Romania 2025

     Thank you all so extremely much! Thank you for all your prayers and support. We have been so encouraged by this trip and the people we have met here. We are looking forward to seeing you all soon!  Our flight is leaving at 1:45pm out of Cluj Napoca, Romania. We fly to Munich, Germany where we have 1.5 hrs to catch the connecting flight. We then fly back to Vancouver, Canada at around 4:55 pm where we will be picked up and brought back to the church. Please pray for safe travels and that we will catch the connecting flight. See you guys soon! Thank you! ~ Team Romania 2025 Some reflections from Alex: Saturday marked the first day our construction crew was able to step away from the job site and engage in other ministry. We joined the eyeglass ministry, assisting with translation and connecting with patients from all walks of life and faith backgrounds. We spoke with Orthodox, Catholic, and even Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Gospel was being shared all around us, and w...

  What a wonderful time this has been. We all feel so extremely blessed to have been able to serve here and meet these wonderful people. Today was a rest & sightsee day. Today we went through the farmers market in Sighet and bought some souvenirs. The owner of that souvenir shop is someone that Alex met two years ago and shared the gospel with him. He remembered Alex when we walked up and we were able to pray for him before we left. Pray for his salvation! In Sighet they have a museum that used to be a prison during the communist era. It was very sobering to see what went on during that time period.  The city of Sighet is right on the border of Ukraine, so we decided to go there for lunch! Crossing the border was no sweat, and we were able to buy some Ukrainian candy as well. On our way home, Alex and Florica planed a surprise where they took us to a preserved traditional village from the 1700s and brought out some traditional clothes for us to wear. It was a pretty fun ex...

     Today was our last day of serving here in Romania. We had three church services to go to, and at all three services Brianne, Gianna, and Paul sang two songs, and Pastor Tom gave the sermon.       The first service was at the church we are staying at, Ocna Sugatag Baptist Church, and Vera and Dave Masterson gave a quick overview of the work we completed here. We also surprised the church with a plaque for their 10 year anniversary, which was this week! A huge praise is that we had three people show up to this service that we helped and invited during eyeglass clinic! Pray for them to continue coming back to church!     At the second service, Jim gave his testimony, and it was wonderful and powerful. These two churches are very small, our team alone took up most of the available seats.     The third service was in Sighet. Here Vera and Dave Miyatake gave the overview for the trip and work completed. A lot of the translators and o...

  Thursday Construction Update – God’s Provision and Great Progress Thursday marked our second to last day on the construction site, and we’re incredibly grateful for how much we were able to accomplish. One of our biggest concerns going into the day was the concrete work. Pouring the cement for the fence posts would have been a massive task if we had to mix and pour everything by hand. But the Lord provided in a big way—we were able to secure a cement truck, which is rarely done for small jobs like this. Not only did the company agree to come, but the driver went above and beyond. He stayed with us for over 40 minutes, helped with chute positioning, and supported the entire process—something that’s not the norm. We’re thankful for his patience and willingness to help. With the cement poured and the posts lined up and leveled, we were able to push forward with other tasks. The metal fence and gates were fully polished, degreased, and nearly all painted by the end of the day. It was...

            Today we are still in Ocna. We held the second day of the glasses clinic at the church. We saw many more patients, gave out many more eyeglasses, and shared the gospel with many more people. Yesterday we shared that we helped a widow who said she can no longer read her Bible because she can't see the letters. We were able to transport her to the clinic and get her a pair of glasses so she can read her Bible! She seemed very excited. Praise God! We invited many people to come to church tomorrow, so pray that they would come!      Pastor Tom held a pastors conference and he and Carole held a parenting conference. Jim and Dave tacked on behind them with the medical conference. They had a decent turnout, so praise God!      While we were doing the eyeglass clinic, those who were not involved got to visit a nearby elderly care hospital and give some care packages and visit with the residents.      The...

       Today we were back in Ocna Şugatag for a morning of our second eyeglass clinic, some back to the maternity center, and construction, then the afternoon was split between construction and widow care.     The eyeglass clinic was great today! We held it within the church where we are staying. We had a lot of people come through who heard about us from a friend (or even a friend of a friend!) who was at the clinic we held in Sighet. We had a great turnout and gave out many glasses and had many good conversations. Most all of the people we have seen within our eyeglass clinic have been elderly people, and it has been wonderful to connect with them and hear their stories.     Mary and Vera went out shopping for more supplies for care packages for an orphan center and maternity center. They were able to get many things, pray that these would be a blessing to those receiving it.     Construction team was able to finish the fence! A local ...