Jesus Storybook Bible Project Update

Those of you who have read previous newsletters of mine know that I had to start a business here in Romania in order to continue living here and in my latest newsletter I shared that I was trying to get the rights from Zondervan to translate and publish The Jesus Storybook Bible here in Romania for my business Evangel Media. 

I received a reply back from my inquiry informing me that Zondervan has licensed all language rights to Lion Hudson Publishers of the UK. So today I emailed them and await their reply.

This would really be a great book to have here in Romania so please keep this project in your prayers. Thanks.

Church Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 3)

April was a busier month than usual for us here in Bucharest. The day after Easter we went up to Oradea for our annual Calvary Chapel Romania Conference. Many of the 130 that were there said it was the best conference we have had yet. Our church took care of the worship and the audio and video recording of the conference. It sure is great to be able to get together with all those attending Calvary Chapels throughout Romania once a year. .

The second week I was busy editing the video of all the sessions from the conference. It took me a bit over 40 hours to get them all done. Since I still had my regular ministry responsibilities I did some of the editing at night. The conference speakers were all English speakers with Romanian translators so it you are interested you can check out the videos at http://vimeo.com/channels/99181.

The third week of the month we had a team of students from the Bible College in Hungary come to do a week of outreach at our church. Jean, who is an intern at the Bible College this year and is from our church here in Bucharest, led the team and did a great job. They came and did evangelism in the park, helped with the school and kids ministries, painted our fence and some of the building and did other helpful things around the ministry building, Jean taught on Sunday, one of the guys led worship at the home fellowship on Wednesday and two of the students taught the men’s and women’s ministries on Thursday and one of the guys led the worship for the men. So you can see they had a busy and fruitful week. We sure enjoy having the teams come and are always a bit sad when they leave.

So the fourth week was spent catching our breath, getting caught up on things that fell by the side during the first three weeks and transitioning back into the normal rhythms of the ministries.

Home Fellowship

I really enjoy hosting and leading the Wednesday home fellowship. Florin leads the worship, Elena translates for me and I prepare some questions each week to go over based on the sermon on Sunday. We have a time of fellowship and snacks from 6:30 to 7:00 then we do worship for up to a half hour then we do the study and after we have prayer in small groups then finish the evening with snacks and fellowship. I am so thankful for the apartment God has provided for me to host the home fellowship. It is just great for activities like the home fellowship and movie night once a month we do.

Youth Group

In April we only met twice since other things were going on. So the second Thursday we finished our study of what is means to be a disciple of Jesus and the last Thursday we did an introduction to the book of Proverbs which we will go through. In addition I am having the boys read a proverb a day through the month of May so they can see the big picture as well. In addition to our studies I have had the boys (and me) memorize the books of the Bible, a basic outline of the gospel, and several gospel oriented Bible verses. 

We had three boys coming to youth group but Robert has stopped coming so there are only two now, Elvis and David. Please pray for Robert that he will turn back to the Lord. With only David and Elvis it is a challenge for me to minister to them as David is the pastor’s son and is tops in his class at school and Elvis comes from a rough background, doesn’t live with his own family and is way behind in his schooling. Elvis is involved in our school program so he gets ministered to there as well. So David and I are going to do some one-on-one stuff starting with reading through the book “The Naked Gospel” together. I’m looking forward to going through it with him.

Much to Do but So Little Time

Between my responsibilities at the church and what I am doing with the gospel and now trying to get the business going, not to mention other things that I am being asked to do, I need wisdom and direction from the Lord on how He wants me to use my time for His glory and His church. So please pray for me in this regard.

Keeping in Touch

With all the ways there are now to stay in touch it is hard to keep up with it all. When I first came to Romania there wasn’t even internet where I lived and it was really expensive to call to the States. How times have changed! So I have decided I will try and do a monthly email newsletter, a weekly prayer request on my blog and daily share tidbits on Facebook on what is happening. On Facebook I will also post links to my newsletters and the prayer requests as well, so if you just want one place to find everything Facebook will be the place to do it.

Before I send out my next newsletter I am going to be changing the system I use for sending out my newsletters to a web based one so if you get a notice about it you will know what is going on. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition.

Until next month, may the Father give you a deeper understanding and love for Jesus and the gospel.

William

Support Information

By Check

Make checks payable to: Calvary Chapel Missions or CCM

Put WA in the memo section and attached a note to the check with my name William Anderson  

Mail to: 

Calvary Chapel Boise

123 Auto Drive

Boise, ID  83709

Online Giving to William

Be sure to put “William Anderson – Romania” in the comment box

FYI

I usually receive my support on the 20th of each month so allow at least a week for your support to clear the system.

Contact Information

Email: godswillromania@gmail.com

Blog: http://godswillromania.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dulcewill/ (add me as friend)

Personal website: http://godswill.ro/

Skype and Yahoo Messenger ID: godswillromania

Landline Phone : 011-40-314-323-299 (011 if you are calling from USA) 

Time difference: add 9 hours if you live in Mountain Time Zone (10 hours Pacific)

Change in Plans - May 2010 Newsletter (part 1)

Gospel Ministry Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 2)

Gospel Ministry Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 2)

Yesterday I shared that I have started a business in order to get a visa but it is my hope and prayer that God is purposely moving me to publish really good books on the gospel as well as other media related things here in Romania. I am really excited about the possibilities of how God could use my business to be a blessing to many here in Romania. Who knows, maybe it will even make some profit and supplement my support and provide jobs for people. Time will tell.

I know it won’t be easy and I have a lot to learn when it comes to doing this type of business but I want to step out in faith and see what God does. My plan is to try and get the rights to a really good children’s Bible that is gospel oriented and have it translated and published here. Then, Lord willing, after there is enough profit from that book to do other excellent books that really explain the gospel and deal with legalism which is a problem here.

Once I get the rights to publish the book here I will begin to raise the money to translate, edit, print, market and distribute 3,000 copies of the book which I estimate will cost around €10,000 to €15,000 which is $13,000 to $19,000 given the current exchange rate. My plan is to have those interested in being involved with this to give me unsecured loans that I will pay back in two years. I am hoping to get as many Romanians as possible to be involved with this. So far I have two Romanians which have committed to helping me with this first book. If you interested in being involved with this and would like to know more then please contact me.

So next week I will send an email to the publisher of the book in the States to ask for the rights to publish it here in Romania. So please pray for me as I write and send the email and for favor with the publisher in the States when they receive the email.  While I am waiting for a response I need to find a good accountant for the business so I would appreciate prayer for that as well. I would love to find someone here in Bucharest who speaks English, has experience with the publishing business and is a man or woman of godly character.

If you would be interested in keeping up to date with how my business is doing I will be putting regular updates on my Facebook profile as things happen. Below you will find the link to my profile on Facebook if you are not already one of my friends on Facebook.

Gospel Workshop

The past few months I have been spending time reading, studying and reflecting on the gospel in response to what I felt the Lord was saying to me about getting the gospel deeper into my heart. The word that comes more and more to me when I think of the gospel is “beautiful”. For truly it is the most beautiful message ever spoken. May the Lord give me grace to do justice to His gospel in my workshop and may many people be encouraged to really take a hold of the gospel so the gospel can really take a hold of them.

At this point I have one church I am going to do the gospel workshop at while I am in the States and I am open to doing it as many times as possible. So if there are any other churches who would like me to come and do the workshop they should contact me soon while I am working on my plans for my trip to the States.

Gospel Website – http://despreisus.ro (about Jesus)

Things have been going pretty slow as far as the development of the website. I had hoped by now to have the blog up and running but it is not yet. God is still using the site though as there are almost 1,000 pageviews per month with the most popular articles being ones that deal with why one should believe in God, why one should believe the Bible is the Word of God, and why does God allow suffering.

Please pray for those working on the site and translating articles to be faithful in what they are doing. Also pray for more people who have a heart for the gospel to help translate articles and blog posts into Romanian and for people gifted with web related skills to help with the development of the site over time. I think one of the reasons things are going so slowly with the site is that there is spiritual resistance so please be praying for this as well.

That’s all for now, in part three of my newsletter I will share about our church here in Bucharest. Until then.


May the grace of the Lord be yours in abundance,


William


Support Information

By Check


Make checks payable to: Calvary Chapel Missions or CCM

Put WA in the memo section and attached a note to the check with my name William Anderson  

Mail to: 


Calvary Chapel Boise
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID  83709


Online Giving to William

Be sure to put “William Anderson – Romania” in the comment box


FYI
I usually receive my support on the 20th of each month so allow at least a week for your support to clear the system.


Contact Information


Email: godswillromania@gmail.com


Blog: http://godswillromania.blogspot.com/


Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dulcewill/ (add me as friend)


Personal website: http://godswill.ro/


Skype and Yahoo Messenger ID: godswillromania


Landline Phone : 011-40-314-323-299 (011 if you are calling from USA) 


Time difference: add 9 hours if you live in Mountain Time Zone (10 hours Pacific)

Change in Plans - May 2010 Newsletter (part 1)

Church Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 3)

The Gospel - A New Definition

I've been so busy with the gospel series I am doing now that I haven't had much time or energy to blog or do much of anything else. I have about another month to go so I would appreciate your prayers for wisdom, guidance, strength, energy and protection as the spiritual battle has intensified lately.

Below is a new definition of the gospel that I wrote based on the material I covered in "What is the Gospel Message?". I would appreciate any constructive suggestions or comments about it. Thanks.

THE GOSPEL

We are separated from God, the one who created us, because we have rejected Him and are in rebellion against Him. We have denied Him his rightful place in our hearts and lives. Instead, we have chosen to be our own gods and have looked to created things to find meaning, purpose and happiness, rather than looking to our Creator. This is called sin and from it flows all the “sins” we do.

After we die physically, there will come a day when we will have to stand before Jesus and give an account of our sin against God. Everything we ever thought or did will be revealed on that day and we will be without excuse. He will even show us the times He tried to reach out in love to provide Himself as the way for us to be reconciled to God but that we rejected His offer.

Since God is holy beyond our comprehension, sin cannot exist in His presence. Therefore, we will be found guilty and cast into hell, the lake of fire, where we will experience the wrath of God forever. There we will be separated from God forever, with no hope of ever being reconciled and restored to Him.

But there is good news, the greatest news ever! God does not want anyone to be sent to hell so, He sent His Son to provide a way for us to be reconciled and restored to Himself, by having our sin taken care of. Jesus came and lived a sinless life, then went obediently to the cross where the Father placed all the sins of the world on Him. As a result, Jesus was separated from His Father for the first time in all of eternity and then He experienced the full wrath, the full punishment for every sin. After Jesus paid the price for every sin, He rose again to life as proof that He was indeed the Son of God and had fully satisfied the wrath of God for our sin.

To receive God’s provision for our sin and be reconciled and restored to Him and become His children, we need to recognize in our hearts that we have rejected Him and rebelled against Him and confess it with our mouths. Then, we need to turn from sin to God and place our trust in Jesus and all He did for us and commit ourselves totally to Him. As we place our faith in Jesus, we must also give Him his rightful place in our hearts and lives as our King, always following and obeying Him, while we look forward to the day He will return and restore His kingdom here on the earth forever.

You can check this against what I wrote on September 12, 2007, A Definition of the Gospel. It has been viewed by people all over the world and has been as high as number 2 in Google search results for "definition of the gospel".

Second Chance - Testimony of Jean Iancu

A două şansa - Mărturia lui Jean Iancu from William Anderson on Vimeo.

Here is the first in a series of testimonies I want to do to put on the despreisus.ro website. I enjoy doing this and learning as I go. I pray the Lord will use them to touch people's lives here in Romania. Florin was talking to the guy we hired to video our concert in October and he said he would like to get involved. That would be great as he has very nice cameras and lights. I have been praying for lights so maybe this is God's answer to my prayer. Please keep these testimonies and the website in prayer. That they would be instruments God would use for His glory and to be a source of blessing to many here in Romania.

December Love Meal at My Place

December Love Meal from William Anderson on Vimeo.

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.

Thanksgiving in Bucuresti

Here are some photos that Claudia and I took during our Thanksgiving celebration at Rebekah's apartment. We celebrated with a dinner including chicken and for desert we had pumpkin pie!

Please pray for Karen Barrentine as she is has finally offically adopted Beta. She has been at this for over nine years, can you believe that! She has overcome incredible obstacles over the year through the grace of God. She really wants to be able to take Beta home before Christmas so please pray that all the remaining legal and paperwork will get done with no problem so they can go home to the States for Christmas. Karen and Beta are in the second photo in the slideshow.

Back from Bulgaria

When to Ruse, Bulgaria today to finish taking care of the visa problem I've had for about 16 months. We left early, six in the morning, so that we wouldn't have to deal with long lines of cars. You have to pay a $10 tax to use the bridge that goes over the Danube and when we paid it two guys asked us for a ride so we took them with us. They both spoke English, though one guy (Tudor) much better than the other, which gave me an opportunity to share my testimony and the gospel. Before we dropped them off I gave them one of our cards "Five Things God Wants You to Know" which has the despreisus (about Jesus) website address on it. Tudor said he would check it out so please pray for him.

The whole process since last week to take care of my problem was a lot easier than I expected though it did cost money and time. I thank the Lord for the favor and understanding I had with the people we dealt with at the immigration office and the police station. Even at the border the guard only wanted to know why I had this problem cause he had never seen an American need an interdiction paper before. Once Florin explained the situation he was cool with it.

With this, stage one is taken care of and so now on to stage two which is to get a one year visa. I have 90 days to get it taken care of. After that is done stage three will be trying to get a five year visa. I look forward to when that becomes a reality!

Thanks for your prayers regarding my visa problem, please continue to pray that I will get the one-year and also the five-year visa.

In Bistrita for Gospel Workshop

I'm in Bistrita to do the Gospel Workshop this weekend. I've been able to spend time with some of my friends here which is great. I really look forward to doing this workshop. May the Lord give me grace to serve Him well and to be His instrument of grace. Please pray for those coming to the workshop to come away with a passion to know, live and share the gospel.

Prayer Requests for Church Retreat

Today,Friday, till Sunday afternoon we will be having a church retreat near Bran for Calvary Chapel Bucuresti and Brasov. Bran is a very beautiful area this time of year with the leaves a variety of colors. I'm really looking forward to getting away from the big city and experiencing some fellowship in the mountains.

Shane, who use to pastor the church here in Bucuresti, and his wife Randie have come, along with a team of seven people from their church Calvary Chapel El Centro in California, to minister to us and our children. The theme of the retreat is "Equipped to Go". Shane will be speaking on the following things: go to the feet of Jesus, go to your family, go to your wife/husband, go to your community and go to your world.

Here are the prayer requests:

• Safe travel for everyone going to the retreat
• For a time rich in fellowship
• For everyone to be refreshed physically and spiritually
  
• For ears to hear what the Lord wants to speak to us
• For Shane, Randie and the team to recover from the jet lag and to be refreshed for their time of service
• For good weather this weekend at the retreat center
  

Prayer Request - Doing Gospel Workshop

On Saturday I will be doing a workshop on the gospel. I'm really excited about getting the opportunity to do this and I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do. The topics covered will include understanding the gospel, sharing your testimony and living the gospel. Please pray that God would stir up a passion for the gospel in those coming and that the Lord would give me grace to serve His children well.

We decided not to do the School of Ministry this year due to there not being enough students. Instead, we are starting a program called "Equipping to Serve" which is open to all those attending Calvary Chapels in Romania. Every month or two we will do an intensive one-day workshop on a Saturday covering different topics. We will do the workshops twice, once in the southern part of Romania and then also in the northern part so that more will be able to attend.

This first one will be on the gospel and then at the end of November we will do our next workshop on Bible basics. We have about 30 people signed up from two churches for this first one which will fill up our little church here in Bucuresti. Those coming range in age from 13 to 55 with many coming from villages and some with limited education. It will be a challenge and something new for me.

Corruption in Romania

You can see a seven and a half minute news video on corruption in Romania here. Below is what is posted about the video on YouTube:

Corruption is part of daily life in Romania, with almost half of Romanians admitting to paying bribes. Now the EC is putting increasing pressure on the Romanian government to end bribery. It's almost become compulsory. "They no longer mention it, you know what's expected." Some officials struggle against the rampant corruption but it often results in their dismissal. It's an ongoing battle between the politicians exploiting corruption and those fighting it. But following a push from Europe a number of high profile politicians have been charged, to the delight of Romanians. "People want to see convictions."

Please pray for God to bring justice and change in Romania.

Triple Touble- Three Wild and Crazy Boys

Here's a photo of me taken with Cristian (left) and Nicolae a few Sundays ago after church. Cristian just turned 6 on May 3rd and Nicolae will turn 7 on July 10th. They love to rough house with me so I tickle torture them whenever we are together.

They are orphans who are in placement (foster care) with Debbie, an American, who is in the legal process of adopting them. Please pray that God will give her grace and favor with all those involved in making it possible for her to adopt them.

Romanian Gospel Website

I finally got around to making a gospel website in Romanian. The domain name means "about Jesus" in Romanian. It has a very simple design for now but I hope over time by the grace of God to develop it more. Would appreciate you praying that God would use the website to get the gospel to many people here in Romania.

despreisus.ro

Prayer Requests

Greetings Everyone,

Here in Bucuresti I oversee the School of Ministry and assist with the church. We've had some big changes lately in the leadership of the church so we could really use your prayers. Adi, one of the assistant pastors, has left and Shane has handed over the church to Florin Enescu. So now we have a new senior pastor whom I will be assisting.

• Praise for the School of ministry and how it is goingFor the transition from Shane to Florin and for the people in the church to be open and supportive of Florin
• For wisdom and the gifts of the spirit for both Florin and I to serve the body
• Strength and energy for the added workload we will both have with this transition
• For God to call someone to come and minister with us as with the School of Ministry and the church it is hard right now to do justice to both
• For God to reveal His vision for our church here in Bucuresti
• To find a building for church in the heart of the city where university students are
• I desire to get an apartment in the Universiţatii piaţa to Cişmigiu park area as I feel this is the area we are suppose to minister in but the area is more expensive than other areas
• To get visa taken care of and not to get kick out of the country due to being really late
• For my monthly support to be adequate for all my needs

Google Earth View of Church

Here is a view of where we meet on Sundays in Bucuresti for church. We rent the "Alege Viata" building (Campus Crusade) as our ministry building is too small. We are looking to buy, build or rent something else so we would appreciate your prayers in this regard.

Off to a Good Start

We finished the first week of classes here at the School of Ministry and I think we got off to a good start. If you want to see the photos I took you can click here. I thank God that everything went so well.

Before classes start Tuesday through Friday we begin each day with morning devotions for a half hour. It includes worship, reading scripture & sharing about those verses and then a time of prayer. This first week Florin and I took turns leading the devotions but starting next week the students will begin to take turns leading the devotionals as well.

Another aspect of the school is that all the full-time students have to be involved in ministry either here in Bucuresti or some other Calvary Chapel in Romania. To prepare for ministry we meet late morning Fridays to talk and pray about what everybody is doing for ministry over the weekend. Then on Mondays we get together in the evening to go over what happened during the weekend, sharing struggles & problems and to pray for one another. I hope these times before and after the weekend will become a time of support and encouragement for the students as they serve the Lord.

In addition, all the full-time students who are serving in Bucuresti are required to be involved in doing street evangelism on Friday evenings. Four of us from the School of Ministry (SOM) went out last night, along with two guys from our church. We met at the ministry building at 6:00pm to worship, talk about what we are going to do and pray. Then we went to a nearby park in pairs and had a great time sharing for a little over an hour. When it was over and we got back together, to share what happened and to pray, everyone was excited about the opportunities God had given them. Next time we will stay out at least two hours!

Please continue to pray for us. Especially for the students as school is a big adjustment for them.

School of Ministry Started

Today, the School of Ministry began its fall semester. We have three full time students and a handful of part time students. You can check out some photos here. I will be adding more photos thru the week as other classes start up.

I am teaching two classes- the gospel of Luke and an intensive study of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In addition, Florin is teaching the Inductive Bible Study class and Galatians/Ephesians class. Adi is teaching the Bible survey class which covers the first half of the Old Testament this semester. When Shane gets back from the States he will be teaching Genesis.

We would appreciate your prayers for the school and those involved in it.

Off to Brasov for Outreach

I am off the Brasov today to help with an outreach that a team from my church in Boise and Calvary Chapel Cosa Mesa are doing. On Thursday and Friday evenings they will be doing a concert at a local club in a mall on the outskirts of Brasov. I am really looking forward to spend some time with Kelly Link and those on the outreach team and of course the body there in Brasov.

Please pray for this outreach, the team that is here ministering and for those who are a part of Calvary Chapel Brasov helping with the outreach. I think there is around 26 people on the team. Pray for God to open the eyes of peoples hearts to the gospel, for a spirit of conviction and repentance and for Him to call many into His kingdom.

On Saturday the outreach team will go to Bistrita to do a concert there and I will go back to Bucuresti to help get things ready for a outreach concert we are doing on Sunday with Romanian bands. More on this in a later post.

To God be the glory.

Back in Bucuresti

This is a photo I took on the train going back to Bucuresti from Bistrita on Saturday. It is a hill in the city of Sighisoara which is considered one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe. You can view the rest of the photos I took while in Bistrita and the trip back home here.

I ended up staying till Saturday in Bistrita so I could attend a conference at the Calvary Chapel there. The theme was God's love and 1 Corinthians 13 was taught Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. Ernest Updike, pastor of Calvary Chapel Garden Valley, Idaho and Ethan Larson, who teaches at the Bible College in Hungary and is from Calvary Chapel Boise were the speakers for the conference. In addition Keala and Heather Hoe and their kids Sam, Faith and Lauren came up from Brasov and Keala lead the worship during the conference.

It was great spending time in cool Bistrita but now I am back in hot Bucuresti. Sunday late afternoon we had a barbecue for the men in our church and we discussed about why men don't like church and how we could change things. Please pray that God would give us vision on how best to reach and minister to men.

Adi at the Barbecue