March for Life

Saturday we participated in the March for Life in Gherla.  About one hundred people from many churches in town marched together. Those churches included the Baptist, Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Catholic, and Armenian Churches.  There was a rally at the main square followed by a march in the city.  We stopped by several different churches where representatives from those churches prayed for mothers to choose life for their babies We also prayed in front of a school and the hospital.  Since Pastor Simi was out of town, he asked Mike to pray when the group stopped at the Open Bible Church.

Mike praying for life to come to the city--for the babies, the mothers, the people and the churches.

Nancy and a few of the people she marched with. (Pictures by Stefana Hruban)

Romania has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. According to CBS News, there are annually 48 abortions per 1000 women.  Abortion rates soared when Romania was under communism.  In the picture above, we are holding posters that show the number of abortions compared with the number of births for certain years.  For example, the poster I am holding shows that in 1966, 22 percent of pregnancies resulted in live births while 78 percent were aborted.  This extremely high abortion rate resulted in a declining population in the country and when Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power, he wanted a growing population, so he outlawed abortion and contraception.  This resulted in great numbers of unwanted babies born who were placed in orphanages.  When communism fell, abortion was once again legalized and the abortion rates rose dramatically again.  Today abortion rates have fallen some, due mainly to more use of contraceptives, but the rates are still about double those in the United States.
We are particularly concerned about those women who have had abortions in the last fifty-plus years.  The regret, sorrow, anger and guilt they feel affects the country in ways that cannot be measured, but is almost palpable to us. May the Lord show us how to help them to forgiveness and life in Christ.
Please pray with us for the people of Romania that God would give them peace in Jesus Christ, freedom from sin and guilt, and hope for the future. 

Reunion

R-L Violeta, Mihaela, George and Cristina

Sunday after church there was a beautiful reunion.  Pastor George Ratz, the founder of the Open Bible Church in Gherla, came to visit and preached in the service.  When Pastor Ratz started the church, one of their ministries was to an orphanage.  The orphan girls loved Pastor Ratz and his wife and Sunday morning, three of them were present.  Violeta and her family are now part of the church but Mihaela and Cristina came from out of town to be together.  These young ladies are now in their thirties with families and productive jobs.  They are serving the Lord with all their hearts.  What a testimony to the faithfulness of God and his people!

Papers are Submitted

All the papers needed for our residence permits have been turned in!  Praise God!  Last Monday we went to the Cluj County Immigration Office and asked what we needed to complete a request to live in Romania.  The kind lady behind the desk gave us a list of six papers we needed along with notes of how many copies to turn in with each original. We were not expecting quite that long a list, but we got to work on it right away because our visitor status is ending soon and we need the long-stay permission papers.

The Cluj County Immigration Office is conveniently located in a shopping mall. 

We got a lot of help (again) from our friends here in Romania.  Gabi, our pastor's wife, arranged for us to get a required physical from her doctor that same day.  Pastor Simi went with us to the doctor and helped communicate for us.  We called Pastor Teo to ask for yet another paper we required from his office.  Mary went with us again to get an official copy of another paper we needed.
Tuesday we went back to the Cluj immigration office to ask where to buy the short-term health insurance they asked for.  Then we went to two banks and an insurance office there since the banks and insurance offices in Gherla were not equipped to handle what we needed.  Finally, Tuesday evening, we finished gathering all the papers and making all the copies.  Wednesday morning we went back to Cluj again and submitted our papers to the immigration office.  After each paper was scrutinized, they were accepted, we were photographed and fingerprinted and were told to come back in thirty days for our cards.
What a whirlwind of activity!  Now we wait and pray that everything goes through smoothly. God worked on our behalf last week and we expect him to continue to help us.

Special Days

Friday was a special day in Romania.  In addition to International Women's Day, Romanians  celebrate Mother's Day on March 8.  The streets were filled with people selling flowers for mothers and other women and the atmosphere was filled with a happy excitement.

The youth band singing "Mama, mama, mama mea" for the mothers at church

 In recognition of Women's Day and Mother's Day, the Baptist Church in Gherla invited the women from the other churches in town for a special meeting on Saturday evening.  There was worship, two beautiful songs by a ladies' choir, a special speaker, door prizes and of course snacks afterwards.  We all enjoyed our time together.

What is a special meeting without snacks?

 Later Saturday evening, the Open Bible Church board met. Mike was asked to become a member of the board which he gladly accepted.  Then Sunday morning after the service, Pastor Teo Bulzan led the annual church business meeting.

Pastor Teo Bulzan enjoying a light moment at the board meeting.

 We thank God for Pastor Teo, a great and humble man of God who has poured himself into the Gherla Open Bible Church to bring them to health.  Even though he is from another denomination and pastors a large church three hours from Gherla, he has ministered faithfully overseeing the church for several years.  May God bless him richly.  He has also been instrumental in arranging for necessary papers for our residence permit in Romania.

The Cluj County Immigration office.

Monday we began what we hope are the final steps to receiving our residence permit.  We will write more about that later.  Please pray everything goes smoothly.

Following God

It's nice to know we are following God.

The Romanian language course we are currently taking is in the city of Cluj and it takes about an hour for us to drive from Gherla to where the classes are held.  We make the drive twice a week.  Last week we followed the car in the picture above for some time.  Notice the license plate.  We joked to each other that we were following God. 
The truth of the matter is, following the true God is our goal.  We do our best to obey his Word, to spend time with him every day and to do what we hear him say to do.  Sometimes we know we are following God as clearly as we knew we were following this car.  Other times we wonder if we are on the right road, but it is always our goal to follow him. 
We pray that is your goal in life, too, to follow God wherever he leads you.  Have a great week!