HOPE IN DESPAIR

We thank God for His caring. This month we have been able to bring joy to the hearts of many people. One of these people is a seventy year old widowed woman who we could help with firewood. This woman is called Paula, has no revenue, lives on social assistance and is rarely helped by her two children. The children are married and rarely remember their mother, who is left alone. We thought of Paula because we knew her situation very well and we knew she didn't have the opportunity to buy firewood. In addition, one year ago she became one of our sisters in the Lord and it was a great joy to support her from this point of view.

Another family that we could support, is another widowed woman of about two months. A family with whom we have been living for a long time because of the shortcomings they face. This widow is named Flori, and she has two children, Mihai and Adrian. I didn't tell them anything before I got to them, I wanted to surprise them. They were extremely happy, Flori told me that they had firewood for only two or three days and she was quite worried about this. Following the loss of their father, Mihai and Adrian have suffered a lot and even now, every time I meet them, they do not hesitate to talk to me about their father. Mihai is fourteen years old, and Adrian is ten. I am sure it is not easy for them to deal with the pain of their father's death, which is why we try to be even closer.

Please pray for this family and for us to know how to talk with them and how to be close to them, so that they may know and accept the love of God.

Be blessed!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

View fullsize

View fullsize

THE MONTH OF SURPRISES

This month, like all the other months of the year, was full of surprises. We were especially glad because in this year’s holidays the Lord helped us abundantly. Through contributions from several churches and brothers in Christ, we gave presents to all children in school and kindergarten. A team of students from Ocna Mureș not only caroled at our house, but we also joined them caroling in the school and kindergarten, town hall, and at a few families’ houses.

Thank you for your prayers and for all your involvement. We wish you a new year full of blessings and joys!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

FROZEN HEARTS

These days I find that no matter how old you are or how cold it is outside, if you are hungry, you will go out to get your food.

Recently God put in my heart to preach the Gospel where people gather to buy food at the market. Although it was very cold for hardworking people and householders, the cold could not prevent them from coming to sell their products and those who wanted to buy what they needed. The time spent in the market was blessed. I met people to whom I could speak and give New Testaments and Christian literature. I also met a woman who who I would soon visit in her home.

After being at the market I wanted to visit needy families. I prayed to the Lord to show me who to visit. Shortly I understood one of the families I would visit was this woman's family. During the visits I was joined by a team of students from Timisoara. Coming into the home of this woman's family I learn of two children as well. I realized that this family needed help, both socially and spiritually. We thank God that we were able to help a little in both needs.

After about forty minutes with this family, I left sad and troubled that people are so closed-minded. As if with the coming of winter, it also froze their hearts and minds to understand their need of God, and to understand it's more important to nourish your soul than your body.

I believe that only our prayers raised to God can thaw the hearts and minds of these people and many like them.

God bless you!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

THERE IS HOPE

In October, together with another brother in Christ, we decided to go through the country to promote the mission work in Oltenia. This time we chose that Bucovina area and, with the help of the Lord, we managed to reach where we set out. I was impressed by the beauty of the Bucovina region, a territory blessed by God.
I have visited several villages, such as Suceea, Pâmpului Câmpului, Ipotești, Vicov and Dumbraveni. In Dumbraveni we stayed for five days at a special family who helped us a lot. We met with several brothers and we were received in five churches to present the need for the mission work in Oltenia. It is true that many of the servants I spoke with are also involved in all kinds of work, but some of them take this as an excuse only to not get involved in Oltenia.

One of the barriers that impede certain brothers would be the distance between Moldova and Oltenia, we are too far. I know that Oltenia is an area that many servants flee because of the rejection from here. Maybe it is true that it is difficult but not impossible and I have experienced this personally.

It was great to see God work, the doors that were once closed now are opened. There is hope, because when someone wants, God gives them the ability to.
I left Bucovina with enthusiasm, even though I was confronted with disappointment, because I also met welcoming brothers, willing to listen and willing to get involved and to come to our help

.
We thank God for having His resources everywhere, but they must be exploited, it requires work, passion, dedication. As always we thank you for prayers, God bless you and reward you!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

GOD HAS HIS TIME

As each of us has all kinds of happenings that often take us by surprise, so do I, I was taken by surprise at the wonderful way the Lord worked in an elderly family.
I started to visit a family of old people between the ages of 70 and 80. Basically, this family was visited by me, from 2016 to 2018. For two years I did everything I knew to make these people aware that they need God, but everything was in vain. From 2018 until August this year I stopped visiting them. At the end of August, I thought about going to see what they were doing. When they saw me, they started to cry, telling them that although they had seven children, none of them visited them, giving them the time and attention I gave them.

I stayed with them for about three hours, during which time I listened carefully to all the stories they had.
When I was preparing to leave, they stopped telling me that they wanted to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives. I was amazed, because I was not expecting, in fact, I thought that these old people would never make this decision.

I thank God for the wonderful way He works and touches the hearts of men. He has His time and all things happen, not when we want to, but at His appointed time. He, only He, is the one who changes sorrow into joy.

We thank you for all that you have done for us and the work here, thank you for your prayers and we ask you to continue to pray for us. God bless you!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

THERE IS NO ONE LIKE OUR GOD

I think that the most important thing in mission work is to see God working with you. One of our major needs at the mission point is that of missionary partners; people of God, involved with us in the missionary work. I haven't found anyone to come with us here yet, but I know one thing: God has been, is and will be with us everywhere.

God has taken care to send brothers from different areas of our country and even from USA, to help us in the mission field. Of course, for a short period of time, maximum five days, but the impact these people have had in our community has been amazing. If today we enjoy six people who returned to the Lord, it is because of the most valuable partner: God! He researched the hearts of these people and today we could enjoy what he has done and continue to do in our lives.

In August, we were helped by a beloved brother from England, whom God put on his heart to organize a summer camp for five days. Again, here I saw the arm of the Lord at work. For the children in this village, this camp was a great blessing. Holy Spirit worked in the hearts of the children, and they acknowledged that they were wrong about their parents and the society in which they live. They had the opportunity to be involved in different biblical scenes and to play the role of several biblical characters. They painted, sang and played different games. It was a five-day period that the children will certainly not forget.

We pray for them and their parents! May the Lord search for them and bring them to His path. Thank you for your prayers, for continuing to pray and God bless you!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

GOD LISTENS TO PRAYERS

We have a wonderful God who always look up to us and is always ready to come to our help.

In March, I participated in an event of the Pentecostal church in Valeni, Olt County. Event organized especially for women on the occasion of March 8th. One of my responsibilities was to transport the sisters from Beciu to the event. The distance between the two localities is about 60 km and in order not to return home during the event, I preferred to wait for the sisters in front of the building.

In the yard of the church building there is also the pastor's house and someone invited all the men who were there to the house. When I entered the house, there were other brothers, including two brothers from Cluj Napoca. I told them a lot and we had a fellowship that we had not planned but God had planned. Now, I thank God for the special brothers whom I meet there; people of God living for His kingdom. Among other things, we talked about the way the mission work in Beciu, how things have evolved and evolved and about the needs of the mission here. I spoke to them about evangelical events and the difficulty of finding people willing to come and put their shoulder to the preaching of the gospel. Many preachers today want to be paid to come and do such events, and I understand them. It seems normal to me to pay people at least their travel expenses, but we do not always have this possibility.

We have learned to do the mission work with the things and possibilities we have, we do not complain as long as the Lord is with us. We give thanks to God because He has sent in these places brothers willing to pay their expenses. He should and will reward such servants. The brothers from Cluj Napoca that I met in Valeni at one point decided to pray for the work in Beciu and for our family. They said, "Florin, pray that God will give us the opportunity to help you in the ministry” .

At the end of June, I was called by the Pastor from Valeni, who informed me that in the middle of July, the brothers from Cluj Napoca will be comming in Beciu for a period of three days where they will do street evangelism, evangelistic events, plus the children ministry, and they came. So we enjoyed the wonderful way in which God answers the prayers raised to Him and the beautiful way in which He comes in help of those who have chosen to work for His glory.

We thank you, because we know you are praying for us, and we ask you to do this further.

May God bless you!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS DETERMINES RIGHT DECISIONS

This year, in September, will be three years since we started the mission in Beciu. April (2019) will remain for me a victory over the spiritual darkness that dwelt over these lands. God has manifested his glory and began to change the hearts of men.

He says, "First seek the kingdom of God, and all things shall be given to you above." (Luke 12:31)

Six people made the decision to make a covenant with the Lord through Baptism in the water and I am convinced that this is just the beginning. I know God loves people and does not stop here. Behold, if there were no Protestant Churches in these localities, today one has begun to rise. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ is called over these places, and with my family and the new converts we are now eight people who meet to praise God. The word of the Lord says that where there are two, three gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is present in their midst (Matthew 18:20), and we rely on this word. We invite you to continue praying for us and the work here. God bless and reward you!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

How we teach children, so will grow

In mid-March we resumed the kids ministry. There were five months of rest, due to the cold and unfavorable weather, and of course, because we still do not have a place to work with them. Even so, until it gets warmer, we started with a small number of kids, to fit into the space we have.

We thank God for the children's eagerness to reunite with us and their friends.
We are glad of the way that God works in the hearts of the parents of these children. Often they even come to accompany their children. We give glory to God so they can hear the gospel message.

Thank you for your prayers and we invite you to pray for a building where we can do our work during the winter.

God bless you!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

God knows how to convince you

This woman is called Popescu Maria and is 77 years old, her husband died about 15 years ago and now lives alone in a house nearby me.
I have often tried to invite her to our church meetings, but every time shen have at least one reason to not participate.

On the night of 20/02/2019, someone entered in Maria’s yard and stole four or five trees. The next morning she was so scared that she came to me to tell me what had happened to her, she was crying a lot. She asked me to help her, to do something because now, she was afraid to sleep in the house at night. I explained that the only solution would be to call the police and explain the situation. So, the police came, and Maria calmed down. Because I helped her and I was close to her, she told me that she wanted to thank me somehow.

I told her that I would be very happy if she would accept to come only once at our Church meetings.
The next day, we were very glad to see Maria entering the door of our house and be part with us at the church meeting, but it was even greater joy to see how the Holy Spirit touched it. On Thursday (March 21, 2019), Maria gave her life to our Lord Jesus Christ.

We rejoice enormously when we see God's wonderful way of working her lives, and it makes us great joy to share with you these wonderful experiences.

Pray for Maria, that the Lord will help her to keep her decision, to follow the Lord. God bless you all!

The blessing comes from the Lord

This family came from Suceava to Oltenia ten years ago and they had no place to live so a man from the village received them in his house. They have five kids but Nelutu, their father, is an alcoholic so the little money they have are spent on alcohol. As a result, they live in very poor conditions and most of the time the children are barefoot, poorly dressed and unfed. 

We pray that God releases the people from the bondage of alcohol because it tears many families apart. We try to help them spiritually and socially with everything we can. We thank you for your availability to pray for us because we really need your support.

God bless you and pay back for everything you do for our ministry!

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

God does not disappoint

“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. “ (Psalm 118:8)

One day when we go out on the streets to evangelize people, I met Lenuta. She is a 51-year-old woman, married to Iulică. During these years, they have experienced a lot of disappointment from their friends, relatives and even colleagues.
Iulică worked in an agricultural association in Beciu for ten years and during that time had to endure all sorts of accusations and dissatisfaction from his boss. One day, In August 2018, he was told he had not worked enough, although he started working at 7am to 10pm. Under these circumstances, his boss had the callousness to claim that he had not worked enough.

Getting to work 15-16 hours a day and then the boss is telling you that you have not worked enough is not normal! After that, in August 2018, he gave up working on the association and began looking for another job.
He went to work on a construction site, 170 km away from the house, but here, same problem. After 3 months of work he received the salary for only one month, the boss telling him that he did not have enough money to pay in full. Iulică gave up work until he will be paid for these months, but the time passed and the money he was supposed to receive did not came to him.

His wife, Lenuta takes care of the house, se is a housewife and so I had the opportunity to meet her and build a friendly relationship with them both. We talked about the One who did not disappoint anyone, and even paid our debts - to all of us.
We were glad to see how after we talked, after a period of time, Lenuta, Iulică's wife received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of her life. Now, after 4 months, she is a happy woman, even if there are enough shortcomings. She doesn’t believe that she would ever escape the nasty language she had before accepting the Lord Jesus as a personal savior.
Now she says about God the following thing:
"God doesn’t disappointed me and i think that He doesn’t disappoint anyone, ever” .

Prayer Requests

• We pray for her husband to know the Lord Jesus Christ and accept him as Lord and Savior of his life!

• We pray for a job, where it is accepted and appreciated for its effort!

Thank you for praying!
God bless you!

Florin Stefcu - PIEI Missionary

Rejected by People, Loved by GOD!

He is Florin and he is 24 years old. I have listened many testimonies about people being rejected during their lives, but I never thought that one day I will personally meet one of them, who could tell me about the trauma he lived. His parents broke up when he was only 2. One of the major reasons that lead to the rupture of his parents’ matrimony was the alcohol. His father exaggerated with the consumption of it and every time he was under it’s influence made a lot of trouble. This fact determined the mother to leave the house and never come back. So, at the age of 2, Florin remained on his father’s cure.

At the age of 7, he sent the little boy to work. So it was practically impossible to go to school regularly. He managed to graduate only the first 2 years of school. He could not keep up with the other children. Now, at the age of 24, he does not know to read or write. He worked for his father since seven years old, who took all the money to buy alcohol. Furthermore, he was despised, beaten, sent away from home. He was hungry for too many times and slept wherever he could. When he asked for help from his mother, she told him she did not want to hear from him. He needed someone to share his kneadings and the pain caused by his own parents.

So, at 14 he decided to get married, not really knowing all the importance of this thing. He met a girl and they lived together for a year and a half. In the meantime, he discovered that she was not loyal to him. At 17 he met another girl and they lived together for 5 years and they had a little boy. When the baby was months, Florin’s wife left from home and did not came back. He took care of the baby until the age of 2. During all this time, Florin continued to live with his father, who did not give up drinking. One day, Florin was denounced by his father to the social services, based on the fact that he could not raise his child seeing the life condition he could offer. Yet, he worked daily on the village so that his son could have a better life.

His father’s real problem was that Florin spent the money for food and clothing for the little boy, which meant less money for the drinking.

As already said, Florin does not have his own home, not because he wouldn’t want it, but because he did not have any kind of help, living with his father. Anyway, the possibility of a young man in Romania to have his own houseis very small, especially if we are talking about a young man as Florin, without education, no job and no help. Having this difficulties, the child was taken from him and given to Florin’s father and mother-in-law. He suffered a lot because of his parents’ rejection

Unfortunately, because of that, he hates them and he’s seeking for revenge. Waiting for the revenge moment, he found the love of God. He heard about the repentant. He came to us. Since that day, God started to heal and restore his heart. Now he is healed! Hate and revenge were sent away. He chose to forgive his parents, confess his sins, ask for forgiveness and accept Jesus Christ as a Savior of his life. We are inviting you all to pray for Florin, as he would like to find a working place so that he could buy a little house.

Florin Sfetcu - PIEI Missionary

Forgiveness Leads to Freedom

When the love and forgiveness of God touches hearts, you can see it.  The forgiveness of God brings healing and restoration in human relationships.   

Pansela and Daniela are sister-in-laws from Beciu.  Due to some past unpleasantness, they fought and stopped talking to each other for a year.  Six weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with them, showing them the love and forgiveness available to them through the Word of God.  I explained how God forgave mankind and saved us through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ. They both received Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Realizing how God forgave their sins and paid their penalty through Jesus Christ, they accepted that it was their duty to forgive each other. This forgiveness brought freedom, restoration, and joy back into their relationship.  Pray that even these women’s husbands will be convicted by God so that they too can accept Jesus Christ in their lives.

One year ago, not one person wanted to come to church in Dragonesti, but in the last two month God has called twelve new followers to be the core of the church.  Those people have created a dedicated small group. Pray that God protects them from the evil one, who does not hesitate to attack the faithful. Pray that God gives them the power to overcome the ridicule of others in the village, who mock them because of their faith in Christ.

We invite you to pray for us, for God to give us wisdom in order to present the Gospel to those in the village in a way they can understand and relate to.  

PIE Missionary-Florin Sfetcu

From Darkness to Light

Meet Costel, a man who once had a normal life like any other person. However, eleven years ago he committed a crime that cost him his freedom and landed him in prison where he spent eleven years of his life. Today he is a free man, but the time in prison took a toll on him physically, mentally, and socially. He has a poor eye sight, he developed heart problems, and often has migraine headaches.

The good news is that in the penitentiary he met people that spoke about the SAVIOR that can wipe away all our sin. Every time he was around these Christian people he felt accepted by them and was drawn by the peace that they had, a peace that was above everything else in the whole world. By being with them he felt a bit of that peace also. After he was released from prison I got to know him a little bit and I am hoping that this will be a beginning of new relationship toward a relationship much greater than the one with me, a personal relationship with Christ.

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Pray that God will bring His light into his life and become a light in his village to others, and even heal him physically.

Pray that we as a family, my wife Alina and I, are the light for the people around us. I know that He sent us here to make a difference in the life of others so they can come to a relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ.

With Love

Florin and Alina Sfetcu

July 2018 Video

Kids Ministry

We were very happy because God adds more and more children to this ministry, to this meetings.

Thank you for your support in prayer and please continue to pray for our ministry, for children to continue to come at meetings that we are preparing for them and for us that God gives us wisdom and understanding to know how to work as attractively as possible with these children.

Be blessed!

Evangelistic Events in Beciu

We are glad to see that God works in Beciu through us. This mission started to get amplitude by the fact that Holy Spirit began to seek the hearts of the people and they become aware of the truth of the scriptures.

Here are some photos from street evangelism event, home visits and social help.

Please continue to pray for God's work done here in Beciu because there are many projects that we want to do for this people.

Gifts for 120 Children

We were very happy this month because we managed  to help socially and spiritually over 20 people.

With God's help, we were able to offer gifts to 120 children from school and  kindergarten. We thank all those who were willing to help us. We still need support in prayer and we want to thank to all who are already doing this.  May God bless and reward you!

I want to let you know about a five-year-old girl situation. She needs your prayers. She has headache and leg pains from the age of one year. Her grandmother took her to Bucharest, but the doctors  didn't find anything. They said she is  healthy and that she had no problem. The girl's name is Maria. Pray that God will heal her!