Prayers Answered - 5 Year Permits!

We are official residents of Romania and have been granted this privilege for 5 years! Hooray! Rejoice with us. Give God the praise! So many of you were praying for us and those prayers were answered very positively! Thank you for being prayer warriors on our behalf.

GSS January Session A Success!

The January session of the Gypsy Smith School was a huge success! We expected about 20 leaders and had 24 attend! We were scrambling around making beds to accommodate the extra numbers - always a nice problem to solve.

Our leaders, Warren Hoffman, pastor of 3rd Baptist Church in St Louis, and Terrell Carter, interim youth pastor at 3rd and Networking Coordinator for CBF MO, taught on communion, worship elements, and the New Testament. Harold Phillips, Coordinator of CBF MO, accompanied the Missouri leaders but sadly returned to the USA after the first day due to the death of his father.

The weather was cold and blistery outside but the fellowship and camaraderie was warm and inviting inside. It was a wonderful week of training and building of relationships. Please join us in giving God thanks for his blessings.

CBF Missouri Is In The House!

The first session of 2011 for the Gypsy Smith Leadership School begins tomorrow (Monday, January 17). Three leaders from Missouri (my home state!) will be teaching this week. Harold Phillips (back row, plaid shirt) is the Coordinator for CBF MO, Warren Hoffman (back row, black vest) is the pastor of 3rd Baptist Church, St Louis, and Terrell Carter (front row, red shirt), wears a couple of hats including teacher, interium youth pastor, and Strategic Networker for CBF MO. (The other three people in the picture I assume our blog readers know - Ralph and Cami and Oti Bunaciu.)

Please pray for these men as they teach the Roma leaders this week through January 19th. Pray for the Romany leaders to put aside other things and to be able to concentrate on the lessons of the week. Join us in praising God for calling our leaders from both cultures who commite themselves to His service.

And... Go get'em SHOW ME State!

Life in a Block Apartment

Our son, Josh, left yesterday to return to his life in the USA. We had a wonderful visit with him and his sister, Amy. This was their first visit to see our new life in Bucharest.

The day before Josh left we had the perfect storm of block apartment life. No hot water, no heat, and no elevator (we live on the 6th floor). It was a bonding experience as we climbed the flights of stairs and it warmed us for the cold greeting of our apartment. Yes, it was sad to say good-bye but I think North Carolina was looking pretty good to him!

We're grateful for all our family moments together - with or without hot water!

Reading is Fun... The library is ALMOST ready!

Take a look at the newest addition at the Ruth School - the library! The goal was to create a space for students to study, for staff to have meetings, and eventually offer after-school programs. This multipurpose room has many possibilities for ministry. Project Ruth is grateful to all who played a role in bringing this dream to reality.

SNOW!

Old Man Winter hit Bucharest with a force! The temperatures have plummeted and the "highs" are below zero. We have several inches of snow on the ground and it's likely to stick around for a while. Unlike the southern USA, life goes on. Stores are open, public transportation runs, people carry-on - maybe a little more cautiously. Today classes resumed at the Ruth School. Yes, life goes on...

It's My Birthday!

It's my birthday and I'm celebrating! I find as I grow older it's the simple things that make me happy. As I dashed into the store to get bread after church I noticed mine and Ralph's favorite Romanian pastry was being put on the shelf - fresh out of the oven! When we moved to Bucharest in September we were living in chaos for a few days and would run to the store for breakfast each morning. We discovered these flaky, tender pastries that were glazed and sprinkled with pecans. The inside was like the middle of a pecan pie. We quickly decided we could NOT do this every morning or we'd have to buy new clothes to fit our expanding waistlines. We save this delicious pleasure for the taste buds for special occasions. Now you know why I was so excited to see them warm and fresh! I bought two - birthdays are fun to share. So for my birthday I indulged and it was worth EVERY calorie!

Thank you one and all for the birthday greetings - it was a great day!