Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Let me start by thanking you for your prayers for us. Many of our victories are due to your prayers, and although we don’t know many of you who pray and support us, we know that many knees are down in worship and prayer requests that we will accomplish well our calling.
August is usually the vacation month. Due to various circumstances and needs, we decided to not take a full vacation this year, as later in December we will travel back to see our family in the United States. So, we were on the barricades with those who were not gone. We are thankful for many things that were accomplished, and we look forward to reap one day the fruit of our witness.
BUILDING PROGRESS
The HeartCry Conference Centre building moved on with finishing the tiles in the courtyard and the electric connections for the air-conditioning. We are getting closer to finishing what is required for the final approvals, and later to finish the fences and gates around the property. The Lord sent us a brother who did some work for two weeks, and that was a huge blessing. We did not have to supervise him at all. He did a great job, and we were thankful that our focus was on ministering to the church and the lost. Pray, as we need to find good workers to finish some things that are to be done before calling the authorities for inspection. We began to use the building for our prayer meetings, and various activities such as office work, committee meetings, etc. Still, we can’t start our Sunday services and conferences, as major public events would possibly raise some risks. We hope that this year we will have the approvals, so that we can start our activities in the new building.
CHURCH MINISTRY
I read two books on the Church from 9 Marks (The 9 Marks of a Heatly Church, and Intentional Church) and that helped me to see some aspects that we need to work on, such as church discipline, membership, worship, etc. Our team meetings began to be more consistent in planning, and accomplishing the goals. My relationship with John, my co-elder, is getting stronger, and we meet more often to pray and plan together. We had to deal with some issues of discipline as a brother spiritually drifted and left the church and the city. Another couple that never approved to join in our membership left when we insisted that it is biblical to be part of a church and be accountable to the elders. We do not see this as a loss, but as a way of strengthening our church body.
We rejoiced over the dedication of two children that were recently born. The Lord has blessed us with a good number of young and strong families, and with more ladies who either young mothers or expecting babies.
One victory that we experienced as a church was the answer to our fasting & prayer month for a young lady that was in critical situation. She is the sister of a lady from our church. The girl went into a deep depression that made her refuse to eat and drink for over a month. She had to stay on IVs all this time. I went to pray for her in the hospital where I read more Bible passages and prayed, although she did not communicate at all with us. Her condition is a combination of spiritual and physical issues. There is a degree of demonic presence that is obvious and seems to have direct consequences in her body function. I thought she did not understood my words, as she was just looking at me without any expression. However, after a few days, I heard that she got up, asked for food, and sent word to us that she remembered the Bible reading and the prayers for her. We praise God for this victory in such a spiritual battle.
EVANGELISM AND DISCIPLESHIP
Our endeavor to reach the lost continued with our bi-weekly outreaches in Brasov. We meet many people as we go out every Tuesday and Friday evenings. Out of all good experiences, I want to share with you the meeting with a man who was devastated from the loss of his wife. Radu’s wife was a famous cadiologist who passed away due to severe cancer. After her death, he lost all hope and he was just living from day to day without any direction. Along with another brother, I shared how the Gospel can change his life, his eternal destiny and give him meaning in life, in spite of his great loss. He became interested and open to the great story of salvation, having good questions on life and death. He gave up going to his meeting, and thanked us that we approched him, promissing that he will come and attend the church.
August was the month of our HeartCry outreach in Brasov. We had close to fifteen men from HeartCry and our church for the two days outreach in our city. We approached four areas in the city, and hundreds of people came to hear the Gospel. Beyond our outreach, we had a very blessed time together, as we talked over more aspects of ministry. We ended this time with an evangelistic meeting in our new church building.
We have now a number of people that were moved to a next step of discipleship through our relationship with them. Mircea opened his heart, and one of our team members meets with him regularly for a Bible study. Another man, who is close to our new building, is meeting John, my co-elder, for various discussions. I began to meet occasionaly with a Physics and Chemestry professor who is close to the Kingdom.
Pray as we press on in our efforts to reach the city of Brasov with the Gospel, and also for our HeartCry ministry in the whole area of Eastern Europe.
Much love to all of you,
Sorin Prodan
