Church Family

We love our church family.  Thursday was the final day of the church's 40-day fast, so that evening we spent time together with those who took turns to fast and pray.  Several people received words from the Lord, dreams and visions during the fast and we look forward with excitement to the fulfillment of the wonderful things he showed us.

What a beautiful team of prayer warriors, led by Pastor Simi!

 Sunday morning the pastor of a Pentecostal church from a neighboring village brought his worship team with him and we enjoyed a wonderful time with the Lord.  After the service, since it happened to be Nancy's birthday, she was presented with a basket of beautiful flowers and everyone greeted her with hugs, kisses and birthday wishes.

Nancy and her birthday flowers

We love the Open Bible Church of Gherla and everyone who calls it their home.  Thank you, loved ones, for your continued outpouring of love that you show us!

More Helpers

Gabi Hosu interpreting for Mike as he preaches Sunday morning

Like we wrote last week, it takes many helpers for us to live in Romania.  Sunday, Mike preached a great sermon at the Open Bible Church in Gherla, but only a few people in the congregation would have understood what he said had it not been for the help of Gabriela Hosu (Gabi) who interpreted for him.  Nancy also shared a few words before the offering and 16-year-old Elias Hosu interpreted for her.

Elias interpreting for Nancy

Interpretation of messages in church is not the only time we need help with the language.  We often ask Gabi or another person who speaks English to help us read our utility bills, help us with a question for the phone service provider, or help us communicate with our neighbor.
Yes, we are diligently studying the Romanian language and we are understanding more every day, but we are very grateful to the many people who help us live and work here.  Special thanks to you, Gabi and Elias for your continued help.  God bless you!

Many Helpers

Mery and Kristi waiting with us to see the notary for papers for our residency permits

 It takes many helpers for foreigners to receive official approval to live in a new country.  We learned that in Hungary and it is true here in Romania also.  We must have residence permits so we can live in Romania longer than the ninety days for every six months allowed to visitors.  This is not an easy task.  First we need official papers written by a notary that affirm that we have a place to live in Romania and that we give our services as missionaries without charge.  Last week Mery and her son Kristi went with us to the notary office to affirm that we have a place to live. The notary and her office staff worked to produce the correct documents for us. An official translator was also required to read all the Romanian papers to us in English before we signed.  When we add up the number of those involved in finding the right places to go, the right people to see and the right papers to write, it took about twelve people to help us complete just this first step.  We are so thankful to Mery and Kristi and everyone else who was involved in this part of the process.  Friday we sent the papers to our pastor friend Teo who will help us with the next step. 

Mike praying at the baby dedication

Sunday, there was a baby dedication at church.  Pastor Simi asked Mike to pray for the baby, his parents and the godparents.  It is a privilege to participate in the life of our Romanian church family.  We thank God for what he is doing and look forward to what He will do in this church and this city as we all continue to work and pray together.

Language Classes Begin

The title of this blog should be "Language Classes Begin...Again."  We took many classes to learn the Hungarian language and are beginning again to learn a new language.  Romanian, we hope, should be a little bit easier to learn than Hungarian.

Romanian language beginner course in Cluj.  Left to right: Nancy, Mike, Lizzie, instructor Violeta

 Last Friday was our first class of a six-week Beginning Romanian course.  The class meets on Tuesdays and Fridays in Cluj, the major city 45 kilometers away from Gherla.  For our first meeting, we drove to Cluj and found a parking ramp with the help of GPS.  Then we walked a few blocks, looking for the building where classes are held.  We saw no sign for the school along the street, so we walked into a courtyard and looked around, still seeing no sign for the school.  As we were looking lost, a young lady stepped out into the courtyard and introduced herself.  It was Mariana, the receptionist who had seen us from her window and guessed we were the new students.  We found the place, or rather, the place found us.
We were introduced to the other student in our class (there are just the three of us), a young lady named Lizzie who is from Tennessee and the wife of a missionary working with high school and college students in Cluj.
Our teacher Violeta is an energetic 29-year-old who loves teaching foreigners.  In our first class, we worked on basic phrases and pronunciation.  Nancy earned an egg for mispronouncing the letter "o" as "o-uh" which sounds like the Romanian word for egg.  It was a fun start to a hopefully productive course.
Please keep us in prayer as we learn a new language so we can communicate with our neighbors, people on the street and our beloved church family.  Please pray also for our teacher and the receptionist that they may see Christ in us and in our classmate Lizzie.   La revedere! (Good-bye!)