Today has been another amazing day with God at work to control our trip and make sure that everything comes out according to his plans.
Last night was our last worship service in Bucharest. There were some non-Christians there, and our dramas were really effective in conveying the Gospel message. A lot of deaf in Moldova and Romania whenever they are told about Jesus will use the excuse “Oh, I’m already Orthodox,” but their faith actually means nothing to them, nor do they have any relationship with Jesus. This was the case with someone in attendance, and the message of Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life hopefully hit home.
Today we woke up at 5:00am for our eight hour train ride to Cluj. We will be here through Sunday staying with local families. Noah and Jacob are staying with one of the pastors of the Cluj deaf church, and when we arrived we wondered why they were staying with this specific pastor, when it seemed the other one was more influential in the Christian community and could help us achieve our work. On top of that, the condition of the apartment was pretty shoddy.
However, tonight we saw God’s hand at work. All the team members settled into their sleeping accommodations and then gathered at a deaf woman’s apartment to meet together. While we were both of the pastors of the Deaf Cluj church came to visit.
For a couple of hours the discussion focused mainly on theological issues, but then the discussion of evangelism came up, and the pastors started expressing their frustration. This Saturday during the day, there is going to be a big meeting with deaf leaders from Cluj and nearby cities such as Oradea and Timisoara. We will be discussing how to continue Bible Translation work as well as the future of mission work in Romania. Noah had been planning to start the Romanian Deaf Christian Association at this meeting with all of the leaders. When the discussion of evangelism came up, God led Noah to go ahead and tell the two deaf pastor’s about the vision of the organization. Praise the Lord, because one of them didn’t know about the meeting and actually can’t be there, but would be crucial to setting up the organization.
Both pastors loved the idea. They are so passionate about the organization and the future of evangelism and Christian work in Romania. They said they were so frustrated with organizations who would promise them money to do evangelism and then never follow through with their promises. These organizations would pledge money, but would have no plan on how to provide the money, or what should be done with it. Noah used this opportunity to thoroughly explain to them how the Romanian Deaf Christian Association would work. They loved the idea of a round table made up of representatives from all of the deaf churches, and the associations vision of financial accountability so that charitable contributions can be made to the association with full knowledge of how the money is being spent and by whom. They actually already had ideas of people who could fill some of the non-voting member roles of the organization. Praise God that already on our first day in Cluj when we were supposed to be getting settled in after our long train ride He is already working. That conversation needed to happen tonight because of circumstances preventing one of the pastors from attending Saturday’s meeting. Plus, it will allow support for the idea when it is presented to all of the other leaders.
To add to God’s goodness, it turns out that our original understanding of the Romanian Deaf church as a whole was wrong. The pastor with whom Noah and Jacob are staying is actually in charge of Romanian ministry, and is the leader that everyone else turns to for guidance. Please pray for our conversations with this pastor during the week.
Prayer Requests:
1. That God will continue to work in conversations leading up to Saturday’s meeting, and that the meeting itself will be Spirit-filled and God-led.
2. Pray for rest for the entire team after little sleep last night.
3. Pray for our worship services in Cluj that many can be reached with the Gospel.
Praise God for his goodness tonight!
God Bless,
The Romanian Team-James 5:17-18
