HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING

May the Lord richly bless you on Thanksgiving and EVERY day as you give Him your heart of thanks.  We have so much in Christ to be thankful for.

We spent a Sunday evening with our Prison Fellowship friends, two weeks ago, with a Thanksgiving message and meal.  At the end, everyone received a hat and scarf that the loving hands of Stitches of Love prepared and sent.

These precious people are a joy to be with.  There are two, 4-story buildings at the facility.  One building houses children under 18 who are abandoned, orphaned, or whose parents are either in prison or a threat to them.  The other building is for adults (some elderly) who are abandoned - several are grown orphans.  The Director and her husband are Jesus loving Christians, who ask us to keep coming.  Our friends, Dave & Lili Bunnell do the Sunday church services there and a church fellowship has grown through those who have made commitments to Jesus.  We praise God for this ministry, it is a blessing and we love seeing Him work in the lives of many there. 

We will spend Thanksgiving Thursday with our YWAM friends - celebrating with fellowship and a meal.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good - His love endures forever.  Sing Praise!"

THIS PAST MONTH GAVE US EXTRA REASONS TO REJOICE AND GIVE THANKS !!!

Part I

We are thankful for the small fellowship the Lord is building up on each Sunday.  JeJe is currently teaching I Thessalonians.  We are currently 12-16 and we pray for the Lord to bring those He would have fellowship with us as we do outreaches.

Here are a few photos of the building we meet in and our friends in Christ.

Towards the end of August/early September JeJe was blessed to step in for a fellow CC pastor (from Texas) at a ministry here called "Prison Fellowship".  It houses elderly, handicapped and youth who are wards of the state and have no other family (basically would otherwise be homeless).  JeJe taught the first message from Jesus on the Parable of the Seeds.  At the end, he gave an altar call and several made a stand for Jesus.  We were just blessed to see this happen after those already laboring in this ministry had planted many seeds and the Holy Spirit watered with His Word.  It was a joy to see these individuals make that final important step of entrusting their lives to the Lordship of Jesus.

On October 22nd we were invited to join them in witnessing their baptism.  So exciting and blessed!  Great time of worship and rejoicing in a "borrowed" baptismal of a church in their area (they are about 15-20 minute drive across town from us).  Praise the Lord !  Please pray for the continued growth and protection of these new little lambs.

This was a great time for us as, unfortunately, we do experience times of grief in watching people who pray to commit their lives to Jesus and then so easily turn away for the things and cares of this world.  Heartbreaking indeed.  Pray for us to show the love of Jesus to all and that they would know we are Christians by our love (I John).

Wait !!! There's Much more....

We are watching the Lord meet very specific needs and prayer requests, and we know it is the direct results of so many in the body being in prayer for us.

THIS WEEK WE RECEIVED A CAR !!!  The Lord faithfully and graciously provided for us to purchase a car.  Still some papers to finalize this next week but we are so thankful - especially as the weather has been 16-19F at 10am each morning, and sometimes climbs to the 30's in the afternoon, if the sun comes out.  Today (11/19), no sun and a heavy, thick frost on everything.  A blanket of snow is expected any day.  Thank You Lord !

This month, we received many boxes from our sweet friends from the Stitches of Love ministry.  They have lovingly made and sent many hats, scarves and blankets that will be delivered to those housed in the Prison Fellowship, some long time friends at a Christian orphanage in a town near where we used to live and our handicapped friends that fellowship in the building behind our home.  So awesome to see these hands of love reach across the seas to the people of Romania in Jesus' name!  We await more boxes next month and are so overjoyed to be able to give to others for Christmas outreches.

Our awesome friends and fellow "baseball fanatics", Nacho & Jackie Munoz, were able to help us get a 7 foot high pallet of donated used baseball equipment from an organization in South Orange County who donates used sports gear to ministries like us - just wanting to reach kids (and their parents) for Jesus. 
This week, our friend Alin helped us find an open field for a baseball clinic outreach.  Also, we have been in prayer for help with worship for our Sunday church service.  Alin used to be part of a band and has agreed to help with worship when he can.  Sometimes his work provides that he travels but we were greatly blessed by his help with worship and he is really gifted by the Lord.

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."
I John 5:14-15

PLEASE KEEP THOSE PRAYERS COMING !!!

^"The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."

James 5:16b

THE INTERNET AND THE MODERN DAY MISSIONARY

Too often these days we hear negative story, after negative story of how the enemy is using the internet to get to our children and families in sinful/hurtful ways.  I would like to share with you what a tremendous blessing/tool it has been to this missionary family.

I love a good missionary biography and have read of many great saints who lived and persevered through so many harrowing events.  And the last of their concerns was a telephone; a computer or the internet wasn't even a thought - they hadn't even been invented yet in most cases.

In 1997, I was a single woman (30 years young) and God sent me to serve in Petrosani, Romania; a somewhat remote coal mining town located in the Carpathian Mountain range.  Cell phones had not yet made it to Romania, and it was next to impossible to get a land line (forget any possibilities of Wi-Fi or internet in the home), you had to have a huge satellite on the roof of your building or off of your balcony to get any type of television reception; oh, and there wasn't even an internet cafe in town.  The following year, several of us would carpool to a larger city (about a 2 hour drive away) to try to send emails once a month.  If I wanted to receive or make a phone call, I would make arrangements with those over in the states I would be calling (to make sure they were home to receive my phone call) and I would have to ask a friend who lived in the next city 5 miles over if I could arrange a time to make an outgoing phone call or receive that call.  Letters took up to two weeks to receive (still can).

Cell phones arrived by late Spring of 1998, and JeJe and I would finally be able to install a land phone line in our little home, the year of 2001 to be able to have an internet connection (well, it stayed connected most of the time).

Wow!  Things sure have changed!  We returned to Romania to see Wi-Fi in a lot of public locations (we do live in a big city this time around).  I cannot begin to tell you the blessing it has been to be able to keep up with everyone we love over in the U.S. via Facebook, Emails and best of all - SKYPE.  We can actually sit on the phone for FREE to just about anywhere in the world, and see the people we love and miss!

We are able to communicate quickly with the church, our care team and beloved friends and family.  We receive words of encouragement/scripture, have connection to web sites to watch sermons, get emergencies resolved quickly and can get prayer - "just like that". 

Best of all:  We are able to get on Live Stream and join the CCEA church Sunday services and feel that we are still "connected" (it is 7pm for us when the 9am is starting).  The worship fills us up and the Word of God washes over us and helps us to maintain being fed ourselves (you cant just give out all the time, you gotta take it in so you have something to give back out).

Not only this, but we are able to share with others here who live in areas further away from us that they too can join the CCEA church service via Live Stream.  JeJe's sister accepted Jesus as her Savior last month; at the time we directed her to a dear friend who lives in her town (3 hour drive away) who attends a church there - the church is not real solid on teaching but our friend is mature enough to be able to guide her too.  We then remembered that she knows just enough English to be able to understand Pastor Bob's messages and the worship.  She's now "connected" too!

What a blessing!  Not to mention being able to update our monthly blog and have it reach people in "seconds".

Keep in touch with us!  Join us as friends on Facebook, send us an email to join our blog or prayer group to get the latest news and prayer requests/praises:  www.missionromania.blogspot.com