Winter Stuff

Memorable Christmas Moment #6

Tuesday morning December 15th

We drove out to the elderly home today as a light snow was falling. I was glad to come in out of the cold and see our friends. We hadn’t seen our engineer friend in a while or his roommate, so we made them our first stop. 

Mr. Engineer always gives me a brisk mental workout, the way he races from topic to topic, but the great thing is that the conversation often moves to God. Today was no different…but was basically rehashing things we had explained already. And because Mr. Engineer was dominating the conversation, not only did I have little chance to translate for Tim, but we hadn’t yet had a chance to speak to his roommate, who is usually spiritually hungry. Time was speeding by and I hated the thought of leaving that room without God’s voice being heard. So almost desperately, as Mr. Engineer took a breath, I turned to his roommate, I asked if he would like to hear something from the Bible. He said, “Why not?”, so before the engineer could object, I quickly opened to the Christmas story and began to read. Even the engineer grew quiet as I began to read the verses describing God’s gift. The engineer muffled a sob. Then I closed my Bible gently, waiting for their response. I didn’t have to wait long. The roommate simply looked grateful. But Mr. Engineer looked me in the eye and making sure he had my full attention, said, “You’ve got good weapons!”

Amen. We do have good weapons! May they be savingly effective this Christmas in the hearts of those who are still without Christ.

Why Do We Do What We Do?

Why do we do what we do in our church and not something else? Bill Foote’s story about what the Gospel did in a guilt-tormented war hero that stopped by his church one Sunday explains why. Enjoy and be strengthened in the gospel!

Memorable Christmas Moments #4 and #5

Tuesday morning December 8 – elderly ministry. Aged, and fragile, much of the time “Goldie” lays in bed sleeping or staring at the ceiling. Her other roommates more or less ignore her. She doesn’t contribute to conversation. She can’t really DO anything on her own. But Tim and I have discovered that she sparkles as she feels love. And who knows how little she understands? Maybe more than the other two we think are listening. Today, for example, when we entered the room she was asleep, but as I began to talk  about Jesus, she woke up and Tim caught her watching me intently, her face aglow. Then as he bent to give her the kiss on both cheeks she loves to receive, she beamed with pleasure. Finally, Tim actually got her laughing out loud by the time the visit ended, simply by including her in a bit of teasing with her roommate. Definitely a memorable moment!

Memorable Christmas Moment #3

Sunday night, Dec. 6th – prayer meeting
Tonight was a first in the life of our church…no one but us and our cat Sidney showed up for prayer meeting. Still God impressed Tim and I that we ourselves were there and that Christ was there and so we went ahead and had the discussion and prayer time with just the three of us. And you know what? It was a great discussion about men like Epaphras and Aristarchus, Mark and Luke who suffered, risked, denied themselves, and labored in prayer for the Kingdom. We saw things we admired in them and honestly confronted what changes need to occur in our lives that we might be more like them! Also, we were greatly blessed fighting in prayer for our church. So I am thankful that through the power of God’s Words and the presence of the living Christ, a potentially very discouraging moment was turned into a sweet and nourishing time. Praise God!

Memorable Christmas Moment #2

Sunday morning, Dec. 6th, 10 a.m. (19 days before Christmas.)

It is time to start our worship service and we look around. It is cold and flu season. Not to mention national elections and St. Nicholas day. There are five children and seven adults present, counting Tim and I. We know that after worship, all the children and two of the adults will disappear upstairs for the Children’s worship time. Since Tim and Anca stand up front, and I have hall duty, and one mother will be in the mother’s room, that will leave only 3 adults in the congregation for Tim to preach to. Tim’s shoulders sag a little. Any fellow pastor will surely relate to the sudden discouragement he feels. He’s worked hard on his sermon. But remembering God has promised to be in our midst, Tim opens the service.

Memorable Christmas Moment #1

Thought I would just jot down some of the little things that bless me this month, instead of waiting to write something long and then forgetting half of the sweet moments. So here’s “Memorable Christmas Moment #1″:

Monday, Nov. 30, 2009

After delivering several boxes of groceries to F’s family, we all sat around in his tiny kitchenette to visit. The girls, 4 and 8-years-old, contentedly munched on the candy they had discovered in their little red and green Christmas purses, their eyes dancing as the beloved taste of chocolate flooded their mouths. Sitting on a half-broken stool, and watching their faces, I was just enjoying sharing their pleasure. After a while the littlest girl began lugging the grocery items one by one to the refrigerator or the bathroom or the cupboard to show she was big enough to be Daddy’s helper. Then, looking at the artificial Christmas tree which the little girls had enthusiastically decorated, their dad suddenly had an idea.

Romania Needs God

Was very moved by this video. Both the words of the song by Alin Garlea and the images communicate powerfully Romania’s need for God.

Happy December 1st, Romania!

Happy December 1st, Romania!

November 09 Prayer Update

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. God is working! Since my last update on Oct. 18th we have seen our new Sunday morning Children’s Bible Study really take off. These photos are from this past Sunday when the lesson was on God’s calling Abraham and giving him promises. (We had transformed the bunk bed into Abraham’s tent to help set the mood.) So far there have been 21 different children who have attended, with the average being 9 kids per Sunday. One little girl’s mother said her daughter was  so excited to come back she was ready to go to church already at 8 am (church starts at 10 am). Another mother, whose kids were sick last Sunday, said they were crying because they couldn’t come. We really look forward to seeing what God is going to do with these children.We are also excited that some mothers are coming back to church that had not come for quite some time. So may God keep using it in both the children and adults!

What’s Wrong with Having a Normal Life?

What’s wrong with having a normal life? If you belong to God, everything!

That was the tough message proclaimed by the prophet Haggai to a bunch of bedraggled Jews struggling to survive in the ruins of Jerusalem around 519 B.C.. Of course, if you took God out of the picture, no one could blame them for wanting a normal life. Their hardship was real enough. By the time Haggai wrote, they had already faced eighteen long years of harrassment, intimidation, frustration and legal set-backs in the fight to rebuild their temple. Their enemies were not averse to sending assassins and spies to terrify them. Fear had crept in, unpacked and continually ate away at their stores of resolve. And to top things off, compared to past works of God, what they were building looked terribly small and weak. Day in and day out they were pouring out their lives…and for what? That was the question that screamed to be answered with bracing truth.

The truth was God was not only in the picture, He was the master artist. They owed everything to Him. Not only had He had made them His covenant community—a people for his own possession and purposes, and His own special treasure, but he had forgiven them appalling sins. That they were living in Jerusalem at all was a miracle of grace. That God had moved the heart of the most powerful man on earth to permit them to return to their land and have a fresh start was a testimony to God’s enduring love. They didn’t deserve to exist, let alone to be released from the captivity to which their idolatry had sentenced them, and yet there they were! And God had not done all of this just so they could be normal!

Normal was far below what God wanted for them! God had an amazing dream for them. He wanted to give them the greatest treasure possible: Himself! And to fulfill that desire, His immediate task for them was a construction project. They were to rebuild the house where He had chosen for His glory to dwell. That temple would become the heart of their fellowship with Him and would continue to point towards His future provision for them in Christ. It would sing with every stone, “I AM your Saving God!”

Let the Children Come!

Last post we announced the beginning of our Children’s Church. That was three weeks ago. Since then we have been surprised by the joy we have felt in preparing the lessons, teaching the children and especially by seeing their anticipation-filled faces as they burst through the doors each week. They are never late! And they sure make church a lot more lively! By the way, some of these children had never been to our church before now.

Song credit: Chris Tomlin, “This is Our God”, Live from Austin Music Hall

Children’s Bible Study Debut

Glory to God! Biserica Betesda had our first ever Sunday Morning Children’s Bible Study today! It’s just a beginning but we can’t wait to see what God will do. 

Mamaliga at the Monastary

These guys are really serious about their mamaliga!

Sarmale, Mamaliga and Me

Looking at those cabbages and jars of zacusca on my last post made me think about Romanian food. Also the fact that Tim and I went out to eat last night at a traditional Romanian restaurant, to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary didn’t hurt. This is what we ate: we started with shredded carrot and apple salad tossed with lemon juice and sour cream. We chose “pui cu smantana” for our entree (sauteed chicken in a sour cream sauce) and I had “mamaliga” on the side for the starch component (mamaliga being like polenta). The meal was wonderful. Anyway, still thinking of Romanian food, today I decided to look for a photo of sarmale to enhance yesterday’s post and ended up at http://www.mamaliga.com/romanian-cuisine/sarmale-recipe.   Not only did the site have a gorgeous photo, recipe and a little video to teach all you adventurous chefs out there proper sarmale-rolling technique), but I also found a cool video on how to make “mamaliga”. Romanians often eat mamaliga with sarmale. Of course any self-respecting Romanian lady will be scoffing already. They seem to be born knowing the exact proportions needed (no recipe needed), but though I’ve asked them to explain it I’ve never gotten a clear explanation until I found this video. So look out mamaliga mamas, here I come!