Christmas is in the Air

We've had a busy couple of weeks!  Traveling, meeting with people, plugging away at language study, trying to stay up to date with end-of-year reports & goal setting...this has been a really busy month.  Here are a few highlights from the month of December so far:

 

Dec. 1 is Romania's National Day, and we enjoyed watching the military parade at Arcul de Triumf.

 

Cameron preaching at Biserica Agapia on Dec. 2, with our pastor Beni translating.

 

Jessica singing at Isus Mantuitorul on the evening of Dec. 2.

 

We had a great time visiting new friends in Sighisoara, a city in the mountains of Romania.

(Dec. 7-10)

 

Singing Christmas carols with our church, Biserica Agapia, at a Christmas party on Dec. 14.

 

White elephant ornament gift exchange at our team Christmas party on Dec. 15.

The Birth of Jesus - Luke 2:1-20

 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Although we missed our friends and family back in America, we had a great time celebrating with new friends in Romania. On Wednesday evening, we hosted several Romanian friends in our home for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which was the first time most of them had eaten stuffing and cranberry sauce. It was a really sweet time of fellowship - we each shared what we are thankful for, ate a lot, played some games, and spent time worshiping together through music and prayer.

 

 

Behold the feast! 

 

All of us gathered around the table.

 

Celebrating and giving thanks to God through worship music.

 

Our American friends had a Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday, which was really fun.  Plus, our Romanian tutor and her husband came, too.  Unfortunately, Cameron had to stay home because of a sore throat, so Jessica went by herself.  But he enjoyed the plate of food she brought home!  (His voice has now returned, and he is on his way to getting better.  Praise the Lord!)

 

 

Enjoying the meal.

 

 

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south."

 - Psalm 107

Please Pray for Our City!

In response to your requests to see what we see when we leave our apartment, we have made a short video.  Enjoy!  :)

 

"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

 - Matthew 5:14-16

A Month of Changes

Hello faithful readers!

Well, we have now been here in Bucharest for one month. Crazy! To celebrate, we thought we'd post 31 observations of how life here is different from life in the US:

1. Time difference - being seven hours ahead of friends and family makes it harder to keep in touch via phone and skype.
2. Our washing machine is in the kitchen. Interesting...
3. We have no dryer and must dry ALL of our clothes on a drying rack on the balcony.
4. We have a gas stove with no temperature gauge (so all our temps for cooking are approximate).
5. We use public transportation all the time (buses, metro, trams).
6. We still do not have wireless internet after trying to get it for three weeks.
7. Our apartment building is in the middle of the city. Sometimes evenings aren't so quiet and fresh air from open windows is not really an option.
8. Walking to the grocery store is a weekly (and sometimes biweekly) event.
9. Language...
10. Tasty salad dressing has not been found yet.
11. In order to receive a package, we must take two buses. Our first time it was hard to find, but now we know.
12. You can find taco seasoning at Carrefour (similar to Wal-mart), but nowhere else.
13. We had never been to Ikea until we moved to Romania.
14. Ikea is the only place you can find ziplocs.
15. Our daily schedule is very different and always subject to change. Typically, we have breakfast, do language study, have lunch, get out in the city for a few hours, then come home for dinner.
16. The pizza has very little sauce on it. Most Romanians add ketchup (which is pretty good).
17. Slippers for guests are an essential element in every Romanian home (because, it would be culturally unacceptable to go barefoot or wear shoes inside).
18. Most stores only have one type of thing (appliances, food, clothes, etc.). For example, if you want food, school supplies, and clothes, you have to go to three different stores (unless you go to Carrefour, which is far).
19. Beds do not have bedspreads, they have duvets. We had never heard of a duvet until moving here.
20. You have assigned seats in the movie theatre and they are serious about sticking to your seat.
21. Everyone holds on to some kind of railing on the bus and the metro. If you don't hold on, you will fall due to the jerkiness.
22. On the bus and trams, you must scan your card. But it is more like an honor system of whether or not you scan your card (many times we were the only people that scanned cards).
23. When using public transportation, the doors do not stay open very long and you must rush in and out. Most people stand by the door before the bus/metro stops.
24. Most of the ice cream here is actually gelato, which is awesome! Just can't have it everyday...
25. There is no shredded cheese, and milk is not refrigerated at the store.
26. Note cards do not exist in Romania.
27. The typical dress for church is much more conservative.
28. DVD players that play movies from the States must be "universal."
29. There is a lot of graffiti in Bucharest.
30. They have castles older than our country. (see previous post)
31. Most people are very friendly, help us in our limited Romanian, and are very forgiving when we try to speak Romanian.

This is not a comprehensive list, but there are only 31 days in the month of October.  :)

Thanks for reading!

Romanian Castles

Romania is an OLD place. For those of us from the US, whose national history began less than 350 years ago, it is hard to comprehend the ancient-ness of Romania's past. This past week we were able to visit two of Romania's beautiful castles. Here a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

 

Riding the train!

 

Peles Palace - the castle of the last king of Romania (ousted by the Communists in 1947)

 

 

 

We stayed in this cute little "pensiune" on Wednesday night.

 

 

Bran Castle (also known as Dracula's Castle)

 

 

Above the courtyard of Bran Castle

 

"Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken."

 

 - Psalm 62:1-2

Eastern Orthodoxy

While walking around Bucharest today, we visited the main Eastern Orthodox church for Romania. This is the church where the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church lives. Romania is about 87% Eastern Orthodox - a religion that emphasizes the impenetrable holiness of God through visual symbols (icons) and tradition. Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in the Bible + Tradition, while at the same time elevating Tradition above Scripture. Here is a short video displaying some of what we saw:

Here is a pretty decent resource to check out some of the similarities and differences between Roman Catholics, Protestants (so-called because they "protested" several of the practices of the Catholic Church; Baptists fall into this category), and Eastern Orthodox: http://christianityinview.com/comparison.html.
For further information on what we personally believe, see http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp.


“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."

-Acts 17:24-27

We are here!!!

We arrived safely in Bucharest last night, barely making all of our flights (our first plane was delayed), and all of our bags arrived with us...except Jessica's guitar.  She was worried, but the lady in Lost & Found assured her that a driver would bring it in the morning, which he did.  It was such a relief to have all of our belongings.  Our friend Ryan picked us up at the airport, and he even brought us dinner!  It has been so sweet of our friends here to go to such great lengths to take care of us - another family brought us dinner tonight.  Ryan and his wife also stocked our refrigerator, so we were able to cook our own breakfast this morning.  Here are some pictures of our send-off by Jessica's family and our first full day in Bucharest:

 

Jessica's sister, Christa, came over to watch the WVU football game.

 

 

 Visiting with Jessica's "PAL" Fran from church.

 

 

We probably won't have Chinese food for a while...so it was fun eating out with Amanda.

 

 

Both of Jessica's grandfathers - PawPaw & Papa.

 

 

All of our baggage at the airport counter - 8 bags!

 

 

Saying goodbye to Jessica's parents at the airport.

 

 

Cameron cooking our first breakfast in our new home!  (still slightly jet lagged...)

 

 

Good morning!  I know we look a little rough...I promise we each
showered and changed clothes after breakfast. 

 

 

While exploring on our street, we stopped a little cafe for lunch.

 

 

Where am I going to put all these clothes???  (Don't worry - they are all put away now.)

 

 

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity."

 - Proverbs 17:17       

The Final Countdown...

It has been just over a week since our training ended.  Since that time, we have visited Cameron's family in Tennessee, spoken at 3 churches (in 24 hrs!), worked on getting our finances in order, and traveled to West Virginia to visit Jessica's family.  Here are some photos of our week:

Jessica's mom came up for our commissioning service.

 



 

We visited Cameron's sister Kendall in her classroom.

 

The first church we visited was Poplar Corner Baptist Church. 
It was an encouraging and missions-focused service.

Cameron preached the Sunday morning service at Madison Baptist Church.

 

 

Sunday afternoon, we were able to hang out with some of Cameron's college friends.

 

At Ararat Baptist Church, we spent time with the youth on Sunday evening.

 

 

Our sister-in-law Amy took some awesome family photos on Monday. 
It was great spending the day together.

 

Thank you so much for praying for us.  Our flight to Romania leaves next Wednesday, Oct. 3.

 

 

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

 - Hebrews 10:24-25

"If you want to multiply, you need to simplify."

These are the inspiring words of one of our leaders at our training.  The quote means that if you want to share your faith with other people who will share their faith with other people who will share their faith........you need to keep it simple and reproducible.  If you use a lot of big "seminary" words and the original Hebrew or Greek, etc, OR if you use a lot of technology that is not available everywhere, then your hearers will not be able to reproduce your message, and so the gospel will not go forth.  If you keep it simple, they will be able to share (and will want to share) with others.

Last week, we were able to go to Washington, D.C., and share the gospel with university students using a spiritual survey.  Basically, we asked them 5 questions about their spiritual beliefs and were able to share with them what we believe - the gospel.  What is the gospel?  Basically that God created the world perfect, and the first man and woman chose to disobey God's one command: not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  When they made that choice, it broke their right relationship with God.  Since then, all people are born with that natural desire to sin/disobey.  But the GOOD NEWS is that God did not leave us to die in our sins - He sent his Son Jesus to rescue us from the punishment we deserve by living a perfect life, dying on the cross taking the punishment for our sins, and raising to life again on the 3rd day.  If you believe this message and choose to ask Jesus to be your Savior and Lord of your life, you will be saved.  For more information, we recommend: http://viewthestory.com/

If you would like to try reproducing the spiritual survey at your school or workplace, these are the 5 questions we used:

1.  On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank spirituality in your life?
2.  Which would most closely describe you spiritually?
     Examples could be: Atheist, Agnostic, Buddhist, Christian-Catholic, Christian-Protestant, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Sikh, or Wiccan
3.  Are you involved with any of the campus spiritual organizations? If so which one?
4.  What things lead you to think about spiritual things?
5.  Do you have any spiritual questions that you feel have never been answered?
OR  5.  Can I share with you about my spiritual journey?
OR  5.  If what you are believing was not true would you want to know?

 

Here are a few pictures from our D.C. trip and other friends who have come to visit us. Enjoy!

We ate lunch with Jessica's cousin Ann, who works in D.C.  It was great to see her!

Our Spiritual Survey team.

In the "Oval Office."

Megan came to visit us on Saturday!

Matt & Lindsey came on Sunday - here we are dressed up for cultural worship (Middle Eastern).

 

"The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,

entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

 - 2 Timothy 2:2

 

 

Fun with Friends

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been blessed to spend some time with some of our friends from North Carolina.  Our friend Tiffany stopped by to see us at Cookout (a great burger/milkshake place).

Last weekend (Labor Day weekend), we had the chance to visit Noelle and Jared in the mountains.  It was a sweet time in a beautiful place.



J.R. came to visit us on Labor Day.  He is a great friend with an amazing heart for the Lord.

 



Feliz cumpleanos, Tiffany!  We got to see Tiffany again and celebrate her birthday with her at a Mexican restaurant.

 



If you don't see your picture, you should come visit us!

Every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation

In the book of Revelation, God reveals to us a glimpse of the future: people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will worship Him together before the throne, singing and praising the one who took away their sin.  Here at our training, we have been able to experience a little taste of that future promise.  Every Sunday night, we worship God in the style of a different region of the world in many different languages.  Our first week, we praised God in Spanish like you would find in South and Central America.  It was really fun.  The second and third weeks, we honored the God who is drawing Southeast Asians and Southern Africans to Himself.  A really fun thing was dressing up for the African worship service:

 



Please pray for us this Sunday as we celebrate what God is doing in Europe, because Cameron will be reading a passage of Scripture in Romanian and Jessica will be singing a Romanian song.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

 - Revelation 7:9-10

On the Frontlines

Hi everyone!  We wanted to share with you how we are doing and what we are learning at our training.  Our days are filled with lots of sessions that deal with both spiritual health topics (cultivating a deep thirst for God, maintaining a consistent time in God’s Word, etc.) and practical company issues (setting up email accounts, healthy living practices overseas, etc.) One topic that is highly significant for both us and our prayer supporters (you guys) is the stark reality of Spiritual Warfare. When we go out as ambassadors for Jesus Christ, we must boldly proclaim the gospel in ways that are true to Scripture and culturally-appropriate. Here is a short video we made about this topic:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

 - Ephesians 6:12, 18-19

Training Time/End of Summer Update

Hello all! Since our last post we have traveled to Michigan, Tennessee, North Carolina, and unloaded all of our belongings in Jessica's parent's basement in Charleston, West Virginia. Thanks Mom & Dad!  This past Tuesday, we arrived at our 2-month missionary training and have been overwhelmed with new faces, information, and assignments. But God is good and we feel greatly privileged to be around so many wonderful people going out to spread the glorious gospel all over the globe! Here are a few photographic highlights from the last few weeks:

This picture was taken in Muskegon, MI (at Wendy's, actually), near Cameron's grandparent's home. It was really great seeing everyone!

 While in Tennessee, we were able to visit Cameron's parents, sister, brother and sister-in-law, and our little nephew Hank. The first picture was taken at the Dixie Stampede dinner show in Pigeon Forge and the second is on a walking bridge in downtown Chattanooga.

On July 15, our home church in Wake Forest, NC (North Wake) held a commissioning service for us. It was very encouraging!

The next Sunday, Jessica's home church in WV (FBC Nitro) commissioned us, as well. Here we are with the Pastor David and his wife Jeannie. 

Thank you so much for your prayers during our whirlwind summer. We are so excited to be a part of God's mission to redeem the nations, and for the next couple of months we will get to learn more about what it means to be Christ's ambassadors in Bucharest, Romania. For the most part, the next two months will be filled with classes about living on the mission field, staying near to God through cultural transitions, spiritual warfare, etc. We will also be doing worldview studies on the Romanian people and culture and begin thinking about what sort of tools we will need to bring the light of the gospel to the spiritual darkness of Bucharest.

We will be typing out our prayer email update list soon, so if you do not receive an email in the next few weeks or you want to be added to our list, please let us know through facebook or email Cameron at cameron_armstrong@ymail.com.

In Deuteronomy 31, Moses encouraged Joshua by reminding him the Lord would be with him as he went out into a new land with new responsibilities. As we begin these next two months of rigorous study prior to our departure, we are encouraged to remember the same.

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you;   he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” -Deuteronomy 31:7-8 

A Midsummer Day's Update

Hello faithful readers! Our apologies for not updating for a while. As promised, we have been traveling almost nonstop since our previous post, as evidenced by the pictures below. So here is how our summer has looked so far:

The service at the Romanian Baptist Church of Charlotte went very well! Jessica sang two songs that went along with Cameron's message about churches partnering with missionaries, and everyone seemed encouraged. At the close of the service, the pastor (pictured with his wife) said emphatically, "We accept your challenge." Slava Domnului! ("Praise the Lord!" in Romanian.)

We spent one week in West Virginia with Jessica's family, and while we were there we were able to help out with VBS at FBC Nitro (Jessica's home church) and visit Camp Cowen (the Baptist summer camp Jessica grew up in as a camper and later as a counselor). After our time in WV, we went down to Florida for our cruise!

Our cruise in the Bahamas left out of Port Canaveral, so we were able to visit Cameron's grandma who lives in the Orlando area. Also pictured is all of us who went on the cruise in the Bahamas (Jessica's dad, mom, brother, and sister).

We got back to Florida this past Thursday and have since made our way back to NC with short stops at Charleston and Myrtle Beach, SC. So now we are back in our little apartment for our one-year anniversary until we head up to Michigan on Tuesday for a few days, spend a week with Cameron's family in Tennessee, and then make it back to Wake Forest, NC for a frantic week of packing.

God has been so incredibly kind to us these last several weeks, and we really do appreciate all your prayers as we travel so much! Please let us know how we can pray for you, as well. 

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.    -Ephesians 1:15-23