The Dunns in Romania

July 14, 2008

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:05:00 EST

July 14, 2008 - Monday - I (Scott) traveled this weekend to visit the "Smyrna" church that is being planted in the southern city of Drobeta-Turnu-Severin. Pastor Ionut. a Romanian-American, has been leading this new work for nearly two years, and we've had the privilege of developing a relationship with he and his family and the church over the last year-and-a-half or so. The church is growing little-by-little in a spiritually very difficult area of Romania. There was a great spirit of worship there on Sunday as well as an eager reception of God's Word as I preached about hope in the midst of hopelessness from Jeremiah 32. Please take a moment to pray for Pastor Ionut (say EE-oh-noots), his wife Jenny, their two little girls (and a boy on the way) and the congregation, that God would continue to grow and prosper their ministry to be a truly "new wineskin for new wine." (pictures to come tomorrow, hopefully) Scott

July 5, 2008

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:56:00 EST

Happy Independence Day to all of our readers in the USA. We enjoyed a good 4th celebration last evening. We invited several other Americans to our home for an classic American 4th cookout. I was able to get a grocery store here to make hamburger to my specifications (otherwise the stuff they call ground beef here is really bad). Then I grilled the burgers on a friend�s gas grill. We also had French fries, potato salad, Kraft mac-n-cheese (mailed from America), and an American-style cake (also from a care package from the US). And watermelon for the final course. Later in the evening we set up our projector on the living room wall, plugged the laptop in and logged on the NBC4 website in our hometown of Columbus, Ohio. We pulled up the video of Columbus' "Red White and Boom" from the previous evening and, voila, we had Columbus Ohio fireworks on our living room wall :-). Not quite the same as being there, but it was still a good connection with the traditions of our home culture. Scott

July 3, 2008

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:19:00 EST

The ministry team from the Galion Free Methodist Church returned to the USA yesterday. Their 10 days of ministry with us and Oaza was a great success. Approximately half the team focused on direct work with the Oaza children, leading them in a wide variety of games, crafts, Bible stories and just "hanging out" together. The whole team also took the kids swimming one day at a nearby lake. New Shalom June 2008 The other half of the team focused primarily on several construction projects at the new Shalom House. I (Scott) was in charge of this aspect since I served as construction manager for the house. The team worked hard through several very hot days on projects such as installing play equipment that had been moved from the old Shalom property, disassembling, moving, reassembling, and painting a children's playhouse from the old Shalom property to the new house, and laying exterior tile on the main entry porches. Take a look at the pictures and admire their work with us! (my apologies to those who worked primarily with the children...I didn't get any photos of their ministry!) And just for fun, after the team installed a yard toy that rocks back and forth on a large spring, Nicole (one of the Oaza volunteers) captured this video of one of the younger children trying it out. Hopefully it will bring a smile to your face as it did to ours'. Scott

June 22, 2008

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:11:00 EST

Here are some pictures from my time in Herculane this past week. Some are from an excursion the group took on Wednesday afternoon--a cruise on the nearby Danube River. I'll let the captions tell the story, some of which dates back to the Roman Empire's conquest of Romania in 103AD. Our next summer ministry team arrives tomorrow from the Galion Free Methodist Church in Galion, Ohio (USA). This team of 12 will be splitting their efforts between some construction work on one of the Oaza homes and VBS-type ministry with the Oaza children. Pray for a good week of ministry. The weather is predicted to be VERY hot...near 100 Fahrenheit early this week. Yikes! Also, the latest edition of our newsletter is now available on this site. Just click on the "Newsletters" link above to find our May/June issue. And feel free to share it widely. Scott

June 17, 2008

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:53:00 EST

I (Scott) Spent Friday-Sunday traveling and visiting leaders and ministries in Hungary (Budapest and Gyor) and Slovakia (Bratislava). Our fellowship in Gyor is now focusing on two distinct ministry venues, a Friday evening Bible study in the city of Gyor and a bi-monthly Sunday home-church that meets in two nearby villages. So I visited the Bible study group on Friday evening, joining them for a summer grill party, and the home group on Sunday morning. Gerry and Kati McNamara are giving leadership to both of these ministry venues. It was good to connect with our people and leaders in both settings. On Saturday I drove the one-hour trip further north to Bratislava, Slovakia to visit with our missionary family there, Josef, Lynette & Simon Sykora. Josef, a native of Czech Republic, serves on the pastoral staff of another evangelical church in Bratislava. Lynette is active in the church as well but also gives "member care" to our Free Methodist missionaries in all of Europe. Josef had earlier been asked to participate in the infant baptism (Catholic) of a friend's baby in Czech Republic (near Brno), so we had arranged that I would ride along and just spend the day with them. We spent the day together traveling, talking, playing with Simon, and experiencing a bit of Czech culture and food (a first for me). It was a good day of building relationship with colleagues and friends. Today as I write this I am at a small hotel in the southern mountains of Romania (near Herculane...location of some still-famous and popular Roman-era hot mineral bathes). There is no internet service here (not even cell phone signal!), so I'll be posting this when I return home on Wednesday night. I'm here attending a couple days of a week-long leadership training conference sponsored by a UK-based organization called History Makers (www.history-makers.moonfruit.com). A young couple from my own monthly leadership training group in Arad is attending the full week. A Romanian friend of ours' and church planter is the organizer of the event as well as the History Makers coordinator for all of Romania. It is good to be able to partner with other excellent leadership training that God is already doing here. Scott

June 12, 2009

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:23:00 EST

Yesterday we attended the university graduation ceremony for three adults from our church. It was held in the beautiful old performing arts theater downtown. Please join us in congratulating Laura Andres, Casius and Daniela Andres on completing their university degrees!

Tomorrow morning I (Scott) leave for a weekend trip in Hungary and Slovakia. I will be meeting with our church and/or missionary leaders in Budapest, Gyor (Hungary) and Bratislava (Slovakia). As always, prayer for safe travel and fruitful meetings is appreciated! Scott

June 9, 2008 (2)

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:54:00 EST

We are requesting your prayer support for Paula and her family in the USA. We received word yesterday (Sunday) that Larry, her brother-in-law (husband of her sister who died February 2007), died Saturday afternoon. Larry�s health has been poor since Becky�s death, but he developed a bleed in his brainstem several weeks ago with no known cause. This had left him with terrible headaches, lack of use of his hands, and speech issues. He was getting worse all the time, but the doctors thought he would just stay this way for 6 months to a year. But, our Father knew better and today Larry is in heaven with Him. We are relieved for Larry. He has suffered with his health and other issues for so many years�literally from birth�and now he has peace beyond measure! However our hearts are sad. Paula feels the loss of another link to her sister. After the losses of 2007, we had all hoped 2008 would be a year without more close deaths. But our God is faithful. Paula has wrestled with whether or not to travel back to Ohio for the funeral. She feels especially burdened for her parents. But this morning she has decided to stay in Romania�even though she still really desires to be there. Please pray for Paula�s parents, Elton and Kathleen, as they go through the funeral (an all-too-soon reminder of Becky�s death) and care for the details of everything over the next couple of months. Also pray for Becky and Larry�s children, Denise and Woody. Both are young adults now, but they still face the reality of both parents being gone. Denise is newly married, and Woody is not well physically or emotionally. And please pray that Paula can come to peace with her decision to stay here�part of accepting the sacrifices the Father has asked us to make. Thanks so much for your prayers at this time. If you would like to respond to Paula directly, please email her at frankee85@gmail.com.

June 9, 2008

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 04:33:00 EST

It was a busy weekend for both Paula and I. Paula left Friday with a group of Romanian friends to a Christian music festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. Despite some car troubles along the way (not our car), they had a great time, and Paula really enjoyed seeing Delirious in concert. She returned to Arad Sunday evening. I had an extra busy weekend, preaching three times in two days. The first event was Saturday evening at a recently started monthly, interdenominational gathering for Romanian young people (teens and young adults). The event is held just a few kilometers north of Arad at what used to be a communist-era collective farm. The new owner, who is a believer, is currently redeveloping the land and buildings to serve several purposes, including hosting events for the larger Christian community. I was invited to be the speaker for this month's youth gathering. They had a great worship band, and the young people were responsive to my message about living everyday with God's unique purpose for them in mind (based on the story of Noah). My other two preaching points included our own church, Emmanuel Christian Centre, on Sunday morning and a small church in the village of Vinga in the afternoon where a missionary colleague serves as pastor. Scott

June 1, 2008

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:53:00 EST

Yesterday was a day of big celebration for Oaza, the organization we work with here dedicated to ministering to abandoned children. It was a long-awaited day of Grand Opening for their new Casa Shalom (House of Peace). I (Scott) was particularly pleased to see this day finally come after 18 months as construction manager! It was a day filled with joy and thanksgiving for the amazing story of provision for the 12 children who call this house "home." Guests and supporters attended from several different countries as well as the director and assistant director from the county government office of Children's Services. You can click on the following photo to view a slide show of the day's festivities. And for another "reporter's" viewpoint, you can go to our colleague, Larry Winckle's, webblog at www.winckles.typepad.com. Rejoice with us! Scott

May 29, 2008

Thu, 29 May 2008 04:11:00 EST

You might have guessed by our lack of posts that life and ministry have entered another busy phase. Our first mission team of the summer season, a team of college students from Roberts Wesleyan College, arrived on May 22, and we have been busy keeping them busy! Besides spending quality time with the Oaza kids, the team has also been helping us and Oaza as we all prepare for Grand Opening celebrations for the new Shalom House this coming Saturday. You can read about their work and adventures at www.xanga.com/romaniamissiontrip. As mentioned, Oaza is hosting a Grand Opening celebration on Saturday for the new Shalom House. I (Scott) have served as construction manager for this project for the last 18 months, and this celebration means that I'm done! A number of guests and supporters are arriving from England for the celebration, and I'm told several leaders from the local political and social service offices will be in attendance as well. Pray that the events of the day will be a good witness to the community and that celebration of God's provision for the children will stay front and center in all the activities. Speaking of Oaza, on April 18 we posted on our website an appeal for donations to offset a funding crisis for Oaza's day-to-day needs. We praise God that many people stepped forward with extra gifts and that Oaza has received enough funding to continue normal operations for the next couple of months. After that, though, it simply depends on on-going donations. If you'd like to become a regular donor and/or child sponsor with Oaza, send Paula an email at frankee85@gmail.com. Scott

May 19, 2008

Mon, 19 May 2008 16:55:00 EST

We're back home in Arad after a 2:00am Sunday morning arrival. We left our friends' home in France on Friday morning with the plan to arrive in Munich, Germany by early afternoon. However, our plans changed after our car battery died at a rest stop somewhere between Stuttgart and Munich. Thanks to my Dad's advice many years ago, we did have jumper cables with us. A bit of universal "sign language" with a friendly German man at the rest stop convinced him to give us a jump. We were then able to drive to the next large town, find an auto parts store and a salesman who spoke broken English (all without a map of the city), buy a new battery (they actually had our model in stock) and some wrenches, and find an ATM (because the store didn't accept our type of credit card). Stephen and I then made the switch in the parking lot, and we were on our way...with more than an hour delay. Not far down the autobahn we ran into our first major traffic jam of the entire trip, in a construction zone outside of Munich (yes, even the Germans find it necessary to clog their autobahns with construction zones). Over an hour delay here totally wiped out our plans to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp outside Munich on Friday afternoon. So we decided to find a hotel in Dachau (the suburb) and then go to the concentration camp first thing Saturday morning before driving on towards home. This turned out to be a very pleasant change of plans. We spent a relaxed evening in Dachau (it is a rather wealthy suburb on Munich now), including a yummy and authentically German meal, a walking tour of the old (13th-century) town center of Dachau, and a stop at a really good German ice-cream shop. The hotel we stayed at was located across the street from the Dachau train station. This station is now a modern hub of train travel, but 70+ years ago it was the arrival point for Hitler-regime political prisoners assigned to the Dachau camp. The city has a wonderful walking path, with explanatory plaques posted periodically, along what used to be the rail line from this station to the actual camp. So we decided to walk this 3-mile (my estimate) path as a family...the same path that so many walked to their death in the camp. The Dachau camp has been wonderfully restored as a museum and education center. As you might expect, visiting such a place was not exactly fun. In many ways it was sad and sobering...especially when standing in the former gas chamber and in front of the coal-fired ovens used to cremate so many thousand human bodies. But still it was good to visit and be reminded of where the dark side of our humanity can take us. In fact, this is why the museum exists, so that such horrors as the holocaust might never be repeated. (click on the photo above to view some of our pictures of the camp) We departed from Dachau/Munich mid-day and headed for Austria. We drove through Salzburg but didn't feel we had time to stop. The hills were definitely alive with beauty, but I personally did not hear any music (think: Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music). We'll have to go back sometime and pay homage to the birthplace of Mozart. We ended up in Vienna around dinner time, so we stopped downtown and found a nice sidewalk cafe, Then it was back in the car for the remaining six-hour drive to home. We thank God for the opportunity to take a break from ministry these last two weeks, for the safety over the 4400 kilometers (2750 miles) of driving, for the wonderful things we got to see and experience, and for a couple of special people who boosted our vacation savings to allow such a trip. As you might expect, though, no good vacation ever goes unpunished :-). Our first mission teams of the summer season arrive this week, and that means ministry more busy than "normal" (whatever that is). But we pray that God will work and be glorified in the midst of it. Scott

May 14, 2008

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:08:00 EST

Following the European missionary retreat, our family has been vacationing and staying with our colleagues Marvin, Lisa and Amelie Klein in Kembs, France (just 10 minutes northeast of Basel, Switzerland). We have been enjoying day trips around France and Germany visiting quaint villages, a castle, an amusement park, and hopefully tomorrow swimming at a nearby waterpark. Mayor�s office in Basel, Switzerland. A family pic in the village of Riquewehr in France. It was a beautiful village. In the picture we are seated next to a wall that was built in the 13th century. Paula (and later Lydia) had a fun ride on Marvin�s motorcycle across the French countryside. The Europa Park amusement park is unique in that each area of the park is themed (buildings, rides, food) after a different European country. We were thrilled to have Amelie join us for the day. Lydia and Amelie (who is acting sad in this picture) are pictured standing near a piece of the Berlin wall. Scott is waving to us from the first car of one of the tamer Scandinavian coasters. There are two other favorite rides of our family� the 73 meter (237 feet) Silver Star roller coaster (favorite of Scott, Stephen and Lydia) and the EuroSat which is an indoor rollercoaster with twists and turns in the near darkness. Today we drove north for about an hour to the historic city of Strasbourg, France. The Catholic cathedral there is breathtaking, and the historic town center is quite beautiful as well. The Klein's have a Labrador dog as well, Athena. Madyson and Athena have hit it off very well and have even become swimming pals in a nearby canal!