring the brothers and sisters at Bereea that Pastor Howerton and Joshua are on the same team, praying for a smooth transition, learning the ropes of the ministries Pastor Howerton wants us to maintain, finding the children a preschool program, teaching me to drive a stick-shift, learning how and where to pay bills (you can’t just mail a check in), and many, many other things.

The checklist for the next three week seems even more daunting, and I’ve  broken down into tears more than once as we try to sort through what to take, what to store, what to ship if we ship etc, and see friends and family for the last time for a long time. In the midst of the whirlwind of activity, the Lord has been such a faithful shepherd supplying both physically and spiritually. On the physical side of things He sent Jessica, Joshua’s sister to be with us for the next nine months primarily to free me up for language study, but she’s already been such a blessing and help as we start to transition. And He’s provided above and beyond what we expected for our outgoing expenses. We are so grateful for the financial gifts from both friends and anonymous donors that keep rolling in. It’s hard to plan financially as the dollar seems to shift in value daily. What a comfort it is to know that God knows ahead of time exactly what we need and that He, as our heavenly Father, fully intends to care and provide for us.

Spiritually, the Lord has recently made His word come alive with encouragement and promises. Two Sundays ago the message was on Joshua 1:8-9 where God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous, not fearful or dismayed as He faces the giants and walled cities of Canaan. And the reason for this command is found earlier in the chapter. God has promised success for those following His clear will as outlined in His Word. How my fearful and dismayed heart needed this reminder. God is so faithful.

Please continue to pray for  us. We need your prayers and are so grateful for your ministry to us in this way.

Laurel Louk

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 were reminded of just how challenging understanding and adapting to a different culture is when early this week Dr. Kevin Bauder posted a summary of his recent trip to participate in a Romanian seminary’s graduation ceremony on SharperIron.

While we were delighted to learn of the work that God is doing through this seminary, some of Dr. Bauder’s statements made Joshua and I say, “Hum, that’s different from what so and so said. Which information is correct?”

For example, can it really be true that communism kept liberal theology away from Romanian Baptists when Unitarians were fleeing to and establishing Romanian parishes as far back as the 1560s? And do Romanian Baptist pastors as a whole really view non-registered churches under the auspices of a “religious associations” as “deceitful and unethical? etc.”

While the first question may possibly be more a matter of semantics and defining terms than anything else, a missionary planning to enter a foreign culture must wrestle with and pin down the second question. His integrity rests on his ability to come to the truth.

Because we are currently in sunny Florida far away from my favorite place to do research –good ol’ Mack library — our resources for attempting to synthesize the conflicting information are a bit scant. But hey, there’s always that scholarly source,  Wikipedia.

My internet searches turned up less info than I hoped for (and yes, I did look further than Wikipedia), but enough to provide me with even more questions than I had started with.  Oh, the thrill of the academic hunt!

I don’t plan to abandon my search for the truth. But it does seem that the further you delve into a foreign culture especially when you are dependent on third party interpreters who are usually English speaking Americans that you have to be able to dust away the American perspective that coats all of the “facts” they generously provide.

This is an area where we need much wisdom. Especially since our own brains are also coated with a thick layer of thirty years worth of American dust. So even as we try to brush away the cultural dust of others our own dust settles on top of the newly cleaned “facts” that we are trying to synthesize.

Oh, for the day when we understand Romanian. It will make studying and understanding at least a little less grimy.

We are excited that just this week we were able to connect with a Romanian church plant in Greenville, SC and to set up an initial meeting with Pastor Aurel Keew when we return to our base in a couple of weeks. This contact thrills us. We are hoping that Pastor Keew and the members of his congregation will help up more accurately understand questions like the above from a more direct Romanian perspective.

So as we add even more “facts” and opinions to our growing collection of Romanian cultural understanding please pray that the Lord will grant us a supernatural understanding of what is truly happening in the Romanian church and that we will be able to act on that knowlege in a biblical way that will help His church grow in a way that above all pleases Him.

The video has already been used for God’s glory, and we hope that its presence on the website will serve as a greater tool for accomplishing His will.

You can access the video by clicking on the video tab or by clicking here.

Passing the Baton was an excellent book that greatly transformed my thinking about missions work. Steffen argues that missionaries must approach their work with a plan to leave. Planning to phaseout from the beginning empowers nationals to become self-replicating Christian leaders. A second theme that impressed me was Steffen’s emphasis on missionaries earning the right to teach truth by first becoming students and servants of the culture the Lord puts them in.

The Bruised Reed was difficult to read because of the archaic language, but it was highly devotional, and I believe that it will aid us in ministry to many young bruised reeds, hurting children with a misunderstanding of the biblical truth of who God is, in Romania.

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ was an enjoyable and challenging look into the life and nature of Jesus Christ. Especially awe-inspiring to me was the chapter on the wisdom of Christ.

The accomplishment of these small goals reassures us that faithfulness pays off. The larger goals of scheduling fifty meetings for the year is in sight. And more importantly, God can (and we trust will) get us to Romania soon so that we will serve Him there, obeying His will and accomplishing even more goals for His glory.

We are so thankful that Demelza Jarrett worked so hard and long to produce the DVD for us before we left South Carolina. She was a blessing from the Lord.

In addition to the DVDs that we intend to share at the conference, twenty-five DVDs have already been sent out to complete packets sent earlier this month.

Only the meeting at our home church had been scheduled on the fourth, but the number of scheduled meetings rose to five by end of last week. This week God has given us the opportunity to rest in Him without the instant gratification of a lot of newly scheduled meetings. Today we were finally able to schedule our sixth meeting.

Just when we were beginning to wonder if last week was some kind of fluke, God reminds us that we are well cared for.

Special thanks to D. S. Moses Nickerson for patiently designing, redesigning, and further tweaking the card. Thanks also goes to the anonymous, generous people who covered the cost of printing our first 1000 cards, and to God who moved these people to help us this way.

If you wish to receive a prayer card, please send us an e-mail. In the subject line write “prayer card request,” and then write your mailing address in the body of the e-mail.

May the Lord use this for His glory.

In the midst of the talk, our first official church meeting was set up. It will be at Community on January 16, 2008. Praise the Lord! Just one meeting makes us feel so much closer to the goal than we were just yesterday.

We have begun and will continue sending off e-mails to people we know, asking them to put us in contact with churches in Ohio, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. And after Thanksgiving weekend, I will take the plunge into calling pastors and churches to set up meetings.