March 11 - Orphanage and Village Ministry

Today was another great day of ministry and God's blessings! One of these blessings came in the form of luggage. I neglected to mention in my last post that Liz Trupia lost her luggage and did not have it as of last night. Thankfully, the Lord worked it out and she received her luggage this morning!

In the morning, we got the opportunity to tour a Christian orphanage called "Caminul Felix Village." This place is really doing a lot for the kids who have been abandoned in Romania and abroad. They have several house parents who take in about 12 kids at a time. They raise these kids as their own and seek to show the love of Christ to them. They make it clear that they are not an institution, but a family! The orphanage also has a farm connected with it containing cows, goats, and chickens.

Pastor Cosmin Marc, who is the missions pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church, has been a special blessing to us. He is in charge of our team while we are here in Oradea, and has planned the details of our itinerary. He has been a great encouragement to all of us!

After eating Hungarian Goulash lunch (which was really good!), Cosmin took us to a village called "Les" (pronounced "Lesh"). It was at this time that we were able to got house to house and share the gospel through a translator. The translators are from the highschool at Emmnauel and speak very good English. They have been wonderful to work with and have already become friends with the team. We all had opportunities to share the truth of the Gospel and sow the seed of the Word of God in the hearts of those in the village. As we visited in each home, we handed them a bag of much-needed medicine for them, a gift for the wife of the home, and a New Testament in their language.

By the late afternoon, we held a short VBS time with the children of the village. We sang a few songs and Randi-Lyndsey told the Bible story of Jesus calming the storm. We also explained and handed out Gospel bracelets that have the wordless book colors. After this, we made balloon animals for the children and handed out New Testaments in their language.

For the evening, we were a part of an evangelistic service to the community of Les. The church service lasted for 2 hours and the church was packed out! We all got to sing to the people and Jesse and Morgan gave their personal salvation testimonies. The governor and mayor of Romania even showed up to this event and wanted to welcome us and thank us for coming. Brian and I both preached and it was amazing to see how tender the people were and how the Holy Spirit was moving.

We then left for the hotel and had pizza and ice cream at the church. Like all of the food we have had so far, it was awesome! Their hospitality has been out of this world. Well, time to sign off for now. All of the teens and leaders are doing well want to let their families know that they love them very much and are excited about what God has been doing in Romania this week. Tomorrow we will be touring the Emmaneul university, playing a soccer match with the highschool team, and ministering in Emmanuel'sThursday night church service.

I am currently loading the pictures to the internet, so check back tomorrow!


Your fellow servant,

Pastor Stephen