Thursday, November 13, 2008

October News

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the encouraging messages and emails we received after sending out the previous newsletter in September.

Another month has gone by and a lot has happened....I would start with news about Florica. Things change very rapidly and I would probably have to send you weekly reports about what is happening there. But I will make it short and the story goes like this....A while ago my grandmother was very touched after my father and I paid her a visit together with a team from Denver Baptist Church, NC. One evening we received a phone call from her and she was wondering why we want to buy property elsewhere for the church in Florica when we could buy part of the property she owns. Of course, my dad was very surprised to hear about this, somewhat reserved, nevertheless happy that he heard something like this after praying for 33 years that my grandma would turn her eyes upon God. She had already spoken with the rest of the family and they all agreed with her. We had started taking care of the paper work that needed to be signed in order to have legal rights upon the property. We wanted to buy the piece of land behind the corn mill that was destroyed by fire this summer (for those who remember the story) in my grandmother's courtyard.. But the villagers put pressures on her, so my grandmother suddenly changed her mind (without telling us) and the rest of the family as well, saying that she would never sell out her property for the Baptist Church. When my father heard about this he asked if she would at least rent us out a room in her house. She didn't accept this either. Things are still tense, but we don't want to give up. We still want to go on and buy a piece of property for the Baptist Church in Florica. Please pray together with us that God will give us wisdom on how to continue working for Him in that village.

The Month of October was our “Thanksgiving” month. We don't have a set date to celebrate it, so every year it is different. Three different churches in the area (“Hope” Baptist Church – Bratasanca, “Golgotha” Baptist Church – Filipestii de Padure, “Grace” Baptist Church – Miner Village) organized special events and we had a great time rejoicing in the House of the Lord and bringing Him thanks for what He has done for us.

On October 12th Andy Nistoroiu was officially assigned to be the pastor of Golgotha church in Filipesti. At the same time, the church in Filipesti became responsible for the mission churches in Scorteni and Mislea.

On the last Saturday of the month we again had a prayer meeting with all the evangelical churches in town. We are thankful to God for the freedom to be able to have these meetings and we pray that more believers would join these meetings in the future.

On October 26th we had the monthly evangelism service organized by the evangelical churches in Campina. Pastor Vasile Talos from “Bunavestire” Baptist Church in Bucharest spoke from the Word of God. Though over 6,000 invitations were spread out in town, not many responded to it. We continue to pray though that God will work through us and bring spiritual revival in Campina.

Very soon my father and Dan will be taking a 3 week trip to the States. They will be attending a Missions Conference in Denver, NC and then visit with friends in the St. Louis area. Please be praying for them, especially for my dad who is very nervous about his very first flight ever. And pray for us who will remain at home that everything will go well.

Please send greetings to your churches and families. We think about all of you and we are praying for you.

May God continue to pour out His blessings upon you!

In Him,

Ioana

Thursday, October 16, 2008

September News

Dear Friends,

We hope our message finds all of you well. We thought of getting back to an old good habit, that of keeping you updated about what goes on in our church, our community, and our family.

In the beginning of September we took a mission trip to Pitulicea, a village 90 minutes East of Campina. The purpose of the mission was to evangelize people on the streets, offer tracts and New Testaments. There were 9 volunteers from the Campina and Filipesti churches and 6 from the church in Pitulicea. In 5 days we walked up and down the streets of 7 villages and 1 town and shared the Good News of the Gospel. One day of that week we had quite an experience.... while sharing the gospel on the street, one of our teams was encountered by the 2 priests of the village of Florica. They had told our team that what they did was wrong and that they should have stopped talking to people. They had left that team and encountered another one, advising them to do the same, otherwise they were to be lynched. Quite a crowd had gathered around our team members, being instigated by the priests. Interestingly enough, there were people who had not talked to us before, but who were on our side and were defending us. We had to call the police, as things were getting a bit out of control. Well, though this is what seemed to be happening, in fact, everything was under God’s control. We were all taken to the police station in the village and because one of our team members had been hit by a villager, the witnesses had to give declarations. It was nothing serious, just a few scratches on her arms and hands, but the camera she tried to use to film what was going on had been completely damaged. In the meantime we called our homes and our churches, asking them to pray for us. And God worked in wonderful ways and everything ended well that late night. The next day we were getting ready for our last day of mission and right before entering the village, the priest came to warn us not to speak to his people. For the sake of peace we went to the police station, letting them know what we were about to do on that day, and then we went on to share the Gospel. And what a great day we had!

Despite all the difficulties we encountered during the mission, 529 people heard the Good News and 82 of them prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior. Praise the Lord! The coming Sunday we had a special service in Maranatha Church, we celebrated what the Lord had done among us and shared with the church about our experiences.

For the last 2 weeks of the month we had planned ahead that we were going to have a session at Maranatha Bible College. Prof. Henri Whitman was supposed to teach the Pentateuch, but because of lack of students the session had to be canceled. We made the decision to put an end to the activity of the Bible College for now, until God is going to show us new ways for the College to achieve its purposes. It has been running for 10 years and we are thankful to God for the great blessings He gave us. Ordinary people from our churches attended the courses and later on became missionaries in their families, villages, country and in Europe, by getting jobs in countries like Spain or Italy. So we believe that God did a wonderful work concerning the College. We would like to say a special 'thank you' to all those who have been involved in this ministry: professors, students, leaders, sponsors. You all did a great job! The work is not over…. The harvest is plentiful. Let us pray that God is going to open up new ways in which we could serve Him by using the experience we gathered over the years with Maranatha Bible College.

Last month was time for election of a new pastor in Golgotha Baptist Church in Filipesti. For 19 years Pastor Ion Vasile has served in this church, but it was time that other ministers did this. Pastor Andy, who has been Assistant Pastor in Campina for nearly 2 years now, is now the new pastor of the church in Filipesti.

On Sunday, September 28th, our church was visited by a team from Holland. They were here for a week to help Mana Deschisa (Open Hand) and build a fence around one of their rehabilitation centers. (Open Hand Ministry is A Rehabilitation Christian Center in Campina that is helping the young people coming from dysfunctional families or from different other environments such as streets, orphanages, prisons, etc.). Pastor Jean Chiforeanu from Timisoara and his wife Mona joined us for the church services as well. The main reason for them to be here was the Evangelism Service we organized (usually every last Sunday evening of the month) together with all the Evangelical churches in Campina. God used Pastor Chiforeanu in a wonderful way to bring His message to the listeners. Three people prayed to receive Christ at the service.

This month we are going to have a prayer meeting with all the evangelical churches in town (we usually have them every last Saturday of the month) and an evangelism service on the last Sunday as well. Please join us in prayer for the lost people of Campina.

May God richly bless you and your ministries!