Coming back to these E-Newsletters after so long is like a lesson in... Shame & Rebirth! The gospel of Christ and the promise of rebirth and new life in Him means nothing without the shame of sin showing us our need. Without the pain of sin, there's no need for the good news, right?! In the same way, I can't start up the newsletters again without addressing the long hiatus from doing them. Why is it that each month comes and goes with us trying to find times to breathe and do these E-Newsletters, but we don’t get one out. No excuse sir—it comes down to us NOT making the time for it! So NOW I’ve come to the local mall to write this after having dropped Rebeca, Alina (our sister-in-law), and Livia (our newest youth group sponsor) off at the Craiova JUMBO (think Walmart meets IKEA meets The Container Store meets Toys 'R' Us) to purchase many things for church decorations, our upcoming Awana store, and youth activities. That means I’m typing this from the food court of a nearby mall and hope to send this within two days! Our kids are home with our dog, Ransom, while we’re shopping. Jace is 13 and loves art, gaming, and chess; Chàris is 11 and loves all things physical, volleyball especially, and playing with all things cats! They enjoy time with friends and cousins, often in our apartment, where the joyful noises of tweens run like a regular soundtrack behind our daily activities. Too often, we’ve struggled with the work-life balance as a family. We regularly sacrifice our "family day/Sabbath" in order to help with needs within the church body/youth that "come up" in the moment. The result, as we all know, is uncomfortable guilt regardless of what we decide: If we’re relaxing at the apartment so we go help (because we’re "not doing anything anyway"), we feel bad about not having down-time, helping, AND feeling bad about helping (because we’re choosing the ministry over our family again); if we’re out doing something and can’t help, we feel bad but are secretly thankful; and if we say no because it’s our day off, we feel selfish because we’re not serving or giving or doing enough! Even though we’ve been in ministry all of our individual and collective lives and know we need to rest, we also know the majority of the effort will fall on our shoulders and (ministerially) we know the expectations placed on us! So once again we’ve found ourself wanting to get out a complete year of E-Newsletters, having failed already, desiring to kick it off again for February at least, but also all too aware of the busy nature of the coming year. So here’s a recap of January and a look ahead:
Also looming heavy in our minds is the inflation we’re facing (like the rest of the world), how we have never been fully funded since starting this missionary journey, so we desperately need to increase our support to continue the work here in Romania. Now that we’ve given you a brief rundown, here’s a look at how to join us in praise, prayer, and a view to a passage of scripture that runs deep for us right now! Prayer, Praise, People Here's a snapshot of how to pray for the ministry right now:
The Month in Pictures
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April 2024
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