JANUARY 2011 NEWSLETTER 

The ministry of MISSION TO SERVE ministers to Homeless, Handicapped, Hurting and Helpless children and families with Material Aid and Gospel Literature.  Our goal is to BRING HOPE IN THE MIDST OF DESPAIR!

"I have but one candle to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light."  By John Keith Falconer, Scottish missionary

                         TRIP TO ROMANIA - 2011 

We had a wonderful month's stay in Romania where we were able to minister to so many people.  The weather was really cold, but we only had to battle with the snow the week after Christmas.  After we flew back home, the really bad weather hit them and they have a lot of ice and snow now.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and who helped us financially to make the trip possible.  I was able to have my dialysis treatments and that went very well.  A trip was made to south Romania where we found the poor families we help, struggling just to survive.  Firewood and food are expensive.  Many of the families are surviving on money they receive from the sponsors.

MTS had packed Christmas boxes for all the families in our program.  In those we put winter coats, hats, scarves and gloves, along with good shoes for the winter.  The houses they live in are falling apart because they are made from cheap bricks, mud and straw.  Those places can only withstand a few years before they crumble.  One of the families of two elderly people, had poles trying to hold their house up because it is slanting so much.  We would like to take a few people this summer who would be willing to help do some construction and repairs on some of the places.  We will be raising money for some of these projects.  If anyone is interested in going to help both with labor and finances, please call us.

                                     KIDNAPPING 

A BIG PROBLEM that is continuing to exist among the gypsy people is the kidnapping of young girls from the schools or streets.  Men come from other villages and take girls between the ages of 12-18.  Most of the girls stop going to school at the age of 12 because of this fear.  They stay close to their home and are even afraid to go on the streets.  We found many of the girls in our program had been kidnapped a few months ago.  One of the families got their daughter back.  Adina Marin had been taken by an older man to his village.  He was mean and so were his parents.  Adina is a good Christian girl and tried to share the gospel but they wanted nothing to do with it.  They made her stay on her knees begging like a dog and beat her constantly.  Her parents did not know where she was but they continued to pray for her return.  Adina was able to escape and found her way home to her parents and 8 siblings.

                                   OTHER NEWS 

Russ plans to return in the Summer to do a lot of evangelism work with a Baptist minister and with a Pentecostal minister.  They will be ministering in villages where there has never been a church or gospel message presented.  While there, we purchased a lot of Bibles and also a lot of children's illustrated Bibles for the Baptist pastor named Gavrille Cuc.  He has a small church in his village and has been reaching out to several more villages.  Russ will stay in southern Romania when he works with Pastor Cuc.  They have no running water or inside facilities but it won't be so hard in the Summer months as it was in the cold below zero weather we had the entire time.

He will also be helping to build a one room house for one of the really poor orphan young men that we have helped since he was 7 years old.  He works so hard but is always taken advantage of because he has no one to help him and he is from an orphanage.  His name is Ionut Florea.  Right now he lives in the house he is trying to build and he lives with no water, electricity or heating.  The walls of the house are cement blocks, so it really holds in the cold.  Because of this he was very sick while we were there.  We were able to give him some winter clothes and new boots but he really needs a house.  Ionut has tried to do this on his own but doesn't really know what he is doing and the work he has done needs to be taken down and started over.  Russ will help him do this and buy his building materials.  We know God will provide for all of this.

We were so happy to see that so many of the teenagers had gotten baptized in 2010.  I saw many baptism photos of the yound people.  They were so happy they had committed their lives to the Lord Jesus.  They take baptism very seriously in Romania.  The young people must go to classes and really understand what commitment to Christ means before they are allowed to be baptized.  When they make this decision, they take it to heart and are very dilligent about it.  Please continue to pray for the people as they walk with the Lord.

We are still in need of a pastor in one of the village churches we built.  They have a man coming once a month, but that is not good enough.  Also, we have almost completed another church in a village.  If you would like to make a donation for the work to be finished, that would be helpful.  The inside of the church must be completed.  Also the outside needs to be stuccoed.  The outhouse is finished also.  Once it is completed and opened, we will need songbooks and Bibles for the church.

Again, thank you and may God richly bless you.

In Christian love,

Patricia and Russ Schinck