Location: My wife’s former bedroom, today our office, in Sighisoara, Romania, on the 28th of May 2012 at 5:41pm.
This month has certainly flown by, and we have really had a lot of rain, especially today. Someone told me that usually in June it rains just about everyday; the rain came a month early this year!
(If you read this post already, you know that I came back and added the photo below. That is why I had written the following…) Sorry that I do not yet have a picture for you; I will try to add it later. My hard-working wife has the laptop today; she has been working a lot on her dyslexia-trainer class. She has already begun the tests for a couple of students, and today she is beginning the process for a third.
Meanwhile, I finished my work with the American students, but I certainly still have plenty to do! A good friend of mine is visiting in a couple of weeks, and we are really looking forward to that visit. We have a little bit of preparation to do before he and his daughter come, and we have been in contact with them as we lay plans in place. He reminded me this week about the importance of our focus on Jesus, rather than our focus on our ministry about Jesus. It is a good point, and something I have been working on myself.
It is so easy for a hard-working individual to get caught up in his work, instead of sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening and learning and loving. Even when the work is good work, noble work, godly work . . . if it takes us away from our time with Jesus, we need to reconsider our priorities. Last Friday at our choir concert, we found out last minute that it was to be recorded. Therefore we spent the majority of the hour before our concert shuffling around to make sure we were standing in the best spots for the microphones, instead of rehearsing our songs. In the end, the concert ranked among the humbling performances in my life, and I noted that it did not matter if we were standing perfectly in the end, because unless we also sang well, the recording still would not turn out nicely. It is the same with charitable work: it does not matter how perfectly you perform the task, if you have left behind your intimacy with your Lord, none of it amounts to anything anyway.
That is a good challenge for me to be aware of, as we have been quite involved in several ministry opportunities in the past few weeks. I continue to visit my beloved village of V. as often as possible, with the goal of going once per week, on Tuesdays. It has not worked out so well, so I think I have been three or four times since our return.
On Thursdays, I have been going for the past three or four weeks to the village of S. in the Gypsy quarter, aiding in the commencement of an adult worship time there, as well. The first few weeks did not go so well, but this past week was super! An organizational meeting we had last week helped a lot. When I arrived on Thursday, my Gypsy friend (who has virtually no schooling) told me that he was in charge and I would help him. (Our other American friend was outside occupying the children.) So I agreed. I taught the people a song and explained its meaning, and then I read the Bible texts (the best I could in Romanian!) and my Gypsy friend preached! He did an excellent job!
This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but you need to know a little background. In Romania and much of Europe, one’s ethnic group is often quite obvious and quite important, giving rise to discrimination in many cases. Gypsies are often treated terribly, and often act worthy of their treatment. There is even discrepancy as to whether they should be called “Gypsy” or “Roma.” However, like the rest of us, Gypsies are a product of their environment, their culture. So when Jesus gets a hold of someone like my friend, and gives him a new culture–a Christian culture–anything can happen! He recognized that as part of a people group that is often thought of as the lowest of the low in this part of the world, it was only by God’s grace that our work in the village of S. depended so much on him! Two Americans assisting a Gypsy–that is almost unimaginable! May God get the glory!
In addition to all that, we have been more and more involved in ministry through our local church here. The sermon on Sunday was terrific, about the difference of being a Christian (like so many people in the Church today) versus a disciple of Jesus Christ (a disciplined follower who lives a life of integrity, love, accountability, teachability, patience, maturity, etc.). M. helped lead worship for another conference last Saturday. We have an evangelistic drama taking place this coming weekend, and I have been involved in helping put together some discipleship materials for the congregation.
My feat today, though, was that I translated a two-page document into Romanian! I am sure it was full of errors, but it is the first time I have done something like that; I neither translate into Romanian very often, nor do I write Romanian often. I felt like I was in Romanian class!
Well, speaking of writing, I can see that this is getting long. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement, your counsel and your friendship. M. and I are doing well, thanks to our good God! We bless you in the Name of Jesus!










