A few various updates: 

First, we're glad to hear that we might be having some Romanian Christians from Bucharest join us for doing evangelism outreach in Buzau some day or days soon.  They've been trained in Evangelism Explosion and are led by a man who is enthusiastic about reaching out in this part of the country which is considered by many to be the hardest soil to plant in--but definitely a place of great need.  Please pray for this effort to come together soon, and for God to bless us with a harvest of people coming to faith in Christ and becoming part of the local church here.

On another note--this week Lili has come to know two teenage girls and another woman at the gym, and in all three cases friendships are already forming.  Pray for them, that they will come to faith. 

Next--This week we'll go to Bucharest for a meeting and fellowship time with the pastors and missionaries doing Calvary Chapel work across the country.  It's a good time to join together with all of us in prayer for God to bless these ministries.  You can read about some more of them at http://calvaryromania.org, a site that is still largely under construction, but will have much more material added in the coming weeks. 

And finally, springlike weather is letting us resume our outdoor outreaches, and today we'll be on our way to Marghiloman park in the city's poor section.  Lili will do balloon animals for the kids, and we'll distribute gospel tracts and invitations to our Sunday evening meetings, as well as talk to people about the Lord whenever we find interest.  Please be in prayer for all of these outreaches, which will happen regularly throughout the year, sometimes by ourselves, and sometimes with teams. 

This is a letter from K.P. Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia (a ministry I highly recommend supporting).  It speaks for itself: 

On Wednesday evening, February 28, about 500 anti-Christian militants attacked the staff and students of a Gospel for Asia Bible college. You can read more about this attack here.

Slobozia--We are continuing to minister there this year, but are needed there a little less than it was originally thought.  Right now, I'm scheduled to continue preaching there on the last Sunday of every month through this year.  Since our need to travel there is less frequent than anticipated, we're holding off on the purchase of a car for now to wait on God for what He would have us to do.  The church there is growing spiritually and the people warmly receive us when we are there, and show great enthusiasm for learning the Bible.   

Buzau--Cold weather and other factors have kept people from coming out the past two weeks to our study.  We continue to hold the meetings in the hotel, though, in the hopes that they will become well-attended again as we persevere in prayer and seek your prayers for us along with it.  This month we're seeking to distribute to every home in our neighborhood (roughly 500 homes I estimate) written invitations to the Bible study for people to learn about eternal life through Christ.  Our relationships with many people we're seeking to reach for Christ continue to grow, and God is allowing us to still meet more new people as well.  We praise the Lord for that and ask Him to open hearts to Him and His word.  Those people on our weekly prayer circle list will receive a list of names to pray for in tomorrow's emailing.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them."
--Acts 16:25

"Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send [for his children] and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought: Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job's regular practice."

--Job 1:5

            One of the things I'm learning after becoming a father for the first time not so long ago, is how important it is for Christian men to see themselves as a spiritual covering for their children.  Whether our offspring are young or old, we need to do whatever we can to see to it that they come from a heritage of a father who determines in his heart unwaveringly:  whatever the world does, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 

            My daughter Briana is still too young now to even understand things of a spiritual nature; but I feel compelled to pray for her spiritual life every day.  My wife and I ask God daily for Briana's eternal salvation and for her to live a life giving glory to God and being protected from the world and the evil one.  (It's cute how she smiles up at us while we're praying, waiting for us to say, "in Jesus' Name" so that she can say "Amen" in English and Romanian.)  Ultimately, of course, her own faith, not ours, will determine her eternal destiny.  But I will do everything in my power to provide for her a home that is under a spiritual covering that honors God and helps her to grow up knowing Him, loving Him, seeking Him, worshiping Him. 

            And when she sins, as she does and will like all children, I will be praying for her, for God to show His mercy for her and bring her to repentance and fellowship with Him.  God described Job as a blameless man who feared Him and turned from evil in the first chapter of that book; and the evidence of it the text gives is the verse above, which shows us how concerned Job was for his children to be in a right relationship with their Creator.  May God help me always to have that same focus as my chief desire for my daughter.  Let the other parents dream of their children being president or becoming famous and wealthy.  Let me dream of having a child who loves Jesus and does whatever the Holy Spirit leads her to do. 

            You wlil porbalby be srpusierd how esay it is to raed tehse wdors eevn tohugh msot of tehm are mssipleled.  The raeosn is taht wehn we raed wrdos, our mnid’s eye deos not atculaly selpl out all of teh ltetres in the wdors.  Istnaed, we look at the frsit and lsat ltetres of the wrod, and our mnid flils in the rset for us.  So if we konw aoubt the crorcet bgniennig and end of a wrod, we can udnresntad waht the rset of the wrod souhld say.   

            I use tihs as an isillutraton of waht is ipmoratnt for us to udnreatsnd lfie.  Jsut lkie the bngineing and end of a wrod are ipmoratnt for us to be albe to raed it, if we wnat to “raed” lfie crorclety and udnreatsnd it, we need to udnreatsnd the bngineing and the end.  We need to konw wrhee we cmae form, and we need to konw wrhee we are gnoig. 

            Utinl you hvae tohse two qesuoitns awsnreed, you wno’t rlaely konw ture pacee in lfie.  Mnay plhiposhioes hvae been dlveepoed by the mnid of man oevr the yreas, but tehy hvae felaid to rcegoizne the tturh aobut tshee vrey smlpie, yet all-ipmoratnt qesuoitns. 

            The awsner to the fsirt qesuoitn is taht we wree ceraetd by an all-pworufel God who mdae us for His pespurous, and stsuians our leivs acdrocnig to His wlil.  The Blibe syas of Him in Atcs 17:  “The God who made the world and everything in it—He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands.
Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.
From one man  He has made every nation of men to live all over the earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live,
so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
For in Him we live and move and exist….”

            So trehe is the awsner to the fsirt ipmoratnt qesuoitn —wrehe we cmae from and why we are hree. 

            The snecod qesuoitn —the one aoubt the end of our lfie—is aslo awsnreed in the Blibe in Atcs 17, wchih tlels us taht God “has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed (Jesus).  He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”  You see, waht wlil hepapn to us wehn tihs lfie is oevr, is taht ecah of us wlil be eauvltead by Jesus Christ, and snet to the erteanl dtesniy of His cohsonig. 

            Some, the Bible warns us, will be condemned and sent to a place of eternal punishment and pain, because of their sins.  The problem is, the Bible rightly tells us that all of us have sinned enough to deserve just that from God.  So how can any of us stand a chance of escaping God’s wrath on that day in the end when Jesus judges us? 

            Thank God, Jesus has already provided a solution to this problem for anyone willing to receive it.  Jesus came to live a perfect life in our place, and then He died as a sacrifice in our place, absorbing all of the punishment we deserve for our sins against God. 

            Because of this, anyone who while in this life, comes to Jesus and trusts Him for salvation, believing that Jesus died in their place so that they could escape God’s punishment, will be saved.  When such people stand before Jesus to be judged, it will be at a judgment seat where no one is condemned, and all are allowed access into heaven, where they will be rewarded according to how faithfully they served Jesus after they trusted Him as their Savior.

            But those who do not trust Jesus alone to save them from their sins will not have their sins forgiven.  They will not be judged based on the good they do and saved—they will be judged based on the bad things they did, and be condemned. 

            If you udnreatsnd teshe tginhs, aobut the bgniennig and end of the wrods of yuor lfie, tehn all of the “ltetres” of yuor lfie in beetewn wlil biegn to mkae snsee.  Because if you trust Jesus as your Savior, He also becomes your friend and your guide, helping you through all of life’s situations along the way. 

            I encourage you to trust Jesus as your Savior today, telling Him in prayer that you believe He died for you personally, and rose again from the dead to give you new life that will last forever.  

We have short-term missions opportunities for you and/or your church group in Buzau.  A campaign is scheduled for June 22-July 5 with a team from our sending church in Garland, TX; and we also have individuals likely coming in the second half of September and in the second half of October.  If you feel called to join any of these outreaches and want to know more, please contact us and let us know, so that we might begin the application process and prayer toward having you join us for short-term outreach campaigns. 

And here's a plus that those of you in America who've been to Romania before will appreciate:  Delta Airlines this year is beginning to fly direct from NYC to Bucharest, cutting a leg of the flight out and making the travel much easier (and shorter timewise) than ever before. 

Long-time readers of this blog might recall the case last year when an orthodox monk and four nuns under his leadership, supposing another nun of being possessed of the devil, tried to drive the devil out of her by denying her food and water, tying her to a cross, wounding her hands and feet and leaving her in that condition until she ultimately died of dehydration and exposure. 

Just an update for those who might be curious--their trials concluded today.  The monk was sentenced to 14 years in prison.  The mother superior of the nunnery was given 8 years, and the other three nuns who took part in the lethal exorcism each were sentenced to three years. 

In the media, the monk has several times been quoted blaming the media for the entire mess, asserting his claim that he and his colleagues followed longstanding tradition and did what the church teaches they were supposed to do to the possessed nun.  He said that they would never have been accused of a crime if it weren't for the media outcry, and showed no remorse, even at the fact that the nun died as a result of their attempts to pry her from the devil's grip. 

Seems to me that if she was indeed under the influence of Satan, she wasn't the only one at that monastery in that condition. 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
--John 14:12