Monday October 13, 2003
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).
    In spite of the first snowfall of the winter on nearby high mountain tops, we send the warmest Christian greetings to each of you! May you be well and doing well!
   Bocsa Mission:
    We no longer have an afternoon service in Bocsa, but consolidated it with the Sunday morning one. This was agreeable with the people and enables us to travel each Lord's Day to Oltenia for preaching there in the evening. We meet for a little more than 3 hours each Sunday morning and on Wednesday evenings in Bocsa. Our meetings are simple and each Sunday morning we have time for a Bible class, two sermons with singing and praying interspersed between the preaching and teaching. We continue to have "regular" visitors and this past Sunday had two first time visitors to our services. Please pray for these: for Nicu and for Mariana. They are acquaintances and came together.
    Oltenia:
    I have begun driving to Oltenia each Sunday afternoon for evening preaching there. None of those who attend are baptized, but two indicated this past week that they are convinced. (One has a previous invalid immersion. The other has never been immersed.) In the past two weeks those who attend in Oltenia have distributed about 1000 pieces of our literature in their town and are planning on going with our literature to a nearby larger city where they have friends and contacts. Please pray for these and 3 others, 2 who are unsaved, but who also have been faithfully attending the meetings there.
    This past Saturday Brothers Aurel and Raul and I drove to Oltenia (4+ hours distant from Bocsa), leaving early in the morning. We spent more than 5 hours with the people answering Bible questions. We went on Saturday at their request. In the evenings their animals must be milked and cared for so we met at midday to have more time. Two relatives were visiting Saturday from Resita, our own nearby county seat. Those two are lost, but friendly, and one questioned us about grace; her previous understanding was that Heaven is earned by works. Her husband listened intently to our answers. (We have been concerned about Resita; a city of 100,000. Perhaps God will open a door there through these two! Who can tell what God will do!) Please pray for these two! On this Saturday trip, literature was also given to interested persons in one city in Oltenia and one village in our own region, the Banat.
    Republic of Moldova:
    After preaching in Oltenia on Sunday evening the 28th. September we began our 500 miles + drive across Romania to the Republic of Moldova. On the 30th.  of September Brother Raul, Brother Aurel and I entered Moldova; we had to coordinate our time and date of arrival with the schedule of the consulate person at the border who could sell me a visa. I won't attempt in this letter to enumerate the hoops we had to jump through in dealing with the mentality of the border officials in order to enter this Communist country. (Our assessment is they are "more Communist' than Russia!) After a question filled examination of our literature (in spite of the fact that Americans are free to take any literature into Moldova) we were allowed into that country with more than 2,000 pieces of literature. These included titles aimed at evangelism, others relating to the doctrine of free grace and still others concerning church truth. The Republic of Moldova is poorer than Romania and so conditions are more difficult there than here at home. Both Romanian and Russian are spoken and used in signs, etc. We were told that it is against the law for a foreigner to preach on the streets or do evangelization and technically even to preach in a religious service, but that the government does not at the present time bother foreigners who preach in religious meetings. One pastor whom we met had previously been jailed for preaching on the streets; this because he is a citizen of another country other than Moldova. I had several opportunities to answer Bible questions and to preach once to a small, unregistered Baptist church in the southern city we first visited. The pastor and most of the members subscribe to the doctrine of sovereign grace! We also took literature to another sovereign grace Brother in the capitol and enjoyed a time of good fellowship there. God also gave us success in learning the whereabouts of a Brother with whom we had lost contact in a city further north. I have wanted to make such a trip into Moldova for some time, so this was the fulfillment of a long awaited desire. We were invited back and though the trip is difficult and tiring, want to return there if the Lord so wills. Please pray as our literature will be distributed to missionaries, pastors and other churches in Moldova in the days and weeks ahead.
    Janet is enjoying her visit in the U.S. She is presently with her brother and father in Little Rock. We are beginning to make plans for her trip back to Romania! I am OK. No space to tell you about ongoing translation of tracts, articles, of CDs, and other projects. Thank you for your earnest prayers and your financial support of this missionary enterprise!
Pray for the Pughs and the members here!
    In the cause of God and truth,
    Curtis and Janet Pugh
    curtis@xnet.ro
    CURTIS PUGH
    str. Izvor nr. 3
    Bossca  1, jud. Caras-Severin
    1725 Romania