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
