Crossing Cultures, Christmas Video

"We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." 1 John 4:14

CHILDRENS AFTERSCHOOL CENTER CHRISTMAS

 Elli has been so faithful to minister God's Word to these children of our community.  She blessed them with gift bags for Christmas!  What JOY.

MEN's SOCCER/CHRISTMAS EVENT

What a joy it was to open our home to the men's soccer group to have a Christmas dinner together. 17 of the 23 men (2 young teens) were able to come.

They were very grateful and thanked us for our hospitality. More importantly, they felt the presence and peace of the Lord upon our home.  

The Lord continues to use JeJe to minister to these men, only a few claim to walk with the Lord.  What is also fun is that several members of the local police department like to go and join them ;o)

Many of these men, JeJe has known his entire life, and worked in the coal mines here.  They have witnessed the transforming work of Jesus in JeJe's life, and we are thankful for this ministry.  Please pray for them as they now play indoors in winter months; but we pray for salvation for them and their families.

WOMENS EVENTS - December 2020

 What a joy it has been to be able to open our home and hearts to host events and invite others in to know Jesus personally.  

Our first event was a leadership training event for women to be equipped with the Biblical Discipleship material of GO IN PEACE.  This event was to train other women in leadership to be able to go thru the Discipleship program with new believers or women seeking, and even women in the church who have not yet found what it means to GO IN PEACE with Jesus.  Please pray for these women as they take these Biblical truths further and equip others.  Two of the ladies who attended are involved with women's prisons ministry in a very spiritually dark area of the country; we know that these truths from God's Word will be very powerful and life changing to the women - and break every chain!

Elli is hosting a few events with younger women in our community.  a Gospel message is shared, and the girls spend time time doing craft, cookie decorating and even partaking in a game or two.  Its been a powerful thing to build relationships and be lights to our community. Please pray as there are more events to come this month; that lives would fully surrender to Jesus.

One of our favorite parts, has been to hear people walk in our front door and comment about how great they feel here; its the presence of Jesus !!!

Please pray with us - for lives to be changed for Jesus - as we continue with events this month.

GO IN PEACE

YOUNG WOMENS EVENT

"A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9

James was due to depart on December 11; however, we received a message from the airlines on November 6 that his flight was canceled.  The airlines were canceling all flights in the outer area airport - thru at least December - and he would only be able to fly out of Bucharest (the capitol).  As we searched for flights, the news was reporting the closing of several major cities (including the one James was due to fly out of originally, Sibiu) due to massive COVID outbreaks (the hospitals dont have enough beds, equipment or oxygen for those with severe cases).  Our local hospital has one ventilator and is unable to care for the severely sick of our area - they have to try to find beds in other cities (some up to 10-12 hours drive away).

Praise God for directing us to get James on a flight as soon as we could - he flew out on November 13th with no problems.  On November 20th, they closed the city where James flew out of - but for God !!!

James is safe and COVID negative, living with good friends in Parker, Colorado.  He has adjusted well and will start a job the first week of December.  He is due to start school at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky the second week of January. 

He is dearly missed by all of us, but we are so grateful to the Lord for the gift of James - and the beautiful work God is doing in his life.

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

We are excited for the Lord opening all the doors for this opportunity for James. Please join us in praying for James to continue to grow in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord, and to find favor with God and man.

Kind of quiet around here...

Our last day together, we finished reading the Bible as a family - cover to cover, a second time.

Our last outing together, we also celebrated James getting his Romanian drivers license - with a perfect score on the driving exam (not so easy when you do it in Romanian ;o)

FLY BABY FLY

CASA SANCTUARY (orphanage)

 We FINALLY got to visit our friends at Casa Sanctuary in October.  It was lonngggg overdue!

They were not allowed to have visitors until school was back in session, and they were not allowed to have outside visitors indoors.  Thankfully, the Lord blessed us with decent weather and we were able to visit with our friends in the courtyard and take them some treats. It was precious to be able to spend time with them all.

The workers are COVID tested every two weeks.

The day after we left, we received word that 3 of the workers tested positive and so did several of this children.  The were forced into 2 week quarantine - everyone stayed in doors until the 2 weeks were over, and we recently received word that everyone is healthy. Praise God! and we praise God for His hand of protection over us - none of us were affected.

CHILDRENS CENTER

 Elli would not be able to return to the Children's after school center until the school year (hesitatingly) started.  Sure enough, after a start of rotating children in their attendance (one week home learning, one week in class learning) - schools would return to in home only by the beginning of November. We are not sure how long the center will remain open; they have struggled this year with workers, finances and may close soon - but we are hopeful for a Christmas outreach to them.

Elli has been faithful to minister to the children of the center.  We trust Jesus to take all the seeds that have been planted and grow them one day.  

GOD BRINGS BEAUTY FOR ASHES OUT OF 2020

 2020 will go down in the history books as one of the toughest for many in this generation.

However, He has special promises for us - if we will keep our end of the deal:

"Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments" Deuteronomy 7:9

With our God, we will not be shaken - we have a far greater glory that awaits us than anything this world offers us.

"My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart." Psalm 7:10

We rejoiced on September 5th as our son James made his public confession to fully surrender and follow Jesus Christ, by water baptism.

IT was a beautiful day, blessed in every way as we gathered for the baptism and enjoyed a home bbq/fellowship after.

"The Lord has done great things for us; we are joyful!" Psalm 126:3

HERE COMES THE SUN (June-September)

After almost 4 months of being forced to remain at home, Romania began releasing restrictions on us. During this time our church met on Zoom and several people from other areas of Europe joined in.

We were able to have a few church fellowship gatherings (picnics, bbq's, etc), go out to celebrate Elli's birthday, and make steps to pursue a little more of our regular routine - including evangelism in our home and out of it.

Rules remain that masks are obligatory everywhere in public and almost ALL stores, restaurants, doctors offices, etc require the taking of your temperature.

During the time of isolation, God did a lot of work in our personal hearts and gave us sweet fellowship as a family.  He also began a new work - social media outreach and teaching videos.  These can be found on the "Triumf" Facebook page, as well as on YouTube by searching "Triumf".  Romanian videos have captions in English - you just may need to adjust your settings ;o)

The vides have been well received and many in our community in Romania discuss them with us.

God has been using them as a great tool, especially during times where we are forced indoors. 

In addition, JeJe resumed his pursuit of getting community projects accomplished with the Mayor; this time with getting the streets asphalted.

JUNE FLOODS

We had an abundance of rain in the month of June.  By months end, our river (the Jiu) could no longer hold it.  The Jiu river flows into the Danube.

At 6am on June 26 our phones went off with emergency alerts to flooding in our area.  Elli opened her bedroom window (which faces the river), to hear the roaring waters rushing by.  Our home is about 10 houses from the river.  Thanks be to God, our embankment is higher than some of the other areas of the river and we did not see any flooding on our street, some of the neighbors down river faced a lot of disastrous flooding.

 Women's Day March 8th

Romania celebrates "Mothers Day" by celebrating ALL women on the International day of the woman.

We had a small gathering celebrating some of the women in our church.  We love the way each generation compliments and helps the other; just as God intended.

Unbeknownst to us at the time, This would be our last gathering for several months, as we would be into forced home isolation for the next 4 months....

 WOMENS BIBLE EVENT

We had a lovely evening sharing with several women in our community about the Bible; its history, its validity, its authority, the power it has in our lives, the Truth it is in world of lies.

It was a beautiful event, where several received their first Bible ever.  Please pray with us for the ladies who attend, that the seeds planted would take deep root in their hearts and grow.

YOUTH SNOW DAY!!!

JeJe took a few of the youth up one of the local ski runs here.  We actually have 3 ski runs locally.
One is Parang (15 mins from our home), one is Voineasa (45mins), and the last is Straja (about 20mins).  Straja is where these were taken.  Its always great for our youth to have activities outside of the church where they can fellowship and enjoy Gods creation.
Sadly, James hadn't returned yet from the US....but a snow day is in the plans for this month.
We haven't had as much snow this year (not complaining)….lots and lots of rain and slush.

CHRISTMAS COOKIE OUTREACH !!!

As James received word in mid-December that he would be interviewed for his nomination, he and Coleen had to make quick plans to travel to California as soon as he returned from the Powerlifting Championships.  This left Elli and JeJe in charge of EVERYTHING for Christmas outreaches.

When several women heard that Coleen would be gone for Christmas, their immediate response was "who is going to do the Christmas cookies?"; as several of them are regular recipients.  We bake 800-1000 cookies each year, and make up plastic plates with a pretty cellophane wrap & bow - being sure to include a Bible verse and pass platters out to our neighbors and those in the community we are in contact regularly (people at the bank, notary, veterinarian, family doctor, and so many more).  Its really has a great impact as you watch peoples faces when you bless them with something and not expect anything in return.  We are even more happy to report that one of the women in our fellowship make a mean "Rafaelo" chocolate balls and followed suit in blessing others in doing the same - handing out packages to those she is in contact with and including a Bible verse and invitation to church. 

We are so proud of Elli for baking approx. 1000 cookies, recruiting her friends to help decorate the sugar ones (each left with a plate of cookies ;o), and getting them packaged up and delivered.  Such a great servants heart !!!

We pray for each person that has received cookies; that they and their homes will come to know Jesus personally.

CHRISTMAS AT THE CHILDRENS CENTER

Always a beautiful time to do an outreach at the Children's Center where Elli regularly teaches Bible and helps the children with their homework.  This center is close to our home and most of the children are close by neighbors.  Their families are living below poverty level and many have serious problems within their homes.  For several, the hot lunch here is their only meal for the day.
Elli loves the children so much and especially enjoys planning special events like this one for them to enjoy.  The ministry here provides lunch that day for the children, and Elli had a Christmas lesson ready to share and then the kids enjoyed the games, prizes and of course Christmas cookie decorating she had planned for them.
Our hearts rejoice over what good foundations are being built in their hearts by teaching them the truth of God's Word and loving on them.  Praise God for the open door here, and please keep the salvation of these children and their families in your prayers.