Working and Waiting

If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him.  He is worth waiting for. - Charles Spurgeon In this season of transition we are often asked when we are returning to Romania.  The answer is: as soon as possible!  We are keenly aware of people, places, and opportunities we are missing.  Some of our schedule for this year is dictated by training we need to complete before we return to Romania.  The biggest hurdle to our return is the financial support required before we will receive clearance to head back to Bucharest.  This season requires us both to work and to wait, which sounds much simpler than it actually is.  However, in the working and waiting we are seeing God's hand at work in fresh ways. God is using our empty apartment... A young unmarried couple started attending our teammates' Bible study when they were convicted through their exploration of God's Word.  When they decided to stop living together one of them needed a new place to live.  Enter our apartment... We have an apartment in Bucharest where our books, clothes, wedding pictures, books, toys, and more books are stored in a bedroom, awaiting our return.  It is a two minute walk from the workplace of the young woman from Bible study.  This spring she moved in to our place to room with our new ReachGlobal teammate.  We are so thankful to have our apartment become a step of obedience to God for this young couple. Isobel in front of our apartment building God is caring for our family... When we are in Romania the thing that sometimes tugs, sometimes yanks our hearts towards home is family.  Since our return to the US we have witnessed the steady decline in the health of Joshua's father.  He is in the hospital as I write and his situation changes daily. While, many days, we wish we were able to be back in Romania already, we are so thankful to be able to be with Joshua's family for this time.  In this season of waiting on God, it is encouraging to see some of the purpose in His timing Joshua's father turning 85 last summer God is working in our absence... Meanwhile, in Romania, exciting things are taking place.  Our team is fighting human trafficking with a safe house for trafficked women.  Because of the impact of the first house, as well as Romanian laws about housing minors, a second safe house for younger victims of trafficking is being planned. Bucharest is a bustling metropolis where you can find a mix of languages and cultures.  The most diverse area of the city is a market called Dragonul Rosu {Red Dragon}.  A prayer group has begun meeting weekly to pray for the spread of the Gospel among the community there.  When Muslim friends stop by to join in, the meeting becomes a Bible study.  We look forward to meeting and praying with them at our return. Grace & Peace, Joshua & Kara Dunckel (and Noemi, Isobel & Anders, too!)

Moving Forward

Last year was a year of big changes for our family.  Anders' birth in September was one of the best changes you can get.  However, this year we are also enjoying another great change.  We are now officially missionaries serving with ReachGlobal instead of One Challenge.  We have good friends on the One Challenge team in Bucharest and look forward to seeing them when we return to Bucharest. However, as far as ministry fit is concerned, ReachGlobal is where we see God's place for us.  There are many benefits to this transition, and we'll list the biggest ones for you. 1. Ministry Focus.  With OC our ministry was headed more and more in the direction of MK (missionary kid) education.  While we are so very thankful for the staff at the Christian school and the ministry they have had to our children, we know the reason we came to Romania was not to work in the school, but to mobilize Romanian missionaries. 2. Healthy ministry.  ReachGlobal is committed to "healthy people living in healthy teams equipping healthy leaders in order to multiply healthy churches."  We have seen this playing out in their team culture on the field and already have seen its benefits for us personally.  The enemy does not want missionaries to survive, thrive, or be effective, so we need to be intentional about taking steps to be healthy and keep our ministry healthy.  It does not just happen. 3. Seasoned colleagues.  Our new team leaders are a couple who have been mentoring us over the last couple years.  They have been working in Romania for nearly 20 years and possess a wealth of experience and wisdom which we value highly. A few facts about ReachGlobal... ReachGlobal is the missions arm of the EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America).  They have been sending missionaries for about a hundred years. Some key points of their ministry philosophy (which we are so excited about!) can be found here http://go.efca.org/resources/document/reachglobal-sandbox-overview Their ministry vision is to to impact 100 million people with the gospel over ten years. ReachGlobal's ministry strategy is "Develop. Empower. Release."  This fits in well with missions mobilization as we develop Romanian believers who are interested in missions, empower with the tools needed for ministry, and release them into cross-cultural ministry.  We also want to develop a missions vision within the Romanian church, empower it to greater involvement in the Great Commission, and release it to do these things in a distinctly Romanian way. With a new organization comes a new budget.  We are required to be at 100% of our monthly support before returning to Romania.  The next few months will be filled with personal and professional development as well as ministry partnership development.  Please pray with us for God to prepare churches and individuals to financially partner with us in this ministry.  We are praying that God would allow us to return to Romania this July. We have already seen Him moving in wonderful ways. Grace & Peace, Joshua & Kara Dunckel (and Noemi, Isobel & Anders, too!)

Aaaaand, we're back! On the blog, that is.

Let's pretend we haven't neglected this space for the past two years, dust it off, and get a fresh start.  I'll start by posting our most recent prayer updates and plan to keep it current from there.

Spring Break!

One of our favorite parts of being involved at the Bucharest Christian Academy is seeing the various ministries other families at the school are doing.  Last weekend we kicked off our spring break with a visit to Camp Living Waters, which is run by some friends from school.  In the summer it is full of orphanage children getting fresh air, sunshine, a chance to swim in the creek, LOTS of love, Bible stories, games, good food ... the list goes on.  We went to join a group of students at the camp to help cut lumber for the BCA school playground, but the girls and I didn't do much but enjoy God's creation and the great group of people we were with.  Later this spring  we plan to go back and work on some of the buildings before summer camps begin.  One look at the pictures of kids at the camp and you would want to help out, too.

Protests

So, every night for almost a week I have ignored my desire to pick up a camera and take the metro a few stops to the site of the protests going on downtown.  Joshua (otherwise known as "the voice of reason") informed me that this was not a good idea.  Anti-austerity protests have become the quintessential European experience lately and I just wanted to see what one is like.  On the other hand, on Saturday a small minority used the protests as an excuse to indulge in vandalism and rock throwing and so, right now, Piata Universitatii may not be the safest place in the city.

A quick read of a news article will fill you in on the basic facts.  The popular minister of health disagreed with the president over health care reforms and then resigned.  Protests ensued.  The next day Basescu (the president) abandoned the reforms because the medical community opposed them.  Still, protests grew and spread to cities throughout Romania.  Today, day five of the protests, the minister of health has been reappointed.  He was willing to withdraw his resignation because the legislation he opposed had been scrapped.  Now people are still protesting, but they are protesting year-old austerity measures, age-old government corruption, and any other pent-up frustrations they have.  The conflict that sparked the protests has been resolved, but the flood of discontent it unleashed has not yet abated.

It's so good to rest in the truth that God is in control and He is good.  Because no government can give people what they want.  All our politicians are just as flawed and sinful as us.

On speaking a foreign language in a foreign land...

So today the girls and I visited the nursery at church for the first time in a while.  We were all excited to see our friends there and the kids I worked with in the last couple years have grown up so quickly.  I remember when Monica was learning to crawl and now she is walking around and talking in a grown-up little voice.  I sat down to color with her ("but not in black because it's UGLY").  When I turned to tell Isobel something (in English) she gave me a frank stare and asked, "Why do you talk so badly?"  As if English was just very poorly pronounced Romanian and I need to work on that ... asap. 

December Prayer Letter

One of the oft repeated phrases in our house is “You don’t need more stuff, you need more contentment.”  Joshua and I pull it out after toy commercials or walking past toy store windows or pretty much any contact with toys that do not belong to our children.  Some day the girls will surprise us and use it on us when we’re walking past an Apple Store.  In this season bookended by Thanksgiving and Christmas we have a welcome reminder to stop and contemplate what we have been given. 

home/hōm/  (noun) The place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of a family or household.

We have called so many places home in the last year due to our travels in the US.  We were overwhelmed by the hospitality offered us.  But at the end of our trip we looked forward into walking into our own front door and sleeping in our own beds. 

On the short walk between the bus stop and church there is an abandoned market square, with crumbling cement stalls losing the battle with the weeds.  As we walked into the cold wind this Sunday I watched some children duck out of one of the stalls, run to another and knock on the scrap wood covering the doorway.  There are families living in those buildings, without insulation, heat, or plumbing.  I am thankful for an apartment with a door that locks and windows the wind can’t penetrate, radiators giving off heat, pipes running with water.  We are richly blessed, and deeply responsible.  When I pointed the makeshift homes out to Noemi she instantly tried to think of ways to help.

We are thankful Jesus left the unimaginable luxury of His home in heaven and came to earth where he had “no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58) We are looking forward to our forever home in heaven with him, and praying that the families living in the market stalls today will join us there, living in the joy of God’s presence.

hope/hōp/ (noun) 1archaic : trust, reliance

2a : desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment; also : expectation of fulfillment or success

b : someone or something on which hopes are centered

The train’s headlights were shining on the walls of the tunnel as it headed around the corner to pull into the station.  A woman slid off the platform, onto the tracks and walked into the tunnel.  The people nearby instantly reacted with frantic shouts, arms waving.  Somehow the train stopped in time and she was rescued, for the moment.  Joshua and Noemi witnessed this episode from farther down the platform.  A few days earlier one of Joshua’s students was late to class in the morning because of a similar event on her train.  We imagine the financial climate here has something to do with these incidents, but there could be any number of explanations.  When it comes down to it, the despair of life without Christ must be overwhelming. 

We are thankful for the hope He gives us. Jesus not only gives us hope, He IS our hope.  Merry Christmas from the Dunckel Family!  Thank you for partnering with us in sharing this hope!