Pressing On...

So, it doesn't quite look this way here yet, but we are quickly approaching winter in this traditionally cold place. We have all thoroughly enjoyed the time and weather God has given us, but now we must make the transition to the cold, gray season of post-Communist winter. You may be wondering, "What about fall?" Well, we tend to skip that season as we like to jump right into the misery that is bitter cold mixed with towering, colorless apartment buildings.
Although, if you don't let the natural get to you, the beauty of God's creation can really shine through. It's a wonderful thing!
In more news, school started last week, one week before the Romanian public schools. It has been incredible! 24 students from 12 different countries! Excuse my repeated exclamation marks, but I am truly excited! The staff here has an incredible unity, 3 different churches represented by the staff alone. We are all excited about what God is doing here and we are ready for the challenges that come with this great call that we've been called to.
Please, keep us in prayer as we start with many new projects. We are opening our after-school programs to the public. It's a great opportunity to get the Gospel out under the guise of teaching English. Also, we are looking for a new building to move to next year so that we can also get registered by Romania as an International School operating in Romania. These are all big projects, but we know that God has enough strength for us.
We also have a plethora of people planning to visit the church and school here. P.Barry Quirk, the Director of the GGIS in Budapest and also KETA, the Bible School, is planning on coming in mid-November with his wife. P.Pierre-Andre Gigon, the pastor of the Greater Grace Church in Geneva, Switzerland, is also planning to visit us. Keep these men and their plans in prayer.
And finally, keep the team in prayer. The guys have a few repairs we have to make on the house we live, along with replacing a few appliances (the washing machine leaks and electrocutes us when we try to change the loads). Just pray that we get good prices on not only the work and appliances, but that God would provide the finances to do this.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and keeping us in your prayers. We'll keep you updated and God Bless!

Being a part of Super-History

Every single day of lives something "historic" happens. What I mean is that every day something happens that we can look back at that moment and say, "That was part of my history." We have the saying, "This is history in the making!" When something truly amazing happens to us. Even though we can always look back at this, there is something we always miss, "Super-History." Super-History happens all the time, but for some reason we tend to look only at our history. I think this is a great example of the spiritual warfare going on. Imagine, we go to church service feeling depressed because we just got a speeding ticket the day before. When we think back to that day before, we do not remember the great time we had on outreach, or the souls won to Christ, we can only think about the ticket we got and what we could have done to change the situation. I can't believe what the devil gets away with.
When we look at Romania in January of 1990, all we see is the fall of Communism, the death of Ceaucescu, and maybe even what "good" it would do for these people. Very few people can seem to remember what that government did to preachers like Richard Wurmbrand, and that preachers like him would now be freely able to share the Gospel!
Continue to pray for us. That we would be a part of Super-History every day and that the Lord would fill us with only these thoughts and desires. We covet and thank you for your prayers. Until the next time, God Bless.

More to Come...

It's been a while since my last post so I wanted to update the situation. I came back to the States in the middle of May to graduate from Maryland Bible College and Seminary with my Bachelors in Missions. It's been over a month and I am starting to prepare to go back. I will go back in the end of this month in order to start making preparations for school. I am going to go there before everyone comes from the States so that I can get a little of a vacation!
Anyways, we just had our International Convention in Baltimore, MD. What a time it was! Meeting with people from all over the world and fellowshipping in the Son. The messages were astounding. The theme "Here We Stand," has such power in that thought. Pastors and Missionaries from all over the world preaching the grace Gospel of Jesus! Just to much to explain with words.
Keep me in prayer as I am now getting ready to go back to Romania. Also, a few others to keep in prayer: Cliff Olson as he comes in August to teach for another year, Yvonne Freeman who is planning on coming to teach and work with the church, P.Mark Knowles who was so moved by God during his visit to Brasov that he is coming for the year to work with the church, and also Sean Ryan who is coming for one year to be in school and be a part of Team Romania! And any others who are praying about coming, for their finances, safety, health, travel, and all these sorts of things.
Keep our travel in prayer, we are making some plans to go certain places; Germany for Thanksgiving, Finland for the New Years Conference, Switzerland, Greece, Moldova, Hungary, and wherever else the Lord would bring us!
Please keep us in prayer and until next time, grace and peace be with you all!

Conferences, KFCs, and Revolutions

It has been almost a month now since the end of EuroCon. And we were just so built up by the messages and fellowship. It was such an awesome time for the Romanian church. There were over 60 people there from Romania! God spoke to us greatly during this time, imparting supernatural wisdom for situations and speaking a Word in season to us that was so timely for all here.
We also had our own conference here in Romania, we called it RomaniaCon. Not very original, but we weren't looking to be. P.Stan Collins, P.David Stambovsky, Istvan Pirger, and Mat Laflamme were just a few of our speakers. We had a variety of subjects from Missions to Relationships, all while considering our theme, Luke 16:10 "He who is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much."
It is a great thought for our Christian lives, to often we just want something. Not necessarily something bad, just something. I love that in the Bible God never calls us to anything, but Him (Mark 8:34, 35, Hebrews 5:4,5). I love it when I can wake up in the morning and hear God's voice calling me. He wants to leave me with no options. It would be easy for me to change something by doing it, changing it myself, but the effect would only be temporal. Recently here we had a Bible study with Shane Richardson, a missionary from Budapest, Hungary. I was supposed to be preaching at a Youth meeting, but I was the youngest one there! We preached about Barabbas and Jesus. Even before dying, Jesus was redeeming people! Here was Barabbas, a convicted criminal, a murderer, a thief, and who knows what else he did, but at the moment he was free. It was impossible for him not to have been! Revelation 13:8 says that He is "the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." Barabbas was redeemed because of this promise! Maybe he was on a balcony with Pilate and Jesus in front of the Jews and Pilate asked which one he should let go. The power to redeem wasn't Pilates, it wasn't the people who screamed for Barabbas to be let go, but it was in the Promise of God. It was so encouraging, to be reminded of the power of the Promise.
When Pastor Stan Collins was here he said something so simple but so true, "The grace message is the balanced message." This is an awesome thought, and it was one of the thoughts about the message with Jesus and Barabbas. We have it all with the grace message. People to often go around trying to balance out the grace message. They say there is forgiveness, but the same people won't forgive a "repeat offender." "He had his chance and he blew it, we gave him grace, but he didn't want it." That's there balance. We brought this up in the "Youth Study." They try to balance everything in the grace message, they become to pratical, they think God can't do anything without them and their great skills. These people are only trying to steal the glory from God for themselves. You know who did that first? Satan. Remember? He thought that he should be greater then God because he thought his plan was better. It's an incredible thought, we call these people all sorts of things, legalistic or works people or anything (insert name here). All they are really after is God's glory. Wurmbrand writes about this in his book "My Correspondence with Jesus." He reads Hebrews 6:6 and decides that he is going to be the one to stop Jesus from being "crucified afresh." Later into the book he sees what a foolish plan this is, Jesus doesn't need our help to stop His Crucifixion, this is what Peter thought and tried to do in the Garden. God receives the glory through His Son's crucifixion. We should never try to take that away from Him.

Finally in close to this post, please keep our brothers and sisters in Moldova in prayer. If you have not heard, there is a revolution going on at this moment in Moldova. It is so interesting watching the reports from a country where this only happened here 20 years ago. The rioting in the streets, the destruction of property, the cry against Communism, it is to familiar to the people here in Romania. So please keep them in prayer and if you would like any info on the subject, please go to www.unimedia.info for news in regards to the revoultion. Until next time, may God bless you.

Finding Meat in a Milkshake

"But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And the Lord be with you as he has been with my father." - 1 Samuel 20:13

"Now Jonathan again caused David to vow because he loved him; for he loved him as as he loved his own soul" - 1 Samuel 20:17

Don't let the title fool you. This will not be a disgusting story of eating traditions in Romania, we'll save that for a later post. This is merely the tale of how I found a word in season for my life while attempting to take away from God what is rightfully His, glory and praise. The way it started was from me being ill-prepared to teach a morning Chapel class at the school. I was in one of the classrooms before school opened just praying that God would give me something. Doctrinal and complex, but also simple and edifying, I mean, I preaching to 10 year olds! I saw Kim reading a devotional on his computer, and I just decide to take the verses I saw at the top of the page and run with it. As I was reading the verses to the kids I thought, "man, this is actually an incredible story, this is like really, really good." Then I started explaining it, the irony of the story. Two friends, a shepherd and a prince, where they pretty much just switch places (I wonder where "The Prince and the Pauper" came from???). It was more than that. This is more then just a story of how to be a good friend. The devil loves it when I don't give the credit that is due to the only One worthy of receiving any credit. In this simple story there is enough doctrine for me to eat for years. Why would I think that a simple Chapel class for children shouldn't move me from the puddle that I'm in into a river of sound Bible doctrine. It's these kind of thoughts that allow me to thank God for people who decide to support the work here, but to blame Him for the trial of having to need that support.
I was reading Wurmbrand recently and he said something that hit me. He said something along these lines, "As death is the name given to an experience by people who don't know how to ressurect, so may trials be the name given to a glorious experience by those who don't know how to turn tears into pearls and wear them in the glorious crown of Christ." Now, I may have changed a few words, but I think you get the idea. Why didn't God remove the thorn from Paul's side? The thorn brought him to a place where his heart was after God. No one wants to go through a trial, but do I want to get to know God? If the answer is yes, shouldn't this be my pursuit? Shouldn't I give up everything, go through anything, and accept nothing less? There has to be a goal for us. Whether it is to get to know God or something else is my own choice, but, if it's the former, there can be nothing else that distracts me. Not my fear of pain, death, or trials. My eyes are fixed on the eternal, and I won't sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the immediate. This is what I see from Jonathan and David. Yes, maybe the story could teach me to be a better friend; yes, it could teach me character, or any one of a dozen moral ideas. I'm not interested in being a moral person, or even being a moral Christian. Morality is just the world's imitation of eternal life. They can never have it without Christ, so they make this, being a good person. What good is trying to be a good person if I have everything working against me? I was born a bad person, I have lived my life as a bad person, and I will die a bad person. If you want to know the difference just add 'trying to be good,' to the end of each phrase. On the other hand I can now say this, "I was born a bad person, He died, I live." That's it, I love it. I will end this the way that Richard Wurmbrand ends each chapter in his book "My Correspondance with Jesus." So until the next time we speak, I have a lot to ponder.
Oh, and just in case anybody is wondering what I am looking at in this picture, here it is:

Mission Trip to Moldova

That's us. In the picture there. Team Romania. This picture was taken in February in Chisinau Moldova. Since then we've had one new member to our team, Donna Perry. For anyone who doesn't know, Moldova is the country to the east of Romania. Just to give you an idea of the place, they were given their freedom in the early 90's and followed that up with having the first free elections the country had ever seen. They elected a Communist President. The tallest guy in the picture, that's Igor. He lives in the Moldovan countryside. Every weekend he hops on a bus with a small bag, some food his wife makes him, and all the other people, chickens, and whatever else they fit on the bus and heads to Chisinau, the capital. He only lives around 300 kilometers away, but it takes around 6 hours for him to get there. For those of us who can't translate this into miles, it's maybe 180 miles. That means the bus is going an average of 30 m.p.h the entire time! The entire church there is filled with people like this. Just imagine a country where a police officer makes $250 a month!!! Imagine one of these people getting saved, and the glory God gets from this. It's amazing!!! Well, that trip was almost a month ago. We are now back to working in the Greater Grace International School. Keep us in prayer, many students are leaving for many different reasons. We know God has a plan, but we are sad to see them go. Now we look ahead to EuroCon '09 and for the first time ever, RomaniaCon '09. We missionaries coming from everywhere preaching for the week after EuroCon. Keep that in prayer as we have many other Christians not in our church who will be attending and of course many unsaved people. Also keep in prayer the Youth night every Friday which we just started a couple weeks ago. Last Friday we had 16 people there! This Friday, Mike Brown will be preaching, even though I don't think he knows it yet. Keep Mike and Pastor Shibley in prayer as they get here the Friday before EuroCon (this Friday!) and spend a few days with us. Keep Pastor Stan Collins, Pastor David Stambovsky, Istvan Pirger, and Mat Laflamme (just to name a few) in prayer as they are all planning to come to Romania after the conference and will be just a few of our speakers for RomaniaCon '09. I ask everyone to keep the team here in prayer, our health, spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental, our finances especially, and our new oppurtunities in ministry. Many exciting things happening here, we're so glad we get to be the vessel God uses. Until next time...