Friday, June 16, 2000
Dear Pastors and Churches:
    "Harul ºi pacea Domnului Isus Hristos!"  May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be yours! I am late with my prayer letter this month, but will try to bring you up to date as of today.  We have much to be encouraged and excited about here, but there are difficulties also. I have been three times to see specialists in Szeged, Hungary - some 80 miles from Timiºoara.  I have been diagnosed as having both gall and kidney stones.  I had thought my frequent bouts of illnesses were from a chemical imbalance, but now, at least, I know what is going on.  I expect I shall have to return to the States for a brief period - long enough to have the gallbladder removed.  Probably we shall make this trip sometime in July after getting the paperwork completed on our new visa. Please pray that the Police will act speedily on this. We had not purposed to return to the States for another 3 years or so and do not expect to remain in the United States longer than is necessary to obtain treatment of my medical problem.
    Last Lord's Day the Romanian Baptist church in Bocºa held their second baptismal service this year.  There were 36 candidates, all older than 17 years, I believe.  I have had the privilege of preaching more or less regularly to these people for about a year now. They came both from Bocºa and the village missions of the church to be baptized. Two couples were baptized and one father and son - the son being about 30 and the father more than 60 years of age.  All had been to a series of catechism classes and gave clear testimony of faith in Jesus Christ.  I was elated to be asked by the pastor to preach on the doctrine of baptism!  So, to a packed building containing probably more than 500 people, I preached on the 4 requirements for Scriptural baptism: (1) a Scriptural candidate; (2) a Scriptural mode; (3) a Scriptural motive; (4) a Scriptural administrator.  All 4 points seemed to be well received. There were several lost persons present as well - mostly Romanian Orthodox people trusting in their infant "baptism" to save them.
    We have received from the printer and have begun some distribution of C.D. Cole's BIBLE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION in the Romanian language!  This book has been long in coming from the printer and we are glad to have it.  We hope to see a good number of these distributed before any necessary trip to the States.  Next week, Lord willing, Elder Kelley Hinson from near Fort Worth, Texas and I intend on doing at least some distribution of these books as well as other materials we have on hand. Getting Romanians involved is the most effective way to do this, but the groundwork of making initial contacts must be done by us. Brother Hinson will be with us for 10 days and we are looking forward to his visit. I wish all of our pastors could come here and see the needs and meet some of the people here. You are  invited!
    We have continued with language school and continue to make progress although it is not as swift as we would desire.  We realize that we must continue to study the Romanian language and probably will for the rest of our lives.  I am still preparing to preach (from a manuscript) my first sermon in Romanian and want to do so in the next couple of weeks. This is a kind of milestone for us.
    After many weeks without rain, with the corn and other crops (including people's gardens) suffering from the extreme dry weather and temperatures hovering around 95 -100 degrees F. daily, we had some rain last night.  It lasted about 2 hours and we hope it was sufficient to help the plants. If the gardens and fields do not recover there will be even more hunger here in Romania as the country people (about half the population) depend almost entirely on the plants and animals they can grow.  It has cooled off a bit and for this we are thankful.  Air conditioning is not unknown in Romania, but is very scarce.  McDonald's in Timiºoara has it and a few other places, but mostly you just "grin and bear" the heat.
    I believe there is something over $15,000 at present in the vehicle fund. For this and all your faithfulness in giving and especially your faithfulness in prayer we thank you! God is making a difference through His Word in the lives of people here and we rejoice as we see them learning of God's grace freely given. Their faces register their joy as their understanding of the Word increases. Rejoice with us, knowing that you, too, have a part in this missionary endeavor! Pray for the Pughs!

    In the cause of God and truth,
    Curtis and Janet Pugh
   curtis@rdslink.ro