A Look Back! I wanted to pay tribute to a special person! This dear lady is almost 99 years & 5 Months old. She's our oldest supporter and has been a faithful prayer warrior for us. She has supported missions for many decades giving generously from her meager pension. God has blessed her for her generosity and faithfulness in giving and praying. She has just recently fallen and broken her hip, but is recoving slowly. Praise God! This wonderful lady is Laura's Grandma, Ruth Bryan! She's a dear saint and has passed along to her children, grandchildren, & great Grandchildren a great Christian Heritage. Would you send up a short prayer for her, that God would touch her physically!

This picture was taken last Christmas and you can see some of the beautiful stitch work that she does. It was a gift for the Great Grandkids to play with when they came to visit.

Fortunately for me, I'm thousands of miles away and she can't stick me with her needles that she still sews with. She doesn't like much praise and attention. Sorry, Grandma Bryan, but we want to honor you and let you know, we love you and thank you for your prayers and financial support!

The answer to the grand prize of naming the 2 children in the picture a week or so ago was none other than yours truly and my sister. Doreen & Daryl. You all won, so please feel free to send those 1000 dollar checks to the Mission of your choice. Smile a little! The world needs to see that we actually love Jesus! I've been in some stores and looked at people and thought, whatever they have, I don't want, because they looked miserable. Let the world see Jesus in you and it can start with a pleasant look, smile or nice words. God bless!

Ready to Eat! Laura and all of her helpers had the tables splendidly decorated and the food was delicious. Sorry you missed out on Laura's homemade rolls! They are the best! Homemade rolls, apple butter, grape jam, was just the start of this wonderful meal.

God blessed in a mighty way and the 4 days of preparation by Laura were well worth it. It was something very special for the children and staff of the Orphanage.

Happy Thanksgiving! We went to the Orphanage and invited the children, staff, as well as our co-laborer, Sally Sebo to celebrate the American Holiday. There were about 25 of us and it was wonderful. While many of you were sitting down to eat, so were we. It's an American Holiday so things went on as normal here in Romania. Therefore, we waited until in the evening at around 7 p.m. Laura worked hard to prepare the meal and we were rewarded with the wonderful appreciation by the children and staff. You could see the appreciation in the childrens eyes as they looked at all of the decorations and food. Laura worked hard and God blessed her efforts as she used the talents God has given to her. Thank you for making this all possible. It was worth the effort!

Two Little Indian girls! Each of the little girls got an Indian hat and the boys a Pilgrim hat. I just mentioned briefly how after God had given the Pilgrims a bountiful harvest, they got together with the Indians and gave thanks to God for His blessings. Then I gave them a few things to be thankful for and we followed that with prayer.

BTW Our modern liberal Historians are continuing to re-write History. There is enough written facts to support our Christian heritage and that it was perfectly constitutional to practice Christianity not only in the home and church but also was a very real part of our government. There are no such words as "separation of church and state" found in our constitution. Go look and you won't find them there! Not unless the liberal historians went back and added them.

Our country was founded on Biblical Principles and those were implimented into the home, church, government, and society as a whole. I am so thankful for that Biblical heritage that we have. Just visit some other countries that haven't had that heritage and you'll see that we have a lot to be thankful for. However, it also challenges me that I need to live holy and share the good news about Jesus, so that other generations that come along behind me will enjoy the same freedoms and liberties that I have.

Praise the Lord and thank you for your prayers! God answered prayer! They were calling for showers this morning and we were planning on pouring at 8:00 a.m. Well, it rained some during the night and in the early morning hours but by 7:30 the light rain had stopped. The weather has been beautiful today with even the sun coming out at times and temps. in the high 50's. The temperatures are to stay above freezing through the weekend, with some rain possibly tomorrow. However, as long as the sun stays out today, we won't need to cover it with plastic. Thank you so much for your prayers and we saw the answer to those prayers. May God bless you for your faithfulness in helping lift the load. Slava Domnului! (Praise God)

The beginning stages of pouring! The man with his back to the camera, in grey and red, is the man in charge of operating the pump. He operates it all via remote control.

Almost finished with the pouring of the second floor. We had 4 trucks of concrete with over 30 Cubic Meters of concrete. The extra is being used to finish the stairs and a side entrance. The men worked real hard and we praise God for all of His help!

Here's another picture of the re bar that had to be laid, tied, etc.

This picture is for those of you who could care less about building details! :) Here's my kids with Rita, our faithful "guard dog"!

Here's a picture of the re-bar where one of the large beams will be.

Tuesday! Well, we didn't get the work done to pour the concrete. There's just too much prep. work. You can see the re bar that has been started. The rest will be completed today! Lord willing! The men have been working through occasional showers and misty rain. The weather forecast is calling for showers in the morning on Wednesday. Please pray that God holds off the showers on Wednesday! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Here's Papa's big helper! He's been wanting to go with me to help at the work site for a long time. I told him I'd take him to help one day and so today was the day. We bought him some toy tools for his great accomplishment of potty training, so he was my big helper today.

Saturday morning! Here's the metal specialist working with the rebar. Correction on the size of these beams. They are at least 24" rather than what I mentioned some time ago.

• Saturday Morning - Day 24 As you can see, we will not be able to pour the concrete this week. The decking you see is almost finished as of Sat. afternoon. The men are finishing up the last of the columns, the decking is almost finished and the rebar beams are made. Monday, Lord willing we will do the finishing touches on the forms, lay the metal rebar and get ready to pour concrete Tuesday morning.
• Please pray for good weather without rain for Monday and Tuesday! This is critical! Thank you so much for your interest, prayers and support. May God bless each of you!
  

We are still working on the forms for the second floor. Progress is being made only it just takes time. We will not be able to pour the concrete by tomorrow. It takes many many hours to build the forms and support posts. Some of the remaining columns and small areas were poured by hand today. Tomorrow, we hope to be able to finish the decking and continue with the rebar that will be laid and tied. The boss has said that we will pour Tuesday.

• Please pray for good weather next week. The temperatures are supposed to be above freezing the whole week but they are calling for rain. Please pray not only that it stays above freezing but that the Lord will hold off the rain, the day that we pour.

• Praise the Lord that the authorizations are going much better and we are making progress in this area. This is a huge answer to prayer and pray that there aren't any setbacks with the authorizations.

Lord willing I will try to upload some pics tomorrow of where we are at by the end of the day Sat. God bless and thank you for your prayers. Continue to live for Christ, be Holy, and share your faith with others!

A Look Back! In my look back section, I have a special reward for the person who can guess the names of these 2 kids. This is my blog and we have 4 kids, so that should give you a little hint. If you can name 1 of these adoreable kids, you will receive a free coupon to donate 100 dollars to the Romanian/Fellowship Center. If you can name both of them, you will win the grand prize of donating 1000 dollars to the Romanian/Fellowship Center. Simply email me and I'll let you know who the winners are as well as the correct answers.

By the way, who said Missionaries don't have fun!

Yes, Yes, My Love! Actually those words are from our wedding song that was written by Laura's Father, Edgar Bryan I.

Do you remember all of those grapes we had growing outside our house. If not check back in the Sept. or Oct. archives. Well, Laura wanted me to make her some wreaths from the vines. So I used my God given creativity and made her a heart shaped wreath. This is the first I've ever made. Not bad for a novice! By the way, I didn't do any of the bows or things like that. If I would have tried that, you'd all be laughing. You can put in your order for next Christmas if you'd like one, since the grape season is over.
I am so thankful for the wonderful wife God has given me. One of the talents God has given her is that she is a wonderful homemaker. I know I'm a little prejudice but she's the best cook around and I've told her many times the same thing. Many people have been touched by her acts of kindness through cooking. Almost every day she's made a homemade treat for the men who work at the job sight. I've stood there and watched how those homemade treats are the first to go. If you don't politely grab one, you won't get any. Not only is she a great cook, but she teaches 3 different grades and has a daycare of 1 child, that's our little boy. There are many other qualities that I admire about my wife, but I'll pass for now. However, the most important attribute of my wife is that she loves God with all of her heart, soul, mind, strength and lives a Holy Life! May God help us in our realationship with Him and with our family.

Here's another view of the forms. The "channels" will be where the beams are with rebar approximately 1 inch thick running through the beam. You can also see the men laying the decking for the concrete floor/ceiling.

Wednesday - Day 21 Wow, I was actually able to get this picture uploaded. I had to make it even smaller to have any success. This was taken at the end of the day Wednesday.

The forms for the concrete are being made as well as the decking is just now being laid. There is one more main beam that has to be framed in, all of the support posts must be put in and then rebar over the entire area. Please pray that God will help us to get all of the work for this area done this week. There's a lot to be done yet and it looks like it won't get done this week. Please pray for God's help with the workers and with the weather.

Saturday - Day 18 This is the large multi-purpose room that we will be building the concrete forms to pour the ceiling. We must build an entire wooden form for this area. You can see where one of the 18 inch thick beams will be poured as well. Lots of wood, rebar and work needs to be done to get ready.

Please pray for good weather, no rain and above freezing, in order to pour the concrete.

Saturday - Day 18 Here's the concrete that was poured for this section.

Almost finished with the job.....for now! The stairs to the right were also poured and the extra concrete was used to pour several columns as well as several headers.

Here are the men working hard to get the concrete poured.

Day 15 - Wednesday Here's one of the cement trucks with the pump to pump the concrete. We needed 2 cement trucks to pour this particular floor.

Thank you for your prayers. We had wonderful weather today. You can see the beautiful clear skies as well as good temperatures. Continue to pray for the authorizations that are needed.

Monday - Day 13 The decking of the second floor on this side of the building is being laid. However this is the decking for the forms. Metal rebar will be inserted and then concrete will be poured, Lord willing, this week. Continue to pray for good weather and proper authorizations. God helped today by giving us very good weather. Praise God!

Monday - Day 13 Here is where the wood beams go to support all of that concrete. After the concrete is poured we must wait 21 days before these can be removed.

Saturday - Day 12 Here's the load of wood that was delivered on Saturday. These are the poles that will be used to hold up the second floor. They range in length from 3 Meters to 6 Meters. Oh yeah, most of the world uses the Metric System which is actually easier than our version where you have to deal with 12's, 36's, 5260 or whatever ft., etc. Just a bunch of crazy Americans!

Saturday - Day 12 Here's a picture of the interior of the building where forms are being built. I am standing on the platform for the stairs, 1/2 way between the 1st and 2nd floor. The forms for the windows, doors, columns, & the 2nd floor itself have to be built. By the end of the day Sat., 1/3 of the floor form for this side of the building was built and the wooden posts used to support the concrete flooring were installed.

Saturday - Day 12 Thank you for your continue prayers. We still need prayer for the approvals for certain authorizations. Thursday we were told that "the problem" would be resolved. Then Friday, we were told there was a new law that required signature by the neighbors to give their approval. This was new to all of us for no one ever mentioned it before. That was taken care of on Friday and Sat. and so now we pray that we can go and get the necessary authorizations. Many of these matters are not small matters and every seemingly little thing that has to be done is a major answer to prayer. You'll just have to trust us for we can't go into great detail on many of these matters. Continue to pray, God is helping!

Friday and Saturday amidst cold weather and some snow, work continued. The men are continuing to pour columns, build forms and lay the metal rebar in place. A load of wood was brought for the support poles to hold up the second floor concrete. When this is poured, we will have to keep the support poles there for 21 days before they can be removed. So although there appears to be little visible work done, there is a lot of preparatory work that has to be done in order to pour the stairs and second floor.

It was cold Saturday, about 18 - 20 degrees F as we began work. The man whose expertise is metal was there working with the metal rebar without gloves. I lived 2 years in Russia but that got my attention. The men have worked real hard and we thank God for the Contractor who we were able to get. He is doing a great job.

Sorry about not having pictures. I tried 3 times and was not able to upload any onto the web. Normal living in a foreign country. God bless and have a great Lord's Day!

Happy Birthday Sally! This past week was Sally's birthday and we wish her a Happy Birthday! Laura prepared the meal and we "barged in" with our tribe for a nice little celebration. Our children enjoyed playing with the children from the Orphanage and we all had a good time together.

Here's a picture of some of the rebar used in the stairs that will be poured. You can also see some of the snowflakes in the picture.

Thursday - Day 10 Here's a picture of 2 men preparing the metal rebar. They are tying the various pieces together, bending the necessary ones and cutting some as well. We'll have used almost 7 tons of rebar by the time the job is done. That's 14,000 lbs!

We had a nice morning of weather but snow, rain, & snow in the afternoon. Thank the Lord though we were able to get almost a full days work in.

Thursday - Day 10 Thank you for your prayers! Keep praying! We had a pretty good day today. The morning was nice, in the low to mid 30's but then snow and rain came in the afternoon. We had to shut down about 45 minutes early after working through the snow and rain for quite a while. Please continue to pray for good weather so the work that needs to be done over the next week to 10 days can be finished.

All of the block for the first floor walls are finished. We are continuing to make the forms for the concrete pillars as well as the door headers. Most of the pillars have been poured on the first floor and quite a few of the door / window headers. All of the forms are built by hand as well as all concrete is poured by using a mixer, wheelbarells, shovels and man power. Rebar is also tied together to put into the pillars, over the windows / doors and also in the stairs. The stairs will be poured with concrete and lots of rebar. This takes lots of time to do all of this but God has been helping and we are very pleased with the progress that has been made.

• Continue to pray for the proper approvals and signatures. Sally went today to the city to meet with some of the necessary people to see if we could make any headway and it appears like we will be given the ok tomorrow. For those of you who know about foreign countries, please don't get to excited, for things can change in a moments notice. Our enemy is fighting because he wants to stop anything that will bring glory and honor to God. So continue to pray for these men, that God will soften their hearts and give the necessary approvals.