Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!storage.cloversites.com/bethanybaptistchurch3/documents/Merry...

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06/01/2017 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 1/6 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year friends and family! We hope you had a wonderful holiday celebrating the Good News ... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year friends and family! We hope you had a wonderful holiday celebrating the Good News with your loved ones. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to share about Jesus Christ here in Romania because of your faithful partnership. We pray that the Lord would bless you in this new year! There is much to share about as I just looked back to find my last update and realized my November update never made it out—sorry!! Usually, when winter comes the village slows down a bit. Due to the weather, this year has proved to be quite different as people are still trying to wrap up harvest and prepare their lands for spring time planting. As I am writing this Paul and Vern are outside in our backyard burning and turning our field so we can plant a big garden in the spring. With harvest still trying to wrap up, the annual winter butchering of pigs and chickens, the many Christmas church celebrations, and two new Canadians moving in, life has been busy in the village.

Transcript of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!storage.cloversites.com/bethanybaptistchurch3/documents/Merry...

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year friends and family! Wehope you had a wonderful holiday celebrating the Good News ...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!Merry Christmas and Happy New Year friends and family! We hope you had awonderful holiday celebrating the Good News with your loved ones. We are sograteful to have the opportunity to share about Jesus Christ here in Romaniabecause of your faithful partnership. We pray that the Lord would bless you inthis new year!

There is much to share about as I just looked back to find my last update andrealized my November update never made it out—sorry!! Usually, when wintercomes the village slows down a bit. Due to the weather, this year has proved tobe quite different as people are still trying to wrap up harvest and prepare theirlands for spring time planting. As I am writing this Paul and Vern are outside inour backyard burning and turning our field so we can plant a big garden in thespring. With harvest still trying to wrap up, the annual winter butchering of pigsand chickens, the many Christmas church celebrations, and two newCanadians moving in, life has been busy in the village.

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We are so pleased to announce that Vern and Gloria Wagner have moved into

our village of Szentkiraly!! They arrived November 28th to their new home. Wespent the first couple of weeks getting them settled into the old Pastorsparsonage house and running all around Romania looking for housefurnishings. In no time, Vern was up at the camp working with Tamas to get theexisting building winterized and ready for some winter rentals. Gloria was alsoquick to jump into the preparations for the holiday season joining me in bakingwith the ladies and preparing the Christmas programs and events. The four ofus joined in some of the winter butchering as we bought and butchered our ownpig, chickens and even a Christmas turkey. It was quite the cultural experience,which led to some incredibly tasty Christmas meals! It has been a blessing forus to have some more Canadians here as we were able to start up someCanadian traditions like hockey night in Romania, Christmas turkey dinner, anda New Years eve rib dinner!

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As for our ongoing ministry, the last two months were pretty full. In Novemberwe helped lead a training conference for the YFC Romania staff to build theirskills in event planning and leading as well as organizational systems. Paulcontinued with preaching, though this year during Christmas he had a lighterload only preaching 8 times over the 2 week celebration ;) I continued withEnglish class and hosted a Christmas party for the kid and teen classes. I tookthis opportunity to share about Jesus as the light of the world looking at thesignificance of the star that appeared above Bethlehem and tying it into ourVBS message this past summer. Again, this was a unique opportunity to sharethe Gospel with kids/teens that do not attend the Baptist church yet come toEnglish. We finished the night with the teens watching the movie “Elf” inEnglish, which none of them had seen and they LOVED it!

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For youth group, we did a number of activities these past months including aserving night in helping prepare the Wagner’s home and a Christmas potluckdinner. I was given the responsibility to create and lead the Christmas Eveprogram. It was a neat opportunity to think and pray through how best tocommunicate the Good News in a creative way that would translate well intoHungarian and the culture itself. The kids and teens did well in memorizing theirlines for the play (which was lots of scripture passages) and they did a great jobpresenting the story of the Gospel stringing together the Old and NewTestaments. This Christmas break we challenged our teens to lead a kidsChristmas program. We worked with them in brainstorming ideas for theprogram and then released it into their hands to lead. They did an incrediblejob! They came up with the theme of Jesus being the best Christmas gift. Theymade fun Santa party hats for all the kids, they led some funny ice breakergames, created a nativity craft, wrote a puppet show and even shared ateaching with the kids. We were so impressed and proud to see them lead inthis way! It was especially encouraging to see two of our young teen boys Obedand Beni have the courage to share the teaching. This was a big step for themto think through a message for the kids­­they were quite nervous about it. Butthey did an incredible job in making their teaching engaging and powerful!

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As Paul and I have been looking back at this year, we can’t help but feel thatthe years are getting fuller and busier. We are praising God for this! It would beeasy to feel tired by it all, but we are feeling extremely encouraged by what Godis doing here in Romania and the ministry opportunities He is inviting us into.God continues to open our eyes to the ways He is moving here and the waysHe is opening doors to do His work for His Kingdom! We are so grateful thatyou allow us to be here to do this. We are grateful for your prayers as theycontinue to be a huge encouragement to us. Thank you for your involvement inthis life changing, Kingdom building ministry! We truly hope you knowthe impact that you are making on us, and the people of Romania.

Tanya & Paul