Reflecting on 15 Years of Ministry in Romania

Today marks 15 years since I began my current missionary assignment in Romania. 15 years! On the one hand, it feels like the time has flown by, but on the other hand, events from those first few years seem like a distant memory. On the one hand, it can feel like I’ve accomplished little due to the great needs I’m constantly surrounded with, but on the other hand, there have been huge strides forward in the life of the church in these 15 years.

As this anniversary was approaching, I knew I wanted to take time to reflect on these 15 years. Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for all the trees. So, I started reviewing my newsletters, blog updates, photos, and Facebook posts. What emerged is this reflection that I’m sharing with you – basically the journey God has been leading me on these past 15 years. It’s quite a bit longer than I initially intended, but I’ve included photos to hopefully make it easier to read (or at least skim the highlights). And in case you want even more details, I've included several hyperlinks throughout, which link to blog posts from the past.

Prologue: Before 2009

I can’t write about the past 15 years without first giving an overview of my experiences in Romania prior to 2009.

My journey begins back in 2001, when I was a student at Eastern Nazarene College (ENC). I spent the spring and summer in Sighișoara, Romania, with ENC's semester-abroad Romanian Studies Program (RSP), taking academic courses (including Romanian language and culture), living with a Romanian host family, and volunteering in the local ministries of the Sighișoara Church of the Nazarene and Veritas (the compassionate ministries organization that grew out of the work of RSP students). I served coffee and played board games with impoverished and socially-isolated senior adults at "elderly club," held and played with abandoned children at the local hospital, and developed relationships with teenagers and young adults through the church's various youth ministries. God used this experience to lead me into cross-cultural ministry. By the end of those 6 months in Romania, I was already thinking ahead to when I might plan a return trip.

2001: Spring semester students with ENC professor Dorothy Tarrant

A year later, I spent 6 weeks of the summer in Romania before studying at European Nazarene College (EuNC) in Büsingen, Germany, during the Autumn 2002 semester. At the end of the semester, I returned to Romania for 10 days in December just before Christmas. During these visits, as I reconnected with Romanian friends and volunteered in the ministries where I had served as a student, God confirmed to me that He was calling me to minister long-term in Romania. 

 

2002: Playing chess at Elderly Club

A month after graduating from ENC in 2003, I began 12 months of ministering in Romania as a Nazarenes In Volunteer Service (NIVS) missionary. During that year, I served in various local church ministries, including leading the young adult Bible study, preaching in church services, helping to establish a youth group in the nearby village of Țigmandru, volunteering at elderly club, teaching English as a second language, and one-on-one discipleship. 

2003: Leading the Young Adult Bible Study

I spent the following five years (2004-2009) in Kansas City, gaining valuable knowledge, skills, and experiences for long-term ministry. The first 4 of those years were spent studying full-time at Nazarene Theological Seminary while working part-time at Nazarene Headquarters and attending Overland Park Church of the Nazarene. The final year in Kansas City, as a seminary graduate, I worked full-time at the newly-constructed Global Ministry Center, preparing for the Church of the Nazarene’s 2009 General Assembly and Conventions.

 

2006: Christmas party with friends from Romania

During the 5 years that I lived in Kansas City, neither time nor money allowed me to visit Romania, but I stayed in regular contact with missionaries and friends in Romania. In the months leading up to and following my seminary graduation in 2008, I began to work closely with church leaders in Romania about what my role would be when I returned. Since I would be serving in Romania as a Nazarene Mission Corps volunteer missionary (what had previously been NIVS), I spent that year speaking to various congregations about the Church of the Nazarene in Romania, telling my story, and raising financial support.

2009: Arrival in Romania

On September 1, 2009, I landed in Romania. I was able to jump back into life in Romania as though the previous 5 years had only been a few weeks. It felt like I had come home. I was confident that this is where God wanted me.

I spent the first four months prioritizing cultural immersion and building relationships. I took Romanian language classes to improve my language skills, lived with a Romanian host family before moving into an apartment, and spent time with ministry leaders to get a sense of where I could best become involved.

 

2009: Christmas caroling with friends

Working Alongside Other Nazarene Missionaries in Romania 

I joined seasoned Nazarene missionaries in Romania who shaped my approach to ministry with the wisdom of their years of experience. In Sighișoara, Dorothy Tarrant was serving as the director of both the Romanian Studies Program and of Veritas, while Roberta Bustin was pastoring both the established church in Sighișoara and the newly-organized church in the nearby village of Țigmandru. (Both had been my professors back in 2001.) Meanwhile, the Hudson family had just moved to Bucharest. Michael Hudson was the coordinator of theological education and would restart the EuNC Romania Learning Centre after years of it being inactive, and Tamara Hudson would become district superintendent a couple years later.

2010: Dorothy Tarrant, Roberta Bustin & I

Lay Training & Discipleship Ministries

My initial ministry assignment was to provide lay training opportunities and to help the 3 local churches (Bucharest, Sighișoara, & Țigmandru) to develop discipleship ministries in their local contexts. Over the next few years, I led a series of training workshops to equip children's workers, led weekly adult Bible studies in the Sighișoara and Țigmandru churches, led weekly devotions for the Veritas staff, gathered teaching pictures and arranged children’s curriculum materials for the local churches, helped with Veritas events, and taught various seminars on discipleship.

2010: Veritas staff & volunteers

2011: Leading the Young Adult Bible Study in Sighișoara

2011: Leading the Men's Bible Study in Țigmandru

Romanian Studies Program

In those first couple years, I also spent a lot of time with the American college students who were spending the semester here with the Romanian Studies Program. I led their cross-cultural orientation, taught Romanian history and culture, and took them on excursions to places of cultural interest.

 

2011: Hosting January-term students from Huntington University

2011: Trip to Bucovina with RSP spring semester students and visitors

Relationships with Romanians

From the beginning, it was important for me to develop genuine and lasting relationships with the Romanians with whom I regularly interact. After all, ministry revolves around relationships with other people. These relationships took many forms, both inside and outside the context of a formal ministry assignment, and through these relationships, I learned a great deal about Romanian life.

Host families: I stayed with a Romanian host family during my first visits to Romania (2001-2004) and then stayed with a different family for 2 months in 2009. These valuable experiences gave me an insider’s perspective on life in Romania. Even after moving to my own apartment, I stayed in touch regularly with my host families.

2011: With my host family from 2001-2004

2011: A friend from my home church stayed with the
same host family I had lived with 10 years earlier

2011: My host father (from 2009) dressed as
Vlad the Impaler at the Medieval Festival

Elderly from the Church: I befriended many of the elderly people who attended the church’s elderly club and Sunday services. I’d occasionally visit a handful of them or see them on the street in front of their homes. 

2010: Visiting a homebound church member and
together recalling a church picnic back in 2002

2011: Visiting a member of the church's elderly club who
always fed me or sent me home with lots of food

Neighbors: I slowly started to get to know my neighbors in and around my apartment building. Sometimes they’d share stories with me about what life was like during the communist era. Other times, they’d ask for my help with different household tasks and then thank me with home-made meals or baked treats. It wasn’t long until I was sharing certain holidays, birthdays, and even funerals with my neighbors.

2013: Celebrating a birthday with neighbors

Stillmeadow's Missionary Chapter    

By the spring of 2012, I had been serving as a Mission Corps volunteer missionary for nearly 3 years. I was becoming more and more aware that serving as a volunteer without a salary would not be sustainable for much longer, since I had only emergency health insurance and wasn’t able to make any contributions to social security or retirement savings. It was at that point in my journey when God led my home church, Stillmeadow Church of the Nazarene, to initiate a new partnership with me by establishing a missionary chapter tasked with praying for me, encouraging me, and raising funds to help cover personal expenses not covered by the donations to my Mission Corps fund. 

2012: Speaking at my home church

Ordination

In April 2012, I was ordained as an elder at the Mid-Atlantic District Assembly. This was not simply the conclusion of years of educational preparation or meeting the required practical ministry experience; it served as an overwhelming affirmation by my home district for my call and ministry in Romania. This affirmation went beyond the ordination service; it was reinforced by the churches on my home district where I shared about Romania in the weeks before and after my ordination.

2012: Ordained by General Superintendent Eugénio Duarte

LINKS

During my 2012 home assignment, I had my first LINKS district tour. From 2010 when I had become one of the first long-term Mission Corps missionaries to be included in the LINKS program, until the program's restructuring in 2019, I was partnered for 2-year cycles with the Georgia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Canada Central districts. This Nazarene Missions International program connected me to churches outside my home district who would pray for me, encourage me, invite me to share about Romania during district speaking tours, and support me financially. It was wonderful to visit my LINKS districts during my home assignments in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. 

2014: Speaking at a LINKS church while on home assignment

Family

Living in Romania means being far from family in the US. I’m so grateful for technology that helps to bridge the long distance, but there are still times when there is no substitute for a visit. In 2010, I flew home to officiate at my grandmother’s funeral. In 2012, while already in the US, I was able to attend the funerals of my other grandmother and 2 other close relatives. I try to visit each year and to schedule those visits to coincide with holidays or other family events.

2012: Attending my brother's graduation

NCM Child Sponsorship

In the summer of 2012, my responsibilities expanded to include administering the Child Sponsorship program for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) in Romania – first at Veritas in Sighișoara, and later expanding it to Țigmandru. This included keeping records up-to-date, sending correspondence to sponsors, and communicating regularly with the regional and global NCM offices.

2011: The NCM Holistic Child Development Conference in Sighișoara
led to the expansion of the Child Sponsorship program in Romania.

Emerging Romanian Leaders

These years marked a significant shift in the development of the church in Romania, as Romanians began replacing missionaries in several key leadership positions. In 2012, Relu Cristurean became pastor of the Sighișoara church. In 2013, Magda Cini was installed as pastor of the Țigmandru church. Now, for the first time, all 3 churches were being pastored by Romanians. (The Bucharest Blessing Church has been pastored by Cristi Boseff since 2005.) 

Beyond the local churches: Dorothy Tarrant passed leadership of Veritas to Petra Popa in 2010. And in 2013, the Open Door Foundation, under the leadership of Monica Boseff, opened an emergency shelter in Bucharest for survivors of human trafficking.

2012: Romania District Assembly

Welcoming New Nazarene Missionary Team Members to Sighișoara

The team of Nazarene missionaries serving in Romania expanded in 2013, when Jay and Sheri Hartzler, members of the Mennonite Church, began serving as Nazarene volunteers in Romania. Jay, a high school choir director, led choirs and gave guitar lessons in both Sighișoara and Țigmandru, and he would later start a wood shop in Țigmandru. Sheri gave piano lessons, volunteered in the Țigmandru children’s program, and worked at Veritas in Sighișoara.

In 2015, Casey Bloom, a social worker, moved to Romania. Over the next several years, she would supervise RSP students, co-lead a program in Sighișoara for teens, support the children’s program in Țigmandru, and minister to refugees from Syria and Ukraine.

As a Nazarene missionary team, we joined RSP students and other expats in Sighisoara each week for Monday Night Dinner, consisting of a home-cooked meal, fellowship, and prayer for one another. 

2013: Visiting the Transfăgărășan with missionary friends

2013: New Year's Eve with Nazarene missionaries visiting from Bucharest & Budapest

2014: Singing in Handel's Messiah, directed by Jay Hartzler

2017: Weekly dinner  and prayer with expats in Sighisoara

Theological Education, Literature Translation, and Library Development

It was during this general period that I was discovering my niche in ministry – in the areas of theological education, literature translation, and library development.

Theological Education: From 2011 to 2015, I taught the course “God’s Mission and the Church” for EuNC seven times in four different learning centers, tracing the mission of God throughout the Old and New Testaments and allowing it to shape what the church does today. 

2011: Teaching "God's Mission and the Church" for EuNC in Bucharest

Literature: In 2013, I began coordinating literature projects, bringing to completion the Power of One (2013), A Living Faith (2014), Nazarene Essentials (2015), the first published Romanian edition of the Church of the Nazarene’s Manual (2016, updated in 2020), and a few other smaller projects, and starting 2 or 3 other large projects. I worked with Romanian translators, editors, proofreaders, and publishers, while I did the content editing. I discovered that my knowledge of both Wesleyan theology and the Romanian language helped ensure that translations were faithfully communicating their original meanings to provide quality resources to our churches.

2013: Pastors & missionaries holding the newly-translated Power of One books

2016: Featured on the nazarene.org homepage with the newly-printed Manual in Romanian

Library: In the spring of 2016, I began cataloging books to launch the Romania branch of the EuNC library. In the subsequent years, I have catalogued over 2500 books, including both Romanian books (mostly purchased with funds from the college) and English books (which have been donated), providing resources for Romanian students and pastors for decades to come.

2016: Starting to catalogue books for the EuNC-Romania library 

Employment

In March 2015, (after 5 ½ years serving as a Mission Corps volunteer), I became an employed missionary. Nazarene Global Mission leaders recognized that some of us long-term volunteers were serving for years without any salary, social security, retirement, etc., so they created a new hybrid Specialized Assignment missionary status. (In 2019, the terminology was updated to “Sponsored Deployment.”) This meant that I could now be hired as an employee with nearly all the benefits of global missionaries (including salary, insurance, social security, retirement contributions, etc.), but I was still responsible for raising almost all of my funds. After years of trusting that God would provide a way for me to minister long-term in Romania while also saving for retirement, God proved faithful and led church leaders to this creative solution. Even though this new arrangement meant I had to raise twice as much as in previous years (in order to cover both salary and operating expenses), in the 9 ½ years that have passed since then, I have always had the funds available to cover my expenses. I am grateful for the 3 main sources of financial support (regular monthly donors, my home church, and the churches where I speak on home assignment), plus the denomination's World Evangelism Fund, which covers certain benefits including the employer match to my retirement contributions and most of my health insurance premium.

Missionary Team Changes & Transitioning Roles

In 2016-2017, a series of changes led me into a new chapter of ministry in Romania. In 2016, the Hudson family, who had been leading the district from Bucharest, returned to Canada. Just a few weeks earlier, Dorothy Tarrant had left Romania to spend a year working with the Syrian refugees in Greece. In 2017, just a few months after returning to Romania from Greece, Dorothy relocated to Scotland to be near family, just as the Herndon family was moving to Brașov, Romania. Josh Herndon would later become district superintendent and Shannon Herndon would coordinate missions teams and compassionate ministries.

 

2016: Picnic with missionary friends in Sighișoara before parting ways

2017: Church fellowship meal in Bucharest, welcoming the Herndon family to Romania

With these changes to the missionary team in Romania, my official responsibilities expanded in 2016 in 2 new areas. Assuming these new roles meant stepping away from the roles of coordinating lay training/discipleship ministries and child sponsorship at the beginning of 2017.

Romania Mission Finances

The first new role was administering Romania Mission finances, which includes keeping track of finances and dispersing the funds for missions projects and missionaries in Romania, reporting finances to the Eurasia Regional Office, and going to the bank when there’s a problem (which tends to happen a lot).

 

2017: Working in my new home office area

Ministerial Preparation

EuNC-Romania Learning Center: My other new area of responsibility was to coordinate the EuNC Romania Learning Center. In fact, over the next 5 years, the vast majority of my ministry in Romania would be filling several roles in the area of Ministerial Preparation. 

As coordinator of the EuNC Romania Learning Center, I scheduled each year's courses, worked with students to make sure they were progressing toward graduation, led prospective students through the admissions process, oversaw finances, communicated with the college’s central administration, and hosted visiting teachers. 

As an EuNC faculty member, I taught several courses myself or served as teacher assistant to grade papers (in Romanian) for visiting teachers who taught in the Romania Learning Center. 

As Romania Learning Center librarian, I continued to purchase and catalog books for our learning center library. 

2018: Teaching "Introduction to the Old Testament" for EuNC in Țigmandru

Central Europe Field Board of Ministry: In 2017, the Central Europe Field formed a Board of Ministry tasked with overseeing the preparation of ministers in the ordination process from the districts on our field, many of whom had already been in the process for several years. I served as secretary of this board. From the momentum of both this field-wide emphasis on Ministerial Preparation and our close partnership with EuNC, we were able to help several students from the Central Europe Field complete their preparation for ordination. 

Graduations: Here in Romania, from 2019-2023, 8 students completed their studies with EuNC: 6 completed the Spiritual Formation programme (four of whom continued their studies and graduated with the Diploma in Christian Ministry), and 1 student completed the course of study for ordination. One additional student graduated from EuNC with the bachelor-level Advanced Diploma in Applied Theology, continued her studies at Nazarene Theological Seminary, and graduated with a Master of Arts in 2024.

  

2019: Graduation of 2 EuNC students with the Qualification in Spiritual Formation

Ordinations: At our district assembly in 2022, after being delayed a year due to the pandemic, we celebrated a huge step forward for the Romania District: the ordination of five Romanians as elders in the Church of the Nazarene.

  

2022: Church leaders with the 5 Romanian ordinands and their spouses

District Superintendent

In 2021, my responsibilities shifted again when I was appointed Romania district superintendent and became director of OCEAD Nazarineanul (our officially-recognized Nazarene organization in Romania). I began working closely with the District Advisory Board, district secretary, and district treasurer to oversee a complete organizational and financial restructuring of both the Romania District and OCEAD Nazarineanul, with the goal of creating and putting into place healthy structures and practices and to begin the transition from a missionary-led to Romanian-led district. I also began working with the 3 local churches to create healthy and sustainable leadership structures and financial practices moving forward.

 

2023: Prayer for Romania District Leaders at District Assembly

The President of Everything 

In the span of 3 ½ years – from July 2020 to December 2023 – the number of Nazarene missionaries serving in Romania decreased from 7 to just 1. In 2020, Roberta Bustin returned to the US after 23 years in Romania. At the beginning of 2022, Josh and Shannon Herndon began a new assignment in Italy. A few months later, Jay and Sheri Hartzler returned to the US, followed by Casey Bloom at the end of 2023. Their departures left gaps in leadership areas in the district, OCEAD Nazarineanul, the Tigmandru wood shop organization, NCM, Veritas, and other ministries. I found myself taking on several of their roles while already juggling too many of my own responsibilities. In the midst of these changes, war broke out in Ukraine, and I began working with NCM to make sure our ministries had the necessary funding as they housed and cared for Ukrainian refugees. By the summer of 2022, I was district superintendent, learning center coordinator, literature coordinator, Romania finance person, and president of 4 Romanian organizations. With all of these roles, one friend nicknamed me “the president of everything.”

2022: Dinner with the Sighisoara church's men's group, after
unloading 2 trucks of donations for Ukrainian refugees

2022: Farewell to the Hartzlers

2022: Cutting the ribbon at the opening of one of
Open Door Foundation's new transition houses in Bucharest

2023: Visiting Josh Herndon in Italy

2023: Fun times with friends who have become like family 

2024: EuNC teachers from the Romania Learning Centre 
at the annual faculty assembly

Sabbatical & Return

In preparation for my 3-month sabbatical in the spring of 2024, I resigned from several roles, including coordinating the EuNC Romania Learning Center. Time away on sabbatical not only reaffirmed God's call on my life to continue serving in Romania, but it also repeatedly reminded me that as the sole Nazarene missionary currently serving in Romania, I cannot do what a team of 7 missionaries did just 5 years ago. Moving forward, I intend to focus on three areas of ministry: district superintendent (& OCEAD Nazarineanul director), resource coordinator (library & literature development), and teaching periodically for EuNC. Additionally, I'll have various administrative responsibilities (like Romania mission finances). As new district structures are being developed, more and more Romanians are being trained to fill several roles once filled by missionaries. However, with so many vacancies, we are also awaiting new missionaries to fill some of the gaps.

And that brings us to the present.

2024: Writing this blog post (with Mezi on my lap)

Changing Roles, Same Purpose

I’ve filled many different roles over the past 15 years, from leading Bible studies to teaching theological education courses to serving as district superintendent. In each role, the underlying purpose has been the same: to train and equip Romanian Nazarenes (whether that be as lay workers, ordained pastors, or district leaders) to fulfill the mission of making Christlike disciples in the nations.

2024: Leading a DAB Meeting on Zoom

La mulți ani! 

The Romanian expression “La mulți ani” is used for birthdays, anniversaries, New Year's, and other significant occasions. It literally means “to many years.” On this 15-year anniversary, I look forward to many years of serving in Romania still yet to come.

As I have retraced my journey (from RSP student to district superintendent!), I have been reminded of all the people who have shared part of this journey with me, including missionary colleagues and friends; denominational leaders; Romanian pastors and other church leaders; EuNC faculty, staff, and students; as well as the many partners who support me with prayers, encouragement, and finances – including you reading this blog post! 

2008: The original banner for this blog, using a picture I took just outside Sighișoara in 2003

Looking ahead, here are a few specific ways you can partner with me as I continue to minister in Romania: 

Connect by reading my updates. Click here to learn how to subscribe to my e-newsletters, Facebook posts and blog updates.

Write me a note. Tell me what's been going on in your life lately. I love to hear from friends and supporters. Click here for my contact info.

Pray. Each month, I update my list of prayer requests. You can view that list by clicking here. 

Give to support me in ministry. As a Nazarene missionary on sponsored deployment, I need to raise $30,000/year to cover my expenses. Click here for more information and to make a donation.

Give to support local churches in Romania. In 2021, my ministry emphasis shifted from preparing ministers for ordination to supporting pastors in ministry. This includes creating long-term structures and practices aimed at long-term sustainability. We are now in the 3rd year of the special project designed to help our local churches develop long-term sustainability and we urgently need donors to support this project. Click here for more information and to donate to this project. 

Serve in Romania. We are looking for people to fill two long-term ministry positions in Romania: 

Local Church Associate in Bucharest, Romania and NCM Coordinator in Romania. Click on the position titles for more information and to start the application process. Pray that God will lead the right individuals to serve in these areas. 

Home Assignment. I will be in the US in the spring of 2025 and spring of 2026. I am currently scheduling deputation services in churches and small group gatherings. Click here for more information. 

2022: Speaking at my home church while on Home Assignment

Thank you for joining me on this continuing journey!

Jonathan