A Time of Opportunities

By Elian Chiciudian, Pastor of the Bahnea Baptist Church, Romania

In Romania, during communist restriction, people felt a spiritual hunger and a desire to be closer to God, but they lacked the courage to fight against the oppressive system. After the revolution in 1989, Romania found freedom unknown before, a freedom that made possible the development of missions, evangelism, and church planting.

Just as God breathed onto the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37:1-6, the spirit of God started to move in Romania. At the same time, God laid on the hearts of people in ABWE the desire to help His work in Romania. They had the vision for developing a church-planting ministry in Transylvania, especially in the Mures region.

Through the partnership of ABWE (especially Dr. Michael Loftis), missionaries such as the Vidal family, Doug and Sharon Martin, and Scotte and Beth Anne Staab helped develop ministries with our Romanian team. They not only learned the language, but also learned to love and respect the Romanians. Their sacrifice for us is so big that we can't even describe it.

The Staabs currently serve in Targu Mures. God has blessed them with a special gift in music, a gift they use not only at 2nd Baptist Church of Targu Mures, but also in my church in the village of Bahnea. I work with four churches and am starting two more. In these churches, the Staabs and I train people to lead worship in church services. Weekly training sessions have expanded to women's ministries, small group ministries, fellowship with teenage girls, prayer groups, VBS, among others.

The greatest blessing for pastors in Romania is our partnership with ABWE in church planting. When the church in Bahnea started to evangelize in the surrounding villages, ABWE missionaries helped us with their experience, connections, and presence. The group of saved people in Bahnea today is the result of God's using these missionaries.

We trust God will keep sending His messengers to fulfill our vision: saved people in every Romanian village. We want to use this time of opportunity for God's glory.