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Wow, a lot has happened over the past couple of days. These fickle words will not suffice to explain how the ministry here is going. These experiences need to be shared around a coffee table on comfortable couches (Coffee Underground or Paris Cafe downtown Greenville would be nice). I would tell stories in stuttering excitement of how old ladies prod their cows down the street and then move to eye-glistening seriousness in telling of how a loving hand and a comforting word was given to a mother after losing her 17 year-old son.

For now, I want to share some pictures of expereince and people. I can tell you that the pictures will never do justice to what is going on here.



This is my first attempt at cooking for myself in the apartment. Because lunch is so huge, dinner is often more of a snack. In keeping the trend, this is just vegetable soup, ham, tomatoes, cheese (locally made) and olives. I'm trying to eat a little bit healthier here. We'll see how it goes.









is my good friend Shteffie (This is how you pronounce it). He is 29 years old and married to a wonderful girl named Laura. He faithfully serves in the villages with Luci. Although his English struggles, our relationship is very strong.






These two wonderful girls have been my translators over the past couple of days. Simona, the one on the right, has been a great help with showing me around town and eating at non-english speaking people's homes with me (I'm sure that she appreciates all of the free meals). With these people I often think a song with the line "Disappear from your hometown, go and find the people that you know." My closest friends will know the artist.

These next pictures are of a village called Culnic. This is a very difficult village to minister in because the people are not so receptive to the message. There are only about 5 to 10 people that I have been able to talk to in the past 2 visits. But, every time I go the villages like this one I am reminded that God calls people to himself and it is not by my own eloquence or meritt that people recieve the message of God's love. The building that the people are coming out of is where we meet to have a small worship service where we sing a song, someone gives a message of encouragement from God's word, and then we pray together.

Spiritual Wealth

Hello Everyone,

I am glad to see that people are looking at this blog. I hope to do some aesthetic adjustments on it soon so do not get too comfortable with it. I hope to have some pictures up soon of the villages, apartment, church, etc. that way you all can get a visual of what is going on here.

The Lord has been very gracious over the past couple of days in my time spent here. I have been able to keep in touch with loved ones over seas via skype which gives me a lot of comfort. With a week since the team has left me here, I feel a great peace come over me knowing that there are so many people praying for me and thinking about me. Evenings spent alone in studying God's word, reading books like Jim Elliot's Journals, Donald Miller's Through Painted Deserts, and journaling helps me stay focused. Honestly, I enjoy the slower pace here. I wish I could take the mentality back to the states with me. By the way, I am not a hermit here. I have made significant friendships with the youth and twenty-year-olds. We hang out, talk about music, theology and relationships while walking around downtown, pretty much the same things I did back in the states.

Please pray for Luci, he recently injured his leg playing soccer with the youth. Consequently, he will be in a cast for 10 days and giving me more of the responsibility of going and ministering to the villages. Although I am with his wife and a translator, I have grown accustomed to his presence and his elloquence with the people in the village. I understand this can be a serious growing time and an out-of-my-comfort-zone expereince that will bring me into a closer trust to God's will in mission work. In my next blog, I hope to give some more details on what goes on in the villages and also I hope to provide some pictures of the villages and the people that inhabit them.

Until then,
Pace Domnului (God is peace.)

With New Eyes

Hello everyone! So this is my first blogging experience and I am very very excited to let people know how my life is going here in Romania. As further illustrated, it is probably going to take me some time to get used to the feel and the poetic cloudiness and rambling usually associated with "Blogging."

Tonight is a big night for me. It is my first night at the Church's apartment. After successfully moving all clothes, books, guitar, and toiletries in, I managed to set up internet which allows me to keep in touch with the ones that live more than an ocean away. Now for some big picture things going on here with the ministry. Essentially there are 2 areas: First, I am serving the youth in teaching and giving messages that encourage them to live a godly life that constantly reaches out to those in need of a savior. The message and teaching usually involves a challenge to take the message out beyond Resita and into the villages. Within these villages live people who have really no connection to a church. A man named Luci here at Hope has devoted 3 years of his life (without income) to serving these people in bringing a few of them together in small faith communities. This is the second area that I am serving in. Over the past week or so I have been going with Luci to these villages introducing myself, sharing my testimony, and giving a word of encouragement from Scripture. There is much more to be shared about the ministry here, but for now this seems sufficient.

I want to thank everyone for all of the support, love and encouragement that has been graciously given to me by so many people. I am very excited to be a part of such a faith-adventure here in Romania. God is blessing me with the sustaining bread of his Word and comforting me with the warmth of new friends. Oh yea, I picked the title of this blog after one of the Scriptures that really shaped how I percieve missions: 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. Chew on this Scripture for a while. Enjoy!