Spring 2016 update

Tree flowering in the botanical garden in Iasi

Spring has arrived in Romania all of the neighbors are deep cleaning their houses and carrying away yard debris that has gathered through the winter. Gardens are being tilled up in preparation of the coming growing season. The beauty of flowers and trees coming out of a long winter sleep as the warmth of the sun causes them to bloom in their full beauty. So much color is truly breathtaking. Springtime or primavara in Romanian always signals birthday season for our family and hosting a team from the Bible College in Hungary. We had the privilege of hosting 10 students from the college and having them come and serve alongside us. They served practically, by working on the church property, and within the orphanage; our after school program with Roma children; in a couple of villages that we have outreaches in and finally a conversational English class. They came ready to serve and share the love of Jesus with all those that they encountered. Hearing the stories of how the Lord used them to bless the kids through playing with them and sharing their testimonies was amazing. during one of these times we had two children and one of the workers, who we have been praying for, raise their hand to accept God's free gift of salvation. It's been an amazing blessing partnering with the bible college in Hungary. Over the years we have hosted teams and interns which has not only given us their help and encouragement but we have also been able to speak into the lives of the students.

Introducing the team to the best coffee in the city

10 day working with kids in a village school

Ryan sharing with the kids

playing with the kids

Waving goodbye

This year we celebrated Easter on May 1st. The reason for the difference is that Easter in Romania is celebrated on the Orthodox calendar, which is based upon an older Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar used by the Catholic church. In addition, the Orthodox formula for figuring out when Easter is to be celebrated always occurs after the jewish passover. The reasoning behind this is due to Jesus' death and resurrection happening after the passover. What all of this means is that our Easter can vary from year to year. For example next year we will celebrate Easter the same Sunday as Catholics and Protestants in the western world. In some cases like this year our Easter celebration differs by a month. The message was entitled "The Significance of the Resurrection" and we had two people accept the invitation to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Always a great reason to celebrate when two people move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The children's program blessed the church by singing some songs for everyone and helping with worship. It was so awesome to hear the kids sing their hearts out for Jesus.

Kids helping with worship for Easter service

Easter evening a good friend of mine Florin, who is the pastor of the Calvary Chapel in Bucuresti, drove up and a few of us traveled to Vajta, Hungary for Speakers week. The focus of Speakers week this year was ministering and connecting with Muslim. The reason for this specific topic in the conference was in response to the the overwhelming refugee needs confronting Europe right now and how the church as a whole should respond. One of the things that became very apparent besides the obvious physical needs of these people was how to adequately meet the great spiritual need. The week was extremely informative on many levels for all that attended. One of the highlights for me personally was Florin and his son being asked to lead worship the last day of the conference. 

The reason I chose to highlight the importance of this particular conference is for the following reason. Romania, while being predominantly Romanian Orthodox, has communities of Romanian Muslims in the south of the country along the Black Sea. Their presence in Romania dates back to 1061 AD with a population of a little over 67,000 people. We have a family in our church that is going to be moving to the south of Romania next year to plant a church and one of their hopes is to reach into these communities with the Gospel.  

Hanging out with friends at CCBCE in Vajta, Hungary

Prayer requests:

Please continue to Pray for a couple in our fellowship that have been trying for years to have children and the doctors do not know why they cannot conceive. Pray for the Lord to give them their heart’s desire. Also please pray against discouragement for this couple. They are very faithful in coming to church and they have been discouraged lately with not being able to have a baby.  We also want to lift up the husband, who enjoys the services but as yet has not made a decision for Christ. Please pray for the Lord to reveal himself to him in a way that he understands. 

Pray for the mom of the couple up above. She has started attending Sunday’s and the midweek studies. We believe the Lord is drawing her to himself pray that God would reveal himself in a way that she would understand and respond to.

Lidia Blaga has moved into her apartment. She is adjusting to living alone now which has its good points and its bad points. Please continue to lift her up in prayer. 

The team that we hosted did an awesome job. In fact when a couple of them shared their testimonies, some of the kids responded and one of the workers to the invitation for Jesus to be Lord over their life. Please keep them in prayer that their step of faith will grow into an amazing walk with Jesus.

Prayer for one of the ladies who has been attending more and more often. She is really close to responding to the Lord. Just pray that the Holy Spirit would nudge her the last little bit. Also pray for her family situation as her husband is an alcoholic.

Pray for Mitica, who is constantly struggling with a chronic back pain. It will get better and then when he works in his garden he re-injures himself again. Gardening here is an important part of life so he is very frustrated by this.

Pray for the older boys in the association as all of them are struggling to one degree or another with standing up to peer pressure and making wise decisions. Pray for the parents and the staff as we seek wisdom on how to best serve them. 

Please continue to lift up the university students who are living in Cluj to go to school. They are away from family, and the church and its very stressful and hard for all of them. Pray for the Lord to guide their decisions. For all of them this is their first time away from home for any length of time. They are also preparing for exams in the next couple of months so pray for grace for that as well.

Pray for the plans for this summer. Especially for the outreaches in the summer, for God’s provision, guidance and favor. We are currently planning another English camp but with more kids. This year we are hoping to offer scholarships for the kids as the cost of the camp can be difficult or impossible for a lot of Romanian families to come up with. The cost for the week camp per child is $70 and for 50 kids to attend the total cost is $3500. We have the dates for the camp set for July 25-29, so please continue to lift this up in prayer. We are going to need twice the staff we had volunteering for this last year. 

We are also going to have a park festival in August with a band from the States doing the music. Please pray for the logistics for this as well and that the Lord would go before us and make a way. 

Pray also as the pastors begin planning our yearly pastor’s conference in May. For God to guide on who is to speak, the theme, and that the time spent together would be fruitful.

Pray also for Brian as he has some opportunities to teach at different conferences this spring and summer. That God would put on his heart what needs to be shared and that he would have the time to adequately prepare and traveling mercies as well. 

Pray for all the kids as they prepare for second semester finals. Pray for them to retain the information and to do well on their exams. 

We also have to reapply this year for our long term residency. Pray for the Lord to guide us through this process because its a lot of paperwork, financial cost and pray for favor with the authorities. The cost for this is around $2000 dollars for our family of six. Please pray for God’s favor  and provision for all of this. Its been 5 years and the laws are always changing. 

If you are interested in small daily updates about the ministry, family or just Romania in general please use the following forms of social media.

contact information:

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

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email: bcfouts1@gmail.com