Elder
Curtis Pugh
Missionary
to Romania
sent
by the
Berea
Baptist Church
P.O.
Box 39
Mantachie,
Mississippi 38855
(601)
282-7794
PRAYER LETTER FOR
THE MONTH OF JULY, 2001
Thursday, August 09,
2001
Dear Pastors and Churches,
"The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you" (I Corinthians 16:23).
I could
not wish anything greater that this for each of you as individuals and
for all the Lord’s Churches. We see that our greatest need daily
is the grace of God and believe it is yours also. May God richly
supply according to His limitless ability!
Health-wise, we are about the same. Probably I have eaten something
(again) that I should not have. I am just getting over another bout
with the hives or allergy or whatever it is – nobody can say for sure.
(Had a similar problem back in May.) But by God’s grace we
keep going on here. (Locally grown tomatoes and other vegetables
are available and our garden is producing some okra now, as well as other
things.) We are in need of rain for gardens here, but it does look
like the corn crop will be a good one this year, at least in our area.
For this we are thankful for it means the people and animals will have
sufficient to eat through the winter.
We continue to rejoice in the wide reception THE TRAIL OF BLOOD ("Urma
sangelui") is having! We shall soon exhaust our first printing (5,000
copies) and intend, by God’s grace, to print a second edition of a similar
number. I preached last Lord’s Day at the Bocs’a Romana church and
nearly 100 copies were taken by the people there. We want to see
this book in every Baptist home in Romania – not an impossibility as there
are only somewhere around one-hundred to one-hundred-fifty-thousand Baptists
in all Romania. (Perhaps God will use this little book to make some
more people into Baptists!) We also distributed along with the books,
almost 100 copies of IS GOD A FAILURE? (Oare es’ueaza Dumnezeu?).
Afterwards a Brother came to us who travels on the rail lines and visits
out-o-the-way (and often small) Baptist churches along the lines.
He asked for 50 each of the books and of the tracts. Brother Sabin,
a musically talented Brother from the Romana church told us he was going
on a mission trip to Yugoslavia and had room for 50 booklets and 50 tracts
to distribute at a baptismal service going to be held there. (There
are a number of small "Romanian villages" with Romanian-speaking Baptist
churches in Yugoslavia.) Of course we were happy to supply him with
these for his trip. Earlier in the month another traveling Brother
who works with about 20 very small churches in out-of-the-way villages
asked for 50 copies each of both THE TRAIL OF BLOOD and C.D. Cole’s BIBLE
DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. Brother and Sister Ilie Tinco took their young
son for treatment of asthma-like problems to a salt mine (the salt air
is said to be healing). While in the area, Brother Tinco distributed
a quantity of THE TRAIL OF BLOOD to three churches in the very center of
the country. So distribution has been pretty widespread – and we
have hardly left our own "county"! Slava Domnului! (Praise the Lord!)
This next week we hope to go to the printer’s with BORN AGAIN-ISM, a tract.
We hope it may be used to recover some from false professions elicited
by the use of psychological manipulations. Brother Raul believes
he will have it completely translated this week and then considerable time
must be spent by Raul and myself in "editing" it – checking for all sorts
of mistakes and making sure the exact meaning comes through the translation.
I suppose it is true in every culture, but in a language like Romanian
where expressions are often used, it is necessary to exercise great care
so that the material is understood. (You might find it interesting
to know that in Romanian, "My elbow hurts" means "I don’t care."
And, "I will make like rain" means "I don’t want to get involved."
I would like to ask for special prayer for Brother Raul Enyedi (EN eh dee).
He is the university student who is working full time with us now.
He is a good preacher of the Word and is becoming a very good translator
of written materials as well. This is not just my opinion, but others,
including our "profesoara" of Romanian language. And she is a qualified
judge. Raul’s mother and sister have left the Romana church and are
identified with the followers of William Branham. His father is still
in the church, but is influenced, I fear, by the anti-trinitarian views
of the long-dead "prophet Elijah" – i.e. William Branham. Raul is
faithful and sound doctrinally, but I know this time is a difficult one
for him. Last Lord’s Day, after service, Janet said she really enjoyed
hearing Raul preach (both he and I had time to preach). She said
she had not heard so much grace preached at once since being in Romania.
Surely God will use this young man in the days ahead. Please remember
to pray for him!
Language study progresses well, I believe. I try to use the language
more and more in my preaching, especially in illustrations, and can communicate
well enough to be understood by the people in personal conversations.
Preaching precise and involved concepts, however, I still rely on translation.
I am about out of space. I do want to thank each of you for your
financial help and for your faithfulness also in praying for us – especially
in the matter of prayer as we are indeed in a battle here.
"For we can
do nothing against the truth, but for the truth" ( II Corinthians 13:8).
Pray
For The Pughs
Curtis and Janet Pugh
curtis@rdslink.ro
CURTIS PUGH
str. Tudor Vladimirescu nr. 376
1742 Berzovia, jud. Caras-Severin
Romania
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