Dear Friends, Supporters and Prayer Partners,

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!" Ephesians 3:20-21 (NIV)

We really want to thank you once again for your faithful friendship and financial and prayer support! We feel the power and protection of it, and really appreciate it!

We don't know where the last month has gone. We've been seeing patients almost every day, even on weekends, including Romanians, even though the flu season is almost over. Linda is on call now and working part time at the embassy for a couple weeks.

The clinic itself is continuing to progress. The "Certificat de Urbanism" was approved about 10 days ago, but now that certificate has to be signed by both the mayor and the prefect (the head of Bucharest county) personally before the architect can actually pick it up and start on the next big step in the approval process, the "Autorizatie de Constructie." Everyone here sees this as just another bureaucratic step to encourage bribes and "gifts" even in the "reform" government. We went and prayed in front of the mayor's office last weekend. Also, the American light steel company still needs to submit more information (which it promises to do this week) before its system can be approved in Romania. The system needs to be approved before the clinic can obtain the Autorizatie de Constructie. On our way home from an orphanage last week, where we did check-ups on lots of the kids, we happened to see a sign advertising "American metal construction". We talked to them the next day, and they stated that it took them 15 months to be approved. (They also said it took "lots of paper work - some of it green.") The good news is that we have found another company that could build the clinic if the original company can't get approval.

The economic hardships here seem to be worsening on a weekly basis. The lei (the Romanian money) is devaluing rapidly (15% in the last month), and there's a lot of fear and despair, especially since salaries are not increasing to keep up with the inflation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) hasn't given Romania its next installment of loans because the government hasn't been able to lower the deficit or carry through on its budget promises.

Corruption and deception pervade Romania and the entire Balkan region. Some of you when you read our letters probably ask yourselves why we are even bothering to stay here. And yet we see individual lives being changed, almost daily, through the life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Fred and Roberta Anderson from WMPL are coming to visit us for 6 days starting Thursday. They will be speaking two evenings about their work in Mongolia and the possibility of Romanians going as missionaries themselves.

Last week an American woman who had just arrived here two weeks ago called and wanted to know about us because we are doctors. Her husband and she were transferred here to help with a major privatization project. We went out to dinner Friday night and then took them to one of the best grocery stores. Even though they are obviously "troopers" they were getting frustrated and discouraged, not knowing where to shop or even how to buy bus tickets. We invited them to our church, and they brought three other Americans from the same project with them this morning. God continues to bring committed Christians to this land, and through these "living sacrifices" God will not only change individual lives, but an entire country.

Operation Smile also came with two teams of plastic surgeons last week and about 150 children with cleft lips and other deformities were operated on. We visited the "Flying Hospital" and talked with Cristina, the young Romanian coordinator, who told how everyday the Romanian fathers were calling to find out about their children. One of our ongoing prayers for Romania is that the hearts of the fathers will be turned toward their children (as in Malachi 4:5-6). It seems that this is starting to happening, at least for a few of the fathers.

We're looking forward to a short vacation in Minnesota in early April. We had been planning to be back "home" later in April after a large shipment of donated medical supplies and equipment from the United States had arrived here. Two women in New York heard about our work and have collected an amazing amount of equipment and supplies for our clinic. They even arranged for a State department flight to stop at Bucharest airport with our crates before continuing on to Ukraine with humanitarian supplies for there as well. But now that flight is delayed until at least late April, so we decided to come home before the shipment. We spent a fair amount of time last week getting as much information as possible about customs, waiver of customs duties for humanitarian aid, airport unloading, etc.

We received a lot of responses to our last letter and e-mail. One of Linda's former patients is helping Open Door Medical Ministries set up a website. We've seen the temporary website, and we are impressed and excited. Hopefully it will have an official/permanent address for the website soon.

Thanks again for your faithfulness!