OAC Romania

Newsletter, June 2003

Dear friends,
I know that I said in the last newsletter that the next one would be in September but I realised that if I waited that long it would be a book!!

Spring Harvest

We were both once again part of the Powerpack team at Butlins Minehead. It was a great and blessed time. We had between 300 & 350 children aged between 5 & 7 years. Spiritually it looked as though nothing was happening but the reports from ‘amazed’ parents showed otherwise, “My child’s prayers have changed” said one, “My child is different” said another. Pray that God would carry on the work already started. Julie and I don’t have our disclosure so no toilet patrol for us, we just handed the children over for someone else to take. Ahhhh bless!!!

Romania

We joined Traian and his puppet team as they presented an Easter play to schools and kindergartens around Alba Iulia. Written by Lidia and Traian it goes from Genesis sin to God’s answer on the cross. Corina (who works for the Mennonites and is the ‘front’ person) then explains what they must do to be saved. They are able to present the message of salvation very directly, unlike in Britain. Pray that this continues.

While in Alba Iulia we had coffee with the Mayor. We have to see his secretary to get permission for open-airs so that they can send the police to protect us. He will give us permission to preach if we can work together in the community. He has a list of projects, some big some small, in which he needs to collaborate with outside organisations. One project is to supply needy children with pens, pencils, crayons, writing books and a school bag to carry them in. When we went to Alba Iulia one of the things we wanted to do was to get involved in the community, God has shown us the way. We will visit the mayor again when we go back.

Work on the house has just about gone as far as it can go before we run out of money. There are tiles to lay in the office, kitchen, dining room and bathroom and a wooden floor to put down in our bedroom. Before winter we still need to build the corridor on the outside to protect the interior doors and tiles. Permission was needed for this from the planning dept. and it has only just come through. The central heating is complete and so is the rewiring, our bathroom is also nearly completed.

We now have £5000 to pay back to HSBC. Can you help with this?

The open-airs were brill as usual!! Praise God. 69 people decided to follow Christ, children, teenagers and adults. Please pray that the open air team will attract some older members. They talk to children and teenagers but because it’s a young team they don’t feel able to talk with the older generation.

Question: How many Romanians can you get in a White Mazda van?
Answer: 25

The Churches had no transport available for Sunday morning so our van was the only transport. We did the ‘bus ministry’ that Julie has always thought we would. A few years ago she was given a picture of our van picking up children and taking them to church, she thought it was for Ruddington but it has come true in Alba Iulia. One man walked into the Baptist church and cried for most of the morning. (Memories) En route to church Julie and I joked about what if there was a policeman in the middle of the road. Guess who was around the corner? We prayed that God would blind him for the next few seconds. God must have closed his ears as well because as we drove past him most of the occupants were praising Jesus, very loudly!! He never even looked.

We hope to start children’s midweek clubs in the two areas that we did the open-airs. They are quite run-down areas of Alba Iulia and I hope these clubs will get us into the local communities more, helping us to share the love of Jesus with people who think that no-one cares. One of the areas is called Chicago!

All three evangelists, Constantin, Traian, and Cristi are being used by the Lord in mighty ways. Constantin goes from church to church preaching the gospel, he has also started to hold studies about friendships, relationships and marriage. Cristi has not long come back from Italy touring with the Continentals singing group. I only saw him for a few minutes but he said that the tour was a successful one and souls were saved. PTL! Traian’s ministry continues to grow. He is used by God in a number of ways. He is a natural leader, the youth of the churches look to him to organise them.

There are more and more ministry opportunities. Pray that we accept the ones that God wants.

Family

Andrew and Rebecca are both fine. The bruising Rebecca received from her car crash three weeks ago has just about gone now. She has finished university and doesn’t go back until September. She will work at Asda this summer. Andrew has only 6 essays to write before the end of June. He says he works better under pressure! What can I say?

We hope you have a good summer. Thank you for your prayers and support.