The Barnabas team of 6 travelled to Romania on Saturday 4th May and spent 6 nights in Rosiori, working with Pastor Viorel Trasca and a wonderful team of helpers from the Rosiori Baptist Church. The team members were: Clive & Ann McIntyre, Michael Woodger (having recently celebrated his 90th Birthday in April), Graeme Turner, Pamela Holloway and Alex Crawford.
The weather in Romania was great – we felt that we had found Summer at last. Apart from the initial thunder storm as we travelled from Bucharest to Rosiori on our arrival, we enjoyed sun and warmth each day, which made our village and home visits easy to manage and extremely pleasant.
We arrived on the weekend when Romania was celebrating Easter, which did feel a little strange, having already celebrated Easter in the UK just a few weeks earlier. It was, however, a wonderful opportunity to proclaim “He is Risen, Indeed He is Risen” all over again!
We also arrived to a sincere and loving welcome from the church family and felt like the Prodigal sons and daughters coming home. The duration of the mission was noted for its fill of love, as well as cake! I have to say, that although there was constant activity the whole way through, there was a relaxed feel about everything we did. We seemed to achieve so much in our time there. It was just as if God had everything in hand, which of course, He did!
We visited homes in Rosiori as well as the nearby villages of Vedea, Vacaresti and Crangeni. We also stopped to chat to and pray with the people we met as we walked around the villages. Before leaving each village, we met together with local members of the church family for a short service. Last year, when we visited Vedea for open-air outreach, we blessed the church with a donation to help them secure a place to meet. During our visit this year, we discovered that some of the local villagers were unhappy about their presence and had asked them to leave the area where they had been meeting. They found another room, attached to a house, which they could rent, but it was in a terrible condition. They used the money from Barnabas supporters to repair and redecorate the room and as a result of their work, the owners said they could use the room for their church meetings without paying the rent. We always enjoy visiting the church in Vacaersti, to encourage the handful of faithful members. Our last visit toCrangeni was 5 years ago, in 2008 and remembered for the heavy rainfall at that time and the extremely muddy conditions. This year was very different and our visit will be remembered for the wonderful salvation of an 86 year old lady, who responded to Viorel’s altar call after Graeme had brought the message. On top of that, the lady’s daughter-in-law, who was very excited about the long awaited salvation, asked for prayer for her painful legs and after feeling what she later described as “a power going through her,” received the Lord’s healing.
We attended both the morning and evening services at Rosiori Church on Easter Sunday (with the visit to Vedea Church in between) and as it was Easter, we attended an extra service in Rosiori on Monday (after our visit to Vacaersti Church). There was also the Wednesday evening service in Rosiori Church. We were pleased on each church visit to have an opportunity, between us, to bring the teaching, a greeting, song or testimony and prayer ministry.
As on previous Mission trips, Viorel arranged for us to visit the Old People’s home and we took gifts of fruit, juice and most importantly, sweets. The 3 ladies on our team visited the women’s rooms whilst the 3 men on our team went to talk to the men. One man there had very painful legs, after suffering from frost-bite many years ago and losing his toes. He was prayed for and as a result, the pain subsided and he was able to walk further without pain than he had done before.
One final lovely story to share is from the Agape meal. As in previous years, we joined together with the Rosiori church family to share a meal, listen to quotes from the Bible and to sing joyful songs of praise. One lady came with her young son who recited a scripture beautifully. They had arrived a little late because the mother was making a cake to bring along to the meal. She had run out of eggs and in order to finish the cake, she had to wait for her chickens to lay some more!
It was a wonderful mission trip and we very much enjoyed our time with Viorel & Michaela and seeing all our good friends there.
We would dearly love to see more people enjoy the mission experience and discover for themselves that miracles do happen and God really does work through all people, whatever their age or experience! It is a fantastic, life-changing opportunity and we hope that you will prayerfully consider joining us on a future mission with Barnabas Outreach Trust!