Curtis Pugh
Missionary to Romania
Sponsored by the Grace Bible Baptist Church
 26080 Wax Road
Denham Springs, LA, 70726
Elder Jerry Dodson Sr. - Pastor
(225) 664 – 3223
jerrydodsonsr@wmconnect.com
www.geocities.com/heartland/grove/3718
Field address: Curtis Pugh
str. Izvor nr. 3
Bocsa, C-S, 325300
Romania
Telephone: 011 40 255 555 136
E-mail: curtis@xnet.ro
 

PRAYER LETTER FOR OCTOBER, 2006

Monday, November 13, 2006
Dear Pastors and Churches:
“All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen” (Titus 3:15).
    Greetings from Romania!  The Brothers in Bocsa and those in Filiasi all asked me to give you special greetings and to tell you they appreciate your love, prayers and support.
   Bocsa Meeting: The meetings each Lord’s Day morning here seem to be attended with interest.  Bro. Aurel usually brings a short devotional and leads in the singing.  Bro. Raul and I both preach with singing and prayer in between messages.  Bro. Raul has been preaching through 1st John and I have started a series on 1st Thessalonians after recently completing a study in Galatians.
   Filiasi Meeting:  The Brethren in Filiasi seem to be doing well spiritually.  Work is scarce and those who have jobs continue to work now but when real winter sets in, at least some will be without work for the duration of the bad weather.  Visitors are often present and seem to be interested.
   Winter Theological School:   God gave us a good beginning to the Winter School, I believe.  Eight men began the course and one more is supposed to join.  The sessions began well before 2:00 PM on Thursday with introductions and exchange of information about us (independence, etc.).  About every hour there was a break, but no one stood up and left!  They, instead, asked questions.  They did have some "cookies" (not anything like American ones).  But the Thursday sessions continued until 9:00 PM !  One Brother there was a Rrom (“Gypsy”) and a Pentecostal, but is coming to see something of grace!  He seemed really helped by our points on the grammatico-historical method of Bible interpretation as opposed to the harem-scarem "system" of most.  He had heard the "latter-rain" teaching and was surprised as Raul told of the faultiness of such a “method” of interpretation using that very "latter rain" teaching as an example of irresponsible interpretation!
    Some of these men have been reading all our material.  These had questions about how to know if you have scriptural baptism and if your church is a scriptural one or not!  One or two of them are already convinced that theirs are not scriptural churches, I believe, and that they lack real baptism.
    We are excited at this beginning, having put many hours into the preparation of very detailed outline notes and must continue to prepare the latter chapters of these notes for this study.  Please pray for us!
    These village preachers were really, surprised and delighted with the books we brought to them.  They did not expect this.  Some had seen copies of THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD and I think one had a copy at his home.  We also gave them each a concordance (which they never had before as they are in short supply in Romania right now and considered quite expensive), a copy of MYSTERY BABYLON and a copy of THE PAGANIZATION OF APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY, a surprisingly good book on the Romanian Orthodox Church by a Romanian Baptist pastor.  When they got the concordances, they immediately began to look up words in them: they were so excited to have such a book!
   Literature: After more repairs and replacement of the stapler heads (which had to be imported from Germany) our folder-stapler is back in operation and we are restocking our shelves with items that were low due to outgoing shipments.  Sunday night and today we received phone calls requesting more literature and telling of a group studying the doctrine of grace in a northern city.  They want a visit from us to help them and we have been invited to another city in Romanian Moldova under similar circumstances.
   Get Acquainted with Romania: One of the “national foods” in Romania is mici (pronounced “meech”).  Even the name is strange – literally it means “littles” which doesn’t make sense in English, but it is the plural for little.  Sausage-like in shape and made from meat paste (pork, mutton, beef ??).  A standing joke is that under communism they “stretched” the meat paste by adding a cheap, pink Romanian toilet paper to it.  These “littles” are cooked on charcoal grills and often sold by the side of the highways and in the markets.  Three of them make an order and are placed on a square of gray cardboard (something like backs a writing tablet) along with a couple of pieces of Romanian bread and a large dollop of yellow mustard.  The grills where they are cooked are enclosed on three sides and have a pointed roof with a stovepipe going up out of it.  When I first came to Romania I saw in the yards and entrances to the Orthodox Church buildings something that looks very much like these grills.  But there would always be two of them.  Being acquainted with the R.C. “picnics” and other moneymaking schemes in the States, I assumed that the Orthodox cooked and sold these mici in and around their churches.  Imagine my surprise to learn that these “grills” in and about the Orthodox buildings are not for cooking, but for holding the candles purchased by the people as an aid in getting their prayers up to Heaven.  There are always two – one where candles for the living are placed and the other is for candles for the dead.  If these candle-burning “grills” are in the entrances to the churches, the stovepipes are vented through the walls to the outside as so many candles are placed in them and the smoke must go up, I understand.  Of course the Orthodox churches make the candles, bless them and sell them to the people.  So while they don’t sell little sausages, they do make a good profit selling candles!
    Before I am completely out of room, I want to express our thanks and appreciation to all of you who pray for us and to those who also are enabled of God to help us financially.  THANK YOU!  We are doing all we can do, scripturally, to spread the Gospel, establish Churches and teach men who shall be able to teach others also.  Please continue to pray earnestly for us and trust God with us to supply every need for the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!  We do remember you often before our Father’s throne.
    In the cause of God and truth with you,
    Curtis and Janet Pugh
   curtis@xnet.ro
 

Preaching Baptist Baptism, the Blood, the Book, and the Blessed Hope

Return To Elder Pugh's Page

Return To Missions Page

Return To PBC Home Page

Return To PBC Home