This has been a good week for me. I am now able to put 100% of my effort back on the work of church planting. I am trying to pick up where I left off about 13 months ago and it is a little difficult. We spent almost all of 2006 in the states and after that the summer kept us very busy with teams (PTL). Then we entered into six more months of training that led to spending three weeks in Prague last month. So for all practical purposes we are now starting what we stopped amost a year ago. The Good News is that it seems we are emerging more focused and stronger then ever before which is great. This is a picture of Bogdon, Dragos and Mihia who are all diligently trying to learn how to teach the Kingdom Doctrinal Track. Bogdon will have many students in the valley and Mihia has a group he wants to start. Dragos has a group of young men also on Saturdays. This will give them something to do. Last night the verse that really stuck in my mind was "
Make the Kingdom of God your primary concern" don't live like the pagans. Pray for this group. Our team is building as we have four more coming from our SBC churches to help us. Pray for Randy, Teresa, Justin and Marty. They have great hearts to help us here in Southeast Romania. We are also now working with the missions pastor from Holy Trinity, only one problem....he is too busy to help us...! He is constantly attending prayer meetings, committee meetings, group meetings, pastor's meetings, ect. (pray about this)
A recent study revealed that Galati City is Number ONE when it comes to the LEAST number of EV churches in a large Romanian city. So I have decided to really intensify the praying for our city and the surrounding Villages. When looking at the Baptist work it is shrinking on all fronts. We are almost an "Endangored Species." The work in Moldova and Northwestern Romania is flurishing so the problem is not with the culture. We must break down the strong holds and start planting churches. This is on my heart day and night. I had a very moving moment when I was counting these 150 villages in our county excluding the 700 villages in the other four counties in my region. Every little red mark represents an entire village of people that are lost in religious emptiness that offers no hope. I had the impression (much like that of a 747 full of people crashing and catching on fire) of each village full of people, children and the elderly just dying and spending enternity in hell. This brought me to tears....
We have so much hope that God is with us and will expand His Kingdom through our efforts. We are hoping to use this location..what is now being called the Regional Training Center to reach out to the 800= villages and 35 cities in Southeast Romania and beyond. We are praying and praying that God will send us strong SBC teams over the next ten to fifteen years that only have ONE thing on their mind. Reaching lost people with the Gospel. We know that God can do anything but He uses us to build His Kingdom..... the church of the Living God! The pillar and support of the Truth......
This has been a good week for me. I am now able to put 100% of my effort back on the work of church planting. I am trying to pick up where I left off about 13 months ago and it is a little difficult. We spent almost all of 2006 in the states and after that the summer kept us very busy with teams (PTL). Then we entered into six more months of training that led to spending three weeks in Prague last month. So for all practical purposes we are now starting what we stopped amost a year ago. The Good News is that it seems we are emerging more focused and stronger then ever before which is great. This is a picture of Bogdon, Dragos and Mihia who are all diligently trying to learn how to teach the Kingdom Doctrinal Track. Bogdon will have many students in the valley and Mihia has a group he wants to start. Dragos has a group of young men also on Saturdays. This will give them something to do. Last night the verse that really stuck in my mind was "Make the Kingdom of God your primary concern" don't live like the pagans. Pray for this group. Our team is building as we have four more coming from our SBC churches to help us. Pray for Randy, Teresa, Justin and Marty. They have great hearts to help us here in Southeast Romania. We are also now working with the missions pastor from Holy Trinity, only one problem....he is too busy to help us...! He is constantly attending prayer meetings, committee meetings, group meetings, pastor's meetings, ect. (pray about this)
A recent study revealed that Galati City is Number ONE when it comes to the LEAST number of EV churches in a large Romanian city. So I have decided to really intensify the praying for our city and the surrounding Villages. When looking at the Baptist work it is shrinking on all fronts. We are almost an "Endangored Species." The work in Moldova and Northwestern Romania is flurishing so the problem is not with the culture. We must break down the strong holds and start planting churches. This is on my heart day and night. I had a very moving moment when I was counting these 150 villages in our county excluding the 700 villages in the other four counties in my region. Every little red mark represents an entire village of people that are lost in religious emptiness that offers no hope. I had the impression (much like that of a 747 full of people crashing and catching on fire) of each village full of people, children and the elderly just dying and spending enternity in hell. This brought me to tears....
We have so much hope that God is with us and will expand His Kingdom through our efforts. We are hoping to use this location..what is now being called the Regional Training Center to reach out to the 800= villages and 35 cities in Southeast Romania and beyond. We are praying and praying that God will send us strong SBC teams over the next ten to fifteen years that only have ONE thing on their mind. Reaching lost people with the Gospel. We know that God can do anything but He uses us to build His Kingdom..... the church of the Living God! The pillar and support of the Truth......
