Christ has raised up a faithful team of able gospel ministers in Florin Stan and Marian Bicajan in a formidable Orthodox community in the village of Fieni, Romania.  Having served for years now in a context that is anything but receptive to the message of redeeming love, they have continued to sow in faith believing God to give the increase in His time.

Recently, our brothers have witnessed some token of grace that have encouraged them.  Our brother, Florin Stan, relates, “every year, in December, we organize a special evangelistic event before Christmas, because people are more open during this time of the year. Most of them give up prejudices and come to church. We sing carols, but the most important part is the preaching of the Word of God. The church building was full this year when we had this Christmas concert. About 20 non-believers came to church and the Lord searched their hearts. The sermon was based on the Bible passage in Romans 1, which speaks about the wrath of God against the sinners. The good news was that whoever abides in Christ is saved, according to Romans 8:1. Some new families that came to church that night said that they would like to know more about God. Now I want to visit these families and to do my best to lead them to Christ. I was so glad to see that the church members involved themselves in preparing this evangelistic event and that they are getting a missionary spirit, serving in different ways.”

“Another evangelistic event was to go caroling through town with our group of teenagers. We prepared several carols that have a clear message about the Lord’s incarnation. We considered this to be an evangelistic event for two reasons. The first one was the fact the message of the carols we sang was so much different from that of the non-believers who also went caroling. The second reason was the fact that we offered some tracts with the Gospel message, a Christmas card and an invitation to church. The teenagers felt very encouraged by this experience, as it was the first of this kind for all of them. We caroled to a single young lady who is sick and whom we first met when she came to church to the Christmas concert. After we sang, I told the teenagers that the wise men offered their gifts to the Lord and I challenged them to offer their gifts to this young lady. It was so beautiful to see that the teenagers filled her table with things they have received from other people. The young lady was overwhelmed and encouraged at the same time. The next day, I received a text message from this young lady, saying that she had had no hope, but what we did gave her hope again. Since then, she has come to church several times and we are thankful to God for that.”

Likewise, Brother Marian Bicajan, who works primarily in evangelism and with the children, provides this encouraging report, 

“My son’s teacher allowed me to teach her class a Bible lesson about Christmas. When I finished my lesson, the principal of that kindergarten came in and the teacher told her enthusiastically about my lesson. To my surprise, the principal asked me to teach that lesson to all the children in the kindergarten (about 60 children in all). So, the next day I went in every classroom and taught the children about the meaning of The Savior’s incarnation. The teachers asked me to prepare a similar lesson for Easter.”

“Another project in which I could see God’s hand in so clearly was an event we had for the children in Pietrosita, a village close to Fieni. In October, I tried to find out a place where we to invite some children in order to share the Gospel with them. I managed to find a lady that had a small restaurant and let us have these meetings there. In December, her husband even offered to help us find some children. He is a councilman, so he talked to the mayor, who talked to the school principal, who gave us a list with some children and their phone numbers. We called the parents of these children and invited them to this event. About 25 children and their parents responded affirmatively to our invitation. A representative of the town hall participated to our event and after we taught our lesson, he said that these kind of lessons should be taught in school. The school principal and several social workers agreed to this. So, this reaction was a big surprise for us, as two years ago we tried to collaborate with the authorities in this village and they didn’t even want to talk to us, because of the priests who were against us. After this event, we started a weekly program with several children and I believe that the Lord is opening a door for the Gospel in this village.”

“God did a beautiful thing for a poor woman. She has two daughters and one of them is my son’s colleague at the kindergarten. We invited her to a special event for children and we found out that her younger daughter suffered from a hernia and needed to go through surgery. The girl is four years old and walks about 3 miles every day to the kindergarten. The teacher told me that when the girl got to the kindergarten that she was so tired and had to rest in a bed. The mother had no money for the surgery so promised I would try to help her. Then, I started wondering where I would find that money and I was worried, thinking that I made a promise that I can’t keep. I told the pastor about this girl and, the same day, a young man that has recently turned to God, offered to pay for the surgery. The church in Pucioasa also gathered a nice sum and offered it to this family. God showed me that He is the One who provides when we seek to serve Him by helping the poor.”

Please pray for our brothers and their families that Christ will continue to strengthen their hearts in their mission. 

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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