For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast

– Ephesians 2:8-9

Along with the Church in Stoenești, we delved into the first three chapters of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where the Apostle Paul reveals to us God’s great plan to unite all people, Jews and Gentiles, in one body, through faith in Jesus Christ. We discovered how the Gospel brings not only the forgiveness of sins, but also the boundless grace of God, which transforms our lives and gives us a share in the heavenly inheritance, where we will be as a praise to God by the fact that we have been redeemed from this earth through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.

A reality that transforms lives

This month I had the grace to proclaim the Gospel to Marius, a 20-year-old young man who had many questions. He shared with me his sincere desire to follow God’s will, but also his inner struggle with the attractions of the world and its pleasures. I sought to help him discover the beauty of God’s plan for his life, to be a child of His. I tried to explain to him how much the Lord desires to know Him and how great His love is for each of us and that salvation is not just an idea of ​​the repentant, but a reality that transforms lives. We discussed the power of the cross of Jesus, the forgiveness it offers and the blessing we find in our relationship with Him.

Prayer Requests:

• We pray that the study and deepening of Scripture will help us grow in the knowledge of the Lord.
• We pray that those who have heard the Gospel will have their hearts searched by the Holy Spirit.

“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30-31.

Bible Study

This month we have been blessed by the study of the Word and of the Gospel. Around Easter, together with the cell group, we studied the last three chapters of John. We reflected on the sufferings of the Lord, His death and resurrection, and read about His appearances after the resurrection.

The Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection and had personal discussions with those who were walking on the road to Emmaus. That meeting immediately changed their plan to stay in Emmaus, and they returned the same day to the disciples in Jerusalem. The Lord spoke to Thomas, who made that beautiful declaration that Jesus is his Lord and God, after he saw and understood the power of His resurrection. Also, the Lord had a discussion with Peter, sending him to take care and shepherd the Church out of love for Him.

One by one, the disciples were helped to overcome their sadness and fear. The Lord Jesus showed them love and encouraged them to testify about forgiveness in Him, first in Jerusalem, then to the ends of the earth. They were ready to lay down their lives for Him.

Evangelism

Around the Easter holidays, we visited families and we talked with them about two things: the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, which were for our redemption from sin and to give us free access to the Father in Heaven, and about what we must do to have part of this salvation, that is to come with faith and repentance before God.

In the street evangelism, I met people receptive to the Gospel. We discussed how we can get to the heaven that the Lord Jesus promised he would go to prepare for us to be with him. On the street, I talked to Marian, aged 50, who had many questions about God. He asked if praying to the saints who have died is valid and accepted by God. After I explained to him that the Bible says that the Lord Jesus is the only Name in which we must pray and that there is no other name given to people by which they can be saved, and that He is the only Mediator between us and God, Marian said that and he rather believes what the Bible says. I gave him a New Testament and encouraged him to read to discover more answers.

Prayer

We bring in prayer all those who heard the good news of the Gospel: those we visited at home and those we met on the street. May the Lord also strengthen us to proclaim the Word with boldness and power.

Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. – Psalm 9:10

Apprenticeship

Through the Bible study from Acts, which I did with the Church in Stoenești, we saw the beginnings of the Church full of faith under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, thus fulfilling the promise of the Lord Jesus that he would be with His Church until the end and this encouraged and comforted both those of the first century as well as we who are now in the Church of Christ.

Evangelism

Together with my wife, we visit families in Berindei with the purpose of befriending and serving them in their specific needs and thus showing them God’s love. We visited a family with three children, whose children attend our meetings and while discussing different topics we ended up talking about the Bible and the lady had a misunderstanding regarding the Bible translated by the priest Cornilescu, if it is a good translation by which to receive the Word. The lady said that she does not agree with the opinion of the other priests, that this translation is not valid and starting from this discussion I told how the priest Dumitru Cornilescu, while translating the Bible, was enlightened by God in terms of repentance, and is an example worthy of followed.

Children Ministry

There are more and more children at our weekly children meetings. We enjoyed the opportunity to tell the children the message of the gospel in different ways. With the coming of the holidays, children are more and more eager to spend time together through different activities. Together we played volleyball even though they didn’t know how to play, they were open and happy to learn. We praised the Lord together through songs and Bible lessons.

We pray for the families who heard the Word to be able to come with faith and repentance to the Lord.

We pray that the Lord will work on the hearts of the children and the seed planted in their hearts will sprout and thus the Lord will be glorified.

We continue to pray for the events of this year that God will prepare hearts to listen to the Gospel message.

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). – Matthew 1:23

Evangelism

During the holidays we visited families to read together from the Bible, we read about the events that happened around the birth of the Lord, especially in Luke 1 and 2, together we enjoyed what the Bible says, how God prepared the coming of the Lord Jesus by sending John the Baptist to prepare the way, before the coming of the Savior. Then I read about the obedience shown by Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, and about the birth of the Lord that was announced of old, a perfect plan by which God would redeem His people. We rejoice over the people who have heard the gospel and pray for their research.

Children ministry

With God’s help, we had activities with the children of Berindei, with approximately 20 children between 7-10 years old present, where we discovered together God’s great plan to save the world from sin. To go through the entire narrative about God’s creation, fall and redemption, we had 4 meetings with biblical lessons and songs. We talked about God’s perfect creation, after that through man’s disobedience sin entered the world and the perfect relationship it had -a man’s relationship with God was interrupted by sin. God intervened with the solution to redeem us and prepared a way to restore man’s relationship with God. In His perfect plan, God has each of us in mind and chose as His only Son, not only to leave heaven but to give His life as a ransom for each of us. He did this because He loves us!

Social work

With God’s help this month I visited 10 families to give them food and Word for the soul. We were amazed to see that God full of love and mercy is still looking for people to turn their eyes to Him. In two families I saw how God personally searches for men, Săndel took the Bible to his workplace and reads from it, Nicu had a dream through which God calls him to Him.

Prayer Requests:

• We pray that every child gets to know God more at the weekly meetings and through them we reach the hearts of the parents.
• We rejoice in the people who have heard the Gospel and we pray that the Lord will reveal Himself to them in a personal way.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 6:23

By the grace of God, I preached the gospel to a man who had a heart attack. I had a few discussions with him on biblical subjects, about faith, about the salvation that is God’s gift through the Lord Jesus, which God offers to all who believe. After a few discussions with him, he said that he wanted to change his life and confessed to us what had happened to him lately, how on the night, he had the pre-infarction, he could not control his left hand and had hallucinations, which at the time were a great shock to him. He wanted to hurt himself, but he began to pray to God and confessed that he immediately calmed down and told a friend to call the emergency room. He confessed that he believed that only God helped him to realize in time that he was hurting himself. I encouraged him to draw close to the Lord by praying and reading the Bible. We pray for people who have heard the gospel, to be enlightened by the Spirit of God, to believe, and to repent.

With God’s help, together with a team of young people who came with “Cinema on Wheels” we had the joy of having an event for children (9 and 14 years). We were pleasantly surprised to see the enthusiasm. We were glad to see all the children memorizing verses from Bible.

The children heard how God, in the days of Noah, told them to make a ship with which to save their family, and we now have the opportunity to know the Lord Jesus whom God sent to save us and whoever believes in Him it will not perish, but will have eternal life.

We continued to have weekly meetings with the children, where we combined various activities with the explanation of the Bible for the children’s understanding, through which we want to make Jesus known.

We continue to pray for them not to be prevented from coming to the meetings by which we would like to know the Lord Jesus and His love.

Thank you for your support and prayers, we want the Lord to bless you and reward you!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. – Luke 2:10-11

We are grateful to God for his help during this time. Again, God has shown his kindness and we were able to organize events for children in our villages. We were glad to see that many children who were accompanied by their mothers, fathers, and grandparents responded to the invitation to hear the story of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. The question that was asked to the listeners was this: “If we were to think of a picture of the holiday, would it be worthwhile if it were just a frame and had no image inside?” Then the children answered that they would have no value, but to understand what is being referred to, they were also asked: What characters or things from the Story of the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ, would be inside and what characters or things would be on the frame the holiday picture? We were glad to see that they were very attentive and understood that the lights with which we decorate, the food we prepare or the gifts we receive are just things that are part of the frame of the picture but in the center or in inside it must be our Savior Jesus Christ, the joy of the feast is He.

We pray for all who participated in these events to make the decision to have Christ as the reason for their joy and life!

Following the example of Jesus, we serve the community by fulfilling material needs.

We visited a family with four children with the fifth to be born, this family is opened to recieve the God’s Word, although they have a hard time, they never complain and they are very grateful for God’s help so far. From previous visits we saw their needs and we prayed that we could find a refrigerator for them. Next days a sister called my wife Roxana, she asked if we needed or knew anyone who needed a refrigerator. Roxana talked about this family and in this way we managed to help them.

We thanked the Lord for His care for this family. With God’s help, we brought them some clothes and a crib for the baby she was expecting.

We pray for this family that the Lord will make them understand the call to the light of the gospel.

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. – Psalm 126:5-6 KJV

We have been blessed to serve with evangelistic and social projects. We continue with New Testament project coverage, but at the same time we had conversation with people about the Lord Jesus. A lady to whom I wanted to offer a New Testament refused to take it, saying that no one reads the Bible today, but contrary to what she said, those with whom she spoke gladly received the New Testament, and said that they will read, then the lady being ashamed, returned and left. We pray for those we have met, to receive the Word in their hearts.

Among the social activities we had this month, I helped an elderly family with health problems (he is blind and his wife is paralyzed and can not walk) I went to their house and i made a lot of house maintenance works.

We pray for those who benefit from evangelistic and social projects that the Lord will give them the desire to begin a  relationship with Him.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12 KJV

We thank God for this time of evangelism!

In the project “A New Testament for every home”, we went on the streets and we had the joy of finding people who gladly received the New Testament offered, people who listened with interest the Word of God. Among them is a 20-year-old woman to whom I offered a New Testament, she said she has the desire to come closer to God and that she wants to repent. I asked her why she wants to take this step and she replied that she had repeated dreams, in which she was present in a circle of people, in the context of the church, and in other dreams she expressed her desire to receive baptism. Through these dreams she understood that the Lord was calling her to repentance. We continue to support her in prayer, to know the Lord Jesus in a personal way.

We also pray for those who have received the New Testament to be changed by God’s Word that can transform their lives.

Prayer requests:

• May God remove all the obstacles that are in the way of sharing the gospel.
• For those who benefit from our projects, to find the hope and truth of the gospel.

“I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” – Psalms 34:1 KJV

We praise God for the way He showed His goodness in our lives in March! This month, together with my wife, we visited some families to offer flowers to the ladies. The Lord has prepared new opportunities for us to visit people and preach the gospel.

On the occasion of March 8, we had the opportunity to visit several ladies we had never visited before, thank God for the impact this action had, we pray that the women and families who heard the gospel on this occasion will be impacted by the Word that was preached to them.

We were praying to the Bobirica family who have two children, , Ramona, Sandel’s wife, is recovering from a difficult liver surgery. Together with my wife Roxana, we wanted to be with them, we were glad that they were encouraged and confessed that they have the desire to get closer to God, Ramona even started reading the Bible that I gave her shortly before. We continue to pray for them that the Lord will be with them, support them and give them eternal life.

“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” – Psalms 32:8 KJV

We thank God for the love, grace, guidance, and blessings received from His hand in February.

By the grace of God together with the group at Pestra we studied 10 chapters from the book of Romans, although it is a book with much teaching we were glad to discover that Christ is enough for the believer.

Together with my wife, we visited Mrs. Nuți and we had a beautiful discussion with her family on the subject of faith, gave them a Bible and urged them to study it to discover God.

In the street evangelisms I met people who were open to hearing the good news of salvation, and among these people was Sorin, who, after several discussions, confessed that his life “is far from pleasing to God, even if He shows His goodness every day” Sorin confessed, after we prayed with him.

We continue to bring him before God so that the gospel may touch his heart.