Prayer Requests...and the Future

 As we mentioned in an earlier blog entry, we know that many of you have been praying for us, and we are so grateful for that. Some of you have asked us for specific prayer requests, so we would like to take a few moments to share some current prayer requests with you.
 Health for the children. Joseph, Ammishaddai, and Elijah have been sick quite a few times over the last 3 months or so. It’s always the same basic thing, but it keeps recurring, and we’d just like to ask for good health for them, and God’s hand of protection and blessing upon them.
 God’s continued provision. God has continued to be faithful in everything; as you probably already read above, He continues to provide in amazing ways, and at just the right time. Please pray with us for His continuing hand of blessing upon our family, and great provision for our family. He knows what we have need of before we even ask!
 The future: Giubega. Praise God, because we know that He is absolutely sovereign, and He leads us where He wants us to go. Through the experiences we have had working with a couple of different pastors in different areas over the last few months, after much prayer and in accordance with the vision that we have, we believe that God is leading us to move to a village called Giubega (pronounced: jew-BEG-a). We have made the decision to move there, and discussed this on Easter Sunday evening with the pastor from Bailesti, who is the pastor for the general area. We are all very excited about this direction that God is leading our family!
 This is a huge step of faith for our family, because we know that in order to move there, we will need somewhere to live, which we don’t have yet. We have been praying for a long time that God will provide us a house to live in, in the village we would eventually move to. We are praying now that God would provide a house for us, or the money with which to purchase a house.
 We know that many of you would like us to be more specific with the request, so here goes: we are praying either that God would specifically give us a house in Giubega, or that He would provide $8000-$10,000 dollars with which to purchase a house. We will also most likely need money to do some repairs, and/or improvements to make it liveable (especially during the winter). We would like to be moved in to the house by the end of May.
 This is a big prayer request, and we know that; but on the other hand, we have a big God, who is awesome in power and endless in resources. He has done everything so far that we believed He would; He has never let us down. God will provide what He wants us to have.
 Please pray with us for the above requests. Please pray for the people of the village of Giubega, that they would be open to the gospel of Jesus Christ; we believe God will do a great work in the people and village of Giubega. We love you; thank you for praying for us. We will see you again soon.
 Servants Together in Christ,
  Andrew, Geta, and Family

Recent Ministry Summary

 
 We have been busy these last months working with two pastors from a couple different areas, ministering in various villages and churches. It has been a great experience for us, as well as a time of learning and growth. We have gotten to know each of the pastors and their families somewhat, and we have met many new people in the various villages and churches in which we have been blessed to be part of the ministry.
 Here is a summary of what we’ve been doing the last few weeks:
 March 17-18: I (Andrew) went by myself with one of the pastors to the mountain villages of Obarsia Closani and Marasesti (more information on these villages is available on our website). Only I went from our family that weekend because two of our three children were very sick, so Geta stayed home with them. The pastor and I had two services Saturday night, and two Sunday morning (one of us went to each service that morning), and two services again Sunday evening. I had no translator, so I knew it was going to be an interesting weekend. Saturday night, the pastor tried to translate for me, and he gave it a valiant try, but I found that I needed to repeat most everything (in Romanian) to get across correctly what I wanted to say. I decided that evening that I would give the rest of my messages that weekend in Romanian, as far as I was able. I was pretty nervous, but by the grace of God (a lot of grace), I was able to give 3 messages Sunday in Romanian. While it was not the full text of what I had prepared, and I had to speak relatively slowly, and carefully choose the words I wanted to use to make sure I could finish the thoughts and sentences I had started, the principal ideas, and points were clear, and the people understood what the Word had to say that day. I was blessed because a number of people told me afterwards that they understood “all” that had been said. Praise God! I definitely believe that God used that weekend to stretch me out of my comfort zone, but it was great, and I also was given more confidence in “my” abilities with the Romanian language.
 March 25: By invitation we as a family went to a village not too far from where Geta grew up -- one that may be familiar to many at Bridgeport Chapel: a village called Maciova. We had been invited there by Marius, who is the pastor in that village; he is also a friend of ours, and graduate from the Bible school that Geta and I graduated from. We stayed all day, and it was a wonderful time of fellowship at the church, as well as fellowship with Marius, his wife Adriana and young son Andre. They are an inspiration to us because what they have done is much like the vision that we have: they moved into a village where there were very few (or no) believers. Through many years of struggle and God’s blessing, they have been able to build God’s church through living with the people in the village and building friendships with them. God has blessed that village and the church, which is now fairly good-sized. The band that some of the youth of Bridgeport Chapel helped teach to play instruments is going strong, and sounding great!
 April 1 & 8: We went to the church in Bailesti for both Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. It was a great time of fellowship with the people there, celebrating Jesus’ royal entry into Jerusalem, and then the glorious hope that His resurrection brings. We took part in the services there morning and evening by singing and sharing the Word of God. In the afternoons, a family from the church took us to their home for lunch and rest, and that was a real blessing. We pray that we have been able to be as much of a blessing to the people in Bailesti as they have been for us. Please pray for the church in Bailesti, that God will continue to work in and bless that church!

Thank You!

 
 Greetings in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! We hope you had a wonderful Easter together with friends and family celebrating the glory of Christ’s resurrection. The picture above was taken Easter Sunday 2007. 
 First, we want to thank the Missions Committee, the elders, Pastor Ron, and all of Bridgeport Chapel for the great blessing of your support as a church. Although we knew that you already supported us wholeheartedly in your friendship and in your praying for us -- and we one hundred percent believe that this sustained us through some hard times -- your decision together as a body to also support us financially was such an encouragement to our family, and will continue to sustain us in good times and hard times; we believe that God will use all these things together in a mighty way for His glory. As always, may God’s hand of blessing be upon you, and thank you so much, Bridgeport Chapel!
 We also want to thank those of you who have supported us individually as well, through friendship, and through specific prayers and intercession for us in the presence of Almighty God, and also through the generous financial support that you have shown to our family. It has been really amazing these last months to watch how the Lord has taken care of us. It seems as though whenever we think we might not make it to the beginning of the next month, somehow we always do. This is our God! He is using these times to build our faith in Him, and He is using each one of your prayers and your generosity in a special way to provide for us at just the right time: His time! Thank you so much for your fervent, faithful praying for us, and also your generous, faithful financial support -- it has been an incredible blessing for us!
 “The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” -- Numbers 6:25-26