Saturday before leaving for Bucuresti

It is Saturday morning and we will soon be going back to Bucuresti for the weekend. We will stay with Cezar andalso worship with the church there on Sunday. Our plan is to return to Pitesti on Monday and continue our studies here for another week.

Yesterday we started our studies at 10 AM with an orthodox lady. After a brief pause for lunch our studies continued with an older man and later another lady. It was 6 PM before we left Florena's apartment. I had used my laptop to make some corrections on our flyer. Also, I was using it to teach a lesson when the battery decided it was tired (expended). But, as I was near the end of the presentation, it was no small thing to finish up with the Bible.

In fact that is what I am trying to impress on our students here, the idea that the Word of God is the principle thing. I am seeking to lead them OUT of the human traditions and doctrines that make them what they are. Our message is simple. Follow the scriptures and you will be simply a Christian.

After a day of Bible studies, we went down into the center of town to get some more flyers printed. Having a corrected version made me feel better about what we were handing out to people. I was a little disappointed at how many mistakes got past us in the first version. The Romanians have a saying the goes like this "graba strica treaba". Our proverb that comes closest to this is "haste makes waste". However, a more literal understanding of their saying would translate into "to hurry is to spoil what you are doing".


here is one of our students reading our flyer

After we finished with our printing we decided to take a little stroll downtown - something that would give me an opportunity to hand out some flyers. Being a Friday evening it seemed like everyone was out for a stroll. In any event we passed out quite a few brochures, even trading some with the men at an election booth. I was able to talk to about a half dozen people, some only for a few words, others for more lengthy discussions.

I am finding that having a book of charts in the Romanian language is more than a little helpful. One man who took a flyer asked me what is the way of salvation. I opened up my chart book and showed him a graphic illustration of how a man must hear the word, believe, repent, confess Christ and then be baptized. For me this makes my work so much easier than if I were left to explain all these ideas in their language just standing there on the street. It is not that I could not do it. It would just take a lot more time. Having the charts simplifies my work in that the people can SEE what I am trying to say.

Another example would be the study with the orthodox lady yesterday. I was able to move quickly through a lot of information by showing her charts that illustrated the teaching I was setting forth. I believe the teaching helped her to see the difference between just following the scriptures (alone) and trying to hold to both scripture and human tradition at the same time. It was a strong lesson made stronger by the visual materials that kept her attention on the points being made from scripture.

I do not want to overburden anyone reading this blog with detailed account after account of every study we have. I am sure the details alone would overwhelm even the most interested reader. But, I would like you to have a taste of what we are trying to do here. Liviu is a great help to me. Ben is having studies on his own "in Romanian". I feel blessed to have two such workers with me on this trip. I am sure that men like Liviu and Ben are the future for the church, wherever they will be. They are such an encouragement to me and to those they touch.

I will close for now. When I get to Bucuresti I may try to send a weekend update. IF not, I will be back with something early next week when we are back in Pitesti.

in Him,
alan (with Liviu and Ben who are sleeping while I write this report)