Dear Friends, Supporters and Prayer Partners,

Every time we send an update, I promise myself that I'll make it shorter. Hopefully, this will be the one! What have we done this last month?

The first thing that comes to mind is that we've done much more speaking than usual. Milt spoke on Forgiveness at the Romanian Bible Institute, and within 3 weeks his talk was published in their monthly magazine. We both spoke at a Pastoral Counseling class at the Pentecostal Seminary, on recognizing the type of psychological problems that need a doctor involved, as well as on marriage and sexual problems. Then, this last Sunday, Milt gave the sermons at both BEL (English Language) Church and Trinitatea (Romanian Language) Church, on the Sanctity of Life. In hindsight, that was a lot of work!! And these were just the extra things we worked in!

Milt also started a new Bible study on Thursday evenings. It was initially going to be a men's Bible study, but some of the wives of some new members of BEL were interested, and so now we're both going, with Milt as the facilitator.

We've also seen quite a few patients, including two foreigners with fractures whom we advised to leave the country for surgery. We're getting better at the subtleties of the language, which is so important when you try to educate patients on their problems. We're looking forward to the time when we can see patients officially, in a clinic, and teach residents. Hopefully by the next residency year (which starts in February) that will be a reality!

We also went out again to the ICC (Adventist) orphanage, where we do medical consults on a monthly basis. Steliana, the 2 1/2 year old girl with severely delayed development when she came there from a state orphanage in December, now is eating with a spoon!!! She still can't walk independently, but they are working with her on that too. Little Ionut, who is maybe 8 months old now, seems to have steroid dependent asthma. He has been in the hospital 3 times, and each time they send him back and taper off his steroid medicine over about 5 days, and he can't breathe within 2-3 days. This time, we were there 2 days after his cortisone had been stopped, and he was just starting to have trouble breathing again, so we were able to keep him from going back into the hospital by getting him on the proper medications.

Now to the project! It is moving forward! Now it seems like it's 2 steps forward to every 1 step back, rather than the other way around! Even though we still don't have all the money needed for the final, completed clinic, we do have almost enough funds for the building's exterior structure, foundation, and interior walls, including labor. The builder's bid for this initial phase is almost exactly $175 per square meter, about half the price of the typical Romanian concrete and steel construction. This price does not include the finishing, painting, plumbing, heating, wiring, or floor coverings, or a fence, but we know that the Lord will provide for the finances for all these expenses as well. Last week we went over the final drawings with the builder, telling him where we want the outlets, light switches, sinks, etc.

The next and last big step before the construction can begin is the "Autorizatie de Constructie" which typically takes about 60 days from the time it is submitted to the Mayor's office. The engineer in the United States, who promised to have the engineering details required for this application two weeks ago, had an emergency and hasn't completed these yet. Hopefully they will be here soon, so the architect can complete the application.

We have also decided on a formal legal contract with Campus Crusade, which is called Alege Viata here, or Choose Life. And we're in the process of selling them a half ownership in the land. The other thing the attorney is helping us with is figuring out what to do about a neighbor who extended his house and garden onto land he didn't own, back when the Communists owned all the land. But now we own it, and his outhouse is about 40 feet from the front corner of where our building will be, next to what will be our driveway and parking area. He says he doesn't have enough money to hook up to city water and sewer. We basically want to have a good relationship with him, and yet not have a junky-looking piece of property and an outhouse right in front of part of our clinic.

One fun thing we've done is to plant some sweet corn 3 weeks ago! It's on the back part of the clinic land, where the construction won't bother it, and about a third of the seeds germinated. (We're better doctors than farmers!) In Bucharest, we're surrounded by concrete and dirt (it hasn't rained enough recently for grass to grow). But the clinic site, which is only a mile away, has no tall concrete buildings on the south or west sides. We've enjoyed working on the corn patch several evenings and watching summer clouds roll in, even though they haven't brought much rain. So we're looking forward to sweet corn in August! Milt also noticed a funny red bump on his neck one evening and for a split second wondered, "What in the world is that?" It was a mosquito bite! What a change from Minnesota!

We want to thank you again for your faithfulness in prayer and support! We appreciate all of you who are encouraging us in this way, and pray the Lord will bless you!