Carolling with gifts in hand

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”   – Matthew 1:21     

First of all, we want to encourage you with this verse that you saw above. Due to the fact that Jesus came into such a sinful world, giving us a chance at eternal life, we desire to tell the world about what He has done while we live on this earth. To us, the word “world” refers to the youth in Craiova and their families.  

Being that the majority of the youth that come to our English and church programs come from Orthodox families, they have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel until this fall. Some of the youth that come to English even want to attend church, but their parents do not allow them to do so. In general, in this area of Southern Romania, people are very cold to the Church. Many of them say that they were born Orthodox and that they will never leave this “religion,” because of this, they will not allow their children to go to an evangelical church or to hear about a personal relationship with Christ.

This is the story of a boy named Florin. This boy, at the age of 7 months was abandoned in the hospital by his birth parents, because of some health problems with his lungs. For 11 years, he lived in 3 different group homes. At the age of 12 (2 years ago), he was legally adopted by his godmother and her husband. During the time that he was at the group homes, he attended a private Christian school in Craiova and still goes to school there. At school, he learns about the love of God and even tells his parents that having a relationship with Christ, does not mean that you have to be a part of a certain religion or denomination. This boy also told us that one day, he wants to become a missionary, because he wants to talk about the goodness of God with those who do not know Him, also known as those who are lost.      

We are so thankful that the Lord allowed us to buy gifts for every youth that comes to our programs. Together with a brother and a group of Christian youth from Sibiu (Northern Romania), we were able to visit every youth’s family, sing Christian carols and share the Gospel with the families. Florin’s parents were very open and desire to talk more about the love of God and other spiritual things with us. This brother will come back to Craiova in January and wants us to visit each family that responded positively to the evangelism.

We know that 2020 was a year full of many surprises, but we can also see how God was near to us and to those who love Him. We hope and pray that your holidays will be full of happiness near to your loved ones, but all the more close to Jesus!