Dear Ministry Friends,
Wow, what a crazy time of travel and ministry we have had over the past two months! I honestly don’t know how Jesus and His disciples did it. They walked everywhere! At least we traveled by train, car, or bus to cities in Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. Jesus and His disciples walked about 25 miles one morning to Samaria. The Scripture tells us in John 4:6, “Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well.” Of course He was tired! But, the beautiful thing about Jesus was that He always thought about others as more important than Himself, even when He was tired and had nothing to eat. Because of this love, He shared the gospel with a Samaritan woman under these challenging circumstances! Remember, Jews did not associate with Samaritans! When His disciples returned with lunch, They were amazed to see Him speaking with a Samaritan and a woman. He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” John 4:34 Jesus’ food was doing the will of God, it energized Him! What was the will of God in this context? It was caring enough to show respect to this sinful woman, and tell her how to find living water! He met her deepest need – for love and forgiveness!
This is the way we have felt during our travels recently, honored to take the gospel to the thirsty, hurting and lonely. Timmy and I have traveled to numerous cities to help new house churches and share Christ whenever possible. We are thankful that our wives joined us in this ministry on several occasions. Yes, it has been physically exhausting, but spiritually we have been well fed. Our souls were satisfied by doing His work.
My uncle Dave recently told me about a Romanian student, Razvan, who he met on the internet. He suggested I contact him by e-mail, which I did. Timmy and I were taking a trip to Moldova to teach a conference. We were going to be relatively close to Lasi, Romania (pronounced Yash), where Razvan lived, and so I prayed about God giving us an opportunity to meet him. Timmy and I traveled in a public van 3.5 hours to meet Razvan and his friend Tudor. We had a wonderful time getting to know them, their city and country. They were very kind and gracious to show us around for several hours. While we ate on the 15th floor of a hotel, looking out over the entire city, we shared with them how Jesus Christ changed our lives, how He loved them, and how they too could know Him. They were very open and we had a great discussion. Please pray for God to show them the difference between religion and a personal relationship with Him through Christ. They told us there are 50,000 students in Lasi, and most of them speak English. They also said they did not know of any Christian ministry at these universities! Pray for any future work God may have for us in Romania.
“Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” John 4:35
We will be in the US for 6 weeks for the graduations of our daughters Stephanie and Grace from college and the birth of our grandson, Whitney and Micah’s first child.
Yours in Christ’s love,
Steve and Danelle
Wow, what a crazy time of travel and ministry we have had over the past two months! I honestly don’t know how Jesus and His disciples did it. They walked everywhere! At least we traveled by train, car, or bus to cities in Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. Jesus and His disciples walked about 25 miles one morning to Samaria. The Scripture tells us in John 4:6, “Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well.” Of course He was tired! But, the beautiful thing about Jesus was that He always thought about others as more important than Himself, even when He was tired and had nothing to eat. Because of this love, He shared the gospel with a Samaritan woman under these challenging circumstances! Remember, Jews did not associate with Samaritans! When His disciples returned with lunch, They were amazed to see Him speaking with a Samaritan and a woman. He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” John 4:34 Jesus’ food was doing the will of God, it energized Him! What was the will of God in this context? It was caring enough to show respect to this sinful woman, and tell her how to find living water! He met her deepest need – for love and forgiveness!
This is the way we have felt during our travels recently, honored to take the gospel to the thirsty, hurting and lonely. Timmy and I have traveled to numerous cities to help new house churches and share Christ whenever possible. We are thankful that our wives joined us in this ministry on several occasions. Yes, it has been physically exhausting, but spiritually we have been well fed. Our souls were satisfied by doing His work.
DIMITROV, UKRAINE
 |  |  |
| Timmy teaching organic church principles | Galina, Kristian, & Victor - my new running buddy | Marina, a Ukrainian missionary |
ROMANIA
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| Razvan, Steve and Tudor in Lasi, Romania |
“Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” John 4:35
PRAYER REQUESTS
We will be in the US for 6 weeks for the graduations of our daughters Stephanie and Grace from college and the birth of our grandson, Whitney and Micah’s first child.
- Quality time with our seven children, spouses, other family members, and friends.
- For Whitney to have a safe delivery and healthy baby.
- We would know God’s plans for possible trips to Kharkov & Russia when we return June 19th.
- We will go to Moldova for a Simple Church camp July 4-9. Pray for wisdom in preparation for teaching as well as God’s leading in bringing who he wants to be there.
- Effective transition of the new believers at the Rehab center to normal life. Recently, we opened a 2nd center. Praise God for the 25 men have come to Christ in the past 18 months! Pray for plans to open a women’s center.
- Ask God to save Razvan, Tudor, and many of other Romanian students.
- Please pray for any future involvement in Romania.
Yours in Christ’s love,
Steve and Danelle
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