Still Raining...but God is Amazing!

Saturday, April 5:Yes, it is still rainy and cold, but the Lord has not let anything stop us from sharing His Word and seeing people enter into eternal life in heaven.

FRIDAY: I didn't get to a computer yesterday so this will be a double entry. We started Friday morning in prayer and devotions with the Sighi Team at Mana Church. Bro. John did a great job teaching about "How To Share Jesus Without Fear". Pastor Pilu was very pleased and it was such an encouragement to Hans, the Missions Leader at Mana. Hans is German and married to Alina, who is Romanian. They were both with YWAM and now work with the church.

Then, we attended a wedding of Viorica and Emil Mihai, a couple who have been together for 37 years but have never legally married. Many couples do not get legally married here because the Biblical view of marriage has not always been honored and cost of the marriage fee. Although it is only about $45, most people only live on $200 a month. Pastor Pilu has promoted marriages and even started a "marriage fund" to help couples to get legally married.

The church and the Mihai family could not believe that we would take out time to attend the wedding and dinner. Bro. John explained to them about Jesus attending the wedding in Cana and why it was important to Jesus and to us.

What was even more special was Bro. John being allowed to participate in the blessing ceremony and prayer for Viorica and Emil.

After the wedding we started prayer walking and sharing with those in the city and the Citadel. Part of the team decided to walk to the top of the hill at the Citadel. It is a German church and as they walked in they asked permission to sing. Paul and Rebekah led some singing and Bro. John decided to open the Bible and preach! After a while, a lady came and told them they could not preach like this in the church! But, it was not before one of the ladies listening prayed to receive Christ!

The other team was prayer walking and someone heard Dawn Kirby's southern accent and asked where she was from. What a surprise to find out they were IMB missionaries serving in Bucharest! They had been there for 9 months but had come to Sighisoara because of their desire to minister to the gypsy community in Sighisoara. Can you believe it! They are from Jonesboro, Georgia. Wes and Tamara Banks with their two boys. Please pray for them as they seek God to open the doors for them to transfer to Sighisoara if that is God's will. There are very few IMB missionaries in Romania, but those that are here have a passion for the country.

At 6:00 PM, after pizza from Quattro Amicii, our favorite, we went back to Mana Church for the start of the Youth Festival. Wow, the church was full. As I mentioned before, in Romania, teens are up to 14. Fifteen to early 20's are call youth. The Youth Worship Team started the service with some wonderful praise and worship.


Bro. John continued his study on sharing Jesus and it was amazing how well he and Pastor Pilu worked together as a team. They looked like real brothers with their facial expressions and voice tones.

It was encouraging to see all the youth and leaders taking notes from Bro. John's teaching. They were very still and Bro. John made it interesting by allowing them to be interactive. Again, the Pasotr was very pleased to see his church responding to this seminar.

Of course, when our Creative Arts Team started teaching about the skits and puppets...everybody really had a great time. Pastor Pilu did not seem very excited
about the puppets and skits when we were first making plans to come. We would joke with him because he continued to think only children would be attracted to this.

After the training, his thoughts were very different!! It was so fun to see him translate Rebekah's instructions. He was doing all the motions and it was so funny!


We did the skit and then had their group to try it. Amazing how quickly they were able to pick up all the instructions just by watching. We even got some ideas watching how they did "Sin Box"! The funniest part was when "Jesus" actually picked-up the lady in the sin box and took her out!! It was very good.


Just when we didn't think we could top that, we had the puppets. How fun. We all laughed and clapped together and it was fun to be with other Christian brothers and sisters even though we did not speak the same language. The Holy Spirit joined our hearts to glorify God.





SATURDAY: Big day with the Youth Festival. More training and block parties...please continue to pray for our health and safety. Hopefully we will have another update tomorrow. Bro. John will be preaching on Sunday morning at Mana Church.

Thanks for being our Home Team

Barbara