Online Journal - July 2006 Archive

 

July 31, 2006 - Monday - I've received one response to our mystery fruit. My father-in-law thinks it is European Yellow Egg variety of plum tree. Whatever it is, I made some jelly from it today. The taste? Very unique, but somewhere between peach and apricot--closer to peach but more tart. I'm waiting for the jars to cool, but the little taste I had from the pan was quite good. Maybe we'll have some with our fresh bread at dinner tonight. Yum!  Scott

 

July 30, 2006 - Sunday - Don't tell Paula, but in her absence (she and Lydia are at camp with the Oaza kids), I picked some mystery fruit today from a tree in our backyard. I'm currently boiling it down to see if I can make jelly out of it. While I'm at it, could you help me figure out what the fruit is. Locals here tell me it is in the plum family. If you know, email me at skipee85@gmail.com.

 

Oh, and while I was in the backyard, I snapped some pictures of our other fruit in process... pears (2), grapes, plums (the traditional purple ones), and a fig bush (no figs yet...I'm thinking of cursing it like Jesus did in Mark 11). Enjoy.  Scott

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 29, 2006 - Saturday - Stephen and I traveled this afternoon to the small town of Moneasa in the far northeast part of Arad County to check out the annual Festivalul Clatite (Pancake Festival!). The pancakes are nothing like American pancakes. They are more like crepes--very thin, not so sweet, almost rubbery. But they were quite tasty, especially when filled with strawberry jam. And the best part...the pancakes were totally free! Last year the festival served 10,000 pancakes in two days, and this year they are hoping to beat that record. We did our part to help!

Our travel partners for the day were Cristi Cazacu (one of our church friends here) and a friend of Cristi's visiting from the States, Rob Still. Rob has been across the border in Hungary to participate in a Christian music festival called Sozo. Rob is a Christian recording artist based in Nashville. You can click here to check out his website (and no, he's not as goofy as this picture portrays :-) ). Scott

 

July 27, 2006 – Thursday – I found a couple of minutes to write a journal entry and realized I haven’t done this for a month. Not because I didn’t want to…it has been very busy here this month.

We were visited this month by a ministry team from the Free Methodist Church in Galion, Ohio. This team came to Romania following a week of ministry with our Free Methodist Church in Gyor, Hungary. They never missed a step in the transition and even faced some challenges with strength and courage. Several from the team shared in music in worship on Sunday and Scott Tinnermeier shared the Word with a concrete example of “tying together” the body of Christ. We enjoyed their company and were blessed by their ministry to the Oaza children.

A couple of days after they went home, we were joined by a dear friend, Mark, from our home church, LifeNet Free Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio. Mark served as a speaker for a financial stewardship seminar sponsored by Emmanuel Christian Center (our church here in Arad). The seminar was based on materials from Crown Financial Ministries. Several business people attended a mid-week group and the Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions sponsored by our church were well attended as well. A number of participants have expressed an interest in being a part of a small group to study and apply Biblical stewardship principals to their lives. Please be in prayer about the details and participants of this group. We are thinking about an early September start date for this small group.

We were also encouraged to make acquaintance with a team of people from New Hope Christian Fellowship (Free Methodist Church) in Chino, California who were here in Arad. It was good to learn about their vision for foreign missions and we were encouraged by their presence.

Scott had the awesome privilege of praying with someone to receive Christ a couple of weeks ago! We felt such a burden for this individual and prayed for God to open doors of conversation…of which He did. Please pray for this young man as he begins to get to know Jesus better. Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to stir his thoughts and make him hungry for more of Jesus. We thank God for allowing us to be a part of this man’s spiritual life! :-)

 

Tomorrow (7/28), Lydia and I leave for 12 days to attend camp with the children of the Oaza ministry. Please pray for us:

1. I am going tired already and desire to be a blessing (not a burden!).
2. Pray that God will use this time to help Lydia connect even more with the children and teens.
3. Pray for spiritual breakthroughs in the lives of the children and teens and even for the workers…including Lydia and myself.
4. Pray for our ability to deal with cultural differences with grace and for our language skills to improve.
5. Pray for deepening relationships.

Stephen and Scott will be staying behind to assist with a team of builders who will be working on a building project for Oaza and to help some new house parents get settled.

An interesting discovery from our summer…every time we put a team of people on a train to leave, we felt funny as the train pulled away…we feel as though we should be the ones leaving…not the ones staying. This has shown us that we are still very much in the adjustment stages. We know you are already praying for us…we can tell…please continue to do so. It is so much our desire to be obedient to God…but obedience isn’t always easy.

With a thankful heart…Paula

 

July 4, 2006 - Tuesday -  Happy July 4th! Obviously Romania isn't celebrating our American  Independence Day...just a normal day here. We are getting together tomorrow with all the other missionaries in town for a party, swimming and maybe fireworks. I've added some pictures of our trip last week to the castle and castle ruins in Hunedoara and Deva, respectively. Click on the "Picture" tab above or simply click here.  Scott

 

July 2, 2006 – Sunday – We just finished eating some of Scott’s birthday cupcakes. The Spring Arbor ministry team brought us some cake mixes and frosting. He enjoyed the treat very much! Scott spoke today for church on Romans 12:1-2, being transformed. This is our heart's cry for Romania. So many people express questions as to why missionaries come to Romania since they have “been a Christian nation” for two-thousand of years. Scott and I can sum it up in these verses from Romans. For many, their “Christianity” is a cultural identity rather than a living relationship with the living Lord. God is calling people who will offer their lives as a “living sacrifice” and are willing to “let God change the way they think” fiecare zi…every day… Many Romanians speak to us about desiring change for their country. Scott and I believe that change will sweep the nation when people completely offer their entire lives to God every day. But isn’t this true for all people…for the world?

 

It was great to have the ministry team from Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church here. They ministered to the children and leaders of Oaza but not only them…many others, including our family, received so much blessing from their presence. Even though we didn’t know most of them when they arrived, they soon felt like family. The team worshipped with us last Sunday at Emmanuel. They ministered through special music and a drama. On Monday, we took the team on a Romanian excursion. We loaded into two vehicles and trekked about two hours from Arad to the city of Hunedoara to tour a 13th century castle. On the way back to Arad, we stopped by Deva and toured a 12th century castle ruins on top of a hill overlooking the valley. This castle was originally built by the Dacians (ancestors to Romanians). On the last evening they were here, we spent two hours or more in a time of devotions and singing. We sang some great hymns of faith which gave me great encouragement as I enjoyed my Methodist heritage. We had a great time with the team and were sad to see them leave on Friday!

 

While the team was here, I (Paula) had to learn to drive a stick-shift. The people who rode with me (poor Pat and Joyce were the first :-) ) were very patient and kind, and we had several laughs and cheers out of it! :-) One of the team members teaches driver’s education and gave me much encouragement (thanks Wade!). It was such a blessing to all of us to have the vehicle to make life a little…okay, a lot…easier for us and the team.

 

The next two weeks are filling up very quickly…we have another team coming on Saturday to work with Oaza (from Galion Free Methodist Church in Ohio) and then the following week Emmanuel church is hosting a training event open to the community with the help of a Crown Ministries teacher from our home church (LifeNet Free Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio). We are also looking forward to connecting next week with a Free Methodist team from California who will be in Arad for a week or so. And throughout all of this, we have language study and the teaching time and Bible study for the church.

 

Please continue to pray for our language skills. We love our teacher, Emma, who is very patient and kind. We are just not advancing as quickly as we would like…or maybe we are too hard on ourselves. :-) Sometimes we are distracted by life and ministry and sometimes we are emotionally tired which makes studying all of the more difficult. Learning Romanian is so important to us and to our ministry within the community and country. Please keep this matter in your thoughts and prayers.

So thankful for you always… Paula