There is much to write about.  Some people have suggested a video blog but I have a face for writing so I will stick to it.  Maybe I can prepare a script and my beautiful bride can read it for a video blog.  

I hope you all enjoy the post.  We feel very supported Here in Romania and I hope that you are praying for us and the area.  God is not done with Tulcea county in fact I believe He is preparing straight roads to salvation. I want to tell you about my new friend Ji Ji and where he works Here in Romania.  He is a Romanian missionary that moved to a forgotten about village that was a mining town. I wrote about it a couple of blogs ago.  

Singing at Mina

The cave/mine

Last week I went with a couple of friends including two FGCI summer interns Jenny and Katlyn to drop off some clothes.  One boy saw us and told us that he would go and get the other kids.  WE had not planned on a Bible lesson or anything but we figured if that boy was going to get some kids we would not waste the opportunity.  We went inside and ate and drank with Ji Ji.  He kept repeating, 'I am so happy you are here.' I think he is very lonely. Ji-Ji is awesome. The more he talked the better he got.  When we were done there was 12 kids ready to hangout with us.  Geogiana led music, Andreea led a game and the Interns led a lesson about David and Goliath.  It was awesome.  When we finished (we had to go to Zebil) the kids asked when we would be back.  We returned the following Sunday except this time there was almost 20 kids.  They took us to what they called a cave but it is actually an old mine.  Then we sang praise songs, I gave the message and the interns helped the kids do a craft.  The work in Mina leaves me with two thoughts that I would like to share with you.  

1) Do you know in Luke 10 when Jesus sent out the disciples.  I always wondered how did they start preaching and evangelizing?  There wasn't a church to preach in or to feel safe in.  In Mina there is a small church plant a far cry from the well established churches that we are used to and run all kinds of programs out of.  I learned that you don't need power point, guitars, coffee, doughnuts etc.  You need some space and a Bible.  (don't get me wrong the powerpoints, guitars and coffee are not evil but very helpful) When we go to these towns we pray hard for God to open doors and He does.  I understand what the disciples meant in Luke 10 when they returned with joy.  God has opened doors. I hope that all the doors being opened translates into watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.  Most of what we do it just show up and see what God will do.  We take advantage of what He gives us. 

2)  Where are all the men?  Maybe it is not as big as deal as I think but I can't help but think it.  I have spent the last four weeks doing ministry with a fantastic group of people and nearly all of them were women.  The girls were great, hard working and I would not trade them for anyone but where are the guys. I got tired of hearing from Romanian strangers, 'How come there is one guy and four girls?' I think all the kids we work with would benefit from good male role models.  Most of the men that they see are not good examples.  Men where are you?  I think God is working on bring some guys together here I am thankful to have Paul, Ji-Ji and a new friend Stephan however we are few and far between.   Please pray God will send more men to work.  

We had camp at our house for all the kids we work with there was 30 people here for two weeks.  It was wild. Imagine running a church camp out of your house for two weeks.  The kids struggle with much.  I can't write much because of safety reasons. We are fighting an uphill battle against the deception of this world.  Before the camp we had a team of Americans arrive. They were AWESOME!! We are so thankful for Erin, Danica, Kelsie, Bria and Jim.  Blessings too you all.  

The latest 112 group

I wish I could write more about this next village but for security purposes that is not possible.  This village we will call Salina.  Talk about a struggle between the Creator and the prince of air.  We spent three days in this village and it was like a game of Risk toward the end when people take and lose whole continents.  We saw God work in HUGE ways and satan fight back the entire time we were there.  If you would like to know more about this town and who is there please email me.  

 

She runs good now.  Just got it back today

The Interns and our Romanian friends teaching English

Finally Dessy our car blew a head gasket.  Why does this always happen to me?   I have included other random pictures.  Please let me know what you want to see or hear.  There is much more to write about. Teaching English is a big help to the kids.  Teaching kids english by making brownies is a big help to me.  Teach away teachers teach away.  

Andreea being baptized in Babadag Lake.

Sunday after our 112 group Andreea decided it was time to be baptized.  So we baptized her in Babadag Lake.  We are very proud of her.  We hope for many more to come.  It was very important for her to be baptized not into a denomination but only in the saving message of Jesus Christ.  Way to go Andreea!

Sheena's parents come in tomorrow. We can't believe it.  We are so excited. Pray for safe travel and a good time together.   Right after they leave we will have an intern working with us.  We are excited to meet her and have her here in Romania.  And then we will have two summer camps for the kids that we work with.  The camp will be run by an American team from Minnesota.

The latest 112 group

For three days I "helped" (I didn't do much)  a community organization that works with kids by simply playing games with them. The group I helped with was training teenagers how to play with younger kids. It was a lot of fun and I was able to meet many people from Babadag.  Kale even got to play.  The leader of the group is Andreea and Madalina two of our very good friends here in Romania.

Community game playing. This is my favorite game- to watch

Yesterday was a fun day of riding on a train for 9 hours.  I applied for and was awarded my last set of "red numbers" for our car.  The red numbers are temporary license until all the paperwork is turned in for the black numbers which is the official  registration.  We have a lawyer working on the registration.  The train ride is not wasted.  I talked to Clayton Lundsted Minister at Wymore Church of Christ,  Ian Miller a student in my youth group in Auburn and my brother Zach he is getting married next month.  There is also reading and planning for summer teams.

Please keep praying for Babadag.  We are praying for the church to create and lead culture in this town. Please pray for the summer camps to be a good time of study, fellowship, and decisions to follow Jesus.

Thanks so much

eli

Paul and me.  He is translating. He also lead music worship

Yesterday was Sunday even in this part of the world.  Normally we have the 112 youth group but we were invited to attend a church plant a few kilometers from here. God is amazing. He is able to seek out off the map places.  There is no sign pointing to the village.  I still don't know what the name of the village is other than is was the word "mina" in Romanian and "gold" in Turkish.  Evidently the communist party thought it a good idea to build a mining town.  Most of the town is block apartments with a few houses.  It looks like the only planned town in Romania.  A very driven godly man has a heart for this community and is trying to bring the light of Christ to the hearts of the people.  God Bless him.  Paul my friend from Babadag and I helped lead the service.  Andreea our other friend took the kids outside to play games.  Many other kids from the neighborhood came over to be apart of the group.  Adi lead music for the kids with the guitar.

A few of the 112 members.

I know God has not forgotten our county.  I think He is putting people in place to reap a harvest.  I have to believe that time is close or I would go crazy.  I believe we are moving in the right direction but we will need prayers and more people to continue to work in this part of Romania.  We feel incredibly blessed to be apart of what God is doing here. I hope that you do as well because it will take the Body of Christ to reach this area.

We had some Americans here surveying if they might fit here in Romania.  At the end of the trip they said they will start a journey toward long term missions in Romania.  We went to Brasov to see the mountains for a few days and put them on a train to head back to America. In the picture we are preparing to ascend 1,400 step to Dracula's Fortress.  We did not plan on it raining so we stopped at this restaurant and they provided us with trash bags or "ponchos".

 I hope you all enjoy thanks for reading. Let me know if you have questions.

Kale a facut trei ani!!! Kale made three years!!!

Many of you have been asking to post more updates.  I am sorry that I have not kept up with the blog very well.  Because of the places we work and what we do I don't want unfriendly eyes to find us.  After talking with a friend of mine (I have at least one) we came up with some good ideas on how to keep people updated safely. 

Kale celebrated his 3rd year of life last Saturday.  He is doing well.  He speaks in Romaglish.  For example the word for bye-bye in Romanian is pa-pa.  Kale will say "pa-bye".  The word for "you have" in Romanian is "ai".  Every time we go the car Kale will ask "ai key"? That poor boy has to be confused. Sheena checked out the preschools for Kale starting in the Fall.  I can't believe he is that old already.  Sheena said the preschools were nice and very full.  Kale will probably go to the all day school.  We will see.   

We celebrated Kale's birthday with the 112 group last Sunday. 

Now a story.  We (us and the Bucharest people) invited some friends to our house to have a Bible study.  Our friends are from a different town but the logistics worked so we did it.  There is one boy in particular that I wanted to come but he is wheelchair bound.  He was heart broken when he found out he could not go.   Honestly I threw a fit but some phone calls were made and I went back for my friend.  We could not fit his chair in the car so I carried him.  At the end of the Bible study we all prayed and he prayed thank you God for having Eli carry me in his arms.  I cried.  I love the ministry we get to do.

There is a girl that I met Andi from our town.  I started teaching her english and eventually we were translating verses and we even started praying together after our english lessons.  A while ago she asked us not to come see her anymore.  I am not for sure why but I think her friends told her not to talk to us anymore because we are not Orthodox. We honored her request.   A couple of weeks ago she showed up at my house and talked for more than an hour.  She said she wanted to come over once a week and hangout.  What an answer to prayer.

We attended our first Romanian wedding last week.  Spooky a translator for FGCI and his girlfriend Ana a girl who grew up in the FGCI Home of the Good Shepherd house in Moldova got married in Bucharest.  Blessings to them both!!

Now a funny story. In Romania there is the government wedding and then afterward the Christian wedding.  We attended the government wedding together but I had an appointment the same time the Christian wedding started.  Sheena and Kale went with some friends and I would take a van when I was done.  I took the van to the right town but after I got out of the van I took a wrong left turn and ended up about a mile away from the house.  I could see the house and a the large pasture that separated us. I felt a little like Forest Gump when I took off running in the thunder and rain.  About a quarter of the way through I met a couple of shepherds tending their sheep.  One of the shepherds said I can't cross the field because there is a wheat field up ahead.  I responded with I will go through the forest then.  With a strange and glaring look in her eye the other shepherd warned that the ticks will eat me.  The way she said it would make you think that a giant tick is roaming the forest and devours whole humans.  I received a phone call and took that chance to run away.  Turns out the the wheat field was small enough that I could jump over it and smaller than the stream that I couldn't (I lost my shoe in it). Anyway I got the the party just in time to see everyone leave.  Asta Este Romania.

We are doing quite well and enjoy the bing cherries from the tree in our yard.  Thank you for all the prayers and support.  Now I am going to scrub the carpet with my wife.

112

Romans 1:12 says ... to be mutually encouraged by each others faith... This is the theme verse for the 112 group in Babadag a Bible study for youth.  Mutually stands for community.  Encourage stands for building each other up and faith of course is most important the Faith that Jesus is who he says he is and do what he said he will do.

Our group of 7 kids or so have been meeting since February.   It is a joy to see this group happen.  Please pray for the 112 group as we grow together toward him.  A funny coincidence is 112 is the emergency number for Romania just like the American 911.

We celebrated the Resurrection last Sunday.  Resurrection Sunday is much different here in Romania then Nebraska. Starting last Thursday the priest started singing over the loudspeaker at church. The singing is loud enough to be heard all over town.  On Saturday night nearly the entire town comes to get a special flame that magically appears from a place in Jerusalem.  I went to the church at midnight to see how the service went.  Here is a short clip. It is dark but three men are singing about the story of the cross.  We spent Resurrection Sunday at a friends house in town.  We had a great meal including homegrown rabbit.  I just thought of how funny it is to eat rabbit on Easter. Kale and the neighbor boy Marti had an Easter Egg hunt together.  Marti's Grandpa said he has only seen a egg hunt on T.V. People do die Easter eggs like in America, but then they just eat them, they do not go on hunts.  Also, the Easter Bunny does not seem to exist, but they do get presents usually.

This is a picture of the picnic shelter Luca and I are building.  Luca is a high school student that has been staying with us for a few weeks.  We hope to use this shelter for meals and Bible studies.  The shelter is in our backyard and I can't wait to start using it for ministry.  

We managed to buy a personal car for us.  We had a friend go to Germany for us a get it.  Believe it or not it was cheaper to send someone to Germany and drive it back then to buy a car in Romania.  I now get the joy of trying to register the car in Romania.  I can't imagine what it will take to do so but we found a good Christian lawyer to help us out.

No heat for the schools.

http://www.nineoclock.ro/79-killed-by-cold-and-blizzard-259-localities-still-isolated/

This is news link talking about the weather in Romania.  Many people have asked how we are holding up because of the news of cold weather here.   Our part of the country is not too bad and pretty typical for Nebraska weather.  Weather to the north of us is much worse; snow has covered entire homes.  To the south of us an hour there is lots of ice and snow.

The news link is a bit long but if you want a good idea of how Romania operates read it.  We don't have snow plows like Auburn does or the salt spreaders.  Salt spreaders here is a couple of guys shoveling out salt as they drive by. Basically our whole village is a sheet of ice.  Walking is difficult and driving for the last couple of weeks has been out of the question.

We have kept the wood soba running and I think it has a hard time keeping up because it is never really that warm.  A few days ago I wore 7 long sleeve shirts to keep comfortable.  To leave the warmth of the stove requires a jacket so to cook or use the bathroom or do anything away from the heated rooms we bundle up.  We are counting our blessings though at least we are not trapped in our house for days and days.  We have learned of people trapped in their houses' for ten days. The firemen bring bread to the people after the home owners are tunneled out.

Here in Babadag the schools have ran out of heat for the buildings.  At first I thought the furnace broke down but the truth is they don't have the money to heat the building.  The kids continue to go to school with winter jackets on.  One of our friends' daughter got frost bit toes at school.  Kind of crazy.  Sheena went to school with a woman getting a GED. She said it was COLD!  

Code orange

This is the week when everything breaks down I will be glad we got it scheduled and now it is out of the way for the year. Two fridges went out, the car gave us all sorts of fits, our computer charger is not charging, the shower faucet split somehow, we found mice in the house, etc etc. to top it off we have had snow and wind and so many of the highways are closed. When the weather gets bad the Romanian nation has a color code for highway safety. Yellow is take caution, orange is stay home and red is you will die if you leave. We seem to be in code orange and yellow a lot.

Because of the highway situation we have been limited on what we can do in other villages. The code orange has not stopped the ministry in our village though. Here is the latest. Andreea and I have been working with a girl who said her first personal prayer a couple of weeks ago. Last week we prayed together as a group. Please pray for this girl. We have been teaching her english through an english Bible.

We are also getting ready to launch a youth group here in Babadag. There are a few teenagers that I have met at a youth center ran by a Romanian foundation. We will teach the students biblical leadership practices and then we hope to have the students lead small groups of younger kids in our village. Please please please pray for this group. We are very excited about it.

This week my family had supper at some friends house. It was awesome. We had a very traditional meal of sarmale and baked apples. A very good meal and even better fellowship. Moving is a bit intimating; moving internationally is even more so but it seems to me God had prepared everything for us to plug in and start working. The mother of the home of where we ate and visited told me it was always her dream to have a Bible teaching youth group in town. It will be fun to be a part of that dream very soon.

I have been talking with a church in Oregon they plan on bringing a team in the summer. To plan pray and think about what we will do in the summer is a nice escape from the snow and wind. More importantly it is encouraging to meet new people interested in making disciples amongst the least of these. Please pray for this very enthusiastic team.

Maybe you have heard Romania is in a bit of political turmoil (what country isn't). The headlines read much worse than the real situation. One headline read 'government collapses after violent protest.' The truth is the prime minister stepped down. That is it. Some protest have been going on but by in large very peaceful. Romania has taken loans from the European union and is now therefore subjects to austerity measures much like Greece but not nearly as bad.

Kale is doing very well and is an instant hit with everyone he meets. We almost have him completely potty trained. He is picking up many words in english and says a few in Romanian. His friend came from Constanta and they had a few play dates together. Watching Kale learn to share if fun. Thank you all for reading and praying. It is working I can't wait to see what He has planned next.

nothing fancy

This is a prayer mail/update that I send in to FGCI.  It is nothing fancy just what we do during the week. I have to be more careful about names and places.  Kind of a bummer because there are so many great stories to share.  I hope you understand.  

I read Matthew 9:38 with great appreciation.  We are praying for more workers.

I am also asking for wisdom and discernment on a church in Babadag.  

Last week I organized the prayer meeting at Paul's church.  We prayed through scripture then took time to pray for everyone that showed up.  A father son pair came.  The two of them praying for each other will do much for their relationship.  The father was baptized just last summer.  

Andrea (translator and ministry partner) and I met with Alice.  Andrea came up with a great idea to help Alice.  Andrea brought an English memory verse book.  Alice reads then translates the verse and we talk about what it means.  I believe the Word is living and active and will convict Alice.  It is only a matter of time now.  Please pray for Alice.  Also Andrea shows great initiative on many things. We have some plans for working with the general population of Babadag that we are praying about. 

Thursday I taught an English lesson and met some new kids that were interested in what kind of beer and women I liked.  Yep I love the ministry. 

Sheena led the Bible study with Anca. We started Philippians.  I can see Sheena leading a woman's circle group in the future.  

We invited 8 kids to our house for a get together. Sheena is a good host and very forgiving. I usually only give her a few hours heads up that people are coming over.  She gets mad for about two seconds then starts planning.  (she loves it) It is just nice to show them that we are not that strange. 

It feels like most of what we do is preparing for the future. Language, building relationships, making an actual plan and steps for bring the Gospel here takes a lot of time and effort.  So we are praying what is happening now lays a good foundation for life-changing ministry.  

Thanks for reading and praying. 

eli