December

Merry Christmas and may you experience the presence and power of God like never before in 2013! Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Forward to a Friend When people ask how we're doing, we can't help but respond, "Great!" They usually smile and say, "That's good, but how are you really doing?" The truth is, we really are doing great! The longer answer is that we are growing (albeit more slowly than we'd like) in our spiritual habits, discipline, natural skills, in our relationship with eachother and in our relationships with the volunteers and other staff members at Pas cu Pas. We are so glad to be here reaching people with the Gospel and to be growing! For those of you who pray for us, one thing we really need is to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us how to maximize our time. Please also pray that we see and seize more opportunities to minister to and mentor the volunteers one on one and that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction in those times. Mrs Maria's Place We are frustrated, but not too surprised, that helping Mrs Maria has been more difficult than it appeared. In the country, lumber is purchased through the national forest. Just after we put in a request for lumber, Mrs Maria's son was caught stealing firewood from the forest. And now they don't want to sell to us if we are using it for them! We could buy materials from a construction supply store here in the city, but at double the cost and plus the cost to transport it, it's not ideal. We're working on getting lumber through someone else there, but with the first winter flurries coming this week, things are at a stand still:-( We plan to bless her in other ways this winter, but it looks like the animal shelter will have to wait until Spring.   Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays to you all, our dear friends and wonderful family!    The past few months have been challenging but rewarding! During the month of November, two young adult volunteers and three teenage orphans were each gloriously born again and another volunteer was water baptised! I wish we could share each of their stories with you. It's so beautiful to watch the Holy Spirit draw a heart closer to the Father and to watch that heart respond!    This "fruit" has come on the tails of us feeling frustrated with our own shortcomings, impatient with slow growth in others and wondering if we're actually making a difference! Remind anybody of Galatians 6:9? Yeah, us too! Thank God for the Word to light the path and for the Holy Ghost to help keep us on it!   Christmas time here means sharing meals, songs, stories, gifts and prayers with more than 300 children from 4 different orphanages! As you can guess,the volunteers love this time of year. This year, becuase of great fundraising by the Pas cu Pas program leader and staff in Canada, the volunteers will even get to take the orphans, one by one, to pick out their own new pair of shoes! That begins this Saturday. It's going to be great, but as the saying goes, there are some things money can't buy. Dinu's focus during this time is on our volunteers. We want to see each one filled to the brim with God's love. That is the best way to see that the children we reach this Christmas will experience the love of God. Our prayer is Ephesians 3:14-21Petronela, pictured here with two boys from an orphanage in Teaca, is one of our volunteers who had a "growth spurt" in her relationship with Jesus last month!   It's not as bad as it looks, but we do need more financial support! Pas cu Pas is helping us make ends meet right now. Praise God they have been able to so far! But we believe God wants the majority of our provision to come through partnering with others. Partership in the Gospel is God's preffered method. The kids who were recently born again have our monthly partners to thank. Whithout them, we could not be here! So, we are shamelessly encouraging whoever will to just go for it! Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how much to give and become a part of the Kingdom advancing in Romania today! If you'll be giving by check or money order, our ministry address is at the bottom of this letter. Or you can follow this link for easy online giving by debit or credit card. You can give one-time online or choose to have monthly donations withdrawn automatically through PayPal (you don't need a paypal account). Living Truth is a 501(c)3 classified organization. All donations are tax-deductible.