It is hard to believe it is already February 2010!  A couple of years ago we were certain we would have been in Bulgaria for a full year by this time.  It was not to be…as we are still here, still raising support and now waiting to finalize the adoption of our two-year old daughter.  Looking back at all that has happened in our process and journey to Bulgaria, we are so thankful that we are where we are in that.  It has not been easy but it has been good and God has been so faithful!  He continues to be and we are amazed by how much better his timing and plan is than ours.

At this time, we have received 100% of our one-time need.  So praise God for that! And thank you to all those who have given through these last two years.  Our focus is on gaining the 15 “rope holders” that we need to complete our monthly need.  We are asking God to raise up those 15 individuals or churches to commit to $100 a month. And we ask that you pray about that with us.  We desire to gain this final support by June so that we can depart for Bulgaria in July.

As far as our adoption, we are waiting for a court hearing – hopefully by March – and then all will be final.  How exciting for that process to be complete in the month of Pete’s birthday!  Leora came to live with us right before my birthday…and now six months later, Lord willing, will become a Roman for Pete’s birthday.  What special memories we will have!

Here is one of my favorite pictures of the three of us.  And we will try to keep up with our blog more faithfully…so sorry for letting that go in since last year!

It's fun to be a family!

This was written by C.H. Spurgeon many years ago but is so relevant for us today…I hope you will find it as encouraging as we have as we wait in the Lord on our journey to Bulgaria…and now with our adoption story.  Read on!

Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you. – Isaiah 30:18

God often delays in answering prayer.  We have several instances of this in sacred Scripture.  Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel until near the dawn of day; he had to wrestle all night for it…Paul sought the Lord three times, asking that the “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7) might be taken from him.  He received no assurance that it would be taken away; instead, he was given a promise that God’s grace would be sufficient for him.  If you have been knocking at the gate of mercy and have received no answer, shall I tell you why the mighty Maker has not opened the door and let you in?  Our Father has reasons known only to Himself for thus keeping us waiting.  Sometimes it is to show His power and His sovereignty so that men may know the Jehovah has a right to give or to withhold.  More frequently the delay is for our profit.  Perhaps you are kept waiting in order that your desires may be more fervent.  God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if He keeps you waiting, you will see your need more clearly and will seek more earnestly.  He also knows that you will prize the mercy all the more for its long delay.  There may also be something wrong in you that needs to be removed before the joy of the Lord is given.  Perhaps your views of the gospel plan are confused, or you may be placing some reliance on yourself, instead of trusting simply and entirely on the Lord Jesus.  Or God makes you wait for a while so that He may the more fully display the riches of His grace to you at last.  Your prayers are all filed in heaven, and if not immediately answered, they are certainly not forgotten.  In a little while, they will be fulfilled to your delight and satisfaction.  Do not let despair make you silent, but continue faithfully in earnest supplication. (emphasis added)

We desire, we pray, we wait…and as we wait, the Lord changes our desires to His will. We ask that God will finalize this adoption and speed us on our way to minister in Bulgaria.  Please pray for us as we wait on Him.  Thanks so much for your support in this process.  We have now received over 100% of our one-time need – so that is met – and will be working on our monthly need in the New Year.  We hope you have a blessed and joyful and thankful Christmas season!

Some may read this and think, “Wow, she was sheltered!” but I count it a blessing in some ways…I (Renee) did not trick or treat until I was 23!  That year was only the second time in my life that I dressed up as someone/thing not in the Bible, too. Yikes? I don’t think so.  How did I spend Halloween during most of my formative years?  At Reformation Day Festivals at our church, dressed as a character from the Bible…some memorable ones were Queen Esther, Dorcas, and a fly from the Ten Plagues. Reformation Day is something to be celebrated in the history of our Church!  For on this day – October 31st – in 1517, Martin Luther wrote to the archbishop protesting the sale of indulgences.  This letter came to be known as The 95 Theses. The following (text & images) is borrowed from Wikipedia:

Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs.”  He insisted that, since forgiveness was God’s alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances (emphasis added).  According to Philipp Melanchthon, writing in 1546, Luther “wrote theses on indulgences and posted them on the church of All Saints on 31 October 1517″, an event now seen as sparking the Protestant Reformation.

Painting of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach

Door of the castle church in Wittenberg where Luther nailed "The 95 Theses"

So, as you dress up and trick or treat – which we will be participating in with the young ones in our family – just remember what happened on this day so many years ago…when Martin Luther took a stand to remind us that the only thing we contribute to our salvation is sin and that is why God’s grace is so great!  

Be safe and have fun!

Halloween (aka Reformation Day) 2008

This week (Thursday through Monday) are heading down to Atlanta to spend some time with our MTW Bulgaria teammates, Gary & Tammy Elliott.  They are at 97% of their support need and are waiting for their house to sell before they can head over to Plovdiv, Bulgaria.  Please pray that God would provide a buyer and they could soon be on their way.  In the meantime, we look forward to hearing more about the team retreat – they flew over for the event – and also the time they spent in our future hometown of Plovdiv.  Tammy promised to take lots of pictures of the apartments they looked at and the churches we will be working with.  We can’t wait to see them!

We will also spend some time with close family friends and hopefully meet up with the Donahoos (from AL but who are heading to England with MTW, hopefully by January – another thing to pray for!) who we spent most of our waking moments with while in NYC this summer at Pre-field training.  Please pray for safe travels and a good visit. We will share more when we get back home.  

Other prayer requests…Pray for good news from some churches who we hope will be able to support us.  As they create budgets for next year, we desire to be included in those.  Pray for our support needs.  We are continuing to focus on our monthly need. If you desire to “hold a rope” through giving on a monthly basis, please let us know. Send us an e-mail…We would love to have you join our ministry team!

Thank you for praying for our Bulgaria team members who recently met together in Bulgaria for the annual team retreat and strategic planning meetings.  From what we have heard, it all went very well and the team came away with a renewed vision for ministry in Bulgaria with a common focus on raising up the national church in Bulgaria and reaching out to the next generation. We can’t wait to be there and work alongside them in these goals.  Here are the core values of our team (in short) that are our guide in all we do:

1) Our core value as a team is the cross of Christ itself, and as we by faith aggressively embrace it, we will see more of God and more of our need, and receive through the cross everything necessary to live, serve Him, and accomplish His purpose in Bulgaria.

2) As at team, we are to live as a family and community cultivating the life of Christ in each other – we must first BE His Body in order to reveal His love to the Bulgarians that we serve.

3) The reason that MTW is in Bulgaria is to live the gospel –  among each other, Bulgarian believers and pastors, and Bulgarian people we meet along the way.

4) One of the primary ways the gospel expresses itself through us will be as God uses us to facilitate  healthy, viable, sustainable, Bulgarian-led churches that are culturally relevant, that reach into the young adult world, singles and families, of 21st century Bulgaria.

*This list is quoted from “Walking on our Knees Together – October 2009,” the newsletter from our team leader, Dal Stanton*

This morning I read this:

My hope lives, not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died.  My trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness.  My faith does not rest on what I am or will be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.  - C.H. Spurgeon, from “Morning & Evening”

The truth of justification is so refreshing!  I hope this will encourage you as it did me. Have a great day!

We are getting closer and closer to actually leaving for Bulgaria.  With only $7000 left in our one-time need and $1150 needed in monthly pledges/support…we’re getting close!  Our final departure date is determined by when our support is in.  We have completed our required training events with MTW, we have our visas…So please pray with us toward gaining this remaining support.  Pray that God will sell some cattle for us.  Pray that we will be diligent in contacting people, in sorting and packing our personal belongings, and in keeping you all updated.  

Also, please be praying for the MTW Bulgaria team retreat that is coming up.  We were hoping to join our teammates there but it doesn’t look that we will be going that soon. Our goal is now mid-October.  (We have to be there by November or we will start the visa process over, costing more time and money.)  The team is meeting for a time of strategic planning, prayer and fellowship.  We have had a lot of change in the make-up of the team this year and desire for God to show us His vision, His plan and His purpose for us in Bulgaria.  So please pray for clarity of communication and discernment as our team gets together.

If you or someone you know is interested in joining our personal ministry team, please let us know.  We’ll be happy to get back in touch with you to share more about how you can have the opportunity to invest in changing people’s lives in Bulgaria through the power of the Gospel.  Click here to contact us.  Thanks!

We’re back home in SC safe and sound.  It’s hard to believe that July has come and gone.  And it’s hard to believe that we were living in NYC that whole time!  I feel like Lucy coming out of the wardrobe.  We’ve seen so much, learned so much, absorbed so much and, even after an entire week home, are still processing through everything…we had an absolutely awesome time! Everything – the classroom training, the ministry, the people, the mentoring, the sightseeing, the city living – was meaningful.  We’ll be writing more about these things soon.  And in the meantime, I’m working on getting pictures uploaded to the facebook album.  If you are on facebook, please friend us. Or, click on the link here to see what we’ve posted.  We have so much to share about our month in NYC…hopefully the pictures will help to describe our time.

We have been in New York City for a few days now, since late Tuesday night actually, and it has been so much more than we anticipated!  The culture shock has worn off – it’s nothing like CSI:NY, by the way – and we are really enjoying living in Manhattan near Columbia University, using the subway and walking miles each day, eating new foods and seeing famous places, and spending time with our “family” for the month.  

Our ministry began over the weekend when we worshipped with Ascension Church members (well, Renee didn’t because she got sick…but she is all better now!) and we are looking forward to serving them by assisting with Children’s Camp (aka: VBS) next week in their neighborhood of Forest Hills (in Queens).  We have a busy week ahead of language acquisition studies…learning to say and hear and use new sounds.  We have adopted two families that we spend most of our free time with and it’s been awesome to meet the other participants here as well.  Michael & Emily Treadwell (with Caleb, their two year old) are headed to Ethiopia in September.  And Trace & Ginger Donahoo (with Cullen & Ansley), who are headed to England, hopefully next spring…they have become our shopping, sightseeing and subway buddies.  

There is just so much going on!  We will try to keep the blog updated…check us out on facebook too.  Thank you for your prayers and support that have gotten us this far. Please continue to pray for 100% by August 31st!  We are at 88% one-time and 72% monthly…praise the Lord!

Click here to view some pictures…we’ll be adding more each week.

We both had an awesome week in Lexington, NC (a few weeks ago now).  God was at work among the 400 participants from 17 churches from 12 states.  We put in over 10,000 community service hours and donated over 2,300 canned food items!!!  Pete and I were both adult leaders of crews of five students.  And we both had a great time of fellowship and service with those young people.  The theme for the week was “Reveal” and God was faithful to reveal himself to us each and every day.  From providing all the tools we needed to helping us get the job done, the good times of devotions, sharing our testimonies and faith with the students, fellowship with our own youth group and meeting new friends, and mostly the opportunity to serve and minister to the elderly ladies we met…Ms. Lula and Ms. Louise.  To see a few pictures, click on the link here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28116&id=1348898632&l=844e7f5a37