November 10

We have made it safely to Romania! We had two great weeks of "holiday" with Brian and Jeanie. It was a nice time of rest and rejuvenation...or, perhaps we stayed up later than we should and were so busy being tourists that we forgot to rest...I'm not sure...but we did have a lot of fun! It was great to spend time with family. We love the ministry that we have with Global Fellowship but we would be lying if we said that it is not hard and tiring work and it is certainly nice to have had this break. I will give you a brief rundown of the last two weeks and then a short look at what is ahead for us during our remaining time in Europe.

We met Brian and Jeanie on the 22nd of October after spending a few days in Lyon, France. In France, we met with the youth pastor of a large Pentecostal church there. We had a great time learning about the state of Christianity in France. It was an interesting couple of days.

From the 22nd - 26th, we spent time touring Berlin. It was amazing to go to Checkpoint Charlie and see remnants of the Berlin Wall. It sure makes history come alive when you see things like that. We had a great time in Berlin. From there, we took a train to Prague (our favorite city in all of Europe - not that we have been to them all, but so far, this is our favorite!). We were in Prague from the 27th - 31st. Last time we were in Prague was in the summer of 2006. It was great to be there in the wintertime this year. It was cold, overcast, and foggy most of the time. That is our favorite weather, so we loved it! We even had the chance to wear our long underwear because it was that cold! It was great. After Prague, we spent the 1st - 6th in Wurzburg with a day trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber on the last day. It was great. One of the highlights was definitely meeting the Hille family that Brian lived with for over a year when he was stationed near Wurzburg, Germany. It was great to see them catching up on all that has happened throughout the years. And they just accepted us all as part of their family. It was a great blessing.

We really enjoyed our time with Brian and Jeanie. It was such a blessing that they were able to come meet us in Europe and spend some time with us.

Throughout all of that I was also able to keep up with many of my GF responsibilities through the use of the internet. I continued to stay in contact with ministers around the globe. The internet truly is a remarkable tool.

Now we are in Romania. Friday, we were in Germany! We took a 10 hour train on Friday from Wurzburg to Kranj where we picked up one of our backpacks that we left there. Then on Saturday, we took a 4 hour train to Murska Sobota from Kranj and dropped off one of our backpacks so that we wouldn't have to pack both of them with us for 2 weeks in Romania.

On Sunday I preached in Joze's church in Murska Sobota. I was very excited to see that Dusan he has been mentioned in earlier entries) is was still attending church. We have been praying that he would know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and give his life to Christ. When we first came to MS, Dusan was just beginning to attend church, seeking to fill the void in his life. We were able to talk with him quite a bit about the Answer and one of the sermons I preached when he was in church was a clear Salvation message. After church we learned that Dusan is to be baptized on November 23rd!! He has given his life to Christ! It was so great to hear him say that he knows that Jesus is the one true God and the only one who can fill his life. We are very excited for this new brother in the Lord. It was the highlight of our trip! It is a unique excitement for us. Paul tells us that one person plants, another waters, but God causes the growth. What a great joy it is for us to see God causing growth and to be a small part of the planting and watering.

After such a great highlight, the lowlight was that we jumped on a nice 17 hour train from Murska to Cluj Napoca, Romania. =) We are thankful (?) for the Indian train experiences we have had - it made this bearable. =) We are also thankful that no train was in motion when we boarded or exited. This is improvement! We arrived at 1:30am. As in 2006, we are staying with the Barb family (Lydia and Peter - the parents, and Geta, Rares, Clau, and Delia - Geta and Clau are the kids of Lydia and Peter, Rares and Delia are the spouses). Peter sacrificed his sleep to come pick us up in the middle of the night. It is such a blessing to be back with this family. It feels like coming home! Clau and Delia and Rares and Geta are both about the same age as we are. Last time we were in Romania we developed good relationships with them and we have picked up right where we left off. It has been great.

Tomorrow morning we will be going with Clau when he heads off to work and he will drop us off at Gavi Moldovan's house. We are looking forward to working again with MMU. That will probably be our schedule for the next couple of weeks while we are here. Spending most of the day with Gavi and the evenings with the Barbs. We are really looking forward to these next couple of weeks with our Romanian friends. God is so good to bless us with people all around the world who treat us like family.

We thank you again for your love, prayers, and support as we strive to serve God every day and bring glory to Him.

After our time in Romania, we will be spending a couple of days in Serbia near the end of November. We are working on our plans for the last 2 weeks of our trip. Hopefully in the coming days we will be able to finalize those plans. We will keep you posted. Thanks again for your prayers, we truly could not do this without having all of the prayer support.