July-September 2007 Newsletter

Act 19:19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

STANDING AGAINST THE JW CULT FOR A FEW MINUTES
There are 39,000 JW's in Romania. They decided to have a convention in our city Brasov just a mile from my house. Coincidentally, we decided to print appropriate literature in revelation of this cult and freely distribute it, as it would happen, at the entrance of their convention stadium. We made a grand effort but between their goons and the local police our efforts were very ineffective. They assigned two goons to each of us who grabbed it from the hands of thousands flocking past us toward the entrance. The police were totally impotent but forceful in their efforts to discourage us. About all that came of this was that the JW's now know there are a few prophets left in Brasov (Ezek. 2:5). Thank God for some men in our ministry here that would brave this with me.

HAD TO MOVE
The real estate in Romania since the coming of the European Union has become unrealistic. The rent on my home went up 62% in one month…and the rent on the church building doubled which would be about $1,500 per month. Needless to say we have moved the church. This was tragic in one way and blessed in others. Tragic in that we very much want a presence in the city of Brasov (pop. 350,000), and we have had to postpone that until a miracle happens and we can obtain our own property there. Blessed in that we have remodeled an ancient cow barn on the property of Bro. Logan and the rent is zero. You may officially refer to our church as the "Cow Barn Church." We are now saving the offerings to put towards the above mentioned miracle. Blessed too, in that we have turned some of our evangelistic energy upon the village of Harmon where the church is located and this energy is yielding fruit from several local adults and double digit children. What a blessing. We were concerned that the move would subtract some of our regulars who now have to be transported 20 minutes from the big city of Brasov, but so far we have retained most of them. School began once again at Transylvania U. and so we now have our college students back. Our concern about losing them has vanished as well. Praise the Lord.

In Budila, a small village where we hold a Bible study in hopes of it growing into a church one day, a 27 year old man named Cataline received the Lord into his heart and is attending the Bible study. We are praying he will bring his wife and four children to church soon.

According to 2Tim. 2:2 a servant of the Lord is to pass on what he knows in hopes of working himself out of a job and be replaced by his student. This is our goal here in Romania. We now see our men begin to take over some of our ministries as they can fit their schedule. We have the Bible study in Budila, several services per month in a hospice (similar to nursing home), street meetings and other opportunities to serve. Peter, Cornel, Sergiu, and Dorin are filling these slots. Recently, situations called for both Bro. Logan and myself to be absent from the weekly street meeting in the square in Brasov. We had planned to cancel but to our great joy our men opposed that and said they would take charge of this. We had our first all-Romanian street ministry. You cannot imagine what that does to our spirits. Please rejoice with us.

PERSONAL
I might use the expression, "We are fat and happy" but only half of that would be true. We are truly happy serving the Lord here on the mission field and to have something profitable to do at our age. But we are not fat. Robin and I have walked for exercise several times a week since we were married. At present I walk at least 3 days a week, weather and schedule permitting, for a bit over 1 hour. I walk as fast as I can and the first twenty minutes are nearly straight up a mountain next to our home. I walk while pumping 3 lb. barbells as many as 3,000 times during the hour. I feel great…if I die today, I will die healthy…PRAISE THE GOOD LORD. Robin had her 50th birthday last week and Mary Bethany has 14th next week. Thanks for your prayers and faithful financial support of our ministry.

Preaching the gospel on your streets and around the world
Gerald Sutek and the SWAT TEAM for Christ
2Tim. 1:8, Amos 5:10