Keeping Moving Forward

It has been some time since we have reported in to each of you.  We praise God for the opportunities and the work that He is doing around us.  One such opportunity that we have reported to you about many time over the last few years is the opportunity to work with our brothers and sisters here in Romania and Moldova in the area of biblical counseling.  April 28 - May 3 we had the opportunity to assist David Selvey from Faith Church in Lafayette, IN in training pastors and leaders in Cahul, Moldova.  This group has committed to a three year process of becoming equipped to do biblical counseling.  Most of them are already doing a counseling within there local churches.  May 9, 10 we had an opportunity to assist the group of young leaders and students who are studying to do the same in Timisoara, Romania.  We praise God for raising a new generation who are so eager to make a difference in other people's lives through biblical counseling.

With David Selvey in Moldova doing biblical counseling training

Over the last 6 months or so of 2014 the church in Bucharest has seen an unprecedented form or growth. We have seen the birth of 3 new little boys and we are aware of at least 3 more that will arrive in the next 3 to 4 months as well.  So have said, 'tongue in cheek'; "If you cannot grow from outside, grow it from inside". That certainly is not a philosophy that we would want to adopt, yet on the other hand, we are thrilled by the way God has blessed so many families within our fellowship over the last few months.  To encourage a few of the mothers who have already had their children many of the ladies got together and had a baby shower for them.  This was a great time of fun and fellowship for everyone who attended.  We pray that God will help each of these families to fully take advantage of the unique opportunity that they have been given to teach each of these little children to love the Lord with all their hearts.

The women of the church at the baby shower for these mothers

This is a second baby shower for another expectant mother

One of the families who have experienced this blessing is my assistant Jonathan and his wife Lidia.  This spring the experienced the birth of their first son, who they named Joseph.  This has been a source of great joy for them and great excitement for the church.

Naty with Lidia and her Joseph

Late this spring Naty and several ladies from our church attended the annual Women's Conference that took place in Budapest, Hungary.  The event is organized annually by the Women's Ministry Team of the International Baptist Convention.  Naty currently has the opportunity to serve the convention as part of this team.  This years conference became a meeting point for many women who are currently part of the church and some who have moved on to other places around the world.  For these women it was a joy to reconnect and rekindle old friendships, while at the same time, being able to enjoy the spiritual sustenance that was available at this years conference.  Everyone who attended were challenged and grateful for this time together.

Some past and present women of IBC Bucharest

Coming later this summer the church has taken on the challenge of reaching out to our community in totally unprecedented way.  There are many poor and disadvantaged families that live within less than a mile of our building.  They do not speak English, but we also believe that it is not an accident that God has put us here either.  So late in August, the 28 - 30 to be exact, as a congregation we are doing an outreach program that directly targets the children of these families.  As we do this we will be inviting the parents to participate as well. Yet to do this well, we will have to enlist the help of several other brothers and sisters from other Romanian churches in the area that will more naturally be able to minister to these families in their own language without translation.  So we are collaborating with other Romanian Baptist churches in our area in this project.  Please pray that God will bless this effort with fruit that will last.  Second pray that God will enable us to be gracious hosts and those who work well with our Romania brothers and sisters who will be joining us in this effort.  Below you can watch a short clip we are using to encourage those in our fellowship to get involved in this project.

This is the clip we are using to ask for help!

Finally, we would like to thank each of you once again for standing with us in the work that God is doing here in Romania and Moldova.  We not only consider it an honor to work with the dear people we get to work with here, we also consider it an honor to represent our Lord Jesus Christ to these people and to represent each of you.  We do pray that God is meeting each of your needs according to his riches in glory, Philippians 4:19.  We also pray that God is blessing richly for the great sacrifices you have made.