REACH Romania
News (18th April 2005)
Dear friends - Brothers and Sisters,
I wrote the following info material more than a month ago - but an intensive time of traveling and busyness followed - so here I am, sending it later! I had an invitation to Italy - Firenze and Rome - where I talked to some of the leaders of Romanian churches in Italy (one of them a Christ for Romania Suceava graduate), encouraged them and there might be some cooperation in the future. Also took a group of young people from our church to Cluj (325 km. West of Suceava) where we attended "Peniel Youth Conference" - with 5,000 young people from all over the country worshipping God and being encouraged to grow in the Lord! Then another conference/meeting of our Federation of Churches, then on to Bulgaria for a meeting of Eastern European Bible schools directors in connection with Christ for the Nations!
Meanwhile - we hired a construction company and started working on the new building - but more on that soon!
Here is the info I put together - thank the Lord with us for everything and pray with us for what is ahead of us!
Greetings from Suceava!
After a mild winter until the end of January, we have a very cold beginning of March! But we know this is the last "offensive" of the 2004/2005 winter - spring is on the way!!!
Well - 2004 has become history - along with its good and not so good things! But we look back with thankfulness - for the Seed of the Word that we were able to plant in so many lives! And it was all done with the help of you, our friends and colaborers on the white, ready for harvest fields of Romania! That’s why, before starting to talk about 2005, we want to thank the Lord and thank those who were with us during the last year for:
- Counseling classes, with people from our church and other places around (Iasi, Radauti, Botosani, etc.) - Dr. Ruth Bullivant and Dr. Stephen Brooke teachers, and Paul Bullivant teaching bible school classes and preaching/encouraging churches and their leaders
- Dr. Randy Bozarth, Vice president of Christ for the Nations, and his friend, Maurice Sterling - leadership teaching and preaching in Suceava and churches around.
- Our friend Melvin Slotnick and the team from Church of the Highlands, Birmingham, AL - one of the largest Youth teams we had around here, 39 people! - with street ministry, orphanage work, church services, concerts, food distribution to a whole poor village - each family got a package of food - and a special note for the wonderful fellowship with our young people!
- Reach Romania - Swindon, England - poor families, teaching, orphanage help, and especially the medical clinics with Dr. Brooke in the villages where we do evangelism - distributing free medication to the people, and sharing the Gospel at the same time.
- Karen Wheaton Ministries, assisted by our friends Don Stewart and Friends of Romania - a team of 50 people - street ministry, orphanage visits, and special concerts - Karen Wheaton with The Chosen - in Suceava, Iasi and Slobozia -
- two wonderful conferences with Otto & Lena Rimas from Sweden - for social workers and Christian teachers in the public schools - attended by people from all over the country
- Pastor Victor Thompson with his team from Bethesda Church in Dallas, TX - a great help for the Youth Camp we had - about 4 -500 people in attendance from all over the country, good worship, teaching, personal ministry, friendship development
- Resurrection Fellowship Team, Loveland, CO - Wales Team - Christian Life Fellowship Team, Orange, CA - who helped us with the children camps at our place in Voronet -370 teens/children from orphanages, poor families, villages where we do evangelism, illiterate children program, some foundations we work with from different cities (Iasi, Bucharest, Bistrita, Dorohoi, Medgidia -Turkish children, Vatra Dornei).
- Friends of Romania team - our good friends from Alabama, bringing much help and encouragement, as always!
- Pastor Sam Thompson, Christian Life Fellowship, Orange. CA - personal friend and mentor, the initiator of Orphan Aid - a program for children in the orphanages, offering spending money on a monthly basis - also helping university students from children homes to pay their bills.
- David Stahl - North Carolina, who is usually the last guest speaker during the year - teaching in the bible school in Suceava and Iasi.
- Emily Carroll, CA and Jesse Bangs, MN - volunteers for a few months -helping with orphanages, camps and many other things around here - thanks, guys!
- A special event in the development of the Federation of Romanian Christian Autonomous Churches - the first national conference, with representatives of the 40 churches which are members of it (our church is a founding member and we have the "secretary general" position in the national leadership)
Besides all these events and those used by the Lord to make them possible - we want to thank those of you who didn’t come physically, but were with us in prayer and financially/materially - we continually thank the Lord for you all! Please continue to do that - we could not function here without your input! Church life, bible school and institute classes, in Suceava, Iasi, Bistrita (we gave them a break this winter), evangelism, camps, illiterate children program, poor families, children homes, concerts, street activities, etc - continue to be part of the efforts done to extend the Kingdom of God - and you are all part of them!
As I said before, 2004 is history - and we are in the 3rd month of 2005! Looking ahead to this year, it looks like it is going to be different. That’s because Romania has got a new leadership, there are major changes happening in the children homes, the European Union is coming in with new and more difficult requirements - and because we have a building program we started last year - the "Vacation and Training Center" in Voronet.
Because of these things and many others, and being sorry to disappoint some of you (CLF team and Wales team, SORRY!!!) - we will NOT have children camps this summer in Voronet, we’ll only have the Youth Camp in July. We want to focus on the new building, hoping to see it done until the end of this year, so that next year we won’t have to worry about not meeting the requirements of sanitary police and being closed down because of that! Please pray for us - we really need it! I’ll write more soon about it.
Otherwise - we continue with most of our activities, and thank the Lord for His blessings and provision! Last Sunday 4 people were water baptized in our church - and many friends and relatives came to see them. It was a great opportunity for evangelism and we took advantage of it!
OK - that’s enough for now! As you noticed, I didn’t write very much lately - but when I do it, I write a lot! So - if you got so far reading this letter, I want to thank you again for everything you mean for us and for the work of the Lord here, in Suceava - and not only - I’ll write later about some wonderful opportunities the Lord is giving us outside Suceava! Pray with us for His will to be done!
Serving the KING in Suceava and Romania,
Nicu & Suceava Team