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Repentance & Restoration

2 Timothy 2:1-2 “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

1. 2014 Annual Review

We started 2014 with two sheep attending worship service and doing Bible study: Andreea (Univ of Bucharest, Political Sciences graduate) and Doru (Politechnics University, Transportation, Master 1). We concentrated our prayers on Doru and Andreea in order to be raised as good disciples of Jesus and as good Bible teachers as we got the direction from the annual key verse for our chapter. Through Genesis Bible Study we relearned the faith of our ancestors and the God of promise.

We don’t have much capability so we got through this year by keeping the basics: prayer, Bible study, SWS and Romanian Daily Bread. It was the first time when we could have every month DB in Romanian by the serving of Shp Monica, and also with the periodical contribution of Andreea and Doru. We encouraged each other in keeping daily bread by sharing one word through SMS.

1) Repentance and restoration

Doru, who deeply repented in 2013 at the Intl SBC, continued his spiritual growth by doing Bible study and sometimes by serving SWS with message preparation. He strongly decided to put an end to the sexual sins in his life and he faithfully kept his decision trusting in God’s forgiveness and blessing. His mother’s cancer made him also learn prayer. In the summer he decided to leave for the USA to work through a program for students. Though we didn’t feel this as being the best for him, we respected his decision and kept praying. During his stay there he struggled to keep God’s word and to attend worship service. He even visited LA UBF at the end of his stay there. However, he realized through this experience that he is still very young spiritually and still has a lot to learn about God’s spiritual world. Until now, he wasn’t very bold about confessing his faith or the gospel to others, but he started to change. Not even his mother knew about his faith. However, God opened the way. He experienced God’s answer to prayers and he started to talk to his mother about the Bible.

But God used Doru’s leaving as a blessing for Andreea. While she remained alone, she started to learn how to grow as an independent woman of God. At the end of 2013 Andreea stayed at our house for intensive Genesis Bible study and this study left a deep impression on her. However, she had to struggle a lot with her sin problem, with the constant temptation from the world around her. Though she started to really open her heart to God’s word, she also had many doubts that this was truly the life for her. Thirst for human love increased these doubts. Consequently, she had many ups and downs until the summer of 2014. After Doru’s leaving, she started to meditate upon her life. She attended ESBC in Germany and God didn’t fail in working. Through this conference she finally had her moment of deep repentance and renewal. She acknowledged how foolish it was to put her hopes in human love, and how great is the peace that only Jesus gives. She also experienced concretely God’s power and answer to prayers. She graduated college successfully, she was admitted to two masters and she also got a good job in a multinational company. Now we pray for God to raise them and to open the way for them to form in God’s time a beautiful house-church which can be used in preaching the gospel for Romanian students.

One of our continuous prayer topics in 2014 was for God to bring two new students by the end of 2014. And God worked. One of Shp Monica’s Korean language students, Catalina, wanted to attend our SWS and Doru also invited one of his friends, Mihai. They both came to our Christmas worship service and we pray for their invitation to Bible study. 

Special Thanksgiving topic

1. The repentance and growth of Andreea.
2. Romanian Daily Bread throughout the whole year. May God bless these 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed Romanian students’ souls for His glory.

2. 2015 Key verse

Mathew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Prayer topics for 2014:

1. Work of the Holy Spirit through Bible Study (Exodus) & Msn. John Jung’s powerful SWS message
2. May God raise up Doru N. and Andreea G. as ancestors of faith for Politehnica University & Bucharest University
3. May God heal cancer in Doru’s mother to show His Glory to his family
4. To invite students from Univ. of Agricultural Sciences & ASE to Bible study and for Catalina and Mihai to accept invitation to Bible study.