January & February Prayer Needs
1. Expansion into Bucharest
A) Increasingly over the last four years our team has been having stronger relationships with ministries and churches in Bucharest. Additionally, the thought kept coming to my mind that it would be good for our ministry to do some activities in Bucharest with some of our friends there. We regularly received visitors from Bucharest to our churches, and many would attend our conferences, but didn’t do much in Bucharest. But, this past fall, I was invited to visit an orphanage for street children and from that visit, we did a special Christmas program at that orphanage. The director has officially asked us to come monthly and do what we want there . . . music, meals, bible studies, basically anything that we want. We will begin this soon. We will rotate people from our network of churches to go to this orphanage, which is already opened a door into a 2nd orphanage. Please pray that the Lord will guide our steps and help us to connect with these street children that are so positively influenced in the first orphanage, and also with the youth at the 2nd orphanage which is for children (age: infant to 11 years).
B) We have also been invited to help a church in Bucharest to help them develop a community center ministry like what we have at the Hope Centre in Caramidari and in Chiselet. This church needs favor in the eyes of the sector Mayor to give them land for the center. Pray for favor and that the Lord will touch the Mayor’s heart. Also, pray for the Lord to guide our steps and give us understanding about how to proceed.
2. Ministry locations & their prayer needs
Calarasi Bethany Church. Bethany is doing well. Bethany needs to begin to move forward with building the 2nd half of their Church building. Pray for their ability to save and plan for the building, while at the same time continue to send members to work/serve in Doi Moldovan, Roseti, Stefan Voda, and Galdau. Aurel will go to the States this spring and begin to share about the Bethany Church vision of their church plants, building plans, and also representing OH in some special events. Pray that the Lord would help us to keep our Church Plant focus while at the same time connect us with people who He has prepared to help us in expansion!
Oltenita. We need to find land and build a new structure in 2018. We have collected some money to buy a piece of land in the area where we want to build a church. We are starting to negotiate with the seller and hopefully they’ll lower the selling price. Pray that the Lord make our paths straight and smooth as we move forward with all of this. We still need to raise the rest of the money to buy the land (and house that sits on it).
3. Missions Is Possible missions book by Brad Hayes
Please pray for the final stages and editing of the Missions Is Possible book in the Norwegian language, the printing and distribution process. Plus, Brad will begin to contact more major organizations to see if there is an interest in Missions Is Possible in English. Pray that the Lord will lead Brad to contact people through whom the Lord can use the book to best influence Christians and churches to enhance their support of missions and missionaries.
4. Godly attitude and actions
Unfortunately, our ministry has been the object of an ongoing attack by satan over the last years thru gossip, the relay of misinformation as if it were truth, and one too many little innuendos that have resulted in some strained and in some cases broken relationships. We know that we must be “above reproach” in these things and not respond in kind. As we focus on letting the Word and Spirit of God govern our attitudes, words, and actions, we know the Lord is already preparing something better for us. So, we are not worried. We are doing what we can to confront at the right time in truth and love. Pray for us that we would walk in that truth and love and be good representatives of Jesus and His Kingdom. On the flip side of these negative things that serve to be distracting and defeating in nature, our ministry has grown, and many of our team members have matured. Our team is much more unified now than ever. For this I’m very happy! Pray for us that the Lord would teach us what we need to learn in these challenges and become more like Him!