I bid you welcome tonight in the Savior's name to the midweek meeting. We're going to begin by singing together the hymn number six. Praise my soul, the king of heaven, to his feet thy tribute bring, ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, who like thee his praise should sing. Praise him. And let's praise the Lord tonight in the opening hymn. Amen. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, Praise ye everlasting peace. Praise him for his grace and favor. To our fathers in distress, praise his steadfast love. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, glorious in His praise. Under thy feet he tends and spares us, well our feeble frame he knows. In his hands he gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, highly as His mercy flows. Strength and stoutness, glory, praise, Lo, to Him that made His law! But by mortals, tithes, and parries, All in jerks of joy, Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, our eternal Lord. ♪ Angels help us to adore Him ♪ ♪ Keep, behold Him, face to face ♪ ♪ Son and good prophet, I'm before Him ♪ ♪ Clevers all in time and space ♪ ♪ Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him ♪ You may be seated. We'll seek the Lord in prayer, call upon his name tonight. Let's bow our heads together in his presence. Eternal God and loving Father, we come to the throne of grace and to the very presence of our God just now in praise, in adoration, in thanksgiving, rejoicing in who God is and what God has accomplished for us We thank you for redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace. We thank you for that day when the grace of God drew us to Christ. Our eyes were opened to see, our hearts were brought to understand the gospel. And as we turned in simple faith, in repentance also to our God, the Holy Spirit entered, and we were born of God. And Lord, you saved us. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And we called, and Lord, you were true to your promise. We meet here as a body of believers, greatly in need of the presence of the Lord tonight. Abide with us. Let us know that experience of the disciples who gathered with the Lord after his resurrection. We think of the two that walked on the road to Emmaus when Jesus himself drew near, went with them. And when they reached the destination and the Lord sat among them, It was a desire of the disciples that he would abide, that he would stay. And Lord, that's our desire tonight. From the beginning of our time together, that the Lord will be one of our number, that he will abide with us tonight and speak to our hearts. Bless your people. You know every family here, every individual. You know the cares, the burdens of life, The distresses that your people face on a daily basis, you know the loneliness of heart, you know the sorrow of spirit. For Jesus knows all about our struggles, and he will guide until the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus, no, not one. And we pray that that friend that sticketh closer than a brother will be the portion of your people tonight. Bless the nature of this meeting as we have a report on our visit to Romania. Remember Keziah and Robert. Remember myself also as we bring the report tonight and just speak a little bit about what we did, how the Lord helped us, the blessings that we received. I want to acknowledge from the beginning your goodness and mercy towards us. Thank you for traveling mercies. Thank you, Lord, for every opportunity that we had and we have many to go into homes and to participate in churches, to stand in the open air and to share the things of God. And Father, we know that your Word will never return void unto God. It's always accomplishing that which God pleases. It's always prospering. in the thing whereto thou dost send it, and, Lord, we pray that your word will continue to be prospered and owned and blessed of God. Shut us in with yourself, bless us, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. We sing again. Blessed is the service of our Lord and King, is the hymn 513. Precious are the jewels we may help to bring. Down the passing ages, words of counsel ring, he that winneth souls is wise. May the Lord always help us to be in the soul winning business for him. Precious are the jewels He may help to bring God of the passing ages, words of God supreme Even when His soul is wise Even when His soul is wise In Him the hope beyond the skies Glory of the wondrous Christ, even when his soul is white. In the quiet home, the joy of pride reign. More and more, like Jesus, every, every day, we beguile and yearn unto the heavens. Be the greatest souls in its light. Be the greatest souls in its light. In the home beyond the skies, there's a cry of glory o'er the wondrous bright. Be the greatest souls in its light. and going forth with prayer. For the lost and straying, seeking everywhere, close beside the shepherd be his domination. He that with his souls is wise. He that with his souls is wise. In the home beyond the skies. There's a part of glory o'er the wondrous bright, Even when it's sold its white. So beside the water, so the gospel sing, Hear of where it sings, and there of life indeed. Singers to the Savior, May we be seated. You're very welcome. As always, in the Savior's name, good to see a good gathering tonight at the midweek service. Good to have Wesley, and we've been thinking of Helen and her family, the Matithe family, and their loss and sadness as you prayed here. We were also praying across in Romania for the family, and we thank God for grace given in their time of sorrow to carry them through. I trust the Lord will continue to bless this family and all that mourn this very day. A few announcements to make. Tomorrow night is the Youth Fellowship at 8 o'clock. On the Lord's Day, our prayer meeting is at 8 o'clock in the morning, and the Sunday school then 10.30 by the class quarter to 11. Remember the worship service, 12 noon. This is important because we want to bring this message one, bring one. And we will have this to share on social media, WhatsApp, whatever way you can get it out, just to make it known that we're speaking on this message to do with personal evangelism, the responsibility, the great duty that is laid upon the Church of Jesus Christ to reach out and bring others to the Savior. I lectured for 11 years in the Whitefield College on the subject of personal evangelism, and it is the most effective way. It's the way that the Savior showed us as well as his public preaching to the multitudes. Jesus was a great personal worker, spoke to the individuals, and therefore we should be like him. The gospel service is at seven, preceded by the time of prayer at 6.30. And then we are remembering Sunday week as we have our family night service. And I think you got these invitations on the Lord's day. There are more available. Certainly from Sunday onwards, we want you to think of the one, bring one and endeavor to do what you can just to bring even one other in. A little announcement to make concerning our collections, just to let you know that we will be returning to lifting the offering publicly during the church service from the beginning of March, not this Lord's Day. Don't worry if you haven't got a collection to give, you maybe do it online, so that's fine, but we're returning back to normal after these days when things have been abnormal. I've been asked to mention the cruise that is taking place. Mr. McDowell says there's a couple of places left, and if you're interested, it's 10 nights, and it's the 25th, 26th of September of this year, so I think we should have some forms left if you're interested in going. I want to mention an online Zoom prayer meeting that will be held on Saturday the 11th, of March from 9.30 a.m. to 11 a.m. The Reverend Jeffrey Abram, the treasurer of the Government Morals Committee, will bring a short message and then we will bring our land to the Lord in repentance, asking for God's intervention and revival mercy. You can sign up for this by registering on the Free Presbyterian Facebook page. There's a link there that you can click on it and make your registration be part of the prayer meeting. There is a protest against abortion that is taking place on the 25th of March. It's a Saturday. It's 11 o'clock, and it's at the cobbled area at the front of the Belfast City Hall. The preachers are a moderator. And as you see there, we want this to be a family time. It'll be well stewarded and we want to encourage women and children to be there as well. So it's an open air meeting really to address the great need of our country with regard to this matter. Now we have some reports on Romania. Just before I do that, I want to make this announcement. The Missionary Council has its news update, and Sadie, very kindly, has got some photocopied. If you'd like a copy of that, they're in the porch of the link there as you leave tonight, take a copy with you. And it will bring you up to date with what's happening in the mission field, Uganda, Kenya, Liberia, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Spain, and the home missionary. So we want you to get that and read it, please. Now, we had a group that went out to Romania, and a couple of them, a young lady and a young man, are going to take part tonight. A young lady and an older man, maybe that's the right way to put it. But we're glad to have Keziah, and we're glad to have Robert, We're glad also to have Jamie and his son Kyle, who were part of the team. But ladies first, because we believe in politeness. So Keziah, who was the only lady in the group, but very willing to go. She's going to give us some highlights of her visit, and that'll be followed immediately by Robert. Thank you. I told her she washed her hair in curly water. Have you ever heard that expression before? So I think that every one of us that was a part of the team to Romania last week can all agree that it was a very blessed time and we all really enjoyed the experience very well. We were asked to talk about our highlights. And I think Robert will probably say the same, that whenever I was trying to think of a specific highlight of the trip, it was quite difficult, as I really did enjoy everything that we did each day. But probably one of my highlights or my favourite things we did was whenever we met Stefan's family, which is Florentina and her younger siblings. It was very nice seeing them in real life because before I'd only heard about them and seen pictures. I remember the team that went in 2019. Rebecca was telling me about Florentina, so it was nice to actually see her in person and meet her. And it was also very special because whenever we went to their house the first day, they told us that both her and three of her family members had came to Christ. So that was definitely one of the big highlights. And just even the little things like sitting beside her in church and just knowing that she had came to know Jesus as her saviour quite recently was very special. And just spending time with the children there. I think any of you who know me will know that I enjoy working with children, so that's probably not a surprise. just, you know, playing with them and trying to speak to them or whatever is just, was definitely a highlight. And we did a couple of children's meetings as well, so kind of took the form of what you'd see here, just choruses and we also played some games and a couple of us gave our testimony at some of them and then Mr. Park or John Gray shared the gospel with them and I think it's, it's definitely good knowing that those children went home and now they know the gospel for sure and they will hopefully remember it and we give them wee armbands so they can hopefully remember it and we just pray that a lot of them will also get saved. Another of the highlights was on the Sunday, it was me and Mr. Park and Kyle went to one of the churches, our team next split, and it was a wee bit different to what we'd be used to in our church services, but it was very enjoyable to be there, and one of the men that we had visited a couple of days before, he also professed faith in Christ and a couple of others were definitely spoken to. And I think that was definitely a highlight because that was the whole reason that we went, was then people would learn more about Jesus and come to know him. So, thank you. Well, I'm just going to speak on what an experience it was for me on this trip. The first thing I want to do is read three verses. I didn't turn to them, but I just want to read them. In Psalm 41, blessed is he that considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in a time of trouble. And then in Proverbs chapter 19, He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will he pay him again. And in Proverbs chapter 21, whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. So it's very important that we remember poor people. When Mr. Park said that we would give a wee report I started to think just, when I was in Romania, what I would say. And there were three points that sort of came to my mind. And I didn't really realise until I went back to the hotel and started to write them down, so as I wouldn't forget what they were, that the three points all started with the same letter and finished with the same letter. And that reminded me, the minister, when he gets up to preach, he has three points or four points and they all start with the same letter. So I thought to myself, this is good. And then I thought maybe it was too professional and I wouldn't do it. But I'm going to just do it because that's the way it came to me. I'll just mention the points, first of all. The first one was the families we encountered. And then the second one, the friendship we received. And then the third one was the fellowship we enjoyed. So just a wee report on each one of these. The first family we met whenever we went to Romania was Pastor Emanuel and his sister Iona. They met us at the airport, and they were with us throughout the whole trip. and we had a great time of fellowship with them. But we also went to meet Stefan and his families. I had met them before. And it was a great privilege to meet them once again. As well as that, there was the pastors of the three different churches we went to. So we met the pastors of those churches and their families and all the members of the congregation, which was a great privilege. And we had a great time with them. And we showed a lot of friendship. And that leads me on to the second point, the friendship we received. When we went to visit the Roma community, we were invited into every house, every home we went to, we were invited in. And the friendship we received was unbelievable, even with the children. And I can remember going into, I think it was maybe the first or second house we went into, and there was a wee child standing in the middle of the floor, about a year and a half old. And I just went over and held out my arms, and she just put up her arms. I lifted her up and that was a great encouragement to me and I held that wee child for about 10 minutes while Mr. Parton and the rest of them were speaking to the families and then she did start to cry and I had to give her over to her mother. But that was a great privilege and that happened in a lot of the homes. where the children, you just had to look at them and they smiled and they were just beaming. And that was a great thrill. It was really a very enjoyable time. I think if I was to mention a highlight would be probably the day we went into the mountains. And that was a great experience. Pastor Emmanuel and Iona said we were taking the scenic route. And that would remind you, when you were a child going to the beach, but that was not like the beach. I said to her, I said, are we going to the beach? But we traveled along this old windy muddy road and potholes, this depth, swinging around these potholes, and we went to There's two wee villages that we stopped in there and had a wee meeting just along the side of the road and the children just come floating. And the adults as well, the wee pastor that runs that work, he goes along and toots the horn. as he drives past and that lets the people know that we're there. And then they all come out and he goes up the road and turns and comes back down again and they're all standing out. And we had a great time singing choruses and bringing a wee word to the children and to the adults. You know that wee pastor goes there, and it's quite a long distance from where he lives, and he goes there once a week to bring the gospel to those needy families, and then gives some provisions, maybe a bag of apples and children, some sweets, and maybe a couple of bread rolls to every family. That's encouraging for them, you see. That wee pastor needs a lot of prayer. He puts a lot of effort into that. And it's amazing the work he does. Then the other pastor and the other church, we went there and we made a couple of chicken coops. It's amazing the way he had all the timber the right size. And when you made the chicken coop, there weren't a bit of timber left. He was able to have it all measured Length of timber he got on the 84 sheets of plywood was just exactly what the size would need, and there weren't a bit of timber left. That wee pastor's doing a mighty work among the Roma community as well. We need to pray for these pastors because they are certainly doing a mighty work. Then on to the third point, the fellowship we enjoyed. As we met with these pastors and the churches and their families and the congregations, what a blessed time we had. I really enjoyed the fellowship. The congregation, the pastor's wives and some of the congregation made meals. The food was very good. I'm a very plain eater. I was wondering what the food would be like, and Mr. Burton assured me that the pastor's wives were good cooks. I said they could be good cooks, but it's what they're cooking that would be annoying me. But the food was very good, and I really enjoyed the food. Just when I had them three points finished, I just added another wee point on there this evening. And that was, finally we departed. Now, we spent our last night in the home of Pastor Emmanuel and Iona's parents. We went there on the Saturday night because it was near the airport, or the Sunday night, wasn't it? It was near the airport, so we stayed with them that night, and we had a great time of fellowship with them that night. really unbelievable, the time we enjoyed, you know, it was just, it was just, it was just great. When we, when we came to the airport then, we had to say goodbye to Iona and Emmanuel. And, you know, The memories of that time will live with me the rest of my life because I was just, I was sad leaving them because they had even got onto the North Antrim Yumer. and we had a great time of fellowship and banter and it was very sad to leave them, but I have invited them over here. They said you'll be back here. I don't know whether I'll ever be back in Romania or not, I'm not sure, but I have invited them over and they hope sometime to come over here. But just maybe to finish, we came to the airport Now, I would be a wee bit late with technology, working with the phone. Now, not late with anything else, by the way, it's just maybe a bit technology. But Mr. Parker sent the boarding passes on the phone to each of us. So when we were going to Romania, I got the phone out, no bother, I got through all right. But on the way back, when we went to depart, I got the phone out, but that wouldn't work. I was going on. But Mr. Park knew that I was a wee bit late, you see, and he had it all planned, for he had my boarding pass on a paper form. So he come and reached the paper form over to me, and I got the paper down, and away she went, and I got through. But before that, He had a photograph taken of me when I was under stress. He's always looking at that phone like he's taking a photo. Whenever he gets you in an awkward situation, he takes the phone and gets a photograph of you. But, friends, it was the most enjoyable time, a great experience. I'll never forget it. And as Kasaya said about the highlights, there wasn't any real highlights for the whole thing was a highlight. You couldn't pick out anything. It was enjoyable from the start to finish. So that's my report. Robert, thank you. It may surprise you how many times I didn't take photographs when I should have, but I didn't restrain myself greatly. Susan agrees that the paper form is better than the phone form. And we did have an experience one time, she's smiling, she remembers it well. So she says, well, try technology. And she got the phone out to go through the Dublin airport. It was summer anyhow. One of the airports, you know the way you scan your boarding card to get through into security? And so she had it all prepared and she put it down in the machine, wouldn't work, put it down a few times, and somebody came over to help her. So whenever they looked at it, it was a picture of Eugene Groza. It was in her photographs, and accidentally she must have just switched it on to the next one, not the boarding card. So how Eugene was going to get her through into security, I don't know. But it did happen. Ever since, she says, make sure that she has the paper form. And I think maybe Robert feels the same. Thank you very much. I want to read the chapter of 1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians 1. And I want to pass on some comments, and then I'll show you some slides you possibly have been able to follow the videos that were sent. So if you've looked at them, you'll have seen a synopsis of what we did every day. And we were busy. It's good to be busy. And every day was a highlight, as Robert has said. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you, all making mention of you in our prayers. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God, that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place where your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Amen. I was thinking about this passage of scripture as I thought about tonight and the reports that we've made. And I think we can identify with a lot of what's being said here. And we will focus in a moment or two in verses seven and eight where I'm just putting a little title on these verses, the Evangelistic Missionary Church, which the church was at Thessalonica. This church was founded by the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey. He met with much opposition in the work, but he succeeded in winning some Jews and many Greeks, which enabled him to establish a faithful church. And if you want to read that history of him going there, it's Acts 17, and the opening 10 verses. Paul had sent Timothy to encourage and strengthen the church, and on his return, it seems that the report that Timothy brought was a great inspiration for Paul to write to this congregation. For example, in chapter three and verse six. But now, when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you. So, Timothy had brought a good report back And Paul was encouraged, and I believe encouraged, to write this very letter. This letter is one of the most personal of Paul's epistles. It's not as doctrinal as some of the others, and the main themes are hearty commendations, encouraging recollections, and sincere exhortations. Chapter one is the commendation part. The apostle commends this church. He commends them for a number of reasons. If you look at verse two through the four, he commends the church for its faith and loving service. We give thanks to God always for you all. making mention of you and your prayers, remembering without ceasing, and then he lists these things, your work of faith, your labor of love, your patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. He then commands them for its spiritual reception. Next couple of verses, he speaks of how the gospel came onto these people, not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. And so there was a great reception here of divine truth. They're also commended for their godly example in verse 7, so that ye were examples or examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, that's the region where they lived. And in verse 8, he commends them for their widespread influence. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. In verse nine, he commends them for their abandonment of idolatry. They left their idols to serve the living God. And then in verse 10, they are commended for their spiritual hope. And that is, of course, waiting for Christ to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Now, I can't read this opening chapter about the character and the qualities of the church in Thessalonica without thinking about you, without thinking about the church here at Hebron. Much of what Paul says about this church almost 2,000 years ago could be written today of our congregation. This has been our history for 72 years. We're not a perfect church. There's no such thing. We have failed in more ways than we know, but we are a church that's striving, a church that is seeking by the grace of God to go forward, a church that is abounding in the work of the Lord. And I believe that verses seven and eight especially summarizes much of what we are as a church. And as example, of evangelism and missionary endeavor, because we believe in the Great Commission. We've often been told by others outside the congregation, from some of our other churches and even further afield, that this congregation isn't an example church when it comes to the work of the gospel. We've been examples in sounding out the word of the Lord, not only in Ballymoney and roundabout, which we could describe as our Macedonia and Achaia. Think of Balnumore and Macfinn, Bundoora, Derrific Mossside, all these little villages roundabout. But also, if I can use the words of scripture here, in every place, your faith to Godward is spread abroad. Locally, I think of the missions that we hold by the grace of God every year. I think of the outreach work, the door-to-door ministry, the open air ministry, tract distribution. I think of our youth challenge, reaching out to the young people of this town and district, the schools ministry, broadcasting on the internet, whether it's Sermon Audio, Facebook, or YouTube. And that's what's happening locally from this congregation to our town and region roundabout. But then we think of the mission fields, and we have sent missionaries to various parts of the world, to Australia, to America, to Kenya, to Uganda, to other parts round about, to Spain itself. We have supported missionaries in all these places and more besides. We think of Brazil, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Liberia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and I'm sure there's others that we can mention. We have had our missionary to the Jews, our sister Pat, who's with us tonight, for many years served the Lord in Canada, reaching out to the Jewish community. We can think of Let the Bible Speak that was started here in this congregation almost 50 years ago, our missionary weekends, our deputation meetings, all these things as we are spreading abroad to the nations of the world. And then we have had our mission trips. We have taken groups of young people to Brazil, to Nepal, to Kenya, to Uganda, and, of course, Romania. And we have just returned from a six-day trip to the land of Romania. I want to thank God tonight for the group that came. I want to thank the team that's here this evening. And you've heard from two of them. But to you again, and we have thanked you, to Robert, Jamie, Kyle, Keziah, and also the Reverend Gray who joined us. Thank you in the Savior's name. I've had the privilege of traveling to Romania for about 15 years now, sometimes by myself, sometimes with Susan, sometimes with small groups, and then, of course, we think of the occasional Bible schools that we do in the summer. And we've helped in so many ways, practical ways. Those practical ways we have always seen as little stepping stones to the gospel. We always want to get to the gospel. It is our chiefest desire that the gospel is preached and that men and women hear about the Lord. That's our main object. We wouldn't go otherwise if we were just going out to help in a physical way, we wouldn't go. But those physical ways give us an entrance into the hearts of these people. We have seen conversions. First time I went to Romania 15 years ago, That night that I was asked to preach at a gospel mission, we saw five young people brought to the Lord. We've seen some of the Deborah House girls saved by God's grace, and others over the years, and not least what has happened recently, and Keziah spoke about that, and I'll maybe mention them a little bit later. Can I encourage you tonight, as I come to this presentation, to be like the church in Thessalonica, to continue to be evangelistic and a missionary church, to reach out with a glorious gospel. We'll say something more about that when it comes to the local effort that we ought to make. We'll say something about that in the Lord's day. But catch the vision, men and women. Be like this congregation. Be commended as examples, sounding out the word of the Lord. May that ever be the chief task of this congregation. So I have a report to make. We'll go through it as quickly as possible. We traveled with the five-star airline company known as Ryanair. All right. I can remember one time when we had a bad experience with Ryanair. We said we'd never travel with them again. But they are the cheapest. And they actually were quite good. And we didn't have any problems. This is our group there at the airport prior to leaving. And we had traveled most of the night. So by the time we arrived in Romania and on our journey, we were very, very tired. But we did arrive safely to visit Stefan's home and some of the family here. That's Florentina in the middle. Some of you know her by now. And that's her brother Daniel beside her. There's three of them you'll recognize, and then on the right-hand side, you have Stefan. This is the pastor who has just entered into the ministry last year, Pastor Emmanuel, who accompanied us. And on the right-hand side, his sister, Joanna, if you want to say it in English, or Oana, as it is in Romania. So we're thankful to the Lord. Just a wee sweep of the family. Everyone has gone so quiet. So it is a wee congregation meeting in the home that day and everywhere we went, shared the message of the gospel. If we went to a believer's house, we were there to bring a word of encouragement to them. in the midst of their circumstances. If there were unconverted people there, we brought a message in the gospel. And I was delighted to have my colleague in the ministry with me. This is not my house, this is the Lord's house. But it's a great privilege for us to be here. This is my first time in Romania. But I'm so glad that I'm here. and hopefully I'll come again. And everybody taking part in some way so. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me. Isaiah, your singing was so sweet until we came in there at the end. And some of these little songs that we sung together when they were sent home, because I'm beside the camera, if I sung, sometimes I didn't sing. But whenever I was there, you see, it sounded more like a solo. My wife said she enjoyed all the solos that I sent home. So just pardon me for spoiling that singing there at the end. Pastor Bebby has been visiting for two months, so we understood that Stefan and his family were not able to get to church, not able to travel into the city. There's obviously an expense involved for them to do that, but we did the next best thing. We had asked a Roma pastor to to travel to their home. He's been doing that for two months now. And the great joy that we received was to hear of four conversions that have taken place during that time. So Florentina, the little girl on the left, Her mother, Karina, in the center, and then Stefan's brother and his wife on the right-hand side. And it brought a tear to my eye just to hear them confess Christ. And I was so excited about it, I did a FaceTime home to Susan and Florentina, confessed Christ, just that she had come to the Lord. And for us as a family, that was great news. So a joy to visit that first day, despite the tiredness, to be in the home and to share with these people. There were two main churches that were Roma churches that we visited. One was in Badila. There was a lot of snow about whenever we visited. The weather was cold, but not too bad. And we met then Pastor Bebby and his family in his home to discuss a little bit about what we would be doing during our visit. A few projects, of course, that we want to be involved in, and we were able to leave some funds and maybe raise a little bit more in a future time. Just at the back of the church there is this hill that is owned, the ground is owned by the church and we are going to erect a 310 meter fence so that fruit trees can be planted right across that hill. They're intending to plant 200 apple pear trees, okay, that kind of thing. But the fence needs to go up to keep the cows out because the cows will come and eat the trees and we don't want that happening. So the first thing is to get that whole back area sealed off and made safe and then to plant these trees. And that's going to be, is the word sustainable? Is that what they're using nowadays? So that these poor families in the locality at least can have a harvest every year of the fruit that comes from the trees. And at the front of the church there's a large area of ground. And they're hoping to erect a number of greenhouses. Now, these are big greenhouses, 60 meters by 30 meters, so that they can grow fruit and vegetables in them. And again, a sustainable thing that will provide food for the poor of that district. So then we proceeded to visit. some of the poor families. And again, everywhere we went, we were sharing the word with the folks and offering prayer. And then outside, this wee woman's a widow. We said, Robert, she's looking for a new man. But Moira wouldn't think we'd get Robert over yet, you see. So the food, again, we told them that the Roma pastor's wives, they're very good cooks. And this is something that I'm sure all of you could eat. They're just potato and chicken, chicken schnitzel, whatever way it's pronounced, and then a kind of a Traditional side, which is sort of cabbage and carrot, not mixed with vinegar, just to give a pickled taste. That's very popular, nearly every meal you'll get that at. We visited another family that lives in a container. It's a very sad story. Behind this family, they lived up in the mountains behind, and a mudslide took place and just destroyed their home completely, and they had to move down into the village. The local council provided a container to live in, and that is being removed in October. So this family literally has a few months between now and October to find a place or build a place where they can live, and it's a family of four. It's one of the families that received a chicken coop. You'll see it there in the background. And as usual, we stood outside on this occasion and shared the word of God and brought a word of encouragement to these folks that struggle. Yet another family that afternoon that we went to visit, lovely family believers, and they also have the chicken coop provided for them. This lady had an accident. Boiling coffee accidentally spilled over her foot. So that's it actually healing up quite well. But she was in dreadful pain. And we, again, just committed that family to the Lord in prayer. Went to another home, and this lady, who is a believer, she just stood and wept, the tears running down her face as the word of God was shared to her, and so pleased that we came to visit. Her husband is listening in the background. He's there on the right-hand side. And this is the man that you see in a moment or two that came to Christ on the Lord's day when we preached the word. We had a lovely time with the children then. A lot of the kids came into the church. So outside for a little while, we played with the beach ball in the snow. That's Irish, isn't it? And maybe sometimes it went astray down into the snow, but the kids really had a lovely time. And then a few little games that we would play with children at Christmas time were done in the church. But as I say, sharing the gospel message. And we did it with the wristband, the wordless book colors. You'll see that there on that wee boy's arm. And just as they leave, a little refreshment. I think it was maybe a croissant to encourage the children on their way home. Typical breakfast in the morning. I'm sure this is what you come down to every morning. But there in the hotel where we stayed, you got your cucumber and your tomato and your omelet. this kind of German sausage, ham, cheese, toast, just all those things that you would eat in the morning. Well, good morning, gentlemen. That's a good looking breakfast you have there. So Robert had made a ham and a cheese sandwich for breakfast in the morning. So is that what he eats at home? No, no, but he survived. He survived, and he enjoyed the food. This was something that was exciting to be involved in, building the chicken coops. The pastor, really, and maybe a friend or two, came in to do most of this work. We had sent money to erect 10 of these. And through the engineering of the pastor, he was able to build 15. So he was very frugal. And it was very interesting to watch, because what we would use here, probably a circular saw, they were using a chainsaw. A straight line. I have a chainsaw, but I couldn't do that. And even trimming it off. So the joiners, not sure if this is the way you do your work, Ryan, or not, but probably not for health and safety reasons. But it worked, and a lot of work was done. This is wee Maria. Maria and Keziah struck up a good friendship together, and she went inside the chicken coop. I said she was the first chicken inside this one. And we got the girls to have a wee go at screwing in the nails. I'm not showing you the video, because it wasn't really that good, you know. But the picture looks good. Not the video, but the picture's OK. And they had to be staying with a weatherproof liquid. And that's Jamie working away there. Then we went back to Stefan's home that afternoon for food and fellowship. And again, the ladies from the church provided this meal. It was a chicken meal with potatoes. This is Stefan's home, and he got the first chicken coop. This is where we got the idea, and everything's working very well. We're glad to be able to see it. Then into their home to share the word of God, Reverend Gray spoke, and then I had the opportunity to preach the word. When we left that day, I traveled with the pastor This is Pastor Bebe. We were on a mission. A little girl, Maria, lives with her grandmother. And they live in one room. And you may remember back in November, I met them leaving their home late at night. It was very cold. There was no heat in the house whatsoever. And we arranged with the pastor to purchase a second-hand stove that cost 20 pounds. But that stove began to smoke a lot and just filled the wee room. So we went on a mission. The pastor's car is just about clocked out, but it may be in the future if we can raise some finance to get a little minivan of nine seats that he can bring the kids in. That's so important for that work. But we went to a big wholesaler. put your mind to be in queue or something like that. And we were able to purchase a brand new heater. And on the way home, very, very strangely, we met Maria and her grandmother walking. And so the pastor gave them a lift back to the village. Another meeting, everyone taking part, giving testimony and preaching the word. And it was just lovely to see them gathered in. And then the next morning, we had the opportunity to deliver physically this stove to Maria and her grandmother, and also through the kindness of some that were with us and others to not only purchase the stove, but a supply of wood, no point in giving a stove, and there's nothing to burn in it. And it wasn't long, the next day, they had it all installed and operational. We thank the Lord for that. The other church that we went to is about two kilometers away. as the crow flies, but it's about 15 kilometres to drive round, and we drove round. It takes about 20 minutes, and it's Teuta. And this was the other project that we were involved in, the Hot Meal Project. And the chicken schnitzel. You maybe saw this in the video. This is how it's done. Dip it in the flour first of all. Then into the egg. I don't think that's the right amount of breadcrumbs. You can hear it cooking in the background. But it meant that these folks, and you want to see the dire conditions that they come out of, were able to make their way to the church and get at least a hot meal. And that's being done once a week so that they get at least one good meal every week. Then visiting some poor families in the Tudor area. And this is the wee girl that Robert was telling you about as we visited that home. Then we went here. We'd actually, on the left-hand side, the mother lives with two of her children and her husband. And we supplied a stove the last time we were there. This is a very memorable place for Kyle. And Kyle can tell you about the mighty prayer of Keziah. and how that he fell to his knees. There's a reason for that, but he can tell you about that afterwards. This is Sarah. Sarah suffers with epilepsy. Lovely wee girl. And that was the stove. The Lord said to Abraham, I am thy shield and an exceedingly great reward. I am your shield and I give you great reward. When we are saved and trusting in the Lord Jesus, the Lord has promised that he will protect us day by day. Then we went out into the open air to do some street preaching just where we got the opportunity, led by the pastor to various homes where we simply stood outside, walked up the snowy hill to another place. Watch carefully. I didn't understand some comments on Facebook. People were saying, be careful, Mr. Gray, you don't fall. But I realized when I look back on it that he did stumble at that moment in time. But worthwhile just to get up and speak to these young men about the gospel. This is Maria's sister, a younger sister. So Maria lives with her grandmother. And her mother lives in this other village with her other children. So they're separated. and with the opportunity, again, just to share the gospel with this family. Moving on to another family, likewise, and then as we made our way back to the church, I said to Pastor Emmanuel, We should ask those boys to come to the meeting. It's always good when you see children. Ask them to come. And so we walked up part of this hill, and then they started to throw snowballs at us. So it was quite fun, but they did. They came. They came. And they took part in all that we had to do. The children loved it. The adults loved it, Robert even up there, and just played those few games with them before conducting a meeting, because I gave her testimony, and we preached to these children that day, and then sent them on their way home. On the Saturday, it was the drive out into the mountains to Gaudeste, if I pronounced that right, and that's the condition of the roads. So it's not even the distance, it's the condition of the roads that are very, very bad. But to meet these people in two villages, this was the first one. The people were waiting for us as we arrived. And again, just standing there in the middle of the road, not too many cars or lorries on that road. So with the opportunity to share the gospel with them, And they all got some bread rolls to help them on their way. And we went to the next village. And again, the children gathered. But you know, the rain was coming down. It wasn't heavy rain, but just a constant mizzle. But they were there to listen to the message of the gospel. And again, they were given just a little treat at the end of the meeting. You can see Kaziah's coat there is wet because we were standing outside. So I want you to pray for these children. The Lord will bless them, and as they hear the gospel from Pastor Bevy week by week, that they'll come to know Christ as Savior. We drove back then to the church in Tudor. Had to stop on the way to leave the vans after going through the muddy roads. And this was a Saturday night meeting that they had organized in the church. And again, just going through, testifying and singing as well. of Jesus, in His mercy and His grace. In the mansions, ride and listen, He will keep their cross ablaze, when we all go to heaven. On a day of rejoicing I'll believe When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory just maybe to announce we will be taking bookings. We just haven't found the right manager or someone willing to take us on, but it was good, it was good. Not very professional, but it was a good time, a good time to witness. And the church again provided a meal afterwards. This is chicken. All right, I'll not say anything more, but it was. It was very tasty. It was lovely. Great cooks. This woman is a professional cook. The Lord's Day. You'll hear we're on our way to God's house for the worship of the Lord. But first we're going to collect some of Stefan's family and bring them to the house of God with us. So they decided that they would bring them over to the church. It's about an hour away, maybe an hour and 10 minutes away. And they were standing waiting whenever we arrived. We were a nine-seater, and we were told there was just going to be maybe six of them. But there were actually 10 that we got in and brought them to Badila. When we arrived, just up the side of the church, the pastor had been very busy on the Saturday and had made all these other chicken coops. And if you're ever visiting there and you want to know what the facilities are like, that's the facilities. That's the men on the right-hand side and the ladies on the left-hand side. Gesaia took care of Florentina, and Kyle took care of Daniel, looked after him during the meeting as his pastor baby. And the congregation, women sit on one side, men sit on the other, Gesaia giving her testimony. And Kyle spoke as well. That morning, we decided we would split up, go to the two churches. I would take the young people, and the Reverend Gray would have the older ones with him. And it was a special time because at the end of the service, something was happening after we preached. That was the man walking down. That was the man that was standing, listening to the gospel as we shared at his home. And that was the day when he came to trust in Christ. He was converted. The others came, they had difficulties in their lives, and they just came and asked if prayer could be offered for them. Meanwhile, over in the other church in Tudor, our friends were taking part there, and the Reverend Gray was preaching. Now, if you go to Romania and you're looking for a sampling of the local cuisine, this is what you will get. This is a really, really special meal. They would have it at Christmastime. And Jonathan, he enjoyed it. And it's called Sirmale. And this is cabbage leaves that have been marinated. And there's mince, and there's sour cream, and there's herbs and stuff all inside. And then they wrap it up, and they cook it, and they dish it out. And this is what we had in our church. So we just apologize that the other three didn't get to sample their Sirmale in their visit. We finished off that night by traveling back to the Maranatha Baptist Church in Campina, where again we were responsible for the service there. Monday morning before we got the flight home, we visited a family. This was a final visit to a Roma family, very poor, and it was just lovely to go into their home, And we taught deep and wide. Deep and wide is easy to teach because it's repetitive. Deep and wide, deep and wide. There's a fountain flowing deep and wide. If you learn that, then you can sing it. Deep and wide, there's a fountain flowing deep and wide. Hallelujah for the deep and wide. Deep and wide, there's a fountain flowing deep and wide. We shared, again, the gospel. This little girl. and the others in the home, the children, they're only age six, seven, that age, they could all recite the Lord's Prayer word perfect. And Isabella is her name. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, Well done. Isabella is six years of age and she's just recited the Lord's Prayer. And from what I heard, it was word perfect. So, they didn't know John 3 and 16. I've asked them if they'll learn John 3 and 16, in the will of God, the next time that we visit their home. So, on the way to the airport, we stopped in the city of Bucharest, and this is the third largest parliament building in the world. And it's in that vast city. And this is our team at the end, really off the journey. And this is Robert. All right. Oh, he's looking at this phone with his boarding pass. And you can see the queue behind him. And the people are standing. But anyhow, he got the paper version, and he got through. And we were glad that he got through. I'm very thankful to the Ukrainian pastor, because he took us to the airport and brought us back again. And these journeys were, one of them was in the middle of the night, and the other one was late at night, so we really appreciate that. I finish with one slide that gives us the scripture, so shall my word be, that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void. And of that we can be absolutely certain about. So much of what we did was working with the children. We'll sing this hymn and soon we'll come to a wee time of prayer. Around the throne of God in heaven thousands, of children stand, children whose sins are all forgiven, a holy, happy band singing glory, glory, glory. And this is really the story of children who have been converted and they're brought to heaven. How did they get there? And the hymn tells us how that happened. Let's sing it. Thank you. Let's watch the next video. of God in heaven, thousands of children stand. Children whose sins are all forgiven, how holy have we been. Singing glory, glory, glory. Singing glory, glory, glory. ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, ♪ that were the home, a land so bright and fair, where all is peace and joy and love, our King, those children there, singing glory, glory, glory, singing glory, glory, glory. Because the Savior shed His blood to wash away their sin, in Him, the pure and precious blood, we hold them white and clean. Singing glory, glory, glory. Singing glory, glory, glory. Honor is on the Savior's wrist. Honor, they love His name. So now we sing his blessed praise, And stand before the Lamb, Singing glory, glory, glory. Singing glory, glory, glory. These are the folks that we are praying for, and we want to remember them before the Lord tonight. The last one on the list is Jose, and Diane very kindly shared a text from her sister Joy, how that he's come through the treatment, come through it well. and how that treatment has been very effectual in his body and he doesn't have to get any more chemo for now. And that's him until July. So he's been sort of discharged for now. And the family are thanking the congregation here for remembering Hossain's prayer. So continue to pray for his recovery. Pray for family nights. Pray for the Lord's Day morning when we bring the message one, bring one. Pray for the Hebron Tots that started back very, very successfully on Monday. You keep me right here, 34 children. and about 20 adults. So that was amazing, first time back, and we hear of others that are wanting to come. So thank you to the ladies who made this possible. Your work is very much appreciated. Youth Challenge, we didn't take any photographs through the meeting, but we did give them pancakes at the end on Pancake Tuesday. And this is just some of the children that were there with us on Tuesday night. And again, most of them are outreach children for us, coming in and listening to the gospel. Pray for the children's work on Tuesday. And Andrew and the team, as they oversee all that's done there. The Indian Orphan Project again every month. These are slides just sent to me from DePinker this week. And we're glad to see that these children, 90 of them, are getting food every single month. DePinker has been on outreach work. This is a few weeks back, but he only got round to sending these photographs today. So there he is going out to his own people and preaching the gospel of Christ. Then the youth ministry, these photographs were really encouraging in the land of the Philippines and Ebenezer Nombre, and he shared these with us as he has gone out and ministered to the youth. We have one very special requests to make, and that's for Ukraine. And we're glad to see some of our Ukrainian friends here tonight. As you know, tomorrow, 24th of February, it marks the commencement of the war one year ago. So much has taken place in that year and we've been so glad to receive our friends here in Northern Ireland and just to be an encouragement to them. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or this week. over the weekend, but I know that Putin is threatening to do something spectacular. And we need to pray. We need to really pray at this time for our friends that are seeing all this happening back in their country, very conscious that they have friends and family that are there, and they're facing danger every single day. We will have a special night, whether that is next Thursday or not, I'm not sure, but we'll have a special night where, at our prayer meeting, we will have our friends, some of them just sitting at the front here with us, just talking to us about what it meant for them to leave their home country a year ago, or almost a year ago, and to come to Northern Ireland So pray for them, please. We come to our time of prayer and we say goodnight to those that have been joining us on the internet. May the Lord bless you where you are and bless us now as we come to our wee time of prayer.