DIFFICULT TIMES

Dear brothers in Christ,

It’s obvious that we are living in hard times. This global virus is a good test of faith test for everybody. Maybe this could sound strange, but this fear between people may be a great opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Hence, please keep praying for us to use properly any opened door for the Gospel. Also, we need God's protection to keep our spirit, our souls, and our bodies safe.

Dear brothers, we love you and we want to encourage you to stay brave and keep working together for His glory. Blessings and greetings for each brother and sister from MBC. Thank you again for your spiritual and financial support!

God bless you all!

BREAD OF LIFE

We are pleased to share with you news about the work that God is doing through us in our area.

We have been with several families, and we believe God has used us as an encouragement and blessing. A Christian businessman provided a sum of money that I used to help these families. I had an open door through which I carried "bread" for the body and the "Bread of Life". We’ve also been encouraged by the joy of seeing the faces of the people we visited.

We enjoy family gatherings every Wednesday. This month due to the winter season we didn’t meet. But by the grace of God, we are meeting again and it is a blessed ministry. Moreover, during winter we decided to have Friday prayer meetings in families’ homes, not in the church building. In this way, the relationship between brothers is more familiar.
Be blessed!

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

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THE GOD'S BLESSING

I would like to start with a confession: before I came to the US, I only knew a few brothers and sisters from MBC. Now, having met you personally, I am much encouraged and motivated in the service of our Lord. I remember with joy the love you showed me. Thank you again for all your support. May God bless you!

By the grace of God, we want to share news about the work of the Lord. Our 7-year old son, Filip-Emanuel, is truly a missionary. Yesterday his teacher, who is also the headteacher of the school, told me that he challenged the children to say proverbs in class. Filip-Emanuel said two proverbs, which touched his teacher’s heart.

- Man is tested by gold and gold is tested by fire;
- He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose (Jim Elliot).

The teacher asked him how he knows them? Filip-Emanuel replied: "From Christian cartoons". I am glad and praise God for this testimony!

I had the joy of serving a family at Bucerdea Granoasa who brought their child for blessing. The father of the child rarely comes to our meeting and the mother has not come so far. We want this event and this child, Ianis, to be an outreach opportunity to his parents and family.

Prayer requests:

• I want spiritual children just as Rahela wanted natural children. I want to "give birth" to as many children for the kingdom of God

• For wisdom, spiritual discernment and guidance by the Spirit

• For my family: spiritual and physical health.

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

THANKSGIVING

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We want to share with you news about us and about the work by the grace of God He is doing through us.

First, God allowed us to be tested, but even in the test, He showed us that He is fully in control in our lives. In our garden we have a 1,850-gallon water tank raised over 16.5 feet. Several times I had to get on it and Philip-Emanuel wanted to go up with me. Finally I took him up with me. Not being careful, he took a step to the side and came very close to the edge of the tank. Fearful, all I could do was scream desperately at him. He was scared and stayed in place. Then we went down safely together. I told him I would not take him up the tank until he grows up. He innocently asked me, “Dad, when I'm seven I can go up with you?” In the evening we prayed together, and still shaken by what could have happened, we thanked God for His protection. Emanuel also prayed, surprising me again, "Lord Jesus, thank you for keeping me from falling off the tank and helping my father not to go to prison because of me."

Second, we thank God that, as in past years, we have had good opportunities for evangelism in the Fall. I made full use of these opportunities at Mihalt, Ocna Mures and Bucerdea Granoasa. We pray the Lord to move in the hearts of those who have been coming for years to such events and have not made a clear decision to follow Jesus.

Edi came back from America and I talked to him a bit. Possibly because Edi is an introverted person, I don't know his spiritual state. He started courses again at the university in Cluj, and we meet quite rarely.

Prayer Requests:

• For an efficient work in evangelism

• For wisdom and guidance from the Spirit

• For divine protection

• For Edi

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

THE ONLY WAY

We hope that this news about how God uses us in His work is for all who read an encouragement and at the same time a challenge to intercession in prayer for us. We thank God who gave us birth through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus! We thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord and to us. Be blessed!

Last day God gave me an opportunity to talk to an university professor. Starting from the policy, which suggested to me who I should vote for in the elections, for the president of Romania, I replied that I do not like the position of the recommended one regarding the LGBT movement. From here, to talk about spiritual things was only one step ... He shared his negative experiences with certain priests. One of them suggested him to give more money to the church to keep his soul forgiven. The teacher's reply was that he did not need a salvation earned by money. He told the priest that he was trying to win his salvation through good deeds! I told him then that salvation could not be won by money or good deeds. If it were possible to save man in this way, the Lord Jesus Christ would not have to die on the Golgotha ​​cross for the sins of mankind. Because he was a rational guy, what I told him was devastating to him. He agreed with me, but briefly changed the subject, returning to politics again. May the Lord bless him and change his heart.

I find out that Edi moved from Michigan to Florida. In this way, God removed him from that environment in which he could not grow spiritually. I also talked to his father and we believe that this experience will help Edi get closer to God.

Prayer requests:

• For my family: protection and guidance;

• For the children and youth ministry: they seem to have no interest in the Gospel anymore;

• For real conversions and lives transformed by the Holy Spirit.
  

With love,
Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

BETWEEN SMILES AND SIGHS

It is interesting to note that the major events in this life doesn’t care about our vacations or holidays: our children are born, our fellows become ill and die, often overcoming our plans, of people. I had just arrived in the south of the country with my in-laws and the following day one of the elders from the Ocna Mures Church called me to announce that a sister from Stana de Mures (she was over 90 years old) had passed away. Shortly after the funeral, we were in Stana de Mures and we sitted in fellowship at the Lord's Supper with the remaining brothers (one man and two sisters), along with a group of brothers and sisters from Ocna Mures. The prayer of the only brother who is still there, Joseph', is that God to work in that village so that the door of the church will remain open until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Joseph is almost 80 years old and sisters Margareta and Livia are over 80 years old!

At the same time, great joy in our family because the wife of a nephew gave birth to the first child, a boy. Also, our extended family (from my wife Rahela), celebrated the "golden wedding" of my in-laws: 50 years since they were married. Of the nine children in the family, only Rahela, my wife, lives in Romania. The other eight brothers are established in Spain, England and Germany. Of the nine children, only one of the girls failed to participate in this beautiful event! This is the journey of each of us, as one of the Romanian pastors in the USA called it: "between smile and sigh"!
Edi, the brother I wrote about is better. Most likely in September he will return to Romania. Thank you for your prayers and support. I wrote to him about Brother John's intention to get in touch with him and I think it is an encouragement to Edi.

Be blessed!
With holy love, your brother in Christ,
Daniel C. Petrut - PIEI Missionary

GOD WORKS IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

Two weeks ago, Mihai, Sister Paraschiva's husband, has passed away. For a long time he opposed his wife's desire to return to the Lord. A few years ago, Mihai had a stroke. Suddenly he became more tolerant and allowed Sister Paraschiva to come to the Church meetings. However, he passed away without knowing Jesus as a personal Saviour. Like the church, I was with Paraschiva's sister in this tough trial. Soon after, along with sister Paraschiva, they arrived on a Sunday at the Church meeting, two of the three children she had.

At Ocna Mures we have a sister (Lenuta) who had surgery at the spine. A few years ago, Lenute's husband, Viorel had a surgery at his head. Sister Lenuta is one of the most active sisters in the group of sisters who make up the "Marta Group". This group of sisters is responsible for helping families with poor physical condition and work at the old foster care. We visited our sister and our intent is to stay closer to this family until Lenuta' recovers.

Teodora prepares to go to a Christian camp in Arad. We hope that her experience in the camp will help her to know and serve the Lord more and more. Edi, who was baptized together with Teodora, went to Michigan with a student visa to work during his vacation. We want that during this period he will not lose faith, but on the contrary will come closer to God. Even if he does not try to show it, his mother's death has affected him a lot.

Prayer Requests:

• For Sister Paraschiva and her family - divine blessings and the conversion of her children;

• For the physical recovery of Sister Lenuta;

• For Edi and Teodora - spiritual growth and maturity.

Be blessed!
With love, Daniel C. Petrut - PIEI Missionary

BAPTISM AT CRACIUNULU DE JOS

We come back with new information from the mission field in the Mihalt missionary circle. We have enjoyed much this month of the rest that God has made part of us through His grace. Not necessarily a physical rest, but rather the rest and the joy of harvesting.
We enjoyed the PIEI meeting, where we met in a holy fellowship with brothers and sisters from Ukraine and other missionaries from Romania. We also had a good time in fellowship with brother Cornel Stef and Tani Nemes. There have been two days when "we have our hearts in His presence."

As I remembered as a project, this month we had a baptism. Three young people publicly declared their faith in the Savior Jesus, our Lord. Each of them had a beautiful testimony of their return to the Lord:

- Edi, about whom I wrote before, decided at 19 years to live his life on the path of repentance after the dramatic experience of his mother's death in February 2019;
- Deborah, she had regrets because she was not decided to be baptized with her sister Damaris in the following 3 years. Very emotional, but determined to serve the Lord all her life;
- Theodora, our daughter, in whose heart the Lord worked the stage with the stage. I complained when I saw her in the summer camp in Ukraine last year, coming out with many young people in the call to repentance. Now he took a new step forward by faith, confessing that he wants to serve his Lord and ours publicly through baptism.
May Adi, Deborah and Theodora live all their lives bringing glory to the Lord!

Prayer Requests:

• For us converts;

• For Edi, Debora, Teodora - spiritual growth;

• For guidance through the Holy Spirit, wisdom, courage and vision in the work;

• Spiritual and physical health.

Be blessed!

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

Christ is Risen!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, with the help of God, we started to organize a baptism in May at Craciunelu de Jos Church. Edi's intention is serious, we started preparations, and our joy is that other two young women have decided to receive baptism with him. It's Debora, a youth from Bucerdea Granoasa Church and our girl, Theodora.

At the celebration of the Lord's Resurrection we were together with the brothers and sisters of Ocna Mures. I was glad to serve with my brother Cornel Stef, with whom I spent all day. Between the morning and the afternoon church meetings in Ocna Mures, we were at Stana de Mures to visit and encourage the only christian believers who are in this village: a brother and two sisters. They were glad, but in my heart there is sorrow, because they are old and there are no other believers in this village.

”Marta” Sister Group in Ocna Mures continues to be involved in evangelistic social projects. The work from the old town shelter has been stopped for a while, as a period of quarantine because of the flu.

Prayer Requests:

• For the baptism of 19.05.2019;

• For us converted to Stana de Mures;

• For Ocna Mures;

• For my family: spiritual health and physical / guidance through the Spirit and spiritual maturity.

Be blessed!
Daniel C. Petrut - PIEI Missionary

God works in different ways

Beloved brothers in Christ!
A couple of days ago, i asked a brother about how the Lord's work goes to their church. I knew the pastor of that church began preach to another church. The brother replied frankly: "On the one hand we are sorry for the pastor, we have become accustomed to him. On the other hand, the church began to wake up. When the brothers realized that leaving the pastor left a gap, they began to get involved with what they could!
I was writing about the Sister Lenuta funeral, and a sister-in-law of Lenuta said to me: "Maybe God want us to learn something through it!" ... and the answer came. The youngest kid of Sister Lenuta, Edi, was a teenager with a more rebellious attitude. His parents prayed for him a lot, for him to be saved by Jesus Christ. Before I left the cemetery, I went over to the family members and encouraged them. When I came to Edi, the Lord gave me this words: "Do not forget that your mother prayed a lot for you!". About a month ago, while I was on a visit, the phone rang: it was Edi, who told me that he was very determined to follow the Jesus Christ and would like to meet me for a talk. Glory to God!

Prayer Requests:

• For my health - I'm very cold for over a week;

• For the spiritual growth of Edi - a sincere dedication and total dependence on the Lord;

• For the Lord to open as many doors for evangelization;

• For my family - protection and guidance from the Lord.

In His service,
Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

Be thankful for all things

Dear brothers in Christ,
In the Bible, we are urged to be thankful to God for all things. All things also mean the bad things and trials that God allows for a while in our lives. We know that all things work for our good, but we understand that only faith helps us to be thankful for all things.
Unexpectedly, an very active sister in Christ from Craciunelu de Jos passed away. Sister Lenuta was very helpful in this part of the work; dynamic and faithful, a balance factor for her family and for the local church. She was 63…
Two days after Lenuta's funeral, Brother Aurel of Bucerdea Granoasa passed away. In the case of Brother Aurel, leaving to the Lord meant a release from a sick and suffering body. He was 78... When I baptized him, in 2013, he couldn't declare his faith publicly out loud. He had a throat operation and his vocal cords were irremediably affected. We established that he will answer my questions by raising his hand. Many people of the church were watching with tears ... now, our brother went to rest!
By the grace of God, we continue our run until it’s our turn to go home. Friday's meetings at Mihalţ are more and more important & desirable for each of us. We start the day with fasting and prayers, and in the evening, at the end of fellowship in the Word, with songs and prayers. After that, we extend our fellowship to a table of love, eating together.

Prayer Requests:

• For my spiritual and physical health: blood pressure has long been above acceptable levels;

• For revival of the local churches we serve;

• For God to open new opportunities for us to serve the unsaved people;

• For my family: protection in the demonic attacks that come upon us.

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

Times of Refreshing

We share with you some news from our mission area. In children ministry, we are faced with an interesting phenomenon: a state of apathy and indifference, which has nothing to do with the fact that we are at the beginning of the year, but rather with the fact that many of the young people waste their energy in things that consume their spiritual power. It is a difficult challenge and the intense spiritual struggle to help them fall in love with the Lord Jesus.

Instead, we enjoy family fellowships. We proposed in all churches where we serve, that every friday to be a prayer & fasting day. Here at Mihalt, at the end of the fasting day, we meet with everyone who wants to come. Besides the prayers we raise for the revival of the church, we began to study together the three basic conditions of biblical discipleship. We are struggling to keep the believers aware of the need to go out beyond the walls of the church. We are trying to make our part as good as possible and we expect "times of refreshing” to come!

Be blessed!

Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

Goals for a New Year

Full of gratitude, we praise God for His faithfulness towards us until now. Now, at the beginning of the year 2019, we look behind and we can see how God provided for us and how He blessed our ministry.
We also want to thank those who supported us in our projects, to those who prayed for us, encuraged us and offered us different things so we can be a blessing to others.

Our goals for 2019 are:

• to continue our projects in a few churches from Ocna Mures, Mihalt, Craciunelu de Jos and Bucerdea Granoasa

• to pray and to change our approach in the youth ministry and to build stronger relationships with them

• to pray for leaders in our kids and youth ministries

During these times of winter, we can notice stronger relationships between families. We want to encourage worship meetings because they lead to a better connection with the local church.

Please pray for:

• physical and spiritual health for my family

• guidance and equipping through the Holy Spirit

• human and financial resources

Only through Him,
Daniel Petrut - PIEI Missionary

Close fellowship

By God's grace we enjoyed with brothers from Mihalt a beautiful church fellowship. On this occasion we invited people from the village and we were very happy when  some of them responded to our invitation. In a more restricted space, fellowship continued in our house.

A look into a missionary in the rural area in Romania

Meet the PETRUȚ FAMILY

Meet Pastor Daniel Petruț, his wife Rahela (Rachel), daughter Teodora, and son Filip. 

They were our closest partners in ministry on several occasions this year, both in ROMANIA as well as in UKRAINE.

We spent some time with the Petruț family last year also, visiting their mission field in the village of Mihalț Alba District, where pastor Daniel works with the village children and youth as well as surrounding villages.  We were delighted by the group of children who gather on a regular basis in their front yard for a weekly bible club and it was then when we were thinking of taking this family along with us to Ukraine for our annual summer camp.

TEODORA

She is a very gifted teenager, who has a beautiful singing voice, and she is using her spiritual gift to serve the Lord with her family.  It is so rare and so precious to see a young lady serve alongside her parents and also be so tender and kind to her little brother.  We also got to see Alexandra be herself around other teens at Camp in Ukraine, happy, social, and very friendly.

The most amazing was to see how loving she is toward her aging widowed grandmother, taking the time to play table cards and spend quality time with her!

FILIP

This is a very unique five year old, who has the vocabulary of a grown up, an amazing memory for Bible verses, who also loves to sing and praise the Lord, who in one minute acts and speaks like a grown man and in the next has a temper tandrum and is just a little boy!  Filip is a totally delightful young boy who will entertain you for hours in a long car ride from Romania to Ukraine and back (10-12 hours each way) and will not complain much, but make the ride so much more enjoyable!

RAHELA (Rachel)

We enjoyed getting to know Rahela, and seeing the interaction between her and the children.  We could see the investment she is making in Bible memorization and singing and in keeping the family unit serving together.  She is also a lot of fun, her charm and personality so vividly seen especially in her little boy! 

DANIEL (PIE Missionary Pastor)

Such a talented servant, full of love, passion, care, tenderness, lots of talent!  Pastor Daniel has extended himself so much, giving of himself so much to the point of becoming physically sick and ending up in the hospital!  The needs of the people are so many and the workers are so few.  Even among the believers there are so many issues, and pastor Daniel wears many hats.  From working with children at the public school in town and driving the school bus, to pastoring several churches, to couseling and taking care of several congregations of believers in several locations that are spread out.  Yet he and his family took the time to go to Ukraine with us to invest in the young children’s lives over there during the Summer PIE Camp.

We were also so blessed to visit several of the churches pastored by Daniel, and go on home visitations together.  Our hearts are kneat together and our partnership in ministry has been lifted to another level of friendship and trust.

We give God all the glory, and we thank the PETRUȚ FAMILY for serving God by serving others.

Cornel and Gabi Stef

Updates from Bucerdea Granoasa mission point

By God’s grace, after  three years, we graduated The Bible School from Bucerdea Granoasa. This event was marked with joy and tears. We believe that the people whom graduated reach a highter spiritual level and that their relationship with the Lord is stronger  than in the moment they started it.

We enjoyed a young man’s decision, from our church to follow Jesus and to be baptized. He grew up in the church and his parents, especilly his mother, prayed a lot for him. His name is Daniel.

At Bucerdea Granoasa , is a man who told us about his desire to confess his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by being baptized. We pray for Stefan, so  the Lord will help him live for His glory.

Please continue to pray for us!

Daniel C Petrut, PIE Misionary

Thanksgiving at Ocna Mures

 We write to you, through God’s grace, again after a pretty long period of time. At the begining of August I enjoyed taking part of brother Cornel and sister Gaby Stef’s missionary team in Ukraine. Immediately  after we came back in Romania, Father Lord allowed our faith to be tasted:because of a tention between two brothers from the church’s comity I had to involved myself in counciling and preventing this conflict. During this time I dealed with some healthy problems because of which I had to be hospitalized in Cluj Napoca. My time there and  my imposibility to do some work problems created at school tension too.

  Through God’s grace we tried to be senzitive of Holy Spirit’s whisper and to do God’s will in everything. At Ocna Mures things start being normal again. On the last Sunday of September we enjoyed together the Thanksgiving. For keeping my blood pressure in normal limits I have to take a treatment and a strict diet. At school, things are becoming good again, but my work schedule is not as flexible as before and I have more work to do. Praise Lord for everything!

Prayer requests:

-for a harmonic  fellowship between the brothers in Ocna Mures

-for my and family’s health( spiritual and phisically)

-to give a good testamony to my office collegues and the sudents in school.

   Be blessed!

Daniel C Petrut, PIE Misionary

Thankful for Another Year

We are getting close to the end of 2017. We want to show our gratitude toward God and you, our brothers and sisters from MBC who have supported us in good and hard times. May the Lord reward you!

A recent incident confirmed once again that all we are and have is only by the grace and mercy of our Lord. I went to a carols concert organized in one of the churches in Alba-Iulia. The preacher who was scheduled to speak that evening was a Romanian brother from Canada. Just before entering the church with the singing group, had a heart attack and died. He was under 50. Life is filled with joys and sorrows. Brother Nelu whom I shared about last month, just passed away. In the midst of grieving, the family was filled with peace and thankful to the Lord. Brother Nelu had been bedridden for 5 months already. Sister Mariana continues a strong antibiotic treatment. May the Lord have mercy on her! The joy we felt this month was in the opportunity to take the Gospel, the news of Jesus’ birth through carols. We went to Ocna Mures to the elderly home, to Mihalt, Bucerdea Granoasa and Craciunelul de Jos. In Craciunel, we went to an older couple’s home where the wife is a Christian. While crying, she expressed her gratitude for visiting since no one had visited them, caroling for Christmas.

Prayer Support:

-           For me and my family: guidance, and spiritual and physical health

-           For the ministry at the elderly home in Ocna Mures

-           For Sister Mariana, Brother Utu’s wife

-           For the workers to help us at the mission point in Mihalt

With love in Christ,

Daniel C. Petrut, PIE Missionary

Women's ministry / Sunday School

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

We thank the Lord for the prayers and support received from you. We want to share some of the ways things go and some of the projects we are involved in. The work of the women’s group from Ocna Mures expanded to the elderly. This group of women have a fund from which they help the people with financial hardship or health problems. Aside from “multiplying the bread” their goal is to share the Gospel with these people. One of the sisters from this group told me that God amazes them through the fact that these funds have never run out for this ministry. She also shared her disappointment that no one else from the church got involved when they were asked.

In terms of the Sunday School at Bucerdea Granoasa, we are approaching the end of the third year of study. In the spring of 2018, with God’s help, we will have the graduation ceremony. Until then, we still have several meetings, and we are glad for those who have been consistent in participation along the years.

Another area of the work I focused on was visiting the sick. The wife of Brother Utu, Mariana, returned home from Spain. Due to her physical weakness, she won’t be going back to Spain. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer, with the lungs being affected by the tumor as well. Another sick person, and close to passing away is Brother Nelu. He was a professional mason who has helped build six or seven churches. Now, after two strokes, at 81, has become bedridden. There are more brothers and sisters like these.

Prayer Support for:

-           The women’s group and their work at Ocna Mures

-           The sick in Mihalt

-           My family: spiritual and physical health

With love in Christ,

Daniel C Petrut

Thanksgiving Celebration

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

By the grace of God, the focus this month was on the local church. The Thanksgiving celebration is a good opportunity to evangelize. This year there were so many people in Mihalt that some had to go to the balcony. Some of the church members gave up their seats for the guests. We counted about 120 people. May the Word that was sowed in their heart produce fruit for the glory of our Lord!

We had the same celebration at Ocna Mures, Craciunelu de Jos and Bucerdea Granoasa. Most of the non-believers participated in the services in Mihalt. In Ocna Mures, we focused on the mission point in Gabud. Beside Sister Maria who is now 86, there is another family, Brother Sandu’s (who was baptized last in Ocna Mures). We pray that the Lord would bring salvation to the people in Gabud.  Here in Ocna Mures, our sisters’ group visits the senior home regularly.

Bible School in Bucerdea Granoasa goes well. We lost some of the students, but the core group is still strong. 10-15 of them attend class regularly every month.

Prayer Support:

-           For more souls to be part of the mission point in Mihalt

-           For the mission work in Gabud

-           For the senior homes in Ocna Mures

-           For the Bible School in Bucerdea Ganoasa

-           For my family: guidance and wisdom in ministry, and spiritual and physical health