Iasi, Romania

Beanie Baby Ministry

2009-07-22T12:09:00.001-07:00

Above is Charlene Smith. She is a RN and everytime someone sits at her station she smiles really big and says in the most southern voice "HI". She just cracks me up as I watch her each day.
Charlene has a very tender spot in her heart for children. She collected over 150 stuffed animals before coming on this trip. Each day as a child comes into the clinic or even comes close to it, she gives them a sucker and a stuffed toy.
Watching the little faces light up is so touching.

On behalf of the Medical Team...

2009-07-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

'Salut!'

Today was our third day holding medical clinics. Our first day was the "test" day for each of us and we had pre-set goals of the number of patients we planned to see. Well, we blew the doors off of our estimate within the first HALF of the day! It was so busy, quite hot, and a lot of adjusting, learning the community, and meeting our translators. We all came home very excited about the number we were able to see..but completely exhausted. God heard our prayers and the second day, we found our selves in a new community but this time, with some International medical students of varying stages in school to help! We saw even MORE patients than our first day, but the pace was much more pleasant and as a team, we had a better system of locating our medicines, which were divided between three suitcases on the floors between our stations. I feel like we were better able to understand the needs of the patients and the way in which they decribe their illnesses. We all have grown very fond of our translators and it will be very hard to say goodbye after such a great time with these girls. They are in their early twenties, very good at speaking English, and very funny. We have all had a lot of laughs together!
Today was slightly challenging because we are all very tired. The Lord has been gracious to "mulitiply the loaves and fishes" of our eye glasses and medicines. Today we had even more medical students to help with blood pressures and the like. Two were from Nigeria, one from Kenya, one from Romania, and a missionary from America accompanied them, as well.
For me inparticular, today was extremely exciting. As we packed up the clinic, our evangelism team was still hard at work. I happened to stand next to Bashan as she presented the Cube and the Gospel to a Romanian National woman. When it came to the bridge illustration, Bashan asked me to share my testimony of how I became a believer in Jesus Christ. At first I said no (the Romanian couldn't understand me thankfully) but Bashan gently encouraged me. So, I did. And I finished the remainder of the presentation as well. The translator, Marta, led the woman in a prayer and as we finished praying, we shared the passage in Revelation where Jesus says "behold, I stand at the door and knock, if you open the door, I will enter and come in" describing how we ask the Lord to change our heart and lives. Then we showed her to 1 Jn 5:13 and asked her if she understood that the Bible says we can KNOW that we have eternal life in Jesus Christ. She reworded the passage back to us, and when asked if she welcomed Jesus in to change her life, she said yes. She then asked us for our bible. We gave her the bible and I gave her a hug, telling her what an honor it is to share Jesus with her and meet her. She was crying by now. We invited her back tomorrow for a time of discipleship and to learn more about the love of Jesus Christ!
The Lord is incredibly Gracious, full of Lovingkindness, and Great in Mercy! Praise the name of the Lord our God, His love endures forever and His salvation is for ALL people for ALL generations!

'Amin!'

Karen

New Day New Church Plant

2009-07-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

Today was a first for me. The day before this team left for Romania we had a team member get sick so we lost one evangelism team. We had 4 church plants we were to work with while we were here and we only have 3 teams so we have a church with no Americans to help them. Sunday Sam went and trained the church and I was to got work with that church on Wed and Thursday which is not the way we do church planting but we have a word we throw around alot and its called flexible. This week I have learned to be very flexible as we work to help all the churches. Today I went to Pastor Adi's church here is Lasi and wow what a blessing it was for me to work with them. I had Adi, Jetti, Johanna, and Adi's son and it was so awesome. We went to a park all day and went from park bench to park bench and shared with anyone who would listen. I had several decisions and made many new friends but the last group really blessed me. It was 4.45 Pm and we were going to the cell group and the pastor ask me if I would share with one more bench of young people and I said I would love to. This group was two boys and two girls and eager to listen to us. I shared my story and ask them if they would like to accept Jesus and they all said yes and all 4 prayed and ask Jesus into their hearts. I think what made this so special to me was I could see in one of the young girls eyes that she had been looking for this for a long time and finally she had found it. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to do things like this and to have a wife the supports me doing mission trips and I thank God everyday for blessing me so. I pray that everyone I know will experience the power of God on the mission field and let him use them in ways only he has the ability to.

God Is Good All The Time

Paul Colburn

My New Little Buddy Andrew

2009-07-21T12:51:00.001-07:00

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Pictured with me above is Andrew. His father is the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Iasi, the church we are working with this week.
From the minute we met we formed a good relationship. He is only 11 years old and is my translator!!
Each day as we go to work, we make goals. Yesterday, Monday, Andrews goal was that he wanted to present the gospel message on Tuesday. Today he presented the gospel 6 times and 5 people prayed to recieve Christ. Here he is with one of his new disciples.

Gideon Bibles

2009-07-21T12:46:00.001-07:00

My name is Reggie and I am a Gideon. It was a real joy to see the new testaments that our team would give away during the mission trip. I have given money for Bibles and New testaments to be purchased and distributed all over the world for some time now. It was a pleasure this week to distribute Gideon New Testaments this week.
by Reggie McCray

Yes I Can!!

2009-07-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

It is always amazing to me how gracious God is towards me. From my two trips to Romania I have learned that there are blessings God has given me that I was not even aware before my time here. So many times I have been guilty of hearing the instruction of spiritual growth of spending daily time in prayer and Bible study and regarded it as more of a chore than a privilege. However, after realizing that there are people who are manipulated by their religious leaders to feel that they cannot read the Bible for themselves I have a new found gratitude towards God for allowing me to be surrounded by believers who encourage me to read the Bible for myself. These last few days it has been my privilege to see even more of the ways God has blessed so many of us in Alabama. Not only are we encouraged to read the Bible for ourselves we actually have been taught HOW to read the Bible. It is amazing to see people come to Bible study each night and realize they actually can read the Bible for themselves. Going through the concordance and showing them how to look up the books of the Bible and then learning how to peruse the chapters and verses is beyond rewarding. It is a delight to see each person's initial realization that they can actually read and understand the Bible for themselves. I am so thankful that God has allowed me to see His grace in a way that truly does shame me for taking the knowledge of Bible reading for granted.
by Bashan Holt

Negresti, Romania Butch & Rebecca

2009-07-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

Today we were out witnessing door to door in Negresti. We were in one of the poorest areas of Romania according to the nationals. The location takes appx 2hrs to drive from Isai. Today we witnessed many family members place their trust in Christ. One in particular was a man whose wife attends the church, but he was unrepentent. After talking with him and sharing the gospel he wanted to make Christ Lord over his life. This was very encouraging and got our day off to a very good start. BTW - I am going as Brent over here due to Butch means - behind part. Continue to pray.
by Butch "Brent" Mayhew

Dressing the wounds

2009-07-20T13:03:00.001-07:00

Above Charlene Smith is dressing a bad burn for one the folks who came to the medical clinic today. We saw several bad wounds. We are thankful to God that we had the right tools to help take care of things like this. Please continue to pray for our team as we go out each day in the name of the Lord.

The Three Amigos

2009-07-20T12:58:00.001-07:00

These three men were all from the new church in Negresti, Romania. They sang a few songs at the conclusion of our medical clinic today and just before the "cell group" started tonight. They had amazing voices and sang in beautiful three part harmony.
Please be in prayer for this new church. Today they had around 30 new believers.

Orthodox Priest Converted to Christianity

2009-07-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

Pictured above is Pastor Paul. At one time he was studying to be an Orthodox Priest. During that process he found Jesus Christ and had to leave the Orthodox seminary. Now he is the pastor of a small Baptist Church in Negresti, Romania. Today we held a medical clinic at his little church that he is planting. Many people were helped by medical personnel and they were given medicine and eye glassses.
The lady standing between us is a 91 year old gypsy lady. She is an active member of the congregation in Negresti. Please pray for the new believers that they will allow the evangelism team to disciple them this week.

Prayer Walking Day 1

2009-07-19T13:11:00.001-07:00

We arrived. We got to Lasi around 6:30 Pm Saturday night (10:30 Am Central time) Today Sunday we all went to church together at 1st Baptist Church Lasi and had a great service. They are a great church with a huge missions heart and a awesome pastor and Family. The team is falling in love the the pastors children and they are all helping the team today being our translators. I had Ester the pastors 7 yr old Daughter and I had a blast. She reminds me of Haley so much she even makes me feel like I am at home because she listens to me about as good as Haley. Tomorrow the ministry begins with the evangelism teams starting to work and the 1st medical clinic begins. Pray for us because this is a small team and it sounds like tomorrow could be a big clinic. Please pray for our health due to the heat here. It is very hot and we are still trying to get the time thing behind us and with the heat to we are tiring fast. We are all excited to get going and this team is going to do a awesome job so I can't wait to hear all the great stories tomorrow. We want our two team members at home Chris and Anna we miss you and are praying for a speedy recovery for Anna.

God Bless and we will share more tomorrow

Paul Colburn