Sunday, June 1, 2008

On the Road Home-London

Sunday, June 01, 2008—posted by Jim Milligan

After nine days of traveling, we get a respite here in London. I have to say that I was looking forward to this stop. Back in 1998, on my first trip into Africa, the team (18 men from Calvary Chapel Rancho Santa Margarita) had an eight-hour layover at Gatwick Airport, some 30 miles outside of London. Our team leader, Pastor Gary Kusunoki, loaded us all on the Gatwick Express to London for one reason, to eat dinner at the Golden Dragon Restaurant. Kevin, Frank Rabinovitch, my partner in the ministry at Sowing Circle, and I were part of that team. And I can say that since that time, any time I have a layover here, we go to the Golden Dragon. Kevin and I have had Peking duck in China together, but without equivocation, we have voted the Golden Dragon's Peking duck the world's best! So if you are ever in London make your way to Chinatown to the Golden Dragon at 28-29 Gerrard Street.





This is Ruth's first time in London, well actually this trip was her first time on an airplance. So we spent some time at a couple of tourist sites, while Kevin was preparing for Sunday's message. It was a nice end to a fabulous trip. We pray that Christ was glorified throughout the trip.



Here are a few additional pictures of the team that wanted to post, but didn't get in elsewhere.




Ruth with some kids at Betana Orphanage in Petrosani.

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Joshua and Andrei

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Joshua and Marios

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Tasha and Jonathan in Bucharest

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Joshua, Rebekah and Ruth in London (cold).

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Luggage for the Milligan's and Ruth

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Peking Duck



Postscript: The duck was soooo goooood we had it for dinner right after landing in London on Tuesday night and then again for lunch on Thursday. It's that food thing again!

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Ministering in Valcea

Sunday, June 01, 2008—posted by Jim Milligan

On Saturday morning we started the three hour trip from Petrosani to Valcea. If you've looked at the maps we posted here, you may be asking is it Vilcea or Valcea. Well we asked it many times, since we saw signs with it spelled two different ways. It seems that a few years ago the spelling was changed to Valcea, and thus our confusion.



Pastor Kevin has known Tim and Krista Hahne for about 20 years. Kevin and Time co-taught the youth ministry at a local Calvary Chapel for many years, before Tim was called to Romania and Kevin to Calvary Chapel Rancho Santa Margarita. Pastor Tim has served as the Senior Pastor of a local church here in Valcea. Tim's and Krista's son, Joey, serves as one of the assistant pastors.




Pastor Tim and Krista Hahne

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We were welcomed by the church at a pot-luck dinner Saturday night at the Hahne's house. Christians and food, it seems they go together! Along with the food came a church table tennis tournament. It seems that they are aware of the competitive nature of our Senior Pastor. Two young ladies soundly beat the two teams of Kevin and Ovideu and Jim and Ovideu. Kevin and I would like to blame Ovideu, but we were just clearly outmatched. Luckily no one took pictures of the beating, so I don't have to post them here!




Sunday was a full day, Sunday morning service with Pastor Tim, lunch with church leadership (that food thing again) and then Sunday evening service by Kevin.



Joey and his wife Mihaela (and daughter Katie) also operate Reverence Bible Church's ministry house here in Valcea. The ministry house is located in the heart of Valcea. At first look it seems out of place. The surrounding area is comprised of large apartment houses and businesses. Here in the midst of them is a small house of less than 1000 square feet. Yet it is in a perfect place to perform outreach to the community in the name of Christ through evangelism to the lost and ministry to the believing Body of Christ. Our prayer and hope is to find the funds to enlarge the house so that ministry teams can be housed here on short-term mission trips, as well as to allow for additional types of ministry to be performed on the premises. There is room in the back lot to expand, so join us in prayer as we seek God for provisions if this be His will.




Joey, Mihaela and Katie.

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Tim, Katie and Kevin at the front gate.

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Ruth, Marios, Kevin and Joshua in the side/back yard.

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Much of our time in Valcea was spent minstering to the Hahne's and other various church leaders. The mission field here is hard. The people here are brought up in the Orthodox Church from birth. They have a head knowledge of religious things, especially rituals of the Orthodox Church. But many lack a personal relationship with the Savior. We had the opportunity to spend some time street witnessing in the main park in downtown Valcea on Monday afternoon. We split up into teams of three or more, each with one local person to assist us in translating into the Romanian language. One woman that we met with, came that night to the Monday night service, taught by Jim on Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

We want to give thanks to Tim and Krista who opened their house to the Milligan troop for three days and to Joey and Mihaela for housing the Otsuji family. Here are some other pictures of our time in Valcea.




Tasha (and Jonathan) with a girl in the park to whom
Tasha witnessed the Gospel of Jesus.

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Assistant Pastor Ovdieu and wife Angie

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Pastor Joey and Mihaela ministering in worship
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Well after three days here in Valcea it is time to leave. We experienced the love of the church here in Valcea, For Kevin, it was a reunion of old friends, for the rest of the team the making of new ones. They not only made us feel welcomed here in Romania, but shared the love of Christ with us. Now it is off to home with a short stop in London.

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Last Day in Petrosani

Sunday, June 01, 2008—posted by Jim Milligan

Friday was our last day in Petrosani. We started out the day visiting with the Andries family to pray with them and encourage them in their ministry efforts. This was the primary point of our trip was to spend time with those in the field, encouraging and exhorting them with the Word and in prayer. Our brothers and sisters in Christ need the strength of the Lord to fulfill the work to which they have been called. God has also in His Word admonished us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ (Ephesians 6:18, James 5:16). So we ask that as you read these blog entries, if the Lord puts on your heart to pray for the Andries family or the Hahne family, to please commit to do so. And if you desire to financially support them, you can contact us at the church.




Andrei and Kelle Andries

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Tasha Otsuji, Aryana and Kelle Andries

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The Lord has blessed Kelle and Andrei, through an stateside donor, with a large house in the midst of the city of Petrosani to convert to a Family Centre. The Family Centre will be used to house and minister to orphans and unwanted children of Petrosani. They hope to tak possession of the building in the very near future as the purchase transaction is completed.


Family Centre

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Later in the day we were able to visit with Kelley Stark, another missionary from Southern California. Kelley has taken in eleven children into her house over the past eight years. She has been able to officially adopt about five of them, is working through the process to adopt four to five more. By the time that process is completed, the older children who male up the remaining number, will be of age.




The Stark Family and the Team

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Amongst the children at Kelly's house was an 8 year old boy named David Joshua. Joshua and David immediately struck up a friendship and were able to spend much time together throughout the day and evening.




David Joshua Stark and Joshua Milligan

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To end the day and our time of ministry in Petrosani, the local church had a pot-luck dinner to greet us (I guess church pot-lucks are a global church occasion). It is always a blessing to meet with believers in other parts of the world. More often than not, they minister to us (it would seem) more than we do to them. We were able to spend three days in Petrosani, and we wish it was longer. We pray that the Lord bless the believers here and that they are brought together in the unity of the Body of Christ.



You can click on the following links to meet some of the believers living in Petrosani.

Pastor Tao | Bianca (right) and friend | Reme, Marios & Jim | Group in the Church



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Blog Bogged

Sunday, June 01, 2008—posted by Jim Milligan

We are so sorry! We got so involved in the ministry work on the trip, along with lack of computer and internet access, that we suffered blog bogged. So even though we are back we want to continue to share with you pictures and commentary on the ministry that went on.

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