Romania - Maranatha Baptist Church in Bucharest

This is our team in front of Maranatha.  Maranatha is the "Mother Church" we worked with the first week.  Actually, we did outreach ministry with them the first week, but they provided the translators for the entire two weeks.  

Senior Pastor Nalu Tone his wife and seven kids

Associate Pastor Aurelian, his wife Amelia (who's expecting a baby!), and his mother-in-law Tanza.

Praise the Lord for Pastor Aurelian!  He was our taxi driver the entire two weeks.   

Worship service.  The young people rotate in leading the band/ orchestra and once a month the mandolin orchestra accompanies the congregation in worship.  

Their times of gathering together for church, truly were times of genuine worship and praise to the One true God, Jesus Christ.  Our team was so moved during their services and truly sensed the presence of the Lord.  With no exaggeration, they are a church of prayer.  Throughout the service there were specific times set aside for prayer.  Prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers of intercession.  All of the prayers were out loud.  Yes, out loud.  So when the pastor would ask the congregation to pray for something specific, you would hear the soft voices across the congregation speaking to the Lord.  It was special to know that God was hearing everyone of those prayers in that moment.  I wish everyone could've been there to experience the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit.  Pastor Jerry said, things happen in Romania because they are a people of the Word and a people of prayer.
      

Their testimonies and spiritual walk with the Lord challenged each one of us to examine ourselves. 

Building relationships with Christians in other countries brings a special bond.  The culture is new and the language is different, but the moment you meet a fellow brother or sister in Christ, there is immediately a common bond that penetrates the language and cultural barriers.  

Romania - Flight and Arrival

This past week marked the end of an amazing two week trip to Romania.  My church, Parkway Baptist Church has sent a mission team to Romania for at least the past 10 years.  This year I praise the Lord for allowing me to be a part!  
Meet the 2011 team:

    

L-R : Jessie Saenz, Wendy Benners, Betty Saenz, Diane Edgeman, Melissa Feeny, Myself, Rebecca Parham, Linda Halbrook, Pastor Jerry Halbrook

The dates of our trip were June 17th-July 3rd.  Throughout the whole trip we saw God work in many ways... one being our flight to Bucharest.  

Here's the story: 

After getting our baggage checked in, we got a bite to eat at Fuddruckers then made our way to the gate.  Not too much time passed before the following was announced "Flight 192 will be delayed as there are a few repairs needing to be done on the engine... sorry for the delay"  We were sorry too, but by all means wanted them to fix the engine! Since we had time to spare, we walked the terminal, took pictures, and ate some treats from Auntie Annies! 

After an 1 1/2 hour delay we were off on our 10 hour flight.     

 

The way things were going we were going to miss our connection in London.  So far I've told you about the bad news, but here comes the good part!  Right when we landed in London a lady met us at our gate saying "All those headed to Bucharest follow me!" We didn't question, we just followed.  She led us through the fast lanes of security and straight to our gate, telling us that our original flight was waiting  for us and a few others that were also headed to Bucharest.  Can you believe that?  In waiting for us, the flight was only delayed about 15 -20 minutes, but still that is amazing!  Praise the Lord for orchestrating that to happen!
  
This is us... after 13 hours of being catapulted across the globe.

So we landed in Bucharest just about on time, but one slight problem... in the rush from one flight to the next, our luggage didn't make it =(  But no worries, we managed just fine for one night, then happily welcomed our luggage the next day. 

Pastor Aurelian and Helga and Beni Tone greeted us at the airport.  From there we drove straight to a wedding reception at Maranatha church.  You're thinking what I'm thinking... so I'll go ahead and answer your question :  yes, we went dressed as we were.  We really had no choice, but at least we all wore the "airport" look together.  Actually, we were so thankful to God for landing us safely in Romania, we really didn't care how we looked... we were just glad to be there!

Look for more posts to come!