Here is a chronological Bible reading plan in both English and Romanian:
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Reflections: Looking Back - Looking Forward
For the last Sunday of 2008 four people shared. Florin started sharing with a look at some of the things that had happened over the past year. Then Jean and Elena, who are from our church and are attending the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Hungary, shared what God has been teaching them at school. I finished our time by sharing for 15 minutes, in English with Romanian translation, with a few reflections from the past and then sharing our vision for our church for the next year. We are calling 2009 "The Year of the Gospel" and will make a serious effort to focus on knowing, living and sharing the gospel. During the first month or so I will be reviewing what I went over in the gospel workshop with some additional materials and changes. After that we will go through the book of Romans as it is a book rich with the gospel.
At the end of the service we gave out a spiritual inventory survey to everyone and we will use the information from it to help us determine what we need to do as well as we will meet with each person and go over their survey with them. If anyone is interested in seeing the survey I put together you can email me and I will give you a copy. I have it in both English and Romanian.
If you would be interested in watching our Sunday sermons I have set up a channel on Vimeo- Calvary Chapel Bucuresti. When Florin teaches the sermons are in Romanian only but when I teach they are in English with Romanian translation.
At the end of the service we gave out a spiritual inventory survey to everyone and we will use the information from it to help us determine what we need to do as well as we will meet with each person and go over their survey with them. If anyone is interested in seeing the survey I put together you can email me and I will give you a copy. I have it in both English and Romanian.
If you would be interested in watching our Sunday sermons I have set up a channel on Vimeo- Calvary Chapel Bucuresti. When Florin teaches the sermons are in Romanian only but when I teach they are in English with Romanian translation.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Crăciun Fericit (Merry Christmas)
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:16-17
May the Holy Spirit open your eyes more and more to the wonder and majesty of God's grace to us in His Son, who became flesh and dwelt among us.
To see the version of the video with Romanian subtitles go here.
May the Holy Spirit open your eyes more and more to the wonder and majesty of God's grace to us in His Son, who became flesh and dwelt among us.
To see the version of the video with Romanian subtitles go here.
Best Christmas Day Blog Posts
Here are my favorite blog posts that I came across this Christmas day:
- Christmas Longings - The Cruciform Life Blog
- Jesus is the Reason - The Assembling of the Church
- Love's Pure Light - Cerulean Sanctum
- One Glorious Whole - Of First Importance
- Ponder - Kingdom People
- Saint Nicholas - The Resurgence (Mark Driscoll)
- The Real Christmas Story - Real Christianity
Colinde de Craciun (Christmas Caroling)
Here is some video I took on Monday and Tuesday nights of our caroling at the metro (subway), our neighbors, and at the main hospital here in Bucuresti. Our hope was to share the gospel and the love of God in His Son. The video begins showing some of the practice we had before we went out on Monday night. In the metro section you will see people putting money in the guitar case. This is a Romanian custom which many people participate in. When you go caroling to neighbors or people you know it is customary for people to give treats or money.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Great Comments from an Atheist
Not What I Expected (Part Seven)
Below is part seven (and final part) of my newsletter that I sent out recently. If you would be interested in getting my newsletter and prayer requests you can subscribe here.
I hope this seven-part newsletter, while long, has given you an idea of what has been going on with me and my ministry since I moved to Bucuresti in February of 2007. I am so thankful for the privilege God has given me to serve Him in this place. I have my struggles and weaknesses and I realized that I don’t deserve to be His servant but His grace to me is more than sufficient. Praise be to him forever and ever!
Before sharing a few prayer requests with you I have some questions for you. Do you treasure Jesus and the gospel above all else? Do you have a passion for Jesus and the gospel? Are you growing in your understanding of the gospel? Does you life flow from the gospel? Do you desire to see your family, friends and others come to know Jesus and the gospel? If not, I encourage you to pray to God that He would change your heart an! d life s o that these things are true of you. It is my prayer for you. Become a Gospel-Driven person and encourage your church to be a Gospel-Driven church. Jesus is coming soon! Focus on what's important.
Here is a music video I put together for last Christmas. It is in English with Romanian subtitles: It’s About the Cross
Prayer Requests:
Grace be with you all,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
My health has been pretty good which I thank God for. I rarely get sick or have problems with my body that limit what I can do except for the problem I have with my knees which resulted from years of being on my knees while teaching gymnastics and now growing older. For those of you who do not know back in 1999 I came close to death due to severe hyperthyroidism and it took years to recover from the effects of it.
What health related issues I have had have been related to the amount of hours I work which at times has resulted in me living off my adrenaline and not eating right or getting exercise. In July I decided to lose weight and start exercising. Since I left Brasov in December 2006 I had not done any fitness or sports related activity to speak of and I had put on 14 pounds. But since July I have lost 15 KG/33 lbs with a goal of 16.5 KG/36 lbs by the end of the year. I exercised using dumbbells consistently the first three months but since have not done much as I have been extremely busy spending 12 to 14 hours at work most days. I am trying now to get back into a habit of working out.
Recently I sent out some prayer requests in an email and I shared about my support needs but not everyone who gets my newsletter gets the prayer requests. But that is going to change; from now on I will use this newsletter email system I have to also send out my prayer requests so people can unsubscribe if they want. I will do it to both lists for a few times to give people a chance to subscribe to the email system if they want to continue to receive my prayer requests. Here is what I wrote:
“On a personal note I would really appreciate prayer concerning my support which has been very low for some time. When I came to Bucuresti in February 2007, after being in the States f! or two m onths, my support did not increase as much as it needed in order to live in Bucuresti. So I did not get an apartment right away but rather lived at the ministry building for a year (for four months of that I watched someone's apartment while they were in the States). Living at the ministry building wasn't the best situation but it let me save up a lot of money. After being here a year God dropped a great apartment in my lap at a good rental price for Bucuresti though it was almost as much as my total monthly living expenses in Brasov. About two months after moving in I sensed the Lord telling me to be very careful with my money cause my support was going to dry up. I shared this at our monthly pastors meeting and one of the guys said he sensed that as well for me in his spirit. So with that confirmation I have been very careful and sure enough most months my support has been only one-third to half of what I need. I think God was preparing me ahead of time for the impact the financial crisis was going to have on my support. He is so good! So if any of you are looking for a missionary to support I have a great opportunity for you.”What health related issues I have had have been related to the amount of hours I work which at times has resulted in me living off my adrenaline and not eating right or getting exercise. In July I decided to lose weight and start exercising. Since I left Brasov in December 2006 I had not done any fitness or sports related activity to speak of and I had put on 14 pounds. But since July I have lost 15 KG/33 lbs with a goal of 16.5 KG/36 lbs by the end of the year. I exercised using dumbbells consistently the first three months but since have not done much as I have been extremely busy spending 12 to 14 hours at work most days. I am trying now to get back into a habit of working out.
Recently I sent out some prayer requests in an email and I shared about my support needs but not everyone who gets my newsletter gets the prayer requests. But that is going to change; from now on I will use this newsletter email system I have to also send out my prayer requests so people can unsubscribe if they want. I will do it to both lists for a few times to give people a chance to subscribe to the email system if they want to continue to receive my prayer requests. Here is what I wrote:
I hope this seven-part newsletter, while long, has given you an idea of what has been going on with me and my ministry since I moved to Bucuresti in February of 2007. I am so thankful for the privilege God has given me to serve Him in this place. I have my struggles and weaknesses and I realized that I don’t deserve to be His servant but His grace to me is more than sufficient. Praise be to him forever and ever!
Here is a music video I put together for last Christmas. It is in English with Romanian subtitles: It’s About the Cross
. I shared this at the Christmas program we did for David’s seventh grade class yesterday (Thursday). I put some photos from it on my blog. Remember that is where you will find videos and videos of what I am doing and stuff on the gospel. You can subscribe to be notified when I post something new on my blog in the right sidebar.
Prayer Requests:
- Wisdom and grace to use my time efficiently and effectively as God wills.
- For strength, energy, vision, creativity, resources, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to serve the Lord well and bring glory to Him.
- For my support to be adequate to live in Bucuresti.
- For God to open a door for me to minister to university students, I have been praying for this since this June.
- For our church here in Bucuresti to become what Jesus desires it to be and to be a light and a source of blessing to the city.
Grace be with you all,
William
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to . There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Monday, December 22, 2008
Christmas Celebration
Some of the celebration we had at church on Sunday, December 21. It includes clips of the worship, giving of presents and the fellowship meal.
Not What I Expected (Part Six)
Below is part six of my newsletter that I sent out recently. If you would be interested in getting my newsletter and prayer requests you can subscribe here.
One of the others things I wasn’t expecting when I moved to Bucuresti was how much the gospel would take a hold of me and become a focus of my heart and my ministry.
As I was coming to the end of my time planting the church in Brasov I decided that the best thing I could do is finish by doing an in-depth study of the gospel for our mid-week Bible study. I really enjoyed studying the gospel; I had never focused so intensely on it before. In doing the study I began to appreciate more and more the beauty and power of the gospel and wanting to learn more. So after I got settled in somewhat to Bucuresti I started a study of the gospel at the church on Tuesday evenings. For me these two studies were a time for experimenting and getting a feel for what I should cover in the study, how to teach it and what kind of homework to give. When you lead a study you are the one who learns the most, which is one of the benefits from doing it.
One thing that surprised me in both these studies was how little most those coming to the study knew about the gospel. These were the people who were, for the most part, active in the church and most of them had been Christians for a quite some time. So when I began planning out the curriculum for the School of Ministry I decided to include a class on the gospel for each of the four semesters. The titles I came up with were understanding the gospel, living the gospel, proclaiming the gospel and defending the gospel.
As I searched the internet for materials on the gospel and what people were saying about it I got the idea that it would be awesome to have a site where all the best stuff on the gospel was in one place. That was the beginning of thinking about making a gospel oriented website. Since then I have been making a database of all the best stuff I can find, searching the web almost daily. I also began to put posts on my blog about the! gospel as a way to get started doing something as I find that is the best way to learn and go forward.
The first semester of the school we studied “understanding the gospel” based on an outline I had developed from the first two studies I did and it was pretty intensive. The class was an hour and a half for fifteen weeks. I didn’t just give the students a bunch of information but would give them lists of Bible verses and some examples and have them write out weekly assignments so it would force them to think. In Romania most education is giving information, memorizing it and saying it back. I was not interested in that. So the class really was a challenge for the students.
From the class I put together a detailed outline of the gospel, the Bible verses for each part of the outline and my writings from some of the assignments into a booklet which is over 30 pages long. If you are interested in looking at it you can download it from the links right below. I don’t get much feedback on them but I sure would like some. I know it still needs a lot of work but it was what I could do with the time I had.
The second semester we studied “living the gospel” and I started from scratch with this class as far as developing the materials to be covered. I think the class opened the students eyes to how the gospel applies to living the Christian life but I still have a long ways to go before I will feel content with what I am teaching about living the gospel.
After we closed the school and began discussing doing workshops one of the pastors wanted us to start with the gospel. That perked up my ears and I volunteered to do it. Since it would be an intensive weekend workshop I had to do a lot of thinking and planning for it. I came up with powerpoints to use with the workshop. If you are interested I put them on SlideShare, you can see them here: English Romanian . I did the workshop twice and the first time I videoed it and added the powerpoints to the video. I made a channel on Vimeo if you would like to check them out.
After the holidays I hope to work on my materials more for the workshop. I plan on dividing it into two separate workshops, one for understanding the gospel and another one for living the gospel. Then I pray that God will open a door for me to do this workshop all around Romania and wherever else God would want me to do it.
In the seventh and final part I will share about my health, support, prayer requests, etc.
To God be the glory through Jesus Christ forever,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
One of the others things I wasn’t expecting when I moved to Bucuresti was how much the gospel would take a hold of me and become a focus of my heart and my ministry.
As I was coming to the end of my time planting the church in Brasov I decided that the best thing I could do is finish by doing an in-depth study of the gospel for our mid-week Bible study. I really enjoyed studying the gospel; I had never focused so intensely on it before. In doing the study I began to appreciate more and more the beauty and power of the gospel and wanting to learn more. So after I got settled in somewhat to Bucuresti I started a study of the gospel at the church on Tuesday evenings. For me these two studies were a time for experimenting and getting a feel for what I should cover in the study, how to teach it and what kind of homework to give. When you lead a study you are the one who learns the most, which is one of the benefits from doing it.
One thing that surprised me in both these studies was how little most those coming to the study knew about the gospel. These were the people who were, for the most part, active in the church and most of them had been Christians for a quite some time. So when I began planning out the curriculum for the School of Ministry I decided to include a class on the gospel for each of the four semesters. The titles I came up with were understanding the gospel, living the gospel, proclaiming the gospel and defending the gospel.
As I searched the internet for materials on the gospel and what people were saying about it I got the idea that it would be awesome to have a site where all the best stuff on the gospel was in one place. That was the beginning of thinking about making a gospel oriented website. Since then I have been making a database of all the best stuff I can find, searching the web almost daily. I also began to put posts on my blog about the! gospel as a way to get started doing something as I find that is the best way to learn and go forward.
The first semester of the school we studied “understanding the gospel” based on an outline I had developed from the first two studies I did and it was pretty intensive. The class was an hour and a half for fifteen weeks. I didn’t just give the students a bunch of information but would give them lists of Bible verses and some examples and have them write out weekly assignments so it would force them to think. In Romania most education is giving information, memorizing it and saying it back. I was not interested in that. So the class really was a challenge for the students.
From the class I put together a detailed outline of the gospel, the Bible verses for each part of the outline and my writings from some of the assignments into a booklet which is over 30 pages long. If you are interested in looking at it you can download it from the links right below. I don’t get much feedback on them but I sure would like some. I know it still needs a lot of work but it was what I could do with the time I had.
The second semester we studied “living the gospel” and I started from scratch with this class as far as developing the materials to be covered. I think the class opened the students eyes to how the gospel applies to living the Christian life but I still have a long ways to go before I will feel content with what I am teaching about living the gospel.
After we closed the school and began discussing doing workshops one of the pastors wanted us to start with the gospel. That perked up my ears and I volunteered to do it. Since it would be an intensive weekend workshop I had to do a lot of thinking and planning for it. I came up with powerpoints to use with the workshop. If you are interested I put them on SlideShare, you can see them here: English
After the holidays I hope to work on my materials more for the workshop. I plan on dividing it into two separate workshops, one for understanding the gospel and another one for living the gospel. Then I pray that God will open a door for me to do this workshop all around Romania and wherever else God would want me to do it.
In the seventh and final part I will share about my health, support, prayer requests, etc.
To God be the glory through Jesus Christ forever,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions
page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Delirious Concert in Bucuresti
On Saturday night there was a Delirious Concert here in Bucuresti. A group of us from our church went. Cost was about $10. They put on a great concert, really rocked out with worship and gospel oriented songs. Martin Smith is pretty much "the man" for the group. He put out a lot of energy and seemed to really enjoy himself on stage. I heard they are retiring the band soon. It was great to get a chance to see them live. The video is a collection of clips I took with my photo camera. Quality of video and audio is pretty poor but you can see some of the energy of the band and crowd. Enjoy.
CC Bucuresti Christmas Sermon
Here is the sermon from church today. The title is "What does Christmas mean to you?" I took video with my photo camera of some of the worship and some our celebration after church which included giving presents, food, baby shower and watching the movie "The Nativity Story". I will post that probably tomorrow.
Not What I Expected (Part Five)
Below is part one of my newsletter that I sent out recently. If you would be interested in getting my newsletter and prayer requests you can subscribe here.
Howdy Y’all,
Here is part five of my newsletter:
My main regular responsibilities regarding our church here in Bucuresti is to help pastor the church and assist Florin in any way I can. On Sundays I open our time in worship, video the sermons, do the announcements at the end and after to edit, render and upload the video of the sermons to the internet. On Wednesdays I lead the Bible study which in January will be changed to a home fellowship at my apartment. God really blessed me with a great apartment for doing this. There is a tram that stops in front of my building, the apartment is on the ground floor which is usually used for businesses so there is no problem having people over and the living room is really big and it has marble floors. From the moment I got the place I knew I would want to use it for ministry. I look forward to seeing it used to bless people.
There are also many projects and things that come up in addition to these things. In October we did an outreach concert focused on teens and university students. We hope to do two per school year if the Lord provides the money to do them. Tomorrow, December 18th, we will go to Florin’s son David’s seventh grade class to do a Christmas program. Florin has asked me to come and share something focused on the gospel. Next week on Monday through Wednesday we will do Christmas caroling at the main hospital, at some of the metro (subway) platforms, in the neighborhood of our church and in the village of one of our sister churches.
In addition to these things I oversee our monthly pastor meetings for all Romania where we get together for a time of prayer, discuss plans for our workshops, conferences and other activities and having much needed fellowship. I also put together media related materials for the pastors and their churches.
A big chunk of my time also goes to developing media for the gospel and Bible teaching. The two main forms of media are video and websites. In addition to videoing our sermons on Sunday whenever we have workshops, conferences, retreats, or other special events I try to video them and put them online. There is not much good Jesus focused, grace oriented Bible teaching here in Romania so I want to provide a way for people to get access to it.
I have three websites, two Romanian and one English, which I have and/or am developing that have a gospel focus. The English site, christlinks.net , is a site that is still in the planning stage and will have as its focus bringing together in one place all the best blog posts, articles and websites related to Jesus and the gospel and to be a place to learn what the gospel is and how it applies to life. There is a lot more I want to do with the site but this is what I will start with. If any of you have a passion for the gospel and would be interested in being involved with this project please email me. For now please pray for this project, it is way beyond me but I don’t care. I am going to give it my best shot and see what happens. I am praying that God will provide the finances, the people and resources needed to make this dream become a reality and I also hope that it will also be a way of supplementing my support over time.
You can find links to my online videos and photos on the right sidebar of my blog. (see link to my blog below) I can’t figure out how to get a link to all my videos on Google Video so here is a link to one of them. Look in the upper right corner for access to the rest of my videos under the tab “more from user”.
The two Romanian sites are despreisus.ro (about Jesus) and kaleo.ro . The despreisus.ro site will be similar to christlinks.net site but starting more with a focus on explaining the gospel and how to live it. It will also have videos that explain the gospel, music videos to promote the gospel and testimonies. I started the kaleo.ro site to promote our outreach events and to make it available to promote all gospel related events in Romania but since doing our concert in October the Lord has open our eyes to use the site to encourage young believers to live the gospel, to be a light to the friends and to use our outreach events to bring their lost friends and colleagues. Both sites are up and running but despreisus.ro is only partially done. I hope to get the home page up soon.
I had hoped to share about how the gospel has become a major focus in my life but this is already too long. Next time in part six I will.
The grace of our Lord be with you all,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Howdy Y’all,
Here is part five of my newsletter:
My main regular responsibilities regarding our church here in Bucuresti is to help pastor the church and assist Florin in any way I can. On Sundays I open our time in worship, video the sermons, do the announcements at the end and after to edit, render and upload the video of the sermons to the internet. On Wednesdays I lead the Bible study which in January will be changed to a home fellowship at my apartment. God really blessed me with a great apartment for doing this. There is a tram that stops in front of my building, the apartment is on the ground floor which is usually used for businesses so there is no problem having people over and the living room is really big and it has marble floors. From the moment I got the place I knew I would want to use it for ministry. I look forward to seeing it used to bless people.
There are also many projects and things that come up in addition to these things. In October we did an outreach concert focused on teens and university students. We hope to do two per school year if the Lord provides the money to do them. Tomorrow, December 18th, we will go to Florin’s son David’s seventh grade class to do a Christmas program. Florin has asked me to come and share something focused on the gospel. Next week on Monday through Wednesday we will do Christmas caroling at the main hospital, at some of the metro (subway) platforms, in the neighborhood of our church and in the village of one of our sister churches.
In addition to these things I oversee our monthly pastor meetings for all Romania where we get together for a time of prayer, discuss plans for our workshops, conferences and other activities and having much needed fellowship. I also put together media related materials for the pastors and their churches.
A big chunk of my time also goes to developing media for the gospel and Bible teaching. The two main forms of media are video and websites. In addition to videoing our sermons on Sunday whenever we have workshops, conferences, retreats, or other special events I try to video them and put them online. There is not much good Jesus focused, grace oriented Bible teaching here in Romania so I want to provide a way for people to get access to it.
I have three websites, two Romanian and one English, which I have and/or am developing that have a gospel focus. The English site, christlinks.net
You can find links to my online videos and photos on the right sidebar of my blog. (see link to my blog below) I can’t figure out how to get a link to all my videos on Google Video so here is a link to one of them. Look in the upper right corner for access to the rest of my videos under the tab “more from user”.
The two Romanian sites are despreisus.ro
I had hoped to share about how the gospel has become a major focus in my life but this is already too long. Next time in part six I will.
The grace of our Lord be with you all,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Not What I Expected (Part Four)
Below is part four of my newsletter that I sent out recently. If you would be interested in getting my newsletter and prayer requests you can subscribe here.
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Greetings Again,
Here is part four of my newsletter:
I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be involved with the School of Ministry. It was enjoyable, challenging, intense, and stretched me more than I expected but isn’t that what we really want and need when it comes to serving our Lord? I never felt adequate for what I was doing but I had hopeful expectation that God would take what I did and use it for good.
We started the school year in September 2007 with three students expecting more over time. Instead, while we gained one more student during the spring semester, two of the three left after the first semester as they got married and decided to go to Italy to work. But even with just a few students Florin and I were determined to do the best we could to teach and serve them. It was a challenge for us as only one of the students was really able to handle the classes. The rest had little previous education or aptitude for it so we spent some of our time teaching them how to study and get the most out of classes.
At the end of the first school year we decided to close down the school to focus more on the church since we didn’t know of any new students planning on coming the next year. We contacted the main Calvary Chapel Bible College in Europe and talked to them about taking the one student who did well. They asked for our class syllabi and after checking them out they told us they were impressed by what we had done and gave the student full credit for the entire school year. Just a few days ago I was chatting with this student online and asked how our program here in Romania compared to the one where she was now and she said they were pretty equivalent. We only charged $100 per semester while Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe charges over $3,000 but that also includes housing and meals. Still, considering everything, I think we had a program we could be proud of.
After we closed the school we began a discussion among the pastors of the various Calvary Chapel churches and ministries in Romania about what we could do to equip people for ministry. Keala Hoe, who was pasturing in Brasov at the time, gave us some great ideas about doing monthly workshops which we took and developed through much discussion. In October we had our first workshop on the gospel basics and sharing your testimony in Bucuresti then again in Bistrita in the middle of November. The next workshop was a week later in Ciorani and it was on an overview of the Bible. In January this workshop will be repeated in Bistrita and in February 2009 we are doing one on how to study the Bible. We call this program "Equipping to Serve".
We are doing each workshop twice, once in the southern part of the country and then in the northern part, to help keep travel costs down for the churches. But every third one or so we are planning on meeting in Brasov which is near the center of the country so that everyone can be together.
I had the privilege of doing the first workshop, Florin did the second and Razvan Pop from Cluj will do the third one in February in Brasov. We want to get all the pastors involved in teaching the workshops as much as possible. For the first workshop, between the two cities, we had about 60 people attend so we are pleased how things have turned out so far. Though I am sure these workshops will change and develop the more we do them.
In part five I will share what I am doing now and how the gospel has become a major focus of my life.
In the grip of His grace,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.comHere is part four of my newsletter:
I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be involved with the School of Ministry. It was enjoyable, challenging, intense, and stretched me more than I expected but isn’t that what we really want and need when it comes to serving our Lord? I never felt adequate for what I was doing but I had hopeful expectation that God would take what I did and use it for good.
We started the school year in September 2007 with three students expecting more over time. Instead, while we gained one more student during the spring semester, two of the three left after the first semester as they got married and decided to go to Italy to work. But even with just a few students Florin and I were determined to do the best we could to teach and serve them. It was a challenge for us as only one of the students was really able to handle the classes. The rest had little previous education or aptitude for it so we spent some of our time teaching them how to study and get the most out of classes.
At the end of the first school year we decided to close down the school to focus more on the church since we didn’t know of any new students planning on coming the next year. We contacted the main Calvary Chapel Bible College in Europe and talked to them about taking the one student who did well. They asked for our class syllabi and after checking them out they told us they were impressed by what we had done and gave the student full credit for the entire school year. Just a few days ago I was chatting with this student online and asked how our program here in Romania compared to the one where she was now and she said they were pretty equivalent. We only charged $100 per semester while Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe charges over $3,000 but that also includes housing and meals. Still, considering everything, I think we had a program we could be proud of.
After we closed the school we began a discussion among the pastors of the various Calvary Chapel churches and ministries in Romania about what we could do to equip people for ministry. Keala Hoe, who was pasturing in Brasov at the time, gave us some great ideas about doing monthly workshops which we took and developed through much discussion. In October we had our first workshop on the gospel basics and sharing your testimony in Bucuresti then again in Bistrita in the middle of November. The next workshop was a week later in Ciorani and it was on an overview of the Bible. In January this workshop will be repeated in Bistrita and in February 2009 we are doing one on how to study the Bible. We call this program "Equipping to Serve".
We are doing each workshop twice, once in the southern part of the country and then in the northern part, to help keep travel costs down for the churches. But every third one or so we are planning on meeting in Brasov which is near the center of the country so that everyone can be together.
I had the privilege of doing the first workshop, Florin did the second and Razvan Pop from Cluj will do the third one in February in Brasov. We want to get all the pastors involved in teaching the workshops as much as possible. For the first workshop, between the two cities, we had about 60 people attend so we are pleased how things have turned out so far. Though I am sure these workshops will change and develop the more we do them.
In part five I will share what I am doing now and how the gospel has become a major focus of my life.
In the grip of His grace,
William
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Friday, December 19, 2008
David's Class Christmas Program
After the program the students had a party and I had a great time with them. I did some stupid magic tricks, told jokes and answered their questions about America and myself.
I videoed the program. After school starts up again in January we will invited them to come to our ministry building to watch it. May the Lord used what was shared at the program in the lives of the students, teachers and parents and may He open the door for us in an ever bigger way with them.
Not What I Expected (Part Three)
Below is part three of my newsletter that I sent out recently. If you would be interested in getting my newsletter and prayer requests you can subscribe here.
Dear Friends,
Here is part three of my newsletter:
As you could imagine the challenges were indeed intense at first. While I didn’t enjoy the situation we were in I had a certain hope and excitement that I would see God would move in the midst of our situation. Because Shane had been busy with the adoption process and dealing with his health problems, many things regarding the church and its ministries had gone undone for some time. Then with both him and Adi gone we just had to deal with the mess the best we could. It kept us in prayer which was a good thing.
Some of the challenges for us were dealing with getting the legal papers for our religious association in order, continue the process that had been started to close down the foundation which had focused on helping orphans adjust to life when they left the orphanage, getting the accounting figured out and in order, making changes and improvements in our ministry building, dealing with the expectations of those coming to the church and their adjustment to the new situation, the offering going to almost zero which affected certain people who were being helped out by the church, and now having only two teachers for the School of Ministry instead of four.
We felt the Lord wanted us to continue the school so we did. It would have been a lot easier on us if we would have stopped the school but looking back we both know that it was indeed good that we continued. Not only for the students but for Florin and myself as well as God used everything to stretch and grow us.
The biggest challenge was the time to do everything. My days usually were 12-14 hours long with rarely a day off. To give you an example during the spring semester my teaching load alone involved the equivalent of preparing three hour-long sermons, two inductive Bible studies, teaching church history and developing and teaching a class from scratch called “Living the Gospel. I also was administrating the school, helping to pastor the church, and developing gospel projects, websites and media. Most things we couldn’t do as well as we wanted but we did the best we could with the time we had. As I look back I am amazed we got through it all but realize it was only by the grace of God. Praise be to Him forever and ever!
In part four I will share what happened with the school and the changes we made.
To God be the glory,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
Dear Friends,
Here is part three of my newsletter:
As you could imagine the challenges were indeed intense at first. While I didn’t enjoy the situation we were in I had a certain hope and excitement that I would see God would move in the midst of our situation. Because Shane had been busy with the adoption process and dealing with his health problems, many things regarding the church and its ministries had gone undone for some time. Then with both him and Adi gone we just had to deal with the mess the best we could. It kept us in prayer which was a good thing.
Some of the challenges for us were dealing with getting the legal papers for our religious association in order, continue the process that had been started to close down the foundation which had focused on helping orphans adjust to life when they left the orphanage, getting the accounting figured out and in order, making changes and improvements in our ministry building, dealing with the expectations of those coming to the church and their adjustment to the new situation, the offering going to almost zero which affected certain people who were being helped out by the church, and now having only two teachers for the School of Ministry instead of four.
We felt the Lord wanted us to continue the school so we did. It would have been a lot easier on us if we would have stopped the school but looking back we both know that it was indeed good that we continued. Not only for the students but for Florin and myself as well as God used everything to stretch and grow us.
The biggest challenge was the time to do everything. My days usually were 12-14 hours long with rarely a day off. To give you an example during the spring semester my teaching load alone involved the equivalent of preparing three hour-long sermons, two inductive Bible studies, teaching church history and developing and teaching a class from scratch called “Living the Gospel. I also was administrating the school, helping to pastor the church, and developing gospel projects, websites and media. Most things we couldn’t do as well as we wanted but we did the best we could with the time we had. As I look back I am amazed we got through it all but realize it was only by the grace of God. Praise be to Him forever and ever!
In part four I will share what happened with the school and the changes we made.
To God be the glory,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Not What I Expected (Part Two)
Below is part two of my newsletter that I sent out recently. If you would be interested in getting my newsletter and prayer requests you can subscribe here.
Greetings Again,
Here is part two of my newsletter:
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
Greetings Again,
Here is part two of my newsletter:
While it was difficult for me to adjust to living in Bucuresti I enjoyed the adjustment to serving in the church. After going through the challenge of starting a church from scratch in Brasov it was great to be able to serve in a church that was past the start-up phase with over one hundred people attending the church. In the beginning I taught on Sundays and Wednesdays occasionally and after being there about a month I started a class on the gospel on Tuesday nights. My main goals at first were to get to know the people in the church, help in any way I could at the church and to start getting everything ready for when we would start the School of Ministry in the fall. Once school started I expected that would be my main focus with some time for developing media ministry stuff.
During this time Shane Herman, the pastor of the church, and his wife Randie were in the process of adopting Brennan, who had been placed with them since he was a baby. In early June the adoption was finalized and they took him back to the States for a visit till the end of August. A week before we started up the school in September Shane called and said he was having serious heart problems and wouldn’t be coming back for awhile. Shane had serious asthma problems and living in Bucuresti had put his body through a lot of stress with the dust and pollution. So we had to make some adjustments.
There were three of us serving as assistant pastors at that time. Adi, who had combined his church with Shane’s a few years before, Florin, who had just moved to Bucuresti in July to be the worship pastor, having been a pastor of a Calvary Chapel in Severin for twelve years and myself.
So we started the school and together the three of us worked to take care of the church in Shane’s absence. Things went pretty good for the most part though we did have to deal a handful of sexual immorality issues with some serving in the church. But I sensed in my spirit that things were going to change and that it was not going to be easy but that God was planning on doing something different with the church and taking it another direction. I sensed correctly!
The first week of November Shane came back and gave the church to Florin as his heart problems were not getting better. I wholeheartedly agreed with Shane’s decision but unfortunately Adi did not. So Adi left and started his own church and many went with him. We had many foreigners in our church but the majority left with Adi which I took as God working to get our focus on reaching Romanians. While this whole situation was hard on everyone I think it was for the best long-term.
So there we were Florin and I, the new boys in town, kind of in a daze, having just started the school a month before now the pastors of the church which had shrunk to about 30 people. Not what we expected!
In part three I will share some of the challenges we went through.
God bless,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.comWebsite: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Not What I Expected (Part One)
Below is part one of my newsletter that I sent out recently. If you would be interested in getting my newsletter and prayer requests you can subscribe here.
Dear Friends,
As we come up to the end of another year I wanted to take some time to share with you what has happened since I moved to Bucureşti. (Bucharest is the English way of spelling it but I prefer to use the Romanian spelling.) In October I celebrated 11 years serving the Lord in Romania. It is hard to believe it has been that long but I know a lot has happened in that time and a lot has happened since I moved here.
I arrived in Bucuresti on February 1, 2007 after spending two months in the States to visit and raise more support. To say that what has happened since I moved here was, “not what I expected”, is an understatement! I knew my adjustment to living in a city of over three million would not be easy but I never expected what was going to happen. My time in Bucuresti has been challenging, intense and humbling but I think that is a common experience for many missionaries and servants of God.
My adjustment to living here was a lot harder than I expected. This city has over twice as many cars than the infrastructure can handle so it takes a long time to get anywhere. The only exception is the metro (subway) which I take as much as is possible. It is best to leave for work around 7:00 in the morning in order to avoid the traffic. Add to this that most people don’t obey the traffic laws and are constantly honking their horns. If it weren’t for the traffic cops the city would be in gridlock all day long.
Like any other big city people tend to be rude, always in a rush and seem very unhappy most of the time. You have to watch your back as it is not safe as most other places in Romania. A few times I had to fight off small gangs of young teens who were trying to steal from me. But my guess is that it is safer than a lot of big cities in America since they have strict gun control here.
I think what gets to me the most is the noise; it is constant during the day. When I get out of the city I really appreciate the quiet. During the first summer I was here I reached the breaking point for me. It was so humid and hot, which I don’t handle well, that I got heat rash. The temperature got up to 50 degrees Centigrade/120 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point I wanted to leave and never come back.
You know what got me through this? It was the Word of God. During this time I read Jeremiah 29:4-7 and Jonah 4:11. In those scriptures I saw God’s heart for the people of big cities. So rather than focus on what I don’t like about living in a big city I began to focus on God’s heart for the people. I wish I could say that I had the same heart as God does for the people but I don’t. Maybe occasionally I do but it is not constant. That’s ok though, I know He loves them and desires them to know His Son and that is good enough for me. Do I like living here now? Bucuresti has grown on me a lot but it will probably never be the place I desire to live but it is a place with lots of people whom God loves and who need Jesus and so, for me that is enough.
In part two I will share about the church split we went through.
In His awesome grace,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
Dear Friends,
As we come up to the end of another year I wanted to take some time to share with you what has happened since I moved to Bucureşti. (Bucharest is the English way of spelling it but I prefer to use the Romanian spelling.) In October I celebrated 11 years serving the Lord in Romania. It is hard to believe it has been that long but I know a lot has happened in that time and a lot has happened since I moved here.
I arrived in Bucuresti on February 1, 2007 after spending two months in the States to visit and raise more support. To say that what has happened since I moved here was, “not what I expected”, is an understatement! I knew my adjustment to living in a city of over three million would not be easy but I never expected what was going to happen. My time in Bucuresti has been challenging, intense and humbling but I think that is a common experience for many missionaries and servants of God.
My adjustment to living here was a lot harder than I expected. This city has over twice as many cars than the infrastructure can handle so it takes a long time to get anywhere. The only exception is the metro (subway) which I take as much as is possible. It is best to leave for work around 7:00 in the morning in order to avoid the traffic. Add to this that most people don’t obey the traffic laws and are constantly honking their horns. If it weren’t for the traffic cops the city would be in gridlock all day long.
Like any other big city people tend to be rude, always in a rush and seem very unhappy most of the time. You have to watch your back as it is not safe as most other places in Romania. A few times I had to fight off small gangs of young teens who were trying to steal from me. But my guess is that it is safer than a lot of big cities in America since they have strict gun control here.
I think what gets to me the most is the noise; it is constant during the day. When I get out of the city I really appreciate the quiet. During the first summer I was here I reached the breaking point for me. It was so humid and hot, which I don’t handle well, that I got heat rash. The temperature got up to 50 degrees Centigrade/120 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point I wanted to leave and never come back.
You know what got me through this? It was the Word of God. During this time I read Jeremiah 29:4-7 and Jonah 4:11. In those scriptures I saw God’s heart for the people of big cities. So rather than focus on what I don’t like about living in a big city I began to focus on God’s heart for the people. I wish I could say that I had the same heart as God does for the people but I don’t. Maybe occasionally I do but it is not constant. That’s ok though, I know He loves them and desires them to know His Son and that is good enough for me. Do I like living here now? Bucuresti has grown on me a lot but it will probably never be the place I desire to live but it is a place with lots of people whom God loves and who need Jesus and so, for me that is enough.
In part two I will share about the church split we went through.
In His awesome grace,
William
Email: godswillromania@gmail.com
Website: godswill.ro
Blog: godswillromania.blogspot.com
If you would be interested in giving a one time gift or supporting me regularly you can do so online or by mail. If online go to my church's Donate Online to Missions page and click on the arrow next to Romania. There a drop-down menu will appear where you will see my name. If by mail make the check out to "Chapel Missions" and attach a note saying it is for "William Anderson". On the envelope write:
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Calvary Chapel Boise
ATTN: Jana Patton
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Media Related Statistics
I was curious how many times the videos had been viewed that I had put up on the internet so I went to all the sites and checked the statistics. In addition I checked out the statistics for the despreisus website and my Flickr account. The statistics are as follows:
Total Views of Videos - 57,860
Gospel Related Videos in English - 15,381
Gospel Related Videos in Romanian - 13,190
Flickr Total Views- photos and albums - 28,289
DespreIsus Website - since November 18, 2007
Unique Visitors - 1,364
Romanian Unique Visitors - 864 from 81 cities
From Other Countries - 500 from 40 countries
Total Views of Videos - 57,860
Gospel Related Videos in English - 15,381
Gospel Related Videos in Romanian - 13,190
Flickr Total Views- photos and albums - 28,289
DespreIsus Website - since November 18, 2007
Unique Visitors - 1,364
Romanian Unique Visitors - 864 from 81 cities
From Other Countries - 500 from 40 countries
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
December Love Meal at My Place
This past Sunday, December 7th, we had our monthly "love meal" at my apartment. I really enjoyed having everyone there. It reminded me of the Bible studies I use to do at my apartment in Brasov.
One of the other benefits of having it at my place was it motivated me to get things fixed in the apartment and to clean it really good. Being that I am single and work most days around 12 hours makes it hard to do much else. Doing anything in Romania takes much more time than you would expect and here in Bucuresti it is even worse. So I had to take some time from work to get everything done and have the apartment ready. But it was well worth it.
Starting in January we will stop doing our Wednesday night Bible studies and instead we will begin a home fellowship at my apartment. I hope the change in setting will help foster more community and fellowship. Time will tell.
I still need to work out a contract for renting the apartment with the owner and if the Lord provides I hope to fix up the living room with more large plants, colorful paintings, window coverings, a big throw rug and whatever else will help make it an oasis in this crazy city. I have wanted to do this when I first moved in but I didn't have the money. I would appreciate your prayers for these things.
Give Me Your Eyes
[HT: Gospel Paramount - check out what he wrote about this song]
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Basic Definition of the Gospel
Tim Chester and Steve Timmis (from their book Total Church)
God made humanity to know him and to rule over his good creation. But humanity rejected God, and ever since we have lived in rebellion against him and in conflict with each other. But God chose Abraham and his family to be the beginning of a new humanity. He rescued this people from slavery and made a covenant through which they could relate to him and display his glory to the world. When they persistently rejected God, he promised a remnant who would continue the promise of a people who know God. He promised a new covenant bringing forgiveness for sin and his Law written on their hearts. Ultimately Jesus was that faithful remnant. He died for his people to redeem God’s new humanity. And he rose as the first among many who would enjoy new life in a new creation. God is now gathering his people through the mission of the church and will present them, drawn from all nations, as the perfected bride of his Son.
Definition found on the blog post 2 Ways to Explain the Gospel on The Fool's Gold by Johnathan Bowers.
FYI
You can see an updated list of all the basic definitions I have posted so far here on Google Docs.
God made humanity to know him and to rule over his good creation. But humanity rejected God, and ever since we have lived in rebellion against him and in conflict with each other. But God chose Abraham and his family to be the beginning of a new humanity. He rescued this people from slavery and made a covenant through which they could relate to him and display his glory to the world. When they persistently rejected God, he promised a remnant who would continue the promise of a people who know God. He promised a new covenant bringing forgiveness for sin and his Law written on their hearts. Ultimately Jesus was that faithful remnant. He died for his people to redeem God’s new humanity. And he rose as the first among many who would enjoy new life in a new creation. God is now gathering his people through the mission of the church and will present them, drawn from all nations, as the perfected bride of his Son.
Definition found on the blog post 2 Ways to Explain the Gospel on The Fool's Gold by Johnathan Bowers.
FYI
You can see an updated list of all the basic definitions I have posted so far here on Google Docs.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Basic Definition of the Gospel
John Ortberg
The availability of life, with God, in his favor and power, as a gift of grace we receive by repentance and trust, through the death and resurrection of Jesus—that's the gospel with power.
The availability of life, with God, in his favor and power, as a gift of grace we receive by repentance and trust, through the death and resurrection of Jesus—that's the gospel with power.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Calvary Chapel Bucureşti Channel on Vimeo
I created a channel on Vimeo for our Bible teaching that is videoed. You can check it out here at Calvary Chapel Bucureşti Channel
Gospel Quote - A Divisive Jesus
Don Carson
“Jesus, the Jesus who confronts the world, is quite frankly a divisive Jesus. This divisiveness is unavoidable, not only because of the unyielding truth-claims he makes for himself, but because at the heart of his message and purpose is the bold insistence that men and women can be rightly related to God only if they know him and come to him on his terms. This unabashed, exclusivist, either/or mentality lies at the heart of the New Testament, and can be removed only by radical surgery on the documents. To resort to such devices because we are uncomfortable with the historical Jesus is merely another way of saying that we reject him in favor of a tame Jesus, a domesticated Jesus who will not challenge us or tell us we are wrong, force us to rethink our most fundamental assumptions, or question our most cherished priorities.”
Quote found in the blog post, Peace on Earth and Interfaith Dialogue on Culture Watch by Bill Muehlenberg.
You can see an updated list of all the basic definitions I have posted so far on Google Docs.
“Jesus, the Jesus who confronts the world, is quite frankly a divisive Jesus. This divisiveness is unavoidable, not only because of the unyielding truth-claims he makes for himself, but because at the heart of his message and purpose is the bold insistence that men and women can be rightly related to God only if they know him and come to him on his terms. This unabashed, exclusivist, either/or mentality lies at the heart of the New Testament, and can be removed only by radical surgery on the documents. To resort to such devices because we are uncomfortable with the historical Jesus is merely another way of saying that we reject him in favor of a tame Jesus, a domesticated Jesus who will not challenge us or tell us we are wrong, force us to rethink our most fundamental assumptions, or question our most cherished priorities.”
Quote found in the blog post, Peace on Earth and Interfaith Dialogue on Culture Watch by Bill Muehlenberg.
You can see an updated list of all the basic definitions I have posted so far on Google Docs.
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