The Coming Year

This past year our church here in Bucharest focused on the gospel and I can see that God has worked a lot in many of the lives of those that are a part of our church. We are a very small church of around 20, with a real solid core group of 10. Our church has gone through a lot the past few years but I think we are finally going forwards on a solid foundation of the gospel. I have hopeful expectation that God will use our little church to reach many people in the coming year. We know if He does not move not much of real substance will happen but from the work He has been doing in us I think He is getting us ready for something. So with that in mind, if we do start seeing more people come to repentance and faith in Jesus I think I will become involved in helping to develop a one-on-one discipleship ministry for our church.

When the young man from our church finishes Bible School and comes back home this coming September I will hand back to him the youth group and the evangelism ministry which will allow me to focus more time on other things.

As I look to the future there are two main things that I think will take more of my time in the coming year, the despreisus.ro

website and doing the gospel workshops. I think these two things will work hand-in-hand with each other. As the site develops I think it will open doors for me to do my gospel workshop in churches throughout Romania. My vision is to do the workshop in a few cities where I know some people and develop relationships with some Christian leaders outside of Calvary Chapel. Then once I establish a good reputation I will pursue doing the workshop in as many cities as possible. The ideal thing would be to have the workshop in the largest churches in the cities and have them open up the workshop to all the other churches in their cities.

I am not under any illusion that this will be easy. In fact, it will take a miracle of God for this to happen. But since what I am doing in the workshop is calling believers to take a hold of the gospel and live their lives according to it I think God will move. So I am determined to go forward in faith that I will see this vision become a reality. Not because I am anyone special but because it is about the gospel and the one whom the gospel points to. If I fail, I fail, but it is a great vision and worthy of stepping out in faith and seeing what God will do.

The other thing I need to deal with in the coming year is my visa situation here in Romania. Because of changes in the laws a few years ago I can not get a visa through our religious association so my choices are rather limited. One of the best options for me is to start a business as they make it pretty easy for Americans to starts businesses here. I can get a 5 year visa if I do this but I will have to pay about $700 minimum a year in taxes if they don't change their minimum tax laws which they are suppose to get rid of as they are very unpopular here. I have always dreamed about starting a business here to get really good books on the gospel translated and published here in Romania as well as other media related things. So maybe God is working in this so that I can develop more gospel oriented resources and maybe provide some finances through the profits to do other things and to supplement my support. We shall see, time will tell.

I will be adding videos to Vimeo of the things we do as a church over the Christmas holiday so be sure and check it occasionally if you are interested in seeing what we have been doing. Today I added three Christmas carols we sung yesterday at church. I will embed them on the blog so you can see them.

Calvary Chapel Bucuresti, December 20, 2009

In the third of three post I will share with you about my plans to visit the States this coming year and also about my financial situation and needs in the coming year. Until then. May His peace be with you, William