The highlight of the month was meeting the team that started a work among international students here in Bucharest last fall. We have a lot of international students in Bucharest, mostly from Middle East, Africa and India. I remember talking to a Hindu Indian student on a campus. He was very open to try to understand about the Christian faith, but it was so difficult as he was operating with his pantheistic world-view, and the idea of a Creator completely separated from His creation was totally new and strange for him.
It is a great opportunity to have all these international students here, and we rejoice seeing that the Lord has raised up several young people with a great desire to bring the gospel to these students who might never have the chance to hear the gospel in their own countries. I am especially encouraged as one of the young women I have been discipling for about two years has joined this team and she has been faithfully laboring with the others trying to bring the gospel to the international students here in Bucharest. We prayed together, and while they shared about the struggles of this new ministry, the joys of making friends with people from far unreached places, I was so overjoyed and encouraged seeing that the Lord is still raising young men and women with a deep and burning desire to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth! Please pray the the Lord would prosper this work and bring many to salvation, who will bring the good news in their own countries!
Another highlight was the training course on the gospel we had with our students in the last month. We studied the gospel and warned the students that these days many people are bringing other gospels. It seems that the warning of Galatians 1 is more relevant than ever here in Romania. We asked the students the question Charles Leiter has in his book Justification and Regeneration: which is a greater dilemma, that a loving God would send people to hell or that a holy and just God would justify sinners? They answered that the first is a greater dilemma. I think even several years ago most students would have said that the second is a greater dilemma, and this only shows the rapid shift in the evangelical world of the people’s thinking . We explained why the second is the greatest dilemma. It almost looks like the spirit of the age, that of relativism and tolerance is sweeping all around us. We explained the holiness and justice of God, and how everything He does is holy and just. And that Romans 3 says that the cross displays first and formost the justice of God. And of course His incredible love and grace too. We also explained justification which is another doctrine which is greatly attacked and is not properly taught these days. At the end of the course we asked the students what was new in what they have learned. One girl said she did not know that Christ’s righteousness was imputed to us through faith, and that was totally new for her. I consider it such a great privilege to be able to teach these college students the wonderful truths of the gospel! Please pray that they will take the true gospel and bring it to their own generation!
As the university year is drawing to an end, we had a graduates celebration. It has been a privilege to disciple for two years two girls who are graduating soon! I rejoiced as I listen to them sharing how they grew in their faith in our discipleship group and in our student ministry. It is both humbling and encouraging to see even the smallest fruit in our work for the Lord. May it be a lasting fruit for eternity!
A challenge we face lately is getting approvals for the outreaches we are planing on the campus and in the dorms. For the first time, beginning with the fall, both the university administration, as well as the city mayor, has denied all our outreach permits. Please pray for us to be able to get these permits.
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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