July 14, 2008 - Monday -
I
(Scott) traveled this weekend to visit the "Smyrna" church
that is being planted in the southern city of
Drobeta-Turnu-Severin. Pastor Ionut. a
Romanian-American, has been leading this new work for nearly
two years, and we've had the privilege of developing a
relationship with he and his family and the church over the
last year-and-a-half or so. The church is growing
little-by-little in a spiritually very difficult area of
Romania. There was a great spirit of worship there on Sunday
as well as an eager reception of God's Word as I preached
about hope in the midst of hopelessness from Jeremiah 32.
Please take a moment to pray for Pastor Ionut (say EE-oh-noots),
his wife Jenny, their two little girls (and a boy on the
way) and the congregation, that God would continue to grow
and prosper their ministry to be a truly "new wineskin for
new wine." (pictures to come tomorrow, hopefully) Scott
July 5, 2008 - Saturday - Happy
Independence Day to all of our readers in the USA. We
enjoyed a good 4th celebration last evening. We invited
several other Americans to our home for an classic American
4th cookout. I was able to get a grocery store here to make
hamburger to my specifications (otherwise the stuff they
call ground beef here is really bad). Then I grilled the
burgers on a friend’s gas grill. We also had French fries,
potato salad, Kraft mac-n-cheese (mailed from America), and
an American-style cake (also from a care package from the
US). And watermelon for the final course.
Later
in the evening we set up our projector on the living room
wall, plugged the laptop in and logged on the
NBC4 website in our hometown of Columbus, Ohio. We
pulled up the video of Columbus' "Red
White and Boom" from the previous evening and, voila, we
had Columbus Ohio fireworks on our living room wall :-). Not
quite the same as being there, but it was still a good
connection with the traditions of our home culture.
Scott
July 3, 2008 - Thursday - The
ministry team from the
Galion Free Methodist Church returned
to the USA yesterday. Their 10 days of ministry with
us and Oaza was a great success. Approximately half the team
focused on direct work with the Oaza children, leading them
in a wide variety of games, crafts, Bible stories and just
"hanging out" together. The whole team also took the kids
swimming one day at a nearby lake.
The other half of the team focused primarily
on several construction projects at the new Shalom House. I
(Scott) was in charge of this aspect since I served as
construction manager for the house. The team worked hard
through several very hot days on projects such as installing
play equipment that had been moved from the old Shalom
property, disassembling, moving, reassembling, and painting a
children's playhouse from the old Shalom property to the new
house, and laying exterior tile on the main entry porches.
Take a look at the pictures and admire their work with us!
(my apologies to those who worked primarily with the
children...I didn't get any photos of their ministry!)
And just for fun, after the team installed a
yard toy that rocks back and forth on a large spring, Nicole
(one of the Oaza volunteers) captured this video of one of the younger children trying it
out. Hopefully it will bring a smile to your face as it did
to ours'.
Scott
Here
are some pictures from my time in
Herculane this past week.
Some are from an excursion the group took on Wednesday
afternoon--a cruise on the nearby Danube River. I'll let the
captions tell the story, some of which dates back to the
Roman Empire's conquest of Romania in 103AD.
Our next summer ministry team arrives
tomorrow from the
Galion Free Methodist Church in Galion, Ohio (USA). This
team of 12 will be splitting their efforts between some
construction work on one of the Oaza homes and VBS-type
ministry with the Oaza children. Pray for a good week of
ministry. The weather is predicted to be VERY hot...near 100
Fahrenheit early this week. Yikes!
Also, the latest edition of our newsletter is now available
on this site. Just click on the "Newsletters" link above to
find our May/June issue. And feel free to share it widely. Scott
June 17, 2008 - Tuesday - I
(Scott) Spent Friday-Sunday traveling and visiting leaders
and ministries in Hungary (Budapest and Gyor) and Slovakia
(Bratislava).
Our fellowship in Gyor is now focusing on two
distinct ministry venues, a Friday evening Bible study in
the
city of Gyor and a bi-monthly Sunday home-church that
meets in two nearby villages. So I visited the Bible study
group on Friday evening, joining them for a summer grill
party, and the home group on Sunday morning. Gerry and Kati
McNamara are giving leadership to both of these ministry
venues. It was good to connect with our people and leaders
in both settings.
On Saturday I drove the one-hour trip further
north to Bratislava, Slovakia to visit with our missionary
family there,
Josef, Lynette & Simon Sykora. Josef, a native
of Czech Republic, serves on the pastoral staff of another
evangelical church in Bratislava. Lynette is active in the
church as well but also gives "member care" to our Free
Methodist missionaries in all of Europe.
Josef
had earlier been asked to participate in the infant baptism
(Catholic) of a friend's baby in Czech Republic (near
Brno),
so we had arranged that I would ride along and just spend
the day with them. We spent the day together traveling,
talking, playing with Simon, and experiencing a bit of Czech
culture and food (a first for me). It was a good day of
building relationship with colleagues and friends.
Today as I write this I am at a small hotel
in the southern mountains of Romania (near
Herculane...location
of some still-famous and popular Roman-era hot mineral
bathes). There is no internet service here (not even cell
phone signal!), so I'll be posting this when I return home
on Wednesday night. I'm here attending a couple days of a
week-long leadership training conference sponsored by a
UK-based organization called History Makers (www.history-makers.moonfruit.com).
A young couple from my own monthly leadership training group
in Arad is attending the full week. A Romanian friend of
ours' and church planter is the organizer of the event as
well as the History Makers coordinator for all of Romania.
It is good to be able to partner with other excellent
leadership training that God is already doing here. Scott
June 12, 2008 - Thursday -
Yesterday
we attended the university graduation ceremony for three
adults from our church. It was held in the beautiful old
performing arts theater downtown. Please join us in
congratulating Laura Andres, Casius and Daniela Andres on
completing their university degrees!
Tomorrow morning I (Scott) leave for a
weekend trip in Hungary and Slovakia. I will be meeting with
our church and/or missionary leaders in Budapest, Gyor
(Hungary) and Bratislava (Slovakia). As always, prayer for
safe travel and fruitful meetings is appreciated!
Scott
June 9, 2008 - Monday (2) - We
are requesting your prayer support for Paula and her family
in the USA. We received word yesterday (Sunday) that Larry,
her brother-in-law (husband of her sister who died February
2007), died Saturday afternoon. Larry’s health has been poor
since Becky’s death, but he developed a bleed in his
brainstem several weeks ago with no known cause. This had
left him with terrible headaches, lack of use of his hands,
and speech issues. He was getting worse all the time, but
the doctors thought he would just stay this way for 6 months
to a year. But, our Father knew better and today Larry is in
heaven with Him.
We are relieved for Larry. He has suffered
with his health and other issues for so many years…literally
from birth…and now he has peace beyond measure! However our
hearts are sad. Paula feels the loss of another link to her
sister. After the losses of 2007, we had all hoped 2008
would be a year without more close deaths. But our God is
faithful.
Paula has wrestled with whether or not to
travel back to Ohio for the funeral. She feels especially
burdened for her parents. But this morning she has decided
to stay in Romania…even though she still really desires to
be there.
Please pray for Paula’s parents, Elton and
Kathleen, as they go through the funeral (an all-too-soon
reminder of Becky’s death) and care for the details of
everything over the next couple of months. Also pray for
Becky and Larry’s children, Denise and Woody. Both are young
adults now, but they still face the reality of both parents
being gone. Denise is newly married, and Woody is not well
physically or emotionally. And please pray that Paula can
come to peace with her decision to stay here…part of
accepting the sacrifices the Father has asked us to make.
Thanks so much for your prayers at this time.
If you would like to respond to Paula directly, please email
her at
frankee85@gmail.com.
Thanks for stopping by for a
visit. We arrived in Romania in January, 2006. After
several years of ministry in the USA, God has given us an
opportunity to come alongside some great people in Romania who are
living for Christ and wanting to share Him with others. God has
called us to help extend, through leadership development and church
planting, what He is already doing in Arad,
Romania and beyond.
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