Thursday, March 10, 2011

MEMBER OF THE MONTH:

This month I shall introduce to you Bro. George Vladu, from Rosiori [Row-she-OR]. He is 41, and is married to Lili [ Lee lee = Lilly], who is also a member of our church.  They have three children.  He first contacted us in December, 2007 and we stayed in contact ever since. In July, 2009 he was received by baptism into the membership of our church. He is a mature and knowledgeable teacher of the Word, and has a good testimony in his town. The church authorized him to start a Bible study group there.  Most of the time, it is just him and his family, but there are others that show interest and attend the meetings. There are several needs for which we pray regarding him: strength and grace to continue the work in Rosiori; finding a job (during the last year’s crisis he lost his job and has not been able to find another one yet).  Also, they need a car. They come to our meetings in Filiasi by train, but since George lost his job, he cannot afford to bring his entire family. A car would cut their transportation costs in half and would give George the opportunity of covering a larger area with distribution of literature and mission work.  (He lives closest to the brothers from Eastern Romania who want to join our church, a 3 hour drive, I believe). Their old car is broken beyond fixing and our church is trying to set money aside to buy a decent vehicle for them as he is so much involved in our work in his region of Romania. We ask you to join us in prayer for these issues.

ANNUAL CONFEREENCE: On the 19th-20th of February we had our Annual Conference. We invited about 30 people (and included the young people that attend our church meetings), but only 22 were able to attend. In the previous evening a young couple from Eastern Romania stood before the church asking for baptism. We had a wonderful time of fellowship during the conference. The preaching was on the following subjects: When did Christ found His church; The essential marks of the model church Christ built; Signs of apostasy in a church; Where to find the churches of Christ in history. Please pray for all those that attended, that the Lord will bless the preached word with eternal fruit in their hearts.

LITERATURE WORK: The literature work is going well. The Trail of blood is now available and The Reformers and their Stepchildren is ready to print. We have some new materials translated (Grime’s Catechism of Ecclesiastical History; C.H. Spurgeon and Ecclesiastical Separation; Bro. Cockrell’s Here Comes the Bride). The last book was on our waiting list for translation, but we received a surprise e-mail from a young man who voluntarily translated it and sent it to us. We are also preparing a DVD with the materials from the conference. We will have them available in audio, video and written formats. We are also working on “The Baptist Collection DVD”, a compilation of articles and books in electronic format, both in English and Romanian. We appreciate your prayers and giving that make this literature work possible and we pray that the Lord will continue to bless this work.

GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH ROMANIA: On February 24th traditional Romanians celebrated “Dragobetele” [Drah-go-BEH-teh-leh], the equivalent of Valentine’s Day. In Romanian mythology, Dragobete was the god of love and youth, something like Cupid. On this day, the young men and women used to gather before the Orthodox church and from there go on the fields or forests to gather spring flowers which they thought to have magical powers and were later used in charms. Symbolic engagements took place on this day, people believing that Dragobete officiates at the engagements and weddings of animals, birds and humans. The day would end in community parties and fairs. It is openly admitted that this is a pagan holiday, but traditional Orthodox militate for keeping this celebration instead of the modern Valentines Day (which has Catholic origins), in order to preserve cultural identity.

APPRECIATION: Please accept our most sincere THANK YOU for your interest, prayers, and financial support of this mission work reaching Romanians by preaching, teaching, and distribution of free, sound Baptist printed materials.  Because of your help in various ways, the Gospel and sound teaching is going not only throughout Romania, but to Romanian-speaking people around the world.  Please keep praying for us and the work in which we labor daily.
Brother Raul

Hello Dear Friends,
ROMANIA: I hope that you, as I am, are excited about what is going on in Romania!  Neither Bro. Raul nor I can include in these monthly prayer letters all that takes place on a daily basis.  I wish you could know about the people to whom God is making Himself and His truth known and who contact Raul and Aurel.  Often they are surprised to know that anyone anywhere in the world believes like they do.  Recently a man contacted Raul saying that he had come to see that the Baptist Union churches are not preaching the same God as is revealed in the Bible.  He had come to see that God is sovereign and so left off attending his church because of what they were preaching.  He heard about our work and contacted the men there in Bocsa.  He has now received helpful literature and wants the men to visit him and teach him more of God’s Word.  These are the kinds of things that are of great encouragement to me and show us that our work in Romania is not “ours,” but rather “His” and that He is indeed making Himself know to His elect!  Join us in praising the LORD for His goodness to the fallen sons of Adam.  God is using Raul, Aurel and others among us there!

OKLAHOMA: As you know, I have been these past several weeks very busy looking after Janet.  She is “stabilized” now and residing in the Spiro Nursing Home in Spiro, Oklahoma.  She can see and hear and is “well” except that she is in what the doctors call a “locked in state.”  I am learning to “batch” again as I am able, and so far have been able to make the 15 mile trip from Poteau to Spiro every day to visit with Janet.

THANK YOU for your prayers and your financial help.  So far as I have received them, bills are paid by Medicare, Humana, or me.  More will arrive in the days ahead, I am sure.  Please keep Janet and me in your prayers.  I am working on more “Gospel Ads” for our newspaper evangelism efforts in this area.  Must close as am out of space. THANKS again!

    IN THE CAUSE OF GOD AND TRUTH, Curtis Pugh
   curtis@abaptistvoice.com
 

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