Team Retreat/Sabolciu

This past weekend we went on our first ever team retreat! It was at a little village out in the country that some friends of ours let us use for the weekend. It was so fun to just relax and hang out and spend time talking about all that God has done in the past 3 months and what we feel He is leading us to in the next 3 months. The place was so beautiful! It was an old farm and is was just so neat to see what it's like to live very simply...it was refreshing. Not a whole lot of technology out on an old farm, there isn't even a sink to wash dishes in inside the house. There's only a large trough like thing that is connected to a well. Here are some pictures:



And to finish off the weekend with a bang...Kylie and I went to Sabolciu for the first time!!! Since Sabolciu was on the way home from the village we had stayed at for the weekend we figured now was as good a time as any.

We wanted to wait a while for the team and Matt to be a little more familiar with the people in Sabolciu before we brought Kylie in. I was a little hesitant at first, mainly because I've been sort of concerned about germs. There is no running water in the village, the livestock are really close to their houses (some of them have chickens and ducks that just sort of come and go inside their homes as they please) and the children pretty much run wild and I knew that they were going to want to play with and touch Kylie a lot...and they did. I definitely got a little nervous when I looked down at Kylie and the kids had taken her pacifier out of her mouth and were putting their fingers in her mouth instead ha ha! As funny as this sounds I suppose all those times I found Kylie with my shoe in her mouth it was just preparing her and me for Sabolciu fingers in her mouth ha ha. She hasn't gotten sick yet, praise the Lord!!!

All in all it was a great weekend and I was glad to make it into Sabolciu with the team. I was able to get a sense of where the people are at with the Lord and just see how they live. I know that I will be able to pray for them better now. I was most definitely moved with compassion for the women...they are all pretty young have at least 5 kids, and no husband around to help at all. I can't even imagine how difficult life is for these women, but it is just something they have become accustomed to. I know I have a lot to learn from them and look forward to doing so. Also I hope to be able to join Amy on Thursdays as she's been leading a women's Bible study with the women. It would be great to be able to connect with them and invest more in the miracles God is performing in their hearts! Here are some pictures:
  

The Lord Is At Work!

Sorry it's been awhile, but a lot has happened in the past 2 months! (We are going to get better about posting I promise!)

Let's see...where to begin...

We had our 3 year anniversary, Kylie stopped army crawling and started crawling ALL over the place AND has been pulling herself up on things AND has a new tooth as well as 2 more on the way. We started a Bible study in the city center on Wednesday nights and Matt is teaching through the book of Colossians. The Lord has shown us favor by allowing us to have a Bible study at a coffee shop which is quite rare out here. So far we have had a good turn out and people have been very receptive to receiving the truth. The Lord has been really revealing His heart for the Romanian people which has been helping me to adjust and adapt because I have been able to see how much He desires for His people to know Him. Also things in the gypsy village have been going really well! When we first started maybe like 8 people would show up for church on Sunday (including children) and last Sunday there were close to 50 people (there's about 144 people in the village total)! Not to mention the men have been showing more interest in coming to church and have been more willing to talk with Matt and Steve. Amy has started a women's Bible study in the village with some of the women and Sierra has started the first ever worship group with some of the young ladies in the village. Things are moving forward quickly! It's been very exciting!!!

It's been exciting to see change already happening in such a short amount of time. Several of our Romanian friends who go to the village with us to translate have mentioned how they have been going to the village for several years and have been seeing a real difference in people since we started going there. What a great encouragement! I don't think that there has ever been a team of people who have consistently gone into the village to serve and share the love of Christ. They are used to Americans coming and going...it's really neat to see how being consistent and purposeful in building relationships can make such a huge difference.

So please continue to pray because we are most definitely seeing LOTS of answers to prayers and are thankful to be walking into all the prayers that have been laid out before us!