Loving God and loving each other

Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

 We thank the Lord for the way He uses us in mission, sometimes in the most unexpected ways, as we seek to be sensitive to the whispering of the Holy Spirit and to continue to let ourselves be led by Him in everything that we do.

We have entered the new year while being in the village where Rahela was born. Even though they are old now, her parents are still active and enjoy raising animals and gardening. One day, while her mother was taking care of the animals, she fell, dislocated a vertebra in her spine, and was bedridden for more than a month. In this context, we have spent most of the first two weeks of this year there, trying to encourage them and be helpful. While there, we have attented and got involved in the local church and in a smaller church in a nearby village and served during Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday church services and meetings with young families and youth during the other days of the week.

I was very happy to be able to reconnect with people I hadn't seen in many years and to see how, despite the long time that has passed and the different stages of life that we have been through, we can still have fellowship in the Lord and talk about the Scriptures together with a great joy, being bound by the blood of Christ.

If you feel the desire to, please pray for my mother-in-law, she has a little bit more mobility now and can take small walks, but is still in a lot of pain. Likewise, unfortunately, we have seen the same issue that we have in the churches from our ministry over here, there as well. Churches that used to be full of life and love for the Lord and His Word, are becoming more and more empty. Our churches and communities need revival, please pray about this too.

When we have returned home, we had a couple of meetings with the young people from here. We appreciate every opportunity that we have to try and be close to them, to motivate them and encourage them to serve the Lord.

One thing that has been going well and that we praise God for is the opportunities to visit the believers from our churches and their families. We have been trying to plan more of these visits and use the doors that are open to us for a while now and recently, we had the opportunity to visit a sister that gave her life to Christ a couple of years ago and is the only believer in her family. During this visit, I was grateful about the opportunity to talk to her husband, gently approach the subject of salvation and be able to invite him to church. I pray that he will come. We also continue to take care of the sick brothers and sisters in the church, sister Paraschiva is better, but she still isn’t able to come to church, because of her health issues.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers and hearts, God bless you all!

Daniel C. Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

In service for His glory

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

We must humbly and thankfully acknowledge that if we have reached the first month of 2025, it is only due to the grace and mercy that we have received from our heavenly Father! We greet you with joy and wish you all to remain in the abundance of God's protection and blessings in this year as well. We are grateful, to God and to you, for the spiritual and financial support we have from you. May the Lord reward you abundantly!                                                                                                                                

The last time I wrote to you, I have also mentioned the project that we were in the process of organizing for the children, in order to celebrate the birth of our Savior together. By God's grace, we had the joy of having a blessed time together. The meeting took place at the PIEI center in Alba Iulia and we were all happy, both the leaders and the children with how it turned out. We sang together, Teodora spoke about the birth of the Lord, we had a skit, a craft and a few games. We believe it was a time well-spent, in which the children had the opportunity to learn more about God's love for us.                                                                                                 Also, with a group of brothers and sisters from the church, on Christmas Eve, we visited several families from the village, sharing the message of the birth of the Lord through songs and the Gospel with them. I saw the joy of those whom we served in this way. Together with Rahela, Teodora and Filip-Emanuel, I went to visit Sister Sabina as well, the oldest sister from our Church. She is now 95 years old and a living testimony of God's grace. 

 We want to continue to put ourselves in God's service for His glory. We remain focused on the visits we want to make and to support those who are in need. A little while ago, sister Paraschiva was admitted to the hospital with severe pain in one leg. At the medical consultation, it was discovered that a blood clot was blocking the circulation and the sister went through a great danger. By God's grace, sister Paraschiva is better now, she is at home and recovering.                                                                                                       

        Prayer requests:
- For guidance and divine power in the work that we have been called to do;
- For spiritual and physical health;
- In order to bring as much fruit as possible for the glory of the Master;
- For the involvement of more believers in the Lord's work      

 Daniel C. Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Winter is the summer of the soul

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

As we are all preparing to celebrate this wonderful season, rejoice with our loved ones while serving and praising the Lord for His perfect plan of salvation, we want to wish you all the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, joy, victories in prayer, blessings and hope, while knowing that all of those are only possible because our Savior came in the flesh, in the world and sacrificed Himself for us all. By God's grace we want to share with you again some aspects of the work in which the Lord uses us. One of our old Romanian proverbs says that "winter is the summer of the soul". The explanation would be that, because it is very cold outside, people spend more time inside their houses. This is why we have decided to use this time in a wise manner and be intentional about making a few visits in the village. The strategy is to reach out to families where there is one believer, but the rest of their relatives do not come to church. In this way we try to bring the Gospel to people who have not made up their minds to follow the Lord Jesus yet. We spent a good time with them and we wish and pray that God will work in their hearts as well. Two men with whom I had had more profound conversations in this way are called Nelu and Mihai. Let us pray for them!

Also, since it became cold, we have started the house meetings during the week again. On Friday evenings we gather together and sing, pray and read the Scriptures with all those who want to come to these meetings. Another project that we are working on is preparing a meeting with the children that have participated in the VBS this summer and later on in the Thanksgiving meeting. We are praying and hoping that most of them will decide to answer to our invitation in a positive way and join us. The meeting will take place at the PIEI Center in Alba Iulia, with God's help. We hope that this meeting will help them get closer to God.

Prayer requests:

- For the conversion of the two men about whom I have written to you: Nelu and Mihai;

- So that friends and relatives of the believers come to the Friday evening meetings and that we will be able to share the Gospel with them;

- For the planned meeting with the children at the Center: we pray that many of those who will come will also decide to start a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Daniel C Petruț - PIEI Romania Missionary

Thanksgiving

Shalom, beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord!

        With God's help, we want to share with you some of the things that God has done with us and through us during the last month. 

        We were so happy to be able to have a Thanksgiving celebration especially for the children from Mihalţ, the day before we could celebrate it with the whole church. We served pizza together and Teodora surprised us all with the sweets that she had brought back from the States. She didn't carry them for nothing, they were very much worth it! We sang together and prayed that God would help us to always be grateful! The main verse that we've talked about is Proverbs 15:15. We've also had a craft. On a piece of paper, we've painted a tree and each of us received a colored paper leaf on which we've written one reason that we are grateful for and then glued it wherever we wanted on the tree. Most of us wrote about being grateful for our families, for being alive or being healthy. It looked beautiful in the end. 

        On the following day, when we celebrated Thanksgiving with the whole church, we had the joy to see our church overflown with people. There were people from the village that positively answered to our invitation, there were brothers and sisters from several churches and we ended up having four more pastors with us, so it was a beautiful day filled with God's grace. We wish that the people from the village that came were touched by the Gospel through the Holy Spirit and that we will see them in church again soon. 

        We still need prayer for the project that I've written to you about, the project with the families. We have the materials so we can start the study, but we don't have the families yet. We want to start this project and for it to be a blessing for the families that will be involved in it. 

        Let's also continue to pray for the work with the children. We wish to be able to see teenagers arising from among them who will dedicate themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ with all their being. 

        Sister Ema, about whom I wrote to you before, needs our support in prayer. After brother Beni went to the Lord, Ema decided to stay in Romania, even though her relatives insisted that they would return to Austria.
        Thank you so much for your support, we appreciate you in the Lord!
Be blessed!

Daniel C. Petrut PIEI Romania Missionary

Feedback From VBS And Daily Ministry

Our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

We want to use this opportunity to share with you some thoughts about the things that have been happening lately in the mission field where we serve with God’s help.

We are very thankful to the Lord that after spending the last 4 months in the United States at her summer work program, our daughter Teodora, has returned home safely. We are also very thankful for the brothers and sisters that have supported her in prayer, warmly welcomed her into their homes at the end of her program or helped her see the beauty of God’s creation in every little thing and enjoy every place that she’s been to.

With God's help, we kept meeting with the children. In the first meeting, we tried to concentrate on a summary of what they had learned this summer at the VBS about Joseph. In the second meeting, the theme was “Friendship: how we choose our friends and who is our best friend.”

With God’s help, we want to be the first to practice living our lives the way we are teaching others to live theirs and together, to serve the Lord with everything that we do everyday. For the most part of the month we have been visiting brothers and sisters in need and trying to help them out, to bring comfort to those going through trials and tribulations, to be with those that need our support. This month, I had a harder time doing this after receiving some sad news. A faithful and close friend, a brother in Christ named Beni has gone to the Lord. He was only 38 years old and left behind a young widow and 5 children.

We want, with God's help, to start a new project this Autumn and approach the Friday meetings with the families from a different perspective. The theme that we want to address refers to harmony within the family.

Reasons for prayer:
1. For work with children
2. For the meeting with the families
3. For the churches where we serve: Mihalt, Craciunelu de Jos, Bucerdea Granoasa
4. For Ema, Beni's widow and for her 5 children

Children's Ministry

Dear brothers and sisters

I hope you are well. We appreciate you praying for us, we are grateful for the blessing that it is knowing that people like you are praying for us and God’s ministry here in Mihalt.

This time specifically we would like to ask you to pray for a meeting that we are going to have with the children and teenagers that have participated at the last VBS that we had at the center in Alba Iulia, through God’s grace. We are planning to have this little event on Friday, where we can meet with the children again and continue to share the Gospel with them. There are also going to be songs and games. We do not want to lose contact with them, but hopefully become closer to each other and together, closer to God.

Please pray for the children to come with open hearts and for us to have a wonderful time praising the Lord together.

On the other side, Teodora, our daughter is doing well. Besides work, she has found a church close to her that she goes to every Sunday, met with the Pastor there, and a few other families that have been blessings to her. More than half of her time there has passed and we can’t wait to see her again and have her back in Romania, but for the time being, we are grateful to see God at work in her life as well.

If you would like us to pray for anything, please let us know!

Be blessed!

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Heartfelt Thanks

Dear brother Kim and sister Jenny,

We love you and want you to know that we greatly appreciate your spiritual and material support.

I'm glad to be able to tell you a few things about us and how God uses us in His work. With God's help, we had a good time at VBS. Every day we had between 60 and 70 children. We had 15 people as leaders for the children's ministry. With us was brother Cornel, together with a team from Liberty Church, Indiana. We have a 7-minute video, but now we're working on a shorter one. The children were happy, they were very active in the activities. A girl named Sofia told me, "I wish it didn't end this day.

Prayer Requests:

• For the children who have been to VBS. May the Lord continue to work on their hearts;

• All this week we have activities at the center: equipment, mentoring, and counseling. May the Lord help us to be prepared in everything so that through our service we may bring Glory to him! 

• For me and my family: for divine protection, for spiritual and physical health.

In Him,

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Spring of Grace

God tells us that by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, we should always present our requests to God ( Philippians 4:6). We cannot let this Spring go by without remembering the Grace that God showed to us so many times and be thankful for everything that He has done for us, as he always remains faithful to his promises.

Last year in February and March we saw doors that appeared to be closed open for the first time in a long time, along with new ways to serve the people from our community, as the school principal welcomed us to work with the students during the program that in Romania is called: “A different kind of school week” and many people from the village started welcoming our visits. During that week, on Monday, we have been given about 2 hours at the school in Mihalt. We split up into 4 groups, each of us had activities in different classrooms where we sang Christian songs with them, had a craft, a Bible story, and a skit.

I remember that we were so grateful for being able to reach the children at their school and to be able to invite them to the event that took place on Tuesday at the Cultural Palace in Mihalt, even showing them a bit of what was going to happen, making them...I hope more eager and excited to come for more activities. That afternoon, we split up into 3 groups and visited about 10 families in need, mostly widows and orphans. We had a blessed and emotional time and on more than one occasion, we felt encouraged by the people that we were supposed to encourage.

On Wednesday, we were supposed to welcome the children younger than 12 at 2 pm, but they started coming at 1:20 pm and just kept coming. Some of the teenagers helping us said that that was a moment they would remember forever, they kept asking if all the children were even from Mihalt, as it is a small village and they did not even think that there could be so many children there. The whole room was full, the children and some of their parents were pushing each other to enter the doors of a Christian event. We prayed for this and yet, when we saw almost 180 people besides us filling up the Cultural Palace, we were amazed. About 70 other teenagers came in the evening, and we thanked the Lord that everything went extremely well and the children heard the Gospel.

We saw almost the same thing happen again during the Summer VBS when we were once again welcomed to have activities with the students at the school, and then again this Spring. We only had access to them for two days this time, but the important thing is that the children heard the Gospel once again.  With the help of some dear brothers and sisters who are close to my heart, on the 1st day, we managed to work in the kindergarten and elementary school, and on the 2nd day with the children from the the middle school. They all had the opportunity to watch a really beautiful skit that showed the sacrifice of our Savior on the cross, other little skits, games, and Bible stories. They seemed glad and excited to participate in this event and we were grateful to see more than 200 children hear the Gospel. We are also trying to keep up with our visit plan and we pray that God will water the seed that has been planted as we are hopeful to see the children and the people that we visit hopefully grow in their faith in the future.

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Be Ready

Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ, 

I would like to start by telling you again how much we appreciate your involvement in our shared purpose of being faithful workers in the Ministry that God called us to. A lot of years have already passed since we first met each other and started to serve the Lord together and for that I am grateful. God bless you!

As time goes by, I begin to wonder more and more about two things in particular: how fast time passes (and we along with it) and how rapidly things change worldwide. The Ukrainian war is directly threatening Romania. The Israeli-Palestinian war is dividing nations from all around the globe into being either Pro Israel or Pro Palestine, all of those only showing us how close we are to the moment when the Lord will come back for us. Maranatha!

The month of December of 2023 was quite an active month for us. Our major focus was planning an evangelistic event at the Community Center in Mihalţ. To do our part, we have spent a great deal of time giving flyers away, sharing invitations, and putting up posters all over the village, at the bus stops, shops, and public places to make sure everybody was invited and knew about the event. We are thankful to the Lord for the people that came and we are continuing to pray so that they will also receive the gift of salvation. Knowing that people are more open to receiving visitors and hearing about the Gospel during this time of celebration, we have also tried to visit them, encourage them with our presence, and tell them about the Good News.

The time of celebration and the winter holidays have quickly passed and here we are already, in the middle of January of 2024. The beginning of the year represented a hard time for me and my family as we have all caught some bad cases of colds, for me, it lasted for more than a month, but we are all feeling better now, by the grace of the Lord.

January is also the month when, along with the whole church, we will have an evaluation to make, about where we are based on what the Scripture says. I’m praying that God will give us spiritual wisdom so that we will be able to make an honest, correct, and biblical evaluation of who we are in the Light of the Scripture and where we are headed if we continue to go on this path. May this walk be one where our eyes will be fixed on Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of our faith.

On the very first day of this new year, our sister, Maria Dusa has been called home by our God. She lived to be 94, a model and example of God’s faithfulness to us all.

Prayer requests:

• For a clear guidance from the Holy Spirit;

• For being able to do all things with all of our hearts, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, full of passion and zeal for the House of the Lord;

• For spiritual and physical health;

• To be ready to meet the Lord on the clouds

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Desire To Grow

Our dear brothers in Christ, 

By God’s grace, we want to share with you some of the things that God did with and through us last month on the spiritual battlefield that He brought us. Because it has always been our desire to grow relationships with the kids and teenagers here in Mihalţ, this Autumn, we have started a new Bible study with them. It is called the “Alpha study” and it implies 9 meetings, talking about 7 important subjects such as: “Who is Jesus?”, “Why, how, and to whom should I pray ?”, “Why did Jesus die?”, etc. While at special meetings, for Christmas and Easter for example, or the Summer Bible School, about 60-70 children come, we only had about 10 children coming constantly for these meetings, which has been a little bit of a disappointment and wonder to us, making us try to think and figure out what is something that we can do to improve and maybe make them more interesting, but in the same time keep the essence and the biblical truth in the center of them all. Nevertheless, even when we can sense the clear fight for these souls, we are thankful for the children who do come to every meeting and grateful for the time that we have to grow deeper relationships with the children from our churches and for them to talk and know more about each other.

On November, 19th, we had the Thanksgiving Holiday celebration in our Church from Crăciunelu de Jos. We were glad to see that about a quarter of the people in Church that evening were unbelievers. We had a blessed time together singing about God’s greatness, and His blessings and listening about how even and especially His love for us is calling us towards Him.

We are preparing, with God’s help, an evangelistic event at the Cultural House in Mihalţ. We have obtained legal consent from the local authorities, gave out flyers, and put up posters, but especially we continue to pray for God to move the hearts of the people living in this village and for them to come, listen to the Gospel, and let It change their lives. We would like for the main purpose of this meeting to be the birth of our Savior and what it means for all humanity.

Prayer requests:

• For the evangelistic event from December the 9th. For the presence of The Holy Spirit and for the people’s hearts to be moved.

• For the remaining meetings from the „Alpha Study” 

Be blessed, 

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

God's Plan

Grace and peace! 

With God's help the first month of this new year in His mercy has passed. This month we sought God’s guidance in fasting and praying to understand His specific will for us and in which projects He wants us to be involved.

God has led us to this search for His will. For a week we were in quarantine with Rahela and Filip. This year we are looking for new partners in the work. We thank God for the partners we already have and for their faithfulness over the years. We have known their spiritual and financial support.

The vision that we have received from the Lord remains. To highlight our work it extends over a large geographical area. In the nearby villages of Mihalt, there are no evangelical churches. We believe that God's will is for His Gospel to reach with power into these localities as well.

February 26-27 we are organizing two evangelistic evenings at Ocna Mures. May the Holy Spirit convict many people to repent.

"The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." (Luke 10:2)

Prayer Requests:

• For spiritual and physical health 

• For understanding and fulfilling God’s will 

• For God to sent us new collaborators for the work

• For God’s help in organizing the evangelistic evenings at Ocna Mures. Pray that many will respond to the Gospel.

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

A New Year Preview

By God's grace I've come to the end of 2021. With God's grace we and Teodora, our daughter, together with Ruben from Bucerdea Granoasa went to Sinaia for a biblical discipleship course. 

This course helped them grow in spiritual maturity. We enjoyed this opportunity to better prepare ourselves for working with children and adolescents. Mihalt is not far from Alba Iulia that we attended an evangelistic evening, commemorating the Birth of the Lord. The brothers from Vladimirescu, sang songs, and the biblical message was brought by brother Daniel Cioban from Sibiu. At the end of the meeting I gave each of those present a small gift in which I placed two brochures about salvation through the Lord Jesus.

During the holidays, God opened a door to Ocna Mures through gifts for children given to us by a Christian organization. We enjoyed the way God guides us! By God’s grace, in January and February, we are praying and preparing a few evangelical evenings in the church where we are involved.

Prayer Requests: 

• Thank God for our spiritual and financial support, our brothers from MBC, and how God used us in 2021

• Pray for those who heard the Gospel on the occasion of the Birth of  Jesus Christ

• Pray for an efficient and a clear guidance as we serve Him

Shalom!

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

A Fanfare for God

Beloved brothers in the Lord,

We thank God for every opportunity to preach the Gospel to those who do not know the Lord and are without salvation. In these difficult times we thank to God we can bring encouragement to brothers and sisters of faith. God blessed us with sister Daniela Lacatusu in Bucerdea Granoasa and Mihalt. Daniela ministers for God through her singing. I have seen these churches encouraged by the songs sung to the glory of God.

At Ocna Mures a group of brothers near Oradea sang with musical instruments a fanfare for the glory of God. Their pastor, brother Ilie Șorițău, preached a biblical message. At the concluding call a friend of the church stayed last, and the pastor prayed for her. Glory to God!

With the help of God we are now thinking about the meeting at the Christian Center in Alba Iulia at the at the end of this year. We will be working to collaborate with our partners at MIA, Mission In Action. Prayer is needed so that this work will be done with God's blessing. We can and want to provide the administrative oversight for this meeting. Pray that God will give us wisdom in all things.

Prayer Requests:

• For salvation of those who heard the Word of God in recent evangelistic outreach.

• For an effective collaboration with the missionaries of MIA.

• For new opportunities to preach the Gospel and serve people with humilty and denial of self.

Be blessed in Him!

Daniel C. Petrut - PIEI Romania Missionary

Collaborating with Mission In Action

Beloved brothers in the Lord!

     We were so pleased to meet again at this time with brothers who came from United States. Sister Gabi, Damaris and Emanuel Joldos and I went to Ocna Mures for a meeting with the sisters. It was a blessed work, which the sisters enjoyed. The fellowship in the Word ended with a feast which the brothers prepared with love for this occasion. The meeting with Rodica and Alex Popa was also an occasion of joy for us and especially for me. We thank God for the guidance of the Spirit, through which we can live in holy unity.

Increasingly, the possibility of working with the missionaries of the MIA (Mission in Action) is being conceived. After the summer’s work with the children from Mihalt, the mission director together with Iulian Avramescu  and some of the staff wanted to see the Christian center in Alba Iulia. God has arranged things so that in this exact period of time we met at the center with brother Cornel Stef, Emanuel Joldos and Walter. We hope to be good partners for the MIA missionaries and they for ourselves and together to serve the glory of God by salvation of the lost.

Prayer Requests:

• For an affective and spiritual collaboration with the missionaries of MIA

• For the complete physical recovery of the brothers who went through covid

• For the sisters who were at the meeting of the sisters at Ocna Mures 

In Him, 

Daniel C. Petrut, PIEI-Romania Missionary

Work in the Light

Beloved brethren in the Lord,

We strive, with the help of the Lord, to work while there is still day. Darkness will come when no one can work. May the Lord help us to fully understand and fulfill His will!

With the autumn season we celebrate Romanian Thanksgiving, what we call the "Fruits Festival.” We rejoiced and expressed thanks with the brothers from Mihalt, Ocna Mures and Bucerdea Granoasa for everything God has given us this year in His goodness. In Mihalt and Ocna Mures, Magerusan Stefanhere, a dear, blind brother, was with us. God has replaced this brother's lack of physical sight with a spiritual insight that provided encouragement and conviction. Also, the young people from the Baptist Church from Sebes were with us in Mihalt.

At Bucerdea Granoasa we had with us the Mesaj group of four brothers from near Arad. They praised God in singing and were also a source of joy and encouragement to the brethren. The night before, the same brothers served the Lord at an evening of evangelism at the church at Ocna Mures. May the name of the Lord be glorified in all these things. May those who have heard the Gospel message to turn to God with repentance and faith.

Prayer Requests:

• For guidance in other opportunities to reach the souls of the lost people with the Gospel

• For a contented heart and gratefulness to the Lord

• For those who attended the evangelism evening at Ocna Mureș.

In Him,

Daniel C. Petruț - PIEI Romania Missionary

Hoping for Fruit

Beloved brethren in the Lord!

We want to share with you some of the work that, by the grace of God, He has done through us in the area we serve.

I have already written to you about our intention to organize the VBS this summer, together with a team of young people from Bucharest. 

We enjoyed all that God did through us: the gospel was preached to those present at the 3 days of meetings, the children and teenagers were excited and happy, and we enjoyed it all.

We hope that the gospel proclaimed on this occasion will bear much fruit for the glory of God!

Another August event was an evangelistic evening organized at the Bethel Baptist Church in Ocna Mureș.  This event took place on August 28th. The missionary choir and orchestra from Arad, served God through singing. For the biblical message was provided by Pastor Marcel Bota from Nepos.

We greatly enjoyed the blessings God poured out on us on this occasion as well. We pray that those who heard the Gospel on this occasion will turn to God in faith and repentance!

Prayer Requests:

1. For guidance in more opportunities to reach lost souls with the Gospel

2. For those who attended VBS that the Lord brings salvation to those who heard the Gospel

3. For those who heard the Gospel at Ocna Mures to come to faith in Jesus Christ

Daniel Petrut - PIEI-Romania Missionary

Confessing Through Baptism

Beloved brethren in the Lord!

We had the joy of a baptism when our friend Toader decided to be baptized only a few days before the event. This man's story is interesting. His wife postponed her baptism for a long time, hoping that he would be baptized at the same time with her. Although she always postponed, sister Maria did decide to be baptized without waiting for him. A few years passed like this. By the grace of God, now brother Toader has also decided to confess his faith in the Lord Jesus publicly through baptism.

We are also preparing for this summer's VBS, which will be (with God’s help) on August 6-8. This year we will host VBS together with some young people from a mission in Bucharest called MIA - Mission In Action.

Another project we are thinking about for August is an evening of evangelism organized at the Bethel Baptist Church in Ocna Mureș. By the grace of God we hope to organize this event by the end of August. At this time we intend to invite the missionary choir and orchestra from Arad, and hear a biblical message from Pastor Marcel Bota, who is from Nepos.

Prayer Requests:

• For the spiritual growth of brothers Ruben and Toader

  For VBS - may the Lord work and move the children's hearts

• For the evening of evangelism at the church in Ocna Mureș

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. [Romans 11:36]

Daniel C. Petruț - PIEI Romania Missionary

Reasons to Rejoice

Beloved brethren in the Lord!

By God's grace we want to keep you informed how God is using us in His work.

The Covid-19 pandemic was and remains one of the biggest challenges we face in the mission field. We ask the Lord for wisdom; we ask Him to make us efficient in use of the time and resources available to us in this time of global unrest and disorder. People are suspicious, many of them close in on themselves. Others fall into the opposite extreme and are guided by the Epicurean philosophy: "To eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die!" We pray to God for help to have a proper approach for each person with whom we come in contact!

Through all the challenges we face, God gives us reasons to rejoice and encourages us not to fall into exhaustion in our souls. Some time ago I wrote to you about brother Elemer and how his whole family was hard tried because of his health. By the grace of God, our brother feels much better now! Their joy and mine are even greater due to the fact that the youngest member of the family, Ruben, decided to publicly confess, through baptism, his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. With God's help, the baptism will take place on July 18, 2021.

Beyond missionary activity outside the church and the pastoral activity in the churches, we get involved in visiting people who can no longer come physically to the worship at the church due to their health. In ”Craciunelu de Jos” church we have two sisters who are over 90 years old, and in ”Mihalt” we have a sister, also over 90 years old. We also have a 92-year-old brother in ”Mihalt,” brother Cornel, but in his case the approach is much more difficult.

Prayer Requests:

1. For the spiritual growth of brother Ruben

2. For wisdom and spiritual discernment - guidance by the Holy Spirit

3. For working with older brothers

4. For new opportunities to proclaim the gospel to the unsaved people

5. For my family - spiritual and physical health

In His service,

Daniel Petrut, PIEI - Romania Missionary

Gospel Fruit from the Past, Working Today and into the Future

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord!

By the grace of God in April we had two more special meetings at the church of Crăciunel. It was a blessed time because we had two preachers from other parts of the country as guests. The messages brought refreshment to the faithful, and at the same time, a searching of repentance for friends who came to these meetings. May the Lord work in these troubled times. May the Gospel bring light to the souls of the lost!

Florina and Mark Darvell and their two boys visited the church in Ocna Mures. Florina gave a beautiful testimony from when she lived in Ocna Mures in 1993, one block away from my home. I forget the details of her speech, but as Florina told her testimony of turning to God, it brought tears to my eyes. She responded to God after the testimony I brought to an evangelistic outreach held in the cinema in the city. A sequence from Florina's testimony: “I didn’t understand much from brother Daniel's testimony then, but I did understand that Jesus died for our sins. I went home and prayed to the Lord, if there really was one, to free me from the passion of cigarettes. The next day, I no longer felt any desire to smoke!” It has been 28 years since then and … “

This testimony strengthened me more in my faith and desire to serve the Lord! The word is true that Paul planted, Apollo watered, but God made it grow. As for Florina, she was invited to the evangelism outreach by a young woman from the church. Then she started coming to the church with another young woman who lived in the same block of flats. Importantly, she was born again by the Spirit and is currently working with PIEI in the southern part of Romania. Praise God!

Prayer Requests

• For spiritual and physical health

• To make effective use of opportunities the Lord gives to serve those around us

• For the salvation of many souls

• For the Lord to raise up collaborators in our mission work

Be blessed!

Daniel Petruț – PIEI Missionary

Lights in This World

We are especially thankful to God in these times for keeping us healthy everyday. He gives energy and ability to do what we do. We appreciate your support; and we are glad to know that together we are redeemed and called to be lights in this world.

School has started again. Filip-Emanuel and I are actually going to school. Teodora is still doing online school. She is involved in a couple of Zoom Bible Studies, as a spiritual mentor. One Bible study is about Abraham and his life and how he was God’s friend; another Bible study is about the book of James. (Filip is also participating in this one, but as a student); and the final Bible study is about prayer in which she is a student.

PIEI missionaries surrounding Alba Iulia have started having monthly meetings again. These face-to-face times encourage us, and we have a good time in fellowship and prayer.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For spiritual discernment in this confusing world

• For God to teach us how to be more attentive to the needs of those around us

• For peace and understanding, especially between members of our churches

• For those who have lost someone or have been affected by this virus

Daniel Petrut – PIEI Missionary