How would I ever succeed to compensate or show you how much I appreciate what you do? How could I ever reward your effort of waking up every morning, whether you are in a good mood or not, to go to your jobs, in order to support yourselves and your families, but also to give a part of the reward of your work to a missionary that shares the Gospel where God has entrusted her?    

I desire to appreciate this effort – taking part in the advancement of the Gospel, reaping the fruits with me. 

Without your involvement, without your prayers, without your encouragement and without your financial effort, in which you give monthly… I wouldn’t succeed in advancing (the Kingdom). 

You are very important to me, but more importantly for His work. 

I wouldn’t succeed at work and at the same time to be as efficient in what I do… your involvement is vital! 

I thank you for your love and respect through the fact that you work alongside me – each one doing their part. 

I love you and thank you! 

As you have already become accustomed to me, I would like to briefly present what I did in the last 3 months (July, August and September) with the help of God. 

Evangelism

Together with those who were with me doing street evangelism (short-term teams from Romania and outside of Romania), I was able to share the Gospel with 207 people and 60 children. Likewise, I shared literature and material goods to over 300 people. 

Discipleship

From the mixed discipleship group (men and women), the group that functioned and continued throughout the year, 3 people finished 3 study books and went with me a countless number of times in evangelism – testifying about the Lord.

Ioha is well and decided to be baptized

“A woman should not be touched, not even with a flower” is an expression used by men in Romania to highlight the importance of a woman and that she should be valued and protected. Ioha from my group says this expression very often, even though his wife makes fun of him almost daily, she undervalues him and behaves very wrongly with him. 

I wrote about Ioha a while back and about how he was going through a rough time. After some weeks of prayer, attention and care, he is better and is back to being himself. A few weeks ago, we had our first baptism in Craiova and at Raul’s invitation for those who desired to be baptized to come forward, Ioha went to the front, thus expressing his desire to be baptized.   

I thank God for the way that He is using Ioha and for the fact that he tells the people that he meets about Hope Church – a church where, in his words, he found peace, calmness and joy in his soul. 

Full joy of pastoring a small group  

I asked those from the small group why they decided to come to church, and the majority of them said that they found friendship, calmness, good words and are much more at ease when they go home. 

We finished studying the book of Colossians, reading a chapter each week. They were and are very active when we study Scripture. When they come for the group, they stay 3-4 hours and what impressed me is that they interact and respond to the questions, even if it takes an hour to study from the Bible.

 Two weeks ago, we started a new Bible Study called, “First Steps in Faith.”

Ilie, an elderly man of 70 something decided to participate in the small group, as well. He said that I was the first person to invite him to church when we met in the park, and at my invitation, he decided to come every Sunday to church.  Aurel, full of joy, told me on the phone yesterday that he has started to read the Bible and hopes to read it in a month. He was fascinated by the creation of people, the world, of Cain and Abel and others. 

Carp calls me often on the phone to ask me how I am, and always calls me “Mama Ana.” Many times I hear from his mouth, “Mama Ana, who else takes care of us, if not you?” 

God gives me these opportunities to serve and love these people, who are alone and with family problems. Almost all of them share with me about their problems, because they know that they are listened to and understood, receiving warm words, prayer and compassion. I love this group of people!  

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.” Proverbs 19:17

My desire is to make God known to everyone, no matter their status or in what conditions they find themselves. I also want to help people in their time of need. I want to help the people that God has entrusted to me to grow closer to Him. Yudith, a lady from our church who I evangelize with, brought me to these 2 homeless men, Misu and George. They live on the streets and don’t have any documentation. It’s sad that I met people who laugh at these men and make fun of them.

I had the chance to speak to Misu and George more and share the Gospel with them. They were so happy. George was saying that only 2 people have come looking for him. One came to take pictures of him and put them on Facebook and then me. I go and speak to him and bring him food. He is always happy and joking around when I visit him. Misu is a man who was raised in an orphanage. He went through some very terrible things in his life. He wanted help to get his papers in order. I was able to help him and, this week, he will be getting his ID.

Next, I plan to go with George to get his ID. I don’t know how to get them out of these conditions. They drink a lot because it’s cold out and they need a way to keep their body warm. They are misunderstood and ignored. People say they are not worth being in society. I don’t see them like this. I see two people who need Jesus and need to be delivered from alcohol addiction and homelessness.

I was able to give a pair of boots to Misu. George still needs a thick jacket and a pair of boots because his are worn out. If anyone would like to help with this, please let me know. I want to help them as much as I can and I plan to continue to do this long term. Pray that I would have wisdom and discernment and to be able to share the Gospel with them everytime I go visit them with groceries.

Jesus came to serve, Not to be served

What do you think? Is it easy to serve people? Who do we need to serve? Our family, relatives, friends, society? I believe serving requires sacrifice and dedication. 

Jesus is often found in Scripture as tired, hungry, with nowhere to go, in crowds, and so on. He is called “The Son of Pain and Suffering.” He was mocked and despised. But he continued to serve people. 

I try to show this Jesus, who serves others, to people when I talk to them on the street. I try to model this in my life by making disciples and encouraging them to invest in others. It is not easy and I am often tired, hungry, discouraged or cold. But I do everything I can to follow the perfect model of the servant Jesus, so that I too can win people over to Him.

Do you want to follow this Jesus and live this model of dedication? I said YES! 

A Year Full of Joy, Together with the Lord 

Because of His grace, this year has been a fruitful one. Here are the things I accomplished with the help of other people in 2020; some of them before the pandemic but most of them during. God is faithful! 

1) 200 people heard the Gospel by having a deep conversation about Jesus with them.

2) 8,000 pamphlets, Christian literature and New Testaments were distributed on the streets in Craiova or in people’s mailboxes.

3) 10 different evangelistic events. 

4) A weekly discipleship group. (11 people)

5) A group of women on WhatsApp who I send daily meditations from Scripture to. (13 women) 

6) 50 people whom I talked with that expressed their desire for God in prayer.

7) 4 groups of E2E students (one was on Zoom). I taught an evangelism course and went with them on the streets, showing them practically how to evangelize. Some of them use the method I taught them when they evangelize.

8) For two groups of students, I taught the course “Fundraising”.

9) I assisted some missionaries in evangelism. 

10) During the pandemic I was active on the internet through various videos or audio recordings. I recited psalms, biblical stories for children, secular stories for children, books and Bible studies. I also helped with puppet ministry and I did interviews for a series called “From women to women.” 

11) I also lead an English club for adults where between 5-10 people attend every week. 

12) By the grace of God together with others I had 3 missionary trips to the Balkans – there were people who expressed their desire to follow the Lord Jesus.

Life is not so easy and it has its challenges, but God remains the same no matter what the circumstances are! As a family we’ve been and continue with some challenging situations. But despite the circumstances we have not given up and continue to share the love of God with people from Craiova.

Even if it’s winter and the people are in a hurry because it is cold outside, I remain faithful to God doing evangelism and He brings people so I can share the Word of Life with them. However the Holy Spirit is the One who leads me when and how to talk to them.

Her Daughter is Possessed by Demons
I met Dora while I gave shampoo and masks to people on the street. She was sitting on a bench with her daughter that got insane when was in school. Went healthy at school and came back sick.

Dora explained to me haw the doctors tied her daughter to three beds and how she kept yelling at the doctors: “They are stronger than you.” Her mom realized that for sure she was possessed.

After two hours of letting her talk to me I presented the Gospel and Jesus in the ways I’ve learned. She received Jesus in her heart during our conversation!

Dorina (from my cell group) brought Catalin with her. After a few hours of talking about God with him, explaining about Jesus using an illustration, he asked me: “Was there no other solution, but Jesus?” Nobody had asked me this before. I clarified with him that Jesus is the only solution!

The people from the small group brought another three people. They told me if I will move to another Church, they will follow me. Some of them have a desire to meet every day. Pray for a lot of wisdom in leading this group, please!

God is awesome Pray that the Gospel will be spread further in Craiova and that the group will continue to expand!

Ana Costea

God is rich in mercy. His love never ends for people’s salvation, and He uses people like me to reveal Himself to them. I rejoiced this month, that I could see the fruit of Christ’s sufferings through the fact that 10 people verbally stated that through faith in Christ, they received forgiveness of their sins.

I have started to go into a new Craiova neighborhood having the long-term plan to plant a church here. Raul prayed for me and said that “God, give us a location, even if it’s a bar.” In that morning, together with E2E students, we went and saw a bar with people outside. We applied what we learned and immediately, George (a man in his 60’s) asked me if I was a psychologist. He was very captivated by the way that I presented the Gospel. When I arrived to point of Jesus Christ and His death, he started to cry. He shared with me that he had problems in life, and he thanked me that I told him about forgiveness of sins. In that day, he received Christ into his heart. He also said that he wanted to come to our church.

Granny, a 89 year-old woman, was sitting on a bench and talking with two other women. When the other women left, I went to her and I started to talk to her about God. She did not know about the Trinity and a few times, she said that she did not know who Christ was. After a time of explaining it with her, I told her about the Lord Jesus, His death and how she could be forgiven of her sins. She said that she had sin and that she was abused, and she rejoiced when she heard that she could have eternal life after she died. When I led her in a salvation prayer, I led her by saying “God, forgive me for my sins” and she continued to say this 3 or 4 times. She also continued a few phrases by herself. That day not only did I and the heavens rejoice, but her face changed, and she was radiating. This was the most beautiful experience that I had this month!

Starting in the month of September, I started to teach courses for the E2E program. This year, we have 3 generations equipping future missionaries or church workers. This includes online students from Romania, Moldova and England, Roma (gypsy) and Romanian in-person students.  I teach them evangelism methods, as well as how to support raise. Also, I assist the coordinator where is needed. Please pray for me to have wisdom in finding methods for evangelism, especially for the Roma community and for ways in captivating the online students.

These words of the Lord Jesus Christ had a great impact in my life. I mourned my sin for weeks when God revealed it to me.
Only Jesus’s words have the power to transform people’s lives. My passion is to talk about God’s love and forgiveness, which I gain through faith in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, but also to teach others how to do it effectively.

The joy of sharing with people what the Lord has done for me often comes back fruitful. My work is not in vain and the Lord bears fruit. Here are some expressions from the mouths of the evangelized.

“I have never heard somebody speaking to me such words and in such a kind way. I still want to meet with you to continue the discussion.”

“I can tell by your passion and your testimony what you’re telling me is true and I believe only God helped me to overcome my trials. We’ll keep in touch on Facebook.”

“We believe Jesus’ sacrifice can save us. The illustrations explained so much better what you wanted to show us.” (The 4 of them prayed to accept Jesus.)

“You captivated us with the way you spoke. That’s why I came to church this Sunday.”

“Even if I went to many different churches, I am not sure I’ll go to heaven. God knows better than me where I deserve to go.’ (He came to church.)

“I have a very good relationship with God and I pray to him a few times a day but when I die I’ll go nowhere because I don’t think there’s a heaven and a hell.”

“Johan invited me to the church and I’ll continue to come every Sunday. I’ll even come to the small group.”