Mission team to Romania

WorldReach will soon be sending a short-term mission team to Romania. Since 1999 we have been sending teams to minister alongside churches and assist Emanuel University and Seminary in the training and discipling of their students.

During this trip we will have the opportunity to not only share the gospel, but team members will be speaking at a mission’s conference sponsored by a Romanian Baptist Association. This is an historic event. Since the Romanian Revolution in December 1989, the Romanian Baptist churches have focused on planting churches in their local area. The commune system, from which the word communist is derived, provided for a large village or small town surrounded by smaller villages. The commune was where the schools and government offices were located, as well as the government owned factories and stores.

Many of these villages had a Baptist church before the communist came to power. While the growth of the churches was stunted during the communist years, it generally was a strong church spiritually. Persecution of Christians was rampant. To withstand it, believers had to be firmly committed to their faith.

In the almost 18 years since the Revolution, the churches have concentrated on evangelizing within their own Jerusalem and Judea by planting new churches in the local villages scattered throughout the countryside.

Pastors are now catching the whole truth in the Great Commission and believing that God is inviting them to join Him in other areas of Romania and throughout the world. They are seeking to lead their congregations into mission fields beyond their own Jerusalem or Judea.

The upcoming mission’s conference is an outgrowth of this movement. This is especially exciting when looked at within the context of Romania’s entrance into the European Union. The Romanian believers now have easy access to other EU nations. They can travel with nothing but their Romanian driver’s license as identification, bypassing the need for a passport and expensive visa’s. The barriers for them to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth are slowly being removed by a Sovereign God who sent His Son so that no one should perish.

You may never travel to Romania to share the gospel, speak at a mission’s conference, or teach at a Seminary, but you can be involved with what God is doing there. The team departs October 28th and will return November 6th. You can reach right into the hearts of those who will be hearing the gospel and receiving the messages from God’s word by praying. Pray for the spiritual preparedness of the team. Pray for their protection. Pray for the Spirit of God to prepare hearts to hear the gospel. Pray for the pastors and church leaders who will be attending the mission’s conference. Pray for God to raise up Great Commission Christians’ who will, by faith, trust God for the resources they need to evangelize, disciple, and plant churches outside their local area. And pray that Jesus will be lifted up in all that is done.