Marian Jipa and his family live in a small farming community. He is the pastor of Hope Church in Pitulicea, Buzau, Romania, where he has opportunities to serve many of his poor neighbors. This month, Marian shares a divine encounter that he had with an impoverished widow:
Three persons have turned to the Lord this month and began attending the church on a regular basis. The ministry is going well in Urziceni as I’ve met new people. I’m trying to find a place to rent in order to be able to have regular meetings. The pandemic is still a problem in this respect. We hope that the restrictions would be lifted by the end of the summer. The church gathers together often and more people are attending the prayer meetings. We are making plans for the summer camp as we hope to be able to go camping. We found people dedicated to the children’s ministry who were eager to work with us in this respect. They have a lot of experience in this field.
I started doing street evangelism again and began to pass out Gospel tracks. People enjoy talking about death and the afterlife more and more. I met many people that are lonely, sick or in need.
A special case is that of a 92-year-old widow. She lives by herself and still works hard in her home. Her husband died 40 years ago and she raised her four children by herself, two girls and two boys. The girls got married and they have moved far away from her. The boys have died one after the other. Three years ago, her youngest son hung himself. Her other son was so affected by this that he struggled against depression. He died this year from liver issues. Our church helped this poor woman with food supplies and my wife and I have visited with her to give her a present from our church. We were so surprised by the peace and joy that she welcomed us with. She is extremely poor. While she enjoyed everything that we offered her, it seemed that she wasn’t impressed by our gifts as much as our presence. I understood that the most valuable gift to her is love. This lady has become very dear to my heart. Before we left, I wanted to pray for her. But right before I was going to begin, she burst into thanksgiving to God. This left me speechless. So I could say nothing more. I was standing in front of a person who was praising God with such a sincere heart that I was afraid to say anything else. I promised her I would visit her again the following week.
