Never too tired for Jesus

Păuna who would normally be sitting to the right of her sister is now no longer with us. I had no assurance that she ever received forgiveness of her sins but I know that she did hear many times how she could. I pray that she is now with our Lord!

We asked Luminita if she was too tired to have the Bible Study knowing that it has been a very difficult and long week for her. She had to make many plans for her sister's funeral. She replied, "I am never too tired for Jesus!" This is really an amazing lady. She too has a chronic disease that really saps here energy. Last night was a very special night as we finished the second book (lesson 12). They said when do we start the next one?

Luminita's other sister was there also...the one that is holding the book to the right in the pink sweater, you can't really see her but she was in for the funeral. She has been really a "bad apple" of the bunch, in and out of jail a few times, very undisciplined and the sort. She sat and listened to the entire lesson, sort of settled down and listened to the answers over time. Her name is Carman. Please pray for her as she really was confronted in love with the Gospel. She really had me laughing with her blunt comments. Like for instance they were talking about some village and the people in it. We were waiting to eat, needed to pray first but it just kept going and going she said, " Hia sa rugăm apoi facem bârfim" "Let's pray and then we will (continue to) make gossip!" She also said "that the problem with tonight was that we are all woman and just kept talking and never stopped to listen to Troy." That is why I love working with lost people they are so honest, saved people are very polite but no so honest!

I was able to give a gift to Luminita. It is one that I brought from America. It is little figurine of an American Indian that is looking off in the distance waiting for someone, I told her that it looked like some one was looking or waiting for her...(She really loved the present and immediately put it on her shelf.) They are Gypsy people so they know they are related to the American Indians.

I also heard that the Orthodox priest that did the service was not mad at them for me being at the service and was actually upset that I didn't go to the meal afterwards as he wanted to talk with me. Pray about that!

So the study went great... they are really starting to struggle with the issue of repentance and baptism but we are really needing to pray for the Holy Spirit to break through and amaze us all. Last night was and awesome Bible Study!

Mama Catie just broke out in song singing to Carman a gospel song.... (they two 21 year olds that were there towards the end of the lesson, Mihiela and Petru a great young couple that have their act together just listened to her) well this young Romanian girl, just couldn't hold back the tears. It was amazing!

Member of Group in Zone 13 dies

We lost a member of our group in Zone 13 last night. Her name is Paună the one with glasses on in this picture. Her sister Luminiţa, (the lady who works for the mayors office) is the one that we have been praying for as she is extremely sick also. They have the same type of medical problems. Any way Pauna was not at the Bible Study we did last Thursday finishing the second book, lesson 12. She was in the hospital at Bucharest, very sick. We heard today that she didn't make it through the night. I am so thankful that we had so many opportunities to present the truth to her. She heard over and over that the only way to heaven was through repentance and faith in Christ.

Today when talking with Luminita her sister, we were amazed at what she said. "Oh, I believe my sister put her faith in Jesus! She came to every Bible Study we had in my apartment , except the last one....She was very smart and I know that she was answering all the questions correct. I can't wait until you come to our house this Thursday because everything, absolute everything is about JESUS!"

This is so amazing for us as we thought that all these lessons were for Luminita but for now the Lord has shown His mercy by allowing us to present the Gospel to her sister well over 40 or 50 times over the duration of these 12 lessons. I am certain that this Lady, as well of the rest of the group were just counting on their good deeds before they understood truth that came out of studing the "People Who Knew Jesus" lessons from the Gospel of John.

Please pray that the Lord will prepare the hearts of those that have to go through the difficulty of a funeral tomorrow. She was raising her two little nephews so please pray for them also.

I believe that the word got out that I needed prayer because I am certain that the "state of my faith" as increased back to where it was two years ago. It is really a miracle as I was in a pretty deep state of depression and discouragement just a week ago. Thanks for all your prayers! I have some good things to share with you but I prefer to do that in another post.

Birthdays Anniversaries and another month gone...

This is a birthday party that we had for Mama Catie , Katie and myself. This was a thrown by Christina who calls me her big Romanian brother. It was nice of them to invite us to the party and sing (Happy Birthday) to us in Romanian. We were very thankful for the opportunity to be with Mama Catie as she is struggling with cancer and taking therapy not feeling so well. She is faithful to go with us every Thursday to assist in the Bible Study in Zone 13 where we are doing lessons with 8-12 lost people (one is Luminita who works for the mayors office and is also very ill herself) some who are very, very close to repentance.

This is Katie's birthday party...not so extravagant but she did like her presents. She got a little boom box for her room and some parakeets and a couple of other things. She is 12 now....wow it has gone fast....(we actually forgot to spank her on her birthday)

As I turned 44 years with one foot in the grave (for those of you that will respond with the grim reaper song)...we also celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary this month also....imagine Karla staying with me 21 years.....what an amazing God we have to give Karla that kind grace. We are still happily married and much in love...probably more then we did when me met...because now we know the Lord ......for my present to her I told her that we would sit down and listen to the thirteen sermons John Piper preached on marriage together..with my undivided attention. We are on number two and boy are they good. I am really seeing marriage in a new way tied to the Bible in a very intense and purposeful way. .... I thought that after listening to thirteen sermons from this Mr. Conviction Preacher Kinda Guy that Karla would finally straighten up! You can find his stuff at http://www.oneplace.org or just go www.desiringgod.org . I highly recommend this web site!

Well, we have some studies continuing in Zone 9 on Wednesday's and Friday's. We have no real work going on in the valley as of now. But we have great news, official on this side and unofficial on the other side of the pond....but we heard that Randy and Teresa Myers will be joining Team Southeast Romania. This will be a great help to the much needed help in the valley and other area's in the region. Praise the Lord as He is sending more workers. More about them when it is official on both sides of the pond. They have been here before and were featured in some of the earliest blogs. I pray that God will bless them while at the same time expand His Kingdom through them. They are great people and I am honored to have them come along side us here in Galati.

It has been an extremely difficult month for us....please pray for us as I am working on a project that will cover the next four to five months until March. I am not so happy about being pulled away from the work again.....last year was for seven months.....! I am not being a real good missionary as I am wanting to get out and just lead people to Christ and start new groups! (Humor and Sarcasm intended!)

I am trying to be just good enough about this that I don't get fired but that is really taking all the patience I can muster. My wife said once that any time she wanted to really get even with me all she had to do was "hide my Bible" now it seems everytime that I am taken away from leading those simple little, anyone can do, Bible studies that are "leading people to Christ" I suffer greatly for this....well I can remeber a time when it was missing an NFL game that destroyed me! God is good......and pray that I keep my eyes on the one who is invisible.

Oh! We also had to travel three time to Bucharest this month. Katie had one "root canal" done that took three trips to finish....six hours under the drill! She was a very good patient the Dentist said. Now braces......:)

Lorenso saves the day

It was early Sunday morning. I was on my way to church. I will just send a quick note to Randy and Teresa telling them I am praying for them.

I hit the send button .....and the computer makes a high pitch .....and then dies!

I call Dr. Lorenso. He makes house calls on "Sunday" mornings. I told him ...I have an emergency. I had several reasons that I had to get my computer up and running. He then comes to our house in less then thirty minutes....begins to work....tells me not to look....that is if I have a weak heart. He then begins to take my computer apart one piece at at time. I have NOTHING backed up from the day I got it here back in Feb. OUCH!

Back in 2004....this is how Lorenso and I met, I had computer problems and he knew how to fix them! Well, praise the Lord for my good friend.

Hey! What about all the screws that are left over Lorenso......."you don't need those!" (just kidding) The patient is doing better but still shuts off once in awhile. I now have everything on an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!

When you think about it this is exactly like our soul. It is not safe to believe you are going to heaven if you have just saved it on your computer. When the day comes that it crashes and it will....you better have put your soul on the ETERNAL HARD DRIVE>AMEN!

Prestonwood Baptist-Mike Fechner

Mike and Pastor Ovi.
We had a very good meeting yesterday in Braila. This brought several ministries together. E3 Ministries, RAM, ServingHim, and the leading pastors of Eastern Romania. I actually was invited to be there also by Pastor Ovi. This was the first time that I have been invited to this type of a conference by a national pastor and I really appreciated it!



The main pull though was with Mike Fechner, the missions pastor at Prestonwood Baptist where Dr. Jack Graham, pastors. We really were all able to share from our hearts what God is doing and Mike just listened and really did a great job of pulling the meeting together at the end of the day. Many people with great influence were basically rejoicing in what the Lord God has been doing and also what plans we had for the future. I set a record by only taking "ten minutes" for my presentation for the Galati Plan. It was such a privilege to be apart of that meeting. I also really enjoyed meeting Prestonwood's young Joshua Rolf who seems to be young man that really has his act together and loves the Lord.



Mike and Joshua are coming to Galati today at three o'clock to see some of the stadium's that might be used for a big EV event if needed. They are also interested in the way we are ministering in the city as they also do a great deal of ministry in their city.

You know... for the Galati Plan a church this size still just needs to send small teams of five to six people to enter in the work just as with churches that only have 100-200 members can do. That is another reason I like our plan. Churches like Cameron, Living Word, and those in Cane Creek Stoddard Baptist churches can impact the city with the same effect. Why? Because we want people that love Jesus to tell those that don't know Him about His love.....and any church can surely find five or six people to do that!

Yom Kippur

Today was another interesting day! It actually started last night when Rosental (my Jewish neighbor) invited me to the Jewish Synagogue. He said there would be an American that I could talk to. So this morning, after gathering Mihai and Bogdon we went to the service. We walked in to the main entrance where they have a large display of the holocaust victims. Mihai and Bogdon saw the big building and said how many Jew are there? I said before the war there was 18000 Jews In the city now they only have 10 men that come to the service. As we were in the entrance Rosental went to get the American. It turned out that he is just here with the peace corps and not the Rabbi as previously thought. But he explained to us that we really couldn't come in because it was a special day. They were celebrating Yom Kippur. So we weren’t allowed to come in.

We went outside and the American decided to come out and visit. Mihai started asking him questions how could he become a Jew and what would he have to do? He replied, “we would turn you away three times’ then you would have learn Hebrew, and some other works of scholars to prove that you really were interested." Mihai said, “What if I just wanted to go to heaven, what would I have to do?" He replied, "Well, we don’t believe in heaven or hell!" What happens if you sin? What do you do? "Well, that is a relative question, what are you calling sin?" Mihai.. Don’t you know…..? The Ten Commandments tell us what sin is…The American replies well they are just logic not so complicated.

He then went on to tell us that we all worship the same God, even if we define him different, the Islam, the Christians everyone, every where all believe in the same god. I made a few pointed comments at that time….but then the conversation drifted to “Why don’t you believe Jesus is your Messiah?’ He asked, "Are you trying to proselytize me? This was something that really seemed to be his main response to any question that centered on Christ. I said well you must have some sort of proof that Jesus wasn’t your Messiah! He said, you would have to show me proof that he was….! Anticipating this I had already printed out a list of prophecies pointing to Jesus as the Messiah and handed it to him as he had asked for proof. He said, I don’t feel comfortable with reading that….I put it in his hand and said "just read it"…he took it.

Well, then we talked about the Ten Commandments and how they pointed to Creation! For God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Well, he said "that is your opinion!" I really couldn’t believe the amount of beautiful words this guy used to say absolutely nothing! I would reply with so what you mean is “One hand clapping” Oh I get it…”round triangle” He would just say no that is not what he was saying. The conversation actually was pleasant and we also talked about Israel the New Heaven and New Earth mentioned in Isaiah. Well he just was not that interested in the next life....it is far more important to just be kind to each other...help the poor and the needy, feed the little children. That is what life is all about....

Bogdon ended the conversation with a simple statement……”so what you are saying is you don’t have any hope for another life” he said no it is more important that we just help and love each other…there is no Judge in heaven waiting to destroy us. That is just your opinion!

I later called Mihai who left after the encounter and asked him this question. “We all serve the same God correct?” Mihai laughed and said. “that is HIS opinion!” I then asked, “If that is true why didn’t they let us in the synagogue?”

We then went and got Bogdon some leather boots for his work. (Things are going wonderful with him and we are certain that God was involved in the problem we had last week. Bogdon even had a dream the Friday night before that confirmed what happened on Saturday! He actually told Paula I think I going to have some problems today with Troy!) Anyway I came home and researched Yom Kippur on the internet….I discovered that you can not wear leather boots on Yom Kippur along with a list of four other forbidden things. I quickly called Bogdon and told him…..don’t wear those boots! He said may be he will have to go sacrifice an animal! All joking aside it was a great day for my leaders to see the fact that modern day Judaism is empty of any and all hope.

Worship of Mary

This is a picture of Violeta and Magdalina. I introduced them to Paul, Marshall, Wes and David last week. Yesterday we did lessons 9 and 10 in the second book, Faith Power. We also had a new helper, potential leader, assist us for the first time- Adana. (sp?) She was great help and is very strong in the Lord. She is 21 and I am praying that she will be a big help to us. The lessons are about the development of the early church and how they had so much trouble with the leaders of the established religion of their day.

One thing that did come up was the issue of Mary worship. It seems that the girls were a little shocked at how little we teach on Mary. This issue didn't come up except for Violeta had read a book that was written by an x-priest and it really opened her eyes or better yet disturbed her.

So this is one more thing that she must let go of. It is almost impossible to know what the Orthodox believer is really trusting in when they pray the prayer of repentance. It is so much better to just keep them pointed at the Word of God and systematically bring them to the JESUS of the Bible.

We had a great lesson and they are already asking..."are there any more books to study after this one?"

Well, it is a rainy dismal day here in Galati....but the Lord is with us...!

Oh! Bogdon and Paula celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary yesterday, Bogdon's new job is going well, He is more tired now..but he does want to continue doing his job a zone leader. PTL. Pray for us as we decide the best course of action to take as winter is coming!

Of course you know we really try to avoid these issues and just bring them directly to Christ, when God has opened their eyes to His Son it is must easier to navigate these treacherous waters. 2Tim 2:23-26

Scripture and Mary

In Luke 1:46-47, Mary said: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour". Mary knew that she needed a savior.

Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God". Revelation 15:4 says, "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy". Romans 3:10 says, "There is none righteous, no, not one".

Jesus is the only person who is referred to in Scripture as sinless. Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

1 Peter 2:22 says, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth".
In contrast, Mary said that God is her Savior. (Luke 1:47) If God was her Savior, then Mary was not sinless. Sinless people do not need a Savior.

In the Book of Revelation, when they were searching for someone who was worthy to break the seals and open the scroll, the only person who was found to be worthy was Jesus. Nobody else in Heaven or on earth (including Mary) was worthy to open the scroll or even look inside it. (Revelation 5:1-5)

Matthew 1:24-25 says, "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS." "Till" (until) means that after that point, Joseph did "know" (have sexual relations with) Mary. (See Genesis 4:1 where Adam "knew" Eve and she conceived and had a son.)

Jesus had brothers and sisters. The Bible even tells us their names. Matthew 13:54-56 says, "
And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hatch this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?"

Other Scripture verses which specifically refer to Jesus’ brothers are: Matthew 12:46; John 2:12; John 7:3; Acts 1:14; and Galatians 1:19.

These are all comments from a x-nun I found on the internet....they are not to attack or defend just to shed light....and bring people to Jesus!

Just a little more Truth to help set people free!