Branding - Very clearly, Bridgeway has a strong brand identity.  We have a very corporate presence and it's more than a slick logo and a catch phrase.  Our name, logo and tagline communicate who we are and whom we serve.  A bridge communicates motion.  A bridge is used to move a person from one location to another more desirable locale.  Jesus is the bridge between God and man.  So, we as Bridgeway want to be "Moving You Closer to Christ".  This says everything about who we are.  It says that this church is a disciple making church; a place where spiritual growth happens, is anticipated, and celebrated.

Marketing - How does Bridgeway promote itself?  We are pretty cautious here.  We do run ads in the yellow pages and in Roseville Style Magazine.  We have a great web presence.  We have a great radio show on 710AM KFIA and 1380 KTKZ on Sunday mornings. But we could do much more and we purposely don't.  For instance we could have a press release every week about something we are doing in the community or around the world.  But, we don't do that.  We could have tons of press releases announcing our new building plans and construction project.  But, we don't do that either.  Why?  We truly want to be a church known for Making Disciples not for making press releases.

Your thoughts?

One particularly funny story is that several years ago Jim Sorrels, the director here for Heart to Heart was told that a toy manufacturer was going out of business and had tons of toys to donate to the orphans and they would be shipping them with soon.  When the shipment arrived, Jim discovered that a shipment of toys actually turned into 35,000 plastic cows!

According to the toy company, they shipped the "wrong pile....sorry".

But when God gets you 35,000 plastic cows, you use them.  You don't throw anything away on the mission field.  This summer, Heart to Heart took a ton of kids to camp.  One of the activities they did was a game that involved finding 35,000 cows strategically hidden across the camp.  The kids loved the game, but when we went up to help H2H break down the camp last Saturday, Jim informed me that I was welcome to toss the cows in the trash.  He'd ahd enough of the cows.  I obliged him!

However, there were a few bovine escapees who have made it down to the Team House now and have been showing up in parculiar places! But I don't know anything about that!

It was a great day, but it was somewhat spoiled by the fact that there are a few kids who daily steal a soccer ball or two from us.  The rules are that all balls, jump ropes etc come back to us and we bring them back when we come back.  We've just lost too many soccer balls this week and one of the H2H staff brought the hammer down on the kids as we left.  The kids were so cute as the H2H staffer explained to the kids that when you steal from us, you disrespect us.  The H2H staffer explained that each person on the team had paid over $2000 US to come and play with them.  The kids just gasped in amazement!

I have a suspicion, the two soccer balls will show up today.  AND, I bet another water fight breaks out!

Looking forward to finishing our ministry here well and coming home on Tuesday!

The team is doing wonderful and is really connecting with the orphans. For some, the inability to converse with the kids verbally is a bit of a frustration. But, by our play, we are undoubtedly communicating the love of Christ. These kids have completely grown on us and as we beging to look toward our departure of Romania in 6 days, we are dreading leaving these kids behind. Knowing that we are the last team of the summer makes this even harder.

Please continue to pray for the older girls who are at the transition home. They are trying to get jobs, but they keep getting shut down in the most abhorrent ways. They have been told to their faces that they aren't getting the job because they won't hire orphans, or gypsies, or ... It's all racism at it's core. But, God will provide.

Mike Issertell got sick yesterday afternoon and evening but is doing better this morning. It's also his birthday so we're helping him celebrate!

The building in gaudy and beautiful.  Even though it was built in the 1980's, when you walk in, you forget that fact because everthing feels like the 1880's with lots of marble, gold leaf, wood, and concrete.  It was an amazing thing to see.

That afternoon we ventured back out to the orphange in Peris. The kids had a GREAT time with VBS.  We did the story of Jonah.  Mike played Jonah and Ashley played the big fish.  She took the lids off of two rubbermaid containers and that was the mouth of the fish.  She "swallowed" Jonah, and then really enjoyed vomiting him back up.  The kids loved it and nect to the VeggieTale version, this verison of Jonah was the funniest I have ever seen.

We also spent time coloring the animal masks and the kids really loved these.  but these masks are held on with elastics, and as kids are prone to do, the also enjoyed pulling the masks away from each others faces and the letting the smack each other in the face.  Good times!

Today, we are off to see a big castle in Transylvania, the land of Dracula (who was a real person by the way...but not a vampire.)  Should be fun to have a tourist day.  But I know the kids in the orphanage will miss us today.

We then went to a mall for lunch and a few of us went shopping at IKEA for household items for the orphan girls' new apartment. It was great to help then get a good start on a new life after transitioning from the orphange. Continue to pray that these girls get jobs. it's proving to be a bit difficult!

Thanks for all your prayers! We all apprecite it very much. One more week to go. We're ready to rock!

I haven't taken in pictures in the past 12 hours, but if you haven't seen the pics yet, you can check them out at http://gallery.me.com/roverruss/100023

Some of the team went back to the orphanage where the kids had a great time playing soccer and jump rope.  The kids have grown to expect us every afternoon and have ben incredibly well behaved compared to the first day we were there.

We also were able to take 6 members into the baby hospital to hold orphaned babies, change them, and feed them.  This is a very emotional place, but the babies at this hospital are well cared for.  A couple of babies were sick and it was really hard to leave them in their cribs.

Today, we had a slow morning around the house and will heading to Alpha Omega Church.  Looking forward to seeing how Romanians worship!  Because of the prevalence of the Orthodox Church, the evangelical church is still looked upon as the freaks, the cult in town.  So those who have decided to follow Jesus are really sold out for Him.  We'll let you know what it's like.

Peace!

The kids were on their best behavior and I have no explanation  other than it was an answer to prayer.  But better than that, it was awesome to listen to these kids sing songs to Jesus. They sang songs like "Little ears, be craeful what you hear.."  And they really giggled when we changed the words to "Little hands be careful what you steal..."  They know they have a reputation! And in their defense, no one on the team has had anything lifted.  They just think it's funny.

The kids did a craft today and made the same bead key chain that our kids made in VBS.  These kids were totally into it!  After what I had seen in the first few days, I was ready to suggest that we scrap any and all future craft events.

We also played Romanian vs. American soccer today.  It was a rough loss for the Americans.  Our defeators were very gracious as they told everyone that they had won 2-1, but I think the actual score was closer to 9-1.

God is so good to us on this trip!  Everything is going very well.

Love to you all and we'll be home soon!

I also uploaded 30+ new pics to http://gallery.me.com/roverruss/100023.  You gotta check these out if you haven't already!

Most kids enjoyed the Bible Story time as well as the face painting and games. These kids really love us and enjoy ebery afternoon that we spend with them.

We also had part of the team over at the orphan baby hospital where they spent the afternoon holding babies and changing diapers.

In addition to that, we had part of our team helping 5 older orphans who are being prepped to transition from the orphanage to the real world. They are going to be living in an apartment, so Mike and Elizabeth went over and helped to construct their new IKEA furniture and beds. These girls are currently interviewing for jobs and are having a difficult time. Please pray for them.

We have a big day tomorrow with some shopping in the morning and then back to the orphanage in the afternoon.

Everyone on the team is healthy and the team is united in Christ!

Gotta go. My body feels like I've been a human jungle gym all afternoon...and I have!

Oh, yeah!  Just added some new pictures from today at http://gallery.me.com/roverruss/100023

And play we did. I was a human jungle gym. At one time I think I had 4 boys on my back. We played soccer and basketball too. Soccer they are really skilled at, but Basketball is anew sport for them.

The girls on the team all had their hair done by the girls at the orphange. They all came away with some very creative hair-do's for sure. They would create a hair-do and then start all over again; braids, clips, in abundance

Jump rope is a big deal here too. Even I jumped some rope today!

These kids need to play. They have many needs and some of them are very deep emotional and some physical needs. But the best way we could communicate the love of Christ today had nothing to do with verbal words. I don't understand Romanian and they don't understand very much english. But we had a great day, made some new friends who can't wait for us to show up tomorrow, and Jesus was communicated with love by both the kids and our team.

We are beat! I haven't been this tired in quite some time. But I'd do it all over again given the chance and I bet that will come tomorrow!

You can see some good pictures from today at http://gallery.me.com/roverruss/100023

The team is meshing well and everyone is getting along well.  We come from such diverse backgrounds, but the Lord has assembled this team and it will be cool to see how He will use this wide range of gifts.

Tomorrow we will have an orientation in the morning and then we will all be going out to the orphange and the hospital.  It's going to be a fun day! 

Much more to report tomorrow I'm sure.  But now, I'm beat (like a rented mule).  Good Night Bridgeway!

I guess what I can't seem to get over is that our tithes and offerings are a spiritual act of worship.  But if we automate that process and distance that act away from weekend worship, it seems to me that we  miss something intrinsic to the worshipful act of giving back to God.

And, don't get me started on the temptation to use the credit card for a gift to the Lord!

Am I missing something?

What do you think? We have the ability, should Bridgeway accept online gifts?

If you volunteered and helped in any way, know that I saw your faces and they looked tired!  But on your faces there was also the satisfaction of knowing that you had just spent the morning doing something incredibly worthwhile.

Thank You!!!!

I am absolutely in awe of what the Lord has done here at Bridgeway. I remember the first budget we ever passed in 1996 and we had all the members sign a form stating what they would promise to give for the year! We had no idea what we were doing!!

Now we'd never do that now, but it just speaks to how much we have grown as a church.

I realize these are tough economic times. I also know there are some of you who are out of work, going through foreclosures, or just trying to figure out how you're going to pay for all that $4.75 per gallon gasoline. And yet, we have strong financials as a church.

So, I want to say THANK YOU for your faithfulness to the Lord and to the ministry here at Bridgeway!

We thought this would be a great way to reach out and appreciate the crew. Who knows, for a few of them, this might be their first trip inside a church!

Don't blink!  You might miss something!

Why is all this necessary? Well, there were 5 soil samples taken before construction began a few weeks ago. As luck would have it (if you believe in that kind of thing), all of the samples missed the hardened clay in the middle of the lot. So, it all had to be removed down to about 3 feet below the surface, treated with lime, mixed with good soil and replaced back in the hole

It looks like Mount Bridgeway is getting smaller as the hole fills in today. It looks closer to Mound Bridgeway now!

As a quick reminder, please do not venture into the construction zone. It looks harmless enough, but it's a dangerous place to be right now.

Peace!