Stella Sings - Video

Here is a video of Stella singing a few songs. Stella, whom I call Stelutza (little Stella), was about one year old and living at the orphanage in Petrosani when I first started working there. She is about 10 years old now and living at a Christian orphanage called Betania. Kelly Stark, of Isaiah's House, has a ministry to orphan kids in Petrosani and sometimes Stelutza comes and spends the weekends with her.

Quotes from Gospel Primer

Here are some quotes from part one of the "Gospel Primer" that I gave a link to in the last post.

“...the gospel...of first importance...” (1 Corinthians 15:1,3)

“If there’s anything in life that we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate only about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.” (C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life, 20-21)

“The gospel isn’t one class among many that you’ll attend during your life as a Christian – the gospel is the whole building that all the classes take place in! Rightly approached, all the topics you’ll study and focus on as a believer will be offered to you ‘within the walls’ of the glorious gospel.” (C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life, 75-76)

The essence of eternal life is not found in having my sins forgiven, in possessing a mansion in heaven, or in having streets of gold on which to walk forever. Rather, the essence of eternal life is intimately knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Everything else that God gives to me in the gospel serves merely to bring me to Himself so that this great end might be achieved. Christ died for the forgiveness of my sins so that I might be brought “to God.

The “gospel of God” is from God, comes through God, and leads me to God; and it is in Him that my soul finds its truest joy and rest.

Understanding that I am not the ultimate end of the gospel, but rather that God’s glory is, actually enables me to embrace my salvation more boldly than I would otherwise dare to do. For example, when my timid heart questions why God would want to love one so sinful as I, I read the answer, “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” I figure, then, that my unworthiness must actually be useful to God, because it magnifies the degree to which His grace might be glorified as He lavishes His saving kindness upon me. This line of reasoning makes perfect sense to me and convinces me to embrace the gospel with greater passion so that God might glorify Himself through me, an unworthy sinner. Indeed, the more I embrace and experience thegospel, the more I delight in the worship of God, the more expressive my joy in Him becomes, and the more I yearn to glorify Him in all I say and do.

Worth Reading

Here are links to some articles I found on the web that I found interesting and thought provoking.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54346
The Secret Curse of Holywood 'Stars'- excellent article that gives you a lot to reflect on for yourself

http://www.eucatastrophe.com/blog/archives/2007/02/19/preaching-the-gospel-to-yourselffrom-the-old-testament/
Preaching the Gospel to Yourself…From the Old Testament - For some reason I could not open it correctly in Firefox so I used another browser

http://www.cornerstonebible.org/Resources/gospelprimer7.6.pdf
A Gospel Primer- right click and save to hard drive

http://www.digital-web.com/news/2007/02/top_five_articles_for_presenters/
top 5 articles for presenters

My New Website is Up

I finally finished updating my personal website. You can check it out at godswill.ro You will find photos, videos, links to Calvary Chapel and Romanian sites and a place at the bottom of the home page to add yourself and your location to my map.

Funny Video - Me Worship

Here is a funny video that has a lot of truth to it. Our flesh desires to be our master. Oh how we need the grace of God in Jesus to overcome it and allow Him to truly be what He is, Lord of all.

My Life in Romania

Here is a powerpoint presentation that I shared when I was visiting in the States.

Worth Reading

Here are a few articles I found on the net that I think are worth reading. Tell me what you think about them in the comments section.

Less Transparency, More Teflon

Gospel-Centeredness (list of articles)

Excellent article - Gospel Centered Men and Women (click on it to download PDF)

Current Prayer Requests

For Ministry

• To adjust to a new church and ministry
• To begin developing the School of Ministry curriculum and student handbook
  
• To work on the web sites and begin developing media ministries like video
• To develop more skills and abilities in web design, shoot and editing video, etc.
• For God to open a door of for me in the universities to minister to the students, staff and teachers

Personal

• To raise enough support to live in Bucharest
• To find an apartment at a good price in a good location with honest and reliable landlords
• To have money to fix up the apartment and buy any needed furniture or whatever else is needed
• To adjust to living in Bucharest and to make new friends

Photos On-Line

Here is the main link to my photos on Flickr. From now on this is where I will post all my photos so you can see what is going on here in Romania and wherever else I go.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/godswillromania/

Being Introduced

Today Shane Herman (the pastor) introduced me to the fellowship here in Bucharest while Adi Caciula translated. After the introduction I shared briefly my history since becoming a Christian with a focus on how I ended up in Romania, the cities and ministries I have been involved in and how I ended up in Bucharest.

After sharing all that I talked about dealing with fear and the call of God. This was something I shared while in the States when opportunities opened up for me to teach.

This coming week I will start to get familiar with the city by checking out the subway system and begin work in ernest with Shane on developing the School of Ministry curriculum and student handbook. I also will spend time working on my new website layout and trying to get the system working for doing my newletters and adding all the new people who signed up for it while I was in the States.

I would like to start looking for an apartment but until I can find out how much regular monthly support I have it is hard to budget for an apartment which makes it hard to go out looking for something. I'd appreciate your prayers for all these things.

Twins Birthday Party

On Wedneday, February 7th Loren and Faith Hoe celebrated their first birthday in Romania, they are now seven years old. You can check out the photos I took here Twins Birthday Party

Pastors Meeting

After being gone for two months it was great to get back and have fellowship with the other Calvary Chapel pastors, missionaries and other servants.

We usually meet the first Tuesday of each month for a time of worship, sharing what is going on in our lives and ministries, prayer and fellowship. Some of the guys come a day early as they have a long ways to travel so that gives them more time of fellowship.

To see the other photos click here Pastors Meeting

In the next few days I will posting the prayer requests from the meeting on the Calvary Chapel Romania Blog.

First Service in New Building

I took this photo at Calvary Chapel Brasov's first service in the new building on Sunday, February 4th. It is a small and very warm place which could hold around 40 to 50 people. They are praying about possibly opening up a coffee shop there to reach out to the community.

It was good to be back and see everyone but it did feel a bit strange for me to be a visitor for the first time at the church I had started. I will always have a connection with the body there I am sure but life goes on along with all the changes that come with time.

It is great to see the church there continue to develop and grow step by step. Please continue to pray for Keala, his family and the fellowship there in Brasov.

You can check out the rest of the photos I took here Brasov First Service

Going to Brasov

Tomorrow (Sunday) I will get up at about 5:00 so I can take the 6:30 train to Brasov so I can attend church there. They are having their first service in the new place and asked me to come. They got a place right below where Keala and Heather live which is a great location for the church.

I will be there till probably Thursday as we are having our monthly pastors meeting there on Tuesday and Keala's twin girls have their birthday on Wednesday.

I look forward to my time seeing everyone in Brasov.

Our First Meeting

Today Shane (center), Florin (right) and I (the good looking one:) met for the first time to pray and discuss about our involvement in the leadership of the church and it's ministries.

I think we are off to a good start but sure could use all the prayer possible for vision, wisdom, gifts of the Holy Spirit and everything else needed to serve the body.

Florin will be moving this summer from Severin to be the worship pastor and one of the Bible teachers. Until then he will come one long weekend a month. Shane has been the pastor of the Calvary Chapel in Bucharest for about five years and the fellowship has grown to over a hundred people.

By the grace of God we are looking forward to what God has in store for us in the coming year. We will begin developing the School of Ministry shortly with the goal of opening it in September of this year. I talked to Shane about my interest in leading a in-depth study of the Gospel on Tuesdays in the near future as a way for me to get started here in Bucharest and he was all for it so please pray for this new beginning for me. I will model the study similar to what I did in Brasov.

Back In Romania

I made it back to Romania yesterday. Had a geat trip back with no hassles coming into Romania. I ended up having a great seat on the long part of the trip from Seattle to Amsterdam. A great seat for me is having lots of leg space.

So now I have to adjust to life in Bucharest and being at new church and having a new ministry. Please pray for grace for me in all these adjustments and that I will be the Lord's blessing to many here in Bucharest.

In addition, please pray that I will find an apartment in a good location at a good price with a good landlord. I don't think it will be easy to find something. I desire to get a larger apartment so I can use it for ministry and fellowship but apartments are way more expensive here than Brasov. Also, I don't know yet how much monthly support I have so it makes it hard to know how much I can budget for rent.

I had such a good trip to the States, it was my best trip ever. It was such a blessing in so many ways. I will share more over the next week about it as I have time.