Going a Little Farther From Home...And Receiving A Big Blessing!

 We were invited to our friend's daughter's wedding August 21st in Northwest
 Missouri and while we were there we also were  able to present our ministry
 in their church!

 Since their daughter is the piano player and she was gone on her honeymoon,
 Josiah played his cello while their son played his guitar...

 We had an afternoon service where we sang a special and Terry gave testimony about
 our ministry & preached.The neat thing is, the very first missions trip Terry took was to
 Romania with this friend, Matt. He is now the pastor of that church in Missouri and that
 trip planted the seed in Terry's heart & mind for the ministry we are now in! That was
 back in 2000! Praise the Lord for His goodness & His timing!

 The big blessing came in the form of a phone call... Mt. Zion Baptist Church called to
 let us know they have taken us on for support! Praise the Lord! He is so good to us!

Reunited Again!

 As August began with Terry working hard to get Hope Baptist ready
 for their first service, our children arrived home on the 10th! It was
 great to hear about their time serving! I hinted to some of their time
 in  this post.
 If you have never been on a missions trip, we highly recommend one
 of  these trips ~ either the Juarez Project that I posted about in June &
 July (take a minute to read over those) or a regular week trip to El Paso
 where you will put together John & Romans Monday & Tuesday mornings
 and use those scriptures to hand out in Mexico in the afternoon & evenings.
 You can find out more about both of those trips on Bearing Precious Seed's
 website BPS El Paso.
 You can also e-mail us for more information ~ finmin2014@gmail.com We'd
 love to hear from you! It will definitely change your life!

 Also at the beginning of August I was able to attend ASL Institute at Valley
 Forge to continue work on sign language learning! It was a very interesting
 time for me! I would appreciate your prayers for me in this, do we ever get
 too old to learn something new?

 So that's what we've been up too at the beginning of August!
  

Northeast Vision Summit

       The very end of July Terry & I attended the annual Summit
       at Solid Rock Baptist Church in Berlin, NJ. This was a unique
       experience! Our purpose for going was to make some contacts.
       Well, with an attendance of approximately 1900, there were
       plenty of those! Can I tell you we were a LITTLE overwhelmed!

      We did get to hear David Gibbs, Jr. speak twice along with some
      other very good preachers. We also were able to go to some
      separate sessions that we picked based on the title of the class!
      That was very interesting! You had no idea who the speaker was,
      just what was being taught!

     We did make one connection though! A pastor from Moscow, PA,
      had contacted our pastor about some work he needs done and he
      happened to be at the conference!

      It was a lot to learn ~ 10 different preaching or teaching times,
      in a little amount of time ~ 2 1/2 days! But it was a great time of
      learning for us both!

Hope Baptist Church

Early in July...

      The beginning of July had Terry returning from Romania on the 2nd
      and Erin & Josiah leaving on the 9th!

      Terry came home and had to have a little time to recover...he had
      picked up a cold while in Romania and it never really went away
      over there. Then, when he got home he had a repeat of the same
      symptoms for about a week! This only stopped him a few days....
      he still made time to paint at the church!

      Erin & Josiah headed to Bearing Precious Seed, El Paso for a
      month of service there. Last year they served for 2 weeks, so
      this was a bit of a stretch! It was a great trip for them though.
      They were able to help with 2 trips into Juarez, 1 trip to the
      Najavo nation in New Mexico, and spend an off week with
      their sister & brother-in-law!

      We are thankful for all the opportunities the Lord allows us to
      serve Him! And for children who are willing to serve the Lord
      wherever He leads them!

Summer Camp

       While Terry was in Romania, Erin, Josiah & I attended Mt. Zion's summer
       camp in Hanover,PA the fourth week of June. I'm sorry I didn't take any
       pictures so I will keep the post brief!

      Erin & Josiah went as campers, this being Erin's final year as a camper. I
      went as a teen counselor. This year marked my 8th year of camp as a
      counselor! I never went to camp as a child or teen (I didn't get saved until
      I was 20), so camp has become one of the greatest opportunities to serve
      for me!

     This year we had a great speaker, Phillip Bishop, from VA. You can hear his
     sermons that he preached at camp on sermon audio's website.   Here 
     is the link to that page.

     There was good unity from the many churches that were there. It is great to
     meet new people and to catch up with old friends too! I think it is as much
     fun being a counselor as it is a camper (but I will never know for sure....)!
     And it is great to be able to hear preaching two times a day for that week.

     As long as the Lord allows I plan to serve at camp! And I am looking forward
     to next year already....Erin can go serve as a worker!

16 Days in Romania !

       On June 15th at 6:45 PM Terry left Dulles International Airport for what
       would be 16 long days in Romania! Although he didn't know it then.....

       His overnight flight to Europe had him landing in Paris at 8:25 AM
       with no sleep! He had a 2 hour layover then it was off to Bucharest with
       another 3 1/2 hour layover and a final flight to Timisoara, Romania
       landing at 6:35 PM. That's 24 hours of flights & layovers, with very little
       sleep....not the best way to start a massive building missions trip!!

      He was picked up after church by Jonathan & Kristy (the ones who needed
      help at their house). After a not so restful night, it was off to the work!
      Much planning & getting of materials that first day. But there was also work
      going on too! Concrete stairs to try to bust out! Thankfully they decided to
      rent a saw!

      I'm not going to give you a day by day account of everything... I wasn't
      there! But I do know he started putting 10 - 12 hour days in, even though
      he ended up with a cold that he picked up once he arrived there! And
      once Jason got there (a man from our church who, thankfully, went to help)
      they increased to 15 - 18 hour days! The final day they did not sleep at
      all! They worked until 2 AM, packed their suitcases & headed to the
      airport at 4!

      He arrived home completely exhausted! They were not able to get all the
      work finished, but they were able to get it to the point that the missionaries
      could get it finished! Below are some before & after pictures....

The baby's room after!

The baby's room before

The baby's room during

                                                                

                           

Those concrete stairs!

I'm sorry these are so small, they were
taken with a phone (I believe). It gives
you an idea of just what those stairs were
like!
   

<----This is the hall & stairs before anything....















 This is after the floor & stairs were finished---->

Finished & Painted!

   And just a few more....

         This is the hall looking out the front door....with Jason laying tile there in the
         corner of the picture.

Finished!

 

 

 

 

         The finished pictures were sent to us by e-mail from Jonathan & Kristy after
         they painted & cleaned up the place!

         While they were there they also fixed a leak in the church roof...sorry, no
         pictures. It was a good, long, tiring trip! They were glad to be able to be a
         help to one of our missionaries though!