God Will...

Give me a man of God -- one man, whose faith is master of his mind, and I will right all wrongs and bless the name of all mankind.

Give me a woman of God -- one woman, whose tongue is touched with heaven's fire, and I will flame the darkest hearts with high resolve and clean desire.

Give me a man of God -- one man, one mighty prophet of the Lord, and I will give you peace on earth, bought with a prayer and not a sword.

Give me a woman of God -- one woman, true to the vision that she sees, and I will build your broken shrines and bring the nations to their knees.

-- George Liddell

The House

Some of you, our friends and family have asked for a little more information on the house and property we are praying for in Giubega (the village we are going to move to) and to see a couple of pictures.
The property we are specifically praying for in Giubega is approximately 80 meters long and 30-40 meters deep. There are 2 buildings at one end of the property; one is a house with four good-sized rooms and a basement, which would be our place of residence; the other is smaller, with three individual rooms each opening to the outside, which we would like to one day use as a guest house for ministry purposes. The other end of the property is basically field, and could be used for a variety of purposes, such as outdoor evangelization meetings and concerts, a soccer field (big over here) for outreach, a youth camp or two in the summers, etc. It seems that there are endless possibilities for ministry, endless opportunities to bring glory to God!
The pictures posted here are: >1 a close up of a good portion of the main house; 2> a view through the front gate of the smaller building (on right, with main house barely visible through trees on left); 3> a long shot of the property from where the houses are (to the left, outside of picture) to the end of the property (follow the tree line down the road until the wood fence).
As you can see, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in order to repair and fix up the buildings and property. It will take a lot of time and money to accomplish, but God will provide everything in His time.
The price on the property we heard was orignally about $8500, but later when we talked to the owner he had raised the price to about $14,500; we believe this is because he probably made some calls in the village and found out that it was Americans looking at his property. The common assumption in Romania is that all Americans have a lot of money and unfortunately this line of thinking is common in Romania. Although this change was quite discouraging, we also know that the owner can never get that price for the house, especially because of the condition the house is in.
Even with these circumstances, God has placed in our hearts a burden to pray specifically that He would provide this house and property for us and the ministry in Giubega. We don't know exactly why, except that there are so many extroardinary things that could be done here for the glory of God.
We also don't know how in the world God is going to provide this house and property for us, but we believe that since He has placed a burden on our hearts to pray specifically for it, that He will somehow provide it. It will take much prayer and faith. One of our friends recently said to us, "our God is a rich God; He can do anything He wants". That is so true! Our God is a God of miracles, wonders, and blessings, and nothing is impossible for God.
Thank you for your continued friendship and support, and your faithful prayers for us -- prayer moves the hand that moves the world!
Keep praying -- God will provide!

Making History

On May 3rd through the 11th, I (Andrew) had the opportunity to attend a leadership seminar in the mountainous area of Baile Herculane, about 1 hour from where we live (see picture of hotel). It was a leadership seminar called History Makers; "History Makers is a ministry of the International Leadership Institute (I.L.I.), a global network of leaders committed to accelerating the spread of the Gospel". History Makers seeks to train a new generation of leaders who want to reach people with the Gospel. History Makers' vision is to: "Change history by accelerating the spread of the life transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through leaders of leaders empowered by the Holy Spirit."

We studied many things throughout the week, including intimacy with God, visionary leadership, discipleship, mentoring, stewardship of time and money, integrity, and making family a priority. We had plenty of opportunity to discuss things we had studied, ask questions, and do some practical applications, such as set personal goals for more time alone with God, more time together with family, etc.

It was a very good week for me, and even though I had heard many of these sort of teachings before, they were still very good and reinforced many of the ideas within me. I was able to set personal goals for more time with God, and more time with family, which already have been a real blessing. I was also encouraged and emboldened to share our vision for ministry and what God has placed on our hearts with others with boldness and with confidence. I also realized during this time that God in fact does want Geta and me to be leaders. I have resisted the idea for too long, preferring instead to be in a supporting role to a leader (I felt that we were not leaders). However, it is obvious especially in light of things that have happened in the last months, that God wants us to be leaders and in fact has thrust us into that position in ministry; we acknowledge that now and have embraced that call in our lives. May God help us to be the leaders He wants us to be!

Another great benefit that came from the seminar was the strengthening of friendships and the buildng of new ones. There is a sense of community that grew during the seminar; we now have a network of brothers and sisters in Christ all around Romania who we are willing to help and who are willing to help us. I met many people with various trade skills and ministries -- it is incredible to think of all the ministry opportunities that may arise in the future.

One of our new visions is to one day have a History Makers seminar in Giubega, at our future home, for emerging new leaders in that area. Right now, we are hoping for spring of 2010. We are putting it almost three years out because after God provides a house for us in Giubega, we will need time and money to repair it, and make it workable for a seminar like this.

Please continue to pray for us, and for God to keep raising up leaders all across Romania and the world who will change history for Jesus!

Family in the Park

Here are some pictures of our family that were taken recently at a park in the city of Orsova. Please enjoy them!
1> Here is a picture of Ammishaddai, Elijah, and Joseph sitting on some rocks...

2> A picture of Joseph in the park. The park is near the Danube River (background).

3> Geta is playing with the kids in the park...

4> Andrew and Elijah...

(Pictures taken April 17, 2007 in Orsova, Romania)