March 12 - Touring Emmanuel Baptist's institutions, soccer game, and Church service

Today we went on a tour of all of Emmanuel's institutions. We started with the Kindergarten, which was a great blessing! The children sang to us and really made us feel welcome. Then we visited the University, Medical center, and Hospice that Emmanuel has under its church leadership. They firmly believe in helping those in their community who are poor and without proper care. They provide medicine and medical care to thousands each year and truly exemplify the 1 John 3 mentality of showing the love of God to others! On the way back from our tour, we stopped at Emmanuel's old church building and then had lunch together.

During the afternoon, we had the opportunity to play soccer with the Emmanuel Christian school team. These guys were GOOD! We lost the game, but still had a lot of fun. Some of the girls on our team joined in the game and even scored a couple of goals!

During the evening, we had a Church service at Emmanuel Baptist Church from 6pm-8pm. It was a blessing to hear the youth of Emmanuel run the music for the service with hymns and praise songs (some of which were original songs by them). Our group sang Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art and Amy gave a testimony of salvation and how God has always been faithful to her. I preached to the congregation on 1 John 2:15-17 and sought to emphasize the importance of loving God versus the world. The people were so responsive and showered us with their kind words of encouragement.

We then spent dinner together with Pastor Cosmin, his family, as well as the senior pastor, Peter Vidu and Lewis and Mary Thomas and their family, who arrived earlier during the service. Before the meal, we sang "happy birthday" to Brandon, who turned 18! The chef made a special cake just for him and it was a very special moment.

After we celebrated and ate, we did a final sorting of all of the medicine we brought so we could give it out to the people in the villages tomorrow and Monday. We will be in the village of Margena tomorrow and will also be touring the children's hospital of Oradea. Thank you for your prayers, comments, and e-mails you have been sending us. We love you all and are excited about what God is doing!

Your fellow servant,

Pastor Stephen