God is a merciful and generous God.  Though we are unworthy, these “good and perfect gifts” are from our Father above.  Though sometimes these gifts come packaged in trials and suffering, they also come through more pleasant and enjoyable blessings.

God’s gift of safety.  We have now traveled over 8,500 miles through 18 states in two months.  The worst we have had in that time was a flat tire.  We thank the Lord for His mercy in protecting us on the road.

God’s gift of fellowship.  We have met and enjoyed getting to know and catch up with so many people this furlough.  From new pastors to family we haven’t seen for almost two decades, our cups have been full.  I have had few days for office work while traveling because of all the good fellowship we have been soaking up.

God’s gift of many meetings.  We have visited 21 churches thus far and have 12 more to go.  God even gave us the bonus of getting to meet with 4 other pastors of our supporting churches that we were not able to visit this furlough.

God’s gift of meeting Russian and Romanian speakers. Everywhere we travel, we keep our ears open with the hope of hearing someone speaking Romanian or Russian.  Previous furloughs have not yielded much result in this, but we have had the joy of meeting several this time and to give them Gospel tracts and talk about Christ.  We met a Ukrainian family at Walmart in Michigan, a Ukrainian refugee in Ohio, a large family group of believers from Kazakhstan and Ukraine in Pennsylvania, and a brother in Christ from Romania in Virginia.  We also found a Russian café and grocery store in Ohio that gave us a “taste of home.”

God’s gift of fun activities along the way.  Since this may be our last furlough together with all the kids, we wanted to include more family fun during our travels this time than in the past.  Some of the highlights thus far were seeing the Grand Canyon, a pastor taking us trout fishing in Colorado, a few days at a campground with a pastor and his family, shooting and horseback riding while with my parents, and a day at a lake with family in Ohio.  We thank God for the fun in between the many miles.

God’s gift of encouraging news from abroad.  Each week, my co-worker, Jacob Hughes,  sends me an update on the ministries in Moldova.  The ministry to Ukrainian refugees, the progress with Bible studies with individuals, and new open doors encourage me.  I was very encouraged to hear that “M,” a man I had lost contact with 4 years ago, contacted Jacob. He is back in Soroca and asked about us.  Please pray that we will have another chance to lead him to Christ.

Please continue to pray for God’s mercy and generosity in keeping the door to Moldova open for us, if the Lord wills.  Though we are enjoying the time with pastors, churches, friends, and family, we are all itching to get back home.

Wanted to send out another update.  At the rate things are changing, this may be old news before too long.  I continue to make plans, but those plans continue to be modified by God’s diving will, as you shall see.

On Thursday, March 3rd, I left my family in the apartment in Iași, Romania, picked up Eric and Stephanie Chapman from the airport there, and drove them to their camp in Vatici, Moldova.  Crossing back into Moldova went smoothly, but the line leaving Moldova was over 200 cars.  The Chapmans’ camp is housing Ukrainian refugees but did not have heating in all the dormitories.  Thanks to donations, plumbers have been working on that the past week to get more buildings heated and more will be able to be accommodated.  The temps are still dropping below freezing.  I stayed there for two nights, was loaded up with Russian Bibles to take to a church in Suceava, Romania on my way back to my family in Romania.  I enjoyed the fellowship with the Chapmans.  It has been a long time since we were able to sit down and talk.

I then headed back up to Soroca, Moldova on Saturday.  I met with “V,” who works for the border police.  We met for supper and had a nice time sharing our thoughts and talking about the stability we can have in God during turbulent times.  Please pray for “V” as he serves his country and deals with the concerns of the future.

Sunday, I met with the couple that I was doing weekly Bible studies with and encouraged them to trust Christ.  In the afternoon, I lead the service out in Bulboci.  We had a sweet time.  I spoke about how Christ did the will of the Father, even when it was painful.  We took the Lord’s Supper.  It was a sweet service.  I met with Petru, the 92 year old, wondering if that would be the last time I see him.  I took the folks home and then headed back down to Chișinău.

Monday morning, I went to the immigration office, expecting to get my residency permit.  To my shock, it was not ready and they could not say when it would be ready.  The influx of Ukrainian refugees seeking refugee status here have slowed down the process.  I was handed a paper saying to pick it up on March 15th in the afternoon.  This put everything behind a week.

The next morning I prayed and asked God what He wanted me to do in this time.  My license plate on the van would expire March 10th, leaving me with just a few days left to drive it.  I contacted my friend and missionary, Igor.  He has been driving to the SE border to pick up refugees from Ukraine and drive them to shelters.  The border is just 30 miles west from Odessa, Ukraine.  Though I could only go for one day, it was what I believed God wanted me to do.

The trip took almost  3 hours to the village of Palanca.   There were some buses taking loads of refugees to train stations and other places.  Igor went around and spoke with folks until he rounded up 12 people.  If you want to find out more about this daytrip, you can watch the video above.   In the end,  we were able to give the Gospel to these folks and leave them with Gospel tracts.  I took them to the train station in the capital and paid for their bus tickets to their destinations.  They were so appreciative of all the help.  Please specifically pray for one of the ladies whose husband is in the Ukrainian army.  His name is Leonid.  I asked her if she would mind me mentioning him for other to pray for.  She emphatically said, please do.  Pray for these folks whose lives have been turned upside down due to the war.  Pray for their hearts to turn to the Lord in this time.

Please pray for Stephanie and the kids in this time away.  What was one week away will now be two, if all goes as planned next week.  Pray for the Lord to use us in this time.  I will be going with another missionary, Wes Neill (I’m staying at his house right now), to take supplies up to the Chapmans’ camp on Saturday, Lord willing.  I don’t feel that I am having this huge role in all this, but I am thanking the Lord for the small parts He has opened up for me.  Pray for the Hughes as they head back to Moldova next week, too, Lord willing.  We want God’s will to be done and for Christ to be glorified.  Thank you for praying for us all.

Here is a short video update:

One man asked me recently, “Grace? What is grace? I have heard that word but not sure I understand what it means.” Another person I witnessed to in our van said, “Mary and the saints are our mediators between us and God. We are too sinful to come to God in prayer.” These statements and others over the past couple months remind me of why we are here in Moldova. We thank the many opportunities we have to preach God’s truth and shed light in the darkness that abounds here.

FAMILY VACATION

     As with many of you, our plans for this year changed drastically due to the pandemic. We had planned to have our family vacation this year with Stephanie’s parents this past May. When that was all canceled, we put off our family vacation until September. We went camping to the same place I had taken my boys camping last year.
The trip started out with not much rest due to people showing up next to us with loud music and alcohol till past midnight. While I did get to witness to some of them till 1 am (one man saying he was Orthodox but believed in reincarnation… those two do not mix), we were praying and asking God whether we should stay and lose more sleep, go home, or go somewhere else. After I asked the Lord about it, I climbed out of the tent and found a man we met before coming to see us at the campground. Long story short, he invited us to setup camp next to his house in that village. The Lord turned the trial into a blessing. Our children had a blast playing with his children, we enjoyed the time with him and his wife, and we were able to share the Gospel of Christ with them and some other of his acquaintances, including a couple I had witnessed to at last year’s camping trip. We thank the Lord for meeting our needs during that trip, for making new friends, and for the open doors to be witnesses for Christ in that week.

POSITIVE

     I try to be a positive guy. My blood type is A positive. I even tested positive for COVID-19 in October. I came down with a back ache and then fever on Thursday, Oct. 15th. We all stayed home the following Sunday once others in my family started coming down with symptoms. Since it wasn’t like my normal flu symptoms, wasn’t like a normal cold, and I work with older folks, I went in on Tuesday for a COVID-19 test. The next morning the results came in my inbox with a positive result. This was followed by phone calls from the Moldovan health department and the nurse in our village calling me each morning to check on us to see how we were doing. I was actually impressed at the system the government had setup for getting all those who test positive connected with a local doctor or nurse.
Thankfully, we had mild cases and never needed any medical assistance. Our coworkers, the Hughes, helped us with doing our grocery shopping and making sure we had all we needed. Another lady in the Soroca church-plant brought us some food, too. We appreciated all the phone calls and emails of people who found out about our situation and were praying for us. We are happy to be out of quarantine and back into the normal routine, witnessing to people and sharing God’s Word.
One of the men, with whom I do an evangelistic Bible study each week, came down with the virus the same time I did; but he developed pneumonia within a week. Thank the Lord, he is on the mend and almost back to normal.

ELECTIONS

     I know, I know. The last thing you want to read about is COVID and elections, but this is what has been going on here, too. Moldova had the presidential elections this month, not just the USA. We had eight candidates the first round of voting. No one had over 50% of the votes, resulting in round two of voting on Nov. 15th between the top two candidates. In the end, a woman named Maia Sandu won a clear majority and will enter office later on in December. We thank the Lord on several things. The elections were peaceful, had a clear winner, and the winner has the potential to take Moldova in a good direction. She is pro-European, stands against corruption, and is committed to keeping religious liberty here in Moldova, allowing us to continue to serve Christ openly.

Harvest Sunday

     Though this letter has been more of an update and list of praises, please do continue to pray for our safety, walk with Christ, and for fruit for our labors here in Moldova. We covet your prayers and appreciate all you do for us. May God bless you as you seek to serve Him each day.

Paul said to be instant in season, out of season. I believe many of us understand a little more of what this means, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic. Very rarely do both the missionaries on the others side of the world and the churches in America face the same environmental struggle. As followers of Christ, we rejoice that our joy, peace, and worship to God does not depend upon such external circumstances.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
We want to begin by thanking those of you who have continued to pray for us and are continuing to give to your local church and missions. We understand that many of you have either lost hours of work or even your job completely. Thank you for all you are continuing to do during this difficult time. Many truly sacrifice in order to give to missionaries during the good times. Your sacrifice during these times only makes us more grateful for all you do.
Since our last prayer letter, the city of Soroca, where we live and serve, became the second hottest spot for the spread of the virus. The government posted military and police baracades at all entrances to our town, only allowing food and supplies and those with special permission to enter or exit. Thankfully, we have been permitted to go to the grocery store, which has been well-stocked.

BELIEVERS UPDATE
Each week, Jacob and I have been calling the believers in Soroca and the village to check on them, find out any prayer requests, and seek to encourage them. Each week, I have ended up being the one encouraged by them. What a testimony of God’s grace in this time. Thus far, they have had food to eat, no health issues with the virus, and have testified of God’s goodness. Instead of panic or fear, they have been calm and praising the Lord. Please continue to pray for these dear believers as we continue to navigate through this situation.

A LOSS
This past Saturday (May 2), an older lady, who had regularly come to midweek Bible study and Sunday services when possible, passed away. We thank the Lord for the time we had to give her the Gospel and speak God’s truth to her. Please pray for her family in this difficult time, especially with the lady’s daughter being in poor health, and for the relatives to seek God’s truth for answers.

OUT OF SEASON BUT NOT OUT OF ORDER
With the additional stay-at-home orders and the city being put in quarantine, ministry opportunities greatly dwindled. With the majority of those we minister to not having internet, online services were not a viable option. I contacted multiple companies to see about hosting a conference call for services but to no avail.
I had the idea of creating a video series and posting it online in order to give Bible answers and the Gospel to people in town. I made an introduction video (which I posted to the town’s community Facebook group) and four other videos. People responded positively until someone took down the intro video. There were still a number of people from town that watched the videos. Seed was sown.  If you have some Romanian speaking friends who you feel may benefit from the videos, you can find the link HERE.

GARDENING… IN SEASON
In addition to the extra personal time studying the Bible, preparing for future messages, and getting some other things in order, we have enjoyed the extra time as a family. Our big project has been planting a bigger garden than we ever have. With the economic uncertainties that still lay ahead, we added new garden areas on our property. The children have been a big help and have worked hard. We have planted sweet corn, peppers, beans, peas, onions, garlic, squash, pumpkin, spinach, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Lord willing, we will have food for our family and plenty to be a blessing to others.

Thank you for your prayers and support, even through these difficult times.

The whirlwind of furlough has swept us away over 5,000 miles and into 11 states thus far. Buckle up as we take you through the past couple months.

AUGUST

     Long story short, we did not have the charter service in August as planned but will plan to do so after we return from furlough.
     The second week in August, we left town for several days for our annual team retreat. I felt that the time away together was good for our team and profitable for the ministry. We now have a year planned ahead and have positive changes to work on implementing.
     The last full week involved packing, cleaning, preparing everything needed for those who would be covering for us while in the States, and building a roof over the well right outside our property in order to keep my promise to the mayor. I would not recommend a construction project right before furlough, but my friend who helped me did not have time off work until then.

     We flew out on Tuesday morning, August 28th as planned. Due to our second flight (Istanbul to Toronto) being delayed by 3 hours, we missed the connecting flight to Memphis, TN. We spent the night in Toronto and had the blessing of having a repeat of our previous furlough when we went through homeland security. Once again, we were pulled aside and interrogated, adding an extra 45 minutes before we reached our gate for our last flight.

     Due to insurance changes during our furlough, we had dentist appointments for our children the day after we arrived in America. What we thought would be a routine cleaning and just a couple fillings ended up being major work on three of them and a couple fillings for the other two. The pediatric dentist we went to was such a blessing to us. During some difficulty with the work on one of our children, the dentist even called me back and we prayed together. The Lord blessed us with some great care through the dentist and his staff.

SEPTEMBER

     What a blessing it was to be with our sending church and my pastor again. We were welcomed by old friends and also some new faces. In addition to reporting to our sending church, we reported to three other supporting churches during our first couple weeks.
     Before starting our long-distance traveling, Caleb and I had to rent a car and drive to Garden City, MO to pick up the rental van from Baptist Missionary Transportation Ministries. The monthly rate includes rent and insurance, plus BMTM covers all major repairs. We used BMTM last furlough and greatly appreciated having a good vehicle to use on furlough. The man who runs this ministry works a full-time job and works hard to keep the large fleet of vehicles up and running. If you are interested in supporting regularly or sending a one-time gift, you can find further info at www.bmtm.org

     We were in six different churches the month of September, most of them an easy drive from Memphis, TN. I also had the privilege of being the keynote speaker for the first time at a missions conference in America. The church was amazing, with tender, responsive hearts to God’s Word. What a joy it has been to meet several young men at different churches that the Lord is leading to become pastors or missionaries.

OCTOBER

     The month of October had us traveling through AR, KA, MO, IL, IN, MI, OH, PA, and MD. We were able to see a number of friends and family during our traveling to different churches. It was good to see my dad, grandfather, and other family members after five years of being away.
     While at my mom’s church, a lady told us that her new neighbors just moved there from Romania. The next morning, Stephanie, this lady, and myself visited the lady from Romania. We had a great visit with her, and she heard the Gospel preached to her in her own language. Pray for this new family to come to true salvation and to build a friendship with their believing neighbor who has offered her friendship.
     I ran into a glitch with burning our furlough DVDs and thus have not been able to finish them and send them to our supporting churches that we will not be personally reporting to this furlough. Once we get back to Memphis the week of Thanksgiving, I hope to resolve this issue.
     One of the hardest things our children have faced is making friends at the different churches and then having to leave. To those of you who have befriended our children, thank you. It has meant a lot to them.

Thank you all for praying for God’s grace as we travel. Please pray for the Lord to refresh us, to be a blessing to churches we visit, to preach the Gospel faithfully wherever we go, and for God to strengthen the ministries in Moldova during our absence.