It has been almost one year since we have been troubled by this pandemic.  Because of the Covid virus we have been limited in what we can do.  We cannot meet to worship like we did before (photo of "socially-distanced" tea party).  We have been doing everything remote.  We even have school and worship services on Zoom.  We cannot have parties with friends like we used to.  We must wear masks and stay socially distanced.  We are beyond tired.  We are burned out.  The psalmist voiced our feelings when he wrote Psalms 6.  

Read verses 2, 3, 6, and 7.

“²I am worn out, O Lord; have pity on me!

          Give me strength; I am completely exhausted
³             and my whole being is deeply troubled.
How long, O Lord, will you wait to help me?”

“⁶I am worn out with grief;
          every night my bed is damp from my weeping;
          my pillow is soaked with tears.
⁷I can hardly see;
          my eyes are so swollen
          from the weeping caused by my enemies.”

That certainly sounds like how we feel some days.  We are just tired.  No, we are burned out.  We have about reached our limits.  In addition to the virus we have experienced extreme weather (photo of Dutch snowstorm).  It seems our world is
falling apart.  How long will we have to endure this?  Where is our hope?  The problem is that we are not yet at the end of the Psalm.  The answer is in the rest of the story.  Look at verses 8 and 9.

The Lord hears my weeping;

⁹         he listens to my cry for help
          and will answer my prayer.
 

We are not alone.  The Lord hears our weeping.  God is a loving God and like a loving mother He loves His children and watches and listens to every cry we make.  He hears every whimper.  He sees every tear.  He will answer our prayer.  God is still with us.  The apostle Paul said he could live with the difficulties because he could feel the presence of Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).  I pray that we will all: Be smart, be careful, be helpful, be safe, and not be afraid.  God is with us now and forever.​

 

Dale D. Meredith

Pastor, University Baptist Church, Amherst, New York and

Professor Emeritus, State University of New York at Buffalo

Survey said . . .

We recently sent out a survey to the readers of our monthly prayer letter.  We also posted an opportunity to give feedback on this blog. If you'd like to respond, go back two posts. 

One of the responses to the prayer letter survey suggested adding maps from time to time. For example, this one shows the Netherlands, where we live and Moldova, where we partner on a lot of projects.

Other responses suggested more photos. Maybe like this one, of a current project in Moldova. Two Romany women have started a children's Bible club.  Romanian-speaking partners in Sweden (Alina) and Romania (Nella) meet with them weekly (online) for prayer support and to suggest games and activities. Partners in Germany pay for the expenses.

Or this one, of Keith dubbing a scripture video. He completed a short one earlier today. The video was suggested by Nella who arranged for the Romanian-speakers. It will be used in this children's Bible club. (Same process, though this photo is from a different project.)

One of the changes will definitely be to make this blog more mobile/cell phone friendly. If you have additional suggestions or comments, feel free to let us know!

Coordinating Resources: Firewood

Our official job title is "Resource Coordinators." Firewood is a resource we recently coordinated.

Kennedy Laubing, a pastor in Germany, felt led to help Romany in Moldova. He and his wife knew of my Moldova connection and asked me to go with them. 

We've gone together three times now. While there, we introduced them to Petru Ciochina, pastor of a Romany church in the village of Vulcanesti, and Eduard, one of the believers from that church. They decided to partner together.

So Kennedy's German charity (Humanitar21) raised funds for firewood and food packages. We sent those funds to Petru. Petru and the believers in Vulcanesti arranged to buy and deliver the wood.

According to Petru, "People did not know that they would receive firewood. 

Some were asleep, but were awakened by the noises falling from the wood. 

They were surprised."

God worked through a chain of His children to make this happen. It is a privilege to be a small link in that chain.

New Intern and Survey for you!

Sofia Hines, Intern

Hi all! This post is a little different. My name is Sofia Hines, and I'll be serving with Mary this semester as a Student.Go Intern. I'm a sophomore college student living in North Carolina and I'm here to help out with the ministry's social media presence, which includes this blog! 

We've created a brief survey with a few questions to see what our readers enjoy about these posts and what you'd like to see more of. At the end of the form, there is an option to be contacted for a short call if you'd be willing to share any further thoughts you have. We want to hear your insights and look forward to having plenty of survey responses and about 4-5 volunteers for phone calls or Zoom meetings by the end of the week.

To complete the survey, click here!

Thank you!