God is really working in Craiova, and the church plant here is growing. We started the church planting ministry together with a team in 2020, a group of missionaries with no background in the city and without relationships with the people in the city. Craiova is a city with 234,000 people and only 0.3% born-again believers. Our focus as a church plant is on people who don’t know God.

About 15 years ago, my church in Draganesti-Olt and I discovered that a “witches’ conference” was being held in the city of Craiova, where about 300 witches gathered to plot a diabolical plan for the region. While we were praying about this situation, the daughter of a church member fainted during the prayer, and a strong spiritual pressure could be felt in the church in Draganesti.

Now, years later, I am part of a team that is planting a church in the same town where the witch conference was held. This region is called the missionary graveyard because many servants of God are no longer able to physically withstand the spiritual pressure. Lately, I have felt this spiritual pressure on my family, myself and also on the people in our church. Many people who visit us and help us in church planting testify that this area has a strong spiritual presence that can be felt as a pressure on your soul. 

The good news is that God is working in the church in Craiova and more and more non-Christians are coming to hear and know God better. The room where we meet has been full every Sunday for the past few weeks, and we have been visited by new people during the week. I suspect that this is why I have been feeling the spiritual pressure more and more, as there is opposition from evil forces. Recently, I have experienced a lot of tension, discouragement, and spiritual pressure. As you know, in addition to my other responsibilities, I am also involved in evangelizing to young people. I was discouraged because some of the new young people who joined our church were persecuted at school when their teacher found out they were associated with an Evangelical church instead of an Orthodox one. They were even threatened with expulsion. These events caused high tensions and I could feel the mental pressure the young people were under. Some of them stopped coming to church because of it. I have wondered many times if all of my efforts and work in this area will matter, and if the church we are starting will ever be stable.

Many times I asked myself, is God really working in this region, is He really using me? Does everything I do brings a benefit to the Kingdom?

Southern Romania, the region where I live, is known as the missionaries’ cemetery. It is an area where spiritual pressure is felt and besides this, the culture of the people in this area is to reject anything new. In the past, in history, Southern Romania was under Ottoman rule. People in this area were constantly under pressure and had to be constantly in alert to any danger. Many times their houses were burned, they were killed and they had no stable place. It is quite difficult to work in such an area and start something new when almost all evangelists avoid it. The work I do is not in vain. I chose to name this update that way because I saw that God is working. Even though sometimes I have shortcomings, I feel honored and thank God that He chose to work through me. 

At the same time, I feel encouraged by all of you who come alongside me! Due to the lack of a Christian culture in this area it was necessary to look for people to come near me from other areas, people who understand the work I am doing here. Last months, together with other workers here, we organized an evangelistic camp for young people. I was impressed to see the desire and curiosity the young people had for God. In that camp I can say that a community of friends was formed and a large part of them continued their relationship with us and the church after the camp. Between 15-20 young people who are thirsty, curious, and excited about life with God. In addition to the fact that they are participants in our programs, I saw in them a desire for involvement, and they got involved in various church projects, I even sang with them on Sundays. I can say that watching them, God communicated to me that what I do is not in vain, but I just have to wait for His Spirit to work at the right moment and time.

Ecclesiastes 1:9;10

One thing that has caught my attention lately has been how history is repetitive. I read the book of Ecclesiastes right at the beginning of the pandemic, and what stood out to me was that he seemed to be bored with life on this earth. For him there was nothing new under the sun, everything is vanity. What is my role on this Earth, if everything repeats itself, does all my hard work and struggle make sense? I have asked myself these questions many times and I have faced them.

About 100 years ago, the Spanish flu hit the planet hard and in 1918-1919 there were between 50-100 million victims. Also during this period 1914-1918, the First World War took place. Here we are after 100 years of a pandemic during a war in Europe with about the same events. Who would have thought a few years ago that a virus would hit an entire planet and cause so much damage or that a war would break out in Europe?

Because of this, I realized that what could I do better with my life than continue to dedicate it to God’s service, to serve Him regardless of the circumstances. Maybe I can’t plan everything the way I want it, but I know that as long as I’m in His plan, He will take care of me.

In the past few months, I have responded to the crisis caused by the war and made myself available as I could. One of the biggest needs of refugees was to get away from the war and go to Western countries far enough that they are safe. We made many trips from Romania to different Western countries by car; full of mothers and children. I saw many gloomy faces, as in faces without any hope, it is very difficult to express in words the feelings I felt. Dozens of desperate people, with different stories and experiences that seem to come out of a movie. A story that stuck in my mind was with a mother and her baby. She told me that while she was trying to escape from Ukraine she was in a bus on a bridge and they were attacked by the Russian army. She told me how they threw bombs on either side of the bridge. She took her little boy and they managed to escape across the bridge. She told me she didn’t know how she got through either, but luckily all the bombs didn’t fall  on the bridge they had to cross.

I am glad that we are still living in times of peace in Romania and as long as it will be like this I will continue to help and make myself available with everything I can do. History will always repeat itself, there will be nothing new on Earth as Ecclesiastes said, so what can I do better than to encourage, to listen to people with a heavy heart, to help them get where they need to be and beyond all of that to pray for them to discover the true refuge in God.

I want to share my most recent activities and about one of the essential things that God has communicated to me lately.

God looks first at my heart and then at my actions and activities. Many of us are focused on our daily desires and forget to turn our eyes to God. I admit that I have fallen into this extreme many times and sometimes it is difficult to stop and take a break when you get into a routine. I want to thank you all for your prayers, for your encouragement and also for your financial support.

Prayer

These past 2 months, we had a team of young people from America with whom we served the community and did ministry almost daily with. We had both activities that focus on those around us but also activities that built us up spiritually and that focus on our inner self. We prayed together almost every morning at 9 o’clock. One thing I can share from this experience is that ministry has a much greater impact when prayer comes first especially when we would go out on the streets and share the Gospel with people. I was amazed to see the Spirit of God working and listening to our prayers.

One thing God has reminded me of lately, has been that I am not alone in the mission that I do. He blessed me with other believers to come with me, hence the title of this update. There are many people who pray for the mission in Craiova, some of them even travel here to do a mission with us. I will not list all the people who came alongside me, but I am very grateful for each of you and that God put you in my life.

The past months have been full of different activities, but the main things that I will mention are: street evangelism, social activities and working with young people.

Street evangelism

The first major activity last month was street evangelism. Together with a team from America and at different times, other teams from Romania, we were able to talk to people about God and pray for them. I was pleasantly surprised to see some people in tears as we prayed for them. It is clear that God was at work in their lives at that very moment, and I am honored to be able to convey this important message to people who don’t know God in a personal way. What we communicated to them was that Christ died for them, they are loved and accepted as they are if they come to Him. After we prayed for them, we offered them the New Testament or a brochure and our contact details. I can say that the daily street evangelism activity has borne fruit and I have seen new people in the church with the desire to know God. 

As many of you already know, I graduated from the Baptist Theological Institute in Bucharest a few weeks ago. 4 years of studies, of training but now that these years have finally ended and now I am a “full time” missionary and part of the planting team of the Hope church in Craiova. Until now I divided my time between ministry and studies, now my time will be entirely dedicated to ministry. And this is why I chose a significant title for this update, because is beginning, a new stage in my life. In this stage I have to develop more in the projects in which I am already involved, a stage in which I have to implement what I have learned and I also wait to see how God will work and reveal to me the path I need to take.

Final exams (personal training)

My time in the past months has been filled with final exams in the study program. Everything went well, and for this I give glory to God because he has been with me all these years and I have seen how he has guided me and helped me to go step by step over everything. I also want to thank in this way all those who have been with me and encouraged me. I am very grateful to all these people, even to the people thousands of miles away. Your help and support meant and means a lot to me, with your help I could see that I am not alone and that God is sending christian people to come alongside me. Not only am I a missionary but all of you who came beside me!

Matthew 4:4 says, “It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The Bible is not a simple book. It is the Word of God. Throughout history and even today, the Bible has helped Christians to draw close to God and unbelievers to come to know Him. So the Word of God is alive and working in the life of every man. As the verse above says, man needs not only physical nourishment but also spiritual.

Because I know the Word of God can change people’s lives and because I believe I am called by God to spread the Gospel in Craiova, a group of believers and I distributed over 500 New Testaments to mailboxes in January. The vision of the local team in Craiova is for every family in this city to receive a New Testament. Along with the New Testament, we want to provide the context in which people can grow and know God better. That is why, with each book distributed, we offer both the information through which people can contact us and access to online Christian resources that we post regularly.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9:6

December brought smiles on the faces and joy in the hearts. Together with some volunteers of the Hope Church Craiova, we offered gifts to the children from the needy neighborhoods of Craiova. I could see the children’s eagerness to receive the gifts, since they saw them they kept their eyes fixed on them, and everything that happened around them didn’t matter so much because they were going to receive something. Then, I realized how important it is to be thankful for what we have and what God has given us. While I was sharing gifts, my emotions overwhelmed me and I realized how much a gift means to them.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. – Acts 20:35 

In the last mounth I experienced the Jesus words, that say that is such a joy to bless others, to see their happines and in this way to show the love of Christ, but also bless yourself through their satisfaction.

Giving to others!

The past month together with the RED team in Craiova, we gave for the people in need: food, masks, gifts, sopus and other things. The reaction of most of the people was positive, also they where impressed to see how the church cares about them. Together with 3 masks or any gift we also put a small bible verse, our church info and the name where they can find us online.

It was nice to see how the people reacted on the online world reacting and sending messages to the church such as „where is this church located?” „I want to know more” or thanking us for what they received.