This is My Romania!

No comment!

Whatever works! And by the way, it's about $5.30 a gallon, so no complaining Americans!

Alright all of you who think you're the world's best driver--Please explain this one to me :)

Băsescu Re-instated

For those of you who have inquired, yes, President Trăian Băsescu has been re-instated as the Romanian President after being impeached by the Romanian Parliament. The process is complicated and involved a lot of politics, bickering, and jockeying for power. Romania held a national election on May 19th and Băsescu one back his position with 78 percent of the vote, having received a million more votes than the last time he ran for re-election. Talk about a mandate. He is well-liked for his demeanor and comes across as just your "average joe". It is not rare for people to see him driving his car down the streets of Bucharest with the window down, talking to people or shopping with his wife at Selgros (the Romanian Sam's Club or Costco). Recently, he has called for another election to re-figure the Romanian Parliament. Whatever the case, the political parties are certainly not getting along at the moment, and it's not helping Romania's image in the EU community. Please pray that Romania wouldn't shoot itself in the foot by letting political battles get in the way of true reforms.

Catching Up With Old Friends

I had a fun time catching up with my good friend Callie Weed, pictured above, while she was here with her team from Florida. Callie and I worked together in the city of Târgu Mureş , Romania in the summer of 2002. We have remained close friends ever since. She has a great heart for Romania and has since shared that with her church in the Tampa Bay area. We explored the sites together, with some of my dear Romanian friends, including Cat (pictured above), and laughed so hard that our stomachs hurt! Callie will be in her final year of law school at Stetson University in Tampa, FL. Her desire is to impact adoption law and ultimately be an advocate for international adoptions and the needs of orphans around the world. Pray that God will continue to use Callie for His glory and for helping to give children around the world a better future. And for those of you who know Callie personally, tell her to get singing again--she has a BEAUTIFUL voice! Cat and I hope she will come back and record some songs with us on one of our new CDs.

The view from the People's Palace (the second largest building in the world) that we visited

A Really Cool Story

While working with the short-term team from Florida the other week, I had the pleasure of meeting Monica Wall, pictured above. Monica had just returned to Romania to work as a summer intern with a children's foundation in Bucureşti that ministers to orphan children. Monica knows what life is like as an orphan in Romania, because she used to be one. She was born in a Romanian prison, and later moved to a babies orphanage under the Ceauşescu regime, because the government deemed her mother incapable of raising her from a prison. At age 3, she was later transferred to Casa de Copii #7 . It was there that her life changed forever. Monica grew up having a problem with her ears, and a missionary named Annette took her to a hospital when she was around 10 -years -old to have her ears checked out. What was supposed to take about two weeks in the hospital, ended up taking two months. The day that she was supposed to be taken out of the hospital and returned to the orphanage, a team from Washington state came to Bucureşti to do missions work. The very night that Monica was supposed to return to the orphanage, a family from Washington had her stay with them, which was just fine with her, because the last thing she wanted to do was return to Casa de Copii #7. This family she stayed with, later adopted her in 1996 at 11-years-old. Her new mom is a special-education teacher and helped her immediately grasp the English language. In addition, she had a personal tutor in her third-grade class the instant she got to Washington. Monica says that she was immediately mainstreamed with the other students, and moved quickly from only knowing Romanian at the beginning of the school year, to being one of the top students in her class by Christmas. In only 6 months, she was speaking English fluently. While in Romania, Monica was in a regular school, but put in a room with other orphans, which she described as a system where orphans are considered "altfel", or simply regarded as "other". Monica is now 21-years-old and has two brothers and one sister. Despite growing up in a loving home, Monica has never forgotten her roots and plans to be quite active in helping the orphan situation in Romania. Monica can remember quite vividly what conditions were like and being lectured by orphanage workers to say only nice things about Ceauşescu and the Communist system. Monica is by all means a success story and a blessing for other orphans. She doesn't remember any Romanian now, but wants to learn and attends Fresno Pacific University in California to be a special education director. Praise God for Monica and pray that she will be able to impact the lives of more orphans through her life and testimony

The Florida Dream Team

I am pleased to present my first short-term missions team to Bucharest, First Baptist Church from St. Petersburg, Florida. A good friend of mine, Callie Weed (with the Carolina t-shirt), and I have worked together in Romania before, and she was excited to bring members of her church to Romania to assist in orphan care and outreach. The team has been working with a Christian foundation here in Bucureşti called Inimii Deschise (Open Hearts), also known as the Children to Love Foundation in the States. One of the strengths of my OC International team here in Romania is networking with Christian organizations in Romania to help build awareness and work together in HIS kingdom for the greater cause. We have a wonderful partnership with Inimii Deschise and are honored to send them teams. The team has been a great help and really have servant-hearts. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each unique member--while picking on their Florida accents :) They have had a workout, visiting orphanages and group-homes in the mornings and afternoons all on foot, mastering the Bucureşti public transport network (trams, buses, subway, and trains). We also spent an evening with my OC International team, so they could get a feel of what life is like for a full-time missionary on the field, as well as get a flavor of how OC International is working to equip and mobilize the local church in Romania. It has been my pleasure to work with this team and I hope that they will be just the first of many short-term teams that I will be welcoming here to my little slice of heaven: Bucureşti that is. I will be contacting many of you in the near future with some short-term opportunities. Thank you First Baptist!

My Romanian Brother Florin

This is my Romanian brother, Florin, preaching at a local seminary's chapel service in Bucureşti. Florin, or Cica (chee-kah) as we call him, is a missionary/youth minister of a church 30 kilometers to the east of Bucureşti, called Fundulea. The church is largely made up of ethnic gypsies, and has really grown to have a wonderful outreach in the community. Florin is involved in working with the boys of the church in Bible study, young-men's discipleship, and helps to coordinate weekly soccer (fotbal for Europeans) matches for people in the community. He is a third-year pastoral student with a great heart for the Lord and a passion to preach the Gospel. I love his lively, straight-forward and challenging style to preaching. Moreover, he is engaged and will be getting married this July. I know that I have already learned a lot from "Cica" and am privileged to have him as one of my Romanian brothers. Please join me in praying for God to use Florin for HIS kingdom and for Florin and Ana (his fiancee) to have a long, Christ-filled life together.

Special Baptism service at Harul Church

On Sunday my colleague, Donna, invited my friend Cat and I to assist with music for a special baptism service at her church. The choir sang a piece by Ken Tucker that was too difficult for many piano players to play, but Cat (the amazing player that he is) had little problem playing the piece. I also sang a song with Cat during special music time. It was a great time of worship, especially having the privilege of watching six people profess their faith in Christ through baptism. The choir did a great job! This is a young church plant called "Harul" in Romanian (Grace Church) that spent many years in construction, but the congregation remained faithful. Today they have a beautiful facility in a largely unreached section of Bucureşti. The pastor is open and has a great heart and vision for outreach. Here are some picture from the day. My colleague Donna directing the choir

The baptized

One of the adolescents who was baptized

Cat concentrating at the piano

Scenes of Bucureşti

Rows and rows of apartment blocks

Aerial view of old-town Bucureşti

Mid-day hub of a busy city

At dusk