Dear Friends,
Greetings from Timisoara! Hope your fall is going well. I can hardly believe it has been a year since I arrived in Romania! Feels like I have been here only a few months!
First Year Review – I am grateful to the Lord for His aid and guidance this year. I applied for and obtained a visa, furnished an apartment, got a phone contract, purchased required Romanian health insurance, opened a local bank account, and started language school. I also bought several months supply of bus tickets and began learning my way around the city found out how the postal system works, learned how to renew my U.S. drivers license while overseas and how to vote absentee during U.S elections. During the almost two months of national shutdown (due to COVID-19) I took language classes online or worked to catch up on other responsibilities of life and ministry. I also got extra rest, which was very nice. Though building relationships has been slow this first year as I have been learning to communicate in Romanian, there still have been opportunities to connect with those who know English. I have asked many questions and have learned so much! My eyes have been opened to many thoughts, habits, and values of the Romanian people. I admire their warm hospitality and appreciate the frankness one can find in conversations. Communism – though thirty years in the past – can still be seen in the influences it has left on this nation. Knowing the past has greatly helped me understand the present. I recently bought a large wall map of Romania and use it as a visual to pray for the many deaf people in each of Romania’s 41 counties. Please pray with me for these souls, that God would give us a great inheritance in this country!
Romanian Deaf – A few weeks ago I crossed paths with four deaf people. Two of them I had met in past months, and since I had already given them a Gospel tract, I struck up a conversation with the other two. I learned that one of the men, an older gentleman named Nicolai, had lived thirty years in the United States and had returned to his homeland to retire. I talked to him for over an hour in American Sign Language and learned about his life and
also about Timisoara’s Deaf community. I shared the Gospel with him as well. I am thankful for each opportunity God gives me to plant Gospel seeds. Thank you for giving and praying so that people from this unique people group can “hear” the message of salvation!
Our Church – This past month a young Serbian woman joined our church, so we now have Germans, Romanians, Americans and this one Serbian. Please continue to pray for God to unite us, refine us, and cause us to know His perfect will for the work here in Timisoara. We recently had another American missionary couple join our church, so now we have three missionary families helping (myself included). We are small, but I know God’s power and glory can be displayed if we humbly seek Him in the Word and follow obediently. Please pray for God’s continued grace in language acquisition, wisdom in building relationships and wisdom in sharing God’s Word with others!