Letter from Jon, June '23 

Dear Friends

 

Many of you will know that Fiona and I, along with Derek and Lynda McDonald, visited our long-standing mission partners, Mischi and Senta Mull, in Romania last week.  Mischi and Senta work amongst a very poor community in Romania, planting and building church there, bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ into their community and seeing lives transformed.  I admit that I was a little nervous before we went, not knowing quite what to expect, and not knowing quite what would be expected of us.  I knew we were going to do some teaching and preaching and I have never spoken with a translator before, so a very new experience.  However, the whole experience was inspiring and humbling, to see what they have done and continue to do, in the midst of many challenges.  We definitely received more than we gave from these faith-filled, committed and Godly people.
 
It has been a very long time since we have had any in person contact with Mischi and Senta, and over the last many years our support for them has largely been financial, sending a regular monthly contribution to them as a church, along with some individual contributions.  Although this contribution doesn’t seem much in our terms, their ability to make money go a long way is quite amazing. It seems that over the years their support base from other churches has dwindled, largely due to Mischi and Senta’s very restricted travel due to family commitments, and therefore their inability to visit supporting churches to give updates and boost support.  In that environment, our continued financial support over all these years seems to have been a great encouragement, particularly in the last few years where we have increased the church’s giving to them.  Over the last year, as we have increased our focus on missions, we contacted Mischi and Senta to see how we could build our partnership beyond finance, hence our visit to them.  Mischi told us that before we contacted them they had been praying for new or renewed support, and that we had been an answer to prayer.
 
We are now in the place where we need to work out how we continue to support them.  There is undoubtedly scope for people visiting, teaching and doing practical work, but we were aware that one of the greatest things we can do is simply to build friendship, to let them know that we are praying for them, to maintain contact and to let them know they are not alone as they work so hard for the kingdom of God. 
 
On the Sunday morning there I was invited to preach and I spoke about being a Christ-centred, Mission-shaped and Spirit-filled community, something that is very familiar to us, and something that we see very much in the church there.  Although, in many ways our churches are very different, there is a strong connection in our vision and values, and I believe that as we develop partnership and relationship in the years to come it will definitely be a win-win situation where we will see the kingdom of God extended both in Scotland and Romania.

You can read their latest newsletter here: 
 
Lots of love and gratitude for all you are and all you give
 
Jon