Spiritual Retreat and Renewal in Romania

We made it back safely to Moldova after a wonderful time of spiritual retreat and renewal in Romania! This retreat was a gift from the Missouri Baptist Association to the IMB missionaries in Romania and Moldova, and it was such a blessing to all of us!!! We were able to meet some of the missionaries in Romania that we had not had a chance to meet when we were in Bucuresti for our language study. Many of these missionaries are out in an area by themselves, and they had experienced some difficult times over the past year, i.e., deaths in their family in the USA, difficult times in ministry, etc. God provided this for all of us, but especially for those that needed special praise and worship and special time in their heart language (English) with other believers!!! Thank you Norm Howell and Chris Ramsey for ministering to each of us in such a wonderful way!!!!! While the scenery was beautiful, it took us nine hours to drive 250 miles due to the mountain roads, village speed limits, and time at the border. It is quite a bit different than getting on the expressway in the USA and driving that distance; however, it was definitely worth the time and effort that it took to get there!! We were told that it would be a good idea to have someone stay at our house while we were away. Our colleagues suggested a young woman that they knew, and everything was fine when we returned. It helped her out a little with finances, and everything was safe in our home as well. Most people have a dog to watch over their homes here, but at this point we do not have a dog. We would still need to have someone come by and take care of the dog if we were gone, and it gave the indication that the house wasn't empty. Here are a few pictures from our time in Romania:

Citadel in Rasnov

Team Romania and Moldova/Shannon-Our new cluster leader/ Worship Leaders

Norm Howell

Chris Ramsey

Mountain Scenery in Romania

The day before we left for Romania, we turned in all of our documents for our residency permit. Please pray that these documents will be all that is needed in order for us to obtain residency here in Moldova. Also, please pray as relationships are being formed, that God would reveal those He has been speaking to regarding home Bible Study and church plants.

We look forward to hearing from each of you! God bless you as you serve Him where He has planted you!!! Smile, God loves you!

Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter - NYTimes.com

Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter - NYTimes.com Many of you have asked about the situation in Moldova after the elections. We wanted to share one of several articles that have been written on the events which began after the elections on April 5. Please continue to pray for a peaceful and fair solution to this problem. Thank you for lifting the people of Moldova and us up in prayer!! Smile, God loves you!

Leaving Friends in Bucuresti Romania and Meeting Others in Chisinau Moldova

Wow, it has been way too long since we wrote on our blog. Between Facebook, the blog, and our prayer letter we have not updated lately. We completed our language class in Bucuresti, and we loaded up a colleague's van and headed for the border. We did not have any difficulty getting across either of the two borders, and we know that it was due to prayers that were lifted up on our behalf. Thank you so much for your prayers!! We are excited to be in our new home, and we wanted to share a few things that might give you a laugh or two. We have some very kind neighbors, and we were told that the elderly man and woman across the street from us had lived here for years. They can give you the history of IMB personnel who have lived in this house. The elderly gentlemen has taken care of the yard for some of those that lived here in the past, and he evidently wants to start back at his job of making our yard beautiful. We are really afraid that he will overdo and hurt himself, but he is so persistent. If our gate is unlocked we find him out in the yard trying to work, i.e., lifting rocks that are way too big for him to lift, taking the cover off of the well and I'm afraid he will fall in, shutting off the water which means we have no water inside our house. Please pray that we will not offend him as we try to relay our thoughts to him. It is bad to want to keep your gate locked every minute of the day. If we don't unlock it he calls and asks us if he can come over. Well, we need wisdom on this one for sure! We have met a young boy, Andre, who is 11 years old. He has been to the grocery store with us twice already. He is very sweet, and he knows a little English. Mike helped him with his English homework tonight, and of course it is British English, which is normal in this area of the world. We may confuse him more than help him ... we'll see. While we have been trying to get settled into our new home, we also need to start on our residency process through the Baptist Union. This will be a long process, but please pray that the documents that we have will be all that is needed to help us gain our residency. We will write more later, but we wanted to let you know that we are where God has called us to minister. Please pray for our friends, Frank and Diane, who are trying to get their visa in Romania. They are having a very difficult time, and they have been told that they may need to leave the country for 3-6 months. Please pray that God will show them His perfect plan! God bless each of you! We love you and look forward to hearing from you soon. Smile, God loves you!

AN AMAZING TESTIMONY

www.freecdtracts.com/testimony_11.htm We wanted to share this video with you. What a blessing!! Never stop sharing the gospel even when you "feel" that you are not making any headway. Never give up ... you never know who God is using you to reach. You may never see the results, and you may never be well known in religious circles for your efforts, but your reward will be in heaven. Smile, God loves you!

Daily Life in Language and Culture

We may be redundant on our blog if you also receive our prayer letter, but we wanted to touch base with those that may not receive this info via email. We have had many adventures since we have been in Bucuresti Romania. We have learned how to find our way around the city on the trams, buses, subway, and by walking. We have learned the system of paying bills which includes someone coming to your door and paying them right there, going up a couple of flights of stairs to another apartment and paying, and going to the post office and paying. We also purchased a cell phone, and when Mike asked for the phone number of the cell phone he was told that when he calls someone they can tell him the number. Well, he called someone and they told us what number came up on their screen, but later we realized that we were not receiving any calls. We could call out with no problem, but Mike wanted to be sure that we had given a good number to those here in Bucuresti on our team. He walked into another Orange cell phone store, and he asked the employee if he could check to see what our number was. He looked at him strange, but he helped him. The number was totally different than what came up on our co-workers phone screen, and Mike felt silly ... I told him he would never see this person again so it was okay if he thought that we were crazy Americans. Ha Ha!

We have been very blessed by the beauty of Sinaia, which is about 3 hours from Bucuresti. Our SC (field leader) here in Bucuresti took several of us on the train to visit this beautiful area of Romania. The castle, the architecture, and the little city square were marvelous to see, but that particular weekend it was snowing and cold. We sat in a warm restaurant to eat, and we were ready to go again!

The churches that we have visited have been full of the Holy Spirit's guidance, and we have been so encouraged to see many Romanians going to other countries on mission trips. One group at Good News went to Ethiopia for a couple of weeks; another person from Holy Trinity had been to southern Africa for two years as a missionary! The choir at Holy Trinity sang beautifully last Sunday night, and this was their young adult choir.

Mike needed dental work done, and we have found a good dentist here in Bucuresti. The root canal takes about four days total, but it is much less expensive than at home in the USA. He is doing fine, but yesterday's visit was a little painful because she didn't use Novocaine. When she drilled she used something to deaden it, but since this visit was only a five minute visit she didn't use anything. All was well after the one moment of pain.

We have had a couple of instances where we felt as if the Lord was giving us opportunity to be a witness for him. One day we were walking to our language class, and a Gypsy woman tried to give Myra a small bunch of flowers. We pass her everyday at this same location, but this was the first day she had tried to give these to her as a gift. Myra didn't accept it at that time, but when we returned we passed by her and gave her a track as a gift. She offered the flowers again, and Myra thanked her and tried to pay her but she would not accept the money. This is very unusual! We hope to see her again soon. We have also had a chance to talk with people on the subway and we would appreciate your prayers as God guides us to others here and in Moldova!

We have had several emails from you about loved ones that are sick, in the hospital, or those who have died. We have been praying for you! God knows your pain, and He is there to comfort you!!! We love and miss you all! God bless you as you live for Him!!

Mike & Myra

Smile, God loves you!

Learning and Living in Bucuresti

Hello from Bucuresti Romania!

We made it with only one suitcase missing, but this suitcase made it about two days later. We are very thankful for this!!! We were greeted at the airport by Dwayne and we met Larry, the cluster leader on the way to our apartment. Our apartment is in the center of Bucuresti, and it is very convenient to the subway which we ride everyday in order to get to our language class. It is only a 15 minute walk from our apartment. Our classes are going well, and our teacher is a young lady by the name of Flory (short for Florentina).

Traffic is very heavy in the city of Bucuresti, and we were forewarned to bring allergy medications and asthma inhalers if needed. There is quite a bit of pollution due to all of the cars. There are many more fast food restaurants in Romania than in Moldova. They have KFC, Burger King, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut; there may be others, but we have not found them yet. The public transportation is very good in the city, and we are learning our way around by walking or riding the subway.

We visited a church this past Sunday, and Myra was told that she would not need to wear a head covering. She was very surprised, but very happy, too. Many of the churches in the city are moving away from this tradition. This church had a very good praise band and youth choir, and we had prayer for about six or seven young people that will be going on a mission trip to Ethiopia soon. This is very exciting to see the people of Romania sending their own people as missionaries to other nations!! This is one area that the IMB will be helping them with; they have asked the IMB to help to encourage missions and show them how to set up a system of sending missionaries. God is really moving in this area!!

We have met some very helpful people here in Bucuresti. One gentleman in the subway was asking if we needed help today. He said that he works with the Pro Life group here in Bucuresti, and he was very interested as to why we were here; there were six of us together at the subway when we met this young man.

As we have seen the cold wave hit many of you in the USA, we are experiencing the white covering ourselves. We had around 4 or 5 inches of snow, but it turned to slush. It will be in the single digits this weekend during the night. We came prepared with all the gear, and we are very thankful to have the extra layers and warmth.

We are including some pictures for you of the view from our apartment and of our language class. We miss you all. We love to receive emails letting us know how you are doing, and we are praying for those that have given us prayer concerns individually and from your churches. Thank you for your encouragement and prayers!! Also, thank you for giving to Lottie Moon so that we are able to be where God has sent us to share His love and gift of salvation!!

God bless you!

Smile, God loves you!

Trip to Washington DC

We had a wonderful trip to Washington DC, all 350 or so of our FPO group! Our goal was to observe people from other cultures, to bring people one step closer to the Lord, and to share His saving grace and love for them through evangelism. We went in teams of four or more, and Mike and I went with a couple that will be serving in Romania. The cultures of Romania and Moldova are very similar, and we tried to visit the Romanian Embassy in Washington DC. We were told over the telephone that we could stop by, but when we arrived at the front door they would not let us in without an appointment. We did ask if they knew of any Romanian restaurants, but they said that there were none in the area. While trying to decide our next step, a gentleman walked by. We asked for directions, and when he answered Mike noticed that he had a foreign accent; he asked what his native language was, and he told us that he was from Romania. God had a definite plan in this encounter! We all started walking in the same direction, and we found out that he was of the Orthodox faith. He did not understand how he could know that he was going to heaven, but he was interested in finding out. All four of us had a time of sharing with him, and we gave him the 4 Spiritual Laws trac. He was not ready to take the step of faith, but he did take the trac home with him. We asked if we could pray for him, and he told us that he would like for us to pray for his family and for their health. We prayed with him on the street corner. Please continue to pray for him; his name is Mihai.

We decided to find a different cultural restaurant, and a very sweet lady, who was a Believer, directed us to a Thai Restaurant. We enjoyed the warmth of the restaurant, and the food was very good! We had one or two other encounters, and we pray that God is moving in these people's hearts and will bring others to them to water the seed that was planted.

We thought that you would enjoy a couple of pictures from our trip. We did pray at the Capitol and at the White House, and we will continue to pray for our nation and for President-elect Obama.

We love you and thank you for your prayers!!

Smile, God loves you!