Learning to Receive

You may think that I am here exclusively to minister to Romanians. The focus of my ministry in Romania, however, is to train Romanians to be ministers of the Gospel, not to do all the ministering for them. This week has been a unique week because I have been ministered to on so many occasions solely by Romanians. It has been a real blessing to me to see God at work in their lives, forming them into the leaders He wants them to be.

It began on Sunday morning, when Relu Cristurean preached a sermon in the Sighișoara Church of the Nazarene about Jesus’ miracle healing a man born blind (John 9). The singing and prayer times were led by Romanians as well.

On Sunday evening, I went to the Țigmandru Church of the Nazarene, where Neluțu Cini shared a very meaningful message on the Second Coming of Christ. It was also the first time that I’ve been in the Țigmandru Church when various lay leaders have led the times of prayer and announcements in the church service (as well as the singing).

On Wednesday evening, Relu led the Sighișoara church Bible study from Ephesians 3:14-21. Although it was a slightly smaller group than usual, we stayed for over 2 hours in dialogue with one another on the significance of the content of these few verses.

Finally, on Thursday and Friday was the Veritas staff retreat in the nearby village of Seleuș. I was the only non-Romanian who attended. The retreat was entirely Romanian organized and led, with the exception of the devotion which they asked me to prepare on a specific theme to close our time together.

It is absolutely wonderful to see God forming Romanians into spiritual leaders.

Photo: Eva leads the Veritas staff in a clay-modeling exercise during the staff retreat. The theme of the retreat was The Potter and The Clay.