We’re currently in ‘recruitment mode’ in the STM office. This means my days are spent emailing, making phone calls, following up contacts, and generally encouraging people to get involved in some of our great mission opportunities in 2008. If I’m honest, this is not my favourite job. I prefer it when people/teams have signed up and I can actually start to work with them on their mission plans. Even more rewarding is when teams return with great stories of how God has impacted people’s lives through the mission – now that gives me a buzz. Just to give you an example, although we’ve had fewer mission teams out in 2007 (compared to 2006) we’ve actually seen more people make first-time decisions to follow Christ – 136 that we know about, and I suspect many more. I’m currently completing a summary of all this year’s missions – facts, figures and stories – so watch this space!

On 25th November I’m going back out to Romania for 4 days to do some training with the STM staff in Constanta. You might remember Iulia from the Prayer Mission report – she’s going to be our STM Coordinator. It will be great to catch up with Iulia and Mitica again – they were such an integral part of the Prayer Mission team in September.

Iulia with her hubby Mitica

I’ll be travelling with NLI colleagues, Ron & Scott, who will be doing some finances training with Ina, the project administrator. On Thursday 29th and Friday 30th November, the Romania Church Planting project will have its official launch in Tulcea. (I’m not staying for the launch.)

Ina, on a recent visit to Stratford

Please pray for the project staff, leaders, and Church Planters at the start of this 3-year project. Romania is a very traditional country. The Orthodox church is strong, and even within the Christian church there is still a lot of legalism. We have already experienced challenges in this area. The great thing is that we are working with many forward-thinking leaders, who recognise that things need to change in order to reach out to 21st C Romanians.