Pastor Jay //

We made it home just fine. Our transportation to the airport arrived on Monday at 4:30 am. (That’s 8:30 pm, Sunday, Missouri time!) While we were at the airport, I ran into an old friend, Cristi Chivu, who is now a pastor in Brailla, Romania. I had not seen him in more than 10 years. He was bringing another group into the airport to send them home.

Travel home went along without a hitch, except for two things: Nancy was questioned on her passport at Bucharest, because the entry stamp had been smeared and I lost a peice of luggage between Bucharest and Atlanta (later recovered). Other than that it was an uneventful 24 hour trip home. We had a warm welcome waiting for us at KCI by our families. It is good to be home. I think I am just about to get past the jet-lag. I have been gaining about 2 hours a day. At this point, I only pass-out around 8pm.

I have many more pictures and stories to tell. So, stay tuned…

We arrived in Bucharest in time to get back in the van and see the city some. Then we ate dinner with Larry Carnes - the director of IMB work in Romania - and his wife Peggy. It was a nice evening. It is now about 12:30 am and the alarm clock is set to go off in 3.5 hours to leave for the airport. We are looking forward to heading home. More later. (After I get home probably)

I am not sure what the internet connections will be like as we travel over the next two days. We will be going into the Carpathian Mountains to see Brasov, Risnov, Bran (dracula’s castle), Peles Castle, Sinai, etc. This team has earned a well deserved recouperation and debriefing, before I take them home. Thank you for your prayers. See you soon.

You might enjoy these videos. They are in QuickTime format.

Team Report on Thursday to Vacation Bible School

Children Singing

 

 

Ski-es un spatale burche lui Isus. Translated: I’m skiing behind Jesus boat.

I doubt if I spelled all of that correctly, but I aimed phoenetically. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. Today, we loaded up and went to a new town called Focsani (foak - shon). There we met a young pastor names Iulian. Many stories filtered down to me from the street visits as the teams of two or three (one translator and one or two Americans) walked through the neighborhoods. Iulian and I made enough contacts just on our route for 4 follow-up Bible studies and even had time to meet back up with one and have a lesson.

Landon shared a story about he and Carrie’s team meeting up with a group of boys and sharing the evang-a-cube with them. When he got to the time of decision, he asked them individually if they wanted to accept Christ. Each of them said, “Maybe.” So, he reminded them that “maybe” meant “no” and moved on. The rounded another corner and found another group. While talking with that group one of the other boys came on his bike and did a complete 180 sliding and stopped directly in front of Landon saying, “I’m interested. Tell me that prayer again.” He prayed to receive Christ right there in front of those other boys.

We were so tired by dinner time. In fact, the pastor and I left the dinner table before it was served because of that lesson appointment. When we returned and finished dinner, there was only 30 minutes left before we had to leave town. We went back out and immediately came upon a senior adult lady by herself on a park bench. There were probably 150 people out with their families at the time, but she was alone. We stopped and she seemed extremely interesed. She was evidently a woman of great faith in God, but she did not know where she would spend eternity. I was able to share with her many verses from the Bible and the meaning of salvation. I shared with her that salvation was a gift, not something that you have to earn. During the conversation, she confided in us that she had come to the park to pray. She had been sitting on that bench for an hour asking God to give her peace. She then said that she was confident that God had sent us to her. There was no doubt in her mind. She did not receive the gift of salvation, but I asked her to accept my invitation to study the Bible more with Iulian. They are meeting tomorrow night in the park at 6:00 pm. Please pray for Maria that she will understand that her sins are already paid for on the cross. She does not have to seek God’s pleasure anymore in the hope of salvation. She can have the gift of eternal life guaranteed right now.

 

We have had quite a bit of activity on the website over the last few days. I thought you might find these stats interesting. Notice the change in activity after Sunday, July 9.

 

Blogging will fall shy of the impact of today. For one thing, it is 1:00 am and I am falling asleep as I write this. I can tell you that I had two incredible home visits today with new families. One meeting was with Mihai and I took another Mihai with me.

I was just amazed that I had the opportunity to share the message with these families that was shared with my grandfather in a similar way 50 years ago.

Got to go to sleep. We have a big day tomorrow in a new town.

 

Why don’t we do this at home? Normally on Wednesday night or Sunday night we are at church. Tonight we went out and hit the streets. I had a couple of fairly good encounters. Dragos and I made contact with a whole group of youth.

Some of them really listened even though the others were making jokes and laughing. We are meeting them again at 3:30 tomorrow to have a Bible study. We will see who was serious. After meeting this group and having a great discussion with them. We went to the left and down the lane. At the end on the corner a middle aged man was standing there and we had a wonderful talk with him. He was a very nice man named Viorel (spelling?). We made plans to return for a study. As he walked away a young man began talking with us. It turned out to be the son of the other. His name is Ionutz (sp?). I was amazed by his heart for God. He truly wanted to follow God and serve Him. We talked about how serving God begins with a relationship. It is not something that we earn or buy - it is a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). We had a wonderful talk. I am looking forward to seeing him at the study tomorrow around 4:00 or 4:30.

Ionutz is on the left. Pray for all those we talked with today. So far I have 3 studies scheduled for tomorrow. Thank you for praying. Your prayers helped me find Ion.

 

I thought  it would be interesting to look back at the picutures from the last two visits (October 2004 and September 2005) and see what connections I could make.

This was that first trip in ‘04. We had no idea what we were getting into.

This was the trip where we learned that mission teams are like ugly scaffolding. It serves its purpose for a time, but the goal is to move away and let the building stand on its own.

Lanny met Catalin (2d from left) on a Sunday afternoon and hit with some of the players. The two girls on the left have hit with Lanny all three years. They are nationally ranked. Today he hit with Romania’s #1 twelve year old girl tennis player

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Then in 2005, we had Dragos (l) and Oana (m) as translators. Vali (r) helped us the first year.

 

This was our team.

Lanny and Catalin are becoming good friends.

David has been discipling Bogdon and Nancy and Carrie have been encouraging him and his wife Paula.

This woman was in church this Sunday. It was the first study we did in the Valley. People from the valley don’t normally come to church at Holy Trinity, but this woman has hardly missed a Sunday and is currently in baptism classes.

There are many benefits to returning to the same area year after year. At some point, like the scaffolding, we will need to move on to another area as God leads.

 

 

We decided that it would more theologically correct to behind saying that we are skiiing behind God’s boat. Following His lead.

We spend two hours at a time on the streets three times a day: 9-11am; 3-5pm; and 7-9pm. Each time we go out it is difficult to realize what God has accomplished until we all come back to the supermarket parking lot and begin sharing what happened. Today was one of those days for me. I didn’t talk to anyone that wanted to hear any scripture. However, we happened to meet little Mihai’s mother at the grocery store. I asked her if I could come to her home and give a Bible study. She agreed with interest. I also met Mihai’s father a few minutes later. I had to remind myself that this was the goal: not to get instant results, but to develop long term relationships that the nationals can follow up.

Here are some picture from Whitney’s camera:

Yes, Michele, I can wash clothes The water is black from my dirty socks.

Whitney and Oana leading a Bible Club. They just met these children yesterday.

We have been having lunch on our own at the hotel: left-over pizza from yesterday and some Romanian bread with really delicious lunch meat that I had sliced at a small market store.

At this moment, we are all on an afternoon break. Most of the group decided to walk down the street and do some sightseeing and shopping (of course). We are having a great time and getting to know one another very well. Landon will switch with David so that he can go to the valley tomorrow am. The rest of us are working in zone 9. We are not only witnessing to the people, but we are able to do a great deal of discipleship with the nationals that are translating. The discipleship will bear great fruit in the years to come. We don’t live here - they do and they can carry on the work that was begun.