Reaching College Students

There are currently over 300,000 college students in Bucureşti. The percentage of evangelical Christians? Probably only around 1 percent. This past Saturday I participated in a seminar with some youth from my church in learning ways in which we can reach out to the college students in our city. As a church, we will be working specifically with the law school. On Saturday, I already had some good conversations with several young men at the dorms. We swapped telephone numbers. Hopefully some of them will be interested in joining our youth at volleyball, a film, or better yet, at church. First and foremost, we want to be establishing relationships with these students and a level of trust. Many have heard the Gospel, but have yet to understand they they too can have a relationship with Christ. Please pray for us as we work more closely with the law students in our city.

Profides - De jos Te strig

This is Cat's band profides playing one of my favorite songs. The title of the song is "from below I cry out to you"

Refrain: from below I cry out to you, knowing that I am nothing. But through faith, I want to touch the heavens.

Psalm 139 is also recited in Romanian. Enjoy!

And the Angels sang!

They say that the angels sing in heaven when one soul returns to the Lord. Today there was great rejoicing and singing in the heavens, as two girls form our church small group, Teodora (2nd photo) and Simona (bottom photo) professed their faith in Christ publicly through the waters of baptism. In total we had 10 people get baptized today at our church. It was a great encouragement for all of us to hear their testimonies and to witness the ways in which God has worked in their lives. There was even a woman in her 90s who finally dedicated her life to the Lord. Yes, indeed, there was great rejoicing!

Cu tine

This is one of my favorite Romanian Christian groups, "CristoCentric" that performed at my church in Bucharest recently. The title of this song is "With You"

Translation:
Who could ever seperate me from you Father
There is no one
Not heights, nor depths, nor death, nor mastery can wrestle me from your hand
Through blue, velvety clouds you smile at me
Every step I make, you uphold me

Ref:
With you, I only look ahead
Though any wave may come, I know that you are here
When my whole being is weak and I can no longer hope
With your hand of a Father, you comfort my heart

Lord you remain eternally, my love

Casa Agar

Several of us in our youth group have been volunteering at a home for mothers in Bucureşti wih newborns. These are young girls who, for various reasons, may have been abandoned by their family, are unable to hold a job because they have to take care of their babies, etc. The center, called "Casa Agar" provides shelter for these young women and their babies, as well as counseling, spirtual formation, and vocational training. They are also actively involved in hospital outreach to abandoned and unwanted children. Each week, various youth from our church go and visit the hospitals, spend time with the children, lead Bible studies with the mothers, cook meals for the center, and help with special projects around the center. I usually cook dinner for the mothers and participate in Bible discussions with them.

Bucureşti Pastor's Meeting

About once a month, pastors in Bucureşti get together to pray, strategize, fellowship and encourage one another. Sometimes it seems that Christians are some of the worst collaborators. There are times we have a good turnout, and other times where you can count the number of pastors who show up on one finger. As in any city, we have pastors who are passionate about collaborating together as Christians to do Kingdom work and who have a heart that aches for the lost, and then we have pastors who want to do their own thing. My colleagues and I are often responsible for motivating this group, distributing announcements, communication issues, etc.

Please pray for unity among pastor's in our city: that they would be united in working together to reach the lost, that their churches would have welcoming arms and open doors. And please pray for the joint projects coming up, including the Global Day of Prayer, Bucureşti Days, and several leadership training seminars.

Seara de Tineret!

At our youth meeting on Saturday, we celebrated the 8th of March, which is also women's day in Romania, by giving all the girls flowers. We had a good turnout and were challenged to look at the necessity to confess our sins to God, for HE is gracious and just. Being that it was also women's day, our pastor didn't spare any opportunities to give all the guys a hard-time to get married :)

One of my favorite parts of our youth meetings is listening to people share testimonies. On Saturday we got to hear a girl at our church share about some of her struggles with her family when she came to accept Christ. It was the encouragement of friends that really helped her to give her life to Jesus. Talking to some of the youth after the meeting, it was obvious that her testimony had a major impact in challenging even some non-Christians who came to our youth group for the first time.

Please pray for us as we work with the youth of our church, to grow in knowledge and understanding, and to ultimately grow in repentance and love each and every day.

Jessy Dixon Concert

On Friday, youth from several evangelical churches in Bucharest joined together to form a choir to sing with Jessy Dixon, a multi-grammy award winning Gospel singer who recorded with the likes of David Phelps, and the Gaither Vocal Band. It was a 'rockin' concert, and truly a one-of -a-kind experience in Romania. It is not everyday that a Romanian Church hosts a black gospel concert. Some of Jessy Dixon's pieses include "Moses Take your Shoes Off," and "Destined to Win." It was a great time!

Marţisor

Mărţişor is the traditional celebration of the beginning of spring in Romania on the first of March. The day's name is the diminutive of March (in Romanian Martie), and thus means something like "little" or "dear March". Nowadays, men offer women a talisman object also called Mărţişor, consisting of a jewel or a small decoration like a flower, an animal or a heart, tied to a red and white string. However, giving a little nickel tied to a red and white string is an old custom and was originally designated for both men and women. It was believed that the one who wears the red and white string will be powerful and healthy for the year to come. The decoration is a symbol of the coming spring. A woman wears it pinned to her blouse on this day and up to two weeks after. Occasionally, women also give such gifts to men. In some parts of Romania such as Moldova or Bukovina, the symbol of spring was a gold or silver medal which was worn around the neck. After wearing the coin for twelve days, they bought sweet cheese with the medal, because it was believed that their faces would remain beautiful and white the entire year.