Life has its different seasons. This past 18 months has been a different season for me. I rarely spend much time in one place, and finding myself in Tasmania caring for my elderly Mum has been a different experience. One of the blessings of living in a country like Australia is the support given to the elderly in terms of respite and home services. My Mum has been happy to take ‘mini holidays’ in respite, and this has given me the opportunity, from time to time, to drop by the Bible School in PNG, as well as visit Romanian young people and Romanian assemblies in Romania and various other countries in Europe and the US, as well as a short visit to some brothers and sisters in India.Life has its different seasons. This past 18 months has been a different season for me. I rarely spend much time in one place, and finding myself in Tasmania caring for my elderly Mum has been a different experience. One of the blessings of living in a country like Australia is the support given to the elderly in terms of respite and home services. My Mum has been happy to take ‘mini holidays’ in respite, and this has given me the opportunity, from time to time, to drop by the Bible School in PNG, as well as visit Romanian young people and Romanian assemblies in Romania and various other countries in Europe and the US, as well as a short visit to some brothers and sisters in India.
Recently I had the opportunity to briefly visit various Romanian couples living in Norway. One particular couple I’ve known for many years, and it’s been an interesting experience walking with them in their life journey. Over many years they’ve had a great interest in Judaism and their lifestyle has reflected this. For example, on this last visit I noticed that the lights in the house were not turned off on Friday night when we went to bed. They considered the turning off of lights to be working on the Sabbath.
On the Saturday evening, a young man, a Messianic Jew, dropped by to catch up. I think he was as encouraged as I was to have an opportunity together to share with our mutual friends some precious truths from the Scriptures, relating to being made right with God by faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ, and not by keeping the Law. The conversation was far from one-sided though! I know both sets of parents back in Romania are concerned for their children. They’ve expressed their appreciation that someone else is able to speak into their children’s situation.
This coming week my Mum is going for another little ‘holiday’ in respite, and I’m taking the opportunity to head back to PNG to our Bible School graduation. We have six students and their families graduating this year after their four years with us. They have been a special group of students, and the four teachers and their wives have done a wonderful job again this year with the students and their families. I’m looking forward to seeing them all.
Graeme Erb, Specialist