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HeartCry Missionary Lore Gal works with university students in Bucharest, Romania.  This past month she was involved in a conference on evangelism where she was able to encourage a number of the young people who attended. 

The highlight of the month was the national training conference where 135 students and graduates from eight cities in Romania came to worship God together. The program consisted of Bible expositions, worship, group discussion, interactive evenings, prayer and lots of seminars with different topics.  The theme was evangelism and each day had a focus on the presence, proclamation and persuasion of the Gospel. One night we had a 20 year celebration of the national ministry.  It was a great time to think back on the many people who have been involved over the years and how God has and is continuing to bless the ministry. 

We are extremely grateful to God for the way He spoke; motivating and challenging the students in the area of evangelism.  I was involved in helping lead two seminars during the conference as well as a small group. It was in the small group context where we could listen to the students share what God was teaching them and how they wanted to apply what they were learning. We are so thankful for the way God worked during the conference.  The following are what some students learned during the conference:

“It was a great privilege for me to spend a weekend with so many wonderful people who have the same goal: to pass on the good news of Jesus. I was very encouraged by many people’s beautiful experiences, and now I feel more motivated to live as Jesus wants and share about Jesus with my friends!”

“I really enjoyed the conference as it motivated me to be more involved in my local group and be more involved with my friends!”

“The conference gave me a greater awareness of the need to be better equipped to speak to my friend, and take risks with her no matter how much this takes me outside my comfort zone. Just after the conference she agreed to meet and go through the six studies from Luke in Uncover.

Recently we noticed how students think that being “culturally relevant” is most important in evangelism. If they blend in with the world by their looks or music or films, they are more successful when they share the Gospel. Therefore, in my small group we studied Matthew 5:3-16 and emphasized the fact that the Christian character described as “salt and light” is being poor in spirit, weeping over sin, being merciful, seeking righteousness, being pure in heart, being peacemakers, which is very different from the world. So I challenged them to live Christ-like lives, share the Gospel, develop friendships and pray for their colleagues, and never get discouraged if their message is rejected, because we are called to faithfulness first. The Gospel is always a “stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks” because it presents the problem of sin and judgement, the holiness and justice of God, and Jesus as the only way to salvation by faith. That kind of message is rejected by most people as it is not considered wonderful news. It was a very helpful discussion for my group.

Don is serving as the HeartCry Coordinator for Eastern Europe. As an itinerant evangelist, his pulpit ministry is directed toward preaching on the inner life of the believer and the spiritual need of the lost. With HeartCry, his ministry includes organizing Bible conferences and corresponding with the HeartCry missionaries in Europe. He and his lovely wife Cindy live in Tuscumbia, AL.

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