Matthew 6:34 - “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Dear Family and Friends,
We made it back to Romania safely on Tuesday night after the roughest flight I have ever had across the Atlantic. It felt like we were flying on top of bowling bowls for almost an hour. Then, after our SIX HOUR layover in Frankfurt, we flew onto Budapest and skidded sideways after the plane touched down. There were several gasps among us including my out loud prayer of, “Lord Jesus, help us!” The pilot did manage to straighten it out (I guess this isn’t so uncommon in snow and ice after all) and all sighed. So much for “uneventful” flying!
We were greeted in Romania by snow and ice. Those of you who have heard me speak know how thrilled I was about such conditions. We were thankful for our warm apartment and Daniel and I were commenting how wonderful it was to be in our own home when the lights went out….twice….in one hour. Oh well!! This is life in a still very socialist country!
The children at New Life House are beautiful and healthy. When I walked in the door, our precious “Deborah” announced, “I have been well behaved!!” I asked, “For two months?” And one of our maternal assistants quickly said, “No, she is referring to the last few hours!” Our newest addition is growing quickly and we hope she will soon recover from her first seven months in the children’s hospital. Although New Life House is a wonderful facility, the house we are renting for our children is literally falling apart and our property owner will not invest any money in repairs. We will need to find somewhere else to go soon. We need to either build or buy a facility and we ask for you to join us in praying for God to make this provision.
We are having a difficult time managing to get anywhere in our car. We are still praying for the Lord to provide us with a four wheel drive truck so we can get out to villages and to our Agape Home property. The roads in the city are clear and it is a blessing to be able to get around and see people a bit.
The BIG NEWS in the city while we were gone was the opening of three grocery stores. Of course all the products are Romanian and no imported goods but this is still a large improvement. We visited one already and we were impressed with how great it looked. We are tickled to be able to have places to go and shop easily for New Life House!
We have tremendous prayer needs for Agape Home. While we were gone, not very much was accomplished because it turned very cold and we do not have all the permits we need for getting power, propane, etc. because the fire inspector will not approve our facility. Let me explain by saying most organizations such as ours would normally give the fire inspector a bribe to sign off everything is okay. Because we refuse to operate this way, they are telling us our house is the most unsafe grade possible because it is all wood. So, according to the fire inspector, we must take necessary steps to fire proof the house. We are more than willing to take these steps if they will TELL US WHAT THE STEPS ARE! Pavel has been given the run around for the entire two months we were gone and was last told he needed to submit the spec sheets for the drywall we installed. We ask for you to please pray for the Lord to give us favor in this situation so we can get this house finished and used for the glory of Jesus’ name!
I apologize for not sending any photos with this update. I have not had time to take any yet but we will send some along soon.
Many thanks to those of you who are praying for us. We feel it sustaining us right now. It has been challenging to fight discouragement in the face of so many problems immediately upon our return. We know God is able and we trust in Him to show us each step of the way. As he tells us in the verse I typed in the beginning, we do not need worry when we know Who our Provider is!
Basking in the Son,
Michelle
Posted on January 24th, 2003 by Michelle
Filed under: Michelle's Journal