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Monday, March 31, 2008

Learning Romanian

During part of spring break, Paul and I ventured home to the North Pole, also known as Fort Wayne, IN (my hometown) for one last visit before we leave. The first night we were there, the plan was to hang out with some of my friends from my old church. We had already contacted most of the people that were going to be seeing that evening, but at the last minute, we called a married couple (Scott and Dawn) who I had not seen for a few years. Dawn was able to come and enjoy coffee with us (Scott had to work). While we were catching up, she was informed that Paul and I were going to be moving to Romania for a couple years to serve a campus ministry. Here is where the amazing sovereignty of God comes in, so be prepared. She got really excited and told us that a couple years ago she was going to go to Romania to do mission work, so she bought this Romanian workbook and audiotape set to attempt at learning some of the language. Immediately she offered it to us to use for as long as we needed it! Here are a couple things to highlight the sovereignty of God:

1. She wasn’t originally going to come, but did at the last minute.
2. She had a Romanian workbook and audiotape that she freely offered us – not everyone just has Romanian lesson material just sitting around. Some people might have Spanish or German or some common language, but Romanian?
3. Paul and I have been discussing purchasing this very type of material, but just had not made the time to actually do it yet – therefore, it is saving us money and getting it into our hands immediately, which may not have happened for quite sometime. It’s actually harder to find Romanian material than you might think.

I bet you can guess what we did on the ride home. You guessed it! We listened to Romanian vocabulary words and grammar lessons and attempted at learning some Romanian! We don’t know how much we’ll get down before we go, but we are going to try! We figured that any exposure to the language is a plus and we’re looking forward to putting what we are learning into practice!

P.S. Thanks Scott and Dawn for letting us borrow the Romania material! It’s really serving us!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Support Praise

Just to let everyone know, Cris will be depositing the support money to pay for the plane tickets tomorrow. We had more money than we needed for the tickets, and we have almost enough money to go ahead and purchase a year's worth of health insurance.

Sorry it has been so long since we have posted. We have been very encouraged as we have contacted friends and family over the last couple of weeks and have heard so many enthusiastic responses from people who want to support us! Thanks!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Trust in the Lord, He will take care of us

We know that there have been concerns from people who love us about our well-being in Romania. Our church does not have any experience in sending missionaries long-term. We know that this can bring about fear in the hearts of friends and family who care for us. We don't want anyone to fear, worry, or have anxious thoughts about our time in Romania. We want you to trust and hope in the Lord. He has provided many helps to us, most significantly the church.

We are being sent from a church that cares for us tremendously. We are being sent to a church that will care for us. We have dear friends in Romania. We will have support and encouragement from both of the churches, proDeo and Cornerstone. Also, we are not creating a new ministry. We are coming alongside to help and assist an existing ministry in their mission of advancing the gospel.

For the details of entering the country and staying, we have Romanian friends in the church, as well as an acquaintance with a missionary family who are in Bucharest, Romania with InterVarsity. They have been communicating many things that we can expect in Romania such as the medical system, the cost of living, the visa process, and how to receive finances from America. They have been extremely helpful. There is also a missions organization here called USAffairs that we have a relationship with. (If you supported either of us to go to English Camp the past two summers, you’ll remember that you wrote the checks to USAffairs.)

In conclusion, we do not want our supporters to be anxious for us because of a lack of experience from the people who are sending us. God is building His church, and the primary vehicle that He is using for spreading the word is His church. This is who is sending us. This is who we are going to. This avenue for evangelism has been blessed by the One who performs all things according to the counsel of His will. So, friends, family, be encouraged! Do not be anxious for us. Do not worry about us. We will be protected, sustained, encouraged, and upheld by the ruler of the universe and His love, the church.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Wednesday

Mike Plewniak and Matthew Lindsey (the college pastor and administrative leader at Cornerstone) are meeting with Tommy Hill (who is a head guy for Sovereign Grace minitries' finances) on Wednesday to discuss the options that are available to distribute our support to us while we are in Romania.

Hopefully we'll know then exactly what it is going to look like to receive support, because our plane ticket payment comes due in a few weeks...

Thanks everyone for praying for us.

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