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Online Journal - April 2007 Archive
April 28, 2007 -
Saturday -
We're
enjoying a visit from Paula's parents,
Elton
& Kathleen Moose, and Paula's aunts (Kathleen's sisters), Helen
Graden and Jewell Sparks. They arrived in Budapest, Hungary on
Wednesday, and we spent all day Thursday touring the city. After
a mission-related meeting on Friday morning involving Paula and
myself, Paula and her family boarded a train to travel on to
Arad. Stephen and I took everyone's luggage in our car, and we
all met in Arad last evening.
Paula's
family have come for ministry purposes as well as visiting us
and seeing the country. Today we snapped this picture of Aunt
Jewell cleaning windows in her "favorite" missionary's house
:-). They'll be serving in our home and in the
Oaza homes
with the children. Elton will also be preaching tomorrow at
church. Scott
April 23, 2007 - Monday
- I spent
the last week helping host a
team of three men from our Free
Methodist
church in Helston, Cornwall, England. As you may remember from
previous posts (March
9 and
Feb.
22), I (Scott) have been serving as construction manager for
the completion of a new
Oaza home for
children. This team came to lay floor tile for us. Colin, David
and David did a fantastic job and made tremendous progress for
us in the six days they were with us. Unfortunately I had to
return them to the airport this morning. Thanks, guys, for your
great work and great spirit of fun, cooperation, and
flexibility!
Continue to pray for us as we move this project towards completion. Pray for trustworthy and hardworking contractors (God has blessed us in this way so far), favor with government officials (like the gas utility approval we need), and finances (God has provided "just in time" as we've needed things since I took leadership of this project). We must have it prepared for kids to move in by the end of June! Scott
April 19, 2007 - Thursday - Please be in prayer for the political leadership in Romania. The Romanian parliament voted today to "suspend" President Traian Basescu. You can read the political details here (as reported on MSNBC.com). While this has very little effect on our daily life or ministry at the moment, it is not good for the country as a whole. Several of our Romanian friends (your basic Romanian citizen) have told us that this is just a political squabble rooted in a grab for power, and they feel that the real needs of the nation are going unaddressed due to the distraction of politics. For example, one person told us that 900 million euros in European Union aide (grants given to help the country comply with EU standards) have been lost simply because the politicians in Bucharest have been distracted with politics. The wealthy and powerful play their games while the needs of common citizens go unaddressed. Of course, we know Romania is not the only country where such things occur, but it makes us sad because we see the unmet needs every day.
Some may wonder about our safety amidst the political upheaval. As far as we know, we are just as safe as any other day.
So please say a prayer for Romania, particularly for the government. May God place the people in Romanian government who will make way for Godly advances in this country. Scott
April 10, 2007 -
Tuesday -
Thank
you for praying for the
Carpathian Basin retreat (see March 28 entry). We were able to
take six of our Romanian friends with us…we had a lot of fun.
The castle where we met was previously a "hunting lodge" for a
very
prominent Hungarian family. It had been used by the former
communist leaders as a “weekend get-away”
before being used as a hospital for sick children. The property
has been totally refurbished and is now the home of
Calvary Chapel
Bible College and
Calvary Chapel European Conference Center. It was wonderful
to spend time outdoors in the sunshine
walking
around the property as well as relaxing in the coffee shop with
a cup of hot chocolate, friends and a pool table. Scott and I
both spoke to the group
of Hungarians and Romanians (there were also Americans and an
Irishman). Scott spoke about the idea of service and then again
on the idea of serving God in our finances. I spoke about
serving God in our workplace. We were happy to be able to attend
but even happier to be able to take friends with us. For a more
extensive report of our retreat activities, visit our
colleague, Larry Winckles', website.
Easter morning we
attended our Emmanuel church here in Arad and celebrated
the
resurrection of our Lord. Following the service, we were invited
to enjoy a traditional Romanian Easter meal with church friends.
To begin the meal, we each took a boiled egg and cracked it with
the person next to us. One would say, “Cristos a
înviat!”
(Christ arose!) The other would respond, “Adevarat a
înviat!”
(Truly He arose!) The
person
whose eggshell did not crack won the game. This was followed by
the first course which was a plate containing radishes, onions,
boiled eggs, and "drob" (ground spleen, heart, liver, kidneys
baked like a meatloaf with whole boiled eggs inside-click
here for a recipe!) served cold. (I didn’t care for the
taste and liked it even less when I learned what it
was...Scott liked it.) :-) Following this was second course,
lamb stew; it was quite tasty until I learned that the head of
the lamb had been boiled in it. Next came the main course of
salad, natural potatoes, and roasted lamb. This was delicious!
Several desserts came last. We were able to eat outside in the
sunshine and enjoy the beauty of the day. We had a really nice
time.
Today
I went with Laura (Oaza
director) to a “shanty” community in our city. I learned that
these shanties are actually bought and sold between homeless
people. We took clothing out to the families who live there.
Laura goes
nearly
weekly
taking
food to them. I was told this evening that the authorities clear
out the shanty community periodically
tearing down their homes, etc. When the authorities leave, they
build them up again. Paula