Sing but with the windows open

Climbing in the trees to hear the Gospel songs! This has been a incredible day! It seems that God was ALL over this entire day. This team from Cameron is LIGHTING up Zone 9! What started out to be a slow hot day turned out to be something quite special. For one thing Pastor Jay used his organizational skills to help this missionary keep track of our follow up needs. We have had so much success in the streets of Zone 9 that we are loosing track of the lessons that need to be done. We now have 16 lessons going and I mean no END in site. A literal revival is breaking out among the national believers and they are leading the charge. We are not paying any translators, they are coming more and more each day. The teams are all bringing back encouraging reports. It is so awesome having the Hotel nearby. The team can really get around in Zone 9, everything they need is within walking distance.



I found out that we have 32 refugees from Pakistan and some from Somalia staying near to our apartment. They are Muslim and I had a great talk with some of them this morning. Little Joel led a Bible Study with two elderly ladies. The team really won the heart of a resteraunt owner today. And best of all we have several on the virge of repentance at this time. I think we have around six to ten on going lessons from NBRC. The team is making an incredible impression on the neighbors. I am certain that God is going before us! We are making so much progress that I am taken back and in AWE at what this week has brought us. We are impacting Zone 9 with incredible ease and almost NO resistance! It is only a matter of "time" now and also learning "exactly" how to get these people that are doing these studies assimilated into groups until Galati is going to be changed one Zone at a time.



This morning one of the first phone calls I made to Jay was, "Hey we better quit hanging out at the apartment so much, I am afraid the people are going to get mad at us and I will get kicked out!" but as the day went on the Lord really showed me an entirely different picture of what is happening. I decided to trust Him and His leading me to that apartment. This night only a couple of hours ago we had a huge meeting in our apartment. Many people came to help us from the church along with my family and the ten from Cameron. I had some of the nationals talk with my neighbors to see if they were getting mad at me for bringing so many people to the apartment. They said, "Well their have been others who have come and they hid behind close doors. You guys keep the windows open. We heard you singing the other day. Please leave the windows open when you sing so we can hear!" Praise God for this great report. See the kids outside listening to the Gospel songs. AMEN! Thanks Lord for a great day! Thanks team Cameron First for sending such a great team. We can't wait for the other two teams.....God is moving through the people you sent .....praise the Lord!

Pray as this team only has one more day to hit the streets.....the Lord will be with them but pray that they will have the best day yet!

Off to a great start....

We are off to a great start here this week with First Baptist Cameron. I know they look like they are from Romania but they have come to help these nationals start a church in Zone 9 and that is exactly what is happening. This is a group from my Sunday morning class that is going out to find one person, ask one question and teach one lesson! The lady in the blue dress, blond hair wearing the glasses is the Lady I put in the car over a month ago. She is the one that we SAW get hit by the car and thought that she was dead. Now we call her 'miracle.' This was the first time that I have seen her since I visited her at the hospital over a month ago. It was so wonderful to see her, hug her, kiss her and also know that she has a story to tell to the people in Zone 9!

This is the group on the way out the door into the streets. Look at this army! We are truly blessed to have this team form Cameron with us. They reminded me of a commando squad when they all came marching into the apartment! Team #1 is led by Lanny Wake,(above) here in the orange shirt and back pack along with his daughter Whitney who is on her third trip to Galati and has a wonderful heart for the Lord. His team has already found enough people to begin lessons with. They are on lesson three with a small group next to the Hotel. I think nearly everyone has been able to have great encounters on the street and are amazed at the openness of people on the street. This group from Cameron is stepping out into total spiritual darkness and bringing the Light of the Gospel to people with NO HOPE! I challenged the team to go and try to find one repenter in Zone 9. There are 40000 people out there, "Good Luck" trying to find a true repenter!

This is Andrew leading us in some worship before we went to hit the streets. I dearly want to unleash his talents and put him out on the street but I know it will draw such a big crowd it may get us in trouble with my neighbors. I have to be careful!

This is Alex helping with the worship. I didn't really give them much of a chance to prepare but they got us singing and united in spirit. It was great as it was the first time we have had instruments in our training center.
We fill up the apartment rather fast when everybody that works doing the street evangelism converges on the training center. This is my favorite part of the strategy. Seeing so many people together with like minds and like hearts to reach people for Christ. This is being led by nationals but the teams bring so much energy and focus to the plan. We love teams! Having them at the Hotel is a HUGE benefit and greatly increases our ability to reach this area of town.

I am so excited at how this training center provided by CCSBA is working to make my dream of having a "Cell Church" in Galati is working.

Here is Pastor Jay Raines, his son Joel, and myself on our way out to lead by example! We don't ask anything of our people that we won't do ourselves. We witnessed to over thirty people in just under two hours and also found one thirty year old man that wants to do lessons from the NBRC. Jay and Joel actually worked without a translator and had a great encounter with someone as a father and son. We have an appointment with him tonight at 6:00.

Showing the way! This was a very common site last night. Many people heard the Gospel. We sent out at least five or six groups that all spoke to several groups of lost people. So even in the modest of estimates our NBRC teams spoke to nearly 200 people in just under two hours.

Here is Christia, Cutalina and Karla speaking with several young people. The girl in the white was so excited to hear about Jesus it was incredible. She knew absolutely nothing about Jesus. This is across the street from the training center. Tracy Smart was also with this team but not in the picture. She is a second grade teacher back in Cameron and is with her son Caleb. It is great to see and hear what God is doing in her heart. They actually found a person we were working with in the valley that has moved to Zone 9. This lady lives only two buildings away from us. I truly believe with all of my heart that this is a move of God because it is focused on reaching the Lost for the Kingdom and nothing else. This is what it is all about. Amen, praise the Lord, hallelujah, may all the honor and glory and praise go to Him and HIM alone!


I am so thankful for Pastor Jay and Micele Raines who have been so incredibly supportive of our efforts here in Galati. Pastor Jay is truly amazing as he came four years ago with a team of three, scouting out work in Romania. This year Lanny, who came on that first team is leading team # 1, and Nacny who was also on that first team will be on team #3! Pastor Jay has gone from bringing three people to sending three teams of prepared, trained and fired up people. This is what missions is all about. On this team of ten we have Pastor's Jay's family, Lanny and his daughter Whitney, Tracy and her son Caleb Smart. So He is all about family and getting them involved in missions also. Jay is the very loyal grandson of Bill Davis, the founder and president of Church Starts International whose materials we use in the National Bible Reading Campaign. They were written by Ted Lindwall who has written and developed the 20 lessons that I LOVE to teach to these orthodox people. I am so thankful for the Church Starts International materials. I believe God has anointed these precious little studies and that they are the REASON we are making so much progress here in Galati.

Snow in June

Well, what could the be all over my dash board? Can you guess.......? I doubt it! After a very busy morning trying to get the material ready for my class on this last Sunday and finishing only five minutes from class time .....I had quite a surprise getting into my car. There was a man in the drivers seat of our van. He had been sleeping there for part of the night and when I got there he was just leaning back listening to the Radio. He had pulled my fuse block cover off and had messed with it a bit. It turns out that he was a homeless man that normally sleeps by the dumpster near our apartment. He really is in bad shape and although he has most of his mental capacities some are simply NOT there. He promptly got out of the seat. I was a little disgusted with him but mainly with myself for forgetting to lock the van the night before. (I was distracted by my Jewish neighbor who wanted a Bible for his friend. )

So anyway he promptly got out of the car, leaving all his trinkets on the dash board. A little piece of a radio, a broken clock with the Lord's supper as a back plate, a couple of transitors ect. He was extremely "ripe" if you know what I mean! Probably had not taken a bath in several months and he also sort of left a"mess behind" in the drivers seat. To top all this off he also accidently set the fire extinguisher off. Yes, on top of the smell resembling "a thousand pig pens" was the smell of the "powder" from the fire extinguisher. It sort of smelled like "rotten eggs" and what a potent combination. It would literally make your eyes water!

Well, I just got in the car, went to church, carried that smell right into the church and then began to teach. This of course after I explained to them why I stunk! After class, I couldn't even attend church I stunk so bad. My family, who normally comes to church later in a taxi, not knowing the extent of the problem actually decided to walk home instead.

Almost one week later... we have tried going to the professional car cleaners twice, I have personally scrubbed with a foam specifically made for fabrics, letting it air out for an entire day, vacuuming it along with buying three aroma devices we are just now starting to "smell" some progress.

The moral of the story could go several different directions as you could only imagine. I have several different scriptures that come to mind and also some very strong spiritual illustrations that I could muster up ...but the real moral of this story is ......LOCK YOUR CAR AT NIGHT!

First Week of June

These are some people from Jeremy's church. He is leaving to go to Bucharest and is now hoping his people will become part of what I hope to be a cell church in this city. Here is Marian who lives in an orphanage and is interested in the things of God.

Here is Mihia who I am hoping will be a leader after he has been through some training and feels a little more apart of our group. He will really miss Jeremy as they had close friendship for several years. Jeremy led him to Christ. He is a people person and will do great when it is his time to lead a group.

Here is Florine and Tincuta who are a young married Orthodox couple. They are thinking about helping us start this new work. He is pretty sharp and will really be a good one to have on our side over time. They are young as she is only 20 and he is 21 I think. They have children already I think. So we are hoping to get these three guys in our new group that meets on Wednesday and maybe we can get a group of woman to start meeting with Tincuta. Pray about this.

This is Iulian Dantus who is the missionary over in Focsani (A city 40 miles from here). We will start meeting with him every other Tuesday and try to help the fledgling church over there. They have 14 members after about as many years. We will begin to divide the city into Zones and then ask the Lord to send us to the one He wants. I will try to learn how to develop this strategy in another city basically from scratch. Pray for us as we attempt this.

Bogdan and I had a busy week. Yesterday, we finished the repairs on the wall in the Modoi families new house, delivered some clothes to the nine families house, took medicine to Gabriels family set up for a "mini clinic" at Gina's house. We also talked to a girl named Laura who will be taken to jail in the next few days. What was her crime? Two months ago while she was in Itialy she contracted a very bad urinary tract infection. It almost took her life. They operated on her and kept her for two months. She now has to pay the bill. 6000 eruo which is around 8000 US dollars! She lives in the valley and does not even have a job. Because we are in the EU now this will happen more and more. She will probably have to spend 15 years paying off the 8000 dollars. This is incredible to me. If they do take her I will complain to the president of the country if I have to. This is just not right. Bogdon turns 28 years old tomorrow. I was 28 when I repented. He is one of two students in my intensive Bible Study. He is amazed at some of the things the Bible teaches.

Going Where No Man Has Gone Before

In just a few days; Bold Christians from First Baptist Cameron will descend into this country and enter into the ZONE. ZONE NINE! They will be the first people "ever" to stay in this New Hotel. It is so new I don't even know the name of it.....

This Hotel is a direct result of God feeling sorry for me having for having to drive the teams from the Villa Belvedere to Zone 9. I know waah.. waah... waah.. poor Troy... and is also a direct result of my prayers being answered. God is so incredible in how He answers our specific needs. Imagine, one man, asking God for a huge orange hotel where the teams can work out of and not have to be hauled all over town. Shazam, Out of no where a construction crew shows up, a Hotel is built and the first people to ever stay in it will be from Cameron Missouri! Ok! So it is not opened yet but for half price what do you expect! Jay, Michele, Joel and Morgan Raines along with Tracy and Caleb Smart, Andrew Stephens, and Alex Walker will enter this construction zone in just 10 days! They will be the first of three teams from Cameron Missouri. They owe a great deal of debt to the Living Word Baptist Church who broke the ice for us this year in Zone 9. This time I am ready for the team as Living Word was not so fortunate! Oh! Yeah, Lanny and Whitney Wake are also on this team. There are some things you try and forget about and they just won't go away!
They will arrive here on the 15th and depart on the 20th. This is enough time for them to start several groups and hand over the work to the next team that is arriving on the 22nd. They are Casey Joyce, Abigail Kincade, Taylor Love and Travis Mc Cartney. They will continue the work while at the same time working with another team from the states. Jay will take the lead as I have decided to take my family to Greece instead! (Actually we must go to our Annual Group Meeting {AGM} that week) This will really stretch our team as they try and push forward in the Galati Plan without their fearless missionary. This is something Pastor Jay has been praying about for three years now! This second team is leaving on the 30th. Leaving the progress they make for team number three. This team will probably have to find people who speak English and just start from there. It will be very interesting to see how this will work.

Then July 6th the third team consisting of Landon McCoy, Evelyn Clemons, Nancy Miles and Rosmarie Deevers together with Lanny and Whitney will work until the 15th. We think this is enough time to start at least one more group. If all three teams are able to focus their efforts, they may be able to form a group or two that will continue even after they leave. Can you imagine how exciting that would be! I made the mistake of removing Living Word Baptist in the evenings, opting instead for the Big Event that turned out to be a BIG FLOP working in the valley, Zone 6. If I had it to do over I would put them on the streets over in Zone 9 in the evenings. This is when the picking is RIPE as they found out on the last night of their trip!

We need to really discover a way to find people who are already in a group and bring them into a study. They will be able to do this far more efficient now that we have a training center in Zone 9. Compliments of Cane Creek Stoddard Baptist. This has proven to be a real GOD SEND. May God bless Marshal Link and these churches 100 times over for this.

Now we are on the first floor. The rooms are not quite finished yet.. but hey...we still have ten more days...right guys! Don't sweat the "small details" is my motto. The rooms themselves will have everything needed. But the Hotel won't be open for another couple of months. Some of you don't even have your PASSPORTS YET! We need to pray about this.....please stop and pray for those on the team that STILL do not have their passports.

A typical room for extraordinary people! Imagine getting to sleep two or three hours a night in between leading people to Christ. I think these rooms will be very nice as the entire team will get to stay in the same place. We decided not to go with the apartment idea.

See everything is in place...... well almost!


They assured me that all items will be in working order. Don't "hold your breath" but I am thinking that the rooms will be ready by then. I hope so! Of course, I will be staying in my nice comfortable house. So I won't be skiing behind this boat! I will send pictures of Lanny trying to though. This is a little Cameron First joke that they really get a kick out of....you would really like them once you get to know them though!

Please pray for them...they are coming to build the Kingdom and that is what it IS all about!

Pray that I will feed them better then I did my own beloved HOME church. They almost kicked me out of the fellowship the first day they were here and for several other reasons ...but My Pastor is a man of GRACE and wouldn't let them!

The Accordian Family

Around three years ago while doing street evangelism our Pastor's wife, Karen Groves found a family in the valley that we now call the accodian family. They are actually the Modoi family and without any hesitation I have found them to be one of the most receptive families in the valley. We have done several studies with them hoping that someday they would be apart of the church in the valley. They are in need of our prayers at the moment. Their daughter in law would call us the people with the "beautiful faith."

This is thier new home the mayor gave them after they were put out in the street a couple of nights ago. It seems the owner of the house they were in decided to kick them out. It was a neighbor and there must have been some problems brewing between them. The father is an alcoholic as are most of the men in the valley. He might have caused some problems. But any way the law in this country says that the mayor must find them a new house within one month.

This new "house" is a disaster area! I couldn't belief it when I saw this place. They have one room, for six to eight people, with one small entry. They have no water, gas or electric as of now. The "house" was up to their chests in garbage that they had to and are still in the process of cleaning out. They have been promised by the mayor to make it a better place in the future. This really breaks my heart because there really is very little I can do about this. I am planning on trying to see the mayor and at least plea on there behalf. Please pray about this.

The far wall is almost not there. Look at all the cracks in it. It is truely unsafe for them to be in this place. They sleep there now without lights! Just to the right of this picture are cracks so large you could hand objects through them.

Please pray for them. God knows why this happens and expects us to lift these needs in prayer. As you know I have been working in the valley and see many discusting and cruel things but this is one that really grabs me as it "seems" so unfair. They have promised that we can start Bible studies up once again once they get their house in order. They are ashamed of this place as of now. One good note is that she likes the location better then the one in the valley as it is near the local outdoor market. Praise the Lord for this......



Mrs. Madoi and her son. Please lift them and there needs to the Lord. This will be the new house for six to eight people now. Most of them adults.....

Gabriels Family

We have been doing lessons again with Gabriels family. We had ten or so there tonight, not counting the children. We are hoping to meet here every Saturday at 7:00 PM. We study the book titled "I Have Been Born Again, Now What?" Written by Charles Brock. We now have a meeting in the valley every Saturday and Sunday. I hope to pick up about five more groups before stopping and then trying to develop these groups into a traditional church. It may never happen but it needs to or the work will stop. You just don't realize how important a church is when you go to one every week. But as of now we are so thankful for the work. It has been a long time since we were working in the valley and making progress. It seems everything we were doing was taking us backwards. But now we are finally starting to take back some ground and gaining a little momentum. Thanks for all your prayers!

I think Gabriel actually invited some neighbors to this meeting. We are hoping this will grow and Gabriel will become one of our leaders in the Valley. They are a very needy family. Please pray the Lord will bless them as they let us continue lessons there.