Sorin Prodan reports of a recent two day evangelistic endeavor in Brasov when HeartCry missionaries from across Romania participated in the event:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Receive warm greetings from our family, and our Church in the City of Brasov, Romania! We hope our news will encourage you to keep praying and supporting the cause of the Gospel on the continent of Europe.
Our highlight of the month was the evangelistic outreach in the city of Brasov. Our HeartCry fellow workers from Romania joined us for a two day outreach in Brasov City. In spite of a bad weather forecast, the weather was good, and allowed us to be out for the whole assigned time for evangelism. We spread out with small teams in more districts, and spoke to at least a hundred people. These monthly outreaches prove to be a great encouragement for missionaries and churches, but the implications are so much more than can be noticed at each meeting. Each day I teamed up with a different HeartCry servant. Before I celebrated the joy of proclaiming the Gospel to more people, I was blessed to see how much each missionary grew over the years in articulating the Gospel with boldness, and accuracy. Going out together every week each month for evangelism led us to grow in wisdom, zeal, and boldness in the public preaching of the Gospel. I shared the Good news with men, women, and young people. I was impressed with some situations in which we ended in deep conversations and honest thankfulness from those who were quite reserved to engange in a conversation with us.
Diana, for instance, was listening to music on her head-phones on a bench when we handed her a tract. She took off the head-phones and was willing to know what we wanted to tell her. She was quite educated, but with obvious secular influences. Our conversation went deep into some key areas of life such as faith, truth, death, and eternity. We kept the conversation around the greath truths of the Gospel, and Diana was obviously touched. The Spirit of God was at work, confronting her confusion and the secular mindset she grew up in.
Later, we met another young lady, Alexandra, who had just graduated, and was preparing to leave the city of Brasov to attend university in a different city. She responded with an amazing interest to the Gospel message. She had some knowledge, but it was the traditional type of knowleghe that comes from the Christian culture of the time. She was very attentive when we explained each key truth of the Gospel. We had an excellent conversation, but missed taking her contact info as she had to leave in a hurry. We hope to meet her again. Hopefully, the truth she heard will one day bring her to some other good evangelicals that will lead her way to Christ.
I also shared with an older lady that was struggling with being lonely. All her children left the country to live in Germany, England, and Spain. This is typical for so many people these days. More and more Romanians are leaving the country for a better life in Western Europe. Left behind are young chidren who remain with their grandparents, or one parent, without any support. A new business that is beginning to flourish now is private nursing homes. Families that leave the country prefer to put their old parents in these nursing homes as they can’t care for them. This has such a bad effect on so many older people who so easily get depressed. A worse effect is on the young children that grow up without their parents. Counless cases of suicide are the direct result of missing parents who went to make more money to the expense of neglecting their own chidren. This problem came to be endemic for the whole country. This is where the Church can play a key role in providing hope for old people and young children. We want to be there to demonstrate as a Church the role of a loving family where they can experience the transforming power of the Gospel in their lonely lives. Pray that our church will engage more in meeting this critical need in the lives of these children and elderly people.
I was blessed to attend a father-and-son camp near our city. It was the first time I went to this camp. I took my oldest son, David. It was truly a blessing to be able to team up with him in things we did in the camp. We won the big competition that had more competition. This meant a lot to David who is very competitive. I had to work hard for that, even at the expense of getting sick on my stomach. I think David got his competitive spirit from me. I thank the Lord that our family relationship has improved in the last few months since we closed the construction process.
Pray for the last approvals we need for the new facility in Brasov that is designated for the ministry of Providence Church and HeartCry Missionary Society in Eastern Europe. We passed the inspection from City Hall, but now are going through the Fire Marshall inspection. We need grace to go through the whole checking process that we might reach the end. Once we have that authorization, we can inaugurate the building. Although we still have to wait, this is a big step in moving our service in the new building on the ground floor. The church is excited, as we do not have to meet anymore at 2 pm on Sundays. It means a lot to us as we can return to a more effective way of celebrating our worship of God on Sundays. Thank you for the prayer support that has had obvious results on the mission field.
We are deeply grateful for your love and support.
From Eastern Europe,
Sorin Prodan
