The Lord's Day

Had a good sleep - sinuses still playing up but medication at hand.  Up early - breakfast with Jodie and Kathleen then we all went with Adina to Metanoie Baptist Church in the heart of the city.  We all so love this Church - it is very large and active and has so many members that they hold 2 services back to back on a Sunday morning.  It has an incredible worship and ministry team.  Today we were blessed to have the Senior Pastor, Cristi Borbosu preach a strong message on Grumbling and Slander in relation to the Israelites in the wilderness.  Even though I understand a lot of Romanian it is always good to have a pair of ear phones with translation so I miss nothing.   The current church is housed in a rented building but following their links with an American Church sufficient support has been obtained to plan a new building on the edge of the city.

Felt the power of the Holy Spirit descend as soon as the worship started. Left feeling really challenged but built up.  Home for a quick delicious lunch prepared by Mama Maria.  Jodie had some heavy  rubbish to dispose of and so Kathleen and I took it to the refuse area outside the apartment.  We found an old lady going through all the bins.  It is so sad but this is normal life here.

After lunch Jackie, and her grandaughters picked me and Kathleen up for Vinga Church which was planted by Pastor Jackie in the late 90's.  This is set on a dirt track in the heart of a poor village.  The main Church building has recently been heightened and extended and has yet to be finished internally. At the rear there are 2 large Sunday School rooms. where we met today.  The Youth and Children's programmes are held on a Saturday now and are led by Vlad, Delia and Bogdan.

There was a good crowd at Church today which spread into the 2 Sunday rooms.  The service consisted of a lot of Praise and Worship in Romanian with one English song "Here I am to worship".  There were readings and testimonies and Jackie preached a powerful Word from Isaiah 58 about the true meaning of fasting.  We ending the service by talking about the origin of the Advent Wreath and Candles and we lit the candle of Hope signifying the prophesy of the birth of the Messiah.  Although there are over 300 prophesies about the birth of Christ in the Old Testament my favourite is from Isaiah which I read.  It was encouraging to see so many people at the service, especially an old lady that we prayed over yesterday who had just lost her husband.  He got saved before he died but please pray for her because she does not yet know Jesus as her Saviour.

Problems with my mobile phone - purchased a deal with 100 minutes international calls and free texts but found that I cannot make these calls or texts. Maybe the assistant put in the wrong deal - one to sort out tomorrow.  Managed just a very quick hello to my hubby from someone else's phone - I miss talking to him.  Hope I will resolve tomorrow.

It was too dark to get many pictures at Vinga today - will take some inside the building next week.

Planned to have an early night -  however change of plan - Kathleen & I decided we needed some exercise - the rain did not deter us so it was on with the waterproofs and an hour and a half  brisk walk round the city.  Deep puddles everywhere and we came back with soaking feet - however it was great to have some real exercise and a good chat.  Kathleen and Jodie work with mentally and physically disabled children and abandoned babies at the city hospital.  Like myself they are both former missionaries here and their heart keeps drawing them back to do what they can to help those in need.  Once here, the needs embed themselves in your heart.