Friday, September 25, 2009

Baptist Church in Florica - September 20, 2009

These are selections from the church service in Florica on September 20. Thanks Paul for putting this together.

A 34 year old prayer answered today...

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A new church

September 20, 2009 was the day when a 34 year old prayer was answered. In 1975 when my dad became a born again Christian and was baptized, his family told him that they don't want to have anything to do with him anymore. Years have passed and the relationship with the family was restored little by little, but not when it came to discussing about the message of the Gospel. A few years ago God also put on our hearts to pray for Florica, my dad's home village, that an evangelical church would be planted there and the message of the cross would be made known to the people. We went on mission trips and shared the Good News with the people, and at the same time we encountered great opposition from the Orthodox priests. But our God is stronger than any man. He answered our prayers and around 75 people witnessed the first church service in the village of Florica. As you probably know already, God helped us to buy a house in the center of this village that now became the building where the Baptist Church in Florica will gather for their services. We are so thankful to God for His great provision, for His faithfulness, for blessing us in such a wonderful way.

Not too many people attended from the village... only 5. The rest of us where from the churches around Campina and Pitulicea. But it was such a joy to see the 5 people there...my grandma, my aunt, two cousins and a neighbor. It meant so much for us to see our relatives there! We know that God loves this village and He has great plans with those people. Let us continue to pray for this ministry. Pastor Marian from Pitulicea will be there every Sunday and lead the church service that starts at 3:00 p.m. The church in Campina committed to go there once a month and the churches in Filipesti, Bratasanca and one in Bucharest did the same.

Below you may find some pictures with the house in Florica - how it looked in the beginning and how it looks now.






Here are a couple of pictures from the first church service in Florica. It was a great honor to have with us Pastor Chris Griggs and Paul Ratcliff from Denver Baptist Church, NC. Thank you for making the effort to be here and for supporting this ministry.



Blessings to you all!

Ioana

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Summer 2009

Dear friends,

This summer has been so great for us. We had teams visiting us and a lot of other events taking place in our area. Here is a short update:

In June 12-27 a team from Cedarville University from Ohio visited our church. Being accompanied by their professor, Dr. Dave Gallagher, the 4 students taught computer classes to children in four different villages - Maneciu, Cotofenesti, Bratasanca and Pitulicea. The goal was to also share the gospel and they did this by presenting it in a simple manner and easy to understand.


On July 4th we had a youth meeting at Maranatha. We had a wonderful worship time with young people from Buzau, Prahova County and Bucharest and Pastor Dwight Stone (Bucharest) had a very encouraging message for us.


In July 10-17 we had a team from Denver Baptist Church, NC lead by Pastor David Sexton. They split their work between leading Bible studies and fun activities for children in Bratasanca and Miner Village and working on the house we bought in Florica as church building.


In July 24 - August 3 a team from First Baptist Church Harvester in St. Louis, MO was here. They have done a wonderful job by ministering to children in the mornings in different village and connecting with people in a park in Campina in the evenings. We all have been so encouraged by this ministry in the park and we had positive responses from some people we met. A few ladies even came to church the next Sunday, but unfortunately they never came back. We went to visit them, but they didn't want to speak with us anymore. So please continue to pray for them, that they would open up their hearts to the Gospel.


On July 25th we had a big celebration in our family. It was the day when Emi and Cami started their journey together as a family.


In August 2-7, European Christian Mission (ECM) Romania organized a conference in Rau Sadului. A lot of the young people from Campina area churches attended this conference and we came back being refreshed. We had a blessed time studying about Zorobabel, Ezra and Nehemiah.


In August 24-28 we organized a mission in Comarnic area. Volunteers from Golgotha and Maranatha churches walked on the streets of Comarnic, Posada and Nistoresti and shared the Good News to all those who were open to listen to them. 274 people heard the gospel during that week. The next Sunday we had a special service to celebrate what the Lord had done. 2 people out of the 274 were in the church with us. Praise the Lord!
Here are some pictures with Stefan and Florin sharing stories from the mission field. We were glad to have Florin with us on mission. He lives in France now together with his wife, Monica, and their beautiful daughter, Sara.



"I was excited to be able to go and tell others about His love. What we did this week was just a small part from God's ministry, but we had to do it". (Stefan)


"I was glad to meet people on the streets who had no Bible and be able to offer them one. But I was sad to hear people mocking God; I know that God loves them too". (Florin)

We enjoyed very much having you here. We have been blessed by spending time with you, getting to know you and working together with you. Thank you all for giving up your days off, your vacation time and coming here to serve our Lord. Everything you did is very much appreciated and we look forward to working again with you in the future!

God bless you all!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

April 2009


Dear friends,

We have great and exciting news about Florica. Remember a few months ago we were telling you that our grandmother decided not to give us part of her property so we could build a church there and that we were still going to look for other opportunities. We believe God has great plans for that village and we are able to see that very clearly. A while ago we were able to find a house in the center of Florica with land in size of 12,920 sq.ft. We took a big step in faith when we signed the pre-contract for the property, as we didn’t know if we were able to gather the whole amount of money on time in order to pay for the full contract.

We asked many churches in Romania to pray for this and support the ministry in Florica and there were many who responded in a positive way to our need. We are thankful to them. We would also like to express our gratitude especially to Denver Baptist Church as you were the ones who encouraged and supported us financially to take the first step towards buying this property for the Church in Florica. Thank you all who prayed for this. God was faithful and we managed to get the entire amount we needed and last week we signed the final contract. Praise the Lord for this!

A lot of work is still to be done on the property to arrange the courtyard and the interior of the house, but slowly we will get this done as well. We took a team of 10 men there today and we already started to do the changes.

Rejoice with us for God has done great things in Florica and He continues to work in that village. Our prayer now is that God will raise a missionary who would move to Florica with his family and live there. We are thinking about a student from the Baptist University in Bucharest, but we will pray and let God guide us through this journey. Please join us in your prayers.

In Christ Jesus,

Pastor Ion