Day 16: Successful Journeys

Praise the Lord! Yesterday was an amazing day. We were extremely blessed by our experiences in Ploesti & were able to see some genuine excitement for Christ among the deaf people in this city.

We started our worship service at 2pm & were told by the hearing people who operated the church that we needed to be out of the building no later than 5pm. The deaf in Ploesti usually meet on Saturdays from 2:00-4:00 in the afternoon. We knew that our service would probably last much longer than two hours from our experience working with the deaf in other countries. They are often so hungry for the Word that they don’t care how long they stay. Our last day in Chisinau, we were with the deaf at the church for eight hours.

The worship service itself was really great. We were able to see a lot of people who had come to our camps in years past. It was good to see them again & observe how our ministry is making a continual impact in individual’s lives. Pastor Noah’s message was on spiritual lessons to be learned from Jesus’ first miracle in Cana. He spoke about the importance of being able to bring all of our problems before Christ, & being ready to obey His response immediately. One of the deaf leaders also approached Pastor Noah about a problem in their church with the deaf congregation not paying attention to the pastor when he preaches. So, Pastor Noah also spoke on 1st Corinthians chapter 11 relating the importance of focusing on Jesus & paying close attention not only during the Lord’s Supper but also when the pastor is teaching God’s Word.

In addition, we were able to meet the pastor of the church. The deaf in Ploesti don’t have a deaf church as much as they have a deaf group with a few leaders since they don’t actually have a deaf pastor. However, there is a pastor who comes every Sunday to preach to the deaf with what little sign language he knows. While we were having our worship service, the hearing pastor wanted to talk for a little bit, & we could see that the deaf were having an extremely hard time understanding him. His signing skills were very poor & he had a limited vocabulary. This brought up an interesting dinner discussion later that evening. A few people with us noted how the deaf in Romania are treated as if they are children who don’t know what they are doing; sadly, this may be true for the most part. But the reason they aren’t capable of leading right now is because they have never been given proper training & education. The reason they don’t have these essential tools is because the hearing people think they are children who don’t know anything, & they don’t allow them to get a proper education. It’s a vicious cycle of misunderstanding, so please pray for these misconceptions & the future of deaf education around the world.

The good news about the meting with the hearing pastor though, is that he really loved our program. In fact, he was so excited we were there that he kept coming up to the front to thank God that were were able to come preach at his church. He even allowed us to stay at the church until 6:30pm, well after the time they had previously said we needed to be out no matter what. We also had quite an interesting experience, when towards the end of the service, the hearing pastor had us come forward one by one to write our names on the board. He then asked us to go around the entire room & shake each person’s hand. We have no idea why he wanted us to do this, but praise the Lord for their excitement for missionaries. Just please pray that they will be able to grow spiritually through the teaching they receive at their church despite communication problems between the pastor & the congregation.

(Quick note: We apologize that so many of our stories have no names attached. When we learn people’s names we often just learn their sign names, so although we could sign their names to you, we don’t know how to spell them out.) The main deaf leader at this deaf church has come to every service so far that we’ve had in Bucharest & also accompanied us to the deaf club where we evangelized (that means Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday.) The two cities are about an hour & fifteen minutes away by car. Yesterday we found out that he is joining us for the entire week that we are spending in Cluj, which is eight hours away!

After the service as we were walking to the train station to head back to Bucharest, the deaf people asked if they could see our schedule. It was in English, but they had a fun time looking it over. We didn’t realize it at the time, but the only words they could read were the names of Romanian cities we had included on it. There was one day while we were in Cluj that we plan to invite the deaf people from Oradea & Timisoara. Then there were notes we made on the squares for July 26th & 27th (we’ll be gone by then) about meeting with a video production center in Timisoara. Some of the deaf came up to us to tell us they were going to go to our services in Timisoara on the 26th & 27th, & others were excited for our visit to Oradea. We had to explain to them that we weren’t actually going to those cities. It was really inspiring to see how hungry they were for the Word of God. They’re willing to travel anywhere just so they can have more teaching on God’s message.

To leave you with some food for thought, today we learned that one of the Romanian signs for a hearing person can also mean a “normal person.”

Prayer Requests:

1. That we can make the most out of our final days in Bucharest to connect with the deaf people & help them in their spiritual journeys.

2. Today we will attend the deaf church in Bucharest in the morning & then a hearing church in the afternoon where some of our close contacts attend. Please pray that our team will be able to be fed spiritually during these times of worship so we can be rejuvenated for the remainder of our ministry.

3. Pray for the deaf of Ploesti. We really had a good time with them, & they are a people with passion & excitement for the Lord. Pray that our most holy Lord will be able to draw them closer to Him.

God bless,

Jacob – Phil. 4:19

Day 15: All aboard

Dear family & friends,

I hope everyone likes the new blog schedule & that you all are having a peaceful sleep as we write this.

Thank you for all of your prayers; we feel that last night’s worship service was a great success. There were more people there than last time, so pray that God’s Good News can bring forth crowds. Also over the last few days we’ve noticed that we’ve become extremely skilled at Russian Sign Language. However, it’s a little too late because it’s not doing us much good in Romania! It’s been difficult at times making the transition from Russian to Romanian. It’s so easy to slip into Russian, but no one understands us. The first night Pastor Noah preached it seemed every sign was Russian & then he would correct himself to sign Romanian. If the Moldavians & Romanians were both at that church service, they would all be able to understand the message. Please continue to pray for our language skills. May everything we say be inspired by the Holy Spirit who can freely give us words.

The church service last night was focused on freedom from worry. We felt like this was a good sermon topic to also do in Romania, especially after visiting the deaf club. We can’t count the number of conversations we have had with deaf people that are centered on how hard their life is. They share with us their struggles to work, to have enough money to get food & take care of their families, & to just be seen as normal human beings. They are often too frustrated at how limited they are because the hearing people & governments in their country do not hink they are capable of anything. As a result, we wanted to share the Good News that Jesus Christ frees us from having to worry. When we are children of God, we can have full faith that He will provide for us in any situation. We have a big God, & we can expect Him to do big things. He hears our cries for help, & we want deaf people to know that they can cry out for God & He will reach out with comfort.

Jacob had a conversation with a deaf couple in Moldova. They were so shocked when he told them that deaf people in America are allowed to be anything they want to be, such as: doctors, lawyers, & detectives. They thought that the deaf could only do construction or drive trucks. They were also surprised when Jacob told them that America has laws that ensure the deaf receive equal treatment in all spheres of life.

Also, Pastor Noah had the opportunity to talk with a young man from the Bucharest deaf church. He shared how several years ago an American missionary came to work with the deaf community. This man & several of his friends accepted Christ & were excited about their faith; when the missionary left though, they were lost & had no spiritual guidance & no idea of how to grow in their relationship with Christ. Since then all of his friends have gone back to their old lives, & only he remains a Christian. He says he’s weary of missionaries because he’s scared that they’ll come, preach a little, & then leave with no one being discipled afterwards. It really convicted Pastor Noah about the importance of  establishing the deaf Christian associations. Having a network of deaf Christians will allow people to respond to each other’s needs & allow for financial support that will ensure evangelism can occur year-round, not just when there is a missionary present. There are deaf leaders in each country who have the desire & calling to do God’s work through evangelism in their own countries, but they have trouble finding the resources to make it possible. This network will ensure that those resources exist.

Today we will travel by train to a deaf congregation in Ploesti. We will visit them for the day & then come back to Bucharest at night. Please pray for safe travel, good teamwork, & that our program can be directed by the Holy Spirit & God-focused. Our team devotion yesterday morning was on Biblical prayers that emphasize how we worship the one true God. As Hannah says in 1st Samuel chapter two, “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides You, there is no Rock like our God.” Truly, we worship the only God who can part the sea to rescue the Israelites from the Egyptians, who can feed His people in the desert with manna from heaven, & who can send His Son in the flesh to die for the sins of man. We can boast, but we need to boast of the greatness of our God. Pray that the deaf here can get a taste of His glory.

God bless,

The Romanian Team – 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 & Isaiah 40:31

Day 14: We’re connected!

Hello again everyone!

We were really blessed in Chisinau with being near an internet cafe that we could go to everynight. We don’t have the same accomodations here in Bucharest, so we’ve been trying to find an internet connection that would fit into our ministry schedule. Thankfully a lot of people have been helpful so that we wouldn’t break our pledge to update you everyday! But, Praise the Lord, because we know now how we are going to be able to best update our blog. Instead of posting each night, we’ll be posting in the afternoon with our plans for the day and letting everyone know the details of what happened the night before. When we post everyone back home will still be in bed, but check in during the day to know what’s going on.

We are currently in Bucharest and will be here until Tuesday before going to Cluj. There is a deaf church in Bucharest where we will be hosting worship services. We were able to have our first one on Wednesday night, and will have more tonight (Friday), Sunday, and again on Monday. Our plans for Saturday are to travel to Ploiesti to meet with a deaf congregation there. Yesterday a deaf man from Ploiesti asked us if we wanted to move our program for the day ahead so that it could last longer. We currently have it scheduled for 2:00, and he wanted to know if we could start at 10:00 instead! We’re excited for all of the ministry opportunities that we’ll have in Romania, and we know how hungry the deaf Christians are to be fed. Pray that our services will help them to grow spiritually and in turn be able to spread the Gospel.

Last night we went to the deaf club in Bucharest. Deaf clubs around the world are notorious for being wordly places. The people smoke, drink, cuss, and talk very dirtily. Anything related to Jesus is usually not welcome in these deaf clubs. The atmosphere of the deaf club in Bucharest was no different. Right when we went into the club we could see that the conversations were not very glorifying.

We didn’t have anything planned for the deaf club except to talk to people and invite them to our worship services. But through God’s Divine Plan, one of the deaf who had been at our worship service the night before stood up and got everyone’s attention and told them that we were going to do a drama. We were a bit taken aback, and everyone was watching us, so we went ahead and did a drama centered on being more observant of God working in our lives and being willing to accept his blessings. All of the deaf intently watched our drama, and then didn’t mind when Noah explained afterwards how the drama related to the Good News of Jesus. They cheered both after our drama, and after Noah’s explanation. Then, they asked if we could do another one! So, we did another drama, this one explaining how our lifestyles shouldn’t be focused on trying to become like other people in the world, but instead focused on trying to become like Jesus. We got the same positive response. Deaf people are just so hungry for drama, that they didn’t mind if the dramas were about Jesus. Our impromtu ministry last night was so divinely led and successful because of the history of how closed deaf clubs are to the Gospel.

Unfortunately though, it’s not just that deaf clubs are unique. Deaf clubs don’t just attract the really “bad” people. Deaf clubs are reflective of the community as a whole because 99% of the deaf population is unreached spiritually! If you really want to know how true and staggering of a statistic this is, then just go to deaf club where you can see a large group of deaf people gathered outside of church.

We invited a lot of people from the deaf club to the worship service. The flyers we had to hand out went very quickly. Towards the end there was a group of young men that were somewhat hostile to our presence, but we had already seen God’s power at work there, and weren’t going to let satan discourage us. Pray that many of the people we invited will be at the services tonight and touched by God’s Word.

Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for meetings with church leaders that we’ll be having after the worship services. Pray that we’ll be able to talk to the right people at the right time about the right subjects. Pray that they’ll be passionate about seeing God’s work done in Romania.
2. Pray for the unity of the deaf church here. Many deaf leaders in different cities are unwilling to work together, and many of the leaders in each church often get unhappy with their own church. This has really hindered any substantial progress being made on Bible Translation in the past. Pray that leaders will be willing to lay aside their differences so that Bible Translation work can be done that all parties are happy with. It’s about people being able to read the Bible in their own language.
3. Pray for our worship services, that the Holy Spirit will be working through us to speak Truth.
4. Pray for all of the deaf people we met at the Deaf Club.

 God Bless,

 The Romania Team – Exodus 15:11

Day 13 – Bucharest Romania

Hi – The team is in the process of getting an internet connection, and has asked me to send their post for now.        Janet Filley  (Stacie’s mom)

  

Today we bought supplies.  We met about  200 deaf people – at the deaf club and invited them to worship services we will be having daily until we go to Cluj.

Please pray for acquisition of the Romanian language and for the community worship services  that we will be having.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers.

Please keep checking back, as we will be updating.

Day 12: Romania

We made it to Romania! We are now in Bucharest & met up with the rest of our team last night, praise the Lord!

Today we got acquainted with two deaf Romanian ladies. One of them has an incredible sense of humor – God definitely gave her a gift. We all think she should become a stand up comedian.

We ministered at a local deaf church here this evening. We did drama & Pastor Noah gave a brief message. At the beginning of the service, the deaf woman who led us in singing included a pretty unique verse in the song, “Jesus loves deaf people & Jesus loves hearing people.” A long history of misunderstanding has caused some deaf people to think that Jesus is only for people who can hear, so it is crucial that they understand that Jesus loves them too! Praise the Lord that this truth is being proclaimed in Bucharest.

Tomorrow we are going to a deaf club, so please pray for us as we develop friendships with the deaf people there! The other members of our team who just arrived are feeling really wiped out from their trip, so please pray for our rest as well.

When we arrived, they told us to be careful of the traffic, because sometimes the cars don’t stop. We were a bit incredulous until two members of our team told us that they see people hit by cars frequently. Please pray for God’s protection over us as we commute to different locations.

Thank you so much! We’ll blog more soon!

In Christ, stacie* – Psalm 46

Day 11: Into the Wild Blue Yonder

After an incredibly amazing 10 days in Moldova, we’re headed off to Romania. We leave from Chisinau at 6pm our time. More posts to come soon! Please pray for our safe travel & for the safety of the rest of the team that we will meet up with tonight in Bucharest.

God bless, stacie* – Psalm 121

Day 10: Just the beginning

          Our time in Moldova is drawing to a close. We fly to Romania tomorrow, but we’re so glad for how much the Lord has accomplished during our time here. The Russian Sign Language Bible translation team has established a better work schedule to move the project along at a faster pace, the future of Deaf International’s short-term mission work in the area has been discussed thoroughly, great relations have been developed with Bisceria Baptist Church and its pastor and deaf congregation, five people have started a new life with Christ during our evangelism and God-directed worship services, seeds of the Gospel have been planted in countless others, and temporary relief has been provided through hygienic and clothing supplies.

          We feel like God has done so much already and we still have a whole other country to visit! We’re excited to see what God has in store for the people of Romania, so please continue to check back into our blog and continue praying for us. We’ve been encountering a lot of spiritual warfare, but it’s comforting knowing how many people we have battling alongside us.  

          Firstly, we want to give an update about the woman we asked for you to pray for at around 2:50 central time yesterday. It ended up not being possible to meet with her last night, but we knew that this would not deter Christ’s work in her life. We continued praying for God’s work of salvation, knowing Him to be faithful. This morning, she came to our room to talk to Nadea and Dusia. While they were talking, the three of us felt led to pray, and the Holy Spirit specifically prompted us to pray for her non-Christian husband.Later, Nadea gave us an update about their conversation. The woman was reluctant and having second thoughts about accepting Christ because she felt that there were too many problems associated with her husband who is an alcoholic. She shared with us that he is verbally abusive to her & her son, and accepting Christ might make life even more complicated. Pastor Noah told her that even though life is understandably difficult with an alcoholic husband, Jesus can help her thrive, not simply survive, through this hardship. He explained that God’s word through the Bible and Holy Spirit can offer her wisdom and comfort as she tries to deal with this difficult situation. Then, he shared with her the Parable of the Lost Sheep from Luke. Jesus used this parable to illustrate that just as a shepherd cares for each one of his sheep & will tirelessly search for even one that goes astray, so Jesus constantly longs for every single one of us to accept His free gift of eternal life. Jacob & I were praying while Pastor Noah talked with her, & when he finished his brief message, she wanted to accept Christ as her Savior! We are thrilled at this one woman who came to Christ! She is important to us, but she is even more important to Christ. It’s so great that both mothers of the two little boys came to Christ. We pray that this will help both boys develop relationships with Christ and have the opportunity to go to church. Since the two boys are good friends, we also pray that the two mothers who are both without Christian spouses will be able to help support each other in their walks with Christ. We could really see God working through these friendships.  

           Earlier today, we took diapers to one deaf apartment here, & the moms were really happy to receive the donations! It can be hard for children of deaf parents whether they’re hearing or deaf. We also visited two shut-ins today, gave each a bag of supplies (including a knitted hat, scarf, & two gloves), and prayed with them. It was such a blessing to see their gratefulness.

           While we were talking with one of them, she pulled out the Gospel of Luke. She told us that she wasn’t able to read it, and asked if we could explain it to her. We talked to her about the Gospel, and then she shared with us that one time on television there was a special where people signed praise songs, but she has never seen anything like it since. This really impressed on us how important it is to continue quickly with Bible translation work. So many deaf people around the world cannot understand the Word of God and need a Bible in their heart language. We can’t tell you how many people have told us on our trip that they simply cannot understand the Bible when they read it. Please just continually pray for this work around the world.

Prayer Requests:
1. The husband of the woman who just received Christ today. Pray that satan will not use this abusive relationship to hinder this woman’s walk with Christ. Pray that she will rely on Christ to give her strength and wisdom to deal with this relationship. Pray that her strength and the joy of Christ inside her will make an impact on the man, and not allow satan’s wickedness to impact her. Pray for the husband’s salvation.
2. Pray that all the people who were excited to go to our worship services because we were Americans will continue to seek God in church and through the Bible after we leave. Pray for the leaders of the deaf church here in Chisinau as they step in to help these people in the process of their seeking.
3. We saw so many people who appeared ready to make that last step towards accepting Christ. Please pray that they will continue seeking and that our God who is mighty to save will help them to taking that final step towards accepting Jesus as their Savior. Pray for people in their lives to encourage them.
4. Pray for everyone else who accepted Christ. Pray that they will continue to go to church and immerse themselves in God’s Word. Pray for their spiritual walks, that they continue on the path everlasting in spite of satan’s attacks.   

God Bless,Jacob and stacie*-1 Corinthians 3:5-8
 

Day 9: A wonderful sabbath

What a finale! The Holy Spirit definitely moved at Bisceria Baptist Church today. Our last day of worship services was a full one! To start off with, Pastor Noah preached for the 10am service. Jacob, Pastor Noah, & I, along with help from some of the church members, ministered through drama, music, and testimonies. Pastor Noah’s sermon focused on the story in Acts 12 when God rescued Peter from prison. Pastor Noah pointed out that even though Peter knew he might be arrested, he continued to preach the Gospel Pastor Noah encouraged us to also hold unswervingly to the truth & not be dismayed at the face of opposition. Both Peter’s friends (who had been praying for him) & Peter himself were flabbergasted when they discovered that an angel had set him free. Pastor Noah reminded us that when we pray, we need to not be surprised when God does something good, because our God is good! In addition, when God does do something good in our lives, we cannot keep it a secret! Peter’s testimony in Acts 12 is a good example of how to proclaim to people what God has done for us.

We spent the afternoon preparing for our last worshp service which started at 3pm. There were people visiting from two other deaf churches in Moldova. We were all excited for what God had planned and praised him when we saw the room packed. Our theme for this last service was truly letting go of the world so that we can have a relationship with Christ. All of our worship services are full of drama. For deaf people internationally who have not been able to read the Bible because of lack of reading and writing skills, drama helps to really bring the Bible alive. Yet even for the deaf in America and abroad who have incredible reading and writing skills, drama is a critical ministry tool because the deaf culture is a visual culture. We always do two dramas that the team comes up with, and then two dramas from the Bible, one old testament, and one new. The Bible references for the last service were the story of Nebuchadnezzar from Daniel 2-4 & the story of Saul’s conversion from Acts 9. Pastor Noah noted how Nebuchadnezzar vascillated between serving God & worshipping idols. He encouraged us to be steadfast in our walk with the Lord stressing the fact that Saul was sold out for Jesus after his experience on the road to Damascus.

Of all the worship services, we had the most in attendance today! Praise the Lord! Several people we’d invited from the deaf apartments finally came today, along with several deaf teenagers that we’d never seen before. To say the least, it was super exciting to see so many there to hear the Gospel. At the end when Noah gave an invitation to any who wanted to give their lives to Christ & accept His free gift of eternal life, two people came forward!! An older man & the mom of the little boy we took to McDonalds. Even more good news, the mother of the little boy’s friend didn’t want to go to the front of the church, but asked if we could go to her apartment tonight to pray with her to accept Jesus. We will be doing that shortly after we post, so anyone reading this at around 2:50 central time, be praying that she will make this eternal decision.

Then, our brothers & sisters in Christ here presented us each with a wooden plaque that Vasia hand-carved!! They were exquisite! They told us to hang them up back in our homes in America so that every time we see the plaque it will remind us of them & what God is doing in Moldova.

Finally, we passed out the supplies we had bought earlier in the week. Things were chaotic after we told them to come into the hallway to receive some gifts that we had purchased for them. Everyone was elated to get the toiletries that we had purchased for them.  After everyone had collected the bags we assembled for them, we told them to get a set of winter hat and gloves. There was an immediate rush towards the boxes with the hats and gloves, and people were delighted to try them on. Thank you once again to Bonnie Perkins, Sue Koning, and the wonderful ladies at FBC for all the knitting. We have videotape of people picking out their hats, and can’t wan’t to show you how your love made a lasting impact on the deaf people of Moldova.

I also want to write about a Moldovan woman who has made a lasting impression on the entire team. Zina is by far the strongest woman we have ever seen.  When we needed to carry supplies up two flights of stairs, she could take two loads to our one. One late night at the church she fixed us dinner, and we saw her carrying an entire dinner table by herself. Furthermore, every time we see her, she is serving! As Jacob acknowledged, she is the epitome of the Proverbs 31 wife. She can do everything, and in half the time of everyone else. The church is blesed to have her as a leader and a servant. God has used her to inspire me to desire more of a servant’s heart.

 Prayer Requests:

 1. Rest and rejuvination as we get ready to head off to Romania for two more weeks of meetings, leadership training, and worship services.
2. The ability to get everything done tomorrow that we need to for our last day in Moldova. There are a couple of shut-ins that we need to visit and some mothers who we want to deliver diapers to.
3. Blessed conversations with anyone we encounter before we leave.

God Bless,

Jacob and stacie*-Psalm 20:7

Day 8: Not Just an Ordinary Day

Everyday we’ve been here just gets better & better! : ) Ever since the first worship service yesterday afternoon, it seems as though God has been stirring up His spirit of excitement & expectation in the people here! Of the seventy-five people that attended today, twenty-five had not yet committed their lives to Christ when they walked in the door. Wow!

Thank you for praying for the drama, music, & the message. God laid the subject of worry on our hearts, so we shared about freedom from worry through the story of Esther, the Parable of the Sower & the Seeds, & two short skits that helped to illustrate how a worried life will only weigh you down, but a life dependent upon God will lift you up. At the end of the message, Pastor Noah offered an invitation to any who wanted to give up a life of worry & embrace the God who is waiting for us, calling us to live an abundant life. : ) One woman stepped forward to rededicate her life to the Lord! What an amazing work of God! It was a blessing for a lot of the deaf to have a time when they could sit and relax and laugh. They are all enjoying our skits because few things in their life give them opportunity for joy and happiness. We are really impressing on them the joy that comes with being in a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

One great example of this is Vica, the woman we discussed in an earlier post who almost her entire family is now in Miami, Florida while the Moldovan government refuses to stamp her passport. She told us how frustrated she was being in a hearing family. She could never communicate with anyone in her family because none of them knew sign langauge. She felt so alone, that she decided to hang herself. But, before she followed through with her plan, she accepted Jesus as her Savior and knew there was something better to live for. She came and helped us evangelize at one of the deaf hostels, and we could see in her excitement for sharing about Jesus the abundant joy that Jesus has provided her with.

Everyone expressed a strong to desire to come back tomorrow for the Sunday service & afternoon worship service. Which is exciting because deaf congregations from two other churches in Moldova will also be joining us tomorrow. We’re praying for a packed crowd. This is also the day we will be distributing all of the supplies. Pray that the toilitries, hats and gloves will be a blessing to the deaf and provide them some temporary relief in their world of hurt. Please also pray that the Lord reveals to all those in attendance just how much He is enamored with them.

I want to share another touching story. One of the active church goers is a 20 year-old named Andrei. Andrei was able to go to haircutting school, and loves to work as a hairdresser. He had a haircutting job for five months, and during his break time he would read his Bible. Unfortunately, his boss was offended by his worker reading a Bible, and subsequently fired him. He now works in construction. We asked him why he didn’t try to get a job at another haircutting place since he loves doing it so much, and he told us that his boss used to give him a reduced paycheck because he was deaf, and he can’t afford to live on that paycheck. He is going to be getting married at the end of the summer, and he needs to do construction because it pays more. So many deaf people are forced into hard labor just so people don’t have to worry about communicating with them. It was great that Andrei was able to do what he loved, but we also understand his concern for his future wife. Please pray for his faith to remain strong, and for a long and blessed marriage with his fiance.

Also, remember that woman who just gave her life to Christ & has an injured leg? Well, praise the Lord, because she came today! We believe she really enjoyed herself. Another woman we have been praying for came too! She is the mother of the little boy we told you about yesterday.

We also surprised Noah for his 18th birthday by taking him out to dinner! We only managed to pull it off through God’s grace, because surprising the leader of the team is a bit of a challenge! The three of us along with 15 church members who have been incredibly helpful to us during our stay went to a nice restaurant. They food was delicious and abundant, so when we left, there were a lot of leftovers to to take home. They brought bags to put the leftovers in, and it was sad to see that the leftovers were gone in a split second. Even though everyone was full, they were desperate to have this opportunity to bring home more free food.

One more day of worship services, and another day for God to work mightily through us. We can’t wait!

In Christ, Jacob & stacie* – Ephesians 3:14-21

Day 7: Our first worship service

Praise the Lord for such a beautiful day! If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, then you might want to read the part about the little boy & his 9th birthday before you read this post…Pastor Noah, Jacob, the boy, Nadea, the boy’s friend, the boy’s friend’s mom, a deaf man from our apartment, and I ate at McDonald’s today in honor of the boy’s 9th birthday! He really enjoyed himself. Although his signing skills were limited (his mother is deaf but he can hear), we still had fun with him. Plus, the mother and two boys were able to come to our worship service for the afternoon, and they really enjoyed themselves. Then, to add to God’s greatness, on our way to the internet cafe we walked past a group of deaf people and stopped to talk to them. One of them was the friend’s father who said he also wants to come to the service tomorrow! Pray for God’s work in family relationships here in Moldova.

After lunch, we rode the minibus (praise the Lord for public transportation) to the Bisceria Baptist Church & prepared for this afternoon’s worship service. Our service consisted of songs led by Dusia & a few other members of the deaf congregation, two skits (incorporating our “Freedom” theme) done with the help of the church members, & Pastor Noah’s message. As previously mentioned, the theme for today’s worship service was “Freedom from Sin.” Pastor Noah preached about the parable of the ten virgins; his points included the importance of freedom from sin NOW. We never know how long we will be on this earth, so repenting of our sin & starting a relationship with Christ should be our utmost priority. We concluded by playing two fun games, munching on some snacks, & just chatting with everyone!

Connecting with the people here has been a tremendous blessing for me. Today we had some great conversations with a couple of non-Christian deaf people. I engaged in a conversation with one man who commented that he feels like he doesn’t have freedom in Chisinau. How ironic, because that’s the exact topic that God put on our hearts to share! God is so good to divinely place people exactly where they need to be.

Please pray that this gentleman returns tomorrow for our worship service entitled “Freedom from Worry.” After the worship service today, we went back to Nadea & Dusia’s apartment to prepare for tomorrow. We have two skits & two Bible stories we plan to act out. Pray that God’s passion for these people will be clearly portrayed through the drama, music, and message tomorrow. Tomorrow is also Pastor Noah’s 18th birthday, so we will be celebrating his life as well!! Pray that he has a sensational birthday (07/07/07!) and that he gets a lot of rest tonight, because he has a lot of responsibility giving all the messages, and having to solve a lot of the leaders’ problems. He also does most of the communication because he has such a great command of the language.

As for our friend who recently became a Christian & has suffered criticism from the people living in her apartment, pray that she comes tomorrow! The church member who knows her let us know that the woman was hopefully getting to see her grandson today & will try her best to come tomorrow to the service. Yay! Pray that God picks her up &  brings her to church as smoothly & as safely as possible through the public transportation system here. Thank you so much for your prayers! We appreciate you so much!

In Christ, Jacob & stacie* -Psalm 37:5-6