The Body of Christ

We had a great meeting just a few minutes ago. We invited all the people that we know in the valley to a special meeting in Club CFR. It was for the specific purpose of taking an official step towards a church plant. Pastor spoke on the importance of coming together and working together using 1 Cor 12:12-13 as his text. I also spoke from Ephesians 2:1-10 talking again about the Grace of God. We also had a great day working in Zone 9 beginning with our first ever prayer meeting in our new CCSBA Apartment! Everybody is doing a great job and we had some extremely good evangelical translators today. One of them actually led a couple of people to Christ! We have several Bible studies to do in Zone 9 and we are seeing some real progress in how the plan is working. It is great to have your home church to work with as they are showing me much grace as I am forgetting to feed them once in a while! We had a great day and I am amazed at how the people in the valley have decided to leave their orthodox heritage and begin a new church in the valley. Pray for them and myself as I have committed to helping them three days a week in the valley and once a week in a prayer meeting. Things could not have gone better for us today. Amen praise the Lord.

Man of the Hour

Yesterday we had a great day! This is Pastor David speaking to my mission training class yesterday morning before church. He had only five minutes to explain the Cane Creek Stoddard Baptist Association's commitment to the Cell Church plant in Zone 9. This was great for the nationals to hear this. They were very encouraged to see the team in our morning class.
We spent the day inviting people in the valley to the monday meeting. We really need prayer for the meeting tonight. It will be the first step at actually taking a concrete step towards a church start in the valley. AMEN!

It was a great honor to get to introduce our church from Southeast Missouri to our church in Southeast Romania.

I don't have a picture but last night Pastor was the "Man of the Hour". God really lit him up as he preached from Isaiah 6 to about 350 people at Holy Trinity church. He really spoke to the hearts of the people here in Galati. More importantly he connected with Pastor Ovie. His experiance in Europe really came forth in his sermon as he began to list the excuses people use for not doing evangelism (after speaking of the ones we use in America) and I even saw many tears from people who are being called to missions. I shed a few myself! He kept saying "you should share your faith because you can" It was great to see him exactly where God wants him, needs him and also at the same time working out his passion for the lost. In the middle of his sermon Pastor Ovie seemed to really be stirred and wrote me a note. "Troy do you need anything from us, do you have enough translators?" I wrote back... I need two more translators and I forgot to set up dinners for the team, can you help?" SOS TEAM NEEDS FOOD! After the service....he also found us a ride to Moldova this friday. This took so much pressure off of me and the sermon was just what we needed to start off a week of Evangelism. Pray that the meeting tonight goes well... it is a very important meeting and we covet your prayers. We also will begin new work in Zone 9 each and every morning starting today. It appears the weather will cooporate, AMEN. We pray that God will go before us and find us people who don't want to go to hell when they die!

Thanks for praying.....He answered in a BIG WAY!

One funny note: His interpreter was a young lady who asked him to go over the sermon a bit so she could do a better job. He told her, "I sing sometimes when I preach....can you sing also?' She said, "Yes! Of course would you also like to dance!"

Living Word Baptist Team Arrives

On my way to pick up the team I was one of the first to arrive after a head on collision between an SUV and a Dacia. This man was very fortunate to be alive. This is why we pray for travel mercies over here and why you need to be in prayer for these teams that come over. I am always reminded how important it is to share our faith over here as every week the Lord seems to bring something into my life that reminds me that life is frail.

Roger, Dr. Bob and Pastor David all rode the train. They left from the airport and rode the train. It took them under three hours on the train. They landed today at 12:15 and arrived at the train station here in Galati at 7:05. Total cost was 25 dollars for the cab ride to the station in Bucharest and 20 dollars each for the train ticket.

Mark, Ruth, Karen and Kim all rode with me in the van. We left at 13:20 and arrived here in Galati at 6:00 P.M.

Mark's fist time on a mission trip!


Ruth is only 74 or so.....she is the young one of the bunch. Doctor Bob is in his 70's too..I think! They are true veterans as they have been coming to Europe several years now.

Kim's first time to Europe !

They were very well behaved today after being awake so long. WEll, everyone except for Karen!

Pray for this man and his family tonight that he might see the hand of the Lord in sparing his life. I was able to pray with him and get him some water. It was about 20 mintues until the ambulance showed up. For me the day started at 6:00 AM and will be over in about three minutes....10:30. OH! It is Karla's Birthday, my beautiful wife turned 42 today! We will celebrate her birthday this week. Well, all those at Living Word would be proud of this team. Pray for Pastor as he preaches tomorrow night.

Making Much Progress

This week we have been very, very busy. We had work going on in the valley, Zone 9 and on the apartment. It was a shade of what I want to see in the future happening all over the city of Galati. Randy and Teresa have really been working hard. They have been working in the valley meeting with people and beginning the third Book of the National Bible Reading Campaign. It is a very, very effective book for new believers to go through. We also have been very busy getting ready for the team that will be here next week. Our Home church is sending eight more people to help us.

This is me in my new office....I am very happy! This will be the War Room. I am so happy to finally have a place that I can begin the cell group training in Zone 9. I was so full of joy today when I realized that so many of my dreams are going to be tied to what happens in this room. May God help us as we to reach the lost in this part of town.

Here Bogdon is laying the new flooring. Randy was a great mentor for him. They worked two days to finish the floor. It looks nice!

This is what my room looked like three days ago.

Here is Bogdon and Randy beginning the work in the kitchen. Randy was like "Tim the Tool Man" when he saw that we dearly needed his skills and his gift is service! He is VERY HANDY to have around when you are moving into an appartment over here in Europe and have no clue how to do anything. God knew that I would need this man's help and sent him to help in a big way.

Here Bogdon is changing the locks to keep previous renters from helping themselves.

Here is my beautiful wife helping us to clean our new apartment.

It has been one of the most productive weeks I have ever had on the mission field. Thanks Randy and Teresa for coming a week early to help us.
Here Andrew and Robert carry in two couches that will be used for our small group training. We are so thankful for Cane Creek Stoddard Baptist Association for making this a reality.

Work in the the Valley continues

Tuesday, April 24, Randy, Bogdon and Gabriel.
Gabriel just finished the study on Acts. Gabriel is still very interested in Bible studies and seeing a church in the Valley. Bogdon worked as our translator and is doing a wonderful job. It is amazing to see what God has done in his life. We have more Bible studies scheduled with Gabriel's family tomorrow. As Bogdon said "what a wonderful day" praise the Lord.

Lenutza, my sistser in Christ finished her study in Acts, (6 lessons) her next study will be First Steps to Christian Discipleship. It is amazing to see how Lenutza has grown in the Lord. While we were visiting with her yesterday we learned that her son Victor was in the hosptial with emergency surgery. Bogdon, Randy and I had prayer with her for her son, later that day Randy and Bogdon visited with Victor in the hospital. He is going to recover fine. It is a great blessing to be back in the Valley and being received so well by our friends from past visits. The people of the Valley do have a hunger for the Word. We are looking forward for the rest of our team to join us. Teresa & Randy

Randy and Teresa From Living Word Baptist Church

Zone 6 (The Valley)

Here is a picture of Randy and Teresa who are with our pastor David Groves and his wife Karen. Randy and Teresa have come a week in front of eight more who will follow this coming Saturday. We hope and pray that this team will help us get the work in the valley started again. Humanly speaking it has come to a stop. God has continued to work in the hearts of some and many are waiting to start the Bible Studies again.

Here are Randy, Bogdon and Teresa. Zone 6 is in the background. We went down into the valley and visited with Lanutza (the DAR lady), Gina, Mirela, Danuti (KOT), and many others. We had a good day and have more people to see this week. Randy and Teresa will take a one hour Romanian lesson each day of this week. They attended the church service this morning and are staying in the house of a Romanian couple and enjoying it, so far! Pray that they will be a strong witness in front of this very Orthodox family.

We have an apartment

This is our new apartment. I signed a rental contract today. It is on the ground floor! It is unfurnished. This backyard looks like we could have a BBQ once in a while. This will be nice for teams when they come over. I just didn't have the heart to get the one on the eigth floor! It was nice but it was pink!

This is the apartment. We will be able to fix it up a bit. With the help of Cane Creek Stoddard and Schultz Summers Engineering we will be able to do some improvements.

This is Bogdon who is truely a NEW person after April 3rd. This will be a great place to start and train small groups. Thanks for all that were praying about this. You can't even imagine how the enemy was at work behind the scenes. This makes it exciting to know that we are moving in the right direction! This is Katty-corner from where the team met at Billa. It is within just a few minutes walk of most places we need to work. I like that it is on a dead end street so there is not a lot of noise and traffic. I really think this is going to work. Time will tell.

One thing that I really like is that Dumitru who is our land lord is very familure with baptist work in Moldova. His brother in law or someone is a baptist pastor over there. So I have no fear of having problems with him in the future.

The "Accident"

You can see the church in this picture and the tire marks of the vehicle that hit her. He swerved to the right to avoid hitting her with the front of the car. Cars can travel up to 40 mph here but usally go a little faster. The car was probably doing 45.

When the teams from america come they will get a briefing on just when and where they need to cross the street. We have to trust the Lord that he will watch over us. After visiting her in the hospital Sunday, the same day of the accident, I was almost hit while in the cross walk, on a green light for pedestrians....a man just went flying through anyway and missed me by inches. It is amazing how different they drive over here.

Katia is a very faithful member of Holy Trinity. She works at the orphange and helps watch some of the children there. Her husband is a non-believer so pray for him.....

Here is Katia Grece who is very fortunate to be alive today along with her daughter in law. She just responded with a big smile today when I told her that many people were praying for her in the United States. It turns out she will have no serious injuries and will only spend two or three more weeks in the hospital. Her head is banged up quite a bit, her knees, and feet but the worst of it was the broken ribs. She also has some bruising of the heart. Thanks so much for praying for her. The sight of her flying through the air and twisting all the while hearing the car tires screeching and of course the thud of the impact is still etched in my memory and will be for some time to come. Many of you responded to my plea for prayer and I appreciate it so very much. Thanks! Almost everyone in the church saw the accident, kids and all.....of course in the night service the pastor was quick to tell everyone that they need to cross the street at the cross walk. He mentioned that the driver was completly innocent. I was thinking that if Christ would have been near her he would have pushed her out of the way as He fell in front of the car allowing Himself to take the hit. Imagine if she then said.... " I am saved because I am a good person!"

Who is missing?

Matthew is missing in this picture.....he should be right beside Robert here at this Chocolate Fest...He turned 19 today and it was the first time EVER that he was not with us. There are times....many, actually.. when you really have to do an emotional inventory and work hard at keeping it all together. This is one of those days.....Happy Birthday Son...we love you and miss you. We are VERY PROUD of you and look forward to seeing you soon...Happy Birthday. Below is Andrew and Katie hoping to get some of that FREE Chocolate. European chocolate is worth a mission trip all by itself!

If you climb the Alps you get some sweets, but watch out with those feets!

I think the purple cow would go great in the pink room I want to rent. May be this is a sign from God that I am suppose to rent the pink apartment. It is easter...most people paint their bunny eggs pink and purple...."one question?" What color milk do you get out of a purple cow? Who knows....

But it is Pink!

The room is big and allows for more people to meet here.... Looking at Billa...

I think that it would actually make people want to invite their friends which is VERY important!

It looks over the entire Zone 9. Great for prayer meetings.

Here is another apartment. It is on the 8th floor! But this one does have an elevator and there is a number posted inside just in case it doesn't work. You just call and shazam, somebody comes and rescues you! Well, I was assured that this NEVER happens.

This one is good for several reasons also. We can see the entire zone from here. So we could have great prayer meetings! Do you see the large orange building? That is the new hotel (opens soon) teams will stay in. We have an enlarged room that is more open then all other apartments I have seen which makes it better as more people can participate in a group meeting. It has many lights on the interior, so it is well lit. It is centrally located as you can see the center is only a few feet away. I love many things about this one but it also has some things I don't like.

It is on the 8th floor. This is a big problem when earthquakes hit the city! It is pink! It looks like the guy tried to use it for a night club or something. The elevator only holds four normal sized people. It is more expensive as they want 200 euro which is around 260 dollars per month. (twice as much as the other one) Which is in the budget but we need to be careful. So what do you think? I am alright with it BUT IT IS PINK! We can always paint it.....

A small step (45 steps) for Man

Some of you know that Cane Creek Stoddard Baptist Association from Southeast Missouri has partnered with me to start a "Cell Church" in Zone 9 of Galati. (This is not without the help of our friends in Northwest Missouri, namely, Jay Raines who will have sent six teams by the end of this year. This along with Noel Shepard's two teams from Oak Wood in Lee's Summit where the pastor, Steve Taylor has even been to Galati to try and boost the missions focus in his church, whose efforts will result in bringing a second team this year.) Cane Creek Stoddard's DOM, Marshal Link's has been a great help to me and is assisting in providing the funds for renting this apartment. This morning I found this apartment which is in Micro 20, (Zone 9 includes Micro 19, 20 and 21).

This will be a huge step in the right direction. Pray as I try and make this difficult decision. It has many "Pros" and some "Cons". The rent is very low compared to some other places. Right at 150 US dollars a month. It is unfurnished so I can set it up how I need to. It is only a couple of blocks away from the new hotel that is being built in Zone 9. (This is where the teams from America will stay in the future.) The apartment building is very clean. It is near the outdoor market and the school that is in this area. You can also see the school from the balcony, thinking about out reach to the teens in the area. So there are many pros!

As for the Conn's: The things that I don't like. Well it is more like the things the teams from America don't like! "It is on the 3rd floor." You must climb three flights of stairs. As we do in the apartment we live in. There is no elevator so you must climb. The Romanians do this every day, several times a day, but we Americans.....well ...I don't want to HURT ANYBODY's FEELINGS! Whah, Whah, Whah......just having a little fun with my own culture!

So... any way please pray for this very difficult but important step towards the beginning of a Cell Church, (made up of a network of homes or "small groups" that are only connected by the leadership network). They do not have a "paid pastor" or a "building." It is more like the New Testament model before the advent of Constantine which moved the church into a more rigid and slower moving structure. We will still work towards a "large group" meeting but it will not be the focus of our efforts. We want people to experiance the "commnunity of believers" with "accountablity" and "intimacy" that "sometimes escapes" the larger traditional churches. So please pray that God will show us how to do this. I am sure that it is God's will that we try! But we must try with FAITH! So please be in prayer to help me determine if this is the apartment the Lord wants. I am not the type to throw a "fleece" before the Lord but I do believe in the power of prayer.

No Blood-No Salvation

Today, the day that the Body of Jesus lay in the grave... perfect and sinless, is represented here by this special bread. We know that on the second day Jesus was with the thief in "paradise" but his body remained in the grave. We also know that Jesus did not go to hell to take our punishment as some believe, because on the cross Jesus said, "It is finished!" So he was laid to rest in the grave, without sin, for He had been a perfect sacrifice.

The day Jesus died on a cross was on the same day of the month that the Hebrews left Egypt 1500 years eariler, this event is recorded for us in Exodus 12 , is known as the "Passover" and was established as a tradition in Leviticus 23. No other feast or celebration on earth has run longer; running every year for nearly 3500 years! This box of Passover Matyos baked under the supervision of the chief rabbi of GIVATAYM are strictly kosher. They are made on Jobotinsky Rd. Benei-Brak 51228, Israel. But does this rabbi even know what they represent?

I just received them as a gift from our old neighbor Rosental and his mother Sarah after a short visit with them. I had not seen Sarah in almost a year...and the fact that she was 91 then......I didn't even know if she was still alive. She is 92 now and carried on a very polite conversation with me. I had no translator and she very paitently put up with my very bad romanian. Any way, we talked for quite a while. She said over and over that she is so sad that we are not her neighbors anymore. (We moved to an apartment that is near our hold house) You might remember my asking you to pray for our 90 year old Jewish neighbor whose name just "happened" to be Sarah! Well, when Rosental presented this box to me it gave me an opportunity to ask some questions. (it is interesting to me that before WWII, Sarah taught at a school in Soroca, Moldova, where I recieved my call to missions in June of 2002) She began to explain the Exodus in detail. But it was all about the bread. I began to ask about the lamb. She had no answers. I tried to ask them questions about the instructions to put lamb's blood on the door post. This is where the conversation picked up abit ......

Sarah became a little upset. She began to tell me that there was NO BLOOD, that was a myth, a Christian myth. There was only bread- no blood. The Torah said nothing about the blood and she began to ask Why? Why Blood? Pentru Ce?...."for what?" She just kept saying it over and over. I asked Rosental where the Bible was that I gave him a year ago. He promptly went into the next room and brought it back. I opened to Exodus 12 and had him read verse 7. "They are to take the Lambs blood and smear it on the top and sides of the doorframe of the house where the lamb was eaten? Sarah insisted..."e nu adeverat" " is not true" and said, "E nu scrie acolo" -"is not written there!" I was amazed at how she was fighting this truth from her own Torah....forget the symbolic nature of the blood and lamb. She outright said that the Torah was wrong......! I find it ABSOLUTELY AMAZING that the "blood of the Lamb" in that story which so perfectly represents the death of Christ, the lamb that takes away the sins of the world..is such a picture of Christ's death that this dear Jewish lady has been taught to totally ignore this critical part of the story....the "blood of the lamb." Even though it has been a part of their tradition for over 3500 hundred years.

We who have had our sins forgiven through the "blood of the Lamb" know that she is blinded by the god of this world. Please pray for Sarah and Rosental. You know as well as I do that "all must be born again" this includes those from the nation of Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham,.....pray that we can reach her somehow, some way soon....at the age of 92 we must ask ourselves......how much longer could she possibly live? We must pray for the salvation of her soul and that her eyes will be opened to the richness of her own heritage through which came forth the Savior of the World. The Lamb that came from God. The Lamb that takes away the sins of the world- John 1:29.

One of "My" Converts gets saved

This is Bogdon and Paula and their two wonderful children, Gabriela and Robert. We have been friends with them almost from the time that we came to Galati. On March 3rd I posted a blog “True Convert”. It told us about Paula’s baptism. What is amazing is that her life did not become better after this. Her husband Bogdon became extremely difficult and began tormenting and taunting her about being a “repenter”. He made her life a living hell! This was amazing to us as he has been “a believer” for almost two years now. During this time he has: been in prayer groups, stood up at club CFR and told people that he was now a “repenter”, gone into the villages with us and translated Share Jesus without Fear numerous times, has tried to lead others to repentance, and even said in the past that he wanted to start churches and that the people need Jesus. Well, this was all from an unregenerate heart! (thinking of Judas now)

After Paula’s baptism he began to really become a tool of the evil one. He increased his drinking, drove Paula to the point that she was in the process of filing for a divorce, lost his job, and became angry at everybody in the church. I confronted him a week ago…this with much prayer cover in the states. I explained to him that, based on the scripture, that there was absolutely no evidence, what so ever, that he actually ever repented. I showed him 1 Cor 6:9-10, 1 John 3:4-10, Matthew 24:45-50. Some of Paula’s friends from the local church, that Paula is a member of, also were confronting him. He really became a product of what we see in 1 Cor. 5:1-5 ‘where he was cast from the assembly” even though he wasn’t even a member! The end result ……he REPENTED of his sins!

On April 4th I received a phone call, “Troy I am BORNED AGAIN” “I really understand now!” I got on my knees last night and “I am BORNED AGAIN” “I GIVE MY LIFE TO JESUS!” I cried and cried last night and all today. I see that I am a sinner and that I can do nothing to please God. I tried, I can’t make it on my own….I need Jesus! What a great blog to post on this “Sacred Day” Passover! I am very convinced that he is now a TRUE CONVERT, as for his wife…..pray that God will put them back together soon, she moved out and was looking to divorce him. I always HATED hearing Bogdon say….”Troy you change my life soooo much” “Troy you do so much for me”….Bogdon was one of "my converts"….Now….he is saying “Jesus changed my life” "I give my life to Jesus"…….praise the Lord!

He believed that which he did not “understand”….he remained lost and living a life of sin. Now…realizing that he is a sinner in need of a Savior…..has eternal life! I close with the words of Paul…Galatians 6:15 “what counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people and Col. 1:6 “This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard and UNDERSTOOD the truth about God’s great kindness to sinners! Read Ezekiel 36:25-27 to see why and how someones life changes when they are born again!

Thank God for the power of the Resurrection and NEW life in Christ Jesus!