Fouts Family in Romania

Spring 2021 Family/Ministry update

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Sun, 16 May 2021 22:11:00 +0000

Hristos Inviat

I look at the past year as just a reminder that all is not right in the world that we live in. Last Spring we celebrated Easter by having no one in Church's, no one outside, no one celebrating with extended family, It was by far the strangest Resurrection celebration we have ever had. People’s lives being thrown into turmoil with the loss of jobs, businesses, and even their health. All of their plans and hopes seem to disappear overnight. As I was thinking about these things I was reminded that the disciples went through something very similar.

They had invested 3 years of their lives with Jesus being a part of a close community. They traveled with him, talked with him, listened to him served with him, ate with him, gave up everything to follow him. Yet in a moment they watched their teacher, their friend, being betrayed by one of their own and taken away to be condemned by religious leaders who handed him over to the Romans, they then watched him be beaten, scourged, and dragged off and crucified, with him they watched all of their hopes, their plans, their dreams, being nailed to a tree and watched all of them die.

Can you imagine the emotions, the loss, the questions, the hopelessness? In the book of Luke Chapter 24 On the road to Emmaus, we have recorded a snapshot into what the disciples were feeling, as they recounted to Jesus, whom they did not recognize, all of the things that Jesus did, all the promise and hope that they had in him.

And in midst of their story, they share that some of the women among them shared with them that the body of Jesus is not in the tomb and that He has risen. I want you to think about that because they are so overwhelmed with the hopelessness of their situation that this news, which is amazing news, it does not make an impact. It was not just these men on the road to Emmaus all of the disciples, start hearing different witnesses with the same account trickling in, that Jesus has risen. But their response is the same, unbelief.

I think it is a much-needed reminder for all of us. Easter shows us that not everything is right in the world. But more importantly, the resurrection of Jesus is a reminder that not all is lost, that not is all dark, that not all is without hope. God is still on the throne and he is still and has been in control.

Easter is not just about a broken world but also about a Redeemer who died and was raised to life again to give us new life so that that which was broken and not right would be mended and made right again.

The world that we see today, full of problems and suffering, injustice, hate, violence, cruelty, is a constant reminder that not all is right.

This is the world that we created due to our rebellion against God. The solution is our need to be reconciled to God. The relationship that was broken due to our rebellion against God by our sin needs to be restored.

That is only possible through the cross of Christ. On the cross Jesus shed his blood for us, on the cross, Jesus experienced the wrath of God as he cried out God why have you forsaken me. There on the cross, Jesus became the propitiation for us. Meaning that his death extinguished the wrath of God forever for those who accept him as their Lord and Savior because his death satisfied the requirement of God on our behalf.

Easter is not just about a broken world. But about the lengths, a loving redeemer would go to mend that which was broken and make it right again.

Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus should not be limited to a one-time event on our calendar. But should be a reality that all of us wake up to every morning.

This was part of an Easter message that I shared with our church in Bistrita and felt like all of us could use a reminder. I hope you find this an encouragement to you as well.

Jesus has risen

Praise Report:

Cynthia was able to help her mom with her move and get her settled in her new home. We are so thankful that she was able to do this. And that she was able to come back to Romania without any problems and celebrate Easter with all of us.

Romania just changed their rules so now people do have to have a mask outside when walking in town. The other restrictions still apply countrywide but they are saying that they will gradually loosen them throughout the summer. So we will see.

Prayer Requests:

We just sent in long-term residency requests for all of the girls and will have to wait a few months to hear back from the Romanian government for approval and to finish the process

Cynthia and I will start our renewal process in September so pray for favor with all of that.

Prayer, as we have been able to start up our Sunday school for kids again with the relaxed rules and our youth group. Pray for fruit in the lives of the kids.

Summer/Fall Update 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 15:34:00 +0000

I remember roughly 18 years ago Cynthia and I attended a leadership conference at Calvary Chapel Boise. I remember trying to get to the conference that day was particularly challenging. We had our Son Kaidon at the time, who was around 18 months or I don't remember if we knew we were pregnant with Sedona yet. We were in rush to get there and upon arriving at the church Kaidon promptly threw up in the back of the car from car sickness resulting in a change of clothes the cleaning that following and showing up even more late for the conference.

Both of us were sitting through the different speakers of which all were good. But we both remember the Lord speaking directly to our situation because we are talking and praying about missions. The Speaker, said, something to effect, take your plans, your five-year plans, your ten-year plans, your retirement plans, all of those things for your life, and ask yourself is this what the Lord wants for me? Are you willing to surrender your plans, for his plans?

We don't remember who it was that said that. But God used that greatly in our lives to challenge us to give up our plans and embrace his. If anything this last year has been a continuous reminder that surrendering to his plan is not just a single event, but a daily action.

We spent roughly 2 months in lockdown, meaning, staying in our house, and only leaving for essential items or trips, i.e. groceries, paying bills, accompanied by a signed paper, that stated your destination, where you were coming from how long you would be out. There were checkpoints set up in different areas of our city to check if you had the right paperwork and make sure you were obeying the curfew. Lines to go into everything became the norm, it was interesting listening to the older Romanians talk about how this was just a return to what they had under communism. Even now, going into certain buildings, governments, or banks, you have to wait in a line to go in.

We switched to an online service and with only worship and teaching online. The President begged people during the Easter Holiday week to refrain from attending services or having family and friends over for a Gratar/BBQ.

I still remember how surreal that morning was as I was driving to church. There were no people in the town, nobody walking, nobody, riding a bike, hardly any cars, all the stores were closed, parking lots were empty and all the churches were quiet.

As the weather warmed up we were lucky to have a large courtyard and built a cornhole game from leftover wood that we had and spent many afternoons after school playing games and watching the kids riding bikes in a circle or playing bike when the weather was nice. When the weather wasn't cooperating we played cards, Jenga, and introduced the kids to all of the classic 80's movies that we grew up with.

We were still hoping that our plans for the summer activities would somehow still happen only to be told that restriction would still be in place, we were excited however at the beginning of summer to not be restricted to our home and allowed to venture out. By July they had loosened the rules enough to invite people back into the church observing social distancing rules and as of September, we have started our midweek study back up with a small group meeting.

Sunday's are a mixture of different people attending physically and tuning in through our Facebook live stream. Mask's our daily part of our lives now it seems and will continue to be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. Through it all God has been good, no one in our church has been sick through all of this and we have seen more visitors this year since meeting again than normal.

Fall usually means our annual Women's tea but due to group size restrictions, we opted instead to celebrate a baby shower for our worship Leader's wife Diana. It was so much fun to watch the ladies of the church gather together for games and dinner to bless Diana with amazing gifts. Cynthia said everyone had a great time.

Sunday after the baby shower we had a baptism providing an opportunity for those who wanted to make a public statement of faith in Jesus. Brian had the privilege of baptizing Crina, one of the long-time employees of the after-school program with New Beginnings, and her mother. It was so exciting to hear how both of them felt like the Lord had told them it was time to be water baptized. An additional blessing for our family was both Sage and Ryley, wanted to be water baptized as well. Such an awesome weekend.

While this year has been one of the most challenging for us with the lockdown, restrictions, and constant changes in our plans. I am constantly reminded that God is not bound by lockdowns or restrictions that his plans are never impacted and that we have to learn continuously that it is ok when things are not going how we planned. Whether it the first step of faith or our hundredth. We are constantly being pulled out of our comfort zone and stretched. God is still on the throne no matter what life throws at us and he is absolutely for us and uses us in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. Our prayer through this has been that with all of this craziness around us, people might wake up start asking questions, and genuinely start seeking answers and that they would be divinely directed to someone who would introduce them to the God who can still calm the storm, the God that still saves.

Praise report:

The baby shower was such a blessing for Diana and Ionuts as the prepare in December to welcome their first child into the world.

Thankful for those who chose to make a public statement of faith in Jesus. Praying for continued protection for them and a deep desire to grow in their faith.

Prayer requests:

Prayer for one of the couples in our church who are struggling with some property line challenges. A neighbor passed away and his son has inherited the land but is challenging the existing property lines. Prayer for wisdom and strength and clarity for all who are involved. This is still an ongoing problem for them please keep Mitica and Ildi in prayer.

They have also released the guidelines for the schools and depending on what county your in will depend on how the school is going to start, red zoned counties mean online-only, yellow-zoned counties mean classes. will split the week half attending the other online then vice versa. Green zoned counties mean normal school. Not sure how this is all going to work but we will see. Bistrita is labeled currently as a green zoned area so as far as we know all of the schools will be starting up normal next week. Asking for prayer for the students and the teachers and administrators this school year as it going to be different and challenging here for them.

Cynthia was helping some of the kid's old teachers with classroom decorations for this year and they are all very stressed about the way school is going to go this year. Please pray as the Romanian school system started this week.

The church is going well. some people are coming to service and others are choosing to stay home and watch online. Just praying for people to not be fearful in all of this. But to be wise and light to those around them. On an exciting note, we are continuing to have visitors come to church in the midst of all of this. Praying for God to move in their hearts.

Please pray for an older lady who has begun to come faithfully for Sunday service. She is estranged from her only daughter and her husband passed away a year ago and she is very lonely. Prayer for the church to continue to love on her and for the Lord to reveal himself to her in an amazing way.

Spring update 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 13:00:00 +0000

As I sit down to write an update. The Romanian president has just announced another 30-day quarantine for the entire country of Romania. Everywhere you turn these days there are constant reminders that for the foreseeable future this is our present circumstance.

If there is one thing that we are learning right now is you need to be intentional about your living. Anytime we leave the house, we have to fill out a paper physically or electronically that announces our justification for why we have left. Shopping for groceries, paying bills, going to the bank, even church on Sunday mornings has to be accounted for.

Due to the dangers of the virus quickly escalating out of control like Italy, we have been asked to refrain from meeting in groups including church services. So all of the ministries that our church does have had to adapt. Teaching is exclusively online, The afterschool program has been suspended. For the time being, checking in on people has moved to zoom meetings, weekly texts, and Facebook. It has been challenging trying to stay connected with everyone even in a small church, making sure that they know that they are being thought of and prayed for but also doing our part to follow the guidelines given to us for the protection of others. Being ok with not knowing what the next day or week is going to bring let alone what the summer holds and just learning to trust the Lord with our plans, in a new way. To not seek security in the day to day routine and comforts but in the Lord.

But even in the midst of this, there are opportunities to minister to neighbors who are stuck at home just like you are and talking with them over a fence, being an encouragement or helping them with something, even if it means wearing a mask and gloves and keeping your distance from each other as your work on something together. Some in the church have been able to volunteer with different non-profit organizations to take food to those who are elderly and unable to get out for shopping. Helping prepare someone's vegetable gardens so that they will have a garden this year. Still, others have given donations to help or finances so that food can be bought. There are numerous ways we have seen people in our church and city helping one another. Our live stream on Sunday mornings continues to grow as people are tuning in praying that God would meet them right where they are at.

Hristos a Inviat, Happy Easter from all of us

We just celebrated Easter for us here this last weekend. Eastern Orthodox follow a different calendar then the Catholics, so our easter is always later and can vary by up to 4-5 weeks sometimes. It was surreal to drive to church on Easter morning and see no cars, and no people out. Even the Orthodox churches in town usually full, with people spilling out of the entryway and standing outside on the sidewalk, now completely empty a city full of silence. We were blessed with some friends who came to help with worship for our service, which was amazing because you realize how much you miss corporate worship. It's always a privilege getting to do what we get to do and I enjoy so much teaching from the Bible in any format. But we are looking forward to the time when we can gather together as a body physically to worship and praise Jesus.

City Easter morning

So quiet

Worship team preparing

working out some final details

If there is one thing we are learning through all of this is the importance of being intentional in everything that we do. That while this is a difficult time for all of us. God can use it to bring communities, families, and churches closer together.

Prayer Requests:

Pray for the government of Romania to make decisions in seeking to stop the spread of the Virus.

Pray for the families that are being impacted by the country lockdown. Either by being quarantined or being denied the ability to travel home for Easter.

Pray for those who struggle with Depression as being so isolated feeling during the Holiday can be extremely difficult.

Prayer for Brian as his shoulder surgery was postponed until after the state of emergency is lifted.

Prayer for divine appointments even in the midst of this to minister to people in unique ways.

Pray that God would pour his Spirit out on our city, region, and country that we would see an awakening in Romania.

Prayer for the finances of New Beginnings, giving has been low for the past year and we are
asking for the Lord to provide consistent financial partners. We are still supporting kids in the program who are now attending college along with kids in our afterschool program that works with Roma (gypsy) kids by helping them with school, meals and most importantly helping them come to know and grow in their knowledge of Jesus. If you desire to help please contact us through the email below. All of these programs are on hold currently but we rents, utilities, payroll, and taxes still have to be paid even if the programs are temporarily suspended.

If you wish to contact us

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts, calvarychapelbistrita

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

If you are interested in partnering with us financially one time or reoccurring you can use the following link.

https://globalmission.givingfuel.com/bistrita-romania-brian-and-cynthia-fouts

or you can send a check to Calvary Global Missions 123 S. Auto Drive, Boise. ID, 83709 and make a note for Brian and Cynthia Fouts

Summer update part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 10:38:00 +0000

Very early morning after a very long previous day

This picture of our daughter could best describe our feelings by the end of this summer but also more specifically our latest trip to the embassy for two of our kid's passports. We just finished up a week ago our last outreach for the summer with a band called, Final Greetings, Which went really well, we had asked for the city center but also put in for the city park as a secondary option. We always try to time bands coming with the Weekly City festival called Bistrita days, due to the fact that there is always a lot of people in the city in the evenings taking in the different events, food and such. The band started playing around 5:40 pm and played until 7:30. Throughout the concert we had a lot of people stopping and listening as they were walking through the park and a large group of students that happen to walk by while on a field trip from Iasi, a large city north of us on the Romanian/Ukrainian border.

Concert outreach in the city Park

Final Greetings Leading worship Sunday morning

We were able to meet different people and talk with them with some of the conversations turning into invitations to the church and even opportunities for the Gospel message. Please keep “Final Greetings” in prayer as they continue traveling Europe and share their music and the love of Jesus.

Which brings us to some of our most recent adventures. Two of our kids needed to renew their passports so we decided to combine it with my monthly Pastor’s meeting in Brasov. We should have known it was going to be an interesting trip when we started the morning by not being able to find my glasses for driving at night.

Cynthia decided that she would do the driving until the sun came up and so we made it to Sighisoara, a city about 3 hours into our trip and a common stopping point for me when I make this drive every month.

What now? Notice no plates on the car

I took over driving and we were about 10 km outside of the city when a policeman, driving toward us flips his lights on and makes a u-turn. At first, we did not even think he was after us because I could not figure out what I did wrong.

So I pull over and wait for him and he asks for papers and tells me that he pulled me over because I was doing 15km over the speed limit. I apologized because I was in the wrong and it was at this point that our routine trip turned into an adventure.

He looks over my papers and says, your technical inspection is expired by a month. Please follow me. So we follow him to a pull off and he instructs me to get out of the car and remove my car plates, due to my cars expired inspection sticker. So I ask him is there a place in town to get this done? To which he replies, and this was news to me, due to not a much experience with these matters. No, you have to transport the car back to Bistrita, and then wait for the license plates to be sent to Bistrita, have the car inspected and then show the police there your inspection sticker and then you will receive your car plates again. That will take around 2 weeks, later on, I was told more likely about 3 weeks in all.

Amazing friends to the rescue

Our oldest daughter loves riding on trains

So there we are 3 hours from home, with our car, without plates, trying to figure out how do we get the car back to Bistrita and us to the embassy? So we start making some calls and a great friend rents a trailer and a car to tow our car back to Bistrita and we jump on a train to Brasov which is another 2 hours away to be picked up by another awesome friend who helps with finding a shuttle to Bucuresti followed by a taxi to embassy and then another taxi to the train station to catch an overnight train back to Bistrita.

The trip to the embassy 45 minutes in and out, the trip to Brasov should have taken 4.5 hours and it took 9. Followed by one of the fastest shuttles I have ridden on to Bucuresti the following morning. We spent all day in Bucuresti waiting to get catch the only train back to Bistrita.

The irony was that we decided not to fly because driving would have been cheaper. But through this whole ordeal, We experienced God's grace, through being only charged for the gas to pick up the car, which was an amazing blessing not having to pay for a tow, to all the little things like having friends help with shuttles and trains. I also learned an expensive lesson on making sure that everything on the car is current despite having a busy summer. The policeman was apologetic, but just doing his job and I was clearly in the wrong. Lesson learned.

Both Cynthia and I are still wondering why in the world were we not supposed to drive to Bucuresti. Thankful for a God that gives grace through it all. We made it home and only 10 hours later than was planned. Inspection is already completed on the car and now we are waiting for the car plates to be returned. God is good

Prayer Requests:

Prayer as the kids started school. Asking for grace for all.

Prayer for the finances of New Beginnings, giving has been low for the past year and we are
asking for the Lord to provide consistent financial partners. We are still supporting kids in the program who are now attending college along with kids in our afterschool program that works with Roma (gypsy) kids by helping them with school, meals and most importantly helping them come to know and grow in their knowledge of Jesus. If you desire to help please contact us through the email below.

Please keep all of the students from our English camp in prayer that the things that were shared
with them would sink deeply into their hearts. Praying also for opportunities as we invite them to
our monthly youth group.

Prayer for the consistent relationships we have in the community. Asking for opportunities to speak into lives and share the Gospel.

Prayer for finances for a trip back to the states early next spring to summer. Cynthia’s parents
are celebrating their 50th anniversary and want to get everyone together. Praying the logistics
for and timing for all of this but also the opportunity for God to show up in a big way.

Prayer for the Lord to add to our advocacy team people who have a heart and interest in
Romania.

Prayer also for our annual fall women's tea which is coming up at the end of October.

Prayer for the College team that is working on coming in October for a 10-day outreach. Praying
for the right team and for a fruitful time.

If you wish to contact us

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts, calvarychapelbistrita

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

If you are interested in partnering with us financially one time or reoccurring you can use the following link.

https://globalmission.givingfuel.com/bistrita-romania-brian-and-cynthia-fouts

or you can send a check to Calvary Global Missions 123 S. Auto Drive, Boise. ID, 83709 and make a note for Brian and Cynthia Fouts

Summer update part 2 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 05:11:00 +0000

pictures in this blog capture a lot of why we host an English camp every year. Along with the numerous stories of God's grace working through a camp like this. I could share the story of one young girl who is around 8 years old and is one amazing little person. She is smart, sensitive, cute, feisty all wrapped up in an adorable package. We talked and threw rocks at old tractor equipment and told other kids not to throw grasshoppers into the bonfire because they are God creatures too. She is also as of this last week a new member of God's family. One of our awesome leaders was able to talk with her over the course of the week and she accepted Jesus as her Savior. She woke up the next morning and exclaimed how much better the day is when you know Jesus has saved you. She is pretty special to me and to everyone who had the privilege of meeting her this last week. Every one of us knows that God has got something amazing in store for this little girl.

Danny and Manny

Both of these gentlemen were in my room and Manny, the one with the hat has been attending our camp since the first one and brought his friends with him this year. He loves our camp and their group brought a guitar and led worship songs for the talent show on the last night. We spent many late nights talking about the bible and life with most of the other 8 boys listening into our conversations. Please keep all of these young men in prayer as they are the next leaders in the local church and we praying for them to be examples wisdom, love and grace to those around them.

The next picture is my friend Alex, who the entire time was really quiet until the last night. I then found out that Alex has quite the inventory of super funny jokes and is highly fluent and skilled in video games on phones. He was from a group of 13 kids who traveled from Oradea to attend our camp. Which was an approximate 5-hour drive for those who do not know the distance. All of these kids came due to two boys who attended our camp 2 years ago and went back and shared with them how fun it was.

Alex telling me joke after joke tonight

The team that came and helped this year was amazing. We had a group from Boise, Id and a couple from Oklahoma, Lonnie, and Theresa. Lonnie is a retired ex-marine, who pastor's Calvary Chapel and really wanted to come and serve with since the last time we had seen them was 7 years ago. One of the other leaders was impressed with how Lonnie could whip boys into shape with no problem taking a room of rowdy boys and inform them that he was going to read his bible so they needed to be quiet and if they would like he read out loud to them. To which they would quiet done and listen while he read in English and one of the boys pulled out his Romanian bible and read it to them in their own language. This became their nightly routine.

The Camp schedule was pretty full with English classes in the morning followed by an afternoon full of activities until dinner. After dinner, we would have all of the kids meet in the main conference hall and have a time of sharing our testimonies from different leaders in the camp. Followed by a group game and then dragging kids off to bed because they were having so much fun.

The last night was our talent show and it was amazing to see how God has gifted all of these different kids of all ages with music, acting, jokes, dancing, amazing abilities. So interesting to watch them come up with something that made them truly unique.

funny skits

singing

funny skits

We followed up the talent show with our end of week bonfire with about 4 kg of marshmallows, which quickly disappeared into the night. There were a lot of tears and hugging on the last night was the kids really enjoyed their week at the camp and can not wait until next year.

if you light they will come

beautiful bonfire

hard to say goodbye

Prayer Requests:

English camp was awesome this year. We had a total of 73 kids come, which was our biggest camp yet. One of the counselors this year was able to lead a young girl around 9 years old to Jesus. Please keep her prayer.

By the end of camp, we had kids already asking about next year. Please keep all of the students in prayer that the things that were shared with them would sink deeply into their hearts.

Please pray as we are also helping one of the other missionary couples in our church with a 3 Day VBS in a poor village up in the mountains. Praying for opportunities to share the gospel with kids and parents.

Just an update this last Sunday Amalia’s Family has been coming to church with her and bringing people with them since the death of her mom. Praying for God to powerfully move in their hearts.

We also had a family visit from Belgium, he is from Belgium his wife is from Bistrita, Romania. They attended church couple of Sunday’s ago and were totally blessed by the message. He is catholic and she is orthodox. They are vacationing here for a month. praying for opportunities to serve them and share with them. His name is Erwin

Prayer appreciated for a girl who contacted the church, whose boyfriend got her pregnant and is pressuring for an abortion. Asking for God to intervene and how to minister to her.

Prayer for finances for a trip back to the states early next spring to summer. Cynthia’s parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary and want to get everyone together. Praying the logistics for and timing for all of this but also the opportunity for God to show up in a big way.

Prayer for the Lord to add to our advocacy team people who have a heart and interest in Romania.

Pray also as we begin the process of getting approval for our concert outreach for August 30th.

If you wish to contact us

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts, calvarychapelbistrita

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

If you are interested in partnering with us financially one time or reoccurring you can use the following link.

https://globalmission.givingfuel.com/bistrita-romania-brian-and-cynthia-fouts

or you can send a check to Calvary Global Missions 123 S. Auto Drive, Boise. ID, 83709 and make a note for Brian and Cynthia Fouts

Summer Update 2019 part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 12:59:00 +0000

Group Photo

I am constantly reminded all of how quickly time passes. A couple of weeks ago my google photos popped up with a reminder of what I was doing this time last year and it had a large number of photos detailing our trip back to states to visit family, friends, and churches. It was during that trip that the seeds of an idea were discussed with a good pastor friend of mine about him coming and being a speaker at our Romania national conference. Those discussions led to a plan and that plan led to a plane trip by Mike Hughes from Calvary Chapel Emmett to come and bless our little church and a number of other Calvary Chapel Churches over the last week of June with some great teaching and insightful answers to

questions as we worked our way through the book of Ephesians, focusing on our identity in Christ. He shared the bulk of the teaching for the conference with Daryl Zachman of Calvary Chapel Treasure Valley, With Brian opening the conference and a good friend Nicu Hagiu bringing the conference to a close. Throughout the whole week, Brian lost count of the number of people who were totally blessed by the amazing teaching and really encouraged in their walk with the Lord.

This year we desired to help people really think through and apply the word to their lives by having them divide into groups to discuss and ask questions and work it through as a community of believers followed by an opportunity to ask questions of the speakers. Which was a highlight for many people as they found this to be extremely helpful in applying the truths of the word of God.

There is nothing quite like being led in worship in different languages, it's like getting a small taste of what heaven is going to be like with the multitudes worshipping the lamb all at the same time. Amazing is not the word to describe it even being used to all of these years it still gives you chills.

worship

Brian Sharing

Worship

Group discussian

Worship

Mike Sharing

Ladies Q/A

Prayer and Worship

Daryl Sharing

Prayer and Worship

But as wrote earlier time does fly and it was during the conference that I received a message that one of the precious ladies in our church, Amalia, had just lost her mom to cancer. So Sunday after church Cynthia and I quickly changed to attend the funeral. We have attended a lot of funerals over the years of serving here in Romania. But this was my first Catholic service and as I was listening to the priest go through and share about the life of this lady, who Amalia shared the gospel with all of the time and yet we are not share if she ever responded to the message of salvation. She was a good person, very religious, according to the priest. But was she saved? There was a question mark there? One can hope that she responded to God's grace before waking up into eternity.

As we were walking to the gravesite I started looking around at the different gravestones. Some were simple, some very fancy, some gave simple information about the person whose body was laid there, others gave detailed information, I saw a pharmacist, a child advocate, even a priest. That is what they did when they were alive, that was their job and by the inscription on their gravestones, it would seem to be a very important part of their lives. But heaven does not need pharmacists or child advocates. I am not going to presume to know if they were saved or not, I hope that they were. But there was a beginning date and ending date on their gravestones with very little time in between compared to eternity. My prayer is that we would use the time we have wisely and for God's glory.

Prayer requests:

Please keep Amalia and her family in prayer as she is the only born again believer in her family

Prayer as a team is coming together for our English camp this summer and all of the organizing that goes with that. Asking for a united team and being able to coordinate everything. Prayer for the team as they prepare to come and be a blessing. Asking the Lord to open doors and soften hearts to the gospel message through relationships and life stories and the late nights. Strength, patience, Power of the Spirit for everyone involved.

Pray for us as well as every month this summer we have an outreach or event going on of some kind. Combine with this with hosting teams or just friends stopping by for a few days make for a busy season for us. Asking for an extra measure of grace for it all.

Pray also for the concert outreach in August. That the Lord would go before us and provide everything that we need.

Asking for a fresh move the Spirit in our own lives and the church.

If you wish to contact us

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts, calvarychapelbistrita

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

If you are interested in partnering with us financially one time or reoccurring you can use the following link.

https://globalmission.givingfuel.com/bistrita-romania-brian-and-cynthia-fouts

or you can send a check to Calvary Global Missions 123 S. Auto Drive, Boise. ID, 83709 and make a note for Brian and Cynthia Fouts

Fall Update 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 14:31:00 +0000

Love the leaves

Days getting shorter, waking up to a crisp morning, wardrobe changing from mostly t-shirts and shorts to warmer clothing as the surrounding hills begin to signal my favorite season, fall or in Romanian Toamna. This fall, in particular, has been spectacular. We typically have a nice fall, but temperatures typically drop very quickly at the end of October. Going for a run in the surrounding hills I was still wearing shorts and thinking that the thin long sleeve shirt I chose for the day was a bit overkill. Needless to say, we have been immensely enjoying the beautiful weather before the snow comes bringing with it plummeting temperatures.

Fall also brings with it teams from CCBCE, which is the Calvary Chapel Bible college in Budapest, Hungary. This year was no exception with us hosting a fantastic team, that was able to bless the kids in the orphanage, our afterschool program, share their testimonies at an English camp Natalie Bridges teaches weekly, to helping and participating with our 13th annual woman's fall tea.

We had 40 ladies attend this year and the speaker this year, Jen Criswell, shared on the woman surrounding Jesus, we were able to record the session with an audio recorder and will be sharing that on the church facebook page soon. Some of the ladies asked if next year we could start video recording the teachings like we do with our Sunday morning services so that they can share it with those around them that might be interested that could not attend or have never attended.

In between all of these things, we divided the team up and had them help with practical projects around the church property. That needed to be done and through it all, they served and blessed us in the most amazing ways. With a couple of evenings spent sharing stories from all our lives and answering any questions, that they might have had.

Through this team, God also stirred in the heart one of the girls to come back and spend her 40-day internship with us over Christmas.

It was also during this time that Brian took a quick trip to Brasov to pick up some friends, The Criswell's, who are going to be staying with us for a few months as we seek the Lord on developing a discipleship program for the Romanian churches that would be a catalyst for equipping leaders for the work of the ministry and planting more churches.

I am going to finish this update with a great example of how we see God use these different outreaches to develop relationships with people and then watch God take their lives that were separated from him pursuing their own purposes and plans and rescuing them, redeeming them and then building something new. I first met Bogdan through a weekly English class that Natalie Bridges teaches. He was in his description a rocker, came from a broken home, his dad lives in a city about 5 hours away, his mother out of the country, both of them remarried with children from their second marriages. Bogdan came to know the Lord in high school and continued with his studies in medicine. He is now a practicing doctor and recently I had the privilege of being apart of his wedding to his new bride. Hearing them say their vows, and celebrate their day was a testimony to how God is in the process of making all things new no matter how they initially start. Watching God first move within the heart of Bogdan and then use him to share the good news with his half-sister who is now saved and his cousin has been awesome to witness. He is still the God who takes things that are broken and separated from him and brings them into his family and transforms them into a masterpiece through his grace.

Here are some highlights:

racing the sunset in the Fall

Team from CCBCE

13th annual woman's tea

Taking the boys out for dessert

Hanging out with the team

Natalie and Crina the dynamic duo

Finalizing some items for the tea

November 1st is the day of the dead in Romania

Quick prep for a long drive with the necessities

The midweek study in Romans

Work project

Paint prep

Waiting for another coat

Things to be praying about:

The woman's tea went really well and all of those who attended had good things to say about it. We ask that you would continue to pray seeds of the gospel to find good soil and that it would produce lasting fruit in the lives of these women.

Pray for Renee, who is coming for her 40-day over Christmas.

Prayer for the finances for braces for Ryley. The cost for this is going to around $1100 for the whole treatment.

Prayer for a team to come and help with the English camp next summer (July 22-26).

Prayer for God to provide a new church building that will better meet our needs.

Prayer for one of the music teachers at the kid's school. Brian had an opportunity to share the gospel message with him and invite him to church. He seemed very open to the Gospel message. Prayer for God to continue to draw him into his kingdom. Prayer for Brian as he keeps in contact with him

Prayer also for Kellen and Jen Criswell, who are coming over to stay initially in Bistrita. Kellen is looking to help start a discipleship, pastoral training school in Romania. Kellen and I are traveling to Brasov for a monthly meeting to begin discussing and planning the next steps with the other pastor's please pray for a fruitful time.

Prayer for our outreaches this fall and through the new year. We are planning on building manager with dad's and their kids in the later part of November and are also asking for some of the men who do not have their own children to consider being a dad for some of the kids who don't have a dad.

Also wanting to be a blessing practically in the community we want to put together some meals for those who may not have the ability to provide a nice Christmas dinner for their families.

Continued prayer for the formation of the advocacy team for Brian and Cynthia, led by Greg and Suzanne Porterfield. Pray that God would add more to the group and give them a heart for Romania.

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

If you are interested in partnering with us financially one time or reoccurring you can use the following link.

https://globalmission.givingfuel.com/bistrita-romania-brian-and-cynthia-fouts

or you can send a check to Calvary Global Missions 123 S. Auto Drive, Boise. ID, 83709 and make a note for Brian and Cynthia Fouts

Summer update 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 20:15:00 +0000

If there was a song to capture our summer furlough experience it would be "On the road again" by Willie Nelson. Because that has been what our summer has felt like. We have traveled further, seen more states and visited more places than ever before. More importantly, we have had the privilege of meeting people from all over and visiting different churches from Southern California to Arkansas, from Mississippi, to Oregon, Washington state, and Idaho. Each unique and special in their own way. Leaving a piece of our hearts in each location.

Our heart desire was to share not only what God has been doing in Romania but to also communicate what we believe God is leading us into next. Specifically continued development of online resources not only for followers of Jesus in their heart language but also the development of a discipleship school that would help equip and prepare those who the Lord is raising up to reach the next generation. That they would disciple those around them and plant healthy churches that would equip and send as well.

If you are interested in the message Brian was sharing you can find it here.

https://youtu.be/QvdVpdIZVBw

Some of the opportunities to consider and pray through and how to get involved.

1) We are currently looking to develop an advocacy team to come around us and represent us stateside. If you are interested we would encourage you to call Calvary Chapel Boise 208-321-7440 and ask for either Martin Taylor or Hallie Vinson for further information.

2) pray about coming on a short-term mission trip. Every summer we host an English camp in mid to late July. The age group of the kids is from 3rd grade to 12th grade and it is a great way to connect with kids or young adults away from their normal lives and have an opportunity to share with them both your own experiences but more importantly the hope of the gospel.

3) 3-month internship opportunities we love hosting teams and individuals. A 3 month internship provides a unique opportunity to live and serve and experience missions in way where you can evaluate if that is where the Lord has called you. It also provides much needed help for the long term missionaries nagging to do list that is always ongoing. If this stirs something in you please again contact Calvary Chapel Boise.

Praise reports:

God provided funds to purchase music equipment for the church and we are so excited.

Prayer Requests:

Safe travels and a quick transition back

Prayer for the planning for the upcoming fall women's tea.

Kids preparing for the upcoming school year as they will be hitting the ground running.

Prayer for a team to come and help with the English camp next summer.

Prayer for God to provide a new church building that will better meet our needs.

Prayer for the development of an advocacy team for Brian and Cynthia and someone to lead it.

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

If you are interested in partnering with financially one time or reoccurring you can use the following link.

https://globalmission.givingfuel.com/bistrita-romania-brian-and-cynthia-fouts

or you can send a check to Calvary Global Missions 123 S. Auto Drive, Boise. ID, 83709 and make a note for Brian and Cynthia Fouts

Here is some highlights from our summer furlough:

Hanging with family

Run with my brother

fun in the sun with behind Grandpa's boat

Family photo

Crossing on a Ferry

Helping Grandpa Robbins with some work

playing around with friends

Visiting Moscow

Hanging with friends in Moscow

8th sign down has special place in our hearts

Visiting with friends in Baker city.

Our first demolition car derby

Kids First Rodeo

They really liked it

Caldwell Rodeo

Christmas 2017 thank you

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 13:07:00 +0000

Merry Christmas From all of us

We love this time of year, the Christmas lights everywhere really symbolize the season for us. That light has come into the dark and cold world. There is so much to celebrate during this time of year. Greatest of all is God’s gift to all of mankind with the birth of his only Son. It is truly something to remember and to be thankful and from all of us here we are thankful for your faithful partnership with prayer and financial support. We are truly blessed and can honestly tell you that we have received so much more over years following the Lord on this crazy journey, God has blessed us so much. We are looking forward to what God has in planned in the future and are excited to be coming back this summer to visit on furlough and seeing all of our family both biological and church. It's through your faithfulness that we have the privilege and honor to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God here in Romania and to invite as many people as we can into becoming citizens of heaven. You all have a great part in this and we never forget that.

Thank you again from all of us here,

Brian, Cynthia, Kaidon, Sedona, Sage, and Ryley.

Fall Update 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 11:51:00 +0000

colors of fall

It's coming upon a year since I was hit by a car while going for a morning run and thinking back over the last year. It amazing to witness God's faithfulness. I have been asked numerous times this fall how am I feeling. Do I feel like I have fully recovered from my accident? Am I nervous going into this time of year? The short answer to all of this is yes I feel fully recovered and no I am not nervous about this time of year. That being said my wife has informed me that I will not be allowed to go for a morning run the day after Thanksgiving.

All joking aside we have had a great fall beginning with the annual pastor huddle hosted by Calvary Chapel Brasov. We had almost every church represented. The goal of this meeting was to work on a leadership training program that could be adapted for any cultural context in Romania.

Romania has a diverse social and economic makeup. You have those who live in cities who are well-educated professionals but in the same country you have those who illiterate, We are commissioned to not only share the gospel message with them but also to make disciples and help them grow in their unique giftings that God has given them. The challenge, of course, is prayerfully creating a program that works for both.

A good friend of mine who serves as a pastor at Costa Mesa and is pursuing a degree in this exact field came over to help with mediating and giving some direction on what the content would look like along with working through some ideas on how to develop a training program. His input was invaluable.

Calvary Chapel Romania pastors

The fall also brings with it the 10-day team outreaches from CCBCE. We have had the privilege of hosting teams throughout the years and we always welcome the students coming alongside to serve with us in different capacities whether they serve in the orphanage, the afterschool program, or sharing at conversational English class. One of the last ways they help us is with our annual fall women's tea. We had 50 women come this year. One of the ladies, who had attended the last few years, called and said that she was going to bring 10 of her friends to the tea because she had been so blessed over the years. After the message, one of the ladies shared with Cynthia that the message from Lindsey on "Seasons of Change" was a real encouragement to her. Another lady shared that she had been attending these tea's since the very beginning and had loved every one of them and looks forward to this time of year every year.

Praying over Camden before he leaves for university in the States

Lindsey from Hungary sharing with the ladies

lots of love

some of the ladies

lots of homemade food

a lot of the ladies who came this year was their first time

games

smiles all around

everyone had a great time

Intense game of clue with the team from CCBCE

Praise report:

The women’s Tea went over well. We had 50 women show, a majority of which were non-Christians. One of the ladies called and told us that she was bringing 10 friends with her this year because she enjoyed the time so much. The teaching was perfect for all of the ladies. Cynthia told me one of the ladies came up to her and shared that the message really spoke to her in this season of her life because she was having struggles in her marriage and she was encouraged by what was shared by Lindsey this year. Another lady told Cynthia that she came to our very first tea and has never missed one since because they are special to her.

The team we hosted from CCBCE were great. They loved on babies in the morning at the orphanage, which finally gave us approval, praise the Lord, and the kids at the after-school program had a blast with them as well as they spent time pouring into them in the afternoon. They were also helpful in a lot of practical things around the property while they were here as well.

Prayer Requests:

Please keep Camden in prayer, he is the son that just moved back to start college, he is going through some depression and anxiety due to reverse culture shock and could use prayer as he adjusts back to the states and preparing for college.

Please pray the Lord would provide the finances for us to travel back to visit this summer and give us favor as we set up our summer schedule with family and churches.

Please also keep our Christmas Eve service in prayer as we begin preparing with the kids, the music, and the message. We have a lot of new visitors this time of year. Prayers for a great awakening within the hearts of the people in the city of Bistrita during this holiday season.

Also, pray for the planning of a Concert outreach next September after we return.

Feel free to stay connected through social media as well. We love hearing from you.

Also on an administrative note. The way to support financially online has changed please update or use the following link.

https://globalmission.givingfuel.com/bistrita-romania-brian-and-cynthia-fouts

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Summer update part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 11:26:00 +0000

As I sit here writing this as we are winding down our summer. Next week school starts, all of the kids are busy running around town shopping for school clothes and shoes. Walking by the school that our kids attend. You find academic teachers, and music teachers meeting potential students who are eager to find a home for the school year. Even the weather here has changed, gone is the heat of summer, the days are still pleasant but there is the slight tinge of coolness that hints at what is to come.

We finished the summer strong by hosting the band The New Divide, who never disappoint. It has been such a blessing to work with these guys and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them in the years to come. We were hoping to have the city give us the main stage this year again during City festival like last year but due to scheduling conflicts it just did not work out. I personally believe the Lord has different plans this year. We were granted permission to have the band perform in the main park in the city from 5:00 in the evening to 7:00. Which during the summer is the perfect time to play music in the park because it is full of people, especially during the week long city festival. We had 100's of people either standing and listening or walking by and watching or sitting on park benches while the band played. And after every song, Andy did a great job of sharing the Gospel message clearly.

One of the things that really stood out for the people who were watching and listening was when the band would take a break in between sets of songs. They would actually meet and talk with those who were around them. I was talking with one university student, who in her words, "had been to many concerts." But had never seen a band that was so approachable. Another girl who attended, who shared that she had nothing to do with the Orthodox Church but wants to come and check out our church because we are so different.

That has been our vision and prayer for this outreach is that we would find ways to reach into the community through the medium of music. The other goal of this type of outreach has been to be a catalyst for local like-minded churches to reach out to the community as well. Over the last 2 years that we have been doing these concerts we have received help from different local churches in supplying instruments, amps, and sound equipment that we don't have to help and some of the young men even offered to help with setup and tear down.

Andy and I were talking and praying about planning a larger concert for a day, where we would have multiple bands come and play. With this idea, we are hoping to involve local Romanian bands as well. During the course of our conversation, I saw a pastor from one of the local churches watching the concert and went over and greeted him. During our conversation, I shared with him our vision for why we host a concert every year. He shared with me that bands from local church typically will not work together because of differences between the churches. But if we were to invite them it might work. So we are praying and if the Lord is willing to host and work with the city to setup a one-day music festival and see what God does.

The New Divide in the park

People enjoying the music

The New Divide in the Park

The New Divide leading worship Sunday Morning

Prayer Requests:

Pray for the seeds of the gospel that were planted during the concert. That they would produce lasting fruit in the lives of those who heard it.

Pray the Lord would go before us in the planning and give us favor with the local authorities to all us to continue to reach out to the community and that we would be a catalyst for local Romanian Christian bands to want to be involved in reaching their community.

Pray as Cynthia and I have been invited next year to a missions leadership conference in France to share with new missionaries with families. Prayer for the Lord to place on both of our hearts what would be an encouragement to them.

Lastly, pray for the finances to fly back this coming summer of 2018. To visit with family and reconnect with local churches.

As always if you interested in keeping up with us on social media. Please use the following means.

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Summer Update 2017 part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 15:33:00 +0000

This Summer is for us always a busy time of planning and organizing our summer outreaches as a church. This summer we had the privilege and opportunity to work with over 60 kids in our English camp and it was our best one yet. Every year we always have a great response of kids who have continued to not only learn but enjoy the camp that we put on and this year was no exception. We had more friends of friends who wanted to come simply because they had been hearing about this great English camp in summer for the last couple of years from their friends who have attended in the past. We had a so much fun spending time with the kids teaching them English, organizing games of baseball, volleyball, and for those not interested in going outside they had opportunities to create their own craft calendars, pipe cleaner pets, dyed shirts etc. The evenings each of the leaders had an opportunity to share their testimony with all of the kids, which also generated opportunities to answer questions in their rooms until the late hours of the morning. The last night one of the young men Camden, who attends our church, was able to share his testimony and his gift of art with the kids and it had a great impact. Camden is not much older than the kids that were attending and his testimony and presentation left a lasting impression. So much so that one of the ladies in our church, my wife Cynthia and my oldest daughter Sedona were able to share the gospel with one of the girls who came for her first year. We were laughing because when we met her Cynthia had to ask her to not wear a hat that had profanity on it because it was against the camp rules. This girl Claudia, had a lot of questions that evening and eventually invited Jesus into her heart for the first time and showed up to church the next Sunday. It was a great finish to our outreach for this year. We could not be more proud of our little body of believers who take time out of their busy schedules to volunteer and help with this camp. With the exception of one friend, who caught a train in from Hungary, the kids were served primarily by the body here in Bistrita and some friends from Bucuresti and Timisoara who caught trains or drove for over 400 km to come and serve these kids.

Another great example of how much an impact this camp has on the kids is we had one 15-year-old boy, who heard about the camp from Oradea, which is over 300km away and his dad drove him to the attend the camp with a friend. When they had to leave, he had so much fun and had developed some great relationships that he was actually tearing up because the camp was over. Another teenage boy who had attended last year told both Cynthia and I that he really appreciated the camp and that this is the best camp that he has ever been to. Both already told us that they will see us next year.

Next up is our concert outreach in August with the American band the New Divide and we cannot wait to see what the Lord is going to do.

Couple of boys that were new this year

Lunch

getting the wiggles out

games

classes

Getting to know each other

table tennis is always a big hit

one of the team members striking a pose

we call this game "beat your neighbor"

one of the boys showing his musical skills

testimony time

hard work studying

Afterall this is an English camp

but it's not all work, we like to play as well

and show off our creativity

This Crina she was awesome help this year

Volleyball was very popular as well

We also like to have games that can be used as blackmail later

bonfire preparation

There may or may not have been a lot of smores consumed on the last night

Camden sharing his gift with the kids

finished painting

possible blackmail photos

our sentiments exactly for the camp

Praise reports:

Please keep Claudia in your prayer that she would be established and strengthened in our walk with the Lord.

Please also pray for the conversations, questions answered, relationships that were established or further developed and that God would bring life to the seeds that were sown in the hearts of all these kids.

Prayer requests:

Please keep the upcoming concert outreach in prayer as we finish the final logistics with planning. Pray for favor with the authorities and divine appointments to before, during and after the concert.

Pray also as we are planning on coming back on furlough next summer. That God would provide the finances to fly back and opportunities to share the great things that God is doing here in Romania.

Please also keep all of our kids in prayer and us as we begin school September 11th.

Please pray for the upcoming pastor huddle in September as we plan for the next year.

As always if you interested in keeping up with us on social media. Please use the following means.

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Fall/Winter update 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 14:28:00 +0000

Jogging in the morning ended badly for an American.He was hit by a car in Ghinda

11.21.2016 10:12:42 Ana Stefanel

112

A traffic accident took place some time ago in the city of Ghinda. A US citizen came to the refreshing morning, but had the misfortune to stand in the way of a car involved in an overshoot.

Jogging in the morning ended abruptly for a US citizen. It lies on the sidewalk, to Ghinda, and had the misfortune as a car hit him. The driver of the car says it is committed to overcoming a backhoe. He argues that because of the icy, when the stearing wanted to return to his car skidded and could not avoid the impact, reaching the sidewalk.

An American citizen was unlucky to be in that exact moment in the way that the car skidded and was hit from behind.

"The data so far, a car skidded. Two victims out of the car. They were assigned two crews from County Ambulance Service first aid. Extrication crew was directed to specific measures in the area of an accident " , he told Bistriţeanul.ro BN ISU spokesman, Sgt. maj. Marius Russian.

Not the way I wanted my morning to start to say the least. Along with being the subject of conversation for the city of Bistrita. One of my doctors said, " I have known people who have lived their entire lives in this city and never have been hit by a car and you have lived here for 12 years and this happens, what are the odds. I can now proudly cross being hit by a car off the bucket list. I found it funny that he used that term odds, because in my mind in between the pain meds and trying to get comfortable recovering in the Hospital for a week. I was thinking what are the odds of only getting away with a broken arm, some surgery on an ear and some stitches. A couple steps more and it could have been a completely different scenario. But then again I serve a big God, who protects. Did I think that my day was going to start this way, no I didn't have a clue, But through this process I met some great people, who did a great job of repairing what was broken. I had few different opportunities to connect with the staff at the hospital and even made a new acquaintance with the driver who hit me. He has been kind enough to check on me a couple times a week at the hospital and at my home.

I have even been more blessed watching our church family come together and extend grace and blessing in helping Cynthia with starting the fires in the house, taking care of any car stuff, watching the kids, making meals and all of those things that can be so overwhelming when you are trying to be everywhere at once. We love this church and to see them putting into practice things that have been poured into them over the years, through the Word of God, is humbling to say the least. We are praying for God to be glorified through all of this.

Backing up a month we had our annual Women's tea, with Cynthia teaching from the life of Abigail. Probably one of the best studies I have heard her teach to date. It really resonated with the ladies that attended as well. One of them shared with Cynthia that she had never heard such an amazing study based upon the life of Abigail. We had a lot of new faces this year and Cynthia was even able to share with the owner of the hotel, who was curious why we do this ever year. A couple of the ladies handmade all of the decorations this year as well and we were able to give them away as gifts to those who attended.

lovely group of women

Best friends

Prayer Requests:

Brian is home and getting better. He is regaining his neck and non-broken arm mobility. Although it's nothing like before he still has a lot of pain and is easily tired out. So, please continue to pray for a quick and full recovery. Also, for God's will through all this. Please pray for the driver of the car that hit him, so he would not feel guilty due to this accident but that it is an opportunity to start a relationship with him. Tuesday Brian is going to a private clinic for evaluation. Please pray that everything is as it should be and that his recovery is going well.

Brian has also been invited to share on the 23rd of December his perspective of what Christmas means on a local radio station. Please pray for Wisdom, boldness, and the Power of the Holy Spirit to encourage, comfort, and convict those who hear the message of Hope.

Pray for the financial needs of New Beginnings. We still have 13 children in our care, and over the last year our monthly financial support has been struggling to meet the needs of these children. We are asking that you would continue to lift up this ministry in prayer. We are also asking for you to help raise awareness of the needs of New Beginnings. For a lot of these kids it has been a new start in their life, both practically and spiritually. Our desire is to help them finish well in life in the things that have eternal value.

Pray for divine appointments as we approach Christmas.

We are praying about hosting a couple of guys from the Bible College over winter break. That we would be able to minister to them and also give some practical ministry opportunities while they are here.

Pray for our Christmas Eve service this year as we always have a lot of visitors. Pray for the evening to point people to Jesus and make it a personal reality of what he has done for them.

We are also hosting a game and potluck night for New Years Eve at the church. Please pray that it would be a safe and fun night of celebration for those invited and to bring in the New Year with the right focus.

Prayer also for one of he ladies in our church who may have a hernia that requires surgery. Pray for peace, healing and wisdom for the doctors.

As always if you interested in keeping up with us on social media. Please use the following means.

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Summer Update 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 14:48:00 +0000

last night as Cynthia and I were sitting and talking over the next week's activities. We suddenly became aware of the fact that school for the kids starts in 2 weeks, where did the summer go. It just seemed like yesterday we were finishing up class and musical instrument exams. This summer has been super busy but a lot of fun as well. I will give you the highlights

In June I was able to be one of the speakers for Calvary Chapel Foundations conference in Vajta Hungary. It was a real privilege and honor to be able to share with such an awesome group of people from all walks of life, who are being used by God to further His Kingdom.

Teaching at Calvary Chapel Foundations conference at CCBCE

A week or so after that we took a group of men in July into the Rodnei Mountains for our annual hike. We summited 3 peaks in 10 hours and had an awesome time doing it. It was a great time of fellowship and even getting caught in a nice little snow storm on top.

Elevation of 2284 meters or 7493 feet one of the highest in the North of Romania

The rest of us were mere mortals compared to Chris, who carried his bike 80% of time

Preparing to go

Cipri is excited

waiting for the stragglers

Ionutz is looking very serious on a bike that he did not carry on the first summit

A couple of weeks later we hosted our second annual English camp. We had 53 kids from 3rd grade to 12th grade come and spend a week at a nearby camp. The mornings were spent working hard on studying English. The afternoons were spent with different activities, such as craft projects or some sort of sports. Every evening we had a time where 2 team members would share their testimony with the kids. It was so neat watching the faithfulness of God in the lives of all these different people from different backgrounds and yet the same God working in and through them. It was great watching the kids being affected in different ways by each different story.

We cannot wait to see how God is going to use the relationships that were developed from this year's camp to further his kingdom.

beat your neighbor, the kids loved this game.

Pastor Nicu Hagiu from CCBrasov sharing his testimony

The kids Singing

Class 1

Class 2

Class 3

Class 4

Class 5

Class 6

Craft time

Jane, a missionary from Virginia sharing with the kids

In August we as a church were able to pray over and send out Chris and Faith Anderson to plant a church in Mangalia, Romania. We are real excited for them as God leads them into this step of faith. Currently they are going through some training in Montana for 4 months with their new mission board but in December they will be coming back and heading to the South of Romania right on the Black Sea. Sending someone out is a first for our church, but we look forward to praying for them and coming alongside to help them in this step of Faith.

Sending out the Anderson family to plant a church in Mangalia, Romania

Lastly in August we had Christian rock band The New Divide come and help us with a couple of concert outreaches in our city. We estimate a few thousand people heard the gospel message over the course of the 2 concerts.

What was really awesome was the fact that the city of Bistrita allowed us to not only put on the concerts but provided the sound equipment, and stage in the center of town for free. God is so good. We were then asked to do a radio interview on a local radio station that has around 10,000 listeners throughout 5 different cities. We were able to not only share about the band and why they traveled to Romania but were also able to share the reason for the Hope that we have in Christ.

We are already making plans for them coming back next year and have already been given the green light by the city to have them back. Please keep this in prayer as our desire is to reach even more people with the Hope that we have in Christ.

Setup in the Park

People are starting to show up

Concert right down in the center of the city

Interview with Radio Balada

The New Divide leading worship Sunday Morning

If you are interested in either the online teaching from the Foundations Conference in Hungary or the morning worship with The New Divide, I am including the links down below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVrCpsP5n28

http://web.ccbce.com/ext/media/2016-foundations/video/2016-06-20-foundations-evening-session-01-brian-fouts.mp4

Praise Reports:

The summer English camp and concert outreaches this year far exceeded even what we were hoping for. God is so good.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray that God would bring fruit from the seeds that were planted in the different summer outreaches.

Pray for a couple who just found out that they are expecting their 3rd. Prayer for health of the mother and the baby.

Pray for the kids as they are starting school in 2 weeks and that they would be focused and do their very best in everything that they do.

Pray for us as well as we are reapplying for our permanent residency in October. Pray for favor with the authorities and financial provision as the cost for our family is around $2000 dollars.

As always if you interested in keeping up with us on social media. Please use the following means.

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian-Cynthia Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Spring 2016 update

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Mon, 09 May 2016 18:51:00 +0000

Tree flowering in the botanical garden in Iasi

Spring has arrived in Romania all of the neighbors are deep cleaning their houses and carrying away yard debris that has gathered through the winter. Gardens are being tilled up in preparation of the coming growing season. The beauty of flowers and trees coming out of a long winter sleep as the warmth of the sun causes them to bloom in their full beauty. So much color is truly breathtaking. Springtime or primavara in Romanian always signals birthday season for our family and hosting a team from the Bible College in Hungary. We had the privilege of hosting 10 students from the college and having them come and serve alongside us. They served practically, by working on the church property, and within the orphanage; our after school program with Roma children; in a couple of villages that we have outreaches in and finally a conversational English class. They came ready to serve and share the love of Jesus with all those that they encountered. Hearing the stories of how the Lord used them to bless the kids through playing with them and sharing their testimonies was amazing. during one of these times we had two children and one of the workers, who we have been praying for, raise their hand to accept God's free gift of salvation. It's been an amazing blessing partnering with the bible college in Hungary. Over the years we have hosted teams and interns which has not only given us their help and encouragement but we have also been able to speak into the lives of the students.

Introducing the team to the best coffee in the city

10 day working with kids in a village school

Ryan sharing with the kids

playing with the kids

Waving goodbye

This year we celebrated Easter on May 1st. The reason for the difference is that Easter in Romania is celebrated on the Orthodox calendar, which is based upon an older Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar used by the Catholic church. In addition, the Orthodox formula for figuring out when Easter is to be celebrated always occurs after the jewish passover. The reasoning behind this is due to Jesus' death and resurrection happening after the passover. What all of this means is that our Easter can vary from year to year. For example next year we will celebrate Easter the same Sunday as Catholics and Protestants in the western world. In some cases like this year our Easter celebration differs by a month. The message was entitled "The Significance of the Resurrection" and we had two people accept the invitation to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Always a great reason to celebrate when two people move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The children's program blessed the church by singing some songs for everyone and helping with worship. It was so awesome to hear the kids sing their hearts out for Jesus.

Kids helping with worship for Easter service

Easter evening a good friend of mine Florin, who is the pastor of the Calvary Chapel in Bucuresti, drove up and a few of us traveled to Vajta, Hungary for Speakers week. The focus of Speakers week this year was ministering and connecting with Muslim. The reason for this specific topic in the conference was in response to the the overwhelming refugee needs confronting Europe right now and how the church as a whole should respond. One of the things that became very apparent besides the obvious physical needs of these people was how to adequately meet the great spiritual need. The week was extremely informative on many levels for all that attended. One of the highlights for me personally was Florin and his son being asked to lead worship the last day of the conference.

The reason I chose to highlight the importance of this particular conference is for the following reason. Romania, while being predominantly Romanian Orthodox, has communities of Romanian Muslims in the south of the country along the Black Sea. Their presence in Romania dates back to 1061 AD with a population of a little over 67,000 people. We have a family in our church that is going to be moving to the south of Romania next year to plant a church and one of their hopes is to reach into these communities with the Gospel.

Hanging out with friends at CCBCE in Vajta, Hungary

Prayer requests:

Please continue to Pray for a couple in our fellowship that have been trying for years to have children and the doctors do not know why they cannot conceive. Pray for the Lord to give them their heart’s desire. Also please pray against discouragement for this couple. They are very faithful in coming to church and they have been discouraged lately with not being able to have a baby. We also want to lift up the husband, who enjoys the services but as yet has not made a decision for Christ. Please pray for the Lord to reveal himself to him in a way that he understands.

Pray for the mom of the couple up above. She has started attending Sunday’s and the midweek studies. We believe the Lord is drawing her to himself pray that God would reveal himself in a way that she would understand and respond to.

Lidia Blaga has moved into her apartment. She is adjusting to living alone now which has its good points and its bad points. Please continue to lift her up in prayer.

The team that we hosted did an awesome job. In fact when a couple of them shared their testimonies, some of the kids responded and one of the workers to the invitation for Jesus to be Lord over their life. Please keep them in prayer that their step of faith will grow into an amazing walk with Jesus.

Prayer for one of the ladies who has been attending more and more often. She is really close to responding to the Lord. Just pray that the Holy Spirit would nudge her the last little bit. Also pray for her family situation as her husband is an alcoholic.

Pray for Mitica, who is constantly struggling with a chronic back pain. It will get better and then when he works in his garden he re-injures himself again. Gardening here is an important part of life so he is very frustrated by this.

Pray for the older boys in the association as all of them are struggling to one degree or another with standing up to peer pressure and making wise decisions. Pray for the parents and the staff as we seek wisdom on how to best serve them.

Please continue to lift up the university students who are living in Cluj to go to school. They are away from family, and the church and its very stressful and hard for all of them. Pray for the Lord to guide their decisions. For all of them this is their first time away from home for any length of time. They are also preparing for exams in the next couple of months so pray for grace for that as well.

Pray for the plans for this summer. Especially for the outreaches in the summer, for God’s provision, guidance and favor. We are currently planning another English camp but with more kids. This year we are hoping to offer scholarships for the kids as the cost of the camp can be difficult or impossible for a lot of Romanian families to come up with. The cost for the week camp per child is $70 and for 50 kids to attend the total cost is $3500. We have the dates for the camp set for July 25-29, so please continue to lift this up in prayer. We are going to need twice the staff we had volunteering for this last year.

We are also going to have a park festival in August with a band from the States doing the music. Please pray for the logistics for this as well and that the Lord would go before us and make a way.

Pray also as the pastors begin planning our yearly pastor’s conference in May. For God to guide on who is to speak, the theme, and that the time spent together would be fruitful.

Pray also for Brian as he has some opportunities to teach at different conferences this spring and summer. That God would put on his heart what needs to be shared and that he would have the time to adequately prepare and traveling mercies as well.

Pray for all the kids as they prepare for second semester finals. Pray for them to retain the information and to do well on their exams.

We also have to reapply this year for our long term residency. Pray for the Lord to guide us through this process because its a lot of paperwork, financial cost and pray for favor with the authorities. The cost for this is around $2000 dollars for our family of six. Please pray for God’s favor and provision for all of this. Its been 5 years and the laws are always changing.

If you are interested in small daily updates about the ministry, family or just Romania in general please use the following forms of social media.

contact information:

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Fall/Winter update 2016 and plans ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 14:19:00 +0000

In the hills above the city

Winter in Romania is always an adventure especially the last few years. Our fall this year was long and unusually warm with no snowfall, or rain. The older Romanians are always wary about this kind of weather because they remember back when the snow came late in February and did not leave until June. It has been a busy fall/winter for us here. It started with hosting a team from the bible college in October and then moved into thanksgiving for about 27 friends followed by rushing into the Christmas season. This year we moved the women's tea to another venue because we have outgrown the church. One of our girls' classmates' father is the director for a local hotel that has a large room for hosting events. Typically in this situation the hotel wants to cater the event, which always adds cost. After talking with him he agreed to supply tables, plates, chairs, and utensils that were needed and we were able to still have a potluck. Many of the ladies commented on how nice the place was and months later are still talking about the message that Cynthia shared from Proverbs 14:1. One of the ladies, Laura, is really interested in the things of the Lord but has not yet made a decision to follow Him. Through Cynthia's message she realized some of the things that she was doing that were causing problems in her home and how to try something new. Pray the the seeds that were planted would produce lasting fruit in the lives of the ladies who attended.

We also were hosting a team from the bible college in Hungary at this time and they were able to bless the mothers who had children by providing childcare for them. The kids had so much fun with the team that when their mom's came to pick them up they did not want to leave.

All of the table decorations were handmade by one of ladies in the church

Thanksgiving was so much fun this year. We invited some friends of ours, who own a restaurant in town that makes the best pizza in the city to share thanksgiving with our family and friends. It was a full house but was such a blessing being able to host and talk freely about the things of the Lord and enjoy great food. John and Nicoleta, have talked about coming to church for years and we invite them all of the time. Pray that God would give them a desire to make it to Sunday service.

Cynthia did a great job of decorating

lots of desserts to chose from

Pumpkins cheesecake and Tiramisu

We are in the midst of preparing for the upcoming spring and summer outreaches. We have an English camp the week of July 25-29. We invite kids from the schools to learn English from native English speakers and then play games with them and each evening a different team member shares their testimony with the kids. We are praying about having 50 kids come this year. We are using the local Baptist conference center to host the camp which is close to Bistrita but perfectly suited for our needs. We are also praying about setting up scholarships for kids that cannot afford to go to the camp. We always ask them to pay for part of the camp but in some cases the families cannot afford the full price or even partial. If you are interested in providing a scholarship for a child the cost is $70 for the whole camp. For all 50 kids the cost would be $3500. We had so much fun last year and still have ongoing relationships with a lot of the kids that came. Our desire is to give them something practical to help them in school but also seize the opportunities that God gives us to speak the simplicity of the gospel into their lives.

Last August while at the bible college in Hungary we had an opportunity to talk with a worship band that travels doing outreaches all over Europe. They had been looking for an opportunity to come and work in Romania and noticed that a Romanian van came and picked them up at the airport. One thing lead to another and August 15th-22 of this year they are coming to Romania. Starting in Bistrita and then working their way through the major cities where we have Calvary works. Please be praying for this. Our desire is to do an outreach concert in the main park and do face painting, balloons etc, things that can be done quickly and for a lot of people since in the summer literally thousands of people walk through our local park.

Pray for the Lord to continue to open doors in Bistrita and that we would continue to see people impacted by the simplicity of the gospel message.

Answered prayer:

Rasvan was not only given an interview for the job that was hoping for but he was also offered a job. This is a real answer to prayer for him and Crina his wife.

Izzy, one of the girls that started attending the church a few months back, also prayed to accept the Lord over the new year. Pray that she would find a good church when she is in Cluj, going to the university, to attend and grow in the Lord.

Christmas eve service was packed out and it was so much fun watching the kids perform their Christmas program in front of family. Please pray for all of the new visitors that attended the service that God's Word would find a solid foothold in their lives and produce real fruit.

Lidia, has been doing better again. The lord provided an apartment close to her family that she was able to purchase while finalizing the selling of her old apartment. God is so good because she was able to sell not only the apartment but everything that she did not want in the apartment as well. Before selling her apartment the Lord had given her a verse out of Isaiah 43:18-19 and he is doing exactly that. As always she covets your prayers.

Pray for Dany, one of the boys in the after school program, he gave his life to the Lord last Sunday, pray that he would be established and rooted in the gospel message. That God would direct his path.

Pray requests:

Pray also for a couple in our fellowship that have been trying for years and the doctors do not know why they cannot conceive. Pray for the Lord to give them their heart’s desire. Please pray against discouragement for this couple. They are very faithful in coming to church and they have been discouraged lately with not being able to have a baby. We also want to lift up Rasvan the husband who enjoys the services but as yet has not made a decision for Christ. Please Pray for the Lord to reveal himself to him in a way that he understands.

Continue to lift of the university students who are living in Cluj to go to school. They are away from family, and the church and its very stressful and hard for all of them.

Pray for the plans for this next year. Especially for the potential outreaches in the summer, for God’s provision, guidance and favor. We are currently planning another English camp but with more kids. We are going to need twice the staff we had volunteering this last year and the financial provisions for all of it. We are also going to have a park festival in August with a band from the States doing the music. Please pray for the logistics for all of these major events for us and that the Lord would go before us and make a way.

Pray also as the pastors begin planning our yearly pastor’s conference in May. For God to guide on who is to speak, the theme, and that the time spent together would be fruitful.

We are also going to have to reapply this next year for our long term Visa. Pray for the Lord to guide us through this process as its a lot of paperwork, financial cost and favor with the authorities. The cost for this is also quite expensive around $2000 dollars for our family of six. Please pray for God’s favor through all of this. Its been 5 years and the laws are always changing.

Pray also because our next daughter is going to need to get braces this year to fix a problem with her bite. The cost is going to be around $1300.

If you are interested in small daily updates about the ministry, family or just Romania in general please use the following forms of social media.

contact information:

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Church Website: http://calvarychapelbistrita.ro/

YouTube channel: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

facebook: Personal, Brian Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Summer Update 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 15:54:00 +0000

Summer time for us signals the beginning of one of my personal favorite times of year when people make a public statement of faith in Jesus Christ through water baptism. This summer we had few of our ladies that desired to be water baptized. Which was real special for a lot of them because they have been waiting for a few years. Because of the culture that we live in and most everyone being Romanian Orthodox there is a immense amount of pressure placed on a person that desires to be water baptized not to do it. In the cultural context that we live in here being water baptized into a protestant faith is considered an unforgivable sin. Because the person that is being water baptized is viewed as leaving the one true church.

This places a lot of people who desire to be baptized in conflict with their families, parents, and spouses. Especially with younger people. Most of the time when I am approached by some of the teenagers in our church who desire to be water baptized. I ask them what their parents think about it? To which they reply their parents do not want them to, until they are older. When you reach 18 years of age here you are considered an adult. So I always encourage them, its better for you to be submitted to your parents wishes and represent Christ in this way, then to do something out of rebellion. I then tell them to pray for the Lord to change their parents hearts. Our prayer is for families to want to participate by being present and supportive even if they may not understand fully why their family members are choosing to be water baptized. In their thinking they were already baptized as babies. It gives an opportunity for the family members being baptized to make a public statement of faith and also an opportunity for the gospel message to be heard by those in attendance.

To help with that understanding I give a simple class because over the years we have found that many people have really weird ideas about what water baptism is and so I seek to clarify what water baptism is and is not according to the word of God. Its such a blessing to watch the truth set people free from false expectations, complete misunderstandings, or just plain ignorance a lot of time.

One of the ladies who desired to be baptized this summer is Ioana. Ioana, has been attending the church for a little while now and its been amazing watching her grow in the Lord. We have been praying that her husband would allow her to be water baptized because he is not a believer and was against it in the beginning. Over time the Lord softened him to allow her to be baptized. What was really neat about it was that he also allowed their young son to participate by watching his mom get water baptized.

Ioana's baptism

if you look closely you can see her son in the background

One of the best parts of what we do

Madelina, has been attending the church since she was 15 years old and always has challenging questions due to getting into good discussions with her philosophy professor in high school. Sunday morning without her helping with the songs and the powerpoint I would truly be lost sometimes. She has been waiting to be water baptized for years and now is able to finally do it.

Bianca is another one of the high school students that helps with worship on Sunday mornings. She has been waiting patiently the same as Madelina to publicly make a statement about following Christ.

This year we also were started our first English Camp outreach. We were helped by a team from Hungary and a team of 9 people from a church in Colorado, who's pastor is a friend and was a missionary I met here in Europe. This group had been doing an English camp in Hungary for years so I asked them to come and help us get one started here. We had 30 kids show up this year and all of them loved it and want to come back next year. Encouraged by the feedback, we are praying about making it larger, for next year. The mornings were busy with English lessons for 3 hours and the afternoon was spent playing different games with the kids. Before dinner in the evenings we had a life story time where two team members would share their testimony. One of the reasons this camp was also fun for us as a family was that our older kids were able to step up and help the team by translating. It was such a blessing to watch kids befriend one another when someone did not seem to fit in with the other kids.

Nick sharing his testimony Kaidon is translating

Girls craft time. Cynthia's craft of card stitching was extremely popular

This is what you will need

hanging out

Kaidon translating his Mom's testimony

talent show time, Nick's group doing a skit

Teaching Baseball, disclosure, no sheep were harmed during the playing of this game

Ryane's level 3 English class

Beginner's English class

craft time

Haley sharing her testimony

Table Tennis

This looks like trouble

Water Balloon fight

would not be camp without s'mores

level 2 English class

challenges race

camp fire

Singing for the talent show

Beard Envy

Praise report:

The English camp was a lot of fun and the kids already are looking forward to coming back next year.

Prayer Requests:

Pray for the upcoming fall women's tea. This is alway a large outreach for us into the community with unsaved friends, family, co-workers and such. Pray for the ladies as they begin the preparation for this year. We are also looking to change the location so that we have more room. Pray that God would guide us to a new venue that fits our needs.

Pray for Ildi's chronic neck problems which cause lots of pain and loss of feeling in her right arm.

Pray also for Andre who fell off his truck while working in England and broke his leg. Pray for quick healing so he can get back to work.

Pray for Lidia as this time of year is very difficult for her. Pray for God’s presence and peace to reign in her heart and to lean on his strength. Also that God would lead us in how to continue to minister to her as she grieves.

Pray also for a flute for Sedona, she is starting class 5 and needs to pick up a second instrument, so we are going to need to purchase a flute for school by Sept. the cost is around $250.

Pray also for all the kids that are going to be starting school on the 2nd week of September. That they would be wise in their decisions and seek to do their very best in their studies and be a light for Jesus.

If you are interested in small daily updates about the ministry, family or just Romania in General please use the following forms of social media.

contact information:

Blog: romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

facebook: Personal, Brian Fouts

Page: Calvary Chapel Bistrita

Twitter: @FoutsBrian, @FoutsCynthia

Instagram: bcfouts, cynthiafouts

email: bcfouts1@gmail.com

Spring Update 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 12:57:00 +0000

Crocus blooming in March

Bulbs coming up, days getting warmer and longer always signal spring. The promise of new life. I love the change of seasons. Winter has its place, but spring with all of its color is a great season. Spring for us also signals birthday season. The majority of our family and friends birthdays seem to land between the end of February and the end of April. It makes for very busy and fun weekends. Over the last couple weeks I have been reflecting on this a lot. We have four kids and with each of their birthdays we average around 20 friends and classmates. We have found that through our kids being involved in a local school and different activities they have really opened up a lot of opportunities for us to reach out to other kids and their parents in the most natural of ways; birthday parties, school activities, and school meetings. Our kids have opened different opportunities to serve within the community that would not be there if they were not involved the way they are.

Hokey Pokey fun

Chicken Dance

fork, knife, large snow gloves and a wrapped chocolate, challenge accepted

Piñata always a popular choice

Cynthia cake baking skills

Happy Birthday Sedona

More dancing games

More fun

Celebrating her Birthday with classmates

Center of attention

Olaf cake

Friends helping

blind folded snowball game

extra challenging

Sister is doing well

Friends doing better

Melting Olaf cups

The Aftermath

Funny Smile

Tim's memorial service

The 1st part of the year has not been all easy though. We have been dealing with a lot of loss for our small church lately. Beginning in March one of our couples, who were from South Africa, the husband on Sunday morning died from a heart attack, without warning. It was a shock to all. His wife Uriana, and his place of employment Rombat, asked if I would be willing to organize a memorial service for Tim. In Romania, a memorial service is not something that they do, but his place of employment wanted to honor him and so asked us to help. Uriana was so blessed by the whole thing and was especially touched that I wore a suit for Tim's memorial, since Tim was a lot like me and did not like suits and ties. It was such a great honor to be a small part of this man's legacy and to see the lives that he had touched in the few short years that he had been in Romania. a couple of weeks later our social worker's mother passed away from health complications. Its been a difficult season for us over the last couple years. We have also seen God being faithful through it all. We have a couple of high school age girls that recently have started attending, in responds to the invitation of a friend. A lady who attended the Tim's memorial service, came to church with her daughter after hearing the service. So even the midst of tragedy, we see God's hand in it all.

April 12th for us is Easter, since in Romania most of the protestant churches follow the orthodox calendar. It's a great opportunity to invite people who normally would not attend services to come to church to hear the gospel. Please pray for God to open hearts and to bring those who are searching for him. Pray that the message would be timely and applicable to the hearts and lives of those who attend.

Praise Report:

God has provided all of the funds to fully pay off the braces for both of our oldest children. For those who helped we can't thank you enough.

Prayer Requests:

Pray for those in our church who are dealing with chronic health issues. We have a number of people in our church suffering. Pray for healing.

Pray also for those who are attending the church who have not given their lives to the Lord.

Pray for the upcoming English camp in the summer that God would bring the right kids and bring it all together.

If you are interested in following us on Social media please see below for more day to day photos and updates.

facebook: Brian Fouts
Twitter: @FoutsBrian
@Fouts Cynthia

Instagram: bcfouts
cynthiafouts

Fall Update 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 13:27:00 +0000

Fall in the forest around Bistrita

I have to say that for me personally the fall is one of my favorite times of year. I love the changes, the warm afternoon, waking up to the cool crisp mornings. The forest turning yellow and gold signaling the coming winter. Waking up to the smell of wood smoke coming out of the neighbors chimneys. The sight of wood being piled, split, and then stacked in preparation for the coming winter months. Shorter days only to have the nights grow longer. All of these things remind me of the fall. Fall as with many of us is about preparation; canning, freezing. Cleaning up the last of what is in your garden and preparing it for next spring. Its always familiar to come across someone with horse drawn wagon full of manure to drop off at someone's garden this time of year. Leaves being raked and burned. All before the first snow are to come.

Fall for us as a church is also about preparation. Preparation for the coming months and into the spring and summer. Preparation for the college 10 day trips that we host and preparation for the annual fall women's tea. This year, we hosted a small team from the bible college in Vajta, Hungary for their 10 day. They helped with workers in orphanage ministry and our after school program working with Roma Children. They also helped with setup, cleanup and childcare for the women's tea this year. It seems every year this tea seems to grow bigger and bigger. In fact this next year we are praying about what to do because we have outgrown our church facility for hosting it. So we will be prayerfully looking for a larger facility for next year.

Through this outreach, we have had women that were not only interested in the church but started attending. Its been really encouraging to watch the Lord use this yearly event to not only bless the women who attend regularly but also give them opportunity to reach out to those around them who do not know the Lord.

Ladies tea

Playing games

playing games

Natalie was in charge of the games

handing prizes

all smiles

Onita and Amalia

Purse Bingo

lots of food

Ionela looks happy

smallest attendee with her mom

Hannah with Cynthia

Natalie with friends

Tinsely with the kids from the afterschool progam

team from Vajta painting

team from Vajta hanging out with the kids from the afterschool program

Prayer Request:

Prayer for the upcoming holiday season outreaches, that God would lead us in the things he has for us.

Prayer for soft hearts at the afterschool program that the kids would accept Jesus as their personal savior and grow in him.

Prayer for the boys in the association as they adjust to their new parents and the Covaci family center as well.

Prayer for Lidia as she is dealing with legal issues surrounding her apartment. That God would give her grace, patience, and strength.

Prayer also for us as we found out that Kaid and Sedona are going to need braces to correct their bite. While this is cheaper here then in the states. It still costs quite a bit. Prayer for God to supply for our need as we continue to meet with the orthodontist.

Prayer for Marta, she is a 6 year old sister to one of our children's collegues in school and is battling Leukemia. Prayer strength, healing and grace for the family.

Prayer for Nicoleta who had surgery to correct her eyesight and remove some polyps from her sinuses. That her recovery would go quickly.

Contact information:

If you are interested in keeping updates on our ministry.

facebook: BrianFouts
Twitter: @FoutsBrian or @FoutsCynthia
Instagram: CYNTHIAFOUTS or bcfouts

Summer Update 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 04:39:00 +0000

Our summer has been a great time of catching up with family that we have not seen for 4 years. Its amazing to see how much our families have grown both in number in some cases and as always in size. The kids have been really enjoying spending time with grandparents whether its been Kokonee fishing with Grandpa Fouts, herding wayward goats, playing with cousins, visiting the Portland Zoo, camping, even smore's which for our youngest was a first. It has been such a blessing to watch the kids just play with their cousins and reconnect with grandparents.

Hanging out with cousins

camping at the Grandpa and Grandma Robbins

Grandpa putting them to work

Finding lost Dinosaur eggs

1st time with S'mores

playing with Robbins cousins

Idaho mountains

We also have been having a blessed time of sharing with different churches in Oregon about the ministry in Romania. The blessings, challenges, the funny things. We always count a privilege to share what God is doing through his work in Romania and how we get to apart of it.

Visiting Idaho is always a highlight for us. We never get tired of the Idaho mountains. the Kids have been having a great time playing with friends. We have had a wonderful time sharing with the different churches in this area. Its been a while since we have been back in this area and its such a blessing to see what God is doing on in the Treasure Valley. Not to mention how much Boise area has grown in size. There many times while driving what we thought was a familiar road we would get turned around because of all changes to roads, shopping centers, even new overpasses.
While we were in Idaho, Cynthia and I had a opportunity to getaway for a weekend to celebrate our anniversary, which was truly a blessing for us.

Its amazing how quickly time passes when you are back visiting with family and friends. We truly covet the time. But it passes so quickly.

Swimming at friends pool

Sharing at CCEmmett

Moving forward we are excited about what God has in store for us this year. We had a wonderful time of refreshment and renewing. We want to thank everyone for their time, your faithfulness in prayer and partnering with us. You are really appreciated beyond measure. We also want to say thank especially to those who let us invade their homes for a while.

If you interested in keeping up on our day to day activities, pictures, family life:

Our blog:

http://romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Facebook:

Brian Fouts

Calvary Chapel Bistrita page

Twitter:

@FoutsBrian

@FoutsCynthia

Instagram:

Bcfouts

cynthiafouts

Prayer Requests:

Pray for God to give us continued clear vision for reaching the community that we live in.

Prayer for the upcoming study in Ecclesiastes.

Prayer for the Kids as they are preparing for School.

Prayer also for a couple in our church , she had twins via Caesarean. Pray for her recovery and the health of the babies.

Prayer also for adjusting back into Romania.

Spring 2014 update

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 13:07:00 +0000

"Hristos inviat", it's a common greeting you hear all the time in the spring. It's a tradition that for the next 40 days you greet everyone from the lady at the store checking out your groceries to your next door neighbor. It means "Christ is risen," if you are greeted this way you would respond "Adevarat Inviat", "indeed he is risen." I love the spring, for so many reasons, everything that once appeared dead. Starts showing signs of life. Neighbors start working in their vegetable and flower gardens. You can hear and see the deep cleaning that signifies change in the season. The warm weather draws people out to enjoy the sunshine and the warmth. it also presents great opportunities for sharing gospel tracts and invitations to the church. My son was asking why some people will listen and ask questions about the gospel tract and others will either ignore you or walk away. This is the first time he has been able to participate in street outreaches and It was a great opportunity to share with him, the parable about the different soil types. In every group you are going to have those who are open, some that are simply interested in what you have to say, and those who want nothing to do with it. That is why we share with everyone because we never know who those people are going to be. It has been a blessing this year to watch our older 3 children help the team from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Hungary with translation and handing out invitations and gospel tracts. The team was a great help with after school program working with the Roma children, playing with the orphanage children, and sharing at the conversational English class.

Weather permitting every evening we have been sharing tracts, And talking with anyone who has questions about why we celebrate Easter, or Paste in Romanian. Pronounced pashte. Romania, has a rich history filled with lots of traditions that can be fun for the kids like coloring eggs with friends, and then smacking two eggs together to see who has the stronger egg shell. But I am also reminded all of the time that while people may know about the death and resurrection of Jesus, they miss out on the personal significance to their individual lives. How the gospel is the good news and why it's to be celebrated, not just because of church tradition but because it offers true spiritual freedom, from sin, shame and death. In talking with one young person during this season, they were talking about what their priest had told them. That while faith in Christ is good, the easier way for salvation was through doing good deeds and having your good deeds outweigh your bad. Which led to a great conversation about why our good deeds are never good enough.

Our Easter program was fantastic, and we even had a few people come from the tracts that we handed out. We are continuing to pray and ask God to give us divine appointments as we share the gospel with those within the community.

Earlier, this month, Brian traveled to the south of country to participate and at a pastor's conference. Hosted by some good friends. We had a speaker from Calvary Chapel Hanover, in Germany come and share. It was a great time of fellowship, the word, and prayer.

Over the last 6 months we have started video recording our Sunday messages and uploading them to YouTube and our church Facebook account. With the Hope of using as much technology and social media as we can to reach into our local community and Romania in general. Please pray that God would use these tools to reach people in this country.

The Lord has provided for our plane tickets this summer. So we are really excited to be able to come back and visit with family, and our church family all that God has been doing the last 4 years. We are looking forward to a time of refreshment, and being rejuvenated. 1/2 of our time we be spent in Oregon and from June 21- July 25th and the other half in Idaho. With our return trip back Sept 2.

If you interested in keeping up on our day to day activities, pictures, family life:

Our blog:

http://romaniafouts.blogspot.ro

Facebook:

Brian Fouts

Calvary Chapel Bistrita page

Twitter:

@FoutsBrian

@FoutsCynthia

Instagram:

Bcfouts

cynthiafouts

Prayer Requests:

Prayer for those who received gospel tracts and invitations. Pray that the Holy Spirit would draw them to Jesus and that they would have open hearts to want to know more.

Pray for young men who desire to be used by God to change their country.

Prayer for a Awakening in Bistrita and the surrounding communities.

Prayer for our trip home for a visit. That God would provide places to stay, vehicles that are needed. All of the logistics of sharing at churches.

Prayer for the church while we are gone visiting the states. For the pastors who will be teaching in Brian absence.

Pray for fruitful time in the states and a much needed rest for the family.

Merry Christmas from The Fouts in Romania

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 09:39:00 +0000

May you have a blessed Christmas celebrating the birth of the Savior.

Fall update 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:19:00 +0000

We have had a very busy fall this year. With the kids starting school, figuring their school schedules. Making sure that we have paid for all of the books and fees for school. Combined with the midweek studies ramping back up. Makes for the beginning of a busy season in life. We have also had the privilege of hosting a number of teams this fall. We currently have an intern staying with us for 3 months from Prineville Oregon. Tandy came over to serve with our ministry at the orphanage and to help at the after school program. She is doing great and seems to be adjusting to living with us nicely.

We also had the opportunity to host a team from Oklahoma. Lonnie Bradbury and his wife Teresa and a young person from their church named Natalie came to serve in whatever way they could. Lonnie has been traveling to Romania since 2001. He had been carrying around a Romanian magazine that CCBoise used to produce since 2005. This year it worked out that they could come see the work in Bistrita. They worked at the orphanage, the after school program and Lonnie taught on Sunday and the midweek studies. They also helped with some projects next door. We really appreciated all that they did and invited them back Lord willing next year. While they were here we drove them out to a village that Chris and Faith Anderson have been working in. During the week Faith teaching an English class and Chris is teaching a bible study and discipline one of the young men I the village. It's always a challenge to minister in these situations because of the great need. But also walking In wisdom in how much to help with and what to help with. We were able to visit with some of the families that are attending and pray for the needs of others. While there one of the neighbors brought his horse by and we were impressed with both the size and health of the animal. It's uncommon to see horses very healthy here because of the lack of money to take care of them properly. In our conversation he referred to it as his tractor which both Lonnie and I thought was a good description.

We also had a team from the CCBCE that came to serve on their 10 day. The team was such a blessing in coming alongside the ministry here and serving in he orphanages, the after school program. Along with helping with some practical work of the church property and even taking the time to visit with Lidia for a few hours.

We finished up their stay with the annual women's tea, helping Cynthia with all the logistics and preparation before hand and helping with the clean up and setup for church the next morning. The team from Vajta was a real blessing and encouragement to us through their selfless serving and good attitudes.

The next team to come was from Calvary Chapel Bible college in York England. We had 9 students come and serve in the after school program. 2 of the student were from Israel and so they were able to talk about what it was like to grow up in Israel and also be a Christian. The next day one of the students, who is from Germany, shared about his country. Some of them went and talked at the conversational English class with Natalie and others went to help in the English class that Faith Anderson teaches in a village school.

The last team we had this fall was a team from Calvary Chapel Boise. The highlight of their visit was visiting Lidia. I was really blessed by a couple of the ladies who had lost their husbands being able to minister to Lidia. I really sensed the Holy Spirit anointing in everything that they were saying. Her brother in law, who an assistant pastor for the large Pentecostal church briefly came in and thanked everyone from the team and all of the Calvary Chapels for their prayer, words of encouragement and outpouring of love. He recently shared at the national Pentecostal pastor's conference that he has been personally amazed by the response of Calvary Chapel. He went on to say that anyone from Calvary Chapel is always welcome in their house.

Praise reports:

We were able to update the heating in the house to a central wood burning system which is more efficient at heating the large building on the property.

The Lord really blessed us with all of the teams that and this fall to serve alongside us.

We were able to make so much needed repairs on the church van.

Prayer requests:

Pray for open hearts as we our currently working our way through the book of Colossians

Pray for the marriages in our church to be stengthened and to grow in the grace of God.

Prayer for the upcoming Christmas outreaches that God would guide us.

Prayer for the the two families that our in adoption process for 3 children in our association that God would give them grace and favor with the authorities.

Pray also as we are in the process of applying for Romanian citizenship. God's will and favor.

Prayer also for our plans to come back for a visit this summer. Just for the logistics and finances.

Summer update 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 13:27:00 +0000

While we are still working our way through the loss of Adi and Timotei. We have had a great summer. Starting with

A pastor's retreat in the south we took a couple of days and just prayed, and studied the word of God and planned for the next year upcoming events in Romania. It was great to get together with these men and spend time in prayer and the word. I love these guys and was super blessed when everyone of these men made the trip if just for the day to come to Adi and Timotei's funeral. We really appreciated them being with us and showing their love and support to both Lidia and the church here in Bistrita.

The next event was a trip to Hungary for the Foundations Conference. While the weather was not the greatest, we enjoyed the fellowship with other missionaries, great worship and encouraging teaching from the speakers. We chose the wild camping, which meant we were sleeping in a tent. But we loved it, it was like camping, but with a coffee shop, showers and real bathrooms.

This summer we also saw some baptism's in our church. I always love this part of my job when we see people take the step of faith to make a public declaration of their faith in Christ. Please lift these new believers up in prayer that they would continue to be established in the word of God. The lady at the bottom of these pictures has an interesting testimony she was raised around the occult almost her entire life and now she loves Jesus and wants her son to love him also. He is truly an amazing God

Prayer requests:

Please be praying for Adi's family, especially Lidia his wife and his mom. Pray for the church and New Beginnings.

Prayer for Brian as he assumes all of Adi's responsibilities pray for God to give him Spiritual wisdom and great grace with these additional responsibilities.

Pray for those who did this to Adi and Timotei to be brought to justice quickly.

Pray for those who are still living in fear. That God would give them peace and for those who are struggling with understanding that they would rest in the knowledge of who God is.

Sadness

noreply@blogger.com (Brian and Cynthia) — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:38:00 +0000

I was reminded of this verse Romans 12:21, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Over the last couple of days, I have found myself with lots of questions. Why has this happened, Why did God allow this. And honestly have found no answers. Because there are no answers. There is no human explanation, logic, or reason that is going to bring comfort. I find myself being angry in one moment and mourning the loss of one of my best friends in Romania and his precious son. I have known Adi for over 8 years, had the privilege and honor to serve with him for that amount of time. In many ways, God used Adi to shape me into the pastor that I am today. I loved him and I weep for him and his family. In times like this its very easy to see nothing but evil, its threatens to overwhelm us. And yet throughout scripture it gives us the promises of God's love, his power, his grace, his understanding, and his comfort and most importantly his presence.

When something so evil like this happens it tries to overshadow everything about them. So we need to choose to focus on their life rather then their death. We don't allow the evil and darkness that surrounds their death to cloud what a beautiful life they both lived.

A friend of mine from the states sent me the following reminder. "Don’t exchange what you know, for what you don’t know.”

We know God loves Adi & Timotei. We know Jesus saved them. We know they are in heaven right now.

We know that God is good all of the time.

We know that God is with us.

What we don’t know is why this happened. And even if we do find out the reasons, we may still not understand it.

So we grieve their death, we pray for the family, but we carry on the same message that Adi and Timotei so passionately believed with all their heart. That God came, he died for our sins, to bring those who are Spiritually dead, separated from God, without hope alive to him and through the sacrificial death of jesus he paid the penalty of our sin to make those who receive it apart of his family forever.

Adi and Timotei lives were an example for all of us all of God's grace. There was not a time that I was not riding with him in his van that he was not listening to the bible audibly, a bible study, or worship music. His van was his tabernacle. Adi was one of the most honest men that I have ever met. Their was no duality to him at all. His life was permeated with the word of God. He deeply cared about people and tried to help anyone who came to him.

Yes we mourn, but according to scripture we don't grieve like as others do who have no hope. Scripture tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and Adi and Timotei both loved the Lord passionately and now they are with him, there are tears here, but in midst of our tears for our loss, there is also hope because they are not gone forever, all of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus will be reunited with them, so this is not the end its simply an interruption and we will see them again and in that moment there will never be a separation again.

This was the message that I gave at their funeral. I was amazed to see the crowds of people, standing room only in the chapel. All of these people who lives had been impacted by this man and his son. I hold to the promise we find in Romans 8:28, 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I know that God would not allow this unless he was going to accomplish something amazing. Please be praying for the family, the church in Bistrita, and NewBeginnings. Pray also that those who did this would be brought to justice quickly.

for those of you interested in helping Lydia financially please send it to Calvary Chapel Boise marked for Lydia Blaga.

Adi on the left

Timotei kissing Amanda at her wedding