November: Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings!

November was a very busy month filled with many special meetings. In fact, I spent over half of the month away from Sighișoara. Here are some of the highlights from this month:

1. Central Europe Field Board of Ministry & Faculty Meetings (Ohrid, Macedonia: November 6-10)
The first meetings of the month took place in Macedonia and concerned Ministerial Development (theological education and preparation for ordination) on the Central Europe Field.

The Central Europe Field is made up of several countries where the Church of the Nazarene is still rather new in its development (what we call Phase 1 Districts and Pioneer areas). Since none of these districts has the required 5 assigned ordained ministers to make up a district Board of Ministry, we have received special permission to form a Board of Ministry at the field level for the next 4 years. With representatives from each district, we will be able to address more effectively our common issues and to share solutions with one another.

The week was jam-packed with meetings of the Field Board of Ministry (to which I was elected to serve as secretary), faculty development seminars highlighting teaching principles, group work to adapt and contextualize course syllabi, and sessions with the leadership team from European Nazarene College. The conversations we started in Macedonia are already proving to be very helpful in the development of theological education and ministerial preparation in our respective countries, and will be continued at later meetings.

[Update: Click here to read more about this event in the December edition of EuNC's "In Touch" Newsletter.]

Around the dinner table in Macedonia
(only about half of the group is pictured here)
Photo credit: Cindy Phelps

2. Celebrating Roberta (Sighișoara, Romania: November 12)

The day after we arrived back from Macedonia, the Sighișoara Church of the Nazarene hosted a special event to celebrate Roberta Bustin's 20 years of volunteer ministry in Romania. Roberta, a college chemistry professor who spent her summers working for NASA, came to Sighișoara in 1997. A year later, she was asked to pastor the Sighișoara Church of the Nazarene. Soon, she began ministerial studies and was ordained in 2008. She planted and pastored the church in Țigmandru, Although she has handed over pastoral leadership to Romanians, she continues to be a source of encouragement for them. For the past year and half, Roberta has served as district superintendent of the Romania District.

After refreshments in the church's new fellowship hall, participants gathered in the church sanctuary as the youth group from the Țigmandru church sang songs. Then various people shared stories about how Roberta has touched their lives. Click here to watch the video of the event. (Sorry, the sound quality is poor.) 

You can also click here to read an article that was written about Roberta's 10-year celebration in 2007.

Special event to celebrate Roberta Bustin's
20 Years of Ministry in Romania

3. Romania District Assembly (Bucharest, Romania: November 18)
On Saturday, November 18, was the Romania District Assembly. In addition to delegates from our 3 local churches, we also had with us General Superintendent Eugeniu Duarte, Eurasia Regional Director Arthur Snijders, and Central Europe Field Strategy Coordinator Jay Sunberg. The day included a celebration of 25 years of Nazarene ministry in Romania.

Central Europe Field Strategy Coordinator Jay Sunberg
prays for the 3 Romanian pastors whose district licenses
were renewed at the Romania District Assembly

4. Manual Translation Summit (Sintra, Portugal: November 19-25)

The day after our district assembly, three of us from Romania flew to Portugal for a week to work on translating the 2017-2021 edition of the Church of the Nazarene's Manual. At the church's General Assembly in June, there were several revisions made to the Manual. There were 41 participants and 11 language groups represented in Portugal. By getting started on the Manual work now, we hope to have the electronic version of the Romanian edition ready for release this spring, with the print edition to follow soon afterwards.

[Update: Click here to read the NCN News article about this event.]

Participants at the Manual Translation Summit

That's not all!
This month also saw the end of the "Church Leadership" and "Practicum" courses which Romanian students have been taking since September...which meant a lot of grading for me! The day before the district assembly, I went to the Christian bookstore in Bucharest and purchased over 50 additional books for our growing theological library. (I'm encouraged to see the students' growing interest in reading as new books are added to the library.) In just a few days I will be travelling to the US to spend Christmas vacation with my family. After such a busy month, I'm looking forward to a few weeks of rest. I'll be back in Romania to celebrate New Year's with friends here, and in January I begin teaching Introduction to the Old Testament course for European Nazarene College in Romania. Then in February, it's back to Sintra for the EuNC faculty assembly.

Thank you for your continued prayers and partnership!
Jonathan

[March 2018 update: Click here to view my Facebook Photo Album "The Last 6 Months" with photos from these (and many other) events.]