Showered With Blessings!!!

We have been so blessed recently (and throughout this whole pregnancy) that we just wanted to give a little "praise report" so to speak. It all began with our trip back to Canada back in October when we were blessed with bags of maternity clothes (from jackets to bathing suit and all in between), gift certificates and beginner baby supplies- thank you again!! Then we've been continually blessed throughout these past months with more of our baby supply needs being met. We were given a beautiful crib/cot from some friends and co-workers here in England and I found a fantastic deal on the bedding and curtains at a local charity shop. Then we were blessed by finding a great change table at a seriously reduced price at
IKEA, thanks to Ronnie's great shopping skills! He managed to find the change table that we wanted in a very tattered and torn up box with only a slight scratch on it, needless to say, they gave us a 40% discount on the change table! We also were able to buy me my dreamed of nursing chair with some saved up christmas money (a local baby store has a "seconds" section to their furniture section and after much looking, waiting and continuous monitoring of their items, the chair we wanted finally arrived in their "seconds" department- horray!). Furthermore we were very blessed by some other friends and co-workers who, very regretfully, had to return to the States prematurely due to some VISA complications. Needless to say, that if we end up having a baby girl, she will be very well dressed for at least the first year of her life. As well as being blessed with some very practical items along the way like baby monitor, cloth diapers (they have come a long way and are fabulous!), baby bath, travel play-pen, and a goorgeeousss stroller !!! We just feel soo overwhelmed with blessings that we wanted to praise God for HIS amazing provision for us through so many of YOU and your generosity!!!!! So thank-you and praise God, we are so blessed and appreciative!!!!!! Not to mention full of anticipation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Farewell Friends!

I would like to take this chance to say Good-bye to our friends Nathan, Lindsay, and Jocelyn! They are a family who was working here with NLI and are originally from the States. Due to some unfortunate VISA complications they had to return to the States prematurely. We just wanted to firstly say thank-you to you guys for blessing us with your friendship. We will certainly miss you here!!! Lindsay and I were only about 2 weeks apart in our pregnancies (her second child) and we were soo looking forward to sharing this special season together (we'll have to connect on Skype!) And Nathan and Ronnie shared many similar interests including their love for North American Sports, being social and enjoying good competition (even if it was just darts)! We also wanted to say a big thank you for blessing us with so much of your stuff that you couldn't ship home with you. Between shopping at your "moving sale" and being given extras along the way, we were so blessed by your generosity and are praying for the same generosity to be given to you upon your return home!!!
We would like to ask all of our other friends if you could pray for Nathan, Lindsay, Jocelyn and their new baby as they integrate back into the USA. Along with reverse culture shock they have many unexpected expenses like paying for the birth of their child in the States. Thanks in advance for your prayers and concern for our friends! We know they are in God's hands and just as He has already began to provide for them in huge ways, we pray that this would continue!!! Be blessed!

I'm 32 weeks old now!

Here I am growing like crazy! Although I'm a little on the small side, I'm growing well. I'm now 3.5 lbs with 8 more weeks to go. I play with mom all the time, kicking and squirming. Mom loves it though, she giggles almost all the time when I move and dad loves it too. I get a little shy though when mom asks me to show off to others, but when we're alone I really get active. It's starting to get a little crowded in here now though, so I can't do flips like I used to. I don't know if you can tell, but I have one hand over my forehead and another in the background behind my nose and mouth. My cute little button nose stands out as a sillouette against the black background in the middle of the picture, my left eyelid is closed and looks a little darker than the rest of my face.... hope you can see me well! Next time you see me- it'll be a much clearer picture and won't be in black in white, so I won't need to explain!!!

crazier things....

Can you believe it you Canadian folks....they cancelled school here for this much snow?!?!?!? This snow was from last week and only lasted two days, but those two days equalled no school for two days!!! Just thought we'd share this strange reality, especially with the winter you Saskatchewan folk had this year (and all of Canada for that matter)!! But hey, we're not complaining;)

Great Beginnings in Romania

Last month I spent a lot of time setting up and organizing the official kick off for our Romania Church Planting Project. This specific project began in January of this year and will be ongoing for the next 4 to 5 years. Stage 1 of this project is from January 2007 until December 2007. Stage 1 is the developmental stage where we lay a solid foundation of training and casting vision building into the potential Romanian Church Planter. We also begin to identify and release some local staff from Romania who are instrumental in the success of the project. By the end of this year we will have a Romanian Project Director, Short Term Missions Coordinator and Administrator. They help to coordinate with us in the UK office and support the church planters in Romania. Then from January 2008 until December 2010 we will be helping the Romanian Church in this region plant churches through the partnership of Western Churches working with NLI.

This past week I had a chance to travel again to Romania for five full days that included meetings with regional leaders and potential national project staff, a church planter training seminar and having the privilege of preaching at 2 churches on Sunday. The Romania Project is still in its foundational stage as we are just beginning to develop and identify national staff that will run the project in Romania, potential church planters as well as we are still recruiting partner churches.

65 nationals made up of potential church planters and potential mother church pastors joined us at the conference. It was an exciting time of sharing the joint vision that NLI and the Regional Church Leadership in the Constanta Region have to see 12-15 churches planted in the 4 areas that make up this region in the South East corner of Romania. It was truly inspiring to see God begin to equip, empower and inspire them to believe for the vision God has given them to see a church planted in the target city He has put on their heart.

On Friday evening we were able to have Ian Green join our celebration service, and he brought us a message that not only had us all laughing hysterically but also challenged and inspired us to believe for the things God has put on our hearts for Romania and to know that He is capable of doing exceedingly and abundantly more then we could ask or imagine if we make ourselves available to Him. I know that the Romanians who attended the conference were talking about what Ian shared for the rest of the conference. It was great to see them encouraged and so passionate about what God is going to do in Romania through them.

One of the other exciting things for us as a Church Planting department was being able to identify and release the Romanian Project Directors into their role for this project. Traian & Elena Pascalau will be the Romania National Project Directors for this Church Planting Project. They will help oversee the project and be a liaison with the NLI staff as well as a support and mentor to the church planters. This is a wonderful couple who lead a church that was planted in the city of Constanta and have a real heart for church planting and a desire to serve and love the church planters. We are very excited to have them as part of the project and know that God is going to do great things in and through them.

So for us this was a very successful and foundational trip that has encouraged us. We are very excited about what God is going to do out there and to see churches planted that can change communities and lives with the Good News and hope that comes from having a relationship with Jesus who loves us all so much and longs for relationship with us.

Thank you for sharing in what we are doing.

Blessings to you all,

Ronnie +