Pastor Jay //

 

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.

  Amazing story #1: Nancy and Carrie had met a lady in the neighborhood walking that just seemed very down. As it turns out she is due to deliver her first child any day. The father wants nothing to do with the baby, her family has told her she has to leave the house, and a c-section is scheduled for Friday. She speaks great English and even read from an English NT while they talked. That was yesterday. Today, her boyfriend was willing to talk with us, the baby is being delivered in the morning (Wednesday) and they did the second Bible study with her this evening (The Woman at the Well). Better yet, the team was trying a new area and stopped along the way only to look up and realize that they were at here house this morning. So, they went to her apt and she wept when they came by.

  Amazing story #2: David and Mihai went back to the Valley today to meet with Danutz’ father Nicolai. While they are there Danutz and 3 friends came and they all listened to David’s testimony and did the Bible study with one of the friends reading. After they left, Mihai explained to Troy on the phone and David that those guys were people normally wouldn’t want to listen. They were reading the scriptures and interested in the gospel. Amazing! Miraculous!

  Amazing story #3: Yesterday we were heading into zone 9 and met a guy that was at church Sunday. He had been introduced to the whole church as a new believer that was just released from prison. This was his first Sunday in church. As it turns out, he lives in zone 9. When we saw him today I invited him to tag along on our visits. He soaked it up like a sponge. I am amazed at how much this young man has learned from the Bible in such a short time. He is on fire. In God’s infinite wisdom, he orchestrated the lives of all of these people so that we would meet at church on the very same day. (pictured below (l-r): hostess, lady from church, Mihai, myself) The hostess on the left has been having the Church Starts International Bible Studies in her home for 4 weeks. Tonight we shared lesson 5 together. In the People Who Knew Jesus study, lesson 5 is the Nicodemus story and it is the now it is time to get saved lesson. She prayed to receive Christ moments before this picture was taken. The second lady is one of the women in this zone that has been praying for a church to be planted for some time. She has been leading this lady in Bible study for several weeks and they have been friends for 14 years. Amazing!

Other pictures:

 

Meeting, getting ready to go out and witness.

Running into Mihai on the street Monday. (l-r: Lanny, Big Mihai who is the coordinator for Zone 9, Little Mihai who is a new believer, Dragos - my translator and friend from last year, and me behind the camera)

Waiting for the elevator at Mihai’s apt. in Zone 9.

This was so out of character, I just had to get a picture. I also saw him journaling!

Thank you for your prayers. They work.

 

  This is one of those things you won’t understand unless you were there but I have to share it anyway. I said this statement to James W one Sunday night a few weeks ago and Casey decided to make it into a thing. So, at camp, this phrase really took off. It is one of those phrases that you can say in just about any situation. It basically means (since I created it, I get to decide it’s meaning) - I’m following your lead.  Now it’s a thing on this trip. Today, right in the middle of town (Galati, Romania), there it was - a big boat. So, Casey, here’s to you. I’m skiing behind your boat, man. (in the middle of the pic)

  Another one of our fun phrases has been Can I get refills on that. It works in just about any situation too. Imagine, you are doing God stuff and something great happens - so you say Can I get refills on that??? 

Anyway, I’m skiing behind your boat!

 

There is much to tell from today. We had some great successes and some rejections. If you are unfamiliar with the Parable of the 4 Soils, now might be a good time to read it. Landon and David had good days. They were able to talk to many people and did about 4 bible studies between them.

I was with David this evening and we were able to talk with many young people. He shared his story about how when he was 16, a missionary spoke to him on the street and how he accepted Christ. Tonight, a 16 year old boy on the street prayed to receive Christ as David led him. It was amazing. We were talking with two boys at that time and I took the other who knew some English and we did an entire Bible lesson right there on the sidewalk. He is 20 yrs. old. We will see them both tomorrow evening. Everyone has stories like that to tell. Here are some pictures that I gleaned from Medea’s camera.

 

Oana and Whitney taking a break / village home

 

a view from Nancy’s balcony / Whitney leading a lesson after playing soccer

our evening meal (real potatoes, dill pickles, tomatoes, bread, and yummy soup!)

 

   We just finished our first morning of street evangelism. It was good. We broke up into 7 teams and hit the streets. Landon went across town. David went to the Valley (Zone 6) with Bogdon. The rest of us went to Zone 9 where there are 40k people in about an 8×10 block area. Dragos and I talked with about 8-9 people and had good discussions with 5. We were able to set up 2 Bible studies later today with two of them! That is the main goal. Troy expects to find 3 studies out of 100 contacts – average. Usually, you get 15 that agree to a study and then about 3 that actually pan out. Hopefully, we will have three today. One of the other groups has a study arranged also. Not sure how David and Landon are doing, but I did hear that Landon’s team was already in the middle of a study this morning in their area!

   Last night, Nancy and Carrie had an incredible visit with Bogdon and Paula that we met last year. Bogdon has been struggling with alcohol, but seems to be doing much better. His wife Paula also accepted Christ last year and is doing incredibly well. They had a wonderful time of sharing and Bible discussion. It is amazing to hear how their lives have been transformed in just one year. I really thought we had lost Bogdon 6 months ago.

   Landon and David gave a good report of their journey into the Valley to see Danutz. Danutz is really struggling with making a decision. Pray that he will accept Christ. He is already being ridiculed by his friends for defending the “repenters.” True repenters make up about 1% of this city of 340k.

This was really our first day of mission work (I’ll call it day one). We had a great day. Here are some pictures from the time we left the church.

Here is your mission team. Ready to leave home.

We did some waiting here and there. Overall, we had a very smooth trip.

Waiting provides us time for journalling. I think Carrie is writing even more than Nancy!

Whitney sat in front of me. Several of us were in the back of the plane.

I was allowed to preach at Holy Trinity. Here Troy is introducing the team.

Landon’s first Romanian McDonald’s experience.

We ran into Danutz. Ask me about him offline. You prayed for him this evening.

Orientation and Training with Troy. Now we are ready to go!

I hope you enjoy the pictures. They really are worth a thousand words.

We arrived in Bucharest, Romania at 1:30 pm on Saturday (5:30 am at home). Once we met Troy Geddes outside the luggage area we crammed our stuff in the van and headed to Galati. We arrived at our hotel at about 7:00 pm. As I write, everyone is crashing and we have just come home from a nice meal at a restaraunt in town. Here is our week’s itenerary as we know it, so far:

• Sunday

• 9:00 am head for church
• Jay to preach in AM service at Holy Trinity
• Lunch
• Training/Overview of materials and plan for the week

• morning, afternoon and evening sessions of working in Zone 9
• street evangelism
• In-home Bible studies
• children’s Bible schools (where possible)
• Lunch on our own
• evening meals at the church

It will take us most of tomorrow just to get our feet under us, but everyone is ready to get to work.

The Romania team had their weigh-in this evening. We are all packed. (No, that’s not all of the luggage!) I think having the weigh-in on the evening before helped us to be more prepared for tomorrow. No last minute packing. Everyone - even Lanny - packed. We are allowed one carry-on (22lbs.) and one checked bag (50 lbs.). The airlines allows for another checked bag and we will use this extra space to take our supplies. I purchased U-haul boxes so that they would be the right size and strong. It is also a good idea not to try to max out what the airlines allows. You still have to carry it all over Romania and transportation is not simple!

We were also able to pre-print our boarding passes. Now all we have to do is check our luggage and go to the terminal. Our seats are already assigned all the way to Bucharest. We will pray together at 8:45 and leave for the airport around 9:00 am.

I received an email from Troy Geddes, our missionary in Galati, and here is what he wrote about our plans:

I have been to and from Galati after AGM.  I just returned a few minutes ago. We have had to deal with problem that took a lot of time to resolve.  Long and short of it.  I have you set to stay in Galati from Saturday thru Thursday.  You will travel to Focsani on Friday and work all day there and stay overnight.  You will then travel into the mountians and stay Saturday night somewhere.  Then you will site see on Sunday and return to Bucharest for the night, leaving Monday.  I will pick you up at the airport on Saturday, take you to Galati.  Make sure the week gets off to some sort of start and leave you as soon as you and I feel comfortable.  We leave early Thursday morning meaning I really need to get back on Tuesday.  I will stay with you until late Monday night probably.  You will be preaching on Sunday morning at Holy Trinity.  We are waiting to see about followup on a team that just left. 

That will give you an idea about our itenerary. We will be working in a new city toward the end of the trip (Focsani).

Thank you for your prayers and support. We were able to raise all the money needed to pay for the trip. God is good. Thank you for your faithfulness.