Praise International pastors in Romania are reaching children at Christmas. Our Romanian pastors reported that hundreds of children were touched by the gospel this last Christmas. Pastor Cézar Petre, pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church in Maneçiu, Romania, one hour north of Bucharest, and his wife, Irina, plan a special ministry for children each year at Christmas. Similar to here in the states, the children always show up. Unlike here, Christmas is one of the only times children show up for a church event. The wonderful thing is that the parents usually come with them and the parents hear the gospel!
Pastor Traian Rusu and wife Elena are planting a church in Comarnic, Romanian. This church-plant has been met with an unbelievably strong opposition from community authorities and religious leaders. It has been so difficult and discouraging, but they have persevered with much prayer. They decided to aim their ministry particularly at the very poor families in the village. This last year there has been much less opposition. They planned a puppet show this Christmas for the children of the village. They praise God that 45 children came. Most of the parents attended as well. After a puppet show declaring the Good News of Christmas, Traian, Elena, and other church members distributed Christmas gifts to each child. Does your church prepare shoebox gifts and send them to children in poor countries? That is what these gifts are, shoeboxes full of fun things that delighted these little Romanian children! What a great ministry! Pastor Traian said that it was so encouraging for them to see how enthusiastic the children were about the puppet show and the gifts!
Pastor Daniel Dragnea and his wife Marinella are starting a church in Scorteni, Romania. They decided to do something different this Christmas. One evening very near to Christmas Eve, the Church people (there are only a few members) went out on the streets. They went from door-to-door offering gifts to children. Yes, they were shoebox gifts. They handed out 70 gifts in all. The kids were thrilled and the parents were amazed. Of course, the church people had opportunities to explain what Christmas was all about. Thanks to this creative Christmas event, several families are now attending a Bible Study.
Pastor Daniel and Angela Cocos (pronounced, Kokosh) serve the Lord at Grace Baptist Church in Buzău, which is not a village but rather a small city, situated about an hour and a half (with good traffic) northeast of Bucharest. Buzău is very strategically placed for planting a great deal of churches in the surrounding villages. The church has already successfully planted a couple churches with others in the works. Daniel and Angela are very talented at reaching new people, tons of people, with the gospel. God has tremendously blessed their ministry. Over the Christmas holidays, the church at Buzău was able to distribute food, clothing and shoebox gifts to some 600 children! This Christmas, hundreds of people were touched by the life-transforming message!
Please pray for all the children and parents who were exposed to the true meaning of Christmas. Pray that many would come to know Jesus as their personal Savior.