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...

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

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!

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

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 12^th 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 26^th 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

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 28^th, 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!