Faith Romanian Missions

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2010-04-03T09:11:00.001-06:00

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2009-01-21T08:50:00.001-06:00

We continue to see God's blessing on the work here in the Brasov area. Last week the Brasov Church voted to pay their Pastor's monthly salary. This is a huge step forward! The also have begun to take more responsibility for the care of their building and have assumed their part of the utilities for the Brasov Building. Pastor Luci is doing a great job as Pastor. I am overjoyed to see him taking the leadership role. He is showing great maturity and wisdom. The Church at Brasov enjoyed a great attendance this past Sunday. Also services in Feldioara were attended well.

The Church in Feldioara last week extended a call to Bro. Ioanuts (Johnny) from Constanta, as their Pastor. Bro. Johnny has accepted and will be moving here to the Brasov area in March. Bro. Johnny has been preaching since he was 14. He is now 26 years old. He has worked with Bro. Gary Santino in Constanta and also worked with Bro. Jim Black for two years in Bucharesti. I look forward to his coming to work with us. I will work along side Bro. Johnny to help bring the Church in Feldioara to greater stability.

Kim has continued to work with the Children's Home. Today she helped Hospice with some special request needs. The help is for terminally ill patients and their families. Also they are trying to get permission to return to some of the area orphanages to do Bible studies with the children. We have done this for a number of years but when the change Directors we usually have to go through the permission process all over again. Pray that we will be able to get back into the orphanages so that we can teach the children.

Also as a prayer request, we have requested 5 year visas from the government. Pray that they will be granted. We have been only getting 1 year visas and they are expensive. Also a 5 year visa saves the headache of all the red tape each year.

Thanks again for your prayers and encouragement.

Jerry & Kim

January 13, 2009

2009-01-13T04:01:00.001-06:00

Once again I apologize for the long silence on this blog. I find it hard sometimes with our busy schedule to find time to set down and update the blog. I am thankful to have it and will try to be more diligent in this New Year.

I thank each of you for your faithful support both in prayers and finances. God's blessing were many in 2008. We praise the Lord for all that was accomplished. There were several saved and baptized. We accomplished a lot of work at the Camp and had a great Camping season. We moved the children and their Foster Home Parents into an apartment created at the Brasov Church. We had another successful Fall Semester in our Bible Institute. We welcomed Brother Jim Black and his family to work with us here in Brasov. Last of all we saw the Church in Brasov call Bro. Lucian Anghel as Pastor. The Church ordained him on December 7th 2008.

We look forward to what God has for us in 2009. We know as always there will be mountain tops and valleys. I'm thankful for the valleys that make us appreciate the mountain tops even more. We will begin our Spring Semester of Bible Institute on the 17th of January. We look forward to the Medical Team from Faith coming in May. We plan to come in for furlough after the Medical Team. We have not decided as of yet how long we will be in the states.

Please keep us in your prayers. I will try to keep the blog updated. Don't give up on me.

Bro. Jerry

August Update

2008-07-30T07:48:00.000-06:00

The last two months have continued to be extremely busy. We are thankful for the souls that have been saved during our camps and also during our church services. God blessed us with three great camps from the Brasov area. The first week was teen camp which was then followed by children's camp and adult camp.

We have now finished our renovation of the upstairs of the Brasov church. This area now serves as a spacious home for our Foster Children and their House Parents, Lacra and Alex. We appreciate each one who has worked hard on this project. In July we had Kasey and Melissa Webb and Aaron Matherly. They came and worked for the whole month of July. Also we appreciate Bro. Jim Black for helping last week finish up the kitchen by helping with the cabinets and plumbing.

We are very happy to announce that Bro. Jim Black and his family are moving to Brasov from Bucharesti. They will be working with us here in the Brasov area. The Black's are sent out by Living Word Baptist Church in Lewiston Idaho. We have been working together over the last 6 years in co-operation with our Camp and Bible Institute. I am looking forward to having them here in Brasov and working together as a Team to bring these churches to greater stability, train workers and continue our evangelistic outreach.

We are now preparing to attend the European Missions Conference once again. This conference has served has a great blessing to us over the last 6 years that we have served here in Romania.

Once again. we thank you for your continued love and support for Faith Romanian Missions.

Jerry, Kim and Amy

July 22, 2008

2008-07-21T23:23:00.001-06:00

June and July have proven once again to be busy months. In June we continued our work at the Church Camp and began to gear up for our VBS's. We were greatly blessed by a two week visit from our daughter Kristin, our grand daughter Jillian, Kim's sister Laurie and my sister April. God has also blessed us seeing another 4 souls come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

On July 2nd our daughter Melissa, her husband Kasey and their friend Aaron, arrived for a month visit. The have also been a great blessing. They have concentrated their time to help us work on the Children's Home. We have been renovating the upstairs portion of our Brasov building. When we finish this work, this will serve as a spacious home for Lacra, Alex and our foster children. We appreciate so much the work that Melissa, Kasey and Aaron have done. We have installed new laminate flooring and have repainted all the rooms. Where my office has been, now serves as a kitchen. Even during all this work we have managed to hold three VBS's and make a trip to Germany to pick up the truck that Faith has sent for us to use on the field here in Romania.

Next week we will begin Camp. The first week will be Teen camp and after that we will follow it up with Kid's Camp and Family Camp. Keep us in your prayers. Pray for souls to be saved. Also pray that our energy and health will hold up.

Jerry and Kim

June Update

2008-06-15T14:31:00.000-06:00

Once again I apologize that it has taken so long to update our blog. There has been so much going since we arrived back on the field the 1st of April. In April we began a 5 week work project on the Church Camp in Stramba. We appreciate very much all who came and gave time and talent to help work at the Camp. We saw much accomplished. There were visitors from Florida, Arkansas, Oregon, Kentucky and Idaho. We also had our Bible Institute closing in April. At the beginning of May we held our annual School Conference. We were pleased to have Bro. Joe Morrell and Gedamines from Lithuania to be our guest speakers this year.

God blessed us with 4 saved and 4 baptized since we have returned. We praise the Lord for these. We look forward to a busy summer of evangelism.

Kim and I right now are enjoying some our family that is visiting from the States. Kim's youngest sister Laurie, my sister, April and our oldest daughter Kristen along with our Grand Daughter Jillian will be with us for the next couple weeks. On July 2nd our daughter Melissa and her husband Kasey will be arriving with our youngest daughter Amy. Kasey and Melissa plan to spend a month and help us work on the Children's Home. We look forward to their visit also. Also in July our truck will arrive from the states. We plan to fly to Germany to pick it up and drive it back to Romania. This vehicle will be very valuable to the work here. Once again thank each of you for your prayers and support. I'll try to do better about updating the blog.

Jerry and Kim

On the Road

2008-01-07T21:19:00.001-06:00

I'm sorry that it has been a while since I have updated the blog! We have been busy since we arrived back in the States. We were glad to get to attend our daughter Melissa's Wedding. Her and Kasey are very happy and are living in Danville KY. We have been sharing what God is doing concerning the work in Romania with several churches. So far, we have been in Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri. We will be giving reports among the churches until the end of March and then will head back to Romania.

In April we are planning a work project on our camp and also on our building in Brasov. We ask that you be much in prayer for these projects.

Also be in prayer for Paul Parnick. Paul is one of our young members in the church at Feldioara. He has cancer and is very ill. Please pray for he and all his family.

Thank you again for your love and support!

Jerry, Kim and Amy

Final Blog from Sandy Bennett

2007-10-16T08:40:00.001-06:00

Home is where the heart is… but what happens when your heart is in two different countries???

I am growing to love and appreciate our missionaries more and more every trip I take. My “first trip” last year was life changing. An incredible experience that I am grateful for God’s blessings. This years trip, was even more. Those that know me well understand I am rarely at a loss for words, but this time I am. The seeds of friendship that were planted last year, really grew into something beautiful this year as we had more time together, and had the opportunity to know each other better. Bro. Jerry commented that I began planning “this years trip” as soon as I came home last year, and that was true… and yes, in my heart I am already looking towards the next trip… You see, I understand more now that HOME is where the heart is, and a part of MY heart is in Romania… as is the hearts of our missionaries, our pastor, and many of you reading this blog… Thank you for letting me share what has been on my heart this last week – and will remain there. In His Love, Sandy

From Sandy Bennett 4

2007-10-12T09:26:00.001-06:00

Here is Thurs/ Fri (Rachel House)

Thursday morning we were able to sleep in just a little bit. Mike and Julie Rodgers picked us up and we made our way to Targa Jui. If you've ever been in a car, going over mountains, with Mike Rodgers you know we laughed the whole way!!!!! We really enjoyed our time traveling and seeing Romania through their eyes!!!

Shiona and the Kids from Rachel House met us with open arms. IT Was GREAT!!! Spent just a little time with them before it was night time routine...

Shiona, Narchissa, Raluca and I spent some time over tea planning the days ahead. This morning (and throughout the day) the kids went to school and the four of us went around the neighborhood inviting ladies over tomorrow afternoon to ask their health questions and follow up on the breast health session from last year. Meanwhile... back at home Elena had prepared a lunch - well - I can't describe it because it was simply too good for words ;-)
Tomorrow will be very busy, but if I get a chance in the evening I will update. Until then~

From Sandy Bennett 3

2007-10-09T07:17:00.000-06:00

Monday
Met at the office and started the day with a devotional from Lucci - The guys (Lucci, Petrus, Codrut, Atti) went downstairs after prayer time and the ladies (Savina, Lacra, Dana and Florentina) spent the day visiting with me. Lunch was Pizza and then Lacra, Dana and I went to walk street for a little shopping. The evening was spent with Lacra and Alex, their family, Florentina, Donna, Raluca and I watching a movie.

It has been great to spend time with everyone.
Have a great day!!
Sandy

From Sandy Bennett 2

2007-10-08T08:52:00.001-06:00

The Weekend...
Saturday went pretty much as expected - after the metro (remind me to tell you the story of Alex and my chocolate/ coffee purchase HA!!), Kim dropped me off at Raluca's. We spent a few hours catching up and then back to the house. Sunday morning, we went to church, it was pretty emotional as the Chandlers were leaving, and several I had met last year, welcomed me back. After service in Brasov, it was off to Zarnesti - stopping for lunch on the way. (A chicken pannini which had chicken snitzel, fries and slaw - oh my!!) Then back to the house. Of course, on the way from Zarnesti, Lacra asks me if I'm hungry and want to go ahead and have dinner, I'm not hungry (Lunch was HUGE) so she asks me if I need to take a rest, No, I'm not tired. So, she asks me if I "want to take a little walk" (Now, keep in mind, I was with Raluca the day before and her definition of 'a little walk' and mine are different) So I asked her to define it with a laugh, she says - oh we'll go to a little park near the house - they have a waterfall you might like. I'm thinking - cool!! so, I need a new dictionary- the one I have does not translate that "a little walk" means HIKE/ Climb a MOUNTAIN!!!!!!!! - so, of course, I didn't have my camera so I don't have visual proof. My witnesses will have to stand - Lacru, Bo-Bo, Raluca, Donna and Lucci (of course Delia too- but she's not talking) I will say this. 3 1/2 hours later - standing on the top of the mountain with these very special friends, needed no pictures for me to remember... it is an experience I will carry in my heart forever!!

Back at the house... Raluca and I settle in, the DVD player won't work, then as we're talking before bed, the power goes out. But after the climb, I was ready to call it a night. Moving a little stiff this morning, but hey, lets look at it as my exercise program has begun (so office friends) once I get back, we just have to keep me on it ;-)

In His Love,
Sandy

From Sandy Bennett

2007-10-08T08:48:00.000-06:00

Buna Ziua from Brasov Romania!!!

The flight was uneventful - I was lucky enough to have my own personal movie screen on the seat back in front of me so I watched movies all night. Too hyper to sleep anyway ;-) I did take a little nap from Amsterdam into Bucharest, but the toddler screaming in the seat behind me made that a bit of a challenge. HA!
Bro. Jerry and Kim picked me up and we went straight (4 hr drive due to rain and traffic) to The Four Roses for dinner (Bro. Brent - eat your heart out HA!!)

We got home about 10pm (2pm your time) -meaning I'd been up for 32 hours... I was seriously asleep before the light was totally off. We are hanging out here at the house this morning. The Chandlers are trying to get packed up to leave tomorrow, so I am trying to just stay out of the way, but help when I can. Later, once Lacra gets up, we will go stock up on groceries for "them for the winter" and whatever things (yes, coffee and chocolate) I need to bring back with me, before the Chandlers leave. Exchange money, and in general, have a nice slow first day ;-)

I will update when I can...
O zi buna (have a nice day)
Sandy

September 15, 2007

2007-09-15T03:31:00.001-06:00

It has been a few weeks since I have updated my blog. I apologize for the delay. We have continued our busy schedule. Since our last camp we have been focusing on preparation for winter. We have been doing some need repairs on our buildings and vehicles. Our attendances have continued to hold. We have enjoyed having over 50 in attendance all summer long. The is great in light that just a year ago the attendance was down in the teens.

We were able to attend the European Missionary Retreat in Corfu Greece again this year. As always it was a great blessing. It was great to have my Pastor along with us this year. Brother Brent flew to Romania and then traveled along with us to Greece. We had a great time of fellowship on the way and during the Retreat. Brother Brent did an outstanding job bring us messages from the book of Malachi. These messages blessed and challenged us as Missionaries.

We started our Fall semester of the Bible Institute on September 15th. The students seemed eager to be back in the classroom. Please pray for this years classes. This first semester will be taught by Brother Liviu, from Otopeni, Brother Petru from Brasov and Brother Luci from Brasov. A great blessing is that God has allowed me to work along side each of these men and to be involved in their training of the last 5 years. Brother Jim Black and Brother Steve Rutherford will be teaching also in the second semester after their return from furlough.

We will be traveling to the States in October. Our daughter Melissa will be getting married on the 20th of October. We plan to remain in the States for a few months in order to report to our supporting churches. Also we want to make many aware of some changes that we have made in our Humanitarian portion of the work, namely the starting of a Foster Care Home for children. I already have several conferences in which I will be speaking. We look forward to a busy visit in the States.

Please keep us in your prayers. We continue to praise God for His wonder Grace that enables us to serve Him.

Jerry Chandler

Faith Romanian Missions

Great Camps

2007-08-16T00:14:00.001-06:00

We enjoyed two great weeks of camp. July 30th we kicked off our Teen Camp. We had a good group plus we had campers from Missionary Jim Black's work in Bucharest and Steve Rutherford's work in Tancabesti. All in all there were 82 there for the camp. We saw two profess Christ as their Savior from our work in Zarnesti. I was glad to see how the Teens from the different works came together. The following week we had Kid's Camp with about 52 from our works here in Brasov, Zarnest, Feldioara and Harman. The Kid's Camp lasted from Monday to Wednesday and the remainder of the week was for our Adults.

We were blessed to see how great the new generator worked. We still are thanking God for this great blessing. Also it was nice to put the new kitchen equipment into use. We are planning to have a work team come next April and hopefully wrap up the remaining work that is needed here on the Camp.

Today we traveled to Tancabesti to see the Black's off. They are leaving for their furlough. We took them to the airport this morning. They have been a great blessing to us. We thank God for their work here in Romania.

Kolt has one more week here before he heads back to the States. We have enjoyed his visit. He has worked hard while he has been here especially in helping get the camp ready and then working during camp. Pray for him as he returns. He plans to enroll in Seminary at Little Rock this fall.

We will be focusing on doing some building repairs in Brasov and Feldioara over the next several weeks before we depart for the States in October. We are returning for our daughter Melissa's wedding. We also plan to visit among the supporting churches while we are back.

Thank you again for your prayer support for us. We appreciate it very much. We received word last week that our daughter Suzanna had a bad car wreck. We were very relieved that she wasn't seriously injured. I think it was a result of your prayers for our family both here in Romanian and those who are in the States. Again thank you very much.

VBS's Almost Complete

2007-07-25T05:58:00.001-06:00

This week ends our 4 weeks of VBS. We have had a great VBS season. We have so far a total of 22 teens saved. We appreciate our Missions Team from Faith helping us with the first week. Also we thank them for bringing our VBS craft supplies. This week we are finishing up with our VBS in Brasov. Our attendance is down this year but we are still having a great VBS.

Also we continue to get ready for camp. We have about 70 who will be in our first week of Camp. The new generator is working great. We look forward to the next two weeks of camp. Next week will be teen camp and then the week after than will be dedicated to children and Adults. We will do one half of the week for kids and the last half for Adults.

It has been very hot here in Brasov this past week. This is very unusual for us. Normally we enjoy mild summers. This past week we got to near 100. This is very hot for this region. Normally we will be in the 70's. Pray for us as we conduct our camps. Pray for souls to be saved and for everyone to have a safe enjoyable camp.

Ready for Camp

2007-07-21T13:04:00.001-06:00

This has been a very busy week but much has been accomplished. We left Tuesday for the Airport and picked up Kolt Mackrill. Kolt will be working with us until near the end of August. Kolt is a member of Faith Baptist in Cabot. We bought some more of the furnishings for the kitchen at camp this week. These included another stainless steel table and a new refrigerator.

Thursday, we helped Amy celebrate her 16th birthday. Most of the day was dedicated to spending time with her. Its hard to believe that our baby girl is already 16. She has finished this years home schooling and has been busy helping in the work.

Friday, we all packed up and went to the camp in order to get the final details ready for the next week's camp. Bro. Jim Black came also and brought his family, neighbors and a couple his church members. We had two good days of work. We repaired some plumbing, built some beds, organized the kitchen and did an overall cleaning. Kolt finished up the weed eating. Everything looks great.

We a group that will be renting the camp next week then we will begin our first week of camp for the Brasov works. Pray that we will have a trouble free camp year with many souls saved.

Jerry Chandler

Busy Summer

2007-07-17T00:16:00.000-06:00

Our summer continues to by busy. We enjoyed a great visit from a Missions Team from our Sending Church. They helped us with VBS, Steet Outreach and helped get our camp ready for this season. During their time here there were 19 teens saved at Harman VBS and two saved during our Street Outreach. Since that time we had two more teens saved at Feldioara VBS and another adult saved during our Street Outreach. We praise the Lord for these salvations.

Brother Jim Black and I spent a couple days last week working on the camp. We got the generator exhaust piped outside, our kitchen cabinets put together and installed and another bathroom made ready for use. Also we were able more electrical work done. We will be going back there to work the later part of this week to finish up some last minute preparations before our first camp group comes next week.

Today we will travel to Bucaresti to meet Kolt Mackrill at the airport. Kolt will be staying and working with us for 4 weeks. We look forward to his arrival.

Our Foster Children are doing well. They are making the adjustment to their new home. Alex and Lacra are working hard to help them adjust to living with them. They are great kids. Please keep them in your prayers. Their names are Atti, Olga and Ionuts.

We are presently having VBS in Zarnesti and next week we will have VBS at Brasov. Then we will begin our two weeks of camps for teens and then children and adults.

We appreciate your prayers and support for Romanian Missions.

Jerry Chandler

Faith Romanian Missions

Mission Trip - Saturday

2007-06-30T22:00:00.000-06:00

Today was an easy day. We slept in a little and finally got out to walk street around 10:30 am. We shopped there for about an hour, then we loaded back in the van and headed for Pelesh Castle (which is an hour away). I've never had the opportunity to visit the castle, but it was worth the trip. Pelesh is a wonderfully ornate place. Built in the lat 1800's with collections from around the world. It was a neat tour. Bought the book on CD.

There's a lot of shopping at Pelesh as well, so we all pretty much finished up buying what we needed to get for you guys ;-) When we arrived back in Brasov, we stopped by Metro and picked up chocolate to bring back to the states, as well as coffee for Bro. Brent and my sister. Brother Jerry dropped a few of us off at the park up past the house, and we hiked through it before returning to the house at 6 pm for a dinner by Sora Vica (Bob's mom). She made meatball soup, chicken snitzel (that put the 4 Roses' snitzel to shame) and country potatoes. It was wonderful.

After supper we all packed our stuff for the return trip. Then at 10 pm (it was 2 pm there), we had a short memorial service for Ron. Brother Mike shared some scripture and we all shared memories before Mark led us in prayer. It was a good service. Then we shared thoughts about the trip. About 11:30 pm we all turned in for bed.

Tomorrow, we will go to church at Brasov, then head for Bucharesti after lunch to catch the plane Monday morning. See you in a couple of days.

Mission Trip - Friday

2007-06-29T23:09:00.000-06:00

We got up pretty early so we could leave the house this morning by 8:30 am. We went by Metro to pick up a few groceries, then headed up to camp. It was a work day. Camp is a long way from the house....nearly 2 hours and the construction on the roads made it even longer. Several from the group slept most of the way. When we arrived, we got to work cleaning out the basement so we'd have a place to put the new generator. It's dark with no lights, musty, damp, and piled full of scraps from different building projects, but about 6 or 8 of us got busy and had it knocked out in about an hour. Several of the group (along with several of our Romanian friends) got to work moving some dirt/rock piles (with pick axes, shovels, and wheel burrows), and by the end of the day, we'd moved 2 of them. Many of the ladies worked on cleaning out the dorms, and kitchen to prepare the camp for the kids. There were also 2 weedeaters in continual use throughout the day (remember last year Staton?) and this year a lawn mower as well. It was really funny watching all the Romanians with that small push mower. They don't mow much over here....well they don't mow at all over here, so they all wanted a turn pushing it around. Most of them had never used one before.

The generator arrived around 1 pm, and it was BIG. It's a 17 ton generator (it didn't weigh 17 tons, though it did weigh several hundred pounds). We finally decided we were going to push/pull this thing from the truck on boards and scoot it into the basement. It took 8 or 10 men about 30 or 40 minutes and some realy big boards to move it. It was easier than expected (there were some people praying about that one), and we got it in there with no major problems. The generator ran like a champ.

About 2 pm we had a lunch of grilled meach (a cross between hamburger and pork sausage), chicken, and vegetables. It was a good lunch, and we worked for several hours after lunch.

We left the camp about 6 pm and headed for home. When we got home all the ladies pitched in and we had chicken spaghetti, toast and a cake. It was delicious, and the men cleaned up after supper (we can be sweet occasionally ;-). The card tricks, laughter, stories, and foolishness continued until late into the night.

It was a good day, sleep well my friends.

Mission Trip - Thursday

2007-06-28T13:50:00.000-06:00

We slept in this morning - until 7:30 or 8:00 am ;-) After a great breakfast, we loaded up and went to Bran Castle for the tour. The place was extremely crowded. So crowded in fact that we weren't able to get a tour guide to accompany us, but between the 3 Chandlers, we managed to have a really good tour. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees today, and by the time we got out of the castle, it was raining. The area around Bran has some great shopping, so we did...in the rain. Most everyone managed to spend some of their money (Lei).

After leaving the Castle we went up to the top of the mountain (one of the most scenic mountains around) for some pictures, and thankfully the rain had stopped before we got there. We grabbed some shots, while we were shaking from the cold, then climbed back in the van and headed back for Brasov. We had an early supper at 4 Roses (we skipped lunch today), and about 6 pm, we headed for Harman.

When we got there, we had a service in the parking lot of some old apartment block houses, and the people seemed to be genuinely listening. Lucra and Raluca, along with a few others, took the kids off to the side and taught them a lesson. From our group, we sang some songs, brother Mike preached, and brother Wayne gave his testimony, then brother Petru preached. After about a 50 minute service, we loaded back up and followed brother Petru's van down through town to a very busy street (there were a lot of cars on the road) until he stopped where about 3 people were sitting on a park bench. He stopped and we couldn't figure out why, but he got out, so we did too. We started singing and he started talking. It took about 10 minutes for the crowd to grow to 10 or 15 and in 20 minutes there were probably 30 listening all along the road. We sang several songs (both in Romanian, and English) and the people were very attentive. When Petru started preaching, God moved in him and through him, and we all just stood back in awe of what HE was doing. One woman cried the entire time, and several other people never looked away the entire 30 minutes he was preaching. After his sermon, he led them in the sinner's prayer, and asked if any had prayed with him. 5 raise their hands, and Petru, Lucci, Lucra, and Codruts spend the next 15 or 20 minutes counseling them. We know for sure that 1 of the people truly received Christ, and several others promised to be at church Sunday. After he finished speaking Petru told brother Jerry that when he drove by he didn't think this looked like a good place to stop, but he "felt the Spirit of the Lord very strong in this place." The moral of the story: sometimes we don't see but a couple of people on a park bench who probably won't listen, but God has other plans. Listen for His prompting.

After leaving the side of the road we were invited to go down into Groapa (at 8:30 pm).....so we went. Again, just as last year, these poor gypsy people were the most welcoming wonderfully fun, happy people we've had the pleasure of being around in this country. You just can't understand Groapa unless you've been there and visited the people who live there. They served us drinks and boscotti, and we started singing. Some of the women noticed our ladies looked cold, so they started bringing sweaters, and jackets out for them. Then they noticed our guys looked cold as well, so they started bringing out suit jackets for them. Mark Cooper looked like he should start preaching ;-) After singing and visiting for about 30 minutes, brother Petru (who we've learned is never at a loss for words) grabbed his megaphone and started talking. He kept it short, this time, since it was dark. We hugged them all, and exchanged much laughter before leaving.

Harman.........my favorite village in Romania. God seems to move in mighty ways every time we go there. I love this place.

Jim and Sherry Black have come to the house tonight to stay with us and go with us to work at the camp tomorrow. It's been an amazing day.

Sleep well my friends, we will.

Mission Trip - Wednesday

2007-06-27T14:09:00.000-06:00

We woke up this morning to thunderstorms and hard rain which made sleeping easy, but we feared would make VBS difficult. When we arrived in Harman (late) there were several kids waiting for us - about 20 - that were all soaking wet. Lacra started the lesson while Petru went to Grapa to pick up some more kids and soon we had nearly 60 young people in attendance. The rain broke, as the lessons were being finished, and we started crafts. After craft-time, we went outside and played in the street....I know that doesn't sound like a good idea, but it's par for the coarse here. After VBS was over, Petru loaded 25 kids in his 8 passenger van to take them back home, and we sat outside waiting for the other kids to come out. After 30 minutes when they were still in the back, we found out that Raluca, Codruts, and Lucci were witnessing to several kids. When they came out smiling, we learned that 10 girls and 9 boys were saved this morning...HALLELUJAH!

We left Harman, and came home to eat lunch about 2 pm. After lunch, most everyone layed down for a nap. About 3:45 pm we got the call about Brother Ron. Brother Wayne asked that we all meet in the living room, and he told us all the news. Brother Silvey led prayer and we all shared memories and many tears for the family. Brother Jerry made the observation that Ron made it to Heaven just in time to hear the jubilation over the 19 souls that were saved in the Harman VBS. :-)

We loaded up later in the afternoon and went to Zarnesti for the services. Once there, we walked around town handing out tracts, preaching and singing for a little over 2 hours. It was a wonderful outreach that attracted much attention. Again today, we sowed a lot of seed and we ask that you pray with us to see the increase. After leaving Zarnesti, we went to KFC for the best chicken strips around. Now we're home visiting, about to turn in for the night (it's 11:30 pm here.)

It was a day of rejoicing and a day of tears. Sharon, Matthew, Thomas, and the rest of the family....we love you all very much, and our prayers are with you. May the thought of your father - whom everyone loved - walking on the golden streets of Heaven, visiting with old friends and family, and standing in the warm embrace of his Lord and Savior be of some comfort to you in the days ahead.

We love you all

Mission Trip - Tuesday

2007-06-26T12:58:00.000-06:00

We got up early (though considerably slower than yesterday) and met the workers at the church again. They got the supplies together, and we went to Cellgrose (a store very similar to Sam's Club) where we bought groceries for the next couple of days. Then we went to Harman for VBS Day 2. The lessons and music were great again, and the crafts and games went much smoother than yesterday (we kinda figured out what we were doing and we learned some vital Romanian words;-). It was Arkansas kind of hot today, and humid. And we were all sweating buckets. After VBS was over, we went to McDonald's on walk street for lunch. I may be prejudice a bit, but the Micky D's over here is much better than in the states. It's cleaner, the food's better, just all around a nicer place to eat. Then we went to the Piatsa, where we had 2 services using the new sound system we brought over. Brother Doug gave his testimony, and brother Mike preached at each one. The whole group sang a couple of songs. And Peter (Brother Petru) preached in the market place. We had 1 saved that we know of and many more show interest. It was a great afternoon...hot, but great. Then we went to the church where we regrouped, had a special prayer service, then fanned out over different parts of Brasov. We handed out several hundred tracts, and several hundred of the coins that Brother Hile got for us. It was a great evening. About 8 pm we returned home to a home-made meal of Sister Kim's fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, home-made biscuits, green beans, and chocolate cake.......um, um good. Let me rephrase uuuummmmm, uuuummmmmm goooood!

Now it's raining outside. Maybe the heat will break tonight and tomorrow will be cooler. Pray for us and for all the outreach we're doing. Tomorrow will be the final day of VBS in Harman, then an evangelistic service in Zarnesti.

Have a good night my friends.

Mission Trip June 21-July 2nd

2007-06-25T22:49:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't been updating this, but I'll try to do better from now on. Let's start from the beginning:

Thursday: Our check-in and flight from Little Rock to Cincinatti went without a hitch (well, for everyone but brother Wayne who was wanded at the airport due to his suspenders.....he refused to take them off because his pants would fall down ;-) The flight from Cincinatti to JFK in New York went fine...no problems. We got to New York on time, and got so we had to grab a quick bite at Burger King and the Wok to make our final flight. We made it and were on the plane by 6:45 pm. Then we proceeded to sit on the runway for about 4 hours because of traffic backup on the runways, and a thunderstorm coming in. So our final flight (which was supposed to be 9 hours in the plane) lasted for 13 hours in the plane, but we made it here completely worn out and were met with the Chandler's smiling faces.

Friday: When we got to the Skye house (4 hours after landing in Bucharesti) Sora Kim had prepared spagetti, and we all ate until we were full then hit the sack.

Saturday: We all woke up around 8 am (not the smartest thing we've done up to this point) to a rainy day, so we sat around the house for several hours. The rain broke around lunch, and we all went down to "Walk Street" and changed money. We had a coke and an ice cream cone, then we loaded up and went up the mountain to some overlooks for photo ops and prayer. We kept going up, and up, and up, until we reached Poiana and "The Bear" restaurant (actually it's called "Colba Haducilor" but the bear is much easier to pronounce ;-) We feasted on wild boar and some chewy pui - chicken that wasn't really chewy but it sounds neat - potatoes and rice.....oh and the bread, don't forget the bread. Then we came home, and after a few hours of visiting hit the sack.

Sunday: Church day - right.....right. We arrived at the Brasov service about 9 am, so Brother Jerry could go to Feldioara and bring some folks back. Church started about 10ish, with some singing. Then Brother Petru brought the Sunday School lesson/Sermon. It was wonderful, but Bob had a hard time keeping up with him translating for us. Then we had music....a lot of music and specials galore. Our group sang "At the Cross" - there were probably 8 or 10 specials total, then by the time Brother Mike got in the pulpit, it was already noon. He preached a wonderful sermon on the "Grace of God" and worked with the translator like he'd been doing it all his life. We ate pizza (not with tuna on it this year) then we all loaded up and went to Zarnesti. When we got there the women stayed at the church and had a lesson with the kids (that's all that showed up) and the men walked through some of the town handing out tracks and the coins Brother Mike Hile got for us (those coins were a big hit.) Brother Petru said they were better than money - on one side the coins have John 3:16 in Romanian, and on the other side they ask "Where will you spend your eternity?" in Romanian. We left Zarnesti and went to Feldioara and had our 3rd service of the day. There Brother Aaron preached and did a really good job and didn't seem nervous at all. He hasn't had a mountain dew in about a week now, and if you know Aaron, that's a big deal ;-) That night we came back to Brasov and ate at the 4 Roses restaurant, with the best bread and red sauce in Brasov - eat your heart out Brent ;-) Then we came home and crashed....a very tired group of people.

Monday: VBS day 1 - We were at the church at 9 am and met with the Romanian workers and left for Harman. We had about 50 kids and 12 adults show up for the first day of VBS. Lacra and Raluca taught, Codruts did the music, and we were in charge of crafts and games. It all went very well....at least as well as can be expected with the language barrier ;-) Brother Mike was entertained most of the morning by a drunk who took him to his shop where he made tombstones. When we left Brother Mike said, "well maybe I'll see you tomorrow" then I pulled him aside and told him, "brother we'll be here for the next 3 days ;-)" so he's looking forward to today. Then we went back to Brasov and prepared crafts for the 1-day vbs in Feldioara that afternoon. We ate lunch, and came home for a nap. Then we left at 5 pm and went to Feldioara, where we repeated what we'd done that morning in Harman with yep about 50 kids present. Then we came home to a fabulous meal that Brother Bob's mother had prepared (Bob is the music man/translator at the Brasov church). We had dumpling soup, corn, potatoes, fried pork and pui...i mean chicken, and fried pumpkin patties which tasted surprisingly like funnel cakes. It was great, and I hear she'll be cooking for the 23 of us (our group + the workers) again on Saturday night.... I can't wait. We all finally got to bed sometime between 11 and midnight.

Tuesday: I'll let you know what happens tonight.

Update May 21

2007-05-21T00:21:00.001-06:00

We continue to have great attendance in our Brasov services. There begins also to be more interest from young adults in the Zarnesti work. We have been having visitors in the Feldioara services. In Harman we have been having great response. We still have three who are waiting baptism.

Bro. Jim Black, his son Kevin, Amy and I, took many materials to the camp the week before last. We were getting ready for a work group that was coming from Westwood in Florida with Doug Weirsema. They arrived last week and were able to accomplish a lot. We appreciate their hard labors.

Last week I made the order for our new camp generator. It will arrive in three weeks. This new generator is large enough to take care of all our electrical needs and then some. We truly appreciate those who contributed to help us purchase this much needed piece of equipment.

We are now gearing up for VBS. We are looking forward to having a group of 13 from our sending church come on June 22nd. They will be helping us with some VBS services plus several evangelistic outreaches. Pray that souls will be saved!

Tomorrow, we are waiting the arrival of Katherine Grimes. Katherine is the daughter of Brother Jerry Grimes. She will be spending part of the summer here with us, working with Sister Kim and the Humanitarian Ministry.

Great News! Luci and Dana signed the final papers to adopt Antonia. Antonia is now legally their daughter. Also, as I write this update, Dana is in the hospital giving birth to their first baby girl. Luci and Dana have been an important part of our work here.

Well this should catch us up for now. We love each of you. Keep us in your prayers.

Jerry, Kim and Amy
Faith Romanian Missions

Busy, Busy, Busy

2007-05-05T08:04:00.001-06:00

I'm sorry that I haven't updated everyone for a while. We have been super busy over the last few weeks. During the first of April, I was blessed to attend a Missionaries Men's Retreat hosted by Mike Rogers and his family in Targujiu. They did a great job hosting the retreat. Attending were Missionaries from here in Romania and from Albania and Scotland.

We hosted our Bible Institute's Spring Bible Conference here at Brasov. Our guest speaker was Brother Carroll Kinley who pastors Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Cave City Arkansas. The conference was well attended and Bro. Kinley did an outstanding job preaching. His subject was the Harmony of the Gospels. After the conference we took Brother and Sister Kinley to Greece to follow Paul's second missionary journey through Greece. Bro. Jim Black and his wife Sherri went along with us. We had a great time of fellowship and enjoyed seeing Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth all in four days. One moment I enjoyed the most was standing on Mars hill in Athens and reading Paul's message on Mars hill from Acts 17.

The last two Sundays have been fruitful. We saw one of our ladies who has attended Brasov church for over two years request baptism. Last Sunday there were three more ladies saved and requested baptism along with a couple from Harman who requested baptism. We will have a baptismal service this coming Sunday. Also we will be celebrating our four year anniversary as a church here in Brasov. Brother Randy Cloud and his wife Sandra are visting with us this week. Brother Randy will be our speaker for the day. We plan a whole day of worship, praise and fellowship. Brother Randy will be speaking tonight at our mission in Harman. Continue to pray for the work here. We are enjoying the blessings of the Lord. Pray for more souls saved and more lives surrendered to the will of God.

In Christ's Service

Jerry Chandler