A Call to the City

“How was your calling confirmed this last year?” This was the question we were given 3 minutes to answer during our annual late-October retreat of PAOC Global Workers, gathered together this year in Spain, from across Eurasia.

Forming a reply brought to mind not only our initial calling to international ministry when we were young teens but to a specific call as young adults during our 1st assignment in Mexico. After taking language classes in Guadalajara we travelled with our truck and a 5th wheel trailer – our home on wheels – spending time with graduates and pastors connected to the Bible School in Monterrey, directed by Bill and Gerda Brown.

After 2 years of ministry – many in remote areas of the country where blue eyes, for example, had never been seen before – Pastor Marco Polo Núñez asked if we would return to Guadalajara to work with him in the church plant that he was establishing. “We need young couples like yourselves to work with the emerging middle class in the city – those who can influence society both up and down the social spectrum.”

Over the years our ministry has unfolded along that directive as we have served alongside pastors, leaders, young adults and families in urban settings. Even this last month, here in Romania, that calling was affirmed as we facilitated a workshop with the university students and young professionals of our Bucharest International Church community. We savoured the ‘’buzz’’ around the tables as they discussed: “Your Identity in Christ… Own It!” It has been an honour and privilege to invest in the lives of dozens and dozens of these bright, young adults, to be considered “spiritual parents’ to many, to see how they have grown in Christian maturity and are now men and women of influence in their sphere of life both in this city and nation and around the world.

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A Call for Help

We are so grateful to those who have supported us faithfully throughout these 40+ years of ministry. The call is still active in our lives and our service requested in the countries in which we serve. As we move towards 2018 we find we have reached a critical stage where we need to find new levels of financial support for our work and ministry to continue. If not, we will enter the new year with ministry expenses but with a significant loss of salary. If you know of someone who would like to partner with us, their help would be of great value at this time.

Bucharest International Church:

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you….”

2 Peter 1:2

In a recent sermon, Pastor Cristi characterized life for many in Bucharest by two ‘O’ words of the Romanian language – ‘ocupați’ and ‘obosiți’ – ‘busy and tired’. Great Patience and Great Grace is so often needed in everyday interactions and circumstances. Pray with us that our Leadership Ministry Team of the Bucharest International Church would find a daily source of joy, peace, and grace, that brings strength for each new day.

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Reaching Out Romania Update:

“I work with the children (victims of human trafficking) because no one else loves them or cares for them.” Iana Matei, director

A mother called Child Protection Romania so that they would place her daughter, a young 13 year old, in protective care. She was brought to the Reaching Out home in Cluj, North Central Romania, and the rest of the story became apparent. “She was stealing my clients,” admitted the mother. The daughter’s response was, “My mother loves me. I can help my family to eat.” “This thinking is not right,” declares Iana emphatically, “A young girl should not think it is normal to service men in order to help her family.”

When we take the 2 hour drive from Bucharest to Pitesti to meet with Iana, often there are others who are already in her home or office talking with her, such as the journalist from France wanting an interview, or, more recently, our Regional Coordinator, Stephen Hertzog, along with his new associates Cal and June Anthony, and Pastor Adam from Calgary. We hear the stories and always our hearts feel so heavy for the girls. Yet, we leave in a positive way knowing that Iana and her son, Stefan, have great faith as they continue to persevere and trust God. Iana continually says, “This is God’s work!”

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Iana requests prayer for:

1. Wisdom & love for the girls,
2. That God will draw girls to the shelter who will be open to His love and care,
3. That the girls will come to know the true ‘lover of ages’, Jesus Christ.

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‘Lavandelina’ in the Romanian language, means soothing or comfort. “The gift that soothes” is an appropriate slogan for the bottles of essential oil of lavender, produced for the 1st time on the agricultural land donated to Reaching Out Romania a couple of years ago. Oil that will produce a profit and therefore self-sustainable homes and places of comfort and healing for the girls, the victims of human trafficking.

By next Spring, lavender plants for a further 15 acres of land need to be purchased, a tractor to more easily harvest the crop and a distillery to capture a greater amount of oil from the seeds so there is no loss during transport. The time is right; there are only a few farmers in Romania growing lavender and the demand for essential oils is currently on the rise.

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Pray that the large supermarkets will be open to the idea of creating a ‘Social Corner’ so that people will choose to purchase the product knowing that the profits help to provide food, clothing, a home and a future for the girls rescued from slavery.

Thank you to all who contributed! The new solar panels supple abundant power to the new girl’s home in Craiova.

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Connect with us:

Dan and Mardell MacTavish
Global Workers Eurasia

14166 Malabar Avenue,
White Rock, BC V4B 2Y3
www.mactavish.blog